Play Sevens Out Online

What Is Sevens Out?

Sevens Out is the two-dice cousin of Pig. You roll two dice, add the total to your turn score, and roll again for as long as the dice let you. The roll that stops you is a seven, and it stops you far more often than you would like, because seven is the most common total on two dice and comes up one throw in six. Doubles are the sweetener: any pair scores double its total, so a 6-6 is worth 24 points and a humble 1-1 is worth 4.

What happens to your turn score when the seven arrives is the question that divides tables. In the game as it is usually written down, the seven just ends the turn and you keep everything rolled before it, which makes Sevens Out a pure race with no decisions, a game for children, pub corners and classrooms learning about probability. In the stricter family version the seven wipes the turn score, and the game becomes a genuine push-your-luck contest with a break-even point that you can calculate. Dice.now plays the classic rule by default and offers the wipe rule as a toggle, so this page covers both. For the same roll-or-stop decision with a single die see Pig; for a classroom relative with five rounds and a standing-or-sitting twist see Skunk; and for a betting game built entirely on the odds of a seven see Under and Over 7.

A Short History of Sevens Out

Sevens Out has no known inventor and no date of birth. It belongs to the large family of simple “jeopardy” dice games, games in which points pile up during a turn and a particular roll ends it, that were passed around schools, youth clubs and pubs in Britain and North America throughout the twentieth century and were eventually written down by dice-game collectors rather than by publishers. The fullest early descriptions appear in hobbyist rule collections, which give the essentials in three sentences: roll two dice until a seven, score the sum of the rolls before it, doubles count double, first to a pre-arranged total such as 500 or 1,000 wins.

The seven is the natural villain of any two-dice game. It is the most likely total, it ends the come-out phase in Craps, it sits at the center of Under and Over 7, and it is the reason “seven out” is the phrase a craps dealer uses when the shooter’s point is lost. Sevens Out borrows both the phrase and the dread. The game’s modern life is mostly in classrooms, where teachers use it alongside Pig and Skunk to teach expected value: the probability of a seven is easy to show on a 6 × 6 grid, the doubles bonus gives a second thing to count, and the “keep or wipe” choice of rule lets a class compare a game with no decisions against one with a real strategy. The target score has drifted down with the audience. Pub players racing to 1,000 wanted a long evening; classroom and family versions use 100 or 200 so that a game fits into ten minutes, and that is the target we use.

Sevens Out Rules

Equipment

• Two six-sided dice
• Pencil and paper, or the scoreboard on this page

Object

Be the first player to reach 100 points. Traditional targets of 500 or 1,000 work the same way and simply last longer.

How a Turn Works

1. Roll both dice.
2. If the total is not seven, add it to your turn score. If the two dice match, add double the total instead.
3. Roll again or stop. You may stop at any point and add your turn score to your overall score. Under the classic rule there is no reason to stop, and most players simply roll until the seven arrives; under the bust variant stopping is the whole game.
4. If the total is seven, your turn ends immediately. The seven itself scores nothing. - Classic rule: the turn score is kept and added to your overall score. - Bust variant: the turn score is lost and nothing is added.
5. Play passes to the next player. The first player whose overall score reaches 100 at the end of a turn wins.

Scoring Table

Worked Examples

• You roll 5-3, 2-2, 6-4, then 3-4. The turn score builds 8, then 8 more for the doubled 2-2 (16), then 10 (26). The 3-4 is a seven. Classic rule: you bank 26. Bust variant: you bank nothing.
• You roll 6-6 on your first throw. That is 24 points at once, the biggest single roll in the game. Under the bust variant this is exactly the moment a cautious player is tempted to stop, and exactly the moment the math says to keep rolling (see below).
• Bust variant: you are at 60 with a turn score of 30, the computer is at 85. The computer needs 15 more and will get them on its next turn about 70% of the time. Banking 30 leaves you at 90 and almost certainly loses; roll on and try to finish the game this turn.
• Classic rule: you are at 88 and roll 4-4. Sixteen points make 104. You have reached the target; stop and win. Rolling on cannot hurt you, but there is nothing left to gain.
• Bust variant: you are at 95, turn score 3. Two more points win. One more roll wins five times in six; stopping at 98 hands the computer a turn. Roll.
• Both rules: you roll 1-6 on your first throw. A seven straight away. You score nothing either way, and the dice pass. It happens one turn in six.

The Odds

The seven

Two dice have 36 equally likely outcomes, and six of them total seven: 1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2 and 6-1. So P(7) = 6/36 = 1/6 on every roll, exactly the chance of the 1 that ends a turn in single-die Pig. The chance of surviving k consecutive rolls is (5/6)^k:

Expected points per roll

Add up the points of all 36 outcomes. The non-seven totals sum to 210, and the six doubles contribute a further 42 through the doubling bonus, for 252 in all. Divide by 36 and the average roll is worth exactly 7 points, seven included as a zero. Counting only the rolls that score, the average is 252/30 = 8.4 points. Under the classic rule a turn averages five scoring rolls before the seven, so a turn is worth about 42 points, and a race to 100 typically takes each player two to four turns.

Optimal stopping in the bust variant

With a turn score of t, one more roll gains 8.4 points five times in six and loses t one time in six. The expected change is:

(5 × 8.4) ÷ 6 − t ÷ 6 = 7 − t ÷ 6 = (42 − t) ÷ 6

• At t = 20 one more roll is worth +3.7 points.
• At t = 30 it is worth +2.0.
• At t = 42 it is worth exactly 0.
• At t = 60 it is worth −3.0.

