The game of craps
Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other or against a bank. Because it requires little equipment, "street craps" can be played in informal settings. Craps is an exciting, fast-paced, action-packed game utilizing a pair of dice. Here are some basics to get you started shooting Craps. Craps, dice game, possibly the world's most common gambling game with dice. The game of craps version known as bank craps, casino craps. Craps is a table game that can be played in a bricks and mortar casino as well as online. It allows players to throw two dice and make bets on.
How to Play Craps
How is the game of craps played? The concept of playing craps is to roll a number (a point) with two dice and then roll that same number again before a seven is rolled. The person at the craps table that rolls the dice is called “the shooter.” When there is a number marked by the “pucks,” it means that the number is the “point” of the game.
The goal in craps is to predict how the dice will land. The table is played in rounds with two phases in a round; the come out and point. There can be up to 20 players at a craps table and everyone will get a chance to throw the dice. You can only handle and throw these dice with one hand. A come out roll of 7 or 11 results in a win for bets on the pass line this is the only time in craps where 7 is good!
The shooter will continue to make come out rolls until they roll a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, When they land on one of those numbers, it becomes the point. When this happens, the dealer moves the ON button to the point number on the table and this signifies the beginning of the second round. To clarify, the first roll in a round is the come out roll and is the beginning of a new game.
A come out roll can only happen after the previous shooter makes their point or rolls a seven. When this happens, the dice move to the left of the shooter clock-wise. A craps table is divided into two sides, both a mirror image of each other, to allow bettors on each side of the table to play without reaching all over the table. To place these bets, simply place your chips in these areas on the table before the come out roll.
Once the point is established, you cannot remove your pass line bet. For example, 6—4, 4—6 would be a "10 easy". The 4, 6, 8 or 10 can be made both hard and easy ways. Betting point numbers which pays off on easy or hard rolls of that number or single-roll "hop" bets e. A player can choose either the 6 or 8 being rolled before the shooter throws a seven. These wagers are usually avoided by experienced craps players since they pay even money while a player can make place bets on the 6 or the 8, which pay more The bets are located in the corners behind the Pass line, and bets may be placed directly by players.
In addition place bets are usually not working, except by agreement, when the shooter is "coming out" i. The game of craps Single-roll proposition bets are resolved in one dice roll by the shooter. Most of these are called "service bets", and they are located at the center of most craps tables.
Only the stickman or a dealer can place a service bet. Single-roll bets can be lower than the table minimum, but the maximum bet allowed is also lower than the table maximum. The lowest single-roll bet can be a minimum one unit bet. Single bets are always working by default unless the player specifies otherwise.
The bets include:. Fire Bet: Before the shooter begins, some casinos will allow a bet known as a fire bet to be placed. As different individual points are made by the shooter, they will be marked on the craps layout with a fire symbol. The first three points will not pay out on the fire bet, but the fourth, fifth, and sixth will pay out at increasing odds. The fourth point pays at to-1, the fifth point pays at to-1, and the 6th point pays at to The points must all be different numbers for them to count toward the fire bet.
For example, a shooter who successfully hits a point of 10 twice will only garner credit for the first one on the fire bet. Players must hit the established point in order for it to count toward the fire bet. 
The payout is determine by the number of points which have been established and hit after the shooter sevens out. These bets pay for-1, for a house advantage of 7. This pays for-1, for a house edge of 7.
For all three wagers, the order in which the numbers are hit does not matter. Whenever a seven is hit, including on the come out roll, all bonus bets lose, the bonus board is reset, and new bonus bets may be placed. A player may wish to make multiple different bets. If one of the bets win the dealer may automatically replenish the losing bet with profits from the winning bet.
In this example, if the shooter rolls a hard 8 pays , the horn loses. If the player does not want the bet replenished, he or she should request any or all bets be taken down. A working bet is a live bet. Bets may also be on the board, but not in play and therefore not working.
Pass line and come bets are always working meaning the chips are in play and the player is therefore wagering live money. Other bets may be working or not working depending whether a point has been established or player's choice. Place and buy bets are working by default when a point is established and not working when the point is off unless the player specifies otherwise.
Lay bets are always working even if a point has not been established unless the player requests otherwise. At any time, a player may wish to take any bet or bets out of play. The dealer will put an "Off" button on the player's specific bet or bets; this allows the player to keep his chips on the board without a live wager.
For example, if a player decides not to wager a place bet mid-roll but wishes to keep the chips on the number, he or she may request the bet be "not working" or "Off". The chips remain on the table, but the player cannot win from or lose chips which are not working. The opposite is also allowed.
