The Come-Out Roll: Navigating the First Phase of Craps

A come-out roll occurs when conventional bank craps has no active table point. It can follow a new shooter, a completed point, or a previous come-out result that immediately settled the line bets. This guide explains how first-roll settlement differs from the point phase.

What is the Come-Out Roll?

The Come-Out roll occurs when there is no active “Point” on the table. You can easily identify this phase by looking at the dealer’s puck (a small plastic disk). If the puck is flipped to the black side labeled “OFF” and is sitting in the Don’t Pass area or the center of the table, the next roll is a Come-Out roll.

Pass Line and Don’t Pass have different first-roll settlements. They are not perfect opposites because the Don’t Pass rules bar one total, commonly 12, as a push.

The Three Possible Outcomes

The following conventional settlements assume Don’t Pass bars 12. Some rules bar 2 instead; the printed rule must be identified.

1. Natural (7 or 11)

If the shooter rolls a 7 or an 11, it is called a “Natural.”

• Pass Line bettors win even money.
• Don’t Pass bettors lose their wager. The round ends immediately, but the shooter keeps the dice and prepares for another Come-Out roll.

2. Craps (2, 3, or 12)

If the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12, it is referred to as “Craps.”

• Pass Line bettors lose their wager.
• Don’t Pass bettors win on a 2 or 3.
• Note on the 12: On most tables, a 12 results in a “Push” (tie) for the Don’t Pass bettor, meaning they neither win nor lose. The barred result contributes to the wager’s house edge. Like the Natural, the round ends, and the shooter prepares for a new Come-Out roll.

3. Establishing the Point (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)

If any other number is rolled, that number becomes the “Point.” The dealer will move the puck to the “ON” position and place it on the corresponding number at the top of the table layout. The game now shifts into the second phase, where the shooter must roll that specific number again before rolling a 7.

The First Roll Is Not the Whole Wager

With two fair independent dice, there are 36 equally likely ordered combinations. Eight give an immediate Pass Line win (7 or 11), four give an immediate loss (2, 3 or 12), and 24 establish a point. The immediate wins cannot be compared only with immediate losses while ignoring the point outcomes.

After a point is set, Pass Line remains at risk until that point or 7 appears. The complete bet therefore has a different expected return from an analysis of only its first roll.

A Proposition Bet Is Not Universal Insurance

An additional Any Craps wager can pay on some outcomes that lose a Pass Line stake, but it adds its own cost and losing outcomes. Whether it offsets a particular loss depends on both stakes and the payout. It does not protect the main wager against every result or eliminate expected loss.

Working and Non-Working Bets

Some existing bets may be off during a come-out roll under the table rules. An off bet normally neither wins nor loses on that roll. Other wagers remain active, and some odds components can have different defaults from their underlying bets. The main point puck does not establish the status of every chip on the layout.

Earlier Results Do Not Change the Dice

A run of natural wins may affect the atmosphere at a table, but it does not change the next roll’s probabilities under a fair independent-dice model. A “hot” or “cold” label is a description of history, not a forecast.

Mathematical Probabilities

Understanding the frequency of totals is vital:

• 7: The most likely number (16.67% chance).
• 2 and 12: The least likely numbers (2.78% chance each).
• 6 and 8: The most likely point numbers to be established.

Because the 7 is so likely to appear, the Come-Out roll is the only time you actually want to see “Big Red” if you are a Pass Line bettor. Once the puck moves to “ON,” the 7 becomes your worst enemy.

Related Rules

Read Pass Line and Don’t Pass, Come and Don’t Come, table markers, and dice probabilities. These explanations cover conventional bank craps and do not automatically apply to crapless variants.

Explore the full section: craps rules and table layout.