Sunday School
How to Play Craps: A Beginner's Guide
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Too long, didn't roll. Put a bet on the pass line. If the come-out is 7 or 11, you win. If it is 2, 3 or 12, you lose. Any other number becomes the point, and you want that number again before a 7. Odds behind the pass line pay true odds and carry no house edge of their own. The pass line itself keeps about 1.41 percent.
What the game actually is
Craps is a dice game played with two dice on a printed layout. A shooter throws until they seven out. Everyone else at the table is betting on what happens before that, or on the come-out roll that starts the next round.
You do not need a system. You need to know which bets the casino, or the host of a home game, has priced fairly and which bets are a tip jar with better lighting. This guide covers the round itself. The layout guide names every box. The odds chart is the one to print.
Nothing here is a promise that you will win. A hot roll is a story people tell afterward. The arithmetic does not take the night off because the table is loud.
Who stands where
The shooter is the player with the dice. In a casino, the stick person pushes the dice to the shooter with a stick. The box person watches the bets. The dealers pay and take. You can ignore their titles and still play, but do not grab the dice when it is not your turn.
At home, one person can be the bank and another can move the dice with a stick if you have one. The rules do not change because the bank is a friend. Pick a shooter, hand them two dice, and start a come-out.
Players may bet with the shooter or against the shooter. Betting against is the don't pass. It is legal, it is slightly better math than the pass line, and some tables groan about it. Groaning is not a rule. The etiquette guide covers the manners. The math is in the next sections.
The come-out roll
Every round starts with a come-out. There is no point yet. The puck, if the table has one, shows OFF. The only number that matters on this roll is the total of the two dice.
Seven or eleven on the come-out wins a pass line bet. Two, three or twelve loses it. That losing roll is called craps, which is confusing, because the game is also called craps. Two is snake eyes. Three is ace-deuce. Twelve is boxcars. You do not need the nicknames to get paid.
Any other total, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, does not win or lose the pass line on the come-out. That total becomes the point. The puck moves to ON and sits on that number. Now the round is about one question: will the shooter roll the point again before rolling a 7?
The pass line and the point
The pass line is the bet most new players make, and it is one of the two bets worth making. You place it before the come-out. You cannot take it down after a point is set. You can only wait.
If the point is rolled before a 7, the pass line wins even money. A ten dollar pass line pays ten dollars profit. If a 7 shows first, the pass line loses and the round ends. That 7 is called seven out. The dice move to the next shooter.
The house edge on the pass line is 1.41 percent. That figure is not a slogan. Out of the ways the dice can settle the bet, the pass line loses a little more often than the payouts make up for. Over a long night the table keeps about $1.41 of every $100 you cycle across the pass line. A short night can look nothing like that. Variance is not a refund.
Don't pass is the other side. On the come-out, 7 or 11 loses, 2 or 3 wins, and 12 usually pushes. The bar on 12 is why the don't pass edge is 1.36 percent instead of a perfect mirror of the pass line. After the point, a 7 wins the don't pass and the point loses it. You are allowed to take a don't pass bet down after the point. Most players do not. The edge is already small.
Odds, the bet with no edge
After a point is set, you may place odds behind your pass line bet. Odds pay true odds. The house edge on that extra money is zero. The pass line under it still carries 1.41 percent. Adding odds does not erase the pass line. It dilutes it, because more of your money is in a fair bet.
True odds depend on the point. A point of 4 or 10 pays 2 to 1. A point of 5 or 9 pays 3 to 2. A point of 6 or 8 pays 6 to 5. A ten dollar odds bet on a point of 6 pays twelve dollars if it hits, because 6 to 5 on ten dollars is twelve. Dealers will usually tell you the amount that pays cleanly. Take the hint. A messy chip stack slows the game.
A casino posts a maximum, often 3-4-5 times your pass line or a flat multiple. A home game should post one too, before the first roll, or the bank will discover its limit in the middle of a point. Odds are the right place to add money if you are going to add money. They are not a way to force a win.
The other bets, briefly
Come bets work like a pass line that starts on the next roll, even during a point. Don't come is the mirror, usually with the 12 barred. Place bets sit on 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 and win if that number shows before a 7. Place 6 and place 8 pay 7 to 6 and keep about 1.52 percent. The other place numbers are worse. The chart has the full list.
The field is a one-roll bet on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12. If 2 and 12 both pay double, the edge is 5.56 percent. If the felt pays triple on one of them, the edge is 2.78 percent. Read the cloth. Do not assume.
Proposition bets live in the center: any seven, hardways, yo, craps. Any seven pays 4 to 1 and keeps 16.67 percent. That is a one-roll bet that the next roll is a 7. It is the bet to skip. Hardways are more fun and still a poor price. If someone calls them a lock, they are selling a feeling.
One round, out loud
You buy in for a stack you can lose. You put ten dollars on the pass line. The come-out is 8. The point is 8. You put twelve dollars in odds, because 6 pays 5 and a multiple of six keeps the payout tidy. Six to five on twelve dollars is a ten dollar profit if the math were even money, but it is not: 6 to 5 on twelve dollars pays fourteen dollars and forty cents only if the table allows coins. In practice, bet odds in units the table can pay. A ten dollar pass line with ten dollars of odds on an 8 is common, and the dealer may round the odds to an amount that divides cleanly.
The shooter rolls a 5. Nothing happens to your pass line. Someone place-bets the 5. The shooter rolls an 8. Your pass line wins ten dollars. Your odds win at 6 to 5. The point is over. The next roll is a new come-out.
Later the point is 4 and a 7 shows. You lose the pass line and the odds. The round is over for the right-way bets. That is the whole game. Everything else is a side bet with a price.
Chip denominations and exact odds units are a table choice. Agree on them before the come-out, not after a win.
Playing at home
You need two dice, a layout or a piece of paper with the same boxes, and a bank. Chips keep score so nobody is fishing dollars out of a pocket mid-roll. A stick and an ON/OFF puck are optional. They make the table easier to read. They do not change the odds.
The bank should be a person who is not also trying to drink and pay bets from memory. Call the bets. Place the chips. Then throw. If you are teaching, stick to pass line and odds for the first half hour. Add come bets when people can find the pass line without pointing at three different lines.
Set a stop. A number of rolls, a clock, or a loss limit. The dice do not know you are owed a comeback. When the night is done, the gear goes back in the box. That is a successful game, whether the bank is up or down.