By default place and buy bets are not working without an established point; a player may wish to wager chips before a point has been established. In this case, the player would request the bet be working in which the dealer will place an "On" button on the specified chips. The probability of dice combinations determine the odds of the payout. The following chart shows the dice combinations needed to roll each number.
The two and twelve are the hardest to roll since only one combination of dice is possible. The game of craps is built around the dice roll of seven, since it is the most easily rolled dice combination. The expected value of all bets is usually negative, such that the average player will always lose money. This is because the house always sets the paid odds to below the actual odds.
However, this "free odds" bet cannot be made independently, so the expected value of the entire bet, including odds, is still negative. Since there is no correlation between die rolls, there is normally no possible long-term winning strategy in craps. There are occasional promotional variants that provide either no house edge or even a player edge.
One example is a field bet that pays on 12 and on either 3 or This is sometimes seen at casinos running limited-time incentives, in jurisdictions or gaming houses that require the game to be fair, or in layouts for use in informal settings using play money. No casino currently runs a craps table with a bet that yields a player edge full-time. Maximizing the size of the odds bet in relation to the line bet will reduce, but never eliminate the house edge, and will increase variance.
Most casinos have a limit on how large the odds bet can be in relation to the line bet, with single, double, and five times odds common. Some casinos offer 3—4—5 odds, referring to the maximum multiple of the line bet a player can place in odds for the points of 4 and 10, 5 and 9, and 6 and 8, respectively. During promotional periods, a casino may even offer x odds bets, which reduces the house edge to almost nothing, but dramatically increases variance, as the player will be betting in large betting units.
Since several of the multiple roll bets pay off in ratios of fractions on the dollar, it is important that the player bets in multiples that will allow a correct payoff in complete dollars. San jose state prediction Normally, payoffs will be rounded down to the nearest dollar, resulting in a higher house advantage.
These bets include all place bets, taking odds, and buying on numbers 6, 8, 5, and 9, as well as laying all numbers. These variants depend on the casino and the table, and sometimes a casino will have different tables that use or omit these variants and others. When craps is played in a casino, all bets have a house advantage.
There may be players who are lucky and get ahead for a period of time, but in the long run these winning streaks are eroded away. One can slow, but not eliminate, one's average losses by only placing bets with the smallest house advantage. The place bets and buy bets differ from the Pass line and come line, in that place bets and buy bets can be removed at any time, since, while they are multi-roll bets, their odds of winning do not change from roll to roll, whereas Pass line bets and come line bets are a combination of different odds on their first roll and subsequent rolls.
The first roll of a Pass line bet is advantage for the player 8 wins, 4 losses , but it is "paid for" by subsequent rolls that are at the same disadvantage to the player as the Don't Pass bets were at an advantage. As such, they cannot profitably let the player take down the bet after the first roll.
This bet generally has a higher house edge than place betting, unless the casino offers high odds. Conversely, a player can take back pick up a Don't Pass or Don't Come bet after the first roll, but this cannot be recommended, because they already endured the disadvantaged part of the combination — the first roll.
On that come-out roll, they win just 3 times 2 and 3 , while losing 8 of them 7 and 11 and pushing one 12 out of the 36 possible rolls. On the other 24 rolls that become a point, their Don't Pass bet is now to their advantage by 4 and 10 , 5 and 9 and 6 and 8. However, players can still make standard lay bets odds on any of the point numbers 4,5,6,8,9, Among these, and the remaining numbers and possible bets, there are a myriad of systems and progressions that can be used with many combinations of numbers.
An important alternative metric is house advantage per roll rather than per bet , which may be expressed in loss per hour. Besides the rules of the game itself, a number of formal and informal rules are commonly applied in the table form of Craps, especially when played in a casino.
To reduce the potential opportunity for switching dice by sleight-of-hand , players are not supposed to handle the dice with more than one hand such as shaking them in cupped hands before rolling nor take the dice past the edge of the table. If a player wishes to change shooting hands, they may set the dice on the table, let go, then take them with the other hand.
When throwing the dice, the player is expected to hit the farthest wall at the opposite end of the table these walls are typically augmented with pyramidal structures to ensure highly unpredictable bouncing after impact. Casinos will sometimes allow a roll that does not hit the opposite wall as long as the dice are thrown past the middle of the table; a very short roll will be nullified as a "no roll".
The dice may not be slid across the table and must be tossed. Players are generally asked not to throw the dice above a certain height such as the eye level of the dealers. This is both for the safety of those around the table, and to eliminate the potential use of such a throw as a distraction device in order to cheat.
