Learn to Play Craps

Male: Life’s a gamble. You’re watching the Players Network. I’m a player, aren't we all?

Brian Tracey: Welcome back everybody to the Players World Casino Night Club where everybody is a player and tonight everybody is learning how to play Craps. I'm Brian Tracey.

Dana West: And I’m Dana West. Listen to those folks down there. They are just winning big time money. The slots are hitting, they’re nailing Blackjacks. These guys are pumped up on pure oxygen.

Brian Tracey: Alright. Now, let me get this straight, what you're telling me is a bit there isn't anybody down there that’s afraid of playing craps?

Dana West: Not anymore because they learn the pass line bet is one of the best odds in the casino. So our entrapment reporter Robert Nash is going to tell us about this game that’s based on something that’s been around since the dawn of mankind, dice.

Male: Thousands of years ago upon the banks of the mighty Nile, civilizations rose and fell. Little remains of these ancient Egyptian kingdoms but in a tomb dating to 1573 B.C. some strange items of ivory were found. What are these immortal artifacts tossed across the lay out of history?

Yes. Throughout the ages mankind has always tossed dice. Ajax and Achilles played dice between battles. Venus even rolled the bones with a goat god pan. In Shakespeare’s time, they do it in bob school body houses and hey, who ever said women are bad luck Crap tables? These ladies taking Crap shoe 01:48

Robert Nash: Hi, I'm Robert Nash and you're probably wondering why I’m standing out here in the middle of a field of sheep. Well, it's not to explore other definitions of the word craps. Here fluffy, come on fluffy; come on fluffy. Good buddy, okay. Great. Well, you know why they’re running away from me? Because they know that the first dice came from sheep’s ankle bones, otherwise known as hucklebones.

There by the expression rolling the bones. Look at them, the other white meat. Come on let me show them your ankles.

In the 8th century the Middle Eastern Saracens gave the Italian’s a dice game called hazard and in exchange conquered Southern Italy. Soon all of Europe was swept under the rage of hazard. Now the French would call the two spot and the three spot, “La Crab” which means the crab, see? It was the early 1800, when the French brought their game of crabs into crazy New Orleans but wouldn’t you know Americans just couldn’t get the words right. Crabs, crabs, crabs, like I said crabs.

Male: It's a funny name but I love that game.

Robert Nash: Then around 1900’s something happened that revolutionized the game of crabs and all thanks to dice maker John Winn, what a winning name.

John Winn: Well, thank you, I’d rather think so myself, I just had this idea that I could bring Craps to its next level of excitement. What if we had a Crap betting so instead of betting each other, we can bet against the house?

What if we can also bet against the dice? So you could make money if the shooter looses and what if we could train frogs to say, “Budweiser.”

Robert Nash: John Winn may have formalized the game of Craps but it really took off in the Navy, G.I’s played it right on the deck of the ships when they got paid but didn’t have sure leave. It was in a man in the service who came home without knowing craps.

Okay. I guess they’d all be touching their ankles. Well, anyways in the meantime you don’t have to be a veterinary surgeon to get your dice anymore. Just go downstairs they make them out of plastic these days. Anyways I’m out of here, mommy.

Dana West: You know Robert is the only man I know that would make a sheep so mad they’d want to hunt him down.

Brian Tracey: Was he yelling for his mother?

Dana West: I think so.

Brian Tracey: He was?

Dana West: I think so.

Brian Tracey: Well, if you don’t want act like a scared sheep around the Crap table, all you have to do is learn how to play and our reporter Jeff Colt is going to show you how.

Jeff Colt: Thanks Brian. Now, for some background on the theory of Craps, we’ve got a live satellite link up with an expert in Quantum physics over at Yale University. Professor Karl Krapps. Professor can you hear me? Professor?

Karl Krapps: Hello Jeff, in order to understand Craps you must have a firm understanding of subatomic physics, rouge science on brain surgery. Even the great Professor Einstein said, “Yes, E may equally MC squared but Craps confounds me”.

Jeff Colt: Thanks professor. It's not exactly what we wanted to hear. Okay. I’ll admit it Craps can get complicated if you want to play as complicated as bets. But if you're just starting out, it's a snap to be part of the action. Win some money with the simplest bets enjoy some of the best odds in the casino. Here’s the game in a nut shell.

On the first roll called the “come out” roll, seven or eleven is good. Two and three or twelve is “bad” and anything else “establishes point”. Now, once there’s a point, seven is bad and your point is good. At this stage which is pretty the bulk of the game. The object is to bet, the shooter will throw the point before he throws the seven. Now, please meet my good ladies with the pompom.

Hi ladies. This Crap is pretty much a game with cheerleading, knowing when to load four or seven or when to throw against it. Let's meet the kind of people who works at the table. There are two dealers facing the player and they pretty much run the betting. Sitting in between is the box man, he's job is to settle any disputes over rules and procedures, pay outs all that kinds of gross stuff and say hello to the stick man, my favorite. How are you doing stick man? I love watching this guy work.

He stands among the players and with a stick he expertly moves the dice around the table. He also calls out the number roll. Now, let's look at all the bets on the lay out. I know, I know it's scary but over 70 types of bets you can make who wouldn’t be afraid? But tonight we’re just going to concentrate on this one, the pass line

The pass line is the simplest bet, it's called pass because you want the dice to pass or win. Kind of like passing a test, a pass on to the next stage of the game, it's also called the “line bet”. Now, you start playing on the come out roll, that’s the beginning of the sequence and it happens after the stick man calls “seven out”. The dealer sweep up most of the chips and the dice go to the next player on the left.

