I’ve written previous posts in this series about craps — that examined the staff at the craps table and the equipment used to play (the dice and the table). This post is the 1st one in which I discuss the nuts and bolts of how to play a craps game in a casino.
Part 3 of 6
Craps is played with two identical six sided dice and craps is a dice game where everyone plays against the casino. A craps table is twice as big as a blackjack table, where 16 gamblers can play at it. Each end of the table is a mirror image of the opposite, all in the effort of having twice the participants play. The casino version of the game that you probably know, at least from movies, is called just ‘craps’. If you are a beginner, we can’t deny that craps might seem intimidating at first. It’s not that it isn’t easy to play once you get into it, but until you learn the basic rules you will think it is a complicated game with hundred.
- 1 The Craps Dealers and Other Staff at the Dice Table: Who’s Who
- 2 How the Craps Table Layout Works and How the Dice Work
- 4 The Best and Worst Craps Bets You Can Make
- 5 Craps Bets Ranked According to House Edge
- 6 How (and Why) to Act Like a Craps Player
I’ve seen other pages that explain how to play craps, and some of them are very good indeed. I hope, though, that this post will include a level of detail heretofore unseen on the internet as it relates to how to play craps.
First Things First
You walk up to a craps table that’s just opened for action. A few other players join you. Maybe a class on how to play craps just finished—casinos usually hold those earlier in the day and then open up a table immediately afterward.
You and your new companions will start by buying in. You’ll put cash on the table and get chips in exchange. Once everyone has bought in, the stickman will give the dice to the player on his left. Dice is like cards, by the way.
The dice move around the table in a clockwise manner, just like when you’re dealing poker.
If you don’t go broke 1st, you’ll get a chance to roll the dice, too. Don’t worry about that. You just have to wait your turn.
Also, you and the other players aren’t required to roll the dice. You can always pass on that, for any reason you want to. No one will give you a hard time about it, either.
The player gets to choose 2 dice from the 6 or 8 dice he’s given. Once she picks those dice up, the stickman puts the other dice away until there’s a new shooter. (They go in a dice tray.)
But the game still can’t start, because no one has placed a bet yet. Actually, though, at a real craps table, bets will have been made already. I just haven’t mentioned that yet.
Usually, players will start by making pass bets and don’t pass bets. You’ll see a lot more pass bets than don’t pass bets, too.
In this case, “pass” means for the dice to win. “Don’t pass” means for the dice to lose.
If you read my previous post about the table layout, you’ll already know where those bets go on the table. In fact, those are bets you can place on the table yourself, as opposed to some of the bets where the dealers have to place the bet on your behalf.
But you’re not limited to just those 2 options. You can bet on the field. You can bet on big 6. You can bet on big 8. You can even place a proposition bet in the center of the table.
One Roll Bets
It seems appropriate at this point in the discussion to point out the different kinds of bets available. Bets like pass and don’t pass are multiple roll bets. They stay in action as the dice are rolled repeatedly until they’re resolved.
The proposition bets, and some of the other bets, like the field bet, are one roll bets. These are bets made on the outcome of the very next roll. They win or lose based on what happens on that roll. They don’t stay on the table.
The Come Out Roll Is When the Action Starts
The 1st roll a new shooter makes is called “the come out roll.” If she rolls a 7 or an 11 on the come out roll, the dice win. Anyone who placed a bet on the pass line gets paid off at even money. Anyone who bet on don’t pass loses their bet, and their money gets collected.
But if the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12 on the come out roll, the pass line bet is an immediate loser. This is called “crapping out.” Those totals—2, 3, and 12—are “craps.” The don’t pass line, though, MIGHT be a winner.
Remember when I discussed the layout and how the don’t pass bet includes the words “bar 12” or “bar 2?”
This means that if the shooter rolls a 12 (or a 2, depending on what the layout says), the don’t pass bet doesn’t win any money. Instead, it’s treated as a “push” or a “tie.” You get your money back, but you don’t get any winnings with it.
