As we know from our article on basic craps math, there are 36 possible combinations when using two six-sided dice. Notice that the Field bet covers all the numbers 2 through 12. And notice that the total number of ways to make the winning numbers plus ways to make the losing numbers equals 36 (i.e., 16 + 20 = 36). So your win on each Place Number is $21 minus $10 for the Field Bet loss, a net of $11, and your win on the Field Bet is $10, except on the 2 or 12 they pay you double or triple. Eliminating the 5 reduces your risk from $61 to just $46 and requires just 5 hits to enter the profit zone. Most of you are well acquainted with it. You make Place bets on the Five, Six, and Eight plus a bet in the Field. The Field bet covers the Two, Three, Four, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve. You’ll sometimes see urban players running a similar strategy using the Big 6-8 bet instead of Place betting the Six and Eight.

• Playing The Field Craps
• Craps Field Numbers

Craps is one of the most popular table games in Las Vegas. We found 243 installations of the game at 65 casinos in the market for our 2021 Las Vegas Table Games Survey. Nearly all Las Vegas casinos with tables offer the game. Some smaller locals casinos do not deal the game, or it is only available at peak hours.

Related: Las Vegas crapless craps survey

Minimum craps bet and odds for Las Vegas craps

The section below is broken up into three sections. It is sorted by the expected minimum bet. Note that this may be higher during busier hours. The games are then sorted by the odds available at the table and whether the field pays double or triple on 12.

Playing The Field Craps

$5

$10

Las Vegas craps tables that pay triple on field 12

Many Las Vegas casinos only pay double on the field when a 12 is rolled. There are 35 where the field pays triple on 12. This cuts the field’s house edge in half. The list below shows where those games are found. Odds are 3-4-5x unless otherwise noted.

How to play craps

A craps game starts with a come out roll. The player making this roll must make a bet that meets the table minimum on either the pass line or don’t pass. The stickman pushes the dice to this player and there is a roll. The dice must hit the back wall to count.

If the come out roll is a 7 or 11, the pass line wins and the don’t pass loses. The don’t pass wins on a 2 or 3, while the pass line loses. On a 12, the pass line loses and the don’t pass bet pushes. This is the house roll. Any of these rolls are followed by another come out with the same shooter.

If the roll is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, the number becomes the point. Players may place odds behind the line bet. The pass line wins if this number is rolled before a 7. If a 7 is rolled before the point, the don’t pass wins.

How craps odds work

All Las Vegas casinos offer odds on pass line and don’t pass bets. Come and don’t come bets also have odds available. These are the best deal in the house. There is no house edge on odds bets at a craps table. If a game allows double odds, the player may place double the amount of the pass line bet or lay to win up to double the amount from the don’t pass side. The payback depends on the number.

• 4 and 10: 2:1
• 5 and 9: 3:2
• 6 and 8: 6:5

A player that takes odds on a 4 from the pass line wins double the odds amount if that number comes before a 7. It loses if a 7 is first. From the don’t pass, the player would lay double the amount to be won.

If the come out roll is a 4, and the player bet $5, the pass line max odds is $10. If the 4 comes before a 7, the $5 pass line bet wins, as well as $20 on the $10 odds. The bets are returned to the player, too. From the don’t pass, the player would be able to lay $20 to win $10 on the odds. A 7 coming before the 4 would pay the $20 odds $10 and $5 on the don’t pass.

At a 3-4-5 times odds tables, the maximum odds win is six times the pass line bet for every number. On a $5 bet, the player could bet $15 on 4 and 10, $20 on 5 and 9 and $25 on 6 and 8. Each of the bets wins $30 if the point is rolled before a 7. From the don’t pass, the player can lay $30 on any of those numbers and win the amount the pass line would have bet. For example, on a 4 point, the player could lay $30 to win $15. This bet wins if the 7 comes before the point. It loses if the point is rolled first.

Other craps bets

The craps felt is covered with different types of bets. These are the ones you will find in every Las Vegas casino:

Field

Field is a one-roll bet. The player wins on a 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 12. The field pays double on 2. The 12 either pays double or triple on 12, depending on the casino.

Place

A place bet is made on one of the six numbers that can be points. The bettor would like that number to come before a 7. The payouts at 9:5 on 4 and 10, 7:5 on 5 and 9 and 7:6 on 6 and 8.

Buy

A buy bet is like a place bet except it has a different payout. The player pays 5% on the bet in commission. It is generally available on 4 and 10. The house will often give the player a free buy on bets of $20 or more.

Hardways

The hardways are the sets of doubles in the middle of the table. These bets pay out if the hardway is rolled before an easy way or a 7. The hard 4 and 10 pay 7:1. Hard 6 and 8 pay 9:1.

Any craps

Any craps is a one-roll bet. It pays 9:1 if a 2, 3 or 12 is rolled.

Hop bets

Hop bets are one-roll bets. These are an exact calling of the dice rolled. Hardways pay 30:1. All other rolls pay 15:1. The 2, 3, 11 and 12 are often shown on the table. Many houses will let the player hop any dice combination.

Las Vegas craps FAQ

Can I play $1 craps in Las Vegas?

Club Fortune in Henderson deals $1 craps with 3-4-5 times odds.

Can I play $5 craps on the Las Vegas Strip?

Sahara deals $5 craps during slow times. Otherwise, Las Vegas Strip craps starts at $10 and higher.

What are the best craps odds in Las Vegas?

The Cromwell on the Strip offers 100 times odds. Sam’s Town has 20 times odds. Main Street Station likely will when it reopens.

