Yahtzee

Yahtzee is a dice game in which players roll five dice up to three times per turn, trying to form scoring combinations across thirteen categories, such as three of a kind, a full house, a straight or a Yahtzee itself, five matching dice, which scores 50 points, the highest of any category; each of the thirteen categories can be used only once per game, and the player with the highest total once all categories are filled wins. The game descends from earlier dice games including Yacht, Generala and Poker Dice, and according to its manufacturer's own account it was invented by an anonymous Canadian couple who played a version of it aboard their yacht; Edwin S. Lowe acquired the rights, trademarked the name Yahtzee on April 19, 1956, and promoted the game through organized Yahtzee parties before his company was purchased by Milton Bradley in 1973. The E.S. Lowe Company had already sold more than 40 million copies by that point, and Hasbro, which now owns the Milton Bradley and Lowe brands, reported selling 50 million Yahtzee games in a single year by 2007; a Yahtzee tournament held every January in Eureka, California draws more than 200 players as a fundraiser for local nonprofits.