The Come Out Roll and the Point In Craps
Every round of craps has two phases. There is the part before a point gets established, and the part after. These two phases play by different rules. The same roll can mean two completely different things depending on which phase you are in. A 7 can be your best friend or your worst enemy. An 11 can be a big winner or completely meaningless. It all depends on whether the puck on the table is on or off.
This is the part of craps that confuses new players more than any other. The rules feel like they keep changing. People at the table seem to be celebrating things that should not be wins, or groaning at numbers that look harmless. None of it makes sense until you understand the two phases and how the game flips between them.
This article walks you through the come out roll, the point, and the way the round shifts gears between them. If you have read our basic rules article, some of this will be review. We are going deeper here on the part of the game that matters most.
What Is The Come Out Roll In Craps
The come out roll is the first roll of any new round. It is the opening throw, the kickoff, the start of everything. You can always tell when a come out roll is coming because the puck on the table is on the off side. The puck either sits in the don't come bar area on the casino's side of the table or in a corner near one of the place number boxes. Either way, off side up.
The come out happens at three points in a craps session. The very beginning, when a brand new shooter is starting their first roll of the night. After a point hits, when the same shooter is starting a new round. And after a shooter sevens out, when a new shooter has the dice and is starting their first round.
The come out roll matters because it is the only time during a round when 7 is a good thing for pass line bettors. Roll a 7 here and the table cheers. Roll a 7 a few minutes later, after a point has been set, and the table groans. Same number, two different results. That is the whole drama of craps in a nutshell.
The three things that can happen on a come out Roll
When the shooter throws on the come out, exactly one of three things will happen. The dice always land on a number between 2 and 12, and that number falls into one of three categories.
The first category is the natural. A natural is a 7 or 11. If the come out is a 7 or 11, pass line bets win immediately and even money. The dealer pays everyone on the pass line, the shooter keeps the dice, and a brand new come out roll happens right after. So if a shooter rolls three naturals in a row, they have basically won three pass line bets back to back without ever leaving the come out phase.
The second category is craps. Craps on the come out is a 2, 3 or 12. Pass line bets lose immediately. The dealer sweeps the chips off the line, the shooter keeps the dice, and another come out roll happens. The shooter does not give up the dice for crapping out. They only give up the dice when they seven out during a point cycle, which we will get to.
The third category is everything else. If the come out is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, that number becomes the point. The puck flips from off to on. The dealer slides it onto the box for that number. So if the shooter rolls a 6 on the come out, the puck goes on top of the 6 box and stays there until either the shooter rolls another 6 or rolls a 7. The round has now moved into its second phase.
Notice how those three categories cover all 11 possible totals. Naturals are 7 and 11. Craps are 2, 3 and 12. Points are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. Every roll falls into one of these buckets and the game responds accordingly.
The math of the come out roll
Here is something most people do not realize until somebody explains it. The come out roll is actually weighted in the pass line bettor's favor. There are more ways to roll a natural than there are to roll craps. Of the 36 possible combinations on two dice, 6 of them are 7s and 2 of them are 11s, for 8 winning combinations. Only 1 of them is 2, 2 of them are 3s, and 1 of them is 12, for 4 losing combinations.
So on the come out roll alone, pass line bettors win twice as often as they lose. Eight wins versus four losses. That is a great deal. If the come out was the entire game, the pass line would have a massive player edge and the casino would lose money on it.
The casino's edge comes back during the point cycle, where the math flips against the player. We will see how when we look at points. But the point of mentioning this now is that you should not get spooked when somebody craps out on the come out roll. It happens, but the come out itself is one of the most player-friendly moments in the entire casino. The pass line bet is good in part because the come out roll is good.
What is the point in craps and what changes when it gets set
If the come out roll is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, that number becomes the point. The dealer flips the puck to the on side and places it on the appropriate box. The whole table now knows that the round is in its second phase.
A few things change when this happens.
First, the rules of winning and losing for pass line bets change completely. The 7 is no longer good. In fact, it is the worst thing that can happen. The 11 stops mattering at all. Same with 2, 3 and 12. The only two numbers that affect a pass line bet during a point cycle are the point itself, which is good, and the 7, which is bad. Every other roll is meaningless to the pass line.