Any other total sets a point. The possible points are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10.
If the shooter doesn’t set a point, she gets to keep the dice and continue to roll. It doesn’t matter if the dice won or lost on the come out roll. And any time the shooter hasn’t set a point, the next roll is always a new come out roll.
But if a point number has been rolled, the shooter keeps rolling until she either:
- Rolls the point number again. (In which case, the dice win.)
- Rolls a 7. (In which case, the dice lose.)
If the dice win, the shooter keeps the dice and continues to shoot. Also, the pass line bets pay off at even money.
If the dice lose, the next person to the left of the shooter gets a turn as shooter. Also, the don’t pass bets pay off at even money.
After this action is completed, there’s a new come out roll, regardless of whether or not there’s a new shooter.
That’s the basics of craps right there—the come out roll and whether the dice win or lose. Sometimes they win or lose on the first roll; sometimes there are subsequent throws which determine whether they win or lose.
But the other bets are whether the casino really cleans up.
Summarizing the Action
It helps to think of craps as being a game played in rounds. Each round starts with a come out roll.
The dice can win or lose immediately on the come out roll. If you roll a 7 or an 11, that’s an immediate win. If you roll a 2, 3, or 12, that’s an immediate loss.
Any other number sets a point. In that case, the shooter continues rolling the dice until she either rolls a 7 or the point again. If she rolls a 7 before rolling the point, the dice lose. If she rolls the point before rolling the 7, the dice win.
The basic bets in craps are the pass and don’t pass bets.
The pass bet pays off at even money when the dice win.
The don’t pass bet pays off even money (or pushes) when the dice lose. The only time it’s a push is when a 12 is rolled on the come out roll. (Or if a 2 is roller in a casino that says “Bar 2” instead of “Bar 12.”)
And that’s it.
Craps is a much simpler game than you expected, isn’t it?
The real wrinkles start when you look at the dizzying arrays of bets that are available to be made in the game besides the pass and don’t pass bets.
I’ll look at the available bets in the next post.
Conclusion
A craps game starts when players buy in, place bets, a shooter is chosen, and then that shooter rolls the dice. The most basics bets in the game (the pass and don’t pass bets) pay off based on whether the dice win or lose, respectively.
You do, of course, have multiple other bets available on the table. Some of them are one roll bets, like proposition bets, while others are determined after multiple rolls.
This is the 3rd post in my series about playing craps. My next post will include details about how the other bets on the craps table work.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Craps, like many other casino games has a number of different rules and strategies depending on where you play. At heart however, I’ve found Craps an extremely simple game to grasp.
Lots of people can join in at the casino and even newcomers can make the popular bets without any prior knowledge to the rules. As a top line explanation, playing craps is about betting on the different rolls of the dice. The basic rules of Craps in casinos are covered below.
Shooter
In every round there is a player who throws the dice, this player is known as the shooter. Everybody at the table take turns being the shooter in clockwise manner although you can choose to skip if you wish. One requirement of the shooter is that he must pay the table minimum on either the “Pass” or “Don’t Pass” line. This enables other players to bet on the roll during the game’s multiple rounds including side-bets, lays free bets and proposition bets. All other players can bet on either the “Pass” or “Don’t Pass” line.
When it’s your turn to roll the dice you need to hold them in one single hand and throw them so that they hit the back end of the table. This ensures randomness and prevents anyone suspecting you of cheating or dice control.
The Point
When the shooter roles he must establish a “point”, this is known as the “Come Out” round. If the shooter roles a 2,3 or 12 then all “Pass Line” bets lose. The “Don’t Pass Line” bets have the opposite effect, they win on 2 and 3 but push on the 12 (draw). A 7 or 11 rolled at his stage is a win for the “Pass Line” or loss for “Don’t Pass” bets.
