As soon as I clicked publish on the first part of this post I instantly remembered more instances where Yahtzee might make you want to take a ball peen hammer to the dice board. But like before, there are things you can do to suppress these feelings of blinding rage. And mainly, it comes down to mindset and the ability to approach your frustrations calmly and rationally without intanstly turning in to some Yahtzee brand version of the Hulk. So come on with me, let me fill you in.
Everyone loves beating their own (or other's) high scores. There's no greater joy in Yahtzee than a new personal best (PB). But you need to pick your battles. Not every match is gonna end with an eye watering score. If you're having a particularly good game and you feel like a PB is on the cards (or dice) then by all means, go for it. But if you set out from the beginning to get a PB, you are more than likely heading down a road that will only lead to anger and frustration, leaving you with that eye twitch you always get when you're about to destroy the room. Don't let it come to that. You're better than that. PB's will come, but let them come organically. Don't sacrifice a win chasing a statistical improbability.
Similarly, people, in my experience, tend to chase combos. This is a mistake. This kind of blinkered thinking is the enemy of Yahtzee. It's important to remain adaptable and be prepared to change your course of play when the opportunity presents itself. There will of course be a time when you have to chase a combo. At the end of a match for example, when you have, say, only a Four Of A Kind and a Yahtzee requiring scores. Of course you're going to chase them. But until that point, when you have a relatively open scoresheet, you must stay open minded. Remaining blinkered will only serve to create disappointment, which will make you want to take a long dive off a short building. Not optimal.
More often than not, we all have to dump a score, that's scoring a zero somewhere on your scoresheet for the uninitiated. This can be frustrating in itself, but it can be even more frustrating, murder inducing even, if you don't know how to limit the damage. Sometimes frustration can blind people so much that they can just plonk a zero on anything. But if you think about it, do the sums, you can really limit the damage of a dump score. Don't let people rush you in to submitting a score, take the time to work out which score will have the least impact on you and place it there! If you don't, then those inner demons will surely emerge and your fellow competitors may very well consult an exorcist.
So there ya go, some more examples of aggravating instances in Yahtzee and the best way, I find, to combat them. Like before, you don't have to listen to me, but I think it could help. Surely anything is better than going to prison for a board game related murder. And besides, don't you think the police have enough to do?
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