Trouble Game Rules and the Odds of Popping a Six

In Trouble, you must pop a 6 on the Pop-O-Matic die roller to move any peg from HOME onto the track, a 6 earns another pop, and the first player to get all 4 pegs around the board into FINISH wins. Each pop is a 6 one time in six, so getting the first peg out takes 6 turns on average. As of October 2026, the rules below follow the Hasbro-hosted rulebook, which carries 1986 and 1993 Milton Bradley copyright dates.

1. Setup

The game is for 2 to 4 players. The box has one plastic game unit with a Pop-O-Matic die roller, a gameboard, 16 plastic playing pegs and 4 gameboard feet. Each player takes 4 pegs of one color and places them in the matching HOME. With two players, each can play with two sets of pegs. To decide who starts, each player presses the die once and the highest number goes first, with play continuing to the left.

2. How a turn works

A turn is one pop and a move, if possible. If the number popped is 6, the player gets an extra pop and move. On your first turns, you must pop a 6 to move a peg out of HOME and onto START on the track. You pop only once per turn. The rulebook says that if you do not pop a 6 on your first turn, you cannot move any of your pegs and must wait until your next turn to try again. Once a peg is on the track, a non-6 pop moves any of your pegs on the track.

Once you pop a 6, you pop again (the rulebook reminds you of this). You can move the peg that just entered START, bring out another peg if your START space is clear, or move a peg that is already on the track. You always move clockwise around the board, counting each space whether empty or full.

3. Bumping and blocking

If your peg lands on a space where an opponent's peg already stands, the opponent's peg goes back to its HOME and must start over. If another player's peg is on your START space when you pop a 6 and want to bring a peg out, that peg is sent back to HOME and yours takes START. You cannot bring out a new peg if you already have your own peg on START, and you may not land on your own pegs.

4. Finishing

When a peg has moved once around the board, it enters its matching FINISH line. A peg can enter FINISH only if the exact number needed to reach one of the FINISH spaces is popped, and pegs in FINISH are safe from other players' pegs. Pegs may move within the FINISH area in the direction of the arrows, and only by the exact count. The first player to move all 4 pegs into the FINISH wins, and play continues to see who comes in second and third.

5. The odds

Each pop is one of six equally likely numbers, so the odds below follow directly. The figures come from calculating the chance of no 6 in n pops as (5/6) to the power n.

Two of these numbers are worth saying plainly. Nearly three players in five are still waiting after 3 turns, and one in three after 6 turns. Getting stuck at HOME is not a sign of a broken die. It is simply how a 1-in-6 event behaves.

6. Chance of bumping a peg ahead of you

Suppose an opponent's peg is d spaces ahead of one of your pegs on the track, and you use all pops on that one peg. Your chance of landing exactly on it this turn is:

The extra pop after each 6 is why a peg 7 to 12 spaces ahead is not completely safe, even though a single pop cannot reach it. Distances 1 to 6 are the danger zone for a peg of yours that an opponent's peg sits behind.

7. The exact-count rule at FINISH

The rulebook allows a peg into FINISH only on an exact count. If one specific number is the only pop that places a peg, the chance is 1 in 6 per pop, and the average wait is 6 pops when it is your only movable peg. If two pegs each need a different number, either one helps, so the chance rises to 2 in 6 per pop. The rulebook does not say how many pops this takes in a real game, because it depends on where the other pegs are.

8. Key takeaways

• A 6 is needed to leave HOME, and each 6 earns another pop.
• You pop once per turn. With all pegs at HOME, anything but a 6 means waiting for the next turn.
• Landing on an opponent's peg sends it back to HOME.
• Pegs enter FINISH only by exact count and are safe there.
• The chance of no 6 in three turns is 57.9%, and the average wait for a first 6 is 6 turns.