The table where the dice decide
Walk through any casino floor and one sound cuts through the machine noise: dice hitting the felt back wall of a table. The games built around those dice are among the oldest on the floor, and they are also the ones where a newcomer's confusion is most visible. People stand at the rail, watch chips move in patterns they cannot read, and walk away without ever placing a bet. That is a shame, because the underlying mechanics are simpler than the crowd suggests.
Two dice games dominate casino floors. Craps is the loud, multi-player game with the long table and the rail full of bet markings. Sic bo is the quieter three-dice game, usually found on a smaller table or an electronic terminal, where players bet on combinations that three dice will show. A few venues also offer simpler dice-based side games or electronic versions of both, but craps and sic bo are the two you will sit down to play.
The first thing to understand is that dice games are not one bet. A craps table carries dozens of betting areas, and they do not all behave the same way. Some bets settle on the next roll; others stay in play for many rolls. Some carry a much larger built-in advantage for the house than others. Learning which is which matters more than memorising every payout.
Craps: the object and the rhythm of a round
Craps looks chaotic because multiple players bet on the same rolls, but the game itself follows a strict sequence. One player, the shooter, throws two six-sided dice. Everyone at the table is betting on what those two dice will show. The objective is not to beat the other players. It is to have your chosen bet win or lose according to the roll.
A round begins with the come-out roll. Before that roll, the shooter places a bet on the pass line or the don't pass line. The come-out roll determines the point. If the two dice total 7 or 11, pass line bets win and the round ends immediately. If the total is 2, 3 or 12, pass line bets lose and the round ends. If the total is any other number — 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 — that number becomes the point.
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps rolling. The pass line bet now wins if the point is rolled again before a 7 appears, and loses if a 7 appears first. Any other total is a non-event for the pass line; the dice move on. The don't pass bet works as the near-mirror image: it wins on a come-out roll of 2 or 3, loses on 7 or 11, and pushes on 12. After a point is set, don't pass wins if a 7 appears before the point, and loses if the point comes first.
That is the entire skeleton of the game. Everything else on the table — the come and don't come bets, the place bets, the field, the proposition bets in the centre — is a side bet attached to that same sequence of rolls.
Buy-in, betting and how a hand settles
You do not hand cash to the dealer at a craps table. You place your cash on the layout, and the dealer exchanges it for chips. Table games use their own chips, and at craps you will want a mix of denominations because different bets pay at different rates and the dealers make change constantly.
When the dice are in the middle of the table and the stickman is calling for bets, you place your wager on the marked area of the layout. Once the shooter has the dice, the dealers stop accepting bets on the next roll. The shooter must throw the dice so they hit the far wall of the table; a roll that fails to reach the wall is usually called a no-roll and is thrown again.
Settlement is immediate for one-roll bets: the dealer takes losing chips and pays winners before the next throw. Multi-roll bets like the pass line stay on the layout until they win, lose, or the shooter sevens out. When a 7 appears after a point has been set, the pass line loses, all outstanding place and come bets lose, and the dice pass to the next shooter. That moment — the seven-out — is the end of a hand, not the end of the game.
Sic bo: three dice and a grid of combinations
Sic bo translates roughly to "precious dice," and the game is mechanically straightforward: three dice are shaken in a container and come to rest, and you have bet on what the three faces will show. There is no shooter, no point, and no sequence of rolls that builds on the last one. Each round is independent.
The table is a grid of bet types. You can bet that the total of the three dice will fall in a small range or a large range, that a specific triple will appear, that any triple will appear, that a specific number will appear on one, two or all three dice, or that two specific numbers will appear together. Each bet carries its own payout, and those payouts are not equal in the edge they give the house.
Because the game uses three dice, there are 216 equally likely combinations. The payouts printed on the table are set below what a fair payout for the true odds would be, and the gap is the house edge. The size of that gap varies a great deal from one bet to the next, which is the most important thing a new player can learn about sic bo.