Second, you can now make a free odds bet behind your pass line. Free odds are not allowed during the come out roll because there is no point to make odds on yet. The moment a point is established, you can put up to 3x to 5x your pass line bet behind it as odds. The free odds bet has zero house edge and is one of the best bets in the entire casino. We have a full article on the free odds bet.
Third, place bets and most other bets you have on the table become active by default. Place bets are typically off during the come out roll, meaning they do not win or lose, they just sit there. Once a point is set, those bets switch on automatically and are now in action on every roll until the round ends.
Fourth, the come box becomes more useful. You can put a chip in the come box during the point cycle to make a come bet, which works just like a pass line bet, except the bet's "come out" is whatever the next roll happens to be. If you have not read the come bet article yet, save that for after you understand how points work, because come bets are essentially extra mini-points layered on top of the main one.
Fifth, you cannot pull down your pass line bet. Once a point is on, your pass line money is locked in. The casino calls it a contract bet. The reason is that during the point cycle, the bet has switched from being slightly favorable to slightly unfavorable for you, and the casino is not going to let you take your money off the table when the math is in their favor. You knew the deal when you placed it.
How a point gets resolved
Once a point is set, the shooter keeps throwing the dice. Every roll is now a chance to either win or lose the round.
If the shooter rolls the point number again, that is called making the point. Pass line bets win even money. Free odds bets pay at true odds. The dealer settles all the action on the pass line, the puck flips back to off, and the same shooter starts a new come out roll.
If the shooter rolls a 7, that is sevening out. Pass line bets lose. Free odds bets lose. Most other bets on the table lose too. The puck flips back to off. The shooter has to give up the dice, and the dice pass to the next player to the left. A new round starts with a new shooter on a fresh come out roll.
If the shooter rolls anything else, nothing happens to your pass line bet. The 11 you would have loved on the come out is now meaningless. The 2 you would have hated on the come out is now meaningless. Even another 4 you would think might do something, if 4 is not the point, also does nothing. The shooter just throws again.
This is the rhythm of the point cycle. Throw, throw, throw, until either the point hits or a 7 ends the round. Every throw in between is filler from a pass line perspective, though it could affect other bets you have on the table like place bets or come bets.
Why the math flips during a point cycle
Here is the key thing to understand. During the come out, you wanted a 7. During the point cycle, you do not. And there is no number, no point, that is more likely to come up than a 7. A 7 can be rolled six different ways out of 36 possible combinations. That is more than any other number. We get into the full breakdown in our dice probability article.
What this means is that during the point cycle, the 7 is more likely than your point. If your point is 4 or 10, you have only three ways to make the point versus six ways to roll a 7. Your point hits one out of three times in that situation. If your point is 5 or 9, you have four ways to make it versus six for the 7. Your point hits about 40 percent of the time. If your point is 6 or 8, you have five ways to make it versus six for the 7. Your point hits about 45 percent of the time. None of those are coin flips. The 7 is always favored.
This is why the casino lets pass line bets win on the come out so easily. They know they are getting their edge back during the point cycle. The come out is a giveaway. The point cycle is where the casino earns its money. The full bet, taken together, has a house edge of about 1.4 percent because the player advantage on the come out and the casino advantage on the point cycle do not quite cancel each other out. Close, but not quite.
Long rolls and what they really are
A long roll is when a single shooter goes on a streak of making points without sevening out. If a shooter rolls a 6 to set the point, then rolls the 6 to make it, then rolls a new come out, sets a new point of 8, makes the 8, sets a new point of 5, makes the 5, and so on, that is a long roll. The longer the roll goes, the more excited the table gets, because every player who has been betting the pass line is winning over and over again.
Long rolls are rare. Most shooters seven out within a few minutes. Average roll is something like seven to nine throws, depending on whose math you trust. But every once in a while somebody catches fire and rolls for 30 or 40 minutes without sevening out. Stanley Fujitake famously rolled for over three hours at the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1989. Patricia DeMauro rolled for over four hours at the Borgata in 2009. These are once-in-a-generation rolls, but smaller hot streaks happen pretty often, and they are the moments craps players live for.
