Pass Line and Don’t Pass: Come-Out and Point Settlements

Pass Line and Don’t Pass use different first-roll rules and opposite point-phase settlements in conventional bank craps. Neither is a guaranteed-profit wager. The explanation below assumes Don’t Pass bars 12; tables that bar 2 require the corresponding first-roll change.

Pass Line on the Come-Out Roll

A come-out 7 or 11 wins at 1:1 profit. A 2, 3 or 12 loses. A 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 establishes the table point and leaves the wager active.

Once a point is established, Pass Line wins if that number appears before 7 and loses if 7 appears first. Other totals do not settle that line wager. They may still settle other bets on the same roll.

Don’t Pass on the Come-Out Roll

Under bar-12 rules, a 2 or 3 wins at 1:1, 7 or 11 loses, and 12 pushes: the stake has neither won nor lost. If a point number appears, the wager continues into the point phase.

After the point is set, Don’t Pass wins if 7 appears before the point and loses if the point appears first. The barred come-out total is why the complete bet is not an exact inverse of Pass Line.

Why the First Roll Cannot Be Ignored

With two fair independent dice there are six ways to roll 7. There are three ways to roll 4 or 10, four ways to roll 5 or 9, and five ways to roll 6 or 8. After a point is set, 7 is therefore more likely to appear before that particular point.

That conditional fact does not make Don’t Pass a positive-return wager from the beginning. Its unfavourable come-out outcomes must also be counted. Conversely, Pass Line has more immediate winning than losing come-out combinations, but its point-phase risk must still be included.

House-Edge Denominators

Under conventional rules, Pass Line’s expected loss is approximately 1.41% of the initial stake. Don’t Pass under bar-12 rules is approximately 1.36% per initial stake when pushes are included in the calculation. Excluding pushes changes the denominator, so quoted percentages must be compared on the same basis.

A house edge is an expected loss under a model. It does not cap a session’s loss or establish the duration for which a balance will last.

Additional Odds and Contract Rules

Taking odds behind Pass and laying odds behind Don’t Pass are additional stakes after the point. True-odds payouts make that component mathematically neutral under the fair-dice model, but it can still lose and the underlying line bet retains its expected loss.

A conventional Pass Line wager generally becomes a contract bet after its point is set. Don’t Pass removal rules differ. Neither a lower percentage calculated over a larger combined stake nor a removable wager guarantees recovery.

Related Rules

See come-out roll details, taking and laying odds, Come and Don’t Come and dice probabilities. WinnerOnline provides explanations rather than hosted games or table recommendations.

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