Craps can be an intimidating game for the beginner. The table seems to have about a hundred different kinds of bets, the players are barking out commands in what seems to be a foreign language, and the pace is too fast to ever ask a question. I can sympathize with the beginner, because at one point in time this was how craps appeared to me. They are blackjack, poker, slots, video poker, roulette, craps, bingo and sportsbetting. Each of the glossaries presents casino terms, rules, graphics and an introduction to include strategy tips. Links for these casino money games are provided below. Be sure to check out our page on how to find the best casinos online to win money. Common Phrases In English. Here is a list of 15 commonly used phrases in the English language. These are just some examples, for the full list, use the top menu: A – Phrases. A Chip on Your Shoulder Being angry about something that happened in the past; holding a grudge. A Dime a Dozen When something is extremely common and/or simple to. Craps Terminology - This video introduces the student to some basic terminology used in playing the game of craps. Craps Glossary of Common Terminology, Slang, & Jargon. 3-way Craps – This is a bet made in units of 3 with one unit on 2, one unit on 3, and one unit on 12. This is simply a horn bet without the bet on 11. Aces – This is betting that the next roll will total the number two (snake eyes). Any Craps – You can bet on craps for the next roll.

Just like other casino games, Craps has plenty of terms, slang and jargon that can be heard at the Craps table or around it. Knowing these terms makes the game a little easier to understand and play. Don’t be afraid to ask a fellow player or one of the casino employees about any slang terms you hear at the craps table.

Aces – Betting that the next roll will be the total sum of 2.

Any Craps – A bet that the next roll will be 2, 3, or 12.

Any Seven – A bet that the next roll will be 7.

Arm – Term used to describe a player who is skilled at throwing the dice, sometimes even suggesting that the player can alter the result by the way he throws.

Back Line – same as the Don’t Pass Line.

Betting Right – Pass Line and Come bets.

Betting Wrong – Don’t Pass Line and Don’t Come bets.

Big Eight – Even money bet that an 8 is rolled before a 7.

Big Six – Even money bet that a 6 is rolled before a 7.

Big Red – Betting on any 7 being rolled.

Boxcars – Two 6s.

Boxman – The casino employee who sits behind the table between the two dealers and is in charge of the houses’ chips and overseeing all activity on the table

Buffalo – Betting on all the Hard Ways and Any Seven.

Buy Bets- 5% commission paid to the house so that the correct odds are paid

C &E – One time bet that the next roll will be any craps (2, 3, or 12) or 11.

Capped Dice – non standard, crooked dice which are no longer playable.

Center Bets – Also known as proposition bets, they are placed in the center of the table.

Cold Table – Something every Craps player hates! This table is losing often because shooters are not making points.

Come Bet – wager that the shooter will roll his point

Come Out Roll – The first roll by a shooter, either at the beginning of his turn or after he has made a point.

Craps Out – rolling a craps on the come out roll includes loss of pass line bets

Craps – The name of the game as well as a roll of 2, 3 or 12

Dealer 001f- the two casino employees on the sides of the Boxman who handle placing the bets and payouts

Don’t Come – Betting that the shooter will roll a 7 before he rolls his point.

Don’t Pass Bet – Making a bet against the dice before a Come Out roll.

Don’t Pass Bar – opposite of a Pass Line bet

Double Odds – Doubles the initial Pass Line, Don’t Pass Line, Come, Don’t Come bets.

Easy Way – A dice roll of 4, 6, 8, and 10 with each die having a different number.

Edge – The casino’s advantage over the player.

Even Money – 1:1 payout

Field Bet – A bet on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12.

Floorman – casino employee who stands behind the craps table, dealers with players and credit

Free Odds Bet – Taken at true odds.

Front Line – Same as the Pass Line.

Hard Way- Betting on a 4, 6, 8 or 10 when both dice are the same number

Hi-Lo – One roll bet that the next roll will be a 2 or 12

Hope Bet – Single time bet that the dice will land on specific numbers.

Horn Bet – A bet on 2, 3, 11 and 12 with the same amount.

Horn High Bet – bet amount is split into five parts. Two parts on the high number 12 and three units for the other numbers 2, 3 and 11.

Hot Table – The best kind to play on! A Hot Table will have shooters making points and lots of money for other players. You can always spot these tables by the crowds around them and the noise coming from them.

Inside Numbers – 5, 6, 8 and 9. Used mostly when placing bets dice

Line Bet – Bet on the Pass Line or Don’t Pass Line.

Lay Bet – Betting that a point number will not be rolled before a 7 is thrown

Lay Odds – Additional odds bet against the dice

Layout – painted marks on the felt showing all bets that can be made

Little Joe – A Hard 4 or rolling 2 2s

Loaded dice – dice that are weighted, results in specific rolled numbers

MarkerBuck/Puck- A Plastic disk that the dealers use to mark the point on the Craps table; ‘Off’ or ‘On’.

