How to play
Klondike is a dice game from the gold-rush era, when saloons ran it as a quick banking game: player and house each throw five dice, and the better hand takes the money. This table keeps the old house rule that made it profitable for the saloon. When the hands are equal, the banker wins.
Ten dice tumble across the table on every roll. The first five are yours, the last five are the banker’s, and the result line reads out both hands, for example “Player: three 6s · Banker: two pair, 4s high”.
- Choose a chip (10, 50, 100 or 500).
- Tap one or more of the three bets: Player beats Banker, Tie, Player bonus. Each takes 10 to 1,000 credits in tens; the table holds up to 5,000 per roll.
- Press Roll and watch the dice settle. Winning bets are paid at once.
Ranking the hands
Hands are read like poker, but there are no straights. From best to worst:
| Hand | Example | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Five of a kind | 3 3 3 3 3 | 6 in 7,776 (0.08%) |
| Four of a kind | 5 5 5 5 2 | 1.9% |
| Full house | 6 6 6 2 2 | 3.9% |
| Three of a kind | 4 4 4 1 6 | 15.4% |
| Two pair | 1 1 3 3 5 | 23.1% |
| Pair | 2 2 4 5 6 | 46.3% |
| Nothing | 1 2 3 5 6 | 9.3% |
A run like 1-2-3-4-5 counts as nothing.
Aces are high. The 1 is the top face, above the 6.
Only the main group counts. When both hands are the same type, they’re compared by their biggest group alone: three 6s beat three 5s, a full house of 4s over 2s beats one of 3s over 6s. For two pair, the higher pair decides. Leftover dice never break a tie. So three 5s with a 6 and an ace is exactly equal to three 5s with a 2 and a 3, and the banker takes it.
One consequence surprises new players: “nothing” against “nothing” is always a tie, and so always the banker’s.
The bets and what they pay
| Bet | Wins when | Pays | Chance | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player beats Banker | your hand outranks the banker’s | 1 to 1 | 46.9% | 6.17% |
| Tie | the two hands are equal | 15 to 1 | 6.2% | 1.32% |
| Player bonus | your own hand is three of a kind or better | 1, 5, 17 or 100 to 1 | 21.3% | 3.47% |
The bonus pays on your five dice alone, whatever the banker rolls: three of a kind 1 to 1, full house 5 to 1, four of a kind 17 to 1, five of a kind 100 to 1.
These figures are exact. Every pairing of a player roll with a banker roll, all 7,776 × 7,776 of them, was counted.
Strategy
Look at the whole table, not just the main bet. The two hands are dealt the same way, so player and banker each win 46.9% of the rolls. The remaining 6.2% are ties, and all of them go to the house. That single rule is the banker’s entire 6.17% edge.
The Tie bet is the cheapest bet here. It sounds like a long shot, but at 15 to 1 it returns 98.68% of what you stake, the best value on the table. It also wins exactly when the main bet’s rule hurts you most.
The bonus is a middle option. Three of a kind or better comes up about one roll in five, with a 3.47% edge and the occasional 100-to-1 five of a kind (about once in 1,300 rolls).
Hedging the main bet with Tie? Putting a small Tie bet alongside Player beats Banker covers the case you’d otherwise lose. It doesn’t change the edge on the main bet, but it smooths results. A Tie bet one-fifteenth the size of your main bet exactly offsets the main-bet loss on a tie.
No streaks in dice. Every throw is independent. A run of banker wins doesn’t make the next roll yours.
For a single-roller dice game with a different style, try Dice 100.
If you enjoy Klondike Dice, try Lansquenet or Lantern Dragon next.
