If you walk through any major casino, you can always hear one specific table that is significantly louder and more crowded than blackjack or roulette. Players are yelling and celebrating as the dice bounce down the green felt. This chaotic scene is the game of Craps. To a complete beginner, the craps table looks like an impossible mathematical nightmare. The felt is covered in weird text, complex jargon being yelled by the dealers. However, this is actually a massive illusion. While it looks complex, craps is actually one of the simplest, and most profitable games on the floor. If you can ignore the noise and learn one single bet, you can join the fun.

The Pass Line Bet: How the Game Starts

The secret for a beginner to learn how to play craps is to ignore all the crazy bets in the middle. All those fancy boxes and strange words are terrible traps designed specifically to drain your bankroll. You only need to look at the long line that wraps around the entire edge of the table: the Pass Line bet. Making a Pass Line bet is the fundamental core of the entire game. When a new shooter gets the dice, the person rolling the dice (the "Shooter") makes their very first throw, which is called the "Come-Out Roll". If you have a bet on the Pass Line, you instantly win even money if the dice total 7 or 11. You instantly lose your bet if a 2, 3, or 12 is rolled. The math is that basic: 7 or 11 wins, 2, 3, or 12 loses.

Establishing the Point: Chasing the Point

But what about the other numbers? If the result is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, that number is now the Point. The pit boss takes a marker and places it directly onto that specific number on the table layout. The rules of the game now completely change. To win your Pass Line bet, the shooter must roll the dice again and again until they roll the Point again. If the Point hits, you win. Here is the danger: if the shooter rolls a 7 before they hit the Point, this is a "Seven Out". You lose your bet, the game resets, and a new shooter takes the dice. The entire excitement is a group effort trying to avoid the 7.

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• Taking Odds: After the Point is set, you can place an 'Odds' bet behind your chips. This is called "Taking Odds," and it is literally the only bet in the entire casino with absolutely zero house edge. The house has no advantage here.
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• Don't Pass Line: You can bet that the table will lose. This is betting on the 7, or when the shooter sevens out. It is technically a smarter bet, but nobody will high-five you since you win when the table loses.
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• Avoid the Center of the Table: All the bets in the middle of the table (like 'Any Craps', 'Hard 8', or 'Snake Eyes') are sucker bets that will drain your cash. Do not touch those bets.
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Simplifying the Math: How the Pass Line Works

To make your very first trip to the craps table, to guarantee you know what to do, memorize this table. It explains the basic rules of the fundamental craps bet: the Pass Line.

In conclusion, do not let the loud table intimidate you. The casino purposefully designs the table layout to look incredibly complex and confusing so that amateur players will guess and lose their money. By simply walking up, placing your chips exclusively on the Pass Line, taking your odds, and completely ignoring the screaming center of the board, you are playing a nearly even game game available. Roll the dice, and have the best casino experience in the world.