Playing Sic Bo at All Star Slots
Something that's fairly uncommon for
Western players to realize without being told is that the selection of games
that are popular in Asian cultures are much different. In the West, it's all
about slots, but certain table games are more popular in the East. Sic Bo is
probably the most popular table game in Asian casinos other than Baccarat, and
that's interesting in that it's not nearly as popular in Europe and the United
States. With that having been said, we're going to walk you through everything
you need to know to play this high-action, fast-paced game online at All Star
Slots.
Basic Rules of the Game
The game is pretty simple at first. You're
going to roll three, six-sided dice, and you're going to place bets on the outcome.
While it's a dice-based game, it's a lot friendlier to new players than craps,
the most popular dice-based game in the West. What does provide a level of
complication to the game, however, is that there are many different payout
schedules that you can find out there, and because there are so many available
bets, it can be tricky to know and understand what the best bets are in terms
of house advantage. 
A Simple Strategy for New Players
To help new players get started off on the
right foot, we're going to offer a very simple strategy here. There are two
bets you need to know: small and big. A bet on "small" pays 1:1, and
it wins if you roll a total of 4 to 10, but it loses on triples (three numbers
of the same value).
A bet on "big" is essentially the
same wager, except it pays 1:1 on totals of 11 to 17. Again, this bet loses if
you roll triples. The house advantage for both of these bets is just 2.78
percent, which is comparable to other low-edge games like European roulette. If
you stick to these two bets, you can have a good time in the game without
falling into the traps of some of the bets that have a lower payout rate.
Increasing Complications
There are a lot of payout schedules for sic
bo, but the one used at All Star Slots is virtually identical to the one used
at Macau, which is one of the most popular schedules for payouts used. Other
than the small and big wagers, it's hard to find a bet that doesn't have a
house advantage of more than 10 percent, and this is why you shouldn't stray
from the simple strategy we've given above.
For example, a wager on a specific triple
(ie: a wager on 2-2-2) will pay out 180:1, which sounds like a nice jackpot for
a dice-based game. However, it also has a whooping house advantage of 16.2
percent, which doesn't sound so nice. Accordingly, you can wager on a double
(ie: a wager that you'll get 3-3-x, where x is any number other than 3) for a
payout of 10:1, and it has an even larger house advantage of 18.5 percent.
To sum things up, stick to the simple
strategy above and enjoy a game that's much more popular in Asian areas than in
the West to expand your gambling horizons without falling into trap bets.
