What is Craps?

A game played with a pair of dice based predominantly on chance and luck. The aim is to place a wager against a specific roll of the dice. The dice must roll, and not slide along the table, when thrown.

Craps Rules

There are usually 4-6 players. One player takes the roll of shooter, with all players eventually taking turns rolling the two dice. The game begins with each player placing two bets against the shooter’s roll by placing chips on the different areas of the table.

• The goal is to be able to roll to a specific number after placing a bet on the first throw. Certain numbers are more likely to be rolled due to the more combinations available. Ie. A seven is the most likely to be rolled as one of the following combinations 1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, 6-1.
• The shooter must bet at least the table minimum on either the Pass line or the Don’t pass line.
• Players can make multiple wagers for each round, roll or turn.

There are two phases for each round; Come Out and Point. At the beginning of a round the Shooter makes a Come Out roll, or more if needed until he rolls a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, which is the point.

• A roll of 2, 3 or 12 ends the round with players losing their “pass line” bets. (Known as “craps” or the dealer is referred to as having “crapped out”.
• A roll of 7 or 11 results in a win for “pass line” bets.

An On button signifies the second stage of the round. The shooter must roll the point number to win bets on the pass line. However, if a 7 is rolled the pass line loses and the round is complete.

When a round is completed the role of Shooter moves along the players in a clockwise position around the craps table. Players are not obliged to become the Shooter and if refused the role is passed along to the next willing player. Players may also continue to place bets if they opt out of rolling the dice.

Joining a game of Craps

When the dealer’s button is On, pass line bets are allowed to be placed and new players may join, after checking with the dealer. Bets may be placed between dice rolls when the dealer is paying out winning bets and collecting losing bets. Once the shooter has been handed the dice by the stickman no more betting is permitted.

Craps Bet Types & Craps Strategy

Passline Bet:

A bet the shooter will win their point number. It is won immediately when a 7 or 11 is rolled during the come-out. It is lost, also known as crapping out, when a 2, 3 or 12 are rolled. When any other number is rolled is goes to point where the number needs to be rolled again to win, before a 7 is rolled.

Odds Bet

An additional bet can be placed on the game once the point number is fixed. This bet is independent from the other bets and usually provides true odds with no house advantage.

Craps Strategy

Names of Rolls in Craps

Useful Terms to Know when playing Craps

Shooter: The name of the player rolling the dice for a turn.

Boxman: A casino employee in charge of controlling the roll of the two dice.

Stick man: a casino employee in charge of controlling the speed of the game.

Pass line: also referred to as “Win” or “Right” bets.

Don’t Pass line: also referred to as “Don’t Win” or “Wrong” bets.

About the Author

Jayne Powderham
Online Casino Player
Jayne is a longtime and regular online casino player. She has enjoyed the fast development of this sector over the last ten years and despite occasional bad experiences and battles with operators would pick online casinos over offline 9 times out of ten! Jayne loves nothing more than an excuse to play on online casinos and “share the love” for the good guys and “name and shame” the bad guys she encounters along the way in her casino review duties for Chips88.