Craps — The Complete Guide

One player (the shooter) rolls two dice. Before the first roll of a round — the "come-out roll" — everyone else mostly bets Pass Line or Don't Pass. If the come-out roll is 7 or 11, Pass Line wins instantly; 2, 3 or 12 loses instantly ("craps"). Any other result (4,5,6,8,9,10) becomes the "point," and rolling continues until the point repeats (Pass wins) or a 7 appears (Pass loses).

Pass Line — the most popular basic bet. House edge 1.41%. Wins on 7/11 come-out, loses on 2/3/12, then wins if the point repeats before a 7.

Don't Pass — nearly the opposite: wins on 2/3 come-out (12 is a push), loses on 7/11, then wins if a 7 appears before the point repeats. Slightly lower house edge — about 1.36% — because of the push on 12.

Both bets are perfectly reasonable and similarly priced. Come and Don't Come work on the same principle, except they can be started at any point after the come-out, not only before it.

Once a point is set, you can add an "odds" bet behind your Pass/Don't Pass bet. This is the only bet in any casino paid at true probability with zero commission — an absolute 0% house edge. The catch: you can only bet odds on top of an existing base bet, and most casinos cap the amount (e.g., 3x-5x the base bet). The larger the odds portion relative to the base bet, the lower your overall house edge for the round.

Place bets let you bet at any time that a given number (4,5,6,8,9,10) will hit before a 7, without waiting for a point. Place on 6 or 8 — house edge 1.52%, reasonable. Place on 5 or 9 — 4%. Place on 4 or 10 — 6.67%. The extreme numbers pay more but cost noticeably more too.

Any 7 — pays 4:1 but carries about a 16.9% house edge, among the worst in any casino. The temptation: 7 is the single most likely roll outcome (6 of 36 combinations), but the payout doesn't compensate for that.

Any Craps (2, 3, 12) — about 11.1% house edge. Hardways (e.g., 4-4 before an "easy" 4 or a 7) — 9.1% to 11.1%. Big 6/Big 8 — 9.09%, worse than placing the same numbers, so Place bets are the better choice.

There are 36 possible two-dice combinations. 7 is the most common (6/36 ≈ 16.7%), followed by 6 and 8 (5/36 ≈ 13.9% each), 5 and 9 (4/36 ≈ 11.1%), 4 and 10 (3/36 ≈ 8.3%), and finally 2 and 12 (1/36 ≈ 2.8%). These probabilities underlie every bet on the table — every payout is built around them, so the "fair payout" for any bet is known exactly.

Never touch the dice with both hands, never pass them over the Pass line, and throw so they hit the far wall. Don't place money on the table while dice are in the air. New players are expected to learn the base bets (Pass/Don't Pass, Odds, Place) before mixing in side bets — dealers are usually happy to explain.

In craps, once the bet is placed, the outcome depends only on the dice. If you want a game where skill and decisions affect the outcome over time, poker is the answer: start with a free game or the Israeli club PokerGG.co.il on ClubGG (Club ID 187197), with support in your language.