Dice are still considered "in play" if they land on players' bets on the table, the dealer's working stacks, on the marker puck, or with one die resting on top of the other. The roll is invalid if either or both dice land in the boxman's bank, the stickman's bowl where the extra three dice are kept between rolls , or in the rails around the top of the table where players chips are kept.
If one or both dice hits a player or dealer and rolls back onto the table, the roll counts as long as the person being hit did not intentionally interfere with either of the dice, though some casinos will rule "no roll" for this situation. If one or both leave the table, it is also a "no roll", and the dice may either be replaced or examined by the boxman and returned to play.
Shooters may wish to "set" the dice to a particular starting configuration before throwing such as showing a particular number or combination, stacking the dice, or spacing them to be picked up between different fingers , but if they do, they are often asked to be quick about it so as not to delay the game.
Some casinos disallow such rituals to speed up the pace of the game. In most casinos, players are not allowed to hand anything directly to dealers, and vice versa. Items such as cash, checks, and chips are exchanged by laying them down on the table; for example, when "buying in" paying cash for chips , players are expected to place the cash on the layout: the dealer will take it and then place the chips in front of the player.
This rule is enforced in order to allow the casino to easily monitor and record all transfers via overhead surveillance cameras, and to reduce the opportunity for cheating via sleight-of-hand. Most casinos prohibit "call bets", and may have a warning such as "No Call Bets" printed on the layout to make this clear. This means a player may not call out a bet without also placing the corresponding chips on the table.
Such a rule reduces the potential for misunderstanding in loud environments, as well as disputes over the amount that the player intended to bet after the outcome has been decided. The game of craps Some casinos choose to allow call bets once players have bought-in. When allowed, they are usually made when a player wishes to bet at the last second, immediately before the dice are thrown, to avoid the risk of obstructing the roll.
Craps is among the most social and most superstitious of all gambling games, which leads to an enormous variety of informal rules of etiquette that players may be expected to follow. Tipping the dealers is universal and expected in Craps. As in most other casino games, a player may simply place or toss chips onto the table and say, "For the dealers", "For the crew", etc.
In craps, it is also common to place a bet for the dealers. This is usually done one of three ways: by placing an ordinary bet and simply declaring it for the dealers, as a "two-way", or "on top". A "Two-Way" is a bet for both parties: for example, a player may toss in two chips and say "Two Way Hard Eight", which will be understood to mean one chip for the player and one chip for the dealers.
Players may also place a stack of chips for a bet as usual, but leave the top chip off-center and announce "on top for the dealers". In some cases, players may also tip each other, for example as a show of gratitude to the thrower for a roll on which they win a substantial bet. Craps players routinely practice a wide range of superstitious behaviors, and may expect or demand these from other players as well.
Most prominently, it is universally considered bad luck to say the word "seven" after the "come-out", a roll of 7 is a loss for "pass" bets. Dealers themselves often make significant efforts to avoid calling out the number. When necessary, participants may refer to seven with a "nickname" such as "Big Red" or just "Red" , "the S-word", etc.
Although no wagering system can consistently beat casino games based on independent trials such as craps, that does not stop gamblers from believing in them. One of the best known systems is the Martingale System. In this strategy, the gambler doubles his bet after every loss.
After a win, the bet is reset to the original bet. The theory is that the first win would recover all previous losses plus win a profit equal to the original stake. Other systems depend on the gambler's fallacy, which in craps terms is the belief that past dice rolls influence the probabilities of future dice rolls. For example, the gambler's fallacy indicates that a craps player should bet on eleven if an eleven has not appeared or has appeared too often in the last 20 rolls.
In practice this can be observed as players respond to a roll such as a Hard Six with an immediate wager on the Hard Six. Even if the dice are actually biased toward particular results "loaded" , each roll is still independent of all the previous ones. The common term to describe this is "dice have no memory". Another approach is to "set" the dice in a particular orientation, and then throw them in such a manner that they do not tumble randomly.
The theory is that given exactly the same throw from exactly the same starting configuration, the dice will tumble in the same way and therefore show the same or similar values every time. Casinos take steps to prevent this. The dice are usually required to hit the back wall of the table, which is normally faced with a jagged angular texture such as pyramids, making controlled spins more difficult.
There has been no independent evidence that such methods can be successfully applied in a real casino. Bank craps is a variation of the original craps game and is sometimes known as Las Vegas Craps. This variant is quite popular in Nevada gambling houses, and its availability online has now made it a globally played game. Bank craps uses a special table layout and all bets must be made against the house.
