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Playing Sic Bo specialty game

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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.