Sic Bo
Sic bo is a dice game: three dice are rolled at once and you bet on what they will show. The layout offers dozens of bets on that one roll, from Big and Small, which win almost half the time, to a named triple, which turns up once in 216 rolls. Every bet is settled from the same three numbers, and nothing you do after the roll changes anything.
The one thing worth knowing before anything else: the same bet is not paid the same way in every game. Each sic bo table prints its own payouts on its spots, and the payout decides what a bet costs you. Any triple paid at 30:1 carries an edge of 13.89%; cut to 24:1, the same bet on the same dice carries 30.56%. So this page shows the range for each bet, and the sic bo odds page gives the exact edge at every payout you are likely to see.
If the game is new to you, how to play sic bo walks through the layout area by area, and any of the free sic bo games will run it on play money.
Sic Bo Guides
Every Bet at a Glance: Chance and Cost
Where a bet shows two payouts, games differ on it: the first is the better payout for you, the second the worse. What each spot needs from the dice is set out in how to play sic bo; every total from 4 to 17, and every payout in between, is on the odds page.
Sic Bo Strategy, Honestly
No bet in sic bo changes the dice, and no way of placing bets changes what a bet costs. Every spot has a fixed edge, set by how often it wins and what the table pays for it. The only real choice you have is which spots to use, and that choice makes a large difference.
The cheapest bets. Big, Small, Odd and Even cost 2.78% at even money. On a table that pays the two-dice combination at 6:1, that bet costs the same 2.78%. A single number is close behind on tables that pay generously for three matching dice: 3.70% on the best of the usual schedules, 4.63% on the next, against 7.87% where three dice pay least.
The expensive ones. Most totals, the doubles and the triples cost several times as much. A specific double paid at 8:1 costs 33.33%, a total of 4 paid at 50:1 costs 29.17%, and a two-dice combination cut to 5:1 costs 16.67%.
Betting systems. Doubling after a loss, spreading chips over the whole table, or following numbers that are "hot" or "due" all change how much you stake and how bumpy the ride is. None of them changes the edge on a single chip, so none of them changes what the game keeps over time.
Check the payouts before the first roll. Tables differ, and two games with the same name can differ too, so compare what is printed rather than the title. The odds page lists which spots vary and what each figure costs. Setting a budget for the session and treating it as the cost of the entertainment is the rest of the strategy.
Super Sic Bo and Other Multiplier Tables
Multiplier versions, Super Sic Bo among them, add a step to each round: before the dice are rolled, a few spots are picked at random and a win on one of them is paid at a boosted rate. To fund the boosts, the base payouts on the spots that can receive one are usually cut, so on most rounds a win there pays less than it would on an ordinary table.
We do not give an edge for these games. Working one out needs to know how often each multiplier appears and how large it is, and that is not published. If a game states its own return on its rules screen, that stated figure is the one to go by. What you can compare is the base payout printed on each spot against the payouts on the odds page, which shows how much the boosts have to make up.
Live tables need no arithmetic of their own: a dealer rolling real dice is paid out by the same printed figures, and how to play sic bo describes how those dice are thrown.
Sic Bo FAQs
The even-money four, Big, Small, Odd and Even, at 2.78%; a two-dice combination matches them only on a table printing 6:1. No bet on the layout favours the player.
One in 216, so a fair game would pay 215 to 1. Every table pays less, and how much less is printed on the spot; the odds page converts each payout into an edge.
No standard pay table exists, so each developer picks its own figures. With identical dice everywhere, a smaller figure on a spot is simply a bigger cut for the house.
There is no single figure: it runs from 2.78% on the even-money bets to 30.56% on any triple paid at 24:1, and each bet's figure moves with the payout printed for it.
216 when each die is counted on its own, or 56 if order is ignored. The odds page builds every chance from the first count.
10 and 11, at 12.50% each, and that frequency is why they pay the least of any total. 3 and 18 are the rarest, each made by a single one of the 216 rolls, and only as a triple.
Not one that beats the edge. Two choices lower what you pay, the spots you use and the payouts you accept; the strategy section above sets them out.
A sic bo table with random boosts on a few spots each round; the section above explains why no edge is given for it.
The result of every roll is. What you control is which bets you make and how much you stake, and that decides how much the game keeps on average.
Yes, with play money: the free sic bo games open without an account or a deposit.
Three Things Players Believe About the Dice
"A total that has not come up for a while is due." The dice have no memory. Every roll is drawn fresh, so a total is exactly as likely after a long run of misses as after one.
"Big and Small are fifty-fifty." They win 48.61% of rolls, because every triple beats them. The shortfall looks tiny and is where most of their edge comes from; the odds page counts it roll by roll.
"The biggest payout is the best value." Usually it is the opposite. A specific triple at 150:1 costs 30.09% of every stake, against 2.78% on Big.
Sic Bo Games to Try Free
Each of these shows its payouts on the layout, so you can compare two tables side by side before any money is involved. The full list is on the free sic bo games page.
