Play Cee-lo Online

What Is Cee-lo?

Cee-lo is a gambling game played with three dice and a very short list of results. Throw 4-5-6 and you have the best possible hand. Throw 1-2-3 and you have the worst. Throw any triple and you beat every ordinary hand. Throw a pair and the odd die is your point, from a lowly 1 up to a strong 6. Throw anything else and you pick the dice up and try again. That is the entire game: one player acts as the banker, the others bet against the bank, the banker throws first, and everybody else throws to beat whatever the banker made.

Also spelled See-Low, Ce-lo or C-lo, and known as 4-5-6 after its winning throw, Cee-lo is the dice game of the New York sidewalk, the back room and the barracks. It needs nothing but three dice, a wall to throw against and someone willing to hold the bank, and a round takes about ten seconds. It sits between the pure luck of Under and Over 7 and the layout-heavy Craps: there is no strategy in the throw, but there is real decision-making in how much to risk and whether to take the bank.

A Short History of Cee-lo

The name is a corruption of the Chinese sì-wǔ-liù (四五六), literally “four-five-six,” which is what the game is called in China. It is also known there as Sān Liù Bàozi (三六豹子), roughly “three-six leopard,” a reference to the triples, which are called “leopards” in Chinese dice slang. The Japanese play essentially the same game as Chinchirorin (チンチロリン), named for the sound of dice rattling in the porcelain bowl they are thrown into. Three-dice games of this shape have been played across East Asia for a long time; the older Chinese game Sic Bo, which we also have on its own page, uses three dice too but is a betting layout rather than a head-to-head roll-off.

Chinese immigrants brought the game to the United States in the late nineteenth century, and it took root in the cities where they settled. By the twentieth century it was an established part of New York street life, and it flourished in Harlem in the 1970s and 1980s. It remains popular in New York neighborhoods such as Harlem, Brownsville, Crown Heights, the South Bronx and Washington Heights, and, through the military and through prisons, far beyond them.

Hip-hop carried the game into the wider culture. From the early 1990s onward East Coast rappers used Cee-lo as shorthand for the block: Kool G Rap named his 1995 album 4,5,6 after the winning throw, and its title track walks through a game in detail. Big L’s “Casualties of a Dice Game” narrates a street game that goes wrong, and the game is name-checked by Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Jadakiss and many others. If you have heard “head crack” shouted in a song, that is a 4-5-6 being thrown.

Cee-lo Rules

Equipment

• Three six-sided dice.
• Chips or cash to bet with.
• Traditionally a wall or curb to throw against, or a bowl in the Japanese version. Our game just needs a Roll button.

Object

To end the round with a better result than the banker. Results are ranked as follows, best to worst.

Note that a triple’s face value does not matter against the banker in our game: a 1-1-1 and a 6-6-6 both beat any point.

How a Round Works

1. Bets go down. Each player puts a stake in front of the banker. In our game you choose 10, 25, 50 or 100 chips.
2. The banker throws first, and keeps throwing until the dice show a result. - 4-5-6 or any triple: the banker wins every bet at once. Nobody else throws. - 1-2-3: the banker loses every bet at once. - A pair plus a point: the banker’s point is set (1 to 6) and play passes to the players.
3. Each player throws against the banker’s point, again until a result appears. - 4-5-6 or any triple: the player wins. - 1-2-3: the player loses. - A higher point than the banker’s wins, a lower point loses, and the same point is a push and the bet is returned.
4. Settlement. Every winning bet is paid 1 to 1. In a live game, if the banker loses more than the bank can cover, the bank is broken and someone else takes it.

Payout Table

This is what the game on this page pays.

When you hold the bank, the same table applies with the roles reversed: you throw first, the computer throws to beat your point, and you collect or pay the computer’s bet, which is the amount you chose.

