Dice Mechanics Craps

Posted By admin On 02/04/22

When it comes to the mechanics of a dice toss, one of the more frequent questions I am asked is what dice sets do I personally use during a craps game. While I may not quite be the expert in the art of set selection as the Dice Coach, I do have specific selections of dice sets which I use with complete confidence. The controlled throwing of dice is a physical skill which requires hours of practice to master. It is not easy and some players never master it. Perfecting a controlled throw is not enough to guarantee regular wins at the craps table. You will also need to learn how to bet properly to take advantage of your edge.

  1. Dice Mechanics Craps Machines
  2. Dice Mechanics Craps
Craps dice

Dice Mechanics Craps Machines

Playing craps online and Bitcoin craps is the same with the craps played in land-based casinos. The game mechanics are the same. The game mechanics are the same. Online craps lets you take advantage of the features such as tutorials and customer support whenever you need assistance or encounter difficulties. When I teach statistical thermodynamics or quantum mechanics, I analyze craps on the first day of class. I arrive early and kneel in a corner of the room, throwing dice against the wall. As students come in, I invite them over for a game. It's a little creepy, but by the time class begins the students know the rules and are ready to start. You can also learn about dice control from Frank Scoblete and Dominator’s best-selling book, Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution. The book contains over 90 photographs that explain the mechanics and technique of dice control (available at amazon.com or in bookstores).

The following is a glossary of terms used in the dice game craps. Besides the terms listed here, there are many common and uncommon craps slang terms.[1][2][3]

A[edit]

ace deuce
A roll of 3

B[edit]

Big Red
The number 7 or a bet for any 7 to appear
bones
A slang term for the dice
box numbers
The place numbers (4,5,6,8,9,10)
boxcars
A roll of or bet on 12

C[edit]

center field
Nine, often called Center Field Nine
change only
when a player buys into a game specifically with cash, the 'only' means no bets are being placed at the time of the buy in. Can also be used when a player colours in. (Dealers will say this out loud so that a player can't take a shot and say he wanted a bet on X.)
Cheque change
Breaking down a chip into smaller denomination chips.
colour up
The process of changing denominations of chips to larger denominations
cold dice
also known as a cold table; an expression used when players are not hitting the established point and sevening out
come out
1. The initial roll of the shooter
2. To roll the dice when no point has been established[4]
crap out
To roll a 2, 3, or 12 on the come out roll. A player betting on the Pass line or Come loses on crap out, but the roll does not lose when a point is established. Don't Pass and Don't Come wins if a 2 or 3 craps is rolled on come out, but ties (pushes) if a 12 is rolled on come out. The shooter may continue rolling after crapping out.
craps
the numbers 2, 3, and/or 12

D[edit]

double pitch
In dice control, when the dice stay on axis which rarely occurs (less than 5% of the rolls), but one turns two faces more than the other. If players set the dice with the same face, such as a hard ways or 3V set, the roll may likely result in a seven.
down
To remove or reduce a bet, players often say 'take it down'

E[edit]

easy way
Rolling an even number with any combination other than doubles. Applies to 4, 6, 8, and 10 only.
even money
Any bet that pays out at 1:1.

F[edit]

fever five
A roll of 5, also called five fever
free odds
Simply known as odds, is the odds which can be taken or laid behind the Pass/Come or Don't Pass/Don't Come. These are paid at true odds.
flea
A player who bets at or near table minimum, normally for extended periods of time; very annoying.
Craps

G[edit]

Dice
garden
Slang for the field bet
George
A good tipper

H[edit]

hard way
Rolling a 4, 6, 8, 10 with a pair of the same number
hi-lo
a single roll bet for 2 or 12
hi-lo-yo
a single roll bet for 2, 11, or 12
high
A bet on or roll of 12, also see boxcars
hop
A single roll bet for a specific combination of dice to come out. Pays 15:1 for easy ways and 30:1 for hard ways
horn
A divided bet on the 2, 3, 11, 12
horn high
A horn bet with addition units going to a specific number. For example 'horn high ace deuce' would generally mean a 5 unit bet with 2 units going on the 3.
hot dice
also known as a hot table; an expression used when players are hitting the established points or rolling for long durations without seven outs