Midnight – One time roll bet on 12.

Natural – 7 or 11 on the come out roll.

Odds – ratio of an event occurring, generally the amount paid out per winning bet

Off – bets will not be active on the next dice roll.

On – active

One Roll Bets – betting on a single dice roll

Outside Numbers – 4, 5 9, and 10.

Parlay – Using winnings to increase a bet, usually double (let it ride/ press the bet).

Pass Line (Bet) – Betting the dice will win or pass.

Payoff – winnings on a wager

Pit Boss – Casino employee responsible for all craps tables in one area of casino

Place Bet – betting a point number will be thrown before a 7 comes out.

Place Numbers – 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10.

Point – number established on Come Out roll 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10

Point Number – One of the numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 determined on the come out roll.

Press (a Bet) – use winnings to double a bet.

Proposition Bets – Prop Bets – single roll bets and the hardway bet.

Rail – The grooved area along the top of the craps table where chips are kept

Right Bettor – A player who bets that the shooter will make the Point.

Roll- single throw of the dice

Rounding – Payout rounding. Rounding up or down the amount.

Seven Out – When a 7 is thrown after a point has been established and before the point number is rolled again thus ending the shooters turn.

Shooter - The player who is currently rolling the dice.

Snake Eyes – When you roll a two in craps. Each die looks like a snake’s eye

Stickman – A casino employee standing opposite the Boxman who calls out the dice rolls and returns the dice to the shooter, also responsible for the placing and paying the proposition bets.

Toke – A tip given to the dealer usually made on a line or prop bet

The Point – The number established on the come-out roll. Only place numbers (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10) can become the point. The shooter attempts to roll the point number again before throwing a 7 in order to win that round of pass line or come betting.

Three-way Craps – A bet made in units of 3 with one unit on 2, one unit on 3, and one unit on 12.

True Odds- odds a particular number will be rolled on any single dice roll

Unit – bet size used as standard of measurement

Vigorish – or Vig. The casino edge or commission taken by the house.

Working – Bets that are active on any given roll

Whirl Bet – Betting on 2, 3, 7, 11 or 12 with the same amount.

Common Craps Phrases Examples

Wrong Bettor – A player betting the dice will not pass. A player who bets the shooter will not make the point and instead he will Seven-Out.

Yo – The number 11. Also called Yo-leven

As a new player you often wonder at the Craps games table as what the players are saying. Sounds confusing though you attempt to make some sense out of their words and attempt to guess what they are saying and in what language. First thing you should always remember as a new player is that there are many things that are said by the craps crew that do in fact impact the players, and can seriously affect their bets and their bankroll like ‘coming out’; ‘hardways work unless called off’; ‘even up your odds’; ‘down with odds’; ‘no bet’; ‘off and on’ and like ‘your hard six is down’. Also there are many other phrases that might affect your bets on the next roll.

Understanding the words and phrases of the game will help your play, and will save you money. So here are the best 10 phrases in Craps game that can help you understand what the crew is saying and also what you should say to help them assist you in having more fun and more importantly help you make more money.

1. Two ways

Any dealer will tell you that this is the first thing that a new player should learn. When a player makes a bet that is “two ways” they are making a bet for themselves and a bet for the dealers. Casino dealers pay comes from players tips or “tokes.” By tipping the dealers they will take more interest in your overall experience.

2. Working or Off

My bets are off, my hardways are off, my odds are off. By telling your dealer that any or all of your bets are off, they will put a small disc on them to alert the other dealers and security cameras that you want to suspend play on those wagers. When a player tells their dealer that they are working, it means that they want their bets to return to normal play and they will then be at risk. After a player calls his bets off he must tell the dealer they are working when he wants to resume play in that game.

3. Dice out or in the middle

The stickman will announce “dice out” when they send the dice to the shooter. This tells the other dealers and the players that betting should stop and the next toss of the dice is coming. After a dice throw the stickman brings the dice back to “the middle” of the table and that is the time for the players to make their bets on the next throw. If the stickman tells you to bet when the dice are “in the middle” you probably have tried to make a late bet when the dice were “out.”

4. Inside or Outside

The box numbers 5, 6, 8, 9 are the inside numbers. A craps layout shows the box numbers with the low number, 4, on the left and continues to the right going to the highest box number 10. Players that make place bets will often place all the inside numbers. When you make a bet like this you should tell the dealer how much the total bet will be; as in, $22, $44, $110 followed by inside. This tells the dealer how much and where you want your money bet. The box numbers 4, 5, 9, 10 are the outside numbers. As you can see 5 and 9 are considered both inside and outside numbers when they are being bet with either their inside or outside neighbors. Players betting all of the outside numbers should again tell the dealer how much as in $20, $40, $100 followed by outside.