Worked Examples

• You bet 25. The banker throws 2-4-6, then 3-3-5. The first throw is no result; the second is a pair of 3s with a 5, so the banker’s point is 5. You throw 1-5-5. Pair of 5s with a 1: your point is 1. Lower loses, you are down 25.
• You bet 50. The banker throws 6-6-2. Point 2. You throw 1-6-2, then 4-4-4. The first is no result; the second is a triple, which beats any point. You win 50.
• You bet 100. The banker throws 5-4-6. That is 4-5-6, the round ends immediately and you lose 100 without throwing.
• You bet 10 and take the bank. You throw 2-3-1. A 1-2-3 loses at once; the computer collects 10.
• Both sides throw a pair with a 4. Equal points push. Your bet comes back and a new round starts.
• The banker throws eight no-result hands in a row. The round is void and your bet is returned. That happens once in 256 rounds, because half of all throws are no result.

Probabilities and the Odds

Three dice produce 216 equally likely outcomes, and every Cee-lo number follows from sorting them into the five result types.

Exactly half of all throws are no result, so a roller needs two throws on average to get a decision, and the chance of going eight throws without one is 1 in 256. Among decided throws, 4-5-6, 1-2-3 and the triples are each 6 of 108, and each point from 1 to 6 is 15 of 108.

Once the banker has a point, your chance of beating it depends only on that point. Each row below adds up to 100 percent across win, loss and push.

Against a point of 6 you win only with a 4-5-6 or a triple (12 of 108 decided throws) and push with your own 6 (15 of 108); everything else loses. Against a point of 1 you lose only with 1-2-3.

Put the whole round together and the banker’s edge appears. The banker wins outright on 12 of 108 decided throws and loses outright on 6; on the other 90 the player throws against a point. Weighting each point equally gives:

• Banker wins: 44.68 percent of rounds.
• Player wins: 43.75 percent of rounds.
• Push: 11.57 percent of rounds.

The gap, 0.93 percent of the stake per round, is the banker’s edge under these rules, and it comes entirely from the fact that the banker’s automatic wins (4-5-6 and triples, 12 outcomes) happen before the player gets a chance to make the same throws. That is a small edge as gambling games go, well below the 1.41 percent of the Pass Line in Craps and a tiny fraction of the 16.67 percent of Under and Over 7. It is why holding the bank is worth something, and why taking the bank in our game changes your long-run expectation from slightly negative to slightly positive.

Cee-lo Strategy

There is no decision inside a throw, so strategy is about the bank, the stake and knowing the numbers.

1. Take the bank when you can

The banker’s automatic wins land before anyone else throws, giving the bank a 0.93 percent edge per round at even money. In a live game the bank also plays against several players at once and collects from all of them on a 4-5-6. Our game lets you swap seats between rounds with Be the banker; if you want the small edge on your side, sit there.

2. Understand what a point is worth before you get excited

A banker point of 4 is already a favorite to hold (you win just 38.9 percent of the time against it). A point of 5 wins for the banker three rounds in five, and a point of 6 three in four. Conversely, a banker point of 1 or 2 is a gift. If you are betting against a live banker who lets players adjust bets after seeing the point, which some house rules allow, that is the moment to press or pull back.

3. Keep the stake to a fraction of the bankroll

With 1,000 free chips, a 25-chip bet gives you 40 rounds of losses before you bust, and the game’s variance is modest because nearly every result is win or lose at even money. Betting 100 a round means ten straight losses, which will happen about once in every 1,000 ten-round stretches for an even game, wipes you out.

4. Do not chase the head crack

A 4-5-6 arrives on 1 throw in 36, the same as a triple or a 1-2-3. Over a session of 100 decided throws you will see about five or six of each. They are memorable but not frequent, and no betting pattern makes them more likely.

5. Ties are the third outcome

More than 11 percent of rounds push, which slows the game down and means your bankroll changes less often than it looks like it should. If you are counting expected results, remember that of nine rounds roughly one will be returned untouched.

6. Watch for rule changes that move the edge

Ties going to the banker, the banker paying 2 to 1 on a player’s 4-5-6, or the banker’s triple losing to a player’s 4-5-6 all shift the numbers by whole percentage points. Before you bet in a live game, ask who wins a tie; it is the single rule that matters most.

