The field bet: seven numbers, still a loser

The field is the biggest box on the layout and the easiest bet to understand: pick it, roll once, and seven different totals pay you. It's also a bet the house wins on, and understanding why is the fastest way to learn how craps prices work.

Exactly how the field pays

The field is a one-roll bet. You put a chip in the field box, the shooter throws, and the bet is settled on that single roll. There's no point, no waiting, and no puck to worry about; the field works on every roll including the comeout.

• A 3, 4, 9, 10, or 11 rolls: you win even money. $5 pays $5.
• A 2 rolls: you win double. $5 pays $10.
• A 12 rolls: you win triple. $5 pays $15.
• A 5, 6, 7, or 8 rolls: you lose.

That's the Las Vegas standard and what PointPuck uses. Look at the printed layout and you'll see the 2 and 12 circled with “DOUBLE” and “TRIPLE” under them. Some casinos pay double on both, and that version is covered below because it matters a lot.

Seven winning numbers out of eleven possible totals. Four losing numbers. It looks like the best deal on the table. It isn't, and here's why.

Numbers aren't equally likely. Ways are.

Everything in craps comes from the 36 equally likely ways two dice can land. A total of 2 happens only one way (1-1). A total of 7 happens six ways (1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, 6-1). Counting totals tells you nothing; counting ways tells you everything. So count the ways for each side of the field.

The field's seven numbers are the seven rarest totals on the dice. Together they cover just 16 of the 36 ways. The four losing numbers, 5, 6, 7, and 8, are the four most common totals and cover the other 20 ways. You lose the field bet 20 times out of 36, or 55.6% of rolls. The layout is designed to make seven numbers look like more than four. The dice don't agree.

If the field paid even money on everything, this would be a terrible bet: 16 wins against 20 losses. The double and triple bonuses on the 2 and 12 are what pull it back toward respectable. Notice they were placed on the two rarest rolls in the game, one way each. The casino gives back the least it possibly can while still making the box feel generous. See dice probability for the full 36-way grid.

The 2.78% edge, step by step

Bet $5 on the field for 36 rolls, and suppose each combination comes up exactly once. That never happens in real life, but it's what the long-run average looks like.

Add up the wins: $10 + $10 + $15 + $20 + $15 + $10 + $15 = $95. Losses: $100. Net: down $5 over 36 rolls of $5, which is $180 wagered. Five divided by 180 is 2.78%. That's the house edge on the field, per roll, and because the field is a one-roll bet, per roll and per bet resolved are the same thing.

Put another way: the field is a 20-to-16 underdog dressed up with $20 of bonus money on the 2 and 12 to make it a 100-to-95 underdog. Not awful. Not good. On the ranked list of every bet it sits between the place 6 at 1.52% and the place 5 at 4.00%.

Double 12 versus triple 12

Now change one number. Some layouts pay double on both the 2 and the 12 instead of triple on the 12. Redo the table and the 12 row drops from +$15 to +$10. Wins fall to $90, losses stay at $100, and the house is now up $10 on $180, which is 5.56%. One rare roll paying one unit less doubles the edge.

That's the whole lesson of the field in a sentence: the difference between a mediocre bet and a bad one is printed on the felt in tiny letters under the 12. Before you bet the field at a live table, read that box. At 2.78% it's a defensible bit of fun. At 5.56% it's worse than placing the 5 and nearly as bad as placing the 4, without the fun of pressing.

The Iron Cross

The Iron Cross is a popular combination that leans on the field. You place the 5, 6, and 8, and put a bet in the field. Now every number except the 7 pays you something. A typical version with $5 and $6 units costs $22: $5 on the 5, $6 on the 6, $6 on the 8, $5 in the field.

Thirty of the 36 combinations pay you. That is a fantastic feeling, and the Iron Cross is a genuinely fun way to play a hot hand. But look at the sizes. The place-number hits net only $2 because the field loses at the same time. And the 7, which shows up on 6 of every 36 rolls, takes all $22 at once. Over 36 average rolls, replacing the place bets after each 7, you'd collect $10 + $70 + $15 + $8 + $20 = $123 on the 30 winning rolls and lose $132 on the six sevens. Down $9. Thirty wins, six losses, and you still finish behind, because a single