Come bets: your own pass line, mid-hand

A come bet is a pass line bet you make after the point is already set. Same rules, same 1.41% edge, same free odds. The only new thing to learn is where the chip goes and what happens to it on each roll.

What a come bet is

Once the shooter has a point, a new pass line bet would skip the profitable comeout and go straight to the underdog part. The come box is the fix. It's the big area marked COME just above the place numbers, and a chip placed there is treated exactly like a pass line bet whose comeout is the very next roll.

On the roll after you put $10 in the come:

• A 7 or 11 rolls. Your come bet wins $10 immediately.
• A 2, 3, or 12 rolls. Your come bet loses.
• Any point number rolls (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10). That number becomes your come point, and the dealer moves your chip up into the numbered box.

From there it's the pass line again: your come bet wins even money if that number repeats before a 7, and loses on a seven-out. It's independent of the shooter's point. If the point is 6 and your come point is 9, a 6 pays only the pass line, a 9 pays only your come bet, and a 7 kills both.

How the chip travels

This confuses people at a live table because the dealer does it for you and it happens fast. Your chip makes at most two moves. First, you set it in the COME box yourself (on PointPuck, tap or drag it there). Second, when a point number rolls, the dealer moves it up into the numbered box above, the same box the place bets use, positioned to mark whose it is. On PointPuck it slides up on its own. It is now a come bet on that number, and like a pass line bet after the point it's a contract bet: it stays until it wins or loses.

If it wins, the dealer pays it and returns it to the come area in front of you. You pick it all up, or leave the original bet there to start a fresh come bet on the next roll. If a 7 or 11 rolled on the first move, you're paid right there in the come box and the bet is done.

Odds behind a come bet

Once your come bet has a number, you can take free odds on it, exactly as you would behind the pass line and at the same 3-4-5x limits: 3x on a 4 or 10, 4x on a 5 or 9, 5x on a 6 or 8. The odds pay true odds (2:1, 3:2, 6:5) with zero house edge, and a full odds bet always wins 6 times the flat.

The mechanics differ slightly. There's no room behind the number box, so you drop the odds chips in the come box and say “odds on my 9,” and the dealer stacks them on top of your come bet, slightly offset. On PointPuck you drop the odds on the come bet itself. Odds are never a contract; add to or remove them any time before the number resolves. With $10 on a come point of 5 and $40 in odds, a 5 pays $10 plus $60. A 7 loses $50.

Come odds are off on the comeout

Here's the rule that trips up nearly everyone the first time. Your come bet is sitting on the 8 with odds behind it, and the shooter makes the point. A new comeout roll is next. Your come bet on the 8 is still live, because it's a contract bet. But by default, your odds on that come bet are OFF for the comeout roll.

So if the comeout is a 7, you lose the $10 flat come bet but your odds come back untouched. If it's an 8, you win $10 on the flat bet and the odds are simply returned. Either way, they didn't play that roll.

Why? Because most come bettors also have a pass line bet, and on a comeout the pass line wants a 7. The casino assumes you'd rather not have $50 in odds exposed to the number you're rooting for. You can override it: tell the dealer “my odds work” (or toggle the bet on PointPuck). The full rulebook is in working on the comeout.

The 3-Point Molly

Come bets are how you get several numbers working without touching the higher-edge place bets. The classic way is the 3-Point Molly:

• Bet the pass line. When a point is set, take full odds.
• Bet the come. When it moves to a number, take full odds.
• Bet the come again. When it moves to a number, take full odds.
• Stop at three numbers. When one wins, replace it with a new come bet.

Every dollar in this system is either a 1.41% flat bet or a zero-edge odds bet. There is no cheaper way to have three numbers going; compare $32 across the place numbers, where the 4 and 10 alone carry 6.67%. The trade-off is exposure: with three points up and full odds you can have $150 or more on the felt, and a single 7 takes all of it. Size the flat bet to your bankroll. See strategies compared for how it stacks up against other plans.

A full worked sequence

You bet $10 flat and play the Molly with full 3-4-5x odds. Follow the money.

Look at that last row, because it's the whole reason the off-on-the-comeout rule exists. If the odds had been working, the 7 would have cost you $90 instead of $20. With them off, the comeout 7 was a $10 net loss and the hand ended $140 to the good.

Now suppose the comeout had been a 4 instead. The come bet on the 4 wins $10, but the $30 odds were off, so they're returned instead of paying $60. That's the cost of the default. Over the long run the two effects cancel exactly, because the odds are a zero-edge bet on or off. The choice is purely about how much you want riding on a single roll.

Things to remember

A come bet is not a place bet. Both sit in the same number box, but a place bet pays 7:6 on the 6 with a 1.52% edge and can be taken down any time, while a come bet pays even money on the flat, true odds on the odds, and is locked in. The difference is explained in place bets.

A 7 on the come bet's first roll wins. New players see the 7, groan for their pass line, and forget the fresh come bet just got paid. And a 2, 3, or 12 on that first roll loses the come bet, even though those numbers do nothing to a pass line bet that already has a point. The come chip has its own comeout.

Keep odds in clean amounts. Even dollars on a 5 or 9, multiples of $5 on a 6 or 8. Payouts floor to the whole dollar.

Come bets are the last piece of the low-edge game: pass, don't pass, come, don't come, and the free odds behind all four. Everything past that on the layout costs more.