7. Set a stop point

Because the edge is small, Cee-lo bankrolls tend to random-walk rather than drain. Decide in advance how many chips you are willing to lose and when a winning session is big enough to stop. The game will not stop itself.

Common Mistakes

• Thinking a triple beats 4-5-6. It does not; 4-5-6 is the top throw. A triple only beats points.
• Counting the pair as the point. A throw of 5-5-2 is a point of 2, not 5. The single die is the point.
• Assuming any throw with a 6 wins. 6-4-2 is no result; only a pair with a 6 makes a point of 6.
• Forgetting that the banker’s automatic results end the round. If the banker throws 4-5-6 first, you never get to roll.
• Playing for real money on unfamiliar house rules. Cee-lo’s rules are spoken, not printed, and they vary from block to block. Get the tie rule, the payout on 4-5-6 and the bank-rotation rule straight first.

Variants and House Rules

• Banker’s 4-5-6 beats everything, player’s triple beats a point is the rule set used here. Some games allow a player’s 4-5-6 to beat a banker’s triple; in ours the banker’s triple ends the round before you throw, which is the more common street rule.
• 2 to 1 on 4-5-6. Many games pay double when a player throws 4-5-6 against a point, and some pay 3 to 1 on a triple. We pay 1 to 1 on everything to keep the numbers clean; with the 2 to 1 bonus the banker’s edge nearly disappears.
• Ties to the banker. In some games an equal point is a win for the bank rather than a push. That alone gives the banker an extra 11.6 percent of rounds and turns a near-fair game into a heavily banked one.
• Ranked triples. In multi-player games, 6-6-6 beats 5-5-5 and so on; triples rank only among themselves.
• Winner-take-all (no bank). Everyone antes into a pot and throws in turn; the best result takes the pot, with re-throws among tied players. This is the version played when nobody has a big enough bankroll to bank.
• Chinchirorin. The Japanese version is thrown into a bowl; a die that jumps out is a loss, 4-5-6 typically pays 2 to 1, a triple 3 to 1, and a 1-2-3 often costs double.
• Bank rotation. A common street rule passes the bank clockwise after the banker loses, or lets the banker keep it while winning. Some games make the banker throw 4-5-6 or a triple to keep the bank.

For other head-to-head dice showdowns, try Mexico, where 2-1 is the top roll, or Mia, which adds bluffing. For a banked three-dice layout with many more bets, see Sic Bo and Chuck-a-Luck.

Glossary

• Banker / the bank: The player who covers everyone’s bets and throws first.
• Cee-lo / head crack: A throw of 4-5-6, the automatic win.
• Trips / triple: Three of a kind.
• Point: The odd die in a pair-plus-one throw, ranked 1 (low) to 6 (high).
• Ace-deuce-trey: A throw of 1-2-3, the automatic loss.
• No result: Any throw that is not 4-5-6, 1-2-3, a triple or a pair; it is thrown again.
• Push: A round where both sides make the same point and bets are returned.
• Breaking the bank: Winning more from the banker than the bank can cover, ending the banker’s turn.

Play Cee-lo Online on Dice.now

The game at the top of this page is free play with virtual chips only. You start with 1,000 chips and choose a bet of 10, 25, 50 or 100 for each round. Click Roll and the computer banker throws first, re-throwing visibly until it gets a result (up to eight throws, after which the round is void). If the banker throws 4-5-6 or a triple you lose at once; a 1-2-3 wins for you at once; a point hands you the dice, and a second click of Roll throws your three dice against it. A higher point, a 4-5-6 or a triple wins 1 to 1, a lower point or a 1-2-3 loses, and an equal point pushes. Be the banker swaps seats, so you throw first and the computer throws to beat your point for the same stake. The hand-ranking table and the round log sit beside the dice, the status bar tracks your bankroll and the best bankroll you have reached, and if you cannot cover a 10-chip bet the game ends and Play again resets you to 1,000. There is no real money, no account and nothing to download. Ready to throw for a head crack? Roll the dice.