Uno 108-card deck, 2–10 players◆ Skip-Bo 162 cards, first to empty the stock pile◆ Cribbage highest possible hand: 29 points◆ Phase 10 10 phases, completed in order◆ Five Crowns five suits, 116 cards, 11 rounds◆ Pinochle 250 trick points on the table each hand◆ Euchre 24-card short deck, lone march scores 4◆ Canasta natural canasta: 500 points◆ Gin Rummy knock at deadwood 10 or less◆ Spades 13 cards each, spades always trump◆ Farkle rolling three 1s scores 1,000 points, the same as many six-of-a-kind rolls◆ Yahtzee a full scorecard has 13 categories split across an upper and lower section◆ Dominoes a standard double-six set has exactly 28 tiles◆ Mexican Train commonly played with a double-12 domino set of 91 tiles◆ Chinese Checkers invented in Germany in 1892, not China — the name was a 1920s US marketing move◆ Solitaire not every deal of Klondike is winnable, even with perfect play◆ Spider Solitaire combines two full decks, 104 cards in play at once◆ FreeCell of the original 32,000 numbered deals, only game #11982 has never been solved◆ Hearts taking every point card lets you "shoot the moon" and flip the scoring on everyone else◆ Go Fish a completed "book" is all four cards of a single rank◆ War has no fixed length — in theory, a game can go on until one player has drawn every card◆ Old Maid can be played with a Joker added or a Queen removed, depending on which house convention a group prefers◆ Bridge a bid of "1" actually means 7 tricks: an automatic 6-trick "book" plus 1 more◆ Sequence combines a 10x10 board with two full decks of cards instead of dice or a single deck◆ Bunco a full party is commonly played across 4 tables at once, with players rotating between them◆ Kings Corner only a King can start a brand new pile in one of the board's 4 corners◆ Exploding Kittens every player starts with a guaranteed Defuse card in hand◆ LCR a player rolls one die for every chip they're still holding, up to a maximum of 3◆ Apples to Apples the judge never knows which player submitted which card◆ Pyramid Solitaire a King can be removed on its own since it's already worth exactly 13

Bunco rules: how to play and score

Dice & solo division
4+ Players
3 Dice
Easy Difficulty*

* Difficulty is our editorial read on how hard the game is to pick up — not an official rating. Player counts and deck sizes come from the game's rulebook.

By Ethan Walker · Updated
Quick answer

Bunco is a social dice game played with 3 dice per table. A full party plays across multiple tables of 4, working through 6 rounds, one per target number from 1 to 6. Each round, roll the dice trying to match that round's number. Score 1 point per matching die, a bigger bonus for rolling three of the target number (a "Bunco"), and a smaller bonus for rolling three of a kind that isn't the target. Whoever scores the most over the night wins.

Chapter 1

Setup

Bunco has no single publisher and no one official rulebook, so the format below reflects the version most widely cited across current rule sources, not a locked standard. All you need at each table is 3 standard six-sided dice and a scorecard for tracking points.

Group sizeTable structure
4 playersA single table, 2 fixed teams of 2, teammates seated across from each other. A complete, playable game on its own
16 players (the full party format)4 tables of 4, one designated the "head table." The most common convention for a traditional Bunco night
Other multiples of 4Scales the same way, more tables of 4 rather than bigger tables

At every table, players split into 2 teams of 2 by seating. Whoever sits across from you is your partner for that round, and that pairing doesn't stay fixed for the whole night. Every time players rotate between tables, they get new seats and, with them, new partners.

Three dice rolled during a game of Bunco
Chapter 2

Gameplay

Rolling for the round's number

Bunco moves through 6 rounds in order, round 1 targets the number 1, round 2 targets 2, and so on through round 6. On your turn, roll all 3 dice at once and check how many show the round's target number. You keep rolling as long as you keep scoring, and your turn ends the moment a roll comes up with no matching dice at all.

Scoring a Bunco

If all 3 dice land on the round's target number in a single roll, that's a Bunco, worth a large bonus on its own. Call it out right away. If you're at the head table, rolling a Bunco is also the signal that ends the round for every table at once, usually marked with a bell.

Scoring a mini Bunco

Rolling three of a kind of any number that isn't the round's current target is a "mini Bunco" or "baby Bunco." It still scores a bonus, just a smaller one than a full Bunco, and doesn't end the round the way a head-table Bunco does.

Diagram showing players rotating between tables in a Bunco party
Chapter 3

Scoring

RollPoints
Each die matching the round's target number1 point per die
Three of the round's target number ("a Bunco")A large bonus, most commonly cited at 21 points
Three of a kind of a number that isn't the target ("a mini Bunco")A smaller bonus, most commonly cited at 5 points
No matching dice on a roll0 points, and the turn ends

Bunco's scoring figures aren't locked down by one official publisher the way a Hasbro or Mattel game's would be, so treat the numbers above as the widely used convention rather than an unbreakable rule. A single die matching the target scores 1 point on its own, and two matching dice on the same roll simply score 2, there's no separate bonus tier for a partial match short of all 3. Some households run 2 to 4 full 6-round cycles in one sitting for a longer party night, rather than stopping after a single pass through the numbers 1 through 6.

Want a printable card for the night, or a faster way to tally live at the table? The Bunco score sheet has printable individual and table-tally layouts, plus an on-screen counter for the 1/21/5-point rolls above, so you don't have to do the arithmetic by hand.

Chapter 4

Variations and house rules

VariantWhat changes
Table rotation (the party format's signature mechanic)After each round, the highest-scoring player or team at each table moves toward the head table, and the lowest-scoring player or team moves toward the last table, reshuffling partners and seats along the way
Single-table gameA perfectly valid scaled-down version with just 4 players and no rotation at all, since there's only one table to move between
Longer party formatRepeating the full 6-round cycle 2 to 4 times, rather than playing it just once, for a longer night

If you like Bunco's mix of luck and social rolling but want something that plays without a full party of tables, another dice game with its own scoring quirks covers similar ground for a smaller table.

Frequently asked questions

FAQ

How many people do you need to play Bunco?

A single table needs 4 players, split into 2 teams of 2. That's a complete, playable game. The larger "party" format most people picture scales that up to 16 players across 4 tables, but the underlying game is the same either way.

What counts as a Bunco?

Rolling all 3 dice and having them all land on the round's current target number. It's worth a large bonus (most commonly cited at 21 points) and, if it happens at the head table, ends that round for every table at once.

What's the difference between a Bunco and a mini Bunco?

A Bunco is three of a kind matching the round's target number. A mini Bunco (sometimes called a "baby Bunco") is three of a kind of any other number instead, worth a smaller bonus than a full Bunco.

How does the table rotation work in a Bunco party?

After each round, the winning player or team at each table moves toward the head table, while the losing player or team moves toward the last table. Players get new seats and new partners each time they move, which is part of what keeps a Bunco night feeling social rather than competitive between fixed teams.

Can you play Bunco with just one table?

Yes. A single table of 4 players split into 2 partnerships is a complete game on its own. You just lose the table-rotation element, since there's nowhere else to rotate to.

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