Optimal Strategy for Farkle Dice

In this post, I will discuss my findings in terms of an optimal strategy for Farkle, which is a dice game of chance.  If you are unfamiliar with the game, I encourage you to skim the linked article so that you can better understand this blog post.  All of my findings are based on sound mathematical methods and a computer program was used to determine the optimal strategy.  Before I begin, let me first state the value of different dice rolls I assumed while developing the strategy.

Each 1: 100 points
Each 5: 50 points
3 1's: 1000 points
3 2's: 200 points
...
3 6's: 600 points
4 1's: 2000 points
...
4 6's 1200 points
5 1's 3000 points
...
5 6's 1800 points
Straight 1-6 1500 points
3 Pairs (e.g., 22 33 44): 750 points
Everything else is considered to be a Farkle (0 points).

There are many variants to Farkle, but I like to play by this set of rules.

The "game state" of Farkle roll can roughly be characterized by 2 values: the current score accumulated, and the number of dice left to roll.  At any games state, the player has multiple options: she can end her turn, accepting her current score, or she can gamble her current score by rolling the remaining dice for a chance to score more points.

Intuitively, if the current score is high and there is only one or two dice to roll, it is too risky of a gamble to roll.  On the other hand if the current score is low and there are at least four dice to roll, it is best to make the small gamble and keep rolling.  I make this intuition precise in the table below.  Each entry of the table contains the expected value of the state, which is how many points we can expect to make from that state on average, assuming optimal play.  By optimal play,  I mean the player always takes actions to maximize her expected score.  This information has enough information to derive the optimal strategy.

For example, lets say I have 250 points and I am rolling 3 dice, it can be seen that the best option for me is to roll again (yielding an expected value of 293.4 which is better than 250).  However, if I had 500 points rolling 3, banking the 500 points is the best play because the risk of Farkling is too high to wager the 500 points.
Note that not all entries are filled in in the table.  This is because they are impossible states.  (i.e., you can't have 50 points rolling 3).
Now let's consider a more complex situation.  Let's say I just rolled the following 6 dice:
1 2 2 2 5 4
Clearly I have a lot of options, but which one is best?  Let's use the table!
50 rolling 5 (5) - EV = 363.834
100 rolling 5 (1) - EV = 399.911
150 rolling 4 (1 5) - EV = 307.673
200 rolling 3 (2 2 2) - EV = 257.584
250 rolling 2 (2 2 2 5) - EV = 250
300 rolling 2 (2 2 2 1) - EV = 300
350 rolling 1 (2 2 2 1 5) - EV = 350

So the best option is to bank the 1 and roll the other 5 dice, resulting in an average of about 400 points. Using this same methodology, you can take any situation and determine the best possible play.

Number of Dice
Points 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 548.858
50 363.834
100 274.776 399.911
150 227.968 307.673
200 221.706 257.584 343.8
250 274.669 250 293.4
300 300 300 329.228 802
350 350 350 596.22 846.014
400 400 400 400.947 498.2 638.291 890.036
450 450 450 450 540.176 680.368 934.065
500 500 500 500 582.157 722.453 978.099
550 550 550 550 624.144 764.545 1022.666
600 600 600 600 666.139 806.642 1067.891
650 650 650 650 708.139 849.953 1113.281
700 700 700 700 750.142 893.894 1158.674
750 750 750 750 792.147 937.847 1204.068
800 800 800 800 834.154 981.801 1249.464
850 850 850 850 876.162 1025.756 1295.174
900 900 900 900 918.17 1069.711 1341.411
950 950 950 950 960.178 1114.429 1387.917
1000 1000 1000 1000 1002.188 1160.198 1434.468
1050 1050 1050 1050 1050 1206.254 1481.147

If you're interested in seeing the extended table (up to 10000 points), or would like to understand the methods that I used to come up with this strategy, feel free to get in touch with me.

Comments

  1. I am very interested in the methods you took to find the values printed in green and red.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. so am I.... but the game I play has different payoffs. If I furnished the payoffs, could you construct the ultimate strategy for them?

      Delete
  2. I'd like to see your table for a somewhat different set of values:
    Ones 100
    5s 50
    ---
    three of a kind:
    1s: 1000
    2s: 200
    3s: 300
    4s: 400
    5s: 500
    6s: 600

    any 4 of a kind* : 1000 (*4 ones yields 1100 points (triple ones (1000) + one (100) )
    any 5 of a kind: 2000
    any 6 of a kind: 3000

    3 pair: 1500
    Full Straight: 2500

    Thanks!!


    ReplyDelete
  3. hmmmm. doesn't look like my requests are coming through.
    Would like to see the table up to 10,000 points and also how these tables are affected by higher payoffs for 6 of a kind (3000) and a full straight (2500)

    Hope to hear from you -- happy 2023!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ryan! I'd love to hear how you came up with such a table! I began work on a similar Farkle Optimization project a few days ago and would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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