Bac Bo Rules, How to Play, Payouts and RTP Explained

Bac Bo is a casino game that combines two popular table games, baccarat and Sic Bo (also called tai sai or dai siu). Evolution released it as a live game in 2022, and it has since become one of the standard live casino games.

What You Will Learn

• Bac Bo is a baccarat-style game played with dice.
• The betting options are the same as in baccarat: Banker, Player or Tie.

This article takes about 9 minutes to read.

Bac Bo Combines Baccarat and Sic Bo

As noted above, Bac Bo combines two popular table games, baccarat and Sic Bo.

Baccarat is a table game in which two hands, the Player and the Banker, compete on the value of their cards. Sic Bo is a table game in which players bet on the outcome of three dice, such as whether the total is Big or Small or whether matching numbers appear.

The Sic Bo element, however, is limited to the use of dice, and the game plays much more like baccarat. Put simply, Bac Bo is baccarat played with dice.

Bac Bo Rules

In Bac Bo, two dice are rolled for the Player hand and two for the Banker hand, and the hand with the higher total wins. The main bets in Bac Bo are on whether the Player hand or the Banker hand will win.

In standard baccarat, face cards and 10s count as 0, and the hand whose last digit is closer to 9 wins. In Bac Bo, the result is decided simply by the total of the two dice.

So while a baccarat hand is stronger the closer its last digit is to 9, a Bac Bo hand is simply worth the total of its two dice. The highest possible total, 12 (two 6s), is the best.

Example: The Player hand rolls 5 and 6, and the Banker hand rolls 4 and 3. The Player hand has 11 and the Banker hand has 7, so the Player hand wins.

Unlike baccarat, there is no third-card rule: no extra dice are ever rolled, so the outcome is easy to follow, even for beginners.

How to Play Bac Bo

There are no side bets, so the game comes down to predicting whether the Player hand or the Banker hand will win.

Each round takes about 30 seconds, so Bac Bo plays at roughly the same pace as speed baccarat.

STEP1

Place Your Bet

While betting is open, place a bet on Player, Banker or Tie. Betting is open for only about 10 seconds, so decide what to bet on and how much before the round starts.

STEP2

The Dice Are Rolled

When the dealer presses a button, the base of the dice shaker moves up and down, and the dice are shaken automatically. The dealer never touches the dice.

After betting closes, the dice come to rest one at a time: the Player hand’s first die, then the Banker hand’s first die, and so on. The result is final once all four dice have stopped.

STEP3

Winning Bets Are Paid

Once all the dice have settled, the hand with the higher total wins, and bets are paid according to the result.

If the result is a tie, 90% of each Player and Banker bet is returned. The payout on a Tie bet depends on the tied total (see “Bac Bo Payouts and Return to Player (RTP)” below).

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Bac Bo Screen Layout

When you open Evolution’s Bac Bo, you will see a screen like this.

The screen shows the table and four dice. When betting closes, the dice shaker starts and rolls the dice.

Bets on Player, Tie and Banker are placed in the betting area at the bottom. Recent results are shown at the bottom left, and the scoreboard, modeled on the one used in baccarat, is shown on the right.

The pay table, chat and other settings work the same way as in other Evolution live games.

The Scoreboard Roads

The scoreboard is made up of three main types of road, each showing past results. Unlike baccarat, Bac Bo has no shoe, so the display is never reset; older results simply drop off as new ones are added. Each round is independent, and past results cannot be used to predict the next outcome, but the scoreboard is useful if you want to see how the game has gone so far.

Bead Plate

The Bead Plate (labeled Bead Road in Bac Bo) shows past results exactly as they occurred. It covers the last 126–131 rounds, and the color of each bead shows which hand won.

A blue bead means the Player hand won, a red bead means the Banker hand won, and a gold bead means a tie.

Tapping the Bead Plate changes the display, cycling through letters, then traditional Chinese characters, then the winning total (or, for a tie, the tied total).

Big Road

The Big Road works the same way as the Big Road in baccarat.

A blue circle marks a Player hand win and a red circle a Banker hand win. When the same hand wins again, the next circle is added below the previous one; if the Banker hand wins five times in a row, for example, five red circles form a single column. When the other hand wins, a new column starts to the right. A tie is marked with a gold diagonal line through the current circle.

