Craps Dice Combinations Chart
- Craps Dice Combinations Chart Printable
- Craps Dice Combinations Chart Template
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Craps is some of the most fun you’ll have in the casino. However, if you want to be an educated craps player, you’ll need to understand some of the probability and odds involved with rolling a pair of dice.
Craps Dice Combinations Chart Printable
When you’re at the craps tables, it won’t take you long to find someone using this set as it’s another popular set to use after the point has been established. The dice set shows only 6s and 8s on all 4 sides of the dice (Hard 6 & 8 on top & bottom and soft 8 & 6 on the front & back) and sports only 2 sevens if the dice stay on axis. Provided that you use two dice, you can roll eleven different numbers, namely 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. It follows that the number of possible combinations is equal to 6 x 6 = 36 as each of the two dice used in craps has six sides. Each throw of the two dice will result in one of these eleven numbers coming out. The probability of dice combinations determines the odds of the payout. The following chart shows the dice combinations needed to roll each number. The two and twelve are the hardest to roll since only one combination of dice is possible. The game of craps is built around the dice roll of seven, since it is the most easily rolled dice combination. The number of possible combinations on a pair of dice is what the game is built around. That’s also the subject of this post: how the dice combinations work in a game of craps. What Combinations Are There? Each die has six sides, and they’re numbered from 1 through 6, using dots.
Craps is always played with two dice, each of which is shaped like a cube less than an inch wide. Unlike the dice you’ll buy at your local game store for board games or RPGs, the dice used in craps have sharp edges and pointed corners.
Craps dice are also bigger than the dice you’ll find in a game like Yahtzee or Monopoly. Most of the time, a casino will imprint their logo on the dice they’re using, too. The dice are red, but they’re also translucent, so you can see that there are no weights attached.
Craps shooters often get on hot streaks. If a shooter gets on too hot a streak, the boxman will pause the game to examine the dice to make sure there’s no funny business going on.
The number of possible combinations on a pair of dice is what the game is built around. That’s also the subject of this post: how the dice combinations work in a game of craps.
What Combinations Are There?
Each die has six sides, and they’re numbered from 1 through 6, using dots. If you add the numbers on opposite sides of the dice together, you always get seven. So the 1 and the 6 are opposite each other, the 2 and the 5 are opposite each other, and the 3 and the 4 are opposite each other.
You have a total of 36 possible combinations – you have six possible combinations on one die and six possible combinations on the other die. Out of these 36 possible combinations, you have 11 possible totals.
Here are the possibilities:
- A total of 2, which can be made up of only one combination: a 1 on each die
- A total of 3, which can be made up of two different combinations: a 1 on the first die and a 2 on the second die; or a 2 on the first die and a 1 on the second die
- A total of 4, which can be made up of three different combinations: 1 – 3, 2 – 2, 3 – 1
- A total of 5, which can be made up of four different combinations: 1 – 4, 2 – 3, 3 – 2, 4 – 1
- A total of 6, which can be made up of five different combinations: 1 – 5, 2 – 4, 3 – 3, 4 – 2, 5 – 1
- A total of 7, which can be made up of six different combinations: 1 – 6, 2 – 5, 3 – 4, 4 – 3, 5 – 2, 1 – 6
- A total of 8, which can be made up of five different combinations: 2 – 6, 3 – 5, 4 – 4, 5 – 3, 6 – 2
- A total of 9, which can be made up of four different combinations: 3 – 6, 4 – 5, 5 – 4, 6 – 3
- A total of 10, which can be made up of three different combinations: 4 – 6, 5 – 5, 6 – 4
- A total of 11, which can be made up of two different combinations: 5 – 6, 6 – 5
- A total of 12, which be made up of only one combination: a 6 on each die
If you look at this closely, you’ll notice that it makes a symmetrical bell curve. Also, the number of combinations that create a specific total can be divided by 36 to get the probability of getting that total.
A Note on Probability
Probability is a way to measure how likely it is that an event will occur. For our purposes, an event is a total on two dice.
Probability is just a ratio comparing the number of ways something can happen with the total number of possible events.
If you want to know the probability of rolling a 7, you just divide the number of ways you can get a 7 (there are six ways) by the total number of possibilities (36).
Six divided by 36 is the same as 1/6, which is also the same at 16.67%.
When it comes to craps, it’s often useful to use odds as your preferred format for expressing probability. To do that, you just compare the number of ways something can’t happen with the number of ways it can. For example, the odds of rolling a 7 are 5 to 1. They’re actually 30 to six, but you reduce, just like you would a fraction.
You can compare the probability of winning a bet with the payout odds to see what kind of mathematical edge your land-based casino has on a specific bet.
Craps Dice Combinations Chart Template
This is the beginning of craps wisdom.
The Point Numbers
The point numbers are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10.
The 5 and the 9 have four possible combinations, and the 6 and the 8 have five possible combinations.
The odds of a 7 coming up before a 4 is easy to calculate. You have six possible combinations totaling 7 versus three possible combinations totaling 4.
That’s 2 to 1 odds.
The odds are the same for rolling a 10.