5. Prop bet

Prop bets are the bets that are in the center of the craps layout. They include the hardways or pair bets and other bets on the crap numbers and eleven that are only good for one roll. All of these bets are poor bets for the player and should be avoided.

6. High or heavy

Common Craps Phrases Cheat

Sometimes you might make a bet that includes two or more numbers, and might want to bet more on one or more of them. You will alert the dealer to your intention by saying it will be high or heavy. Some of these phrases might be $34 inside heavy 6 and 8, $5 hard 6 and 8 heavy 6, or horn high 11.

7. To and For

Craps layouts give players a lot of information about the game that is being offered, and when you step up to a table it will serve you well to use the readily available information to your benefit. In the prop bet section that is in front of the stickman the layout lists the pay offs for those bets. These bets will be listed as “to one” or “for one”. These pay offs are not the same. Thirty for one is not equal to thirty to one. This is a trick that some casinos play on players. The bets that pay thirty to one will pay 30 times the bet and the ones that pay thirty for one will pay 29 times the bet. Even if you are a smart player and avoid these bets, this little observation tells you that this casino gives the player a better deal and it is likely that there are other things about this game or casino that you will find to be player friendly.

8. Press

This is a phrase that a player needs to learn and then learn how to avoid using. When a player says press, the dealer will usually increase your bet by a factor of two.

If you say press after a win the dealer will double your bet and hand off the change. Pressing your bets gets more money in action and if the hand continues you will win more when if bet that bet wins again and you will end up short if the hand ends.

The problem with learning how to say press is that you wont know if your guess was correct until the hand ends. You can also use this phrase to instruct the dealer to increase your bet in an amount that will be less than double. By saying “press my bet to” or saying “press my bet one unit” you can give the dealer a clear path to follow to get your bet to the amount that you want.

9. Make my bet look like

Players and dealers use this phrase to describe common betting arrangements quickly and clearly. Here are two easy examples. You are in an extended hand and have pressed some of the place bets that you have. Some of the bets are many units higher than others. The shooter makes the point and you decide that you want your bets to be an even amount on each number that you have had in action. This might mean that some bets might be increased and some might be decreased. If you were to ask the dealer to adjust each bet individually it would be very confusing so you can simply say, “Make my bets look like $44 inside, or $40 outside or perhaps $32 inside no eight. You might be betting on the hardways and during the course of the hand the shooter has thrown some easy numbers causing some of your hardways to lose.

One of your hardway bets happens to hit, and you want to either add to that bet or replace the bets that have lost, you could say, “make my hardways look like $3 each 6 and 8 and $2 each 4 and 10” and the stickman would know exactly what you want and would instruct your dealer to hand off the change less the amount bet.

Common Craps Phrases For Beginners

Both examples are an easy and quick way to get your correct bet down with less delay and less confusion. Hardways bets are not recommended bets because the house has very high edges on them.

10. House Advantage

Learning about the house advantage or edge that each game has will do more for your stake in the game and enjoyment than any other thing that you can learn. There are many bets offered on a craps layout and some are great bets and some are downright awful.

Learning which bets have a lower house advantage and are more player friendly will increase your fun, chance to win and your playing time in the game.

Besides learning these best 10 phrases and using them at Craps table you should note that the dealers are there to help you and the better you are at speaking their language the easier it will be for you to play this great game.

The dealers know that to run the game properly every one of the dealers must be able to communicate precise instructions, pay offs, and other important information, so they have developed a language that helps them to more easily understand each other. Every word or phrase that the dealers use has a purpose and even though you may have been under the impression that they say some of these phrases to entertain the players, and they are quite entertaining sometimes, these phrases do have a higher purpose than their entertainment value.

Some words and especially some numbers sound very much alike since they use common letters in their spelling and apply different prefixes and suffixes to alter their meaning. Some excellent examples of this that affect a craps crew are five, nine, seven, and eleven. These numbers sound alike and have many common letters. During the heat of battle, the stickman must have a way to differentiate these different numbers since a dealer confusing what the stickman has said would create a problem so severe that it would require a United Nations negotiating team to calm all of the players.

Common Craps Phrases List

Remember that with the exception of conversation on a dead or slow game, everything the dealer says is said to either sell the game or to improve the accuracy and the speed of the game. Listen closely to what the dealers say and you will notice the pace and structure they are giving the game and your enjoyment of the game will also increase.

Knowing how to say the bet that you want will make the dealers job easier and will help them keep the game at a good pace, which the other players will also appreciate. Both players and dealers like the game to progress at a good speed and in fact some superstitious players will become very agitated if the game slows down because of a player not using proper etiquette or proper phrases.