Atlassino Academy · Craps · Lesson 2 of 12
The come-out roll and the point
The first roll of a shooter’s turn either settles the pass line or sets a point. Here is which totals do which, how the puck marks the point, and how often each point comes again before a 7.
A new shooter’s first roll comes up 11. Has a pass line bet just been decided, or has the game only just started?
The short answer
The bet has just been decided. The first roll of a shooter’s turn is the come-out roll, and on the come-out roll a 7 or an 11 pays the pass line at even money on the spot, a 2, a 3 or a 12 takes the pass line on the spot, and any other total — 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 — becomes the point. Once there is a point, only two totals decide the pass line: the point coming again, which pays the bet, and a 7, which takes the bet and ends the shooter’s hand.
- 7 or 11The pass line is paid even money8 of the 36 ways two dice fall
- 2, 3 or 12The pass line bet is lost4 of the 36 ways two dice fall
- 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10The total becomes the point24 of the 36 ways two dice fall
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
On a busy craps table I would hear the same question every night. The dice came up 8 on a new shooter’s first roll, the crowd went quiet, and someone at the rail asked whether they had just lost. They had not lost anything. An 8 on the come-out roll is the point, and nothing about the pass line is settled until the 8 comes again or a 7 does.
The come-out roll
The opening roll of a shooter is called the come-out roll. A player gets a turn as the shooter as long as that player has a bet on the pass line or the don’t pass line, and the turn moves clockwise around the table.
- A bet on the lineA pass or don’t pass bet is what puts a player in line to shoot.
- The come-out rollThe first roll settles the pass line, or sets a point.
- The pointWith a point set, the shooter rolls until the point or a 7.
- The next shooterA 7 after a point ends the hand, and the dice move on.
On the come-out roll, the 7 and the 11 are called a natural, and the 2, the 3 and the 12 are called craps.
Thirty-six ways two dice fall
Each die has six faces, so two dice fall in six times six ways: 36 on every roll. Counting those ways is the whole of the arithmetic in this lesson, and the table below is every one of them, each square marked by what its total does on the come-out roll.
| First die down the side, second die along the header row | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
- Bold square: pays the pass line on the come-out
- Dashed square: takes the pass line on the come-out
- Plain square: sets a point
The row is the first die, the column the second: a 3 then a 4 and a 4 then a 3 are two different squares, two different ways.
No total has more squares than the 7: 6 of the 36. The totals thin out on both sides of the 7, down to a single square each for the 2 and the 12. That one fact decides almost everything that happens once a point is set.
- 21 way
- 32 ways
- 43 ways
- 54 ways
- 65 ways
- 76 ways
- 85 ways
- 94 ways
- 103 ways
- 112 ways
- 121 way
The point, and the puck
A come-out total of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 becomes the point, and the point is marked on the table for everyone at the rail to see.
The marker is a round disc, called the puck, with the word OFF on one side and ON on the other.
The puck is the first thing to look for when you walk up to a craps table.
The point again, or a 7
Once the point is set, the shooter keeps rolling, and only two totals settle the pass line: the point, or a 7. A 7 that comes first is called the seven-out.
- The point comes againThe pass line is paid even money. The puck turns OFF, and the same shooter rolls a new come-out.
- A 7 comesThe seven-out: the pass line bet is lost, the puck turns OFF, and the dice go to the next player.
- Any other totalNothing is decided. The puck stays ON the same number, and the shooter rolls again.
Every other total, the 2, the 3, the 11 and the 12 included, leaves the puck ON the same number.
How often the point comes first is a count of squares. With the point set, every total except the point and the 7 changes nothing, so the only question is which of those two arrives first: the squares of the point against the 6 squares of the 7.
| The point | Ways to roll the point | Ways to roll a 7 | Odds against the point | The point comes before a 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 or 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 to 5 | 5/11 about 45.5% |
| 5 or 9 | 4 | 6 | 6 to 4 | 2/5 about 40.0% |
| 4 or 10 | 3 | 6 | 6 to 3 | 1/3 about 33.3% |
Even the 6 and the 8, the points with the most ways, come before a 7 less than half the time.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
A long hand is exciting and changes nothing about the next roll. A shooter’s hand runs about 8.5 rolls on average and some hands run far longer, but on every one of those rolls the 7 has the same 6 ways out of 36.
Decide the money and the time for the evening before you walk up to the rail, and let the evening end when the money set aside for it is gone. Putting more down to get back what a seven-out took is the table deciding the amount for you, not the other way round.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: follow the puck
Each step of the practice run is one roll. The table shows where the puck stood before the roll and what the two dice show, and you say where the puck goes after the roll and what happens to a pass line bet. Level 1 is the come-out roll; level 2 is a table with a point already set; level 3 is a run of rolls from late in one long hand.
Nothing is bet here. The pass line in the practice run is a bet you follow, not a bet you make, and no amount of money appears anywhere in it.