The Big Road shows how many times in a row the Player hand or the Banker hand has won. Some players use it as a betting guide, for example by following a streak (continuing to bet on the hand that is on a winning run), but each round is independent, so past results do not change the probability or expected value of the next outcome.

Derived Roads

Below the Big Road are the Big Eye Boy, the Small Road and the Cockroach Pig (labeled Big Eye Road, Small Road and Cockroach Road in Bac Bo). These are all read the same way as their baccarat counterparts.

The Big Eye Boy, for example, checks whether the Big Road is following the same pattern as the column before it: a red circle means the same pattern, and a blue circle means a different one. The Small Road makes the same comparison with the column two columns back, and the Cockroach Pig with the column three columns back, adding red or blue circles accordingly.

Bac Bo Payouts and Return to Player (RTP)

Bac Bo has only three bets, so its return to player (RTP) and payouts are simple. The RTP on the Player and Banker bets differs from the RTP on the Tie bet by 3.35 percentage points.

RTP by Bet

Bac Bo’s RTP on the Player and Banker bets is 98.87%, which is high for a casino game. The Player and Banker hands win equally often, so the expected value is the same either way. The only difference is which hand’s dice are rolled first, so choose whichever bet you prefer. Even so, 98.87% is below 100%, so you will still lose money over the long run.

At 95.52%, the Tie bet has a lower RTP than the Player and Banker bets, so your losses over the long run are larger. On the other hand, it pays up to 88 to 1, so your results swing much more widely. A realistic approach is to accept those swings and put only small amounts on the Tie bet.

Payouts by Bet

The Player and Banker bets both pay 1 to 1, so a $10 bet wins $10. Unlike baccarat, there is no commission, and no rule that reduces the payout when a hand wins with a particular total.

If you bet on Player or Banker and the result is a tie, 90% of your bet is returned. The Tie bet itself pays very different amounts depending on the tied total.

Tie Payouts in Detail

At 88 to 1, for example, a $1 bet wins $88, and you get $89 back in total, including your stake. Payouts in this article are expressed as odds, i.e. the amount won for each unit bet.

The further a tied total is from 7, and so the less likely it is, the more the Tie bet pays.

A tie on 2 happens only when both the Player hand and the Banker hand roll two 1s, that is, when all four dice show 1. The probability is 1 ÷ (6 × 6 × 6 × 6), or 1 in 1,296. A tie on 12 is also 1 in 1,296, so taken together, a tie on 2 or 12, paying 88 to 1, occurs about once every 648 rounds.

Probability of Each Total

Because both the Player hand and the Banker hand roll two dice, the totals tend to cluster around the middle of the range.

As the table shows, 7 is the most likely total, and totals closer to 7 come up more often. The probability of rolling a 2 is only 2.78%, and the same is true of a 12.

A Player or Banker bet is decided only by whether your hand’s total is higher or lower than the other hand’s, so these probabilities do not affect it. Only on the Tie bet, whose payout depends on the tied total, do these probabilities directly affect how often each payout occurs.

Betting Systems You Can Use in Bac Bo

Because the Player and Banker bets pay 1 to 1, Bac Bo works well with many betting systems.

A betting system is a way of managing your bankroll by raising or lowering your bet according to the situation. A betting system does not change the RTP or the expected value, but managing your money this way makes it less likely that you will lose more than you planned, and it helps you stay in the game longer.

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A “unit” in the table is the base amount you set in advance for raising and lowering your bet (for example, $1). All three systems work with the 1 to 1 Player and Banker bets, but remember that they only change how widely your results swing, not the RTP or expected value. For the detailed steps and simulations for each system, see the related articles below.

Summary: Bac Bo Is a Live Game with an RTP of 98.87% on the Player and Banker Bets

Bac Bo is a live game that combines two popular games, baccarat and Sic Bo. Two dice are rolled for the Player hand and two for the Banker hand, and you bet on which hand’s total will be higher. All you do is choose a bet, so the game is easy for beginners to play, and the Player and Banker bets have an RTP of 98.87%. As with any casino game, the RTP is below 100%, so you should expect to lose money over the long run.

Bac Bo is an Evolution live game offered at many online casinos. Each round takes about 30 seconds, so it suits players who prefer a fast pace.