• When offered the dice to shoot, a player may pass the dice to the next player without fear of offending anyone; however, keep in mind that at least one player must always be a “shooter” betting on either the pass line or don’t pass line for the game to continue.
• Players are encouraged to tip the dealers, especially if they are winning. The most common way to tip is simply to toss chips onto the table and say “for the boys.” (This is considered acceptable even though dealers often are women). Another method is to place a bet next to your bet and call out “dealers.” A “two-way” bet is one that is part for the player and part for the dealers. Usually, the dealers’ bet is smaller than the player’s bet, but it is appreciated. The part of the bet for the dealer is called a “toke” bet; this is from the $1 slot machine coins or tokens that are sometimes used to place bets for the dealers in a casino. Most casinos require the dealers to pick up their winning bets, including the original tip, rather than “let it ride” as the player may choose to do.
• After the come-out roll, it is considered bad luck to say the word “seven.” This may offend other players. A common “nickname” for this number is “Big Red”.
• It is considered bad luck to change dice in the middle of a roll.
• Center bets are made by tossing chips to the center of the table and calling out the intended bet; the stickman will then place the chips correctly for you.
• It is not considered rude to correct a dealer that you feel has made an error. Mistakes happen and disputes are often resolved to the player’s benefit, mainly in the interest of keeping their business.
• It is considered rude to “late bet,” or make wagers while the dice are no longer in the middle of the table. While entirely permissible, excessive late betting will generally garner a warning.
• Food, drinks, and other items should remain off the chip rail.
• Players feel it is bad luck for the shooter to leave the table after a successful come-out roll.
• It is considered very bad etiquette to allow the dice to hit your hands. More often than you would imagine, this seems to result in the shooter “sevening out” and the offender noticing glaring looks and mumbling curses from the other players. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to when the stickman will say “hands high, let ‘em fly”.

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• Players are not supposed to handle the dice with more than one hand, pass them directly from hand to hand, nor take the dice past the edge of the table. The only way to change hands when throwing dice, if permitted at all, is to set the dice on the table, let go, then take them with the other hand.
• When throwing the dice, the player is expected to hit the farthest wall at the opposite end of the table. The dice may not be slid across the table and must be tossed. They may not be thrown higher than the eye level of the dealers.
• The dice must not land in the boxman’s bank or on any of the dealers’ working stacks of money.
• When either of the dice land on chips or markers not in the boxman’s bank or the dealers’ working stacks, the number that would be on top if the object the die is leaning on were removed, is the number that is used to make the call.
• If a die hits a player or dealer and rolls back onto the table, the roll counts as long as the person being hit did not interfere with the die.
• In most cases the shooter may “set” the dice to a particular configuration, but if they do, they must be quick about it so as not to delay the game. Some casinos have “no setting” rules, and the player must throw the dice as given to him.
• Do not try to place money in the dealer’s hand or expect the dealers to hand you chips. Dealers are not allowed to touch the players at any time. Players are expected to place cash on the layout and announce “change only” or a specific bet and amount. The dealer will then place chips on the layout or in front of the players.
• Many crap table layouts state “NO CALL BETS”. This means a player is not allowed to call out a bet without having at least the bet amount of chips on the table. If the chips exceed the bet, for example a $100 chip is placed and bets called out of “$25 on five and nine”, the dealer will say “it’s a bet” and return $50 change to the player. The dealer doesn’t have to actually place the bet in the proper place on the table to constitute a valid bet. This method is consistent with the fast action of the game, allowing a player to make a last-second bet while the dice are about to be thrown. The NO CALL BET rule may exist to prevent confusion on the amount bet, possibly going back to the days of 25 cent tables. For example “three fifty” could mean $3.50 or $350. If the dealer is not clear about the intention of the player he may state “no bet” and push the chips back to the player.

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Standard layout for craps (without Big 6/8)

Players can place or buy individual numbers (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) by placing their wager in the come area and telling the dealer, “place the 6″ or “buy the 8″. Both are bets that the number will be rolled before a 7. Place bets are paid at odds slightly worse than true odds for the 6 or 8, but significantly worse for the 4, 5, 9 or 10.

Buying the number results in a payoff at the true odds, but requires a 5% commission to be paid to the casino. Traditionally, the buy bet commission is paid no matter what, but in recent years a number of casinos have changed their policy to charge the commission only when the buy bet wins. This change significantly reduces the house advantage, especially on the 4 and 10, where the effective advantage is reduced by two-thirds because the bet wins one third of the time; this reduces the house advantage to 1.67%, making the buy-4 or buy-10 one of the game’s better bets. This policy is in effect at most casinos in Mississippi, and an increasing number in Las Vegas.

