How to Play Sic Bo
Sic bo is played with three dice and a table of betting spots. You put chips on any spots you like, the three dice are rolled once, and every bet on the table is settled from that single result. There is no player to beat and no decision to make after the roll: the whole game is choosing where your chips go.
This page covers the rules: how a round runs, what every area of the layout needs from the dice, and how to read what a spot pays. The numbers behind each bet, its chance and its cost at every payout, sit on the sic bo odds page.
A Round in Four Steps
- Place your bets: choose a chip value and put chips on as many spots as you want. One chip on Big and another on a total are two separate bets, settled separately.
- The dice are rolled: at a live table the dealer shakes them in a covered shaker or spins them in a cage; an online table uses a random number generator and shows the result as three animated dice.
- The result is shown: the three numbers and their total appear, and every spot that wins lights up on the layout.
- Bets are settled: winning bets are paid at the rate printed on their spot and keep their stake; losing chips are cleared. The next round starts with an empty layout, though many online games offer a rebet button.
The Table, Area by Area
That is 52 spots on a full layout, or 50 where Odd and Even are left off. What each spot pays is printed on the spot itself and varies from game to game.
Big, Small and the Triple Rule
Big and Small are the bets most players start with. Small covers totals 4 to 10 and Big covers 11 to 17, so between them they seem to cover every roll. They do not: whenever all three dice show the same number, both Big and Small lose, even if the triple's total sits inside one of the ranges. Three 2s total 6, but a bet on Small still loses. Odd and Even follow the same rule.
That rule is why these even-money bets are not an even contest, and it is worth knowing before your first roll. How much of their edge it accounts for is counted on the odds page.
Reading a Payout: "To" and "For"
Sic bo payouts are usually written "to 1". A spot marked 60:1 pays that many times your stake as winnings, and you also keep the stake you bet. A spot marked 1:1 doubles your chip: the chip comes back with one more beside it.
Some games print the total returned instead, stake included, often with an "x" in front or a "for" in the wording. A payout printed that way reads one higher than the same payout written "to 1". The game's rules screen says which form it uses, and it is worth checking before comparing one game's payouts with another's, because the odds tables on this site use the "to 1" form throughout.
The single-number spots are the one area paid on a sliding scale. The payout depends on how many dice show your number: one die pays the lowest rate, two dice pay more, and three dice pay the most. All three rates are printed on or next to the spots, and the three-dice rate is the one that differs most between games.
Online, Live and Multiplier Tables
An online sic bo table rolls its dice with a random number generator, which gives every face of every die the same chance a real die has. A free demo plays by the same rules with play money, and its payouts are printed on its own layout like any other table's.
A live table streams a real dealer and real dice from a studio. The rules are the same, but the payouts are whatever that table prints, so read its layout as you would any other.
Some tables, Super Sic Bo among them, boost a few random spots before each roll and fund it with lower base payouts; the overview's section on multipliers covers what that does to a bet's cost.
Thai Hi-Lo
Thai Hi-Lo is played with the same three dice on a similar layout, but its main bets are built around high, low and a total of eleven rather than Big and Small, and its bet list and payouts are its own. Treat it as a separate game and read its rules screen before playing, rather than assuming a sic bo spot behaves the same way there.