Snake Eyes: how it plays, odds and payouts

Snake Eyes is a dice-and-pyramid ladder game. Each press of the dome rolls two dice. If neither die shows a 1, you climb a step and the pay goes up. If exactly one die shows a 1, the snake bites, the climb ends and the bet is lost. You can bank your pay on any step from 1 to 11.

Coins are virtual with no cash value.

How a round works

1. Choose a chip for your bet and press the dome to roll two dice.
2. No ones, or both dice showing a 1 (double snake eyes), and you climb one step. Each step pays more than the one below.
3. Tap to bank on any of steps 1 to 11 and keep that step's pay.
4. Survive step 12 and you get one free roll, the Capstone, that cannot bite. Any roll pays 38.53x and double snake eyes pays 385.31x.

All 13 pairs of dice (12 climb rolls and the Capstone) are drawn on our servers when the round starts. The dome only reveals them, so when or how fast you press does not change the dice.

What one roll can be

Two fair dice have 36 equal outcomes.

Each step therefore has a 26 in 36 chance (72.22%) of letting you climb, whatever step you are on.

What the steps pay

Banking on step k pays 97% divided by the chance of reaching it, rounded down to four decimals.

The Capstone is balanced so that it averages out with the climb: 35 of 36 Capstone rolls pay 38.53x and the other one pays 385.31x, and riding all the way to the top returns the same 97% over time as banking early.

Worked example

You bet 100 coins and climb to step 5 with a few rolls. Banking there pays 4.9364x, about 493 coins. Only 19.65% of rounds reach step 5. If you roll on, the next roll has a 27.78% chance of one die showing a 1, which would lose the 493 coins, and a 72.22% chance of climbing to step 6, worth about 683.

Max win and limits

The top result is 385.31x the bet: all 12 steps, then double snake eyes on the Capstone. That is about a 1 in 1,800 chance on a given round (2.01% to reach the Capstone times 1 in 36). The game-wide limits of 50,000x the bet and 250,000,000 coins per round are never reached. Volatility is high.

What matters and what does not

• Where you bank: the only real choice. It sets the size of a win, not the long-run return.
• The speed of your presses: nothing. The dice are drawn before the first press.
• Rolls so far: a run of safe climbs does not make a 1 more or less likely on the next roll. See the gambler's fallacy.

For how ladder games price each step, read Cash-Out Ladder Games: Road Hop, Tower and More. The published odds for every game are on the odds page.