The commission is paid at the rate of a $1 chip for every $20 wagered, but casinos usually charge only $1 for a $25 green-chip bet, or $2 for $50 (two green chips), reducing the house advantage a bit more. Where commission is charged only on wins, the commission is sometimes deducted from the winning payoff — a winning $25 buy bet on the 10 would pay $49, for instance.

A lay bet is the opposite of a buy bet, where a player bets on a 7 to roll before the number that is “laid.” Bets are made in increments of $24 when laying the 6 or 8, $30 when laying the 5 or 9, and $40 when laying the 4 or 10; a $1 commission is charged for each of these increments. Again, the tradition is to charge this commission win or lose, but casinos may opt to charge it only when the bet wins; this is less of an advantage for the player, since the bet wins more often than it loses. Most lay bets are on the 4 or 10.

Examples of basic play

• Example 1:

Let’s say you put $10 on the pass line. On your come-out roll you get an 11, so you win $10. The game now starts over, with a new come-out roll. You roll a 9, which becomes the point. You decide to bet $10 on the come line before your next roll. On your next roll you get a 6, which is now the point you need to hit in order to win your $10 come bet. Your next roll is a 9, which is the point you needed to hit to win your pass line bet, meaning you just won another $10. You bet $10 on the pass line again, and your new come-out roll is a 7. You win $10 for your pass line bet, but lost the $10 you had previously bet on the come line.

• Example 2:

This time you decide to bet on the don’t pass line. You roll a 4, which becomes the point. You bet $10 on the don’t come line, and your next roll is a 7. You lose your don’t come bet, and win your don’t pass bet, so you just broke even. Since you just sevened-out, the player to your left becomes the new shooter.

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Note: Individual casinos may pay some of these bets at different odds than those listed below. The payoff odds listed are the most common throughout North American casinos. Actual odds, of course, do not vary.

Proposition bets are generally located in the center of a craps table, and often pay off at high odds but with a significantly higher house advantage.

One roll bets that the shooter will make an 11, or “yo” (pays 15-1, actual odds 17-1); 3, or “ace-deuce” (15-1, actual 17-1); 2, or “snake eyes” (30-1, actual 35-1); and 12, “box cars” or “midnight” (30-1, actual 35-1). A “hi-lo” is a combination bet on 2 or 12, paying 15-1 (actual odds 17-1); the stickman places this bet on the line dividing the 2 and 12 bets.

Bets that a shooter will make a hardway number such as 4-4 (before throwing a 7 or an 8 the easy way such as 6-2 or 5-3). The hard 4 (2-2) and hard 10 (5-5) pay off at 7-1 odds (actual odds 8-1), and the hard 6 (3-3) and hard 8 (4-4) pay off at 9-1 odds (actual odds 10-1).

The Horn is a bet that involves betting on 1 unit each for 2, 3, 11 and 12 at the same time for the next roll. The bet is actually four separate bets, and pays off depending on which number is actually rolled, minus three units for the other three losing bets. Most players do a “Horn High” bet which involves betting an additional $1 on one of the 4 choices, with the most frequent being a $5 “horn high yo” bet (which means $2 on the 11, $1 each on 2, 3 & 12).

A hop bet is a bet on any combination of the dice on the next roll. For example, hard 8 on the hop pays 30-1 (actual odds 35-1) if two fours appear on the dice on the next roll only. “Easy” combinations may also be bet, such as a 3-5 or 4-6, paying off at 15-1 odds (actual odds 17-1). On most craps tables, hop bets do not have a designated space on the layout; instead, they are kept in front of the boxman, often with a “hop” marker placed on top of the chips.

Craps is a bet that the shooter will roll 2, 3 or 12 on the next roll. The true odds are 8-1 and the casino pays 7-1.

C & E is actually two bets. A player is betting one unit on craps and another unit on 11. One of the two bets will always lose, and the other will pay off as above.

Any Seven is a bet that the shooter will roll a seven on the next roll. The true odds are 5-1 and the casino pays 4-1. This bet is also nicknamed “Big Red,” since the “7″ on its betting space on the layout is usually large and red.

A whirl or world bet is a five-unit bet that is a combination of a horn and any-seven bet. The bet is effectively a push if a 7 rolls, since the 4-1 payoff on the any-seven bet is offset by the other four losing bets.

The field bet is a wager that one of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 will appear on the next roll of the dice. This bet pays 2-1 on the 2 or 12 and even money on the others; many casinos will instead pay 3-1 on the 2 or 12. The house advantage is slightly more than 5%, reduced to 2.7% when the 2 or 12 pays 3-1. This bet is located in a box between the don’t pass line and the come box. Unlike the other proposition bets which are handled by the dealers or stickman, the field bet is placed directly by the player.

The Big 6 and Big 8 wagers are considered by craps players as sucker bets because they pay even money while a player can bet on the same proposition (a 6 will be rolled before a 7) by placing the 6 or the 8, which pays 7-6 (true odds are 6-5). Veteran craps players avoid these bets, and some casinos (particularly those in Atlantic City) do not even offer them. These are located in the corners behind the pass line, and bets are placed directly by players.

