Many people think craps is an extremely complicated game to play because there are so many different bets you can make – more than 40 different wagers! However, as a beginning craps player, you don’t have to learn all the complex betting strategies. That will come with time and experience at the game. All you really need to know is the simplest bet, called the passline bet.
Craps players take turns rolling a pair of dice and all the players place a bet on the same roll regardless of who rolls it, the person known as the shooter. The very first roll of each new round is known as the come-out roll. The passline bettor will win whenever a 7 or 11 is rolled on the come-out roll. If a 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, the passline bettor loses (those rolls are known as craps, maybe as in “oh, crap, I lost”). When any other number is rolled it is referred to as the point. The passline bettor will then win the next wager if the point number is rolled again but will lose his bet if a 7 is rolled before that.
The next two bets that a budding craps player will learn are the odds bet and the don’t pass bet. The odds bet is placed behind the passline bet and is the only bet in a casino without a house edge. Often the casinos will allow a double odds bet, which means that your odds bet can be up to twice the amount of your passline bet. If the point is 4 or 10, the odds bet will payout 2 to 1; if the point is 5 or 9, the odds bet will payout 3 to 2; and if the point is 6 or 8, the odds bet will pay out at 6 to 5.
The don’t pass bet is pretty much the direct opposite wager of the passline bet. When you bet on the come out roll with a don’t pass bet, you will win with a 2 or 3, lose on 7 or 11 and go to the point round with any other number. When playing the point round, if you had bet a don’t pass bet, you will win if a 7 comes up an lose if the point comes up.
