How to Play Going to Boston

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Going to Boston is a fast, sociable dice game for two to six players that runs on nothing more than three dice and a scoresheet. Each player takes a turn rolling in sequence, building a three-dice total through a fixed process of keeping and rerolling, then the round's high score takes the point or stake. Games tend to last twenty to thirty minutes, though players can extend or shorten them freely by adjusting the number of rounds.

Its appeal is the tension packed into three simple rolls: the first roll sets the ceiling, the second narrows your options, and the final single die either rescues or ruins the turn. That arc makes it genuinely engaging for children and adults alike, and it travels well to kitchens, campsites, and pub tables where elaborate equipment would be impractical.

A little history

The origins of Going to Boston are unclear. It appears under several names in North American games collections from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Newmarket and Yankee Grab, and it is traditionally regarded as an old parlour and tavern game. Whether the name refers to the city of Boston or derives from an earlier term is not established in the documented record.

Setting up

1. Seat two to six players around a flat surface.
2. Agree on the number of rounds to play, commonly ten, though any number works.
3. Decide whether you are playing for points (highest score wins each round) or for stakes agreed in advance.
4. Choose a starting player by any fair method, such as each player rolling one die and the highest going first.
5. Keep a scoresheet with one column per player.

How to play

1. The starting player takes all three dice.
2. Roll all three dice at once.
3. Identify the highest-value die. If two or more dice share the highest value, choose any one of them. Set that die aside; it is now fixed for this turn.
4. Roll the two remaining dice.
5. Again identify the highest-value die among those two and set it aside. It is now fixed.
6. Roll the single remaining die once more. This roll stands regardless of the result.
7. Your score for the turn is the sum of the three kept dice: the one set aside after the first roll, the one set aside after the second roll, and the result of the final single roll.
8. Record that total on the scoresheet.
9. Pass the dice to the next player clockwise. That player follows the same three-roll sequence.
10. Once every player has taken a turn, the round is complete. The player with the highest total that round wins the round. In the event of a tie for the highest total, the tied players each roll one die; highest die wins. Repeat until the tie is broken.
11. Begin the next round, with the turn order rotating one seat clockwise from the previous starting player.
12. Continue until the agreed number of rounds has been played.

Winning and scoring

The player who wins the most rounds wins the game. If two or more players finish level on rounds won, each rolls one die and highest wins; repeat as needed until a single winner is found. When playing for stakes rather than round points, the winner of each round collects the agreed stake from every other player at the table.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns ties on the first or second roll when setting aside the highest die. The standard ruling is that if two or more dice show the joint-highest value the active player may choose which one to keep; there is no obligation to reroll tied dice together. The choice can be meaningful when a player wants to keep a particular physical die they believe is luckier, though all dice should be treated as identical in fair play.

A second dispute arises when a player accidentally sets aside more than one die after a roll. The standard ruling is to return all dice from that roll to the table and reroll them; the set-aside dice from earlier rolls remain fixed. If a die leaves the playing surface during any roll, that individual die is rerolled; the others stand. Agree these house rulings before the first round to avoid arguments mid-game.

How to win more often

• Accept that the first roll sets your ceiling for that turn: a low first-roll keep, such as a two or three, makes a strong total very unlikely. Adjust your expectations for that round rather than counting on the later rolls to rescue you.
• When two dice tie for highest on the first roll, keep the die closest to the centre of the table. This is superstition rather than mathematics, but the genuine tactical point is that the choice is irrelevant to probability, so choose quickly and move on.
• Track what the players before you scored each round. If you already have the current high score, you know what the players still to roll are chasing, which matters when you are deciding whether a variant rule allows any discretion.
• In a two-player game, the variance is high enough that the player who consistently wins round ties will win more overall games than the raw dice results would suggest. Practise staying calm during tie-break single rolls since hurried rolls more often go off the surface and need a reroll.
• When introducing the game to children, use a different colour for each player's set-aside dice to make the three-step keep sequence visually clear and to prevent disputes about which dice have already been fixed.

Variations

Lowest Wins

Identical rules, but the player with the lowest total each round wins the round rather than the highest. Players set aside the lowest die after each roll instead of the highest. This version adds a different kind of tension since rolling ones becomes desirable and a six on the final die can wreck an otherwise strong turn.

Target Score

Instead of counting rounds won, players accumulate their totals across every round and the first player to reach an agreed target, typically 100, wins the game. This rewards consistency over peak performance and slightly reduces the influence of a single lucky round.

Four Dice Boston

Played with four dice instead of three. After each roll the player sets aside the single highest die, leaving three, then two, then one die for successive rolls. The final score is the sum of all four kept dice. The higher totals and extra roll step suit players who find the standard game resolves too quickly.

Poker Boston

Uses five dice. After the three-roll sequence, players have built a five-dice hand and score it using standard poker-dice rankings: five of a kind beats four of a kind, which beats a full house, and so on. Ties within a rank are broken by the face values of the matching groups. This variant rewards a little more thinking about which die to keep on the first and second rolls.

Going to Boston: frequently asked questions