How to Play Dreidel: Rules, Letters, Odds and History
The dreidel is a small four-sided spinning top played at Hanukkah, usually for chocolate coins, nuts or sweets. It is pure luck: where the top lands decides whether you win the whole pot, half of it, nothing, or have to pay in. That makes it a perfect first game of chance for children, and a surprisingly good way to talk about probability. Here are the rules, what the letters mean, how to play without a dreidel, and where the game came from.
What You Need
- A dreidel, or one of the substitutes further down.
- About 10 to 15 tokens per player: chocolate coins (gelt), nuts, raisins, buttons or counters.
- Two or more players.
How to Play
- Everyone puts one token into the middle to make the pot.
- Decide who goes first. Players then take turns spinning the dreidel.
- When the dreidel stops, the letter facing up decides what happens (see the table below).
- Whenever the pot is empty, or has only one token left, everyone puts in one token again.
- A player with no tokens left is out. Play until one player has everything, or simply stop at an agreed time and count who has the most.
| Letter | Name | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| נ | Nun | Nothing. Your turn ends. |
| ג | Gimel | You take the whole pot. |
| ה | Hei | You take half the pot. |
| ש | Shin | You put one token into the pot. |
When half the pot is an odd number, most families round up for Hei, so the spinner takes the larger half. Agree on this before you start.
What the Letters Mean
Outside Israel, the four letters stand for the Hebrew sentence Nes gadol haya sham, "A great miracle happened there". It refers to the Hanukkah story of the Temple oil that lasted eight days. Dreidels made in Israel replace Shin with Pe (פ) for po, "here": "A great miracle happened here". In the game, Pe works exactly like Shin.
The Odds
On a perfectly balanced dreidel each letter has a 1 in 4 chance, the same as drawing one of four cards. So on average a player spins Gimel once every four turns, and in a game of four players someone wins the pot about once a round. The game is fair because every player has the same chances, and nobody can improve them by skill.
Real dreidels are not always perfectly balanced, because of small differences in shape and weight, so a particular top may favour one side. If an argument starts, swap to a random tool, which is exactly fair. The same idea comes up with real dice in our article on dice probability.
No Dreidel? Three Fair Substitutes
- Random Number Generator: set the Random Number Generator to 1 to 4. 1 is Nun, 2 is Gimel, 3 is Hei and 4 is Shin.
- Picker Wheel: type Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin on four lines in the Picker Wheel and spin. You can even add the rule to each name, such as "Gimel: take all".
- A die: roll the Dice Roller with one die. 1 to 4 work as above, and on a 5 or 6 just roll again.
Where the Dreidel Came From
The word dreidel comes from the Yiddish dreyen, "to turn". In modern Hebrew the top is called a sevivon, from a root meaning "to turn around".
Historians usually link the game to a much older European gambling top, the teetotum, which was spun in England, Ireland and German-speaking lands for centuries. Its sides carried letters for the same instructions. In the German version they are often explained as nichts (nothing), ganz (all), halb (half) and stell ein (put in), which match the Hebrew letters Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin. Jewish families gave the letters the new meaning of the miracle sentence.
A popular story says that Jews in the time of the Maccabees studied Torah in secret and pulled out spinning tops to fool soldiers who came to check. It is a lovely story, but historians have found no evidence for it, and the game as we know it is much more recent. Spinning tops have a long history of their own, which you can follow in our history of spinning wheels.
Tips for Playing with Children
- Use plenty of small tokens so nobody is out too quickly.
- Let younger children spin with two hands; a wobbly spin still counts once it stops.
- Set a timer and have everyone eat their winnings at the end, so nobody leaves empty-handed.
- For a maths lesson, ask children to predict how many times Gimel will come up in 20 spins, then count.
FAQ
What do the letters on a dreidel mean?
Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin stand for Nes gadol haya sham, meaning A great miracle happened there. In the game Nun means nothing, Gimel take all, Hei take half and Shin put one in.
Why do Israeli dreidels have a different letter?
Dreidels made in Israel use Pe instead of Shin, for the word po, meaning here. The sentence becomes A great miracle happened here. In the game Pe works like Shin.
What happens when you land on Hei and the pot has an odd number?
Most families round up, so the player takes the larger half. Some round down instead. Agree on the rule before you start.
Is dreidel a game of skill or luck?
It is a game of pure luck. On a balanced dreidel each letter has a 1 in 4 chance, and nothing the spinner does can change that.
How can you play dreidel without a dreidel?
Use a random number generator from 1 to 4, a spinning wheel with the four letters, or a die where 1 to 4 stand for the letters and 5 or 6 means roll again.