The Craps Table Layout - Interactive Craps Table Layout

The first time you look at a craps table you probably react the same way most people do. There is too much going on. Boxes everywhere. Numbers in some of them, words in others. The same bet seems to be printed twice on opposite ends of the table. Strange labels in the middle that look like a foreign language. The whole thing feels deliberately confusing, like the table was designed to make sure you make the wrong bet by mistake.

It was not designed that way, but I get the suspicion. The truth is the layout has a logic to it. Once you understand the structure, the table starts reading like a map instead of a puzzle. Every section has a purpose. Most of the bets are organized around what kind of action they support. The intimidating middle section, where most of the bad bets live, is its own little island that you can mostly ignore.

This article is a tour of the felt. By the end, you should be able to walk up to any craps table, live or online, and know exactly what every section is for. We will cover the layout from the outside in, starting with the bets you will actually use and ending with the prop bets in the middle that you should mostly leave alone.

Get a picture in front of you

Below we have an image of a craps table layout that you can look at while you read this. It will help you learn what you are looking at. If you hover over any part of the table it will tell you more information about that bet. It will help you learn when to make the bets, how long your bet is live for, and much more.

The shape of the table itself

A standard craps table is shaped like a bathtub. Long rectangle, about 12 feet by 4 feet, with raised padded walls on all four sides. The dealers and the boxman stand on one side. Players stand on the other three sides. The far ends of the table are where the dice get thrown, and the back walls have those pyramid-shaped foam bumps that make the dice bounce in random ways when they hit.

The whole table is laid out in a way that makes it almost perfectly symmetrical. The right end of the table mirrors the left end. This is so players standing at either end have all the same bets in front of them. You do not have to walk around to the other side to make a bet. Whatever you need is on your side of the table. The two big sections on the ends are sometimes called the wings, and they are identical to each other. The center is the only part that does not get repeated.

This matters because once you understand one wing, you understand both wings. Everything you are about to read about the right side of the table also applies to the left side. The dealer who works your side handles your bets, and the layout in front of you is the only part you really need to focus on.

The pass line

The pass line is the long curved strip running along the outer edge of the player area. It usually has the words "Pass Line" printed on it in big letters. This is where the most popular bet in the game gets made. Almost every player at the table has at least one chip on the pass line at any given time.

The pass line is what is called a self-service bet. You can put your own chips down on it without asking the dealer to do anything. You wait for a moment between rolls, drop a chip on the line in front of you, and you are in. When the bet wins, the dealer pushes your winnings next to your bet and you collect them yourself.

The pass line bet wins on a 7 or 11 on the come out roll, loses on a 2, 3 or 12, and turns into a point bet otherwise. The full mechanics are covered in our pass line article. For our purposes here, all you need to know is that the pass line is the long strip on the outer edge.

The don't pass bar

Just inside the pass line, you will see a thinner strip with the words "Don't Pass Bar" and either "Bar 12" or "Bar 2" printed in it. This is the don't pass area. It is the opposite of the pass line. You bet here when you are betting against the shooter, hoping for the round to lose.

The "Bar 12" or "Bar 2" notation tells you which number is treated as a push on the come out roll for don't pass bets. We get into why that matters in the don't pass article. The short version is that one of those two numbers is taken out of the don't pass equation to keep the math working in the casino's favor.

Don't pass is also a self-service bet. You drop your own chips on the bar. Most players do not bet don't pass, so the bar is usually pretty empty compared to the pass line. If you ever decide to make this bet, you will not have to fight for space.

The come and don't come boxes

Move inward from the pass line and you will see two more boxes. The come box is the big one, usually the largest single box on the layout. It just says "Come" in big letters. Right next to it is a smaller box labeled "Don't Come Bar," with the same "Bar 12" or "Bar 2" notation.