Mathematically, a long roll is just luck. The probability of any single shooter rolling for a long time is small but not zero, and it has nothing to do with the shooter's technique, mojo, or anything else. It is just dice doing what dice do. Of course, try telling that to the people at the table when somebody is in the middle of a 30-minute roll. These are the moments that get talked about in craps circles for years.
Sevening out and what it actually means
Sevening out is the official end of a shooter's turn. The 7 only has this power during the point cycle, when it ends the round. On the come out, a 7 is a winner. Once a point is set, a 7 is a loser. The same number, with the meaning flipped depending on phase.
When a shooter sevens out, the dealer settles every losing bet on the table and pays any winning bets that came along with the 7, like don't pass bets and any 7 prop bets. Then the puck flips back to off. The dice get pushed to the player on the shooter's left. That player can choose to shoot or pass, and if they pass, the dice go to the next player.
If you do not want to shoot when the dice come to you, just say "pass" or wave the dice off. The stickman will move them on. Plenty of players never shoot. There is no requirement that you do. We get into the full experience of being the shooter in our article on being the shooter, which covers what to do when the dice come to you and the etiquette around it.
The come out roll quirk most beginners miss
Here is one detail about the come out roll that catches a lot of new players off guard. Place bets, by default, are off during the come out roll of a new round. Off means they do not win or lose, they just sit there inactive. So if you have a place bet on the 6 and the shooter rolls a 6 on the come out, you do not win that bet. It is off. The 6 just goes by.
This catches people every time. They watch their number get rolled, they expect to get paid, and the dealer just sits there. The reason is that during the come out, you are typically rooting for a 7 to win your pass line bet. The casino assumes you do not want your place bets to lose to that same 7. So the default is to turn place bets off.
You can override this. If you tell the dealer "place bets working" or "I'm working on the come out," they will leave your place bets active, and they will live or die based on the come out roll. Some experienced players do this when they are not betting the pass line, since they have nothing to lose to a 7. Most players just leave the default in place.
This same rule applies to most numbered bets, not just place bets. Hardways are off on the come out by default. Hop bets are off. Anything tied to a specific number not being or hitting before a 7 is off, with the player able to call it on if they want. We talk more about this in the place bets article.
What to actually do during each phase
For a beginner just starting out, the best strategy is the simplest one. On the come out roll, have a pass line bet down. That is it. Once a point is established, take free odds behind it for as much as you can comfortably afford within the table's limit. Then either watch the round play out or, if you want a second bet running, drop a chip in the come box and let the next roll establish a number for it.
That is your basic play. Pass line on come out, free odds when a point is set, optional come bet when you want a second number working. You can play craps your entire life and never need to do more than that. The math on this combination is some of the best in the casino, and it keeps you out of all the high-edge garbage in the middle of the table.
If you want to get into more sophisticated play later, you can. There is a whole world of place bets, lay bets, and odds variations to learn. But you do not need any of it to play smart, and you definitely do not need any of it as a brand new player. Start simple. Stay simple. The complexity is optional.
Putting it all together
Every round of craps follows the same shape. A new come out roll happens with the puck off. Either the round resolves immediately on a natural or craps, or a point gets set and the puck flips on. If a point is set, the shooter keeps rolling, trying to hit the point before rolling a 7. Either the point hits and a new come out begins, or a 7 ends the round and the dice pass to the next shooter.
That is the heartbeat of craps. Every cheer, every groan, every long roll and every short one follows this same pattern. Once you can see it, the table stops feeling chaotic and starts feeling like a game with a clear structure. You will know what bets to make at what times, why people are reacting the way they are, and what is coming next.
The next article gets into the dice probability behind all of this. Why a 7 shows up so often, why the 6 and 8 are special, and what the math looks like for every possible roll. It is shorter than this one but worth reading next so the rest of the bet articles make sense.
Read next: Dice Probability for Beginners