feedburner
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

feedburner count

Fan Tan

Labels: ,

Technorati Tags: ,,, ,


Fan Tan is an old Chinese game found in many casinos in Macau. The game is very simple, a square is marked in the center of a table with 4 sides marked 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The banker puts on the table a double handful of small buttons, beads, coins, dried beans, or similar articles, which he covers with a bowl, or "tan koi".

The players then bet on the numbers, setting their stakes on the side of the square which bears the number selected. Players can also bet on the corners, for example between No. 2 and No. 3. When all bets are placed, the bowl is removed and the "tan kun", or crouiper uses a small stick to remove the buttons from the heap, four at a time, until the final batch is reached. If it contains four buttons, the backer of No. 4 wins; if three, the backer of No. 3 wins; if two, the backer of No. 2 wins and if one the backer of No. 1 wins.

A 5% commission is deducted from the stake by the banker, and the winner wins three times the amount of his stake thus reduced.


There are various names for the bets call Fan, Nim, Kwok, Nga Tan, Sheh-Sam-Hong.
Their explaination is as listed below

  • Fan: A bet on a single number. Wins pay 3 to 1 before commission, or 2.85 after. House edge is 3.75%.
  • Nim: A bet on two numbers, one of which is indicated as a push. The winning number pays 2 to 1 before commission, or 19 to 20 after. House edge is 2.50%.
  • Kwok: A bet on two numbers, both of which win. The winning number pays 1 to 1 before commission, or 19 to 20 after. House edge is 2.50%.
  • Nga Tan: A bet on three numbers, one of which is indicated as a push. The winning numbers pay 1 to 2 before commission, or 19 to 40 after. House edge is 1.25%.
  • Sheh-Sam-Hong: A bet on three numbers, all of which win. The winning numbers pay 1 to 3 before commission, or 19 to 60 after. House edge is 1.25%.


The following table breaks down the possible outcomes of each bet.

Fan-Tan
Bet Win Pays Prob. Win Prob. Push Prob. Loss Return
Fan 2.85 0.25 0 0.75 -0.0375
Nim 1.9 0.25 0.25 0.5 -0.0250
Kwok 0.95 0.5 0 0.5 -0.0250
Nga Tan 0.475 0.5 0.25 0.25 -0.0125
Sheh-Sam-Hong 0.316667 0.75 0 0.25 -0.0125