Cee-lo rules — the three-dice street dice game

Cee-lo has almost no setup: three dice, a hard surface, and a couple of players. One person acts as the banker and the others play against them, each rolling all three dice until a scoring result appears. The whole game hinges on a short ranking of combinations — 4-5-6 at the top, 1-2-3 at the bottom — that you can learn in one round. Below you'll find the complete rules, the full ranking table, how a round is decided, and the different names the game goes by.

What is Cee-lo?

Cee-lo is a three-dice game played between a banker and one or more players. Each person rolls all three dice, again and again, until the dice land on a result the game actually counts; that result is then compared against the other players' results, and the higher combination wins. It is traditionally played for money as a street game, which is where the "street dice" nickname comes from — but the mechanics work exactly the same whether or not anything is at stake. To follow along you need nothing more than three dice — the online dice roller set to three, for example — and this explanation.

What do you need?

• Three dice. No dice on hand? Roll three for free with the online dice roller.
• A hard, flat surface to roll against — a wall, a curb, or a table. A firm throw keeps the dice from being disputed.
• Two or more players, one of whom acts as the banker for the round.

The scoring combinations

On each turn a player rolls all three dice repeatedly until a countable result appears. There are four kinds of countable result, plus the "no count" case:

• 4-5-6 — all three dice showing a 4, a 5, and a 6 (in any order). This is the best possible result and an automatic win.
• Three of a kind — all three dice the same, a "triple" or "trips". Very strong, and ranked by value: 6-6-6 is the highest, down through 5-5-5, 4-4-4, and so on to 1-1-1 as the lowest triple.
• A pair plus an odd die — two dice match and the third is different. That odd die is your "point", a number from 1 to 6. A higher point beats a lower point, so 6 is the best point and 1 the worst.
• 1-2-3 — a 1, a 2, and a 3 (in any order). This is the worst result and an automatic loss.
• Any other mix — no pair, and not 4-5-6 or 1-2-3 (for example 2-3-5). This is a no count: the roll means nothing and you simply roll all three dice again. Some house rules cap how many times you may reroll before your turn passes.

The full ranking, best to worst

Put together, the combinations form one clear hierarchy. When results are compared, the one higher on this list wins; two identical results are a tie (a "push").

How a round works

A round pits the banker against the players, one at a time:

1. The banker rolls first. They keep rolling all three dice until a countable result appears — a 4-5-6, a triple, a point, or a 1-2-3. That result becomes the mark the players have to beat.
2. Each player rolls in turn against the banker, again rolling until they land a countable result of their own.
3. Compare the results. The higher combination on the ranking above wins; an equal result is a push. A player's 4-5-6 beats the banker outright, and a player's 1-2-3 loses outright.

Where money is involved, a win or loss settles the wager between that player and the banker, and an automatic result can shorten things dramatically: a banker who rolls 4-5-6 beats everyone at once, while a banker's 1-2-3 loses to everyone. The rest of the time it comes down to whose point or triple is higher.

Points, stakes, and the banker

Traditionally Cee-lo is played for money, and the strength of your result maps directly onto how the stake is settled — purely as a matter of record, this section describes that without encouraging betting. The simplest arrangement is a flat wager that the winner takes: whoever has the higher combination wins the agreed amount, and a tie leaves the wager where it is.

Some groups scale the outcome to the point that was rolled. Because a point runs from 1 to 6, house rules sometimes pay or collect proportionally — rolling a 6 as your point is worth more than scraping in with a 1, and the two automatic results (4-5-6 and 1-2-3) can carry a bonus or penalty on top. The exact payout scheme is a local convention rather than a fixed rule, so it's agreed before play begins.

Whatever the stakes, the underlying game is unchanged: three dice, the same ranking of combinations, and the banker-versus-players structure. If you'd rather skip the wagering entirely, the game plays perfectly well for fun — the point rankings still make each roll tense.

Other names and variants

• See-Low — the same game, spelled the way the name sounds; you'll also see "Cee-low" and "C-Lo".
• Four-Five-Six / 4-5-6 — named after the winning combination, this is the most common alternative name in the United States.
• Regional payout rules — the biggest differences between tables are in how stakes are settled: flat wagers, point-scaled payouts, or bonuses for 4-5-6 and penalties for 1-2-3. The core ranking stays the same everywhere.
• Banker rotation — house rules vary on when the bank passes: after a losing roll, after a fixed number of rounds, or by buying the bank. Agree on this before you start.

Across every version the essentials hold: you need three dice and a hard surface, 4-5-6 always wins, and 1-2-3 always loses. Fancy another dice game with a strong element of luck? Take a look at Craps or the bluffing classic Liar's Dice, or browse the complete overview of dice games.

Responsible play

Cee-lo has a long history as a game played for money, but this page explains the rules purely for information and does not encourage gambling. Betting for money is for adults only (18+); always play in moderation, never stake more than you can afford to lose, and treat it as entertainment rather than a way to make money. The online dice roller on Dice Together is completely free and just for fun — you never play it for money.