I[edit]

inside numbers
betting on the 5, 6, 8, 9

L[edit]

lay
To bet on a seven to come before a specific point number. Lays are paid at true odds with commission taken.
lay odds
To give odds behind a Don't Pass or Don't Come. Betting against the shooter
Little Joe
Point 4
low
a single roll bet for a 2

M[edit]

mechanic
A shooter who allegedly implements dice control

N[edit]

natural
Rolling a 7 or 11 on the come out roll
Nina
Rolling or betting on a 9

O[edit]

Off
1. The come out roll; when no point has been established
2. To have a bet on the table but not in play. The bet can not be won from or lost when it is Off.
On
1. When a point has been established
2. A bet that is in play (working).
outside numbers
betting on the 4, 5, 9, 10

P[edit]

parley
To parley a bet is to take all the winnings from the previous bet (or up to maximum allowed for bet if winnings exceed maximum) and add it to the next bet.
press
To double a bet, players generally say 'press it' when doubling a bet, players can also press an additional one or more units and can increase the bet less than the original bet by saying 'press X units'
push
a tie

S[edit]

same bet
To keep the previous winning bet as is. If a player says same bet it does not mean to double the bet, that is referred to as 'pressing it'
seven out
A roll of 7 when the point is On. All bets on Pass, Pass Odds, Come, Come Odds, Place bets, Buy bets, hard ways and any single roll bets not for a seven loses. All bets on Don't Pass, Don't Pass Odds, Don't Come, Don't Come Odds, Lay bets and any single roll bets for a seven wins.
snake eyes
A roll of 2
stroker
A player who makes bets overly complicated and/or gives dealers unnecessary additional work

T[edit]

Craps
take odds
To bet odds behind a Pass or Come. Betting with the shooter[5]
take down
See down
true odds
The real odds for payout where house edge is 0%

W[edit]

working
A bet which is in play and can be won or lost.
whirl
A five-unit bet that is a combination of a horn and any-seven bet, with the idea that if a seven is rolled the bet is a push, because the money won on the seven is lost on the horn portions of the bet. The combine odds are 26:5 on the 2, 12, 11:5 on the 3, 11, and a push on the 7.
world
See whirl
wrong way bettor
When a person is betting against the shooter on the Don't Pass Line.

Y[edit]

yo
A roll or bet on 11 (6-5, 5-6), short for Yo-leven

References[edit]

  1. ^'Craps Lingo'. readybetgo.com. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
  2. ^'Craps Etiquette and Lingo Casino Gambling Game Rules and Strategy Guide'. VegasTripping.com. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
  3. ^Jack Botermans (2008). The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History. Sterling. pp. 545–. ISBN978-1-4027-4221-7.
  4. ^Craps A Smart Shooters Guide. Cardoza Publishing. pp. 24–. ISBN978-1-58042-576-6.
  5. ^R. D. Ellison (2001). Gamble to Win: Craps. Lyle Stuart, Kensington Publishing Corporation. pp. 42–. ISBN978-0-8184-0621-8.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glossary_of_craps_terms&oldid=990984607'
(BlueHeron)

