Playing craps is something that a lot of gamblers avoid because they view it as a complicated game that is difficult to learn. While this may be true, developing a basic understand of craps is not difficult and can be done in a short amount of time.

Once you’ve learned just a little bit about how the game works, then you can watch others play to learn the rest of the game and its strategy. Here is a brief guide to help you learn how to start that process.

Craps is a game of dice, two to be exact, that involves a player rolling the dice (the shooter) and the rest of the players, who place bets on the shooters rolls. In each game there are two rounds consisting of the first round – called the “come out roll,” and the 2nd round, which only ends upon the rolling of a point or a 7.

To become a shooter, a player must place the minimum bet at either the “pass line,” or the “no pass line.” The dice rights are rotated around the table for those that want to become the shooter.

The rules of craps is pretty straight forward. The shooter gets to choose 2 of 5 dice and proceeds to roll them. If the come out roll is a 2, 3, or 12, then craps is declared and players that bet on the pass line bets lose their wagers. If the come out roll is an 11 or 7, then players on the pass line win – this is called a “natural.”

If anything else is rolled, then this becomes a point and the round is over. The second round then continues until a point or 7 are rolled. It usually requires 4 casino workers to watch a craps table, including the “boxman,” (watches the chips), the “stickman,” (watches the dice), and 2 other dealers. There are also names for each roll of the die, such as snake eyes, easy deuce, easy eight, ninja (nine), and yo-leven.

Like roulette, there are a lot of different types of bets based on different rolls. You can bet pass or no pass, single numbers, or come and don’t come bets. If you are interested in becoming the shooter, then make sure you place the minimum pass or no pass bet to qualify.

As you can see craps is a very simple game that just seems difficult to understand. If you aren’t the type of person that is interested in dice games, then craps may not be the game for you. However, if you are the kind of player that likes to take a chance or feeds off of the energy of the game, then this might be a great place to start.

Try learning a bit about the basics and then just watch the game be played. When you are ready to try, wait for the 1st round to start and go for it. Just make sure you ask the dealer for the right time at which to enter the game.

By Steve Vaughan
Steve is a writer for the Gambling Summary website.