Craps Rules

How a craps round actually works: the come-out roll, points, the layout explained section by section, and the sequence of a shooter's turn from first roll to seven-out.

Updated September 2026 · how these numbers are calculated

Craps looks impenetrable because a busy table has forty bets working at once and its own vocabulary. The underlying game takes about two minutes to learn: someone throws two dice, and a small number of numbers matter.

The core sequence

A shooter rolls two dice. The round has two phases.

Come-out roll

The first roll of a round. The puck on the table reads OFF.

Roll	Result
7 or 11 — a natural	Pass line wins, don’t pass loses
2, 3 or 12 — craps	Pass line loses. Don’t pass wins on 2 and 3; 12 is a push
4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10	That number becomes the point; the round continues

The 12 pushing on don’t pass is not decoration — it is exactly what stops the don’t pass bet from being a positive-expectation bet for the player.

Point phase

The puck flips to ON and moves to the point number. The shooter now rolls repeatedly until one of two things happens:

The point repeats → pass line wins, round ends, same shooter starts a new come-out
A 7 appears → seven-out. Pass line loses, most bets are collected, dice pass to the next player clockwise

Nothing else ends the round. A shooter may roll for two minutes or forty.

Why the pass line loses more than it wins

There are 36 combinations of two dice. The distribution is the whole game:

Total	Ways	Probability
2	1	2.78%
3	2	5.56%
4	3	8.33%
5	4	11.11%
6	5	13.89%
7	6	16.67%
8	5	13.89%
9	4	11.11%
10	3	8.33%
11	2	5.56%
12	1	2.78%

Seven is the most common roll. That is why it wins on the come-out and kills you afterwards, and why every point number is harder to hit than the seven that ends it. A point of 6 has five ways; the seven has six. You are the underdog on every point, always.

Working it through: the pass line wins 244 times in 495, or 49.29%, for a house edge of 1.41%.

The layout

Both ends of the table are identical mirror images — two dealers work two halves of the same crowd. The middle belongs to the stickman.

Along the outer edge — Pass Line. The long bar running the length of your side. Bet before the come-out.

Just inside it — Don’t Pass Bar. Marked “Bar 12” or “Bar 6-6”, denoting the push.

Behind your pass line bet — the Odds. No printed box. You place chips directly behind your flat bet, and it is the only bet on the table with zero house edge.

COME and DON’T COME. Large boxes in the middle of your section. Identical to pass/don’t pass, but placed after a point is established, creating your own personal point.

The point boxes — 4 5 SIX 8 NINE 10. Along the top. The puck sits here. Place bets are made by handing chips to the dealer and naming the number.

The FIELD. A wide box in front of you covering 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12. A one-roll bet. Self-service — you place it yourself.

BIG 6 / BIG 8. Corner boxes. Ignore them entirely: they pay even money for a bet that should pay 7:6, giving up 9.09% against the 1.52% of the equivalent place bet.

The centre — proposition bets. Hardways and one-roll bets, controlled by the stickman, in the loudest part of the table with the largest edges. Between 9% and 17%.

The geography is not accidental. The cheapest bets are at the edges where you place them yourself; the most expensive are in the middle where someone shouts about them.

A round, start to finish

Buy in — place cash on the felt, never in the dealer’s hand. Say nothing; the dealer will count it and slide chips back.
Place a pass line bet before the come-out.
Shooter rolls 9. The puck flips ON to the 9.
Place odds behind the pass line — up to 4× the flat bet on a 9 in a 3-4-5× game.
Shooter rolls 4, 8, 6, 11 — nothing happens to your bets.
Shooter rolls 9. Pass line pays even money; the odds pay 3:2. Round ends.
Same shooter begins a new come-out.

That is craps. Everything else is optional.

Etiquette

Keep your hands out of the landing area. Dice hitting a hand is the one thing that genuinely annoys a craps table.
Both dice must hit the far wall or the roll may be waved off.
Do not say “seven” while a point is on. Nobody believes it matters; everybody minds.
Late bets — if the stickman has pushed the dice out, wait for the next roll.
Buy in and colour up between rolls, not during.

Craps odds and payouts — every bet on the layout, priced
The bets worth making — the short list

FAQ

What happens when the shooter rolls a 7?

It depends on when. On the come-out roll a 7 wins for the pass line. Once a point is established, a 7 is a seven-out: pass line bets lose, most bets on the table are collected, and the dice pass to the next shooter.

Do I have to roll the dice?

No. When the stickman offers you the dice you can decline and they pass to the next player. Betting and shooting are unrelated — you can bet on every roll for hours without ever touching the dice.

Why does everyone groan when someone bets don't pass?

Because the don't pass bettor wins when the table loses. It is entirely legitimate and carries a slightly lower house edge than the pass line, but you are betting against the other players' outcomes, and craps is a social game. Some players simply do not care.

What is the minimum I need to play?

The table minimum for a pass line bet, plus enough to back it with odds. The odds bet is where the value is, so a $10 table with 3-4-5x odds realistically wants $10 flat plus up to $50 behind on a point of 6 or 8.