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Level 1 · The come-out roll
Come-out roll · the puck is OFF
Before this roll: come-out roll, puck OFF
Where does the puck go after this roll, and what happens to a pass line bet?
- Puck ON 11 · nothing is decided yet 11 is not one of the six point numbers, so 11 can never be the point. On the come-out roll an 11 settles the pass line at once.
- Puck OFF · the pass line bet is lost That treats 11 like the 2, the 3 and the 12. On the come-out roll only those three take the pass line; an 11 is paid, together with a 7.
- Puck OFF · the pass line is paid even money An 11 on the come-out roll pays the pass line at even money, and no point is set, so the puck stays OFF.
On the come-out roll a 7 or an 11 pays the pass line at even money on the spot. No point is set, so the puck stays OFF, and the same shooter rolls the next come-out.
Level 2 · The point is set
A point of 6 is set · the puck is ON 6
Before this roll: the point is 6, puck ON 6
Where does the puck go after this roll, and what happens to a pass line bet?
- Puck OFF · the pass line is paid even money 6 came again before a 7: the pass line is paid even money, and the puck turns OFF for a new come-out roll.
- Puck ON 6 · the pass line is paid even money The pass line is paid, but the puck does not stay ON. A made point sends the game back to a come-out roll, so the puck turns OFF, and the same shooter keeps the dice.
- Puck ON 6 · nothing is decided yet That misses the point coming again. 6 before a 7 is exactly what pays the pass line.
The point came again before a 7, so the pass line is paid even money. The game goes back to a come-out roll: the puck turns OFF, and the shooter keeps the dice.
Level 3 · A long hand
14 rolls already in this shooter’s hand
Before this roll: the point is 6, puck ON 6
Earlier totals in this hand, in order
- 2
- 7
- 6
- 5
- 6
- 9
- 4
- 10
- 3
- 9
- 6
- 2
- 9
- 4
Where does the puck go after this roll, and what happens to a pass line bet?
- Puck OFF · the pass line is paid even money A 7 pays the pass line only on the come-out roll. With a point set, a 7 is the seven-out, and the pass line bet is lost.
- Puck ON 6 · nothing is decided yet A 7 does not pass unnoticed once a point is set: the hand ends on this roll, and the dice move to the next player.
- Puck OFF · the pass line bet is lost A 7 with a point set is the seven-out: the pass line bet is lost, the puck turns OFF, and the dice move to the next player.
A 7 after a point is set is the seven-out. The pass line bet is lost, the puck turns OFF, and the dice move clockwise to the next player. The 14 rolls before this one leave this roll exactly as it would be on a fresh table: a 7 still has 6 of the 36 ways two dice fall.
Every roll in the practice run is worked out the same way: from the table before the roll and the two dice of the roll, the dice engine says where the puck goes and what happens to a pass line bet.
How the practice run works
Where the rolls come from. Levels 1 and 2 are rolls chosen so that every kind of come-out roll and every kind of roll after a point turns up. Level 3 is one shooter’s hand, rolled once by the same dice engine from a fixed seed, and its rolls are taken from late in that hand. Where the puck goes and what happens to the pass line are worked out by the engine from the table before the roll and the two dice of the roll, not written down by hand. Each wrong answer is one named mistake: an 11 or a 7 on the come-out treated as a point, a come-out 7 treated as a seven-out, a point number paid on the come-out, a puck left OFF after a point is set, a puck moved to a new number, a puck left ON after a made point, or a 2, a 3, an 11 or a 12 after a point treated as if the table were on the come-out.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one roll of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square the roll belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a roll you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. An 11 on a new shooter’s first roll is a come-out roll, and on the come-out roll an 11 pays the pass line at even money. Nothing has started that has to finish: the puck stays OFF, and the same shooter rolls the next come-out.
Where to play, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Rules of Play for Table Games — Craps · BCLCThe full B.C. rules: the line, odds and lay limits, place and buy, the centre of the table and the Fire Bet, with every pay table.
- Craps — leaflet · Loto-QuébecThe most popular bets and the whole payout chart on two pages, with the odds and lay limits.
- How to play craps · OLG PlaySmartThe crew, the puck, the come-out roll and the turn to shoot, in plain words.
- Craps · GameSense by AGLCHow the game runs in Alberta, the Full Double odds and the terms you hear at the table.
How it’s worked out
Rules, numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every table on this page is a live craps table in a room you can walk into, with a stickman, base dealers and a shooter. An electronic craps table runs the same come-out and the same point, but it is asked for different things, and it is not what this page describes.
Rules. The rules this page leans on are the rules BCLC publishes for its casinos, quoted behind the source buttons together with teaching material from other operators. A published set of rules is not a report on any particular room: the sign at the table you are standing at is what that table follows.
Two words for one marker. The disc that marks the point is called the puck, with ON and OFF on its two sides, in one operator’s teaching material. The rules BCLC publishes for its casinos do not use that word and say that the stickman announces the point and both base dealers mark it. This page names both wordings and uses the shorter one; the marker does the same job under either.
