If you are behind in the Upper Section, then the strategy is to try to make up the deficit as quickly as possible before the later part of the game. Thanks to the opening strategy, you will almost never be far behind in the Upper Section at this stage. In fact, you will usually be no more than 1 to 3 points in the hole. Remember, the opening strategy dictates that you don’t fill in the Fours, Fives, or Sixes score boxes unless three or more of the value are present. Hence you’ll never be in a situation where you have a score of 12 in the Sixes box, because that means there were only two Sixes thrown, and the hand would have been recorded in another manner.

That being said, sometimes you are just going to have bad luck and you will be in a situation in which, for example, the Aces or Tows categories have subpar scores. But these minimal deficits are easier to overcome. In these cases, you’ll be trying to get a high 4 of a kind to use in the Upper Section to get back to average at least. Still, overcoming an Upper Section deficit is usually not easy. There are times when the dice simply do not want to cooperate. However, even in these cases, your plan will be to stay as close for as long as possible. Provided you can overcome the deficit with a single high valued 4 of a kind, you will generally try to hand on to that chance.

There are three other major cases to consider in the middle game. Each of these corresponds to having opportunistically achieved a difficult hand early in the game. For instance, you have the Large Straight. If you successfully roll a Large Straight early in the game, you can concentrate almost exclusively on obtaining X of a kind hands. This is because the Small Straight is very common and can be picked up somewhere in the end of the game.

If you fill the 4 of a kind box early, as you should already know that the 4 of a kind should be placed in the Upper Section early in the game, but there will be cases in which you roll another 4 of a kind of the same type, you can concentrate more on the Upper Section and on the Large Straight.

If you make a Yahtzee early, you should play the remainder of the game slightly more aggressively in pursuit of the X of a kind hands. This is because each subsequent Yahtzee gets you a 100 point bonus. As such, you will generally hold 4 of a kinds, whether or not their corresponding upper entries are filled, in an effort to get another Yahtzee. All 3 of a kinds will also receive preferential treatment, especially those that show up on the first roll. Pairs are unlikely to improve to a Yahtzee, and usually are not given special treatment.

Generally, this is the time to stop going with the flow and begin to look at certain cards as a way of filling open categories. You should at the very least stay on par with the Upper Section and if you are behind you need to play for a high 4 of a kind to score in the Upper Section to help you catch up.