How to Play Craps Guide: Master the Craps Rules

People learn how to play craps because it is a fun and social dice game. Plus, the house advantage is really low for most bets.

In this guide, I will introduce you to the craps basics, and provide you a great overview of how you can maximize your winning odds.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Craps Rules: The Basics of Playing Craps Explained for Beginners

• Craps Come Out Rolls:  How Do They Work?

• Craps Bets : Key Bets You Should Make as a Complete Newbie

• Bets You Should Avoid at the Craps Table

• Expert’s Advice: How to Play Craps Like the Pros

• Practice Craps: How to Get Started with Craps and Practice Your Skills

Without further ado, let’s dive right in. 

Craps Rules: The Basics of Playing Craps Explained for Beginners

When you walk up to a casino craps table for the very first time, you’ll notice 3 casino employees on one side of the table, with one seated in the middle of the other two standing employees, with another casino floor employee standing on the opposite side of the table, with a stick in his hand. 

The two employees, on each side of the seated third employee, are called “dealers”; they make and pay off the players’ bets at each end of the table every time a bet is decided. 

The Puck

Each dealer is in charge of a three-inch circular puck, placing it on the number that has become the point when it is established. 

• The puck is white on one side, with “ON” written on it. 

• The other side of the puck is black with “OFF” written on it. 

This is so there is no doubt about when a point is established and what number is that it is established upon, as play progresses.

The Boxman

The seated employee between them is the “boxman”, who is in charge of the casino’s hoard of chips along that side of the table. 

The boxman handles buy-ins when a new player joins the table, counting the player’s money that’s been tossed onto the table. 

The boxman exchanges the buy-in money for an equal amount of chips. 

The box man also cashes in the player’s “color ups”: (when the player’s many small chips are exchanged for a few larger chips when they are ready to leave the table at the end of their play).

He also tracks each player bets on a computer, using the player’s “player card” to log them in so that each player gets comped for their play. 

The Stickman

The lone employee, on the other side of the table is called the “stickman”. 

He handles the prop bets in the center of the table for the players, telling the dealer who and how much to pay when a center table prop bet wins. 

He uses a three-foot-long limber bamboo stick that is curved on one end. He uses this stick to gather the dice after each pitch and return them to the shooter for his next shot.

The rest of many spaces around the rails on the table are available for players to occupy and play from, with their chips placed in the provided chip rail that circles the outside of the table. 

Shooting Order and Chips

Play progresses clockwise around the table with each player given the opportunity to toss the dice, if they want to, each time the previous shooter’s turn tossing the dice has ended. If they want to be the shooter, a minimum pass line or don’t pass line bet is required.

Chips that the players use to bet with and be paid off with, more correctly called “Cheques”, are color coded for different betting denominations, so that their denominations are clear at a glance. 

Your First Bets at the Table

If you are new to craps, when you are ready to start betting, just place a minimum PASS LINE bet, or DON’T PASS LINE bet and watch and wait for the outcome. 

That will allow you to get your feet wet without risking a lot of money. 

If you think the shooter is good or the table is running hot, with shooters getting long turns shooting, you’d probably want to bet the PASS LINE.

Craps Come Out Rolls:  How Do They Work?

When a new shooter gets the dice to start his turn, he will usually bet on either the pass line or on the don’t pass line.

Let’s have a look at the possible outcomes when making these pass bets:

Pass Line Bet

There are 3 possible outcomes when making the pass line bets:

1. If you start by rolling a 7 or 11, called “a natural,” before establishing a point number by rolling 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, everyone’s pass line bets win instantly.
2. If you start by rolling a 2, 3, or 12, called “CRAPS,” before establishing a point number, everyone’s pass line bets lose.
3. If you start by rolling a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, the number they rolled becomes the point number to decide all future bets.

Don’t Pass Line Bet

There are 3 possible outcomes when betting the don’t pass line:

1. If you start by rolling a 7 or 11, everyone’s Don’t Pass Line bets lose; 
2. If you start by rolling a 2, 3, or 12, everyone’s Don’t Pass Line bets win instantly.
3. If you start by rolling a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, that number becomes the point that decides all future bets.

What Happens After the Come-out Point is Established?

Everyone at the table now makes any additional bets they want to make. 

Bets made will be decided by the outcomes of future dice rolls.

If the shooter has bet the pass line bet, they then try to repeat rolling the established point number again before they roll a losing 7. 

If they do, all pass line bets win.

If the shooter has bet the don’t pass line, instead of the pass line, they try to avoid rolling the established point number again before they roll a 7. 

If they roll a 7 before rolling their point number a second time, everyone betting don’t pass line wins that bet.

The shooter’s turn shooting, after they have established a point number, may end on their second toss of the dice if they immediately toss a 7, or their turn shooting may continue for many rolls before bets are decided, and their shooting turn ends. 

Bets can be won or lost all along the way.

Craps Bets: Key Bets You Should Make as a Complete Newbie

Craps offer many different bets you can put your money on. That makes the game complicated to learn. 

