How to Play Craps

Two dice make 36 equally likely pairs of faces. Seven can be made from more of them than any other total, which is why it sits at the centre of the game: it wins on the come-out and ends the round once a point is set.

1. The come-out roll. Before it, you place a pass line bet (betting with the dice) or a don't pass bet (betting against them). Then the dice are rolled.

2. A natural or craps ends the round at once. A 7 or 11 is a natural: pass wins, don't pass loses. A 2, 3 or 12 is craps: pass loses; don't pass wins on 2 or 3, and on 12 it is a push and the stake stays put. The next roll is a fresh come-out.

3. Any other total becomes the point. That means 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. A marker called the puck is flipped to ON and placed on that number so everyone can see it.

4. The dice keep rolling until the point or a 7. Rolling the point again is "making the point": pass wins, don't pass loses. Rolling a 7 first is a "seven-out": pass loses, don't pass wins. Every other total along the way does nothing to either bet. The puck goes back to OFF and a new come-out begins.

Here is one round as a sequence of rolls. The come-out is a 6, so 6 becomes the point. The next rolls are 9, 3 and 11 — none of them matters to the line bets, even though a 3 or 11 on the come-out would have. Then a 6 arrives: the point is made, the pass line wins, don't pass loses. Had a 7 come before that 6, it would have gone the other way.

On average a round like this lasts 3.3758 rolls from come-out to decision. Short rounds of one roll are common; long ones on a hard point are what give the game its reputation.

Don't come is to come what don't pass is to pass. Prices for the rest of the layout are on craps odds.

A craps layout is built symmetrically: the two long ends are copies of each other, with the one-roll bets in a shared strip down the middle. Online games often show only one end, but the zones are the same. Reading from the edge nearest you inward:

The pass line runs the full length of the layout, with the don't pass bar in a narrower strip beside it. Odds bets go directly behind your line bet.

The field is the large box listing 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12, a one-roll bet on any of those totals. The printed numbers on it tell you what 2 and 12 pay, which is the rule that decides what the field costs.

Come and don't come have their own boxes, usually beside the field. Big 6 and Big 8 sit in a corner — the same event as placing the 6 or 8 at a worse price.

The number boxes across the top — 4, 5, SIX, 8, NINE, 10 — take place, buy and lay bets, and it is where come bets travel once their point is set. The puck sits on one of them when a point is on.

The centre holds the proposition bets: any 7, any craps, the hardways, and single-roll bets on 2, 3, 11 and 12. It is the most colourful part of the table and the most expensive one.

Some bets are contract bets: once a point is set, a pass line or come bet cannot be taken back, because it has already survived the come-out rolls that favoured it. Don't pass and don't come can be removed at any time, which is to the house's benefit, since after the point those bets are the favourites.

Other bets are working or off. By convention, place and buy bets are off during a come-out roll: a 7 on the come-out does not lose them, but a hit does not pay them either. Many online tables let you switch a bet to working with a toggle, and some remember the setting between rounds.

That setting is a common surprise for new players. A 7 on the come-out wins the pass line and would have cleared every working place bet on the table, so check the status of any bet left up between rounds.

For the price of anything printed on the felt, turn to craps odds; for which of those prices are worth paying, and what the well-known systems add up to, craps strategy.

The quickest way to make the round feel natural is to watch it happen. The free craps games use the same rules with no money involved, so a few dozen rounds on the pass line cost nothing.