Learning to Play Craps In 10 Easy Steps – Part One

Step One: The personnel handling the game play.

There are the boxman and the stickperson. The boxman in seated in the middle of the table and he oversees the whole game play and takes care it runs correctly. The stickperson is seated across from the boxman. You can’t miss the guy with a stick in his hand, a tool to help him push the dice around.

Step Two: Basic craps game rules.

The craps game has two basic bets, the Pass Line and the Don’t Pass. The first one is labeled on ring on the layout felt and above this one is the Don’t Pass bet. You will observe that around 95% of the craps players make the Pass Line bet so I will start the discussion with this bet first.

When a shooter wants to make a Pass Line bet the stickperson pushes five or six dice to him to select two. The rest of the dice are put back in a bowl, the stickperson announces the Come Out roll and the shooter may throw the dice which must be rolled hard enough to hit the back wall but not to jump out of the table.

The rules for the Come Out roll state that if the shooter hits a 7 or 11 he is paid back with even money meaning if you bet $5 you win $5. The shooter loses if he hits a 2, 3 or 12. Now, having two dice with six sides each we have 6x6=36 so there are 36 possible combinations with eight possible turns to win with a 7 and an 11 (two ways) as opposed to only four possible ways to win on the 2 (one way), the 3 (two ways) and the 12 (one way). The conclusion to all of this is that the craps betting odds for the Pass Line bet is of 8 to 4 (12 possible decisions that can win or lose and the player is favored to win them by a margin of two to one).

If the shooter rolls 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 in the Come Out roll these numbers become his point. In translation, this means that if he hits 5, he must hit again this number before a 7. If he hits a 7 before this point he loses - action called sevening out -

The other bet that can be placed on the Come Out roll is the Don’t Pass bet and is almost a mirror image of the Pass Line bet. Rolling a 7 or 11, the shooter loses, rolling a 2 or 3 it is a win an in case of a 12 it’s a push. Now, should the shooter establish a point, the Don't Pass bettor wins even money if a 7 is rolled before the shooter can repeat his number but he loses if the shooter hits the point.

The casino edge for this basic game is around 1.4%.

Step Three: Passing to other bets, the Odds Bet

Having two dice the player can roll a 7 in six different ways, a 5 in four different ways so the odds for a player to roll a 7 in relation to a 5 are of 3 to 2. Once the player made his point a win only brings even money on a bet that favors the casino strongly. For this casinos offer players and extra option of making an bet of a sum equal to (single odds), twice as much (2x odds), three times as much (3x odds), five times as much (5x Odds), ten times as much (10x Odds), 20 times as much (20x Odds), or 100 times (100x Odds) or more, as his Pass Line bet in "odds" immediately behind it on the layout.

The craps Odds bet cuts down on the casino edge on the Pass Line as follows (the Don't Pass is fractionally less):

Bet	Casino Edge
Pass Line with no odds	1.41%
Pass Line with 1x odds	0.85%
Pass Line with 2x odds	0.61%
Pass Line with 3x odds	0.47%
Pass Line with 5x odds	0.33%
Pass Line with 10x odds	0.18%
Pass Line with 20x odds	0.10%
Pass Line with 100x odds	0.02%

The craps betting odds for the point numbers are as follows:

Number	Ways to make	Ways to make 7	Odds
4	3	6	2 to 1
5	4	6	3 to 2
	5	6	6 to 5
8	5	6	6 to 5
9	4	6	3 to 2
10	3	6	2 to 1

Step Four: Come and Don't Come Bets

The two bets are managed after the same rules as the Pass and Don't Pass bets and both have the same house edges. The difference is these bets are made after the shooter establishes the point number.

The Come-Don't Come is simply a game within a game. Again as with the Pass and Don't Pass craps bets, the Come and Don't Come players are also offered the option of Odds. Odds bets can be made by only saying to the dealer odds and he will know what to do.

Step Five: Place Bets

These craps bets are the last in the list of low-percentage bets. Place bets means that the player wants to make a bet on the 6 and/or 8 and these bets can be made at any time. To make a Place bet you only need to make a bet in multiples of six dollars and you need to lay the bet on the layout in front of you and say "Place the 6 and 8 for six dollars each," or "Place the 6 [or 8] for six dollars." The stick person will take the chips and place them on the number. The casino edge for the Place bet is 1.52%. When making this bet you are allowed to call the bet off or take it down at any time.

You can also Place the 4 and 10, 5 and 9, but these bets come in with very high house edges. The Place Bet of the 4 or 10 has a 6.67% house edge. The Place Bet of the 5 or 9 has a 4% house edge.