My advice for newbies is to keep it simple and just make the basic pass line or don’t pass line bets starting out and maybe add some odds to those bets after the point is established.  

(At least until you’ve mastered the craps table layout)

The added odds bets pay off without the casino having any house advantage on them. Adding odds decreases the casino's total advantage over the player. 

Trying to do that usually ends badly.

Bets You Should Avoid at the Craps Table

One thing you want to be sure to do starting out is to avoid betting on any of the bad-payoff one roll bets called “prop bets” grouped in the center area of the table. 

Check out the table below:

Bet	Wins when
Any Seven	Next roll is a 2, 3 or 12
Any Craps	Next roll is a 7
Ace Deuce	Next roll is a 3
Aces	Next roll is 2
Boxcar	Next roll is a 12
Horn	Next roll is 2, 3, 11 or 12
Hard 4	You roll 2-2 pair before a 7 or 4 the easy way
Hard 6	You roll 3-3 pair before a 7 or 6 the easy way
Hard 8	You roll 4-4 pair before a 7 or 8 the easy way
Hard 10	You roll 5-5 pair before a 7 or 10 the easy way

Avoiding those prop bets means that your money will last longer and give you a better chance of catching a hot shooter and winning. 

Those proposition bets are there to separate a player, especially innocent newbies, from their money in the fastest way possible.

Expert’s Advice: How to Play Craps Like the Pros

Which shooters should you bet on with several players at the craps table? If you bet on all of them when they each take their turn shooting, your money may not last very long. It will last much longer if you pick and choose who you want to bet on as a shooter. 

I say that because some players are better shooters than those who just pick up the dice, shake them up in their hand and toss them willy-nilly down the table in a random lack of style.

Your stay at the craps table will be longer if you carefully pick only a couple of different shooters to be bet on as the dice go around the table each time. Fewer shooters bet upon means more time at the table. 

More time at the table means you still have money left to bet when that desired hot roll finally happens. 

If you’ve blown your money on the first few shooter rolls, you’ll probably already be long gone if and when that hot roll kicks in.

Practiced dice influencers stand a better chance of beating the random outcome that most shooters have. 

In craps, random favors the casino. 

Therefore, they often seem to regularly toss a lot more of the numbers they bet on than is expected to roll for random and a lot fewer losing 7’s than random. They are tossing dice sets that have worked for them in the past for winning how they are betting. 

They have occasional bad sessions just like everyone else playing craps, but a lot fewer of them. It might be a good idea to try betting on the exact numbers they are betting on when they shoot.

You can ride their shirt tails by also betting on the numbers they expect to roll the most, the ones they are betting on. 

Doing so gives you a better chance of winning on one of their good, long-lasting rolls than just betting on random shooters, who, more often than not, just produces random results. 

At craps, paying attention to what is happening at the table can give you a real advantage in how you bet.

Practice Craps: How to Train Your Skills

You can help familiarize yourself with all the betting opportunities in the game of craps by playing practice sessions on a computer or phone craps app. 

You can watch YouTube craps betting strategy videos to see how experts like to attempt increasing their chances of winning.

After seeing the results an accomplished dice-influencing shooter can have, you may also want to become a dice influencing shooter. 

How do you start?

You’ll need to:

1. Get yourself a couple of “sticks of 3/4” casino quality dice” from the internet to practice tossing. Sticks contain 5 dice. Get two different colors, so you can always put your green dice to the left of the red die before gripping and tossing them. Then you will always know what number your green left die produced for that toss and what number your right die produced. You’ll want to log all your practice tosses as Left Die, Right Die, and Total.
2. Try to duplicate a casino craps table as closely as possible. Some start with a practice rig to toss into from the proper distance they would shoot at the casino. As you get more into it, you might even want to build or buy your own craps table.
3. Try to develop a repeatable toss each time you toss the dice by developing trained muscle memory in your toss. You’ll want your toss to become automatic and repeatable.

The dice influencing theory 

Keeping your dice rotating on the axis as they go through the air, then hitting the same landing spot at the far end of the table at the same tossing speed and trajectory. 

Certain dice sets can give you fewer ways to roll a losing 7 while producing more than expected wins for the numbers you are betting than random tossing does.)

Will you succeed and become an accomplished dice setter/influencer?

Hey, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it! 

It’s a long, challenging journey that takes a lot of patience and practice. Only a few seem to stay with it long enough to succeed, but don’t let that discourage you from trying and giving it your best shot. 

There’s nothing more rewarding than going to the casino craps table knowing full well that you have a proven long-term player’s advantage over the casino. 

Good luck if you decide to give dice setting/dice influencing a go.

Final Thoughts

There you have it - the complete guide on how to play craps, step-by-step.

Now, it’s your turn. Open our free craps games collection, choose your favorite, and try out everything you’ve just learned.  

That, of course, until you decide to get your own dice and craps table to train your dice influencing abilities.

Don’t forget to read more of my guides in the Academy to take your skills even further. 

See you at the tables!