The field and Big 6 / Big 8

A $6 chip in the Big 6 box and a $6 chip placed on the 6 are both paid when a 6 comes before a 7. Do the two chips cost the same?

Three chips at one end of the table. Chip A and chip B wait for the same 6 in two different boxes; chip C on the field is settled by the very next roll, whatever that roll turns out to be.

Leoformer dealer · rules and maths

I used to watch people drop a chip in the Big 6 because the box sat right in front of them, while the dealer would have placed the same 6 for them at a better figure. Nothing about the dice changes between the two boxes. What changes is the figure printed for each box.

The field sits right beside it, and it looks like the friendliest box on the felt: seven totals against four. It is worth counting those totals the way the dice count them before you leave a chip there for every roll.

The same 6 in two boxes

The Big 6 and the Big 8 share a corner box in front of the players, and a player puts a chip there without help. A Big 6 is paid when a 6 is rolled before a 7, and it is paid even money.

The 6 in the row of numbers across the far side of the layout is a place bet on the same number. The dealer puts that chip down for you, and pays it 7 to 6. On the 6 and the 8 the place bet goes down in whole units of $6, so that every unit is paid at that figure.

Count the same decisions both ways. On average, out of every 11 decisions on the 6, the 6 arrives 5 times and the 7 arrives 6 times. Here is what those decisions do to an example $6 chip in each box.

Every amount here is an example bet, not a suggested bet. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.

What the two sixes cost

Divide what each chip gives up by what was bet, and you have the price of the bet: the share of every bet the box keeps, on average, over many decisions.

The longer the bar, the more of every bet the box keeps.

One thing the place 6 does differently: on the come-out roll a place bet is off, unless you ask the dealer for it to work.

The field: seven totals, one roll

The field is the long box of seven totals in front of the players: 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12. It is a one-roll bet: the very next roll settles it, paid if one of the seven totals comes up and lost on a 5, 6, 7 or 8.

The field totals sit at the ends of the row, where the dice land least often: together 16 ways out of 36, against 20 for the four middle totals.

Bet an example $10 on the field for each of 36 rolls that fall exactly as often as the dice say they should, and the field comes out like this.

The rules BCLC publishes print 2 to 1 on the 2 and the 12, as does another provincial leaflet; two other pages just say “double”. The prices here use the BCLC figure.

What the 12 pays, and where it pays more

Two casinos in the United States print a field that pays 3 to 1 on the 12. No Canadian document we could read prints that figure.

So read the field box itself before the chip goes down: the figure printed beside the 2 and the 12 is the figure that table pays.

A one-roll bet charges its price on every roll

No Canadian document we could read prints how many rolls a craps table makes in an hour; the rule book this lesson uses says only who sets the speed of the game. The pace here is the one the Price of an hour tool uses: about 60 rolls an hour, the pace casino rating systems are set to, which comes to about 18 pass-line decisions.

1. One roll$0.56one field bet of an example $10, on average
2. One hundred rolls$55.56a fresh field bet on each of 100 rolls
3. An hour of rolls$33.33about 60 rolls at the pace this lesson uses

A long-run average, not a forecast of one evening.

A place bet or a Big 6 is settled only when its number or a 7 comes up, which is once every few rolls, so over the same rolls its price lands much more lightly. Here are the three bets side by side at an example $6, each kept up and working for 100 rolls.

Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks

Decide how much money the evening gets before you walk up to the rail, and stop when that amount is gone. Putting more on the field to get back what the last few rolls took only buys the same price, faster. If the money on the felt starts to feel like money you need, the lines below are there for exactly that.

Practice: same number, two prices

Each moment puts chips at one end of the table: in the Big 6 or Big 8 box, in the row of place numbers or on the field. You say which of two chips costs less, what the dealer pays when the dice come up, or what an hour of the field costs.

Nothing is rolled at random, and nothing is scored here. This level is a reference, read in order, one moment after another; the hundred-roll figures are the engine’s exact averages, not a run of dice.

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. The $6 in the Big 6 box and the $6 placed on the 6 are settled by the same rolls, but the place 6 pays more each time the 6 arrives, so the two chips do not cost the same.

Where to check this, 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