Does the field pay triple on 12 in Las Vegas?

About half of Las Vegas casinos, including all MGM properties, pay triple on 12 on field bets. The full list is in a section on this page.

The Craps Mini Field-Place System Tested
by Steve “Heavy” Haltom

Regardless of the fact that no system out there will beat a negative expectation game over the long run, articles about betting systems and strategies seem to get far more positive comments from readers than any other articles we publish. For that reason, in this article we’re going to focus on none other than with the infamous Field-Place System. Sold in magazines, bookstores, and on-line under dozens of different names for sixty years or more, the Field-Place System is one of the oldest strategies around. These days a popular variant is called the Iron Cross. Barstow used to call a similar strategy the Treadmill, which in itself should tell you what he thought of it. It’s been marketed as the 87% System, the Anything but Sevens System, the Fremont Street Grind, and under at least a dozen more names – many of which I won’t mention here because they were the names the players came up with for this play after investing hundreds of dollars in it and losing thousands more.

The play itself is relatively simple. Most of you are well acquainted with it. You make Place bets on the Five, Six, and Eight plus a bet in the Field. The Field bet covers the Two, Three, Four, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve. You’ll sometimes see urban players running a similar strategy using the Big 6-8 bet instead of Place betting the Six and Eight. These guys like the “self-service” bets like the Big 6-8 and the Field and play more of an intuitive game than most of us. Irregardless, the idea is to cover every number on the dice except the Seven. It’s better to make two unit bets on the place action and one unit bets in the Field but you can play it at the one unit level, which is what we’re talking about here when we discuss the “Mini Field-Place System.” You risk four units total and you are guaranteed some sort of a win (or a push on the urban version assuming the player also places the five) on every toss – unless that Seven shows. For players who first “discover” this system it’s often some sort of a “Eureka!” moment. They believe they’ve found the Dutchman’s Lost Mine. Then they take it to the table and learn the truth about Fool’s Gold.

Craps Field Numbers

How do the payouts work in this play? Let’s assume a $5 game that pays double on the Two and triple on the Twelve in the Field. You’ll have to wager $6 each on the Six and Eight Place bets but can get by with $5 on the Five and in the Field, so your total wager will be $22. Now, you could take that same $22 and bet $22 inside, but you’d only get paid if an inside number rolled. Remember, the Field-Place System, which we’re playing at the table minimum, gets you paid on every decision unless the seven rolls. Here are the payouts:

Two Rolls – Pays $10 in the Field
Three Rolls – Pays $5 in the Field
Four Rolls – Pays $5 in the Field
Five Rolls – Lose the $5 Field bet – win $7 for the Place bet – Net Win $2
Six rolls – Lose the $5 Field Bet – win $7 for the Place bet – Net Win $2
Eight rolls – Lose the $5 Field Bet – win $7 for the Place bet – Net Win $2
Nine Rolls – Pays $5 in the Field
Ten Rolls – Pays $5 in the Field
Eleven Rolls – Pays $5 in the Field
Twelve Rolls – Pays $15 in the Field

So far the math looks great on this system. It’s all win win win – pay pay pay. Of course, on your two strongest numbers – the Six and the Eight – your wins are diluted by your loss in the Field. The loss on the win on the Five Place bet in the Field also dilutes the win there. Those diluted payoffs – combined with the frequency at which the Seven rolls in relation to the other numbers – turn this into a negative expectation strategy. On average, for every 36 rolls of the dice you’ll win $123, but you’ll also lose $132. That’s a $9 loss over 36 rolls, or .25 cents a roll for those of you who are struggling with Common Core math.

Of course, what the system player is looking for is enough variance in the game to put him ahead so that he can walk away with a win. He may approach the game with a number in mind – say to win $150. But to get the kind of variance he needs on a dollar per dollar basis he can’t rely on volatility alone. So he has to increase his bet size. Instead of betting $5 on the Five and $6 on the Six and Eight he tests out different amounts. Say $50 on the Five, $60 on the Six and Eight and $25 in the Field. The logic is that he’s always assured of getting green chips in his payout so he’ll reach that $150 win objective quicker. The problem is that variance is a two-edged sword. To front that sort of average bet he needs a session bankroll of $1500 instead of $150. The stack of quarters extracted from every decision adds up quickly. And don’t forget – you only WIN one bet at a time. When the Seven shows ALL of those bets lose. I recall standing next to a guy who was playing the system at this level once. He was loudly bragging to everyone at the table how great it was as he locked up a full rail of green chips. Then he started to get quiet as the chips began to migrate back to the other side of the table. In the end he gave it all back plus what he bought in for – and went back to the ATM for a bankroll infusion and re-buy. He had the volatility he needed. He just didn’t have the discipline to quit while he was ahead.

Out of curiosity, I noodled around and found an archival test of the Field-Place System against the 72 Hours at the Casino book. Admittedly, the 14,967 rolls in that book have a slight dark-side bias, so it was obvious that the system would fare worse than in the statistical example cited above. It was even worse than I expected. The total win was $50,969. The total loss was $56,628. The net loss was $5,659.

72 hours at the casino. 72 of the most miserable hours of your life. It works out to about 36 two hour sessions or 18 four hour sessions. Hell, there was a time when I played that much in a single weekend. These days it might take me a month to get in that much play. Still, do you have an extra $5,659 to lose making $5 minimum bets?

Neither do I. And now you know why I hate this play.

Do yourself a favor. Just say no to this sort of thing and learn to beat the game by influencing the dice and betting the dice right.