Numbers. Every count and every chance on this page is worked out from the 36 ways two dice fall when the page is built, by the same dice engine that rolls the practice table, and kept as an exact fraction until the last step. The chance that the point comes first is the ways of the point divided by the ways of the point and the ways of a 7 together. The average length of a hand is worked out exactly from the same counts, not simulated. A percentage is rounded to one decimal place.
What is deliberately absent. There is no money on this page, no price for the pass line and no pace of play: following a hand needs none of the three. The areas of the table and who places which bet are lesson 5.1. What the pass line costs, and how many rolls it takes on average to settle, are lesson 5.3. The odds bet behind the line is lesson 5.4; come bets, which run this same rhythm in the middle of a hand, are lesson 5.5; the don’t pass line, and what the 12 does there, is lesson 5.6. Place bets are lesson 5.7, the field and Big 6 and Big 8 are lesson 5.8, and the centre of the table and the Fire Bet are lesson 5.9. How to pick up and throw the dice is lesson 5.10, what an evening at the table costs is lesson 5.11, and hot shooters and dice setting are lesson 5.12.
Sources. Every rule on this page carries a button with the sentence the rule rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Craps is played against the house. Knowing what the come-out roll and the point do lets you follow every roll at the table; nothing on this page changes a single roll, and nothing here says how an evening at the table would end.
The odds against a 5 before a 7
For example, the odds against rolling a 5 before a 7 using two dice are 6 to 4.
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
The pass line on the come-out roll
The Player attempts to roll a total of 7 or 11 with the two dice to get paid even money on their wager, on the Come Out roll.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
If the shooter rolls a 7 or 11, it is a “natural” and you win. If 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, it is “craps,” and you lose.
The odds against a point
For example, the odds against rolling a 5 before a 7 using two dice are 6 to 4.
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
The point made, or the seven-out
If the Player achieves their point their original wager is paid and the game returns to the Come Out roll and the dice are retained by the Player.
If the Player rolls a total 7 before achieving their point, their wager is lost and the dice are passed to the next Player.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
If 7 appears before a point is established, players betting with the shooter lose; if the point appears first, the players betting with the shooter win.
The shooter keeps rolling until they roll a 7, or “seven out” at which time, the dice move to the next player and the round begins again.
The round ends when a shooter “seven out” – when they roll a 7 after having established the point.
Seven Out: A rolled 7 after the point has been established.
GameSense by AGLC · Craps · read
Thirty-six ways two dice fall
Since each die has six sides there are six possible outcomes. Two dice makes 6×6 and therefore there are 36 possible combinations on each roll.
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
The come-out roll
Players are betting with the dice; the opening roll of the Shooter is called the `Come Out' roll.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
The very first roll at the beginning of a game is called the come-out roll.
The game begins when a player (called the shooter) makes either a Pass or Don’t Pass bet and throws two dice for the Come Out roll.
Whose turn it is to shoot
In craps, every player gets a turn to be the shooter as long as he or she has an active pass or don’t pass wager.
The honour moves clockwise around the table.
They are placed before the come-out roll and in order to take a turn at being the shooter, you are obligated to place one of these bets. If you win, they pay out at even money or 1 to 1.
To play the game – and get a chance to roll the dice – you place a wager on one of these lines.
GameSense by AGLC · Craps · read
The pass line on the come-out roll
The Player attempts to roll a total of 7 or 11 with the two dice to get paid even money on their wager, on the Come Out roll.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
If the shooter rolls a 7 or 11, it is a “natural” and you win. If 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, it is “craps,” and you lose.
Thirty-six ways two dice fall
Since each die has six sides there are six possible outcomes. Two dice makes 6×6 and therefore there are 36 possible combinations on each roll.
OLG PlaySmart · Craps — odds · read
How a total becomes the point
If a Player rolls a total of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 with the two dice, this becomes the point.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
If the come-out roll is any other number than those mentioned above, (4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10), then no one wins or loses.
The puck
The puck is a round disk with the word “off” on one side and “on” on the opposite.
Marking the point
If the number rolled becomes the Shooters Point, the Stickman must announce the Point and ensure that both of the Base Dealers mark the correct Point.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
The puck is a round disk with the word “off” on one side and “on” on the opposite.
The point made, or the seven-out
If the Player achieves their point their original wager is paid and the game returns to the Come Out roll and the dice are retained by the Player.
If the Player rolls a total 7 before achieving their point, their wager is lost and the dice are passed to the next Player.
Section 1.0 Craps; 2.0 Fire Bet
If 7 appears before a point is established, players betting with the shooter lose; if the point appears first, the players betting with the shooter win.
The shooter keeps rolling until they roll a 7, or “seven out” at which time, the dice move to the next player and the round begins again.
The round ends when a shooter “seven out” – when they roll a 7 after having established the point.
Seven Out: A rolled 7 after the point has been established.
GameSense by AGLC · Craps · read
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