Dice Mechanics Craps

First of all, apologizes for the long delay since my last post. Since I wrote my piece on board game literacy, I have found myself torn on what to talk about next. Part of me wanted to write about other important questions that designers face and part of me wanted to keep coming back to the idea of literacy. Eventually, I realized that way back in the earlier days of writing for Morning Table Talk, I had done a post on bluffing games and a post on cooperative games and then it hit me, I should talk about mechanics. Part of my discussion about board game literacy was on how the ability to recognize and utilize mechanics effectively while playing a game is key to obtaining this literacy so it occured to me to continue the discussion on mechanics including what games have them and what makes up those mechanics.
As I write these posts, I’m going to try and present the most widely known and simplest mechanics first and then move into the rarer and more complex mechanics later on. This ordering will be based on my experiences as well as some of my personal thoughts and should be taken into account while reading the coming posts. I will try to cover as many key mechanics as I can but as games are made everyday there are new mechanics and new uses for old mechanics.
So without further ado, let us dive into one of the simplest and oldest mechanics in games: rolling dice. Dice themselves have been evident for as far as we have records of board games starting with the Royal Game of Ur. There are also a ton of modern games that use dice ranging including Craps, Yahtzee, Affectionate: Cats and Cuddles, Roll For It!, Dice of Crowns, as well as pen and paper RPG games like Dungeons and Dragons and wargames such as Warmachine and Hordes. This modest list doesn’t even include games that use dice as counters, as oft used by Magic the Gathering players, or as extra game pieces such as Praetor.
To help showcase the mechanic of rolling dice in games, I will showcase 3 games: Parcheesi, Affectionate: Cats and Cuddles, and Settlers of Catan and showcase how they use dice. The reason these 3 games were chosen is because each of them use dice as a core part of their game but do different things with the dice themselves. Parcheesi is a very simple racing game where players race to get all of their pieces out of their home base and to a specific set of goal spaces with a players moving their pieces rolling by two dice. Affectionate: Cats and Cuddles is one of our games were you try to gather the most cuddle tokens by the time there are none left in the middle. In Affectionate, the way the players take actions is by rolling a pair of dice and seeing what the combination of their dice is and then taking that action. Last and certainly not least, Settlers of Catan is a modern classic where players try to earn victory points by gathering resources and building settlements, roads,and cities. In Catan, dice are used to randomly generate resources if a player is adjacent to the tile whose number was rolled. As a note, there are many other games that also use dice rolling as a main mechanic but several of those games have additional mechanics that will be discussed in further detail.
One reason rolling dice is in a game is to provide a random chance that something will happen and that the random chance of things happening is consistent turn from turn. Basically, with Parcheesi, Affectionate, and Catan the player understands that the chance to roll a certain number or combination is the same every turn. This is important for dice games because if the designer wanted the chance of something happening to change every turn then there are other methods of randomness that could be used including a deck of cards or a bag of tiles. By providing a consistent random chance that things could happen players can plan and attempt to anticipate what the potential options will be on their turn (or as they wait for their turn).
Coupled with the need for random chance is that there is a distribution of different combinations that are more likely than others. For instance with two standard six-sided (2d6) dice the most likely number to roll is a 7 while it is highly unlikely to roll a 2 or 12. For several games, this idea of probability factors into the design of the game as well as the player’s decisions. For instance in Catan, players have to choose where to build their settlements since the way they acquire resources is through dice rolls matching the tiles they are adjacent to. This probability distribution makes some resources rarer and/or some tiles more valuable based on their number since with rolling dice some numbers are more probable than others. In Parcheesi this concept of a distributed probability takes an interesting turn since whenever a player rolls doubles ( two 1s, 2s, 3s, etc) they make an extra set of moves based on the numbers on the bottom of the dice (6, 5, and 4 respectively). This bonus to a relatively rare roll adds tension and excitement for the player. In Affectionate, the actions that are extra special are also the actions that a player is least likely to roll (these being doubles).
A final major component with the dice rolling mechanics is that there needs to be a positive and a negative consequence in rolling the dice. This positive and negative aspect adds tension and excitement to each roll as players hope to get a desired set of results. Without this dichotomy, players could find themselves wondering why they are rolling dice or what it even adds to the game. In Parcheesi, this positive and negative aspect comes from a need to roll a specific number to move one’s pieces onto the main track and to need an exact number to score in the score track at the end of the board. If for instance the require value is not rolled on either dice, the player cannot start moving until they get the required value. With Affectionate, there are positive, neutral, and negative rolls that either force players to lose cuddle tokens to the middle, gain tokens that could be used for rerolls, or take cuddle tokens from the middle. This difference in actions always gives players something to do but indicates that there are some options they would prefer over others. In Catan what players want to roll and what is good depends on the tiles that they are trying to gain resources from. When a 7 is rolled in Catan, instead of gathering resources the current player moves a token called the robber which allows the player to steal resources based on where the robber is moved from another player and block all resources from being generated on that tile. This means that the 7 can be either a desired result similar to other resource generation or a undesired result when a player wants a specific resource or to not be targeted for stealing. Lastly, the need for resources drives which values are desired and not in Catan adding onto the tension of the robber as well.
In conclusion, there are 3 main features that make up the dice rolling mechanic in games. First, the need or want for consistent randomness in a game. Second, a distinct distribution of probabilities ranging from likely to unlikely to help the player plan on what could happen. Finally, with dice rolling mechanics there needs to be a positive and a negative result to help provide tension and a desired result for the players.
Hopefully this gives you something to think about this fine day and may the dice be in your favor.