Sic Bo

Probably one of the oldest casino games around and still played in the casinos of South East Asia is Sic-Bo. Sic-Bo is a dice game of Chinese origins and in the casinos in Asia is played on a brightly lit table with many players playing simultaneously and in typical Chinese fashion making a lot of noise. Sic-Bo is also known as “High Low” or “Hi Lo” in some parts of the world and the simple idea of the game is to predict the outcome of the roll of three dice. We do not believe that any Western land based casinos offer Sic-Bo gambling but several online casinos offer the online version which is obviously a lot quieter and you can play the game at your own pace which is an advantage; playing at the frenetic pace and noise levels encountered in Asian casinos is not recommended unless you really know what you are doing.

The Sic-Bo gambling table will at first look very complicated due to the fact that all possible bets are displayed with small boxes in which to place your bet but they are in fact laid out in a fairly logical manner and after a few practice free Sic-Bo games you will soon master the layout and know where to place your bets. It is probably this initial shock that puts most people off playing Sic-Bo but do not be deterred, it is in fact a very simple game to play.

Gambling on Sic-Bo

As already stated the idea of the game is to predict the outcome of the roll of three dice and this is done by placing your bet on the appropriate segment on the Sic-Bo gambling table. After all bets are placed the dice are rolled and the winning segments of the table light up and winning bets are paid out at the odds shown on the table. Your first step when playing online Sic-Bo is to decide the value of your chips which you can then place on the table. As in roulette you can place as many bets as you like on the table for any roll as long as you keep within the published table limits. Despite the apparent complexity and the fact that there are 216 possible outcomes when throwing three dice there are in actual fact only seven types of bet possible which we shall cover one by one. The table layout should be the same at every online casino gambling site and it is divided into four rows so starting at the top, at the extreme right and extreme left you have two large boxes labelled small and big. These are simple bets that pay out at odds of 1:1; a small number is 4 through 10 and a big number is 11 through 17. You will also notice that it states on the table that triples do not win the small or big bet. You will no doubt have realized that the total of three dice must be between 3 and 18 but that to achieve three all dice must be showing a 1 and that to achieve eighteen all dice must be showing a 6 which makes these triples which is why the numbers 3 and 18 are missing.

Still on the top row but inside the small and big bet areas are the “doubles”, usually double 1,2 and 3 on the left hand side and double 4,5 and 6 on the right hand side. In these segments you are gambling on two out of the three dice showing a pair and the odds paid for a win are generally 11:1. Again on the top row and inside the doubles gambling is the “triples” betting areas of which there are three; on the left is triple 1,2 and 3; on the right in triple 4,5 and 6 and in the central area is “any triple”. A winning bet on an individual triple pays out at odds of 180:1 and if you bet on any triple you can win at odds of 31:1.

Moving to the second row we have a bet on the sum of the three dice which can be between 4 and 17 (3 and 18 are triple bets only) and the odds vary between 6:1 and 62:1 depending on the probability of the total being thrown. It is important to note that on this bet unlike the small and bid bets triple 2,3,4and 5 do payout as 6,9,12 and 15 respectively.

On the third row of the tables we have the “combination bets” where you are betting on two of the dice thrown coming up; all possible combinations of two dice are there except the doubles which again are a separate bet. Any winning combination of two dice pays out at 6:1 but even if a double comes up you will only be paid once; for example if you bet on 1 and 5 and the throw is 5,5,1 you will only be paid for one 1 and 5 despite the fact that you in theory have two winning bets.

On the bottom row we have the simplest bets which are just whether any one number, one through 6, will come up on one or more of the three dice. You place your bet on your chosen number or numbers and if that number comes up on one dice you win at odds of 1:1 but if 2 of your chosen numbers come up you are paid at 2:1 and if you are lucky enough to get a triple you win this bet at odds of 12:1.

As you can see, although the Sic-Bo table looks very complicated in the beginning when broken down into individual elements it is in fact quite simple. Sic-Bo gambling is an easy game to play and requires no skill at all and it enables you to play a low risk game playing for even money bets or you can go for the high risk game paying odds of 180:1; few online casino games give you this flexibility Sic-Bo is available at most online casinos and it is better to play a few games of free sic-bo first but we are sure you will soon get the hang of it and start playing for real money.