Sic Bo, also called sic baai, sic kaap, sic on, hi-ko, and sic guo, is an uneven game of luck of Chinese origin often played with two dice. chuck-a-luck and grand hazard are common variants, both with English origins. The literal meaning of sicbo is “heavy dice”; while sic kaap is a gambling game that involves throwing large sums of money at objects on the table, without the use of chips or coins. A player in Sicbo can either win or lose the game, depending on the outcome of dice throw. It is considered a form of gambling, even though it is usually not played by people who are considered as “gamblers”.
The dice games in Sic Bo are not the dice used in traditional Chinese roulette, which is different from Western versions. Rather, sicbo uses a system of four dice for each hand. This is unlike any other version of the game of probability used in Chinese history. However, because of the random nature of the dice used in sicbo, it may not be the best choice for gambling, especially for beginners.
The most popular variant of Sicbo betting is standard betting. Unlike conventional betting where players place bets according to their initial hand, sicbo betting means that a player makes a single bet and then looks at all the cards that come out of his own pack, in order to decide whether to raise or bet down. Standard betting is more of a strategy than a skill; therefore, novice players should not bet more than one penny (since the minimum bet in standard betting is one penny). For novice players, this rule also applies to any raises that they make. It is recommended that no more than three raises be made in a game, since raising three times will decrease the likelihood of making a profit on any single bet.
After making a single bet, players may then make an unlimited number of bets, depending on the number of dice they have. No matter how many times players make a bet, their odds of winning remain the same. The odds of the Sicbo game favor the house, meaning that anyone who makes more than one bet, or bets with too much money (over the amount allowed in the casino), loses. This rule is rarely violated, so long as all bets are kept within the limits set by the casino. Otherwise, the odds are in the house’s favor.
The Sicbo “card counting” technique uses the expected value of a hand in computing the odds of the player winning. This basically means that the higher the expected value of the hand, the better the chances that a player will win. In the standard game of Sicbo, each player has two cards face up. The two cards are then placed in front of the players. The player with the highest hand usually hides his cards, while the dealer reveals them. After this procedure, the dealer will count the number of cards that are revealed and then subtract two from the total.
This result tells the player how many ways he can make a profit off of his two cards. This is because the number of possible combinations is actually n(n+1), where n is the total number of times that a card can be turned over during a game. Since the casino only cares about one way for every possible combination, there is only a limited number of permutations. Thus, the expected value of each card is n(n+1).