Boxcars (slang)

Boxcars (also: "Midnight") is the outcome of rolling the dice in a game of craps and getting a 6 on both dice. The pair of 6 pips resembles a pair of boxcars on a freight train. In modern parlance, it refers to such a roll in any game involving 6 sided dice which are marked with pips. The probability of this roll is 1 in 36, or about 2.8%. This is the same probability for throwing any set of pairs with the dice.[1]

Contents

Probability

Rolling two 6-sided dice 25 times gives a probability of 0.505532 that at least once, Boxcars will appear.[2]

{1-} \left ( \dfrac{35}{36} \right ) ^{25} \approx 0.505532

Betting

One of the 4 bets on any common craps table. It is on the 'high side' of the horn bet in which the player can either bet on the 2, 3, 11, or 12. When the player throws in money and calls out "midnight" or "Boxcars", the dealer will usually 'book' the bet as a bet on the 12, so as to not create confusion.

Related terminology

In some role-playing games, especially ones where a roll of 3 six-sided dice is a standard action-resolution mechanism, a roll of three 6s is often referred to as a freight train. In roll-low systems (such as GURPS), where a roll of 18 represents a critical failure, or in In Nomine, where a roll of 6 6 6 represents infernal influence on events, it is referred to as a "Freight Train from Hell."

See also

Snake eyes

References

  1. ^ Dupree, Stephen; S. K. Fraley (2004). A Monte Carlo Primer: A Practical Approach to Radiation Transport. Springer. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9780306485039. http://books.google.ca/books?id=_AGqaIuYfHQC&pg=PA2&dq=Boxcars+dice#PPP1,M1. 
  2. ^ Weisstein, Eric (2003). CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics. CRC Press. pp. 276. ISBN 9781584883470. http://books.google.ca/books?id=_8TyhSqHUiEC&pg=PA276&dq=Boxcars+dice#PPA369,M1.