Learn how to Play Street Craps

Street Craps

Street craps is essentially casino craps’ illicit, shifty and slightly scary older brother and unsurprisingly, street craps gets its name from the fact that it’s usually played in alleys or narrow streets. While it’s commonly associated with the Bronx and, as we have suggested, the slightly criminal underbelly of society, street craps between friends (no, that’s not a euphemism) can be both fun and enjoyable, which is why we’ll be helping you learn to play street craps in today’s blog post.

One of the main advantages of street craps is that you don’t have to worry about a variety of different bets and the house edge each one entails. You won’t find Big 6 and Big 8 bets in a typical game of street craps, which means you don’t have to worry about the casino gaining a huge mathematical advantage over you (see our best odds of winning in a casino post for more details on good and bad craps bets). However, street craps is illegal in most countries, so the groups you’ll find playing it in public might not be a particularly amiable bunch of people. If you’re thinking of playing street craps, we recommend you play with friends, not with people you don’t know and in a safe and legal enviroment. Anyway, now we’ll discuss the rules of street craps:

Street Craps Rules

To begin with, the group must assign someone to be the shooter. Much like in casino craps, the shooter is the person who rolls the dice. The nominated shooter then must place a Pass Line/Don’t Pass Line bet, which in street craps becomes a two part bet. This is where most new players become confused, so make sure to pay attention:

On the come out roll (the first roll a shooter makes) a Pass Line bet is a wager that either 7 or 11 will be rolled by the shooter, whereas a Don’t Pass Line wager presumes that a 2, 3 or 12 will be rolled. If a point number is established (any number other than 7, 11, 2, 3 or 12) then the Pass Line becomes a bet on the point number being rolled again once it’s been established (and rolled before a 2, 3 or 12).

On the other hand, the Don’t Pass Line wager becomes a bet on the shooter rolling a 2, 3 or 12 before the point number is rolled again. For more information on these bets, we recommend you consult our craps glossary. In casino craps, the first step of Pass Line/Don’t Pass Line bet is typically referred to as a Come/Don’t Come bet, but in street craps this latter term is abolished, which is why new players are often confused by the changing wagers.

Covering Street Craps Bets

Once the shooter has chosen their bet, the rest of the players must ‘cover’ the bet. This means that they must all contribute part of their bankroll so that the shooter’s original bet is backed up. If the bet isn’t covered, then the shooter can’t roll; it’s that simple. Once the bet has been covered, players can then begin placing their own Pass/Don’t Pass bets and wager against each other.

After the shooter’s been established and bets have been covered, the game is free to begin and the shooter will roll the come out roll. If the shooter rolls a 7 or 11 then all of the Pass bets are won. However, if they roll craps, which is 2, 3 or 12, then the Don’t Pass Line bettors win. If any other number is rolled (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10) then this becomes the point number. The game then continues, following the Pass Line/Don’t Pass Line bet rules we established earlier, until either the point number is rolled again, or craps is.

Do you have any advice about playing street craps? If so, please do leave a comment!