Bầu Cua Tôm Cá

Bầu Cua Tôm Cá (Gourd Crab Shrimp Fish) is a Vietnamese dice betting game traditionally played during Tết, the Lunar New Year.

1. Place bets on one or more of the 6 symbols on the mat — land creatures on the top row, water creatures below: Deer (Nai), Gourd (Bầu), Rooster (Gà), Fish (Cá), Crab (Cua), Shrimp (Tôm).
2. Click Roll Dice to roll 3 dice. Each die independently lands on one of the 6 symbols.
3. For each symbol you bet on, count how many dice show that symbol.
4. 0 matches - you lose your bet amount on that symbol.
5. 1 match - win 1× your bet (get bet back + 1× profit).
6. 2 matches - win 2× your bet. 3 matches - win 3× your bet.
7. Your coin wallet updates after every round. The game ends when you hit 0 coins.

Full rules guide & cultural history →

The beloved artifact of Bầu Cua Tôm Cá is a humble paper mat, ruled into six red-bordered cells: deer, gourd and rooster across the top, fish, crab and shrimp below — land creatures above, water creatures beneath, a little folk map of forest, garden and river. Three dice carved with those same symbols are rattled between an upturned rice bowl and a plate; bets stay open until the dealer lifts the bowl and the symbols are revealed. Played around the family table at Tết, the stakes are lì xì coins and handfuls of candy — small change among kin, never the point of the evening.

The name hides a small mystery. Read in full it is bầu cua cá cọp — gourd, crab, fish, tiger — yet no tiger ever appears on the mat. The game most likely arrived by way of Siam, whose boards do carry a tiger; but Vietnamese players revere the tiger as "Ông Ba Mươi," a spirit too fearsome to wager on, and so they quietly swapped in the gentle deer while the old rhyming name stuck. It is kin to the Chinese hoo hey how, the Cambodian klah klok, and the Crown and Anchor that British sailors played with dice of their own.

In 1960s Saigon it was a pavement game, children betting bottle caps to sung, sing-song chants; today it is a fixture of Little Saigon Tết festivals abroad, and each new year brings fresh mobile versions of it. The spirit endures: the playing is the point and the winning incidental — elders will often press a child's losses back into their hand so the table keeps its luck and its laughter.