Craps: how it works

The shooter and the dice

Craps is played with two dice. One player, the Shooter, rolls them for the whole table. Everyone bets on the same rolls, and any player can bet with the shooter or against them.

The shooter keeps the dice until they lose a round with a seven-out. Then the dice pass to the next player to the left.

The come-out roll

A round starts with the come-out roll. For the main bet, the Pass line:

• 7 or 11 wins right away. This is a natural.
• 2, 3 or 12 loses right away. This is craps.
• 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 becomes the Point.

The point and the seven-out

Once a point is set, a marker called the Puck is turned to "On" and placed on that number. The shooter keeps rolling:

• If the point comes up before a 7, the pass line wins and the next roll is a new come-out.
• If a 7 comes up first, the pass line loses. This is a Seven out, and the dice move to the next shooter.
• Any other number does not decide the pass line, though it may settle other bets.

Pass and don't pass

The pass line bets with the shooter, as above. It pays 1 to 1.

Don't pass bets against the shooter, and is close to the opposite:

• On the come-out, 2 or 3 wins, and 7 or 11 loses.
• A 12 on the come-out is a Push. This is the bar 12, and it is what gives the house its edge on this bet.
• Once a point is set, don't pass wins if a 7 comes before the point and loses if the point comes first.

Both pay 1 to 1, and both cost the player about the same, a little under 1.5% of each bet on average.

Come and don't come

A come bet works exactly like a pass line bet, but you make it after a point is set. The next roll is its own come-out: 7 or 11 wins, 2, 3 or 12 loses, and any point number becomes the come bet's own point. The dealer moves your chips to that number.

Don't come is the same idea for don't pass, with the 12 again a push.

Come and don't come have the same edges as pass and don't pass. They let you have several numbers working at once.

Odds

Once a point is set, you can add an odds bet behind your pass or come bet. It wins if the point comes before a 7, and it pays at true odds. That means it has no house edge at all.

On the don't side, lay odds bet that the 7 comes first. A 7 is more likely than any point, so you lay more than you win: on a point of 4, a lay of 10 wins 5.

Tables limit how much odds you can take. FlopMAX uses 3-4-5x odds: up to 3 times your line bet on 4 or 10, 4 times on 5 or 9, and 5 times on 6 or 8. Each limit lets a winning odds bet pay 6 times the line bet. Lay odds are limited the same way, by what they can win: up to 6 times the line bet. Other limits are in the game's settings.

The odds bet does not change the edge on your line bet. It adds to your bet at no edge, so the average cost of your total action goes down.

Place, buy and lay

A place bet is on one point number to come before a 7, at any time. It pays a little less than true odds:

• 6 or 8 pays 7 to 6.
• 5 or 9 pays 7 to 5.
• 4 or 10 pays 9 to 5.

A buy bet is the same bet paid at true odds, less a commission of 5% of the bet. A lay bet is the reverse: a 7 before the number, paid at true odds against, less a commission of 5% of what the bet wins. FlopMAX takes the commission only when the bet wins; some tables take it up front.

With the commission taken on a win, buying the 4 or 10 costs less than placing it (1.67% against 6.67%), and so does buying the 5 or 9 (2.00% against 4.00%). On the 6 or 8, placing is cheaper (1.52% against 2.27% to buy).

Field, hardways and big 6 and 8

Field

The field is a one-roll bet on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12. It pays 1 to 1, and more on 2 and 12. FlopMAX pays 2 to 1 on both 2 and 12 by default. Some tables pay 3 to 1 on the 12, which halves the edge to 2.78%, and FlopMAX's settings offer that rule too. A 5, 6, 7 or 8 loses.

Hardways

A Hardway bets that 4, 6, 8 or 10 will come up as a pair, such as 3 and 3 for hard 6, before it comes up any other way (the Easy way) or a 7 is rolled.

• Hard 6 or hard 8 pays 9 to 1.
• Hard 4 or hard 10 pays 7 to 1.

Big 6 and big 8

Big 6 and big 8 bet that the 6 or 8 comes before a 7, paid at 1 to 1. It is the same bet as placing the 6 or 8, at a worse price.

One-roll bets

These proposition bets are settled on the very next roll. They pay well but carry high edges.

• Any 7: the next roll is 7. Pays 4 to 1.
• Any craps: 2, 3 or 12. Pays 7 to 1.
• Yo: 11. Pays 15 to 1.
• Horn: split four ways across 2, 3, 11 and 12. The part on the number that hits is paid (30 to 1 on 2 or 12, 15 to 1 on 3 or 11) and the other three parts lose.
• Hop: one exact pair of dice on the next roll, such as 2 and 4. A mixed pair pays 15 to 1; a hard pair such as 3 and 3 pays 30 to 1.

Payouts on props vary between tables, and the edge moves with them. The edges below use the payouts above.

House edge by bet

The House edge is the share of each bet lost on average over the Long run.

Don't pass is 1.36% counted per bet made. Counted only over bets that win or lose (leaving out the bar-12 pushes), it is 1.40%.

Working and off

A bet that is Working can win or lose on the next roll. A bet that is Off stays on the table but is not in action.

By the usual rule, place bets, buy bets and hardways are off on the come-out roll, and the odds behind come bets are off on the come-out too. You can ask the dealer to call any of them working. Line bets and one-roll bets are always working.

Dice probabilities

Two dice can land 36 ways. Each total has its own number of combinations:

The 7 has the most ways, 6 of 36. That is why it decides so much of the game, and why every point number is less likely than a 7. The true odds against a point follow from this table: 6 ways to 3 for the 4 (2 to 1), 6 to 4 for the 5 (3 to 2), and 6 to 5 for the 6.