So the break-even turn score is 42, roughly double Pig’s famous 20, because a two-dice roll is worth more than twice a single die. “Stop at 42” is the bust-variant equivalent of “hold at 20”: a sound baseline that ignores the scoreboard. A player who always rolls until reaching 42 banks something on about 40% of turns, since it usually takes five rolls to get there, and averages a little under 20 points per turn. As in Pig, the best target depends on both scores: lower it with a lead, raise it when behind, and abandon it altogether once either player is within one good turn of 100.

Sevens Out Strategy

1. Under the classic rule, never stop

If the seven costs nothing, every roll has positive value and stopping only ends your turn early. The Stop button exists for the bust variant. The only sensible early stop is when you have already reached 100 and want the game to end.

2. Bust variant: 42 is the baseline

Roll while your turn score is under 42 and stop once it is over. This single number captures most of what matters when the scores are close and both players are far from the target.

3. Treat doubles as free points, not as omens

A 6-6 does not change the odds of the next roll. It moves your turn score up by 24, which may push you past your stopping point, and that is the only reason to react to it.

4. Lower the target with a lead

Ahead by 30 or more, you want fewer swings. Stop at 25 or 30 and let your opponent take the risks. This is what the computer on this page does: it stops at 25 normally and at 15 when leading by 20 or more.

5. Raise the target when behind

Behind by 30 or more, a 25-point bank barely helps. Push to 50 or 60 and accept that most such turns end in a seven; the ones that do not are the turns that win you the game.

6. Race when the end is near

When your opponent is within about 40 of the target, their next turn will probably finish the game. Any turn that does not put you at 100 is close to worthless, so roll until you either win or seven out.

7. Take the last roll

At 95 with a turn score of 3, stopping is a mistake: one more roll wins five times in six and a stop guarantees the computer another turn. Always check whether one roll finishes the game before you stop.

8. Ignore the streak

Six rolls without a seven do not make a seven “due.” The chance is one in six every time, and the only inputs to a good decision are your turn score, the two overall scores and the rule in play.

Common Mistakes

• Stopping under the classic rule because a big turn score “feels” exposed. Nothing is at risk; roll on.
• Playing “hold at 20” from Pig in the bust variant. Two dice score more than twice as much per roll, so the break-even point is 42, not 20.
• Adding the seven. A 3-4 scores zero; the total of seven never counts.
• Forgetting the doubles bonus. 5-5 is 20, not 10. Both players’ rolls are scored by the game here, but on paper this is the most common arithmetic slip.
• Stopping one roll short of the target in either rule. Check whether a single roll wins before pressing Stop.
• Confusing the game with Sevens, Elevens and Doubles, the drinking game, or with the card game Sevens. Neither has a score.

Variants and House Rules

• Classic (points kept). The rule as published in dice-game collections: roll until a seven, score everything before it, doubles double, play to 500 or 1,000. The default on this page, played to 100.
• Bust (points wiped). The seven also wipes the turn score, as in Pig. The toggle on this page switches to it.
• Longer races. Play to 200, 500 or 1,000 for a longer game; the odds are unchanged.
• Doubles roll again. Some tables let a player who rolls doubles take a free extra roll, or require it. The doubling of points is far more common.
• Seven scores for the opponent. A house rule in which the seven’s seven points go to the other player, which adds a small sting to the classic rule.
• Two-Dice Pig. A related game in which a single 1 on either die ends the turn and 1-1 wipes the whole score; see the Pig guide for that family.
• Sevens, Elevens and Doubles. A drinking game, not a scoring one: a seven, an eleven or any double makes another player drink. Shares the dice and the name, nothing else.

If you enjoy the roll-or-stop rhythm, Farkle adds combinations across six dice, Skunk plays the same seven-free danger with a whole class standing and sitting, and Craps shows what the seven does when there is money on the table.

Glossary

• Seven out: To roll a total of seven and end your turn; borrowed from craps.
• Turn score: Points rolled so far this turn; banked at the end of the turn under the classic rule, lost to a seven under the bust variant.
• Bank: To add the turn score to your overall score.
• Doubles: Both dice showing the same face; worth twice their total.
• Classic rule: A seven ends the turn and the turn score is kept.
• Bust variant: A seven ends the turn and the turn score is wiped.
• Break-even point: The turn score, 42 in the bust variant, at which one more roll has zero expected value.
• Jeopardy game: Any dice game in which points accumulate during a turn and a bad roll can end it.

Play Sevens Out Online on Dice.now

The game at the top of this page is Sevens Out against the computer, first to 100 points, and you always roll first. Press Roll to throw both dice; the total is added to your turn score, doubles are highlighted and count double, and a seven turns the dice red and ends your turn. Press Stop to bank your turn score early; the button shows exactly how much you would bank. The status bar tracks both scores and your turn score, the scoreboard shows how many points each player still needs, and the game log records every roll and every stop.

The Seven wipes the turn button switches between the two rule sets and starts a new game, so you can compare them: with the toggle off you play the classic rule, in which the seven ends the turn but the points rolled before it are kept; with it on you play the bust variant, in which the seven wipes the turn score. The computer’s rolls are shown one at a time. Under the classic rule it never stops, because stopping cannot help. Under the bust variant it stops at 25 or more, at 15 when it leads by 20 or more, and immediately whenever the turn score is enough to win, which is deliberately more cautious than the 42-point break-even point, so a player who follows the strategy above should beat it more often than not.

Dice use your browser’s cryptographic random number generator, so every face is equally likely. Your best single turn and your win-loss record are stored on your device only. Roll the dice.