These two boxes are where you make come bets and don't come bets. A come bet works exactly like a pass line bet, except you make it during a round instead of on a come out roll. A don't come bet is the opposite, just like don't pass is the opposite of pass line. We have full articles on the come bet and the don't come bet if you want the full breakdown.

Both of these are self-service bets. You drop your own chips. After the next roll, if your bet establishes a number, the dealer moves it from the come or don't come box to the appropriate place on the layout. From there, the dealer manages it for you until it wins or loses.

The place numbers

Above the come box, running across the top of your end of the table, you will see six big boxes labeled with the numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. The 6 and 9 are usually spelled out as "six" and "nine" so nobody confuses them when the table is upside down to them. These are the place number boxes, sometimes called the point boxes.

These boxes serve two purposes. One, they are where the dealer puts the puck when a point is established. If the come out roll is a 5, the puck flips to the on side and goes on top of the 5 box. That tells everyone the point is 5. Two, these boxes are where dealers track place bets, come bets and a few other bets that ride on specific numbers.

If you want to make a place bet, you do not put your chips in the box yourself. You hand or drop your chips in front of you, near the come line, and tell the dealer "place the 6 for $12" or whatever. The dealer takes your chips and puts them in the right spot in the right box. Where they put your chips inside the box depends on where you are standing, so the dealer can keep track of which bet belongs to which player. Players at the corners get their bets at the corners of the box. Players in the middle get the middle. It is a system, even though it might not look like one. Our article on place bets covers the math and the strategy.

The field

In between the come box and the don't come bar, taking up a big chunk of real estate on each end of the table, is a long box labeled "Field." It usually has the numbers 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12 printed inside it. The 2 and 12 are usually circled or boxed off and have a number next to them, often "2x" or "3x," indicating they pay extra.

The field is a one-roll bet. You put a chip in the field and you are betting that the very next roll will come up as one of the numbers in the box. If it does, you win. If not, you lose. The bet does not carry over. Win or lose, it gets settled on the next throw.

This is also a self-service bet. The field looks tempting because it covers seven different numbers, which seems like a lot, but the math is not quite as friendly as it looks. We get into why in the field bet article. For now, just know what box it is.

The big 6 and big 8

You may or may not see two boxes labeled "Big 6" and "Big 8" in a corner near the pass line. Some tables have them, a lot of newer tables, especially online versions, do not. These are basically place bets on the 6 and 8 with much worse payouts. There is no reason to bet them when you can place the 6 or 8 instead. Casinos started removing them because they were just sucker traps and most knowledgeable players never used them. If your table has them, just pretend they are not there.

The center section, also known as the prop area

Now we get to the part of the table everyone tells you to ignore, and they are right. The center section, between the two wings, is where the proposition bets live. This is a long rectangle running down the middle of the table, and it is run by the stickman, not by the side dealers.

The center section is busy. It usually has boxes for hardways bets, where you bet that a number like 4, 6, 8 or 10 will be rolled the hard way, meaning with both dice showing the same number. It has a row of one-roll prop bets, where you bet on a specific outcome of the very next throw. These include any seven, any craps, the yo (which is 11), the ace deuce (which is 3), the aces (which is 2), and boxcars (which is 12). It might also have a horn bet box and a hop bet area.

The proposition bets are not self-service. You cannot reach across the table and put your chips in the center section. You have to toss your chips toward the stickman and tell him what bet you want. He takes the chips, makes the bet for you, and announces it loudly so the boxman can verify.

I am going to be straight with you. Most of these bets are bad. The house edge on prop bets ranges from about 9 percent on hardways to over 16 percent on some of the one-roll bets. That is way worse than the 1.4 percent you get on the pass line, and far worse than the zero percent on free odds. Tourists and amateurs love the prop bets because the payouts look big. A 30 to 1 payout on a $5 bet sounds great. The reality is that you will lose those bets enough times that you give back all the winnings and then some.

