Tuva turns the dice

After reading the task brief, Tuva reasons that her best chance is to play the “unforced Yatzy” variant (in which dice combinations are not required to be rolled in a specific sequence), and that she will keep score, which will give her opportunities to fudge the numbers.

She asks Mats if he wants her to keep track of the score, and he agrees.

Tuva’s strategy primarily consists of turning the dice as she is repositioning them, or when Mats is not looking. This often gives her fortuitous sequence rolls required to beat the game.

At one point, she diverts Mats’ attention to some dying flowers behind him and, while his back is to her, she turns four of her dice to the same value. She then rolls the final die, and this roll happens to give the same value as the other four dice, giving her a yatzy (all five numbers identical). This surprises her, since she was presumably only aiming to secure a four-of-a-kind score.

Mats does not catch Tuva cheating, and they play their entire game. At the end of the game, Tuva seems embarrassed to inform Mats that she has won with a score of 197-69.

Tuva earns a task score of 128, which earns her third place.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)