In gambling, snake eyes is the outcome of rolling the dice in a game of craps and getting only one pip on each die. The pair of pips resembles a pair of eyes, which is appended to the term 'snake' because of the long-standing association of this word with treachery and betrayal. The dictionary of etymology traces that use of the term back to 1929.^*, although it may be traced all the way back to the ancient Roman dice games, where 'Dogs' represented two ones. In modern parlance, it refers to such a roll in any game involving dice.

Because this is the lowest possible roll, and will often be a loser in many dice games, the term has been employed in a more general usage as a reference to bad luck.

Related terminology

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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 "one"s is often referred to as alien eyes.

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