Sic Bo
Sic Bo is a casino game of chance that uses three dice loosely imprisoned in a wire cage called the ‘shaker’. The name means ‘dice pair’ or ‘dice in pairs’, but the game is also known as Hi-Lo, Tai Sai (meaning ‘big-small’) and Cu Sic (meaning ‘guessing dice’).
Sic Bo is an easy game to play. The player picks one or more of the six numbers appearing on a die, puts down his money on his chosen outcome (details of available bets are given below), and hopes to get lucky. The dealer shakes the shaker, whacks it down on the layout so that all can see the top faces of the three dice and announces the numeric value of each die. He then enters that information into an electronic device on the table, which then illuminates all the winning combinations, and the dealer pays off all the winners.
As we said, the game is simple enough, but newcomers are often confused because there are more than thirty bets that are available, all of them displayed on the Sic Bo table layout showing the faces of the dice in their various combinations along with the massive payoffs that are luring the player to play. Unfortunately, those payoffs are not strictly aligned with the actual probability of any outcome occurring.
You can bet in several ways: that your number will come up anywhere, or that it will appear on two dice or even all three. You can also bet on any combination of numbers appearing on two or three dice, and on even more flamboyant outcomes, as below.
The Single Die wager:
You bet that your selected number, 1 through 6, will come up on one die. The payoff is 1:1. If two of the dice come up with your number, the payoff is 2:1. If all three dice come up with your number the payoff is 3:1. The casino advantage on this bet is 7.9%.
The Two Dice wager:
You bet that some number will turn up on two dice (any pair). The payoff is 8:1, but the casino advantage is 33.3%.
Two-dice combination bet:
You select two numbers and bet that they will both turn up. Payoff is 5:1, with the casino advantage being 16.7%.
The Three Dice wager:
You have four options here:
• You select a number from 4 to 17 and bet that the sum of the faces will equal this number. Payoff is from 6:1 to 60:1.
• You wager that the three faces will show three specific numbers that you select. Payoff is 24:1.
• You wager that any three of a kind will show. Payoff is 30:1.
• You can also wager that a specific triplet will appear. Payoff is 150:1.
The casino advantage on Three Dice wagers is anywhere from 9.7 to 30.6%.
Small or Big wagers:
You can bet that the total of the three dice will be small (which means 4 to 10) or large (11 to 17). The payoff is 1:1 and the house advantage is 2.8%, but if any three-of-a-kind shows, both Small and Big bets lose.
The bottom line is that although Sic Bo offers some handsome payoffs, not all bets are worth placing because the house edge on most bets is just too large to entertain. The only bet really worth considering for those who want to try the game is the Small/Big wager, where the casino edge is 2.8%.
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