In Bank Craps, the dice are thrown over a wire or a string that is normally stretched a few inches from the table's surface. Generally, if the word "craps" is used without any modifier, it can be inferred to mean this version of the game, to which most of this article refers. Crapless craps, also known as bastard craps, is a simple version of the original craps game, and is normally played as an online private game.
The biggest difference between crapless craps and original craps is that the shooter person throwing the dice is at a far greater disadvantage and has a house edge of 5. Another difference is that this is one of the craps games in which a player can bet on rolling a 2, 3, 11 or 12 before a 7 is thrown.
In crapless craps, 2 and 12 have odds of and have a house edge of 7. New York Craps is one of the variations of craps played mostly in the Eastern coast of the US, true to its name. History states that this game was actually found and played in casinos in Yugoslavia, the UK and the Bahamas. In this craps variant, the house edge is greater than Las Vegas Craps or Bank craps. The table layout is also different, and is called a double-end-dealer table.
This variation is different from the original craps game in several ways, but the primary difference is that New York craps does not allow Come or Don't Come bets. New York Craps Players bet on box numbers like 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or In order to get around Californian laws barring the payout of a game being directly related to the roll of dice, Indian reservations have adapted the game to substitute cards for dice.
To replicate the original dice odds exactly without dice or possibility of card-counting, one scheme uses two shuffle machines each with just one deck of Ace through 6 each. Each machine selects one of the 6 cards at random and this is the roll. The selected cards are replaced and the decks are reshuffled for the next roll. In one variation, two shoes are used, each containing some number of regular card decks that have been stripped down to just the Aces and deuces through sixes.
The boxman simply deals one card from each shoe and that is the roll on which bets are settled. In a similar variation, cards representing dice are dealt directly from a continuous shuffling machine CSM. Typically, the CSM will hold approximately cards, or 44 sets of 1 through 6 spot cards. Two cards are dealt from the CSM for each roll. The game is played exactly as regular craps, but the roll distribution of the remaining cards in the CSM is slightly skewed from the normal symmetric distribution of dice.
Even if the dealer were to shuffle each roll back into the CSM, the effect of buffering a number of cards in the chute of the CSM provides information about the skew of the next roll. Analysis shows this type of game is biased towards the Don't Pass and Don't Come bets. In this game variation, one red deck and one blue deck of six cards each A through 6 , and a red die and a blue die are used.
Each deck is shuffled separately, usually by machine. Each card is then dealt onto the layout, into the 6 red and 6 blue numbered boxes. The shooter then shoots the dice. The red card in the red-numbered box corresponding to the red die, and the blue card in the blue-numbered box corresponding to the blue die are then turned over to form the roll on which bets are settled.
Another variation uses a red and a blue deck of 36 custom playing cards each. Each card has a picture of a two-die roll on it — from 1—1 to 6—6. The shooter shoots what looks like a red and a blue die, called "cubes". They are numbered such that they can never throw a pair, and that the blue one will show a higher value than the red one exactly half the time.
One such scheme could be on the red die and on the blue die. One card is dealt from the red deck and one is dealt from the blue deck. The shooter throws the "cubes" and the color of the cube that is higher selects the color of the card to be used to settle bets.
On one such table, an additional one-roll prop bet was offered: If the card that was turned over for the "roll" was either 1—1 or 6—6, the other card was also turned over. If the other card was the "opposite" 6—6 or 1—1, respectively of the first card, the bet paid for this proposition.
And additional variation uses a single set of 6 cards, and regular dice. The roll of the dice maps to the card in that position, and if a pair is rolled, then the mapped card is used twice, as a pair. Recreational or informal playing of craps outside of a casino is referred to as street craps or private craps.
The most notable difference between playing street craps and bank craps is that there is no bank or house to cover bets in street craps. A come out roll can only happen after the previous shooter makes their point or rolls a seven. When this happens, the dice move to the left of the shooter clock-wise.
A craps table is divided into two sides, both a mirror image of each other, to allow bettors on each side of the table to play without reaching all over the table. To place these bets, simply place your chips in these areas on the table before the come out roll. Once the point is established, you cannot remove your pass line bet.
Be sure to ask the dealer if you have any questions before placing your bet. These bets can be removed or changed at any time during the round. During the points roll, you can place bets on certain numbers that are on the table. If they come up during the points roll, you win. Different numbers have different odds. When you want to place a bet on a number, place your chips in front of you and tell the dealer where you want your bet placed.
If you want to play the field, place your chips in this area on the table. If the dice lands on any of the numbers in the field 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12 you win. These are one-roll bets, meaning they removed after the dice is rolled.