Most of these bets are very costly and disadvantageous to the player, because the house percentage on these bets can be 11.1% and up. Knowledgeable craps players often restrict their action to either the pass line or don’t pass line with full odds. More aggressive players can also bet on the Come/Don’t Come with full odds which is statistically identical to the pass/don’t pass bet.

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If a 4,5,6,8,9, or 10 is thrown on the come-out roll (i.e., if a point is set), most casinos allow pass line bettors to take odds by placing from one to five times (and at some casinos, up to 100 times) the pass line bet behind the line. This additional bet wins if the point is rolled again before a 7 is rolled (the point is made) and pays at the true odds, 2-to-1 if 4 or 10 is the point, 3-to-2 if 5 or 9 is the point, and 6-to-5 if 6 or 8 is the point. While the house has a small (1.4%) advantage on pass line bets, the house has no advantage at all on odds bets. Therefore, taking the maximum odds (which vary by casino) can lower the house percentage for any given bet down to as low as 0.5%.

Odds bets in craps are one of the few bets offered at a casino that are completely free of any house advantage. Another such bet is the “double-up” option offered to the player in some forms of video poker after winning a hand.

Let’s see why that is. There are 36 possible permutations (ways to roll a pair of 6-sided dice):

          1-1              = 1 way to make a 2
        1-2 2-1            = 2 ways to make a 3
      1-3 2-2 3-1          = 3 ways to make a 4, true odds pays 2-1
    1-4 2-3 3-2 4-1        = 4 ways to make a 5, true odds pays 3-2
  1-5 2-4 3-3 4-2 5-1      = 5 ways to make a 6, true odds pays 6-5
1-6 2-5 3-4 4-3 5-2 6-1    = 6 ways to make a 7
  2-6 3-5 4-4 5-3 6-2      = 5 ways to make an 8, true odds pays 6-5
    3-6 4-5 5-4 6-3        = 4 ways to make a 9, true odds pays 3-2
      4-6 5-5 6-4          = 3 ways to make a 10, true odds pays 2-1
        5-6 6-5            = 2 ways to make an 11
          6-6              = 1 way to make a 12

There are a total of 36 possible combinations. So on the come-out roll there are 8 ways to win, 4 ways to lose and (36-12=) 24 ways to start a point.

The odds of making the point are the ratio of the number of ways to make a 7 to the number of ways to make the point. For example, there are five ways to make a 6 or 8, so the odds of making a point of 6 or 8 are 6-5. Therefore an odds bet of $5 on 6 or 8 pays out $6.

Many experienced craps players only make pass line and odds bets since the odds are much more favorable to the player than any other bets in craps, and in fact most casino games. The pass line and odds bet is one of the best wagers you can make in gambling, and a lot of the excitement and fortunes of craps can be experienced with this simple bet.

The rules for the come wagers are the same as for the pass line except that they can only be made after the come-out roll. Effectively, they represent starting a new game using the same stream of numbers being generated by the existing (pass line) game.

Because of the come bet, if the shooter makes their point, a player can find themselves in the situation where they have a come bet with odds on it, and yet be rooting for the shooter to roll a 7 on their next come-out roll. Because of this, it is usual that odds bets on come wagers are presumed to be not working. That means that if the shooter rolls a 7 on the come-out roll, any players with active come bets lose their initial wager but will have their odds money returned to them, unless they tell the dealer that they want their odds working. Conversely, if the shooter rolls a number that matches an active come bet, the original bet is paid off at even money and the odds money is returned to the player (unless they told the dealer that they wanted their odds working, in which case they are paid at the true odds).

There is also a don’t come box in which one can place bets that the dice will not pass on the next sequence starting with the immediate roll as a virtual come-out roll; even the shooter may bet that he or she will miss out. Don’t pass and don’t come bets are basically the opposite of pass and come bets; the player is betting that a 7 will be rolled before the point. On the come-out roll a 7 or an 11 is a loss, whereas a 2, 3, or 12 is a win. Casino craps layouts bar either 2 or 12 on the don’t pass and don’t come bets. This means that if 2 is barred and the shooter rolls a 2 on the come-out roll, the wager is a stand off and the player’s money is returned.

When betting against the shooter, the bettor must put up the long side of the bet. Thus a don’t pass bettor who bets $10 when the point is a 4 could place an odds bet of $20 behind the line. If the shooter rolls a 7 before achieving their point, the bettor would receive $10 for the don’t pass bet plus $10 for their odds bet. Even though the house advantage on the don’t pass and don’t come bets are almost identical to the pass line and come bets, for most players the disadvantage of putting up the long side of the bet makes the don’t pass line less desirable. Additionally, many craps players consider don’t pass and don’t come bets to be in poor taste, or even “taboo”.