Casinos depend on prop bets. They are a huge part of the table's revenue. The stickman is trained to keep them flowing because every dollar in the prop area is a dollar with a high house edge. When you hear a stickman with a great patter calling out things like "high low yo eleven, get them while they're hot," he is selling. That is his job. Smile at him. Do not give him your money.

The one situation where some prop bets make sense is as a deliberate hedge on a much larger bet, but that gets into territory beyond a beginner's guide. For your first hundred sessions, just leave the center alone.

The dealer's chip rack

On the casino's side of the table, in the middle, you will see a rack full of chips of various denominations. This is the chip bank. The dealers pull chips out of it to pay winners, and they put losing chips back into it. The boxman sits behind it and watches everything that happens.

This is also where you exchange cash for chips when you first walk up. You drop your money on the felt, the dealer pushes it into a slot under the rack to be dropped into the box below the table, and you get an equivalent number of chips back. The dealers and the boxman call this "color change" or "buy in" depending on what you are doing.

The puck

The puck is the round black-and-white disc that lives on the layout. It has two sides. One side says "off" in black letters on white. The other side says "on" in white letters on black. The puck tells everyone at a glance whether the round is in the come out phase (off) or the point phase (on).

When the puck is off, it usually sits in the don't come bar area on the casino's side of the table or in the corner near one of the place number boxes. When a point gets established, the dealer flips the puck and places it on top of the point number box. So if the point is 8, the puck is on the 8 box, on side up. When the point hits or the shooter sevens out, the puck goes back to off and back to its resting spot.

This is more important than it sounds. The puck tells you whether you should be making come out bets or point cycle bets. New players sometimes try to put a chip on the don't pass bar after a point has been established, which is not allowed because the come out roll has already happened. Looking at the puck before you place any bet saves you that mistake. If you are standing at a busy table and you cannot tell what is happening, find the puck first.

How dealers track who bet what

One question new players always ask. The table has 10 or 12 people standing around it, and they all play with the same casino chips. How does the dealer know whose place bet on the 6 belongs to which player?

The answer is position. The dealer puts your chips in a specific spot inside the place box that corresponds to where you are standing at the table. If you are at the corner closest to the dealer, your bet goes in the corner of the box closest to that dealer. If you are at the far end of the table, your bet goes in the far end of the box. Players in the middle get the middle slot.

Each side of the table has space for about seven players, and each place box has seven slots inside it that the dealer mentally maps to those positions. It looks chaotic but the dealers know exactly where every chip is. If you ever get nervous about your bet getting confused with someone else's, do not worry about it. The crew is watching. The boxman is watching. If something goes wrong, it gets sorted out immediately.

How online tables differ

Online craps uses the same basic layout, but with a few practical differences. The layout is usually compressed into a single wing instead of two, since the table is on a screen and there is no other player at the other end of a virtual table to worry about. The center section is still there with all the prop bets, but they are usually more clearly labeled with payouts shown right on the box.

Online tables also tend to have explicit buttons for everything. Place bets, come bets, odds, and even some of the wackier props all have their own clickable areas with numbers showing the payout. Most online versions show you the house edge if you hover over a bet, which is a feature you will never get at a live table. We talk more about the differences in the online vs live craps article.

What to actually use

If you remember nothing else from this tour of the table, remember this. As a beginner, you really only need a few sections of the layout.

The pass line is your main bet. The space behind it, where you would put your free odds, is the second most important bet. The come box is where you make come bets, the natural extension of the pass line. The place boxes for the 6 and 8 are where you can put a small place bet if you want.

That is most of it. Almost everything else, the field, the don't pass, the prop bets in the center, the buy and lay bets, the hardways, you can ignore for your first dozen sessions. They will still be there when you are ready. The simpler your starting strategy is, the better you will play, and the longer your bankroll will last.

The next article in this guide goes into how the come out roll and the point work in more detail, which is the heart of the game's structure. Read it next.

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Read next: The Come Out Roll and the Point