Gambling Guide

Threes (or 3s) is a gambling game, played with five dice where the goal is to get the lowest score in any given round. Because it can be played for any amount of time and requires almost no equipment, it has become very popular as an illegal street game, primarily played in makeshift games organized in alleys or living rooms.

Rules of the game

Players gather in a circle with five dice. To establish who plays first, each player rolls one die at the start of the game. The player with the highest roll is given the first turn. In the event of a tie roll, the players who tied re-roll and repeat this process until there is a winner.

Each player throws an equal ante amount into the middle of the circle (usually one dollar) and players take their turns in a clockwise order.

The object of the game is to achieve the lowest total score after adding up the values of all five dice, counting threes as zeroes.

A player rolls all five dice and decides which ones to keep. The player can keep as many as he or she wishes, but must keep at least one die each roll. Once a die has been kept, it is out of play for the rest of the turn. This means that a player can have at most five rolls in a turn.

The best possible score is a 0, which happens when a player rolls 3-3-3-3-3, but if any player rolls 6-6-6-6-6, they win instantly and no one else may roll for the remainder of that round.

In the event of a tie, the players who tie throw in an additional ante amount (a dollar, or whatever the bet amount was) and roll-off for the entire pot. The player to roll first in this roll-off is once again decided by rolling one die for high score, as was done when the game started.

The player that wins the round takes all of the money from the middle and a new round starts, with the winner rolling first.