The shooter continues to role until he hits a number not mentioned (4,5,6,8,8,10), this becomes the point. This is what the following bets are based on. The dealer button is moved onto the point to make it clear for others. When the point is “On” then the point has been established. If it is “Off” then the point has not been established and in game is in the “come out” round.
Once the point is determined, a player continues to role until they either roll the point number, or a seven. If the point is rolled, then everyone who bet on the pass line wins, and the don’t pass betters lose.
Conclusion
How To Play Casino Craps And Win Prizes
The above covers the basics to Craps. But there is much more to the game than the above. There are a wide variety of single-role and multi-role bets than can be made after the “point” is established. These have different odds and meanings that add more depth and possible confusion to the game. I think the complex terms and lingo can put a lot of newcomers off but in general it shouldn’t take long to learn. Once you understand the etiquette, structure and betting system, Craps is a pretty simple yet exciting game. If You’d like to play craps online right now, I suggest joining Ricardos Casino and claiming their $7 No Deposit Bonus!
Other Rules
There are also different variants of the game including Street Craps (without house), Crapless Craps, Die Rich Craps, High Point Craps, New York Craps and Simplified Craps. A lot of these versions were created by individuals who wanted to play the game outside casinos and remove the house edge. Crapless Craps, for instance, removes the possibility of losing to Craps on the Come Out roll which improves your expected value from the game, making it more profitable.
Dice Combinations
Craps is played with two identical six sided dice and craps is a dice game where everyone plays against the casino. A craps table is twice as big as a blackjack table, where 16 gamblers can play at it. Each end of the table is a mirror image of the opposite, all in the effort of having twice the participants play.
As I already said, craps is played with a pair of six sided dice, making for (6×6) 36 possible combinations, pretty close to roulette, except the odds are a little different, as different combinations combine to the same totals. Since only one combination of two dice can give you a total of 12 (6 and 6), the odds of rolling a 12 are 1 in 36.
On the other extreme, you have six ways to make a total of 7 (1 and 6; 2 and 5; 3 and 4; 4 and 3; 5 and 2; 6 and 1), which produces a probability of 6 in 36, or 1 in six that you will roll a 7. Have a glance at the chart below to see what combinations account for which probabilities.
So, the chart you have looked at gives all the information that you need to know about a pair of dice if you want to try to anticipate the outcome of each roll. Also, this is the only common sense way to do that. Do not believe in systems that say that the chances of a particular total being rolled depends somehow on the last total that was rolled.
This is an erroneous belief and you should avoid it. If you flip a coin nine times and it’s heads every time, the probability of it being heads on the tenth flip is still 50%, not any less, no matter what you’re betting brain may try to tell you.
After looking at the chart you will notice that everything revolves around the seven, rather symmetrically. A six is as likely as an 8, a five as likely as a 9, and so on. To calculate the odds, take the number of ways to get a number divided by the number of ways to not get that number.
You have only 3 ways to roll a 10, and 33 ways not to and therefore the odds are 33:3 or 11:1. More important for craps is the ability to calculate the odds of something being rolled before a seven. In order to do this you take the number of ways to roll a seven (6) compared to the number of ways the make the other number, let’s say 5 (there are 4 ways to make a 5); so your odds against rolling a 5 before a 7 are 6 to 4 (reduces to 3 to 2).
Note the difference between the probability and odds of rolling a number. The probability of rolling a 10 is 3 in 36, or 1 in 12. The odds of rolling a 10 are 1:11 (read as 1 to 11). Either way, out of 12 rolls, chances are a 10 will come up once (one 10 and 11 non-tens).
How To Win Playing Craps
To add more confusion, when someone normally talks about the odds of rolling a ten they really state them as the odds *against* rolling a ten; so you’re more likely to hear ‘the odds against rolling a ten are 11 to 1’ (sounds more familiar right?). Hopefully that makes sense, because it certainly took me a minute to figure out what I was saying.