How to Play Craps: Your First Game, Step by Step
Craps looks like the busiest table in the casino. You can ignore almost all of it. Your first game needs two bets, and playing it well needs two more. That's this page.
1What's happening at the table
One player, the shooter, throws two dice. Everyone at the table bets on what comes up, and every bet is against the house, not against the other players. That's why a craps table cheers together.
The table below is the whole layout. Everything that isn't lit is optional, and most of it is a bad deal. For now you only need the two lit spots.
2Your first bet: Pass or Don't Pass
Before the first roll of a round (the come-out roll), put a chip on the Pass Line. You're betting with the shooter.
Don't Pass is the same bet turned around: you're betting against the shooter. The house edge is almost identical, 1.41% on Pass and 1.36% on Don't Pass, so pick whichever you like. Most players bet Pass, and the rest of this page follows a Pass bet.
3The come-out roll
The first roll decides one of three things:
| Roll | Pass Line | Don't Pass | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 or 11 | wins | loses | 22.2% |
| 2 or 3 | loses | wins | 11.1% |
| 12 | loses | tie: your bet comes back | |
| 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 | becomes the point: keep reading | 66.7% | |
Why is 12 a tie for Don't Pass? Without it, Don't Pass would beat the house. That one tie is the house's whole edge on the Don't side.
You bet 10 coins on the Pass Line and roll 7. You win 10, and the next roll is a new come-out.
4The point, and why the 7 matters
Roll a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 on the come-out and that number becomes the point. The dealer marks it with the ON button, and the shooter keeps rolling until one of two things happens:
- The point comes again: Pass wins.
- A 7 comes first (a "seven-out"): Pass loses, and the round is over.
Every other number does nothing to your Pass bet. Here's why the 7 is the number to watch: it can be rolled more ways than any other total.
Ways to roll each total with two dice (out of 36).
So the point is always the underdog. A 6 or 8 is made before a 7 45.5% of the time; a 5 or 9, 40%; a 4 or 10, only 33.3%. You win more often on the come-out to make up for it.
5The best bet on the table: Odds
Once there's a point, you can put more chips behind your Pass bet, on Odds. Odds pays exactly what the risk is worth, so the house has no edge on it at all (0%). It's the only kind of bet in the casino like that, and many beginners never hear about it.
| Point | Odds pays |
|---|---|
| 4 or 10 | 2:1 |
| 5 or 9 | 3:2 |
| 6 or 8 | 6:5 |
You can bet up to 3× your Pass bet on Odds. The more of your money sits on Odds instead of the Pass Line, the smaller the house's cut of your total.
Predicely tip: our table pays whole coins and rounds down, so bet Odds on a 6 or 8 in fives and on a 5 or 9 in even amounts. Then every coin of the true-odds payout reaches you.
Playing Don't Pass? Your version is laying odds: tap your Don't Pass bet again once the point is set. A 7 is now more likely than the point, so you risk more to win less: lay 2 to win 1 on a 4 or 10, 3 to win 2 on a 5 or 9, 6 to win 5 on a 6 or 8. It's also 0% house edge.
6Want more action? Place the 6 and 8
A Pass bet can sit through a lot of rolls where nothing happens. If you want more of them to count, the next-best bets are Place 6 and Place 8: each one wins if its number is rolled before a 7.
- 6 and 8 can each be rolled 5 ways, almost as many as the 7's 6.
- They pay 7:6, so the house edge is only 1.52%, about the same as the Pass Line.
- The other numbers are much worse: 4% on the 5 or 9 and 6.67% on the 4 or 10.
Predicely tip: bet the 6 and 8 in sixes (6, 12, 18…). A 6 wins 7, but a 5 only wins 5, because winnings round down.
Place bets can be taken down any time, and they don't work on a come-out roll. A 7 on the come-out wins your Pass bet without costing you your Place bets.
7How a round ends
- Point made: Pass and Odds win. The same shooter starts a new come-out.
- Seven-out: Pass, Odds and Place bets all lose, and Don't Pass wins. In an online game the dice move to the next player.
The one thing that confuses every beginner: a 7 on the come-out wins your Pass bet. A 7 after a point is set loses it. Same number, opposite result, and it all depends on whether the ON button is out.
8Your whole plan, in four lines
- Bet the Pass Line (or Don't Pass) before the come-out roll.
- When a point is set, add Odds, up to 3× your bet, in amounts that pay whole coins.
- Want more action? Place the 6 and 8, in sixes.
- Leave everything else alone until you know what it costs you.