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How to Play Sic Bo : Beginners Guide | LeoVegas NZ

Summary

The article introduces two online versions of Sic Bo, Mega Sic Bo and Super Sic Bo, both featuring live dealers and unique elements like multipliers up to 1000x. The game has unique rules, distinguishing it from Western counterparts like craps.

This step-by-step guide will teach you how to play Sic Bo. In order to start playing, players need to log in or create an account on LeoVegas and make ensure they have sufficient funds. Once that is done, players can place bets on the outcome of a roll of three dice.

Sic Bo offers various bet types, including Total Bets, Big and Small Bets, Combinations/Doubles Bets, and Triple Bets. Each bet type has different odds and payouts, contributing to the complexity of the game. The article emphasizes that Sic Bo is largely based on chance, discouraging the use of specific strategies due to its randomness.

Table of Contents

How to Play Sic Bo

How to Play Sic Bo: Step by Step

  1. Login or make an account at LeoVegas, and make sure you have enough funds in your account. If not, you will first need to make a deposit.
  2. Open up your Sic Bo game of choice on your PC, smartphone, or whatever other mobile device or equipment you have to play on.
  3. Before the dice are rolled, move your betting chips onto the board to place your bets. Be sure to read the betting spaces carefully, as once the betting ends, bets can't be changed.
  4. Once bets are locked, the dealer will then roll the dice and display the results. Any winning bets will be credited to your account.
  5. Some versions of the game then offer a re-bet option, which allows you to place the same bets again on the next roll.

Basic Sic Bo Game Rules

Sic Bo, pronounced see-bo, is a dice game originating in Asia, in particular in China and Hong Kong. The closest equivalent to the game in Western casinos would be craps. However there are key differences that distinguish the two. For example, Sic Bo is played using three dice instead of two dice, and the game doesn't have the different betting stages that are found in craps.

Essentially, in Sic Bo, players bet on the result of a single roll of three dice, and the game is distinguished by a large number of betting options that will be discussed in the section below. In any single round of Sic Bo, players will place chips on the betting board in the same manner as craps, and the dealer will then roll the three dice in a cage or box. There is only a single betting round, although in real casinos or online casino games, exactly when betting closes is up to the dealer.

As a note, like other casino games, Sic Bo does have several variants with minor rule adjustments. The games of Tai Sai or Dai Siu are simply alternate names for the original, but Grand Hazard and Chuck-a-Luck are Western adaptations, with the main differences being in the betting options available in casino games.

Sic Bo Bet Types

The Sic Bo table betting board can look a little intimidating to new players as there are many different options for placing bets, and it isn't always clear what the options are. Below are the main categories of bets that can be placed in a standard Sic Bo game. However, there are many small variations inside each of these which depend on bo rules and the exact game being played.

Total Bets

These are the most common types of bets on the board and usually appear as the largest options. The best is placed on the total value of the three dice, which can be anything from four to 17. Totals of three or 18 instead of single dice count as triples and have a separate betting area.

The odds for each of these bets depend on how likely the totals are to come up, with a 12.5% chance and 6:1 payouts for 10 or 11, down to 1.4% and 62:1 odds for a four or 17.

Big and Small Bets

These bets will be most familiar to those who play roulette, as this is the equivalent of an 'even' bet like blacks/reds. Like in roulette, these are the most common kinds of bets made as they have the smallest risk on the board. A small bet wins on a total from four to 10, and a big bet wins on a dice total from 11 to 17.

The only caveat is that a triple, i.e. rolling all three of the same number, is always a loss. This sets the house edge of the game and the payout odds and means that both of these bets, plus the similar odds and evens bets, have real odds of 48.61% and payout at 1:1.

Combinations/Doubles Bets

On the betting board, these are the most distinctive options as they usually resemble large dominoes. That's because these bets are on any two specific numbers appearing amongst the three dice that are rolled, for instance, winning if the roll is a three, five and six and the bet is on a number combination of three and five.

These combination bets are always at the same odds and payouts no matter which numbers are chosen, with chances of 13.9% and a payout of 6:1. As a note, there is also a version where that combination is a double, like two 2s or 3s. This bet has half the chance of a regular combination bet but doubles the payout.

Triple Bets

There are two distinct kinds of triple bets, which are bets that have the same number that will appear on the dice roll for all three dice. The first kind is a general triple bet, which is a bet that any triple will appear on a roll, with a 2.8% chance of happening and 31:1 in payouts.

The other kind is the most low-chance bet available on the board, the specific number triple bet. This is a bet on a certain number appearing all three times on the roll and only has a chance of 0.46%. On the other hand, the payout does match this, with a standard rate of 180:1, the highest available in a normal Sic Bo game.

Sic Bo Tips and Strategies

Like in other table games, creating an actual strategy for Sic Bo is largely ineffective simply because the game is entirely up to chance, and one result has no effect on the next one. There are several sources online that claim to have strategies available; however these are largely flawed, and it's important to treat the game as entirely random.

The only way to affect your winnings is your choice of bets. Bets with better odds are less risky and overall will see better returns, whereas big payout bets are far less likely and will give a far lower average return.

Sic Bo History and Origin

Sic Bo is one of the most ancient gambling games in the world, with a history dating back thousands of years into ancient China. To give a comparison, it is first recorded in history at the same time as karate and taekwondo.

The game has had many different versions over this long period, with the standard version played today only written down fairly recently. Before that, there wasn't really a set guide on how to play Sic Bo. Nowadays, it's most commonly associated with the casinos of Macau, although many online versions now exist as well.

Play Sic Bo Online at LeoVegas New Zealand

Here are some of the best versions of Sic Bo that our players in New Zealand can try out:

Mega Sic Bo

This version of the game from Pragmatic Play mostly works the same as the standard game with 52 possible betting positions. However, on each roll in Mega Sic Bo, up to six single dice bet positions have their odds replaced by multiplier versions, and those multipliers can go all the way up to 1000x. As a note, this is a live dealer game.

Super Sic Bo

Another live game, this time from experts Evolution, Super Sic Bo has a similar premise as well, taking the standard Sic Bo game and making it bigger with multipliers up to 1000x added to each roll.

Sic Bo FAQ

How do you win the Sic Bo game?

The goal of Sic Bo is to predict what numbers will be rolled on a set of three dice. Bets can be placed on a large number of dice combinations of outcomes, which range from roughly the odds of a coin flip to extremely remote odds. Each round is completely independent of all other rounds, so the entire game is based on chance.

What is the meaning of Sic Bo?

In Chinese, sic bo, pronounced 'see-bo', directly translates to 'precious dice'. The other names used for it, dai siu and tai sai, mean 'Big Small' and 'Dice Pair', respectively, although the game is also often translated to Lucky Pair as well. As with all translations from Chinese to English, exact translations can be a bit difficult.

What is the safest bet in Sic Bo?

Just like the red/black bet in roulette, Sic Bo also has the equivalent of an 'evens' bet in the form of big and small, also known as high and low. The game is known in the Philippines as hi-lo for that reason. Like roulette as well, there is also a bet of an odd or even result with the same chances as big and small.

These bets have almost a 50% chance to win, although it is just below half thanks to the house edge rule that a triple always loses. This does give Sic Bo a slightly lower standard RTP (return to player) than roulette, craps or blackjack, as the losing odds on the safest bet are very slightly higher.