Last post we learned the basic pass line bet in craps. Now we’re going to expand into a few other bets.
Don’t Pass:
This is the exact opposite of the Pass Line bet. If it wins, this loses and vice versa. There is one exception so that the house can keep the edge. If a 12 is rolled on the come-out roll (buck is OFF) the Pass Line bets loses but this bet doesn’t win. It doesn’t lose either, the money stays out there untouched. Otherwise the rules are directly opposite of the Pass Line bet. The comeout roll of 2 or 3 wins, 7 or 11 loses. Any other roll becomes the point and the Don’t Pass bet wants a 7 to come up before the point does.
You can take odds behind the line with a Don’t Pass bet also. Example: A point of 10 is established. The true odds of getting a 10 before a 7 are 2-to-1 against, so you have to put out $20 to win $10.
The Don’t Pass bet is rare. Craps is a very social game. Everyone wants the roller to do well, no one wants them to crap out. The Don’t Pass bet actually has slightly better odds than the Pass Line bet (1.40% to 1.41% against you), but you will be a social pariah if you make this bet.
Field Bet:
This bet only applies to the next roll of the dice. It has nothing to do with comeout rolls and points and all of that. If the next roll is 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12, you win. 2 and 12 pay double, $2 for every $1 bet. The other numbers ( 5, 6, 7, 8 ) lose. Pretty simple, eh?
Come Bet:
If you understand how the Pass Line bet works, you understand the Come bet. The only difference is when they start rolling. The Pass Line bet starts when the buck is OFF, on the comeout roll. The Come bet starts at any other time. The Come bet is actually the exact same bet as the Pass Line bet, but shifted in time, so for just that Come bet, the next roll is treated as the comeout roll. It’s like saying to the casino staff, “Hey, I missed the come out roll. Can I put some money out and we’ll all pretend the next roll is the comeout roll? Yeah, just for this bet. C’mon, pretending is fun!”
The Come bet can also have odds behind the line, and there is a Don’t Come bet also. Everything works exactly like their equivalent bets. The only difference is the shift in the sequence of dice rolls, all the rules are the exact same.
Example: It is the comeout roll. No Come bets are allowed. An 8 is rolled. The 8 is the point. You put down a come bet. An 11 is rolled. For your Come bet it was the comeout roll, so this is a win. It has no effect on the pass line bet (because only an 8 or a 7 matter for the pass line bet). You put down another Come bet. A 7 is rolled. Your Come bet won, and all the pass line bets lose.
I love the Come bet. It’s hard to understand initially but once you get it, it’s extremely easy, it’s a good bet, you can make awful sex puns, and you look like a sophisticated player.
In my opinion, you should stop there. “Placing” on the 6 and 8 is also a very reasonable bet, but everyone who does that starts putting action on the other numbers and those are bad bets.
Congratulations. Now get out there and win some money lose money slower!
Wow, thanks so much for posting this! It is gonna help when I go to the casino next time! So Beautiful!
I use Wagar’s second approach. Roll them hard. If they bounce into someone’s chips, so be it.
Ole, this post actually got a lot of traffic. People do Google searches for “How to Play Craps” and ended up here.
amusing post by wagar. i actually will be “don’t pass” on people whose rolling style i don’t like. muttrox must be running low on topics to post on craps. craps is my fav. game. i don’t know anyone who learned to play craps by reading the rules. only way to learn is to play with a friend who know what they are doing, follow same betting pattern, and get explained – on the job training. otherwise, too intimidating to go in cold w/o being w/someone. if you play craps by the book, it’s the best odds vs. the house.
I think rolling the dice in craps is surprisingly hard. Particularly if you are standing all the way at the end. The house encourages rolls that hit the back wall — I guess that way any miniscule chance that I had to fix the dice to roll a certain number go out the window, as it adds a random bounce to the dice. So getting the dice to the back wall from one end of the table to the other is not easy. You can always tell the seasoned vets because they can casually lob the dice up in the air, have them short-hop the wall, and stop right there — like Tiger Woods plopping a ball with a sand wedge onto the green and having it spin to a stop. I’m not going to try “the lob”, because God knows where the dice would end up. Probably on the floor, or in the mobster-looking guy’s scotch-on-the-rocks. The alternative is to roll them like you’d roll dice on a Monopoly board. i.e. just roll them along the table, but hard enough so that they will eventually hit the back wall. This too is surprisingly hard, as the dice have sharp edges and corners, and bounce in unusual directions at times. So what happens in this scenario? I end up knocking over bets, people’s chip piles, and bruising other people’s knuckles. Not to mention getting dirty looks from the gallery — “damn rookie…”. Ah, screw it. Maybe I’ll just go over to the blackjack table and let the house take my money in mere moments rather than delaying the inevitable through craps.