Come-out roll

The first roll of a craps round, before a point exists. It settles a pass line bet at once 33.33% of the time and sets a point the other 66.67%.

Home › Glossary › Come-out roll

Come-out roll: The first roll of a craps round, before a point exists. It settles a pass line bet at once 33.33% of the time and sets a point the other 66.67%.

A craps round begins with the puck turned to OFF and the shooter rolling for the first time. That roll is the come-out. If it shows 7 or 11 the pass line wins; if it shows 2, 3 or 12, the craps numbers, the pass line loses; any other total becomes the point, the puck flips to ON, and the shooter keeps rolling until the point repeats or a 7 arrives.

Counted over the 36 combinations of two dice: the come-out wins the pass line outright on 8 of them (22.22%), loses on 4 (11.11%), and sets a point on 24 (66.67%). The pass line is a favourite on the come-out and an underdog once a point is set, which is why the whole bet nets out at 49.29% to win and a house edge of 1.41%.

The come-out is also the only moment a pass line bet can be placed and the reason the don't pass bars the 12: on the come-out the don't side would otherwise win on 2, 3 and 12, and pushing one of them is what gives the house its 1.36%. A come bet is simply a pass line bet whose next roll is treated as its own private come-out, which is why its arithmetic is identical.

Once the point is set, the free odds behind the line become available, paid at true odds and the only zero-edge wager in the building. Nothing about the come-out is a decision; it is the round's opening coin flip, weighted 8 to 4 in your favour and then handed to the point.

Where the numbers come from

Related terms in casino floor

  • Free odds, The bet placed behind a pass line wager once a point is set. It pays true odds, so the casino keeps nothing on it, and nothing else on the floor can say that.
  • True odds, The payout that would make a bet exactly fair, with no advantage to either side.
  • House edge, The average share of each bet the casino expects to keep over the long run.
  • Push, A tie in which the bet neither wins nor loses and the stake is returned.

Where an entry quotes a number, that figure comes from the computed sections of this site rather than from another glossary, so the definition and the derivation cannot drift apart. Each entry links to the page where the number is worked out.