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Craps (previously known as crabs) is a casino dice game, which is especially popular in the USA. Craps is a simplification of the Old English game hazard. Players wager money against the casino on the outcome of one roll, or of a series of rolls of two dice.

Craps can also be played in less formal settings and is said to be popular among soldiers. In such situations side bets are less frequent, with one or several participants covering or “fading” bets against the dice.

The players take turns rolling the dice, and they all bet on the same roll, regardless of who is rolling. The player rolling the dice is called the shooter. The first roll of a new round is called the “come-out roll.” All bets are based on the total of both dice together, or on the specific combination of the roll.

Craps features a plethora of bets, but the most fundamental is the “pass line” wager, which nearly all players make. On a come-out roll, the pass line bettors win when either a 7 or 11 is rolled. A 2, 3, or 12 loses, and is called “craps”. When any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10) is rolled it’s called the point. Once a point has been set, the pass-line bettor wins if the point is rolled again, and loses if a 7 is rolled first (“seven-out”). After a seven-out the dice pass to the next shooter for a new come-out roll.

The opposite of a pass line bet is the “don’t pass” bet, which wins on a come-out roll of 2 or 3, loses on 7 or 11, ties on 12, and goes to the point round when any other number is rolled. In the point round the don’t pass bet wins if a 7 is rolled and loses if the point is rolled. People who bet on the don’t pass are called wrong bettors, while those who bet on the pass are called right bettors, only because most craps players make the pass line bet instead of the don’t pass bet.

A casino craps table is run by four casino employees: a boxman who guards the chips, supervises the dealers and handles coloring out players; two base dealers who stand to either side of the boxman and collect and pay bets; and a stickman who stands directly across the table from the boxman and announces the results of each roll and then collects the dice with an elongated wooden stick. He is also in charge of managing the bets made on the center of the table (hardways, yo, horn, etc). For clarity, the number 11 is referred to as “yo” so as not to be confused with the number 7.

A new shooter, who must bet the table minimum on either the pass line or the don’t pass line to play, is presented five dice by the stickman and picks two.

The dealers will usually insist that the shooter roll with one hand and that the dice bounce off the wall surrounding the table. These requirements are meant to retard cheating attempts by players switching the dice or making a “controlled shot.” If a die leaves the table, the shooter will usually be asked to select another die from the remaining three but can request using the same die if it passes the boxman’s inspection. This requirement is used in an effort to reduce cheating the game by players substituting loaded dice for the regulation dice.

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Cosmic Wimpout is a deceptively simple, user extensible game combining chance and skill. The game promotes wisdom, fun, and fellowship; and many Cosmic Wimpout afficianados believe that long term playing of the game can eventually unlock the secrets of the universe.

It is played with 5 six-sided cubes displaying assorted arcane symbols. An optional combination score board and rolling surface, in the form of a piece of cloth or felt available in various colors and designs, may also be used. Players supply their own game piece for score keeping.

The origins of the game are shrowded in the mists of time, but it continues to be manufactured and distributed by a small group of friends. Possibly based on Pig and/or Zonk, Cosmic Wimpout was introduced in the 1970s and has often been associated with the Berkeley, Grateful Dead, and other free-form subcultures.

The annual tournament currently takes place at the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Links

• Official site of Cosmic Wimpout
• Pilgrimage to the Cosmic Clubhouse
• Cosmic Wimpout Clearinghouse
• Cosmic Wimpout FAQ
• Analysis of TL Wimpout – Mathematical analysis of Cosmic Wimpout and a 3-cube variant
• Some rules variations

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The game is sometimes used as a fundraiser for charity, but the odds of coming away with more money than originally put in are quite small.

A version of the Big Six wheel is loosely based on chuck-a-luck, with various combinations of three dice appearing in 54 slots on a spinning wheel. Because of the distribution of the combinations, the house advantage for this wheel is even worse than chuck-a-luck.

Links

• Chuck-a-Luck page

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Depending on the situation, the dealer will sometimes act as the house, collecting all losing bets. But more often, the players will bet against each other (this requires an equal number of players betting on odd and even) and the house will collect a set percentage off winning bets.

The game was a mainstay of the bakuto, itinerant gamblers in old Japan, and is still played by the modern yakuza. In a traditional Cho-Han setting, players sit on a tatami floor. The dealer sits in the formal seiza position and is often shirtless (to prevent accusations of cheating), exposing his elaborate tattoos.

Many Japanese films, especially chambara and yakuza movies, have Cho-Han scenes. The character Zatoichi is a noted fan of the game.

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Chingona is a dice game played by two or more players, using five poker dice and a cup. It is usually played to decide who is to pay for the next round of drinks, but betting can also be involved.

Link

• Rules of Chingona