How the main dice bets compare
The bets on a dice table are not interchangeable. Some settle every roll; some wait for a sequence. Some carry a small built-in advantage for the house; some carry a much larger one. The table below lays out the main bet types and what distinguishes them.
| Bet | Game | How it settles | What the player is betting on | Relative house edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pass line | Craps | Multi-roll, ends at point or 7 | Shooter wins the round | Among the lowest on the table |
| Don't pass | Craps | Multi-roll, ends at point or 7 | Shooter loses the round | Among the lowest on the table |
| Place bet on 6 or 8 | Craps | Multi-roll, loses on 7 | That number appears before a 7 | Moderate |
| Field | Craps | One roll | Next roll lands in the field numbers | Higher than pass line |
| Any 7 | Craps | One roll | Next roll totals 7 | High |
| Small or big total | Sic bo | One roll | Three-dice total falls in the stated range | Moderate |
| Specific triple | Sic bo | One roll | All three dice show one chosen number | High |
The pattern holds across both games: the simplest bets, the ones that settle slowly and pay close to even money, tend to carry the smallest built-in advantage. The bets with the flashiest payouts printed on the felt tend to carry the largest. That is not a coincidence. The payout is the lure, and the gap between the payout and the true odds is where the operator's edge lives.
What strategy charts do
Craps and sic bo are not games where a decision changes the odds of the dice. The dice do not remember the last roll, and no betting pattern changes the probability of the next one. What a player controls is which bets they place and how long they stay at the table.
Published strategy guidance for craps is essentially a map of which bets to avoid and which to keep. The pass line and don't pass bets are the structural core of the game, and most strategy discussions begin there. The centre-table proposition bets are one-roll bets with large edges, and most guidance treats them as occasional at most. Odds bets, where offered, are attached to a pass or come bet and pay at true odds, which means the house takes no edge on that portion of the wager; whether an odds bet is available, and at what multiple, is printed on the table layout at each venue.
For sic bo, strategy is mostly a matter of reading the payout table and recognising which bets are expensive. The game does not offer a pass-line equivalent with a small edge; every bet carries a meaningful built-in advantage, and the differences between them are large. The player's real decision is not which combination to chase but how much of a bankroll to expose to a game where every bet settles in one roll and the next round starts immediately.
Any strategy chart you find for either game derives from a specific rule set. Craps payouts and available odds bets vary by venue. Sic bo payout tables are not standardised across operators. A chart built for one table's rules may not apply to another's, so the first move is to read the layout in front of you.
Where new players lose the thread
The most common procedural mistake at craps is touching the dice or reaching across the table after the shooter has them. Dice are handled only by the shooter and the stickman. A player who reaches into the layout while bets are being settled will be told to pull back, and a player who interferes with a roll can have the roll called dead. Keep your hands off the table when the dice are out.
The second mistake is buying in at the wrong moment. Placing cash on the layout while the dice are moving is the surest way to slow the game and annoy the crew. Wait for a break in the action, place the cash on the felt, and let the dealer handle the exchange.
The third is betting without knowing when the bet settles. A pass line bet stays up until the point or a 7; a field bet lives and dies on the next roll. Players who stack chips on a one-roll bet thinking it rides like the pass line are confused when the dealer sweeps it. Before you place any bet, ask the dealer or read the layout to see whether it is a one-roll or a multi-roll wager. The table itself tells you, but only if you look.
FAQ
Is craps the only casino game that uses dice?
No. Sic bo is the other major dice table game, using three dice and a grid of combination bets. Some venues also run electronic versions of both games, and a few offer simpler dice-based side games, but craps and sic bo are the two you will most often find at a live table.
Do I have to be the shooter to play craps?
No. The shooter is the player throwing the dice, but everyone at the table is betting on the outcome of those throws. You can decline the dice when the turn reaches you, and many players do. Your bets settle exactly the same whether you or someone else is throwing.
Why do the payouts on a sic bo table look so different from craps?
Because sic bo is a one-roll game with three dice, so every bet is a single independent event with 216 possible outcomes. The payouts are set against those true odds, and the gap between the two is the house edge. Craps mixes one-roll bets with multi-roll bets, which is why its layout groups them differently and why the edges vary so widely across the table.
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