Craps
The most intimidating layout in the building hides the friendliest math. Four bets on this table are worth making; the other forty exist to punish curiosity.
By The Lucky's Desk · Published · Updated
How a round works
Craps is two games stapled together. The first is the come-out roll; the second is everything after it.
On the come-out, with a bet on the pass line:
- 7 or 11 — pass line wins immediately, paid 1:1.
- 2, 3 or 12 — "craps," pass line loses immediately.
- 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 — that number becomes the point.
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps rolling. Roll the point again before a seven appears and the pass line wins. Roll a seven first — "seven out" — and the pass line loses, the dice pass to the next shooter, and the table goes quiet for a second.
Everything else on that enormous felt is a side bet layered on top of this simple loop.
A full round, roll by roll
You put $100 on the pass line. Come-out roll: five and four — nine. Nine is now the point.
Here is the move most players at the table never learn. Behind your pass line bet you may now place a free odds bet, and that bet is paid at true odds with no house edge at all. On a point of nine there are four ways to make nine (4-5, 5-4, 3-6, 6-3) and six ways to make seven, so true odds are 3:2. You put $300 behind the line at 3x odds.
Next rolls: eight (nothing), six (nothing), eleven (nothing — eleven only pays on the come-out), four and five — nine. Point made.
Your pass line $100 pays 1:1 for $100. Your $300 odds bet pays 3:2 for $450. Total profit: $550 on $400 at risk, and the larger part of it came from a wager the house makes zero on.
Now the other ending. Same setup, and the roll after the six is a three and four. Seven out. You lose $400. That is craps — the swing is real, and it arrives without warning.
Every bet worth knowing
| Bet | Pays | House edge | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass line | 1:1 | 1.41% | Make it |
| Don't pass | 1:1 | 1.36% | Marginally better, socially worse |
| Come / Don't come | 1:1 | 1.41% / 1.36% | Make it |
| Free odds behind the line | True odds | 0.00% | The best bet in any casino |
| Place 6 or 8 | 7:6 | 1.52% | Acceptable |
| Place 5 or 9 | 7:5 | 4.00% | Skip |
| Place 4 or 10 | 9:5 | 6.67% | Skip |
| Field (2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12) | 1:1, 2:1 ends | 5.56% | Skip |
| Hard 6 or hard 8 | 9:1 | 9.09% | Entertainment tax |
| Hard 4 or hard 10 | 7:1 | 11.11% | Entertainment tax |
| Any 7 | 4:1 | 16.67% | Worst bet on the table |
The free odds bet, in detail
No other wager in a casino has a house edge of zero. Free odds pays exactly what the dice justify:
- Point of 4 or 10 — pays 2:1 (three ways to make it, six ways to seven out).
- Point of 5 or 9 — pays 3:2 (four ways versus six).
- Point of 6 or 8 — pays 6:5 (five ways versus six).
Because the odds bet is free, the way to lower your overall cost is to keep the flat pass line bet small and put as much as the table allows behind it. A $10 pass line with $30 in odds has a blended edge of about 0.37% across the $40 total — comparable to perfect blackjack, and you do not have to memorise anything to get it.
The catch, and it is a real one: the odds bet is only available after a point is set, and it multiplies your exposure. Low edge is not low risk.
Where the 1.41% comes from
Out of 36 equally likely two-dice combinations, the pass line wins immediately on 7 or 11 (8 combinations) and loses immediately on 2, 3 or 12 (4 combinations). The remaining 24 set a point, and each point then resolves at its own probability. Summing the whole tree gives 244 wins out of every 495 decisions — a 49.29% win rate on an even-money bet. Double the gap from 50% and you get the familiar 1.41%.
Don't pass wins 949 out of 1,925 decisions for a 1.36% edge, slightly better because the come-out twelve pushes instead of paying. It is mathematically superior and it means betting against everyone else at the table, which at a live game is a decision about the evening, not about the math.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Ignoring the odds bet. Most new players never place it because nothing on the felt is labelled for it. It is the single largest edge reduction available anywhere in a casino.
- Living in the middle of the layout. Hardways and one-roll props are where 9% to 17% edges live. They pay loudly and rarely, which is the point.
- Believing in the shooter. A shooter on a twenty-minute roll was lucky, not skilled. The dice do not know who is holding them.
- Over-committing on the come-out. Spreading across come bets and place numbers puts a large fraction of your bankroll on the table when the seven finally shows up, and it takes all of it.
How our table differs from a real casino
The dice are a clean uniform random draw and the payouts match a standard 3-4-5x odds Vegas table. What we compress is time: a live craps round can run twenty minutes, which does not suit a game with a clock counting down to sunrise. Our rounds resolve faster, and the table locks while a point is live so you cannot walk away mid-roll when the numbers turn against you.
Craps is also the loudest table in the building in narrative terms. A long hot roll draws a crowd, and a crowd draws attention. Winning big here moves Suspicion faster than anywhere except the back room.
Common questions
What should a beginner bet?
Pass line, then maximum free odds behind it. That is the entire strategy and it beats every other approach at the table.
Can a shooter influence the dice?
Controlled throwing has never been demonstrated to beat the house edge in any rigorous test, and it certainly does nothing here.
Why did my field bet lose on a seven?
The field covers 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 — it deliberately omits the most common roll in the game. That omission is the 5.56%.
Is don't pass really better?
By 0.05%. Statistically yes, practically negligible, and you will be the only person at the table cheering for a seven.
See how 1.41% compares across the floor on the house edge page.