I always see the table but have no clue how to play. This should be fun!
Personally it's my favorite table game, so I ended up buying my own felt & chips so that when I play with friends we can try all kinds of nutty combos and nobody loses any real money. Or in the context of a con, I can run a table for hours as a volunteer (no loss, no gain) or take a REAL chance to lose a grand or two in REAL money at a casino.
Anyways, Here's my basic overview of the game:
A: One player (the shooter) has a pair of dice. [It could be you!]
BEFORE the first number gets rolled, you are going to bet whether the shooter
will WIN or LOSE the game.
If you think the shooter will win, you bet your money on Pass. If you
think the shooter will lose, you bet on Don't Pass. Your bet has two
parts to it - one part is a 1-to-1 risk* and another part which pays
EXACTLY FAIR ODDS. Since we don't know how difficult the shooter's game
will be (it depends on what that first roll turns out to be) you add
that second bet to the first bet only after the first number comes out.
Then watch the shooter play and hope that the dice roll the way you
guessed. The average game lasts about 4 or 5 rolls, but there are other
bets you can try in the meantime which are lots of fun.
(*which is a little less than fair odds but that's how the real casinos
pay their bills...)
B: The game works almost like baseball. You can:
a) hit a home run right now,
b) strike out right now, or
c) get on base.
If (c) you get on base you try to make it 'home' before something goes
wrong and the inning ends.
So in craps, the shooter can:
a) win right now (roll 7 or 11)
b) lose right now (roll 2,3 or 12) or
c) make a 'point' (roll any other number.)
If (c) the shooter makes a point then he can win by rolling that number
AGAIN anytime, and the people who bet Pass will win. If the shooter
rolls a 7 though, then he loses and the game ends.
If you had bet Don't Pass then you will win money** because you
correctly guessed that he would fail, and he failed. So you get money
for guessing right. You can even do this as the shooter: guess that you
will crack up, then actually crack up, then win money because you
guessed right.
The shooter passes the dice to the next player when he guesses wrong.
(**except on a 12, when you don't lose, but you don't get a payoff.
That's the other half of how the game less than exactly 50/50 fair.)
If a shooter makes a point, then the game goes on long as the shooter does *not* roll a 7 and does *not* roll the 'point' number. Statistically most games end one way or another in about 4 or 5 rolls, but technically a game could go on forever; recently, the longest run in the world was recorded here in Oregon at Chinook Winds about 10 years ago. One player made a point and then rolled every number EXCEPT his point and 7 - for NINETY THREE MINUTES. And he won!
The casino paid out about $281,000 off all the other Come bets and Place bets (some of those 'in the meantime' games I mentioned that you get to play while waiting for the shooter to win or lose.
And just like Don't Pass, they have their opposites: Don't Come and Don't Place, but very few people play those.)
C: If the game has a table limit (minimum bet on the pass line) then you
should have 50x to 100x that amount in gaming chips to burn. At a real
casino with $10 min tables you will get to play about 105 rolls per
hour, and if you play basic strategy you will lose about $4.28 per hour
on average but you will go way up and way down all the while - it's a
real rollercoaster ride.
