Simple Craps rules

Craps is easily the most intimidating game inthe casino. The layout looks like some kind of crazy puzzle and thereare seemingly dozens of different bets, governed by complicated rules. So we'lldo our best in this lesson to make this crash course as painless as possible.

The trick to making it easy

The trick to making craps easy is simple: Learn only what you need to know, and ignore everything else. You can play craps by knowing just one bet, the PassLine bet, so that's what we'll teach you here. You can certainly learn all the otherbets if you want (see our list of bets article), but fornow the Pass Line is all you need to know.

Buying Chips

The first thing you'll need is chips. Just put your cash down on the table andthe dealer will give you chips for it. They don't make change, so any money youput down will be turned into chips. But you don't have to bet all of it. When you'redone playing just take any chips you have left to the cashier booth to turn themback into cash. The minimum bet for the table will be listed on a sign at the table, usually $5 or less.

Shooting the Dice

The players all take turns rolling the dice although everyone's betting on the sameroll. You'll win or lose your bets whether you're the one rolling or not. And youdon't have to roll the dice if you'd rather not; when it's your turn you can justpass to someone else. Whoever's rolling, they keep rolling until they roll a losing7, known as "sevening-out". We'll go over that later.

Only the Totals matter

All numbers below refer to the total of both dice. When we talk about rollinga 3, we're never talking about getting a 3 on one of the dice, we're alwaystalking about getting a total of three on both dice. Make sure you're clearon that or it will get confusing.

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