Sunday School
Craps Etiquette: 15 Rules So the Table Likes You
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Too long, didn't roll. Buy in between rolls. Keep your hands up when the dice are moving. Do not touch the dice unless you are the shooter. Set bets in the right box. Don't pass is allowed. Superstition is optional. The math does not care, and the table still has to share a rail.
Why the table has manners
Craps is crowded. Dice fly, chips stack, and a late hand can turn a fair roll into an argument. Etiquette is how a table stays a game instead of a collision. None of these rules change the house edge. They keep you welcome long enough to play the bets that are actually priced well.
A casino enforces them with dealers and security. A home game enforces them with the host, or it does not enforce them and the night ends in a sulk. Pick the first one. The hosting guide is the other half of this page.
The dice
Setting the dice, the little ritual of turning faces up before a throw, is common and harmless if it takes a second. It is not a strategy. Fair cubes do not remember which face you kissed. If you want the longer argument, it belongs in a math conversation, not in a delay while five people wait. The short version: skepticism first, throw second.
- Only the shooter touches the dice when they are live. If you are not shooting, keep your hands off the felt in the landing zone.
- Wait until the stick, or the host, sends you the dice. Do not reach across the layout to grab them.
- Keep the throw on the table. A die on the floor is a delay. In a casino it is also a whole procedure. At home, call no roll if a die hits a cup and stops funny, then throw both again.
- Do not slide both dice so short that they never tumble. The table wants a roll, not a shove into your own chips. A casino may call no roll. A home game should too.
- When you seven out, let the dice go. Do not pocket them, blow on them for a minute, or lecture the next shooter.
Money and chips
Agree on chip colors before the game. One dollar and five dollars is enough for a first night. Write it down. A chip that means five dollars to you and one dollar to the bank is not a funny story while it is happening.
- Buy in between decisions, not while the dice are in the air. Put cash or a chip on the layout where the dealer can see it, outside the betting boxes, and say 'change' or 'buy in'.
- Keep your own chips on the rail, not in a pile that looks like a bet. A chip on the layout is a wager. A chip on the rail is yours.
- Stack bets in neat piles the dealer can read. A scattered splash bet gets mispaid, and the correction takes longer than the roll.
- Do not ask the dealer, or the host, to front you a bet. If you are out of chips, you are out until you buy in again.
- Tipping a casino dealer is optional and belongs as a bet for them, usually on the pass line, if you tip at all. At home, the tip is helping clean up. Do not invent a rake unless the group agreed to one before the first roll.
Bets, words and the don'ts
A late bet is not cute. Once the dice leave the shooter's hand, the layout is closed. Dealers wave off chips that land after the throw. Home games should do the same. The people who 'just got it in' are the reason the rule exists.
- Learn the box you are betting. Pass line, don't pass, come, field and place numbers are different ink. Pointing is not a bet. Chips in the box are a bet.
- Don't pass and don't come are allowed. They are slightly better math than the pass line when the 12 is barred, at 1.36 percent against 1.41 percent. Anyone who hisses at you for playing them is enforcing a superstition, not a rule. You still do not have to celebrate a seven-out in someone else's face.
- Avoid saying the word seven during a point if the table is superstitious. It changes nothing about the dice. It changes the mood. You can also ignore the taboo. Just do not be surprised if the groan is louder than your joke.
- Do not tell another player their bet is stupid while the roll is live. Any seven really is a 16.67 percent bet. You can say that between rolls, once, without a speech. Then let them lose their own money.
- If you do not know a payout, ask before you bet. The printable chart exists so the host is not the only person who knows that place 6 pays 7 to 6.
Bodies, drinks and the rail
Hold your drink off the rail, or at least off the felt. A spilled glass on a layout is the end of the printed field and the start of a paper-towel hour. Casino cups have lids for this reason. Home games can use the same idea with any cup that does not tip.
Stand so the shooter has an arm path. Bags on the rail, phones face-up in the landing zone, and elbows in the come box are all the same mistake. The dice need a place to stop. Give them the table, not your wrist.
Phones stay in a pocket during the throw. A photo of the dice is fine between rolls. A video that blocks the stick is not. If the table is in a casino, follow their photo rule even when it feels fussy. It is their room.
Home game versus the pit
In a pit you follow the crew. They will tell you if a bet is off, if a die is cocked, and if your odds are the wrong multiple. Say thank you. Arguing a payoff from memory, against a dealer who does this hourly, is a bad use of the evening. If you truly disagree, ask for the floor between rolls, not over the dice.
At home you are the crew. The host names a cocked-die rule before the game: a die leaning on a chip is no roll, or it is the face that is up. Pick one. The host names whether place bets work on the come-out. Pick one. Write both on the same card as the chip values.
The last rule is the one people skip. When someone is chasing, you are allowed to pause the game. A home table does not have a pit boss. It has friends. If the fun is gone, the correct call is to rack the chips. The dice will still be there next week. The rules of the round are easier to enjoy when nobody is playing scared.