Dice Games: Craps Rules and Craps Odds

Craps

When you hear players cheering noisily together in a casino, the chances are they are playing at a craps table. Craps is the name given to a popular dice game widely played as a gambling sport. It is an exciting, fast-paced game. Unlike many forms of gambling that set players against one another, in craps you are often rooting for your fellow players to win.

Craps Rules

Craps is a game of throwing dice. Two dice are used. Your objective is to guess what number combination the dice will make. Players take turns throwing the dice. Whoever is throwing the dice is known as the shooter.

Players can bet for or against the shooter. If you bet on the shooter to pass the line, you are hoping for a 7 or 11 combination. And if the dice yield either total, both the shooter and everyone who bets for him or her also wins. If you bet on a don't pass line, you are hoping for the shooter to lose by throwing a 2, 3 or 12.

If the dice produce any other number combination, that total becomes a passline point. The shooter must roll that number again in order to win. He or she must keep rolling the dice until either the point number or a 7 is rolled. If a 7 comes up, the shooter loses. Either way, the point number is settled and another player must roll the dice.

Craps Odds

Craps odds aren't as hard to figure out as those of other games. There are just two dice with numbers 1-6 on each. So that gives 11 possible totals and 36 possible combinations (the same total can be made in different ways, e.g. 7 = 3 + 4, 4 +3, 2 + 5, 5 + 2, etc.).

Not all craps bets are equal. Thus some bets have higher payoffs than others. However don't forget that the casino does not pay at true odds. It always pays less than that or it would make no money.

Below is a table of craps odds. The payoffs for craps bets are always less than the true odds shown below.

Craps Odds

Total Possible Ways Probability to Make Total 2 1 35 to 1 3 2 17 to 1 4 3 11 to 1 5 4 8 to 1 6 5 6.2 to 1 7 6 5 to 1 8 5 6.2 to 1 9 4 8 to 1 10 3 11 to 1 11 2 17 to 1 12 1 35 to 1