Reading a craps layout

Posted 4 December 2006 at 13:22

A craps layout is the densest printed surface on most floors, and it puts off newcomers for that reason alone. The density is not decorative. The layout is organised by when a wager resolves, and once the regions are read in that order the arrangement becomes almost self explanatory.

The long bands running down each side resolve over a sequence of rolls. A wager placed there is settled by whichever of two events arrives first, which means it can sit unresolved for many rolls. The regions in the middle resolve on the very next roll and are settled and cleared immediately. Two quite different temporal behaviours, printed side by side, and the physical separation on the felt is the clue to which is which.

The boxes carrying the numbers four, five, six, eight, nine and ten form the third region. Those are the totals that can be established as a target, and the arithmetic behind their prominence is the count of ways each total can be made with two dice: three ways for four and for ten, four for five and for nine, five for six and for eight. The layout is, among other things, a printed frequency table.

The centre of the layout carries the single roll wagers, and it is worth noting that this is the region where the gap between true odds and payout is widest. A total that arrives one roll in thirty-six is a natural candidate for a printed payout considerably shorter than thirty-five to one, and that is what is generally printed there.

So the layout can be read as three concentric statements. On the outside, wagers that resolve over a sequence and carry the smallest gaps. In the middle, the number boxes that encode the two dice frequency counts. In the centre, the single roll wagers with the widest gaps and the most conspicuous typography. That ordering is consistent enough across layouts to be a useful way in.

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