And then this disk is called the “puck or the buck” is returned black side up to its home and in the “Don’t Come” box. Now, place your bet on the pass line. Everybody in? Now, this is the come out roll, so this is that especial time when you want a seven. Remember you want a seven or 11 and you don’t want a two, three or 12.

Male: Seven winner.

Jeff Colt: Oh we’ll be eating tonight after seven. It's also called a natural. You can win even money on that, congratulations. Let's try it again. Place your bet on the pass line and start rolling.

Male: Three Craps.

Jeff Colt: Oh hey I know. A little rain in every life, too bad its craps that means you got a two, three or 12 and your chip just scooped up. Alright, let's try another come out roll, place your bets on the pass line and start cheering. Come on, come on, come on.

Male: Four.

Jeff Colt: Oh no, no. Now, four changes everything. If you get a four or five, six, eight or nine or ten the game continues. The dealer places the puck on the number four, four is now the point. Now, remember how we cheered for seven before? Well, change your tune pally because once a point is established, seven suddenly becomes the bad guy. He's going to make you loose. The good guy is four, who’s going to make you win. Come on, come on, show me what you’ve got, what you’ve got, what you’ve got?

Male: Two crap.

Jeff Colt: No, I know what you're thinking isn't that Craps? Yes. But Craps only hurts on the come out roll, once there's a point the only thing that affects you is if the dice will roll the point or the seven. What do you’ve got for us?

Male: Winner.

Jeff Colt: Yeah.

Female: Alright.

Jeff Colt: Congratulations. You just made your point, piece of cake wasn’t it? And that pays even money. Now, if the point were four and the shooter shot seven, the stick man would’ve called out “seven out”, here you go and you’d lost your bet that’s pretty much the basis of the whole game. Easy isn’t it? Let’s review. On the come out roll, seven or 11 is good, two, three or 12 is bad, anything else establishes a point. Once it’s a point, seven is bad and the point is good.

Now, some people just to be different and there's always one who want to place their bet in the “Don’t pass bar” down here. Then they cheer for exactly the opposite. On the come out roll, they want two or three and they don’t want seven or 11. Twelve in this case is a push. No money goes anywhere. Here’s to most people. And here's that old don’t pass better. Well, after a point is established the “don’t better” wants to a seven to appear before the point and not too many people bet on the “don’t pass bar” because usually you’re cheering you’re going to say everybody else and it's not as much fun. Better you should make friends.

So if you're just beginning don’t bother with it, got it so far? Good. Now, once the point is established it's time to make some real cash by backing up your pass line that’s with odds which pay you more in the pass line bets. Here’s how it works. Let's say you place $2.00 on the pass line, there you go. A point is established, four. Now you put $5.00 behind your original bet, bet you at and you get even money on your pass line bet but two to one on your odds. Now, that’s $10.00 but you don’t always get two to one when you take odd.

Look at this chart, it kind of looks like a pyramid tipped outside down, on the side a little bit. You have five ways to roll the six for example, but only three ways to roll a four. Since four is a tough number to roll the game will reward you for betting a long shots but being bigger odds. You get back two to one at the point is working, we need a two is the point is five or nine and you get six to five if the point is six or eight.

These numbers are called true odds. Now, you’re thinking, why take odds, why? Well, it's kind of like betting a horse in. If you like betting a long shots, take odds when the point is four or ten. If you like betting on favorites and you don’t really mind the lower pay out, take odds when the point is six or eight. So, if the point is four and you’ve taken $5.00 in odds, when the four is rolled, the odds pay to the one and that’s ten buck.

If the point is five and it’s made well, it's three to two or $7.50 and if the buck is on six which is your point and that’s where the odds pay you six to five or $6.00. One last thing, all casinos will allow you to take odds so to double your pass line bet. So a $2.00 line bet can be backed with $4.00 but some casinos will let you take ten times odds. In this case, $20.00 or even a hundred times odds, $200.00 behind a two dollar pass line bet, that’s amazing. So, cool isn't it?

Go downstairs, get your chip and do the pass line bets, take it all to make friends with the dealer and ask him a lot of question. Or when you're down there don’t forget to ask about comebacks, playing the field, the hard way all those weird bets. Fun, but weird.

Brian Tracey: What’s the heck is this guy’s got us own cheerleaders? He you know we’ve got to get him, he’s supposed to do the expert tips, right?

Dana West: Forget it, forget it. We’ll do it come on.

Brian Tracey: Okay. I’m with you. It’s Barney.

Dana West: Barney how are you?

Brian Tracey: Hi Barney.

Dana West: Our resident expert, nice to see you.

Brian Tracey: How are you doing?

Dana West: I heard once that if you do your homework, Blackjack is your game but, if you're a lucky person go for Craps.

Barney: Absolutely. If you play this game properly, the house edge is less than 1%. But what you’ve got to do is if you're betting on the pass line with the shooter, always take your odds.

Brian Tracey: Speaking of odds sometimes when I put my odds down like a $5.00 chip, the dealer will say, “You’ve got to put a $6.00 chip down.

Dana West: I’ve done that before too. I’ve done that.

Brian Tracey: And when you’ve put that $6.00 down?

Barney: Simple rule to remember. On an odd number such as five and nine always take an even amount of odds because the odds pay for you to two. What I tell people, if you don’t know what the odds are, just ask the dealer.

Dana West: That’s what I think. I like that.

Brian Tracey: Simple and they’ll help you out right? Thanks Barney, are you ready to go?

Dana West: I’m ready.

Brian Tracey: I'm ready to play. See folks, it really is simple. All you have to do is shove your way into the Craps table and start screaming.

Dana West: For Brian Tracey, I’m Dana West. It's a playground down there and there's absolutely no curfew, so what? Come out and play, go wild cards.

Brian Tracey: And go wild cards.

Dana West: Alright.