The odds of a 7 coming up before a 5 (or a 9) are six versus four, or 3 to 2 odds.
The odds of a 7 coming up before a 6 (or an 8) are six versus five, or 6 to 5 odds.
When the shooter makes a point, it’s his job to roll that point total again before rolling a 7.
Now, you know the odds that he’ll succeed.
Proposition Bets
One of the worst bets you can make at a craps table is a proposition bet. This is usually a bet on a specific total on the next roll. Depending on the number, the odds might look like the following examples.
If you’re looking at a 2 (snake eyes), the odds of winning are 35 to 1.
If you’re looking at a 12, you face the same odds.
If you’re looking at a 3, the odds of winning are 17 to 1. The same holds true for a total of 11.
If you’re betting on “any 7,” the odds of winning are 5 to 1.
If these bets paid off at those odds, you’d be facing a house edge of zero. If you played long enough, you’d break even or come close to tie.
But the casino isn’t in the business of breaking even. It’s in the money of making a profit.
That’s why they set the payouts for these proposition bets much lower than the odds of winning them.
If you bet on the shooter rolling a 2, you face 35 to 1 odds. If you win, though, you only get a 30 to 1 payout.
Statistically, 36 bets of $100 each would mean losing $3500 on your 35 losing rolls and winning $3000 on your one winning roll.
Your net loss is $500.
Average that out by 36 rolls of the dice, and you’ve lost an average of $13.89 per bet or 13.89% of your action.
That’s the house edge, and it’s a huge number.
The “any 7” bet is another proposition bet which is always a one-roll bet, by the way. It’s a bet that the total will be 7 on the next roll.
The odds of winning this one are 5 to 1, but the payout is only 4 to 1.
You can calculate the house edge on this bet easily, too.
Assume six perfect rolls betting $100 each.
You’ll lose five of those bets for a total of $500 lost.
On the one bet you win, you’ll get a $400 payout.
Your net loss over six rolls of the dice is $100.
Divide that by six, and you can see that the house edge on the any 7 bet is 16.67%.
The pass line bet has a house edge of 1.41%.
On average, over enough rolls of the dice, you should lose $1.41 every time you place a $100 bet on the pass line.
But if you bet that same $100 on any 7, you’d lose $16.67.
Which one of those sounds like the better bet to you?
Conclusion
That’s as good an introduction to the dice combinations in craps as you’ll find. Once you understand the math in this blog post, you can figure out everything you need to know about every bet at the table.
Craps Dice Combinations Chart Free
The Odds: Numbers
Since craps is a game of chance, you need to understand why you have a greater or lesser chance of rolling different numbers. Because you're rolling two dice, your chances of rolling a specific number in craps are determined by the number of die combinations that can add up to that number. For example, 2 can only be rolled with two 1s, but 4 can be rolled with either a 1 and a 3 or two 2s. That means you have twice the chance of rolling a 3 as you do a 2. Because the 7 has the greatest number of combinations (six), it is the number that has the potential to come up most often, which is why 7 is the magic number in craps.
There are 36 possible number combinations in craps. Here is a chart showing the possible combinations for each number using two die.
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From the chart, you can see that the most likely number you'll roll is a 7, followed by the 6 and the 8, then 5 and 9, then 4 and 10, then 3 and 11, and finally (and least likely) the 2 and the 12. This means you'll roll a 7 once out of every six rolls, a 6 or an 8 once out of every 7 to 8 rolls, and so on.
Odds for Each Number
By looking at the possible combinations, the 'true odds' for each number can be established. Knowing the odds in craps is good so you have a feel for the likelihood of one number being rolled before another one (e.g., is the 4 going to be rolled before the 7?).
House Edge
Now, true odds are not what the casino pays you unless you're also betting 'free odds' on top of your main bet. Free odds, which is an additional wager you place with your original line bet, pay true odds so the casino's edge is reduced. (We'll talk more about free odds in Strategies the Winners Use.)
To better explain how the casino edge works, let's take the example of flipping a coin. You have a 50/50 chance of the coin landing on heads, and a 50/50 chance of it landing on tails. If that were a bet on which you were being paid true odds, you would be paid even money. The casino, however, has to have an edge in order to make a profit on the game. So, the payoff for any given bet is less than what true mathematical odds would dictate. For example, on a bet that had true odds of 1:1, you would think that if you bet $1 and win, you would be paid $1 in winnings. But in a casino, depending on the bet, you might only be paid $.96. The difference between the true odds and what they pay you is how they make money -- it's called casino odds.
Another way to better understand casino odds versus true odds is to look at the definition of the casino (or house) edge. WizardOfOdds.com defines it as, 'The ratio of the average loss to the initial bet,' going on to explain that it's based on the original wager rather than the average wager so that players can have an idea of how much they are going to lose when they place a bet. For example, by knowing that the casino has a 1.41 percent edge in craps, you can know that you'll be losing 14.1 cents for every $10 bet.
For charts of odds for all types of bets, visit the Wizard of Odds.com.
On the next page, we'll talk about types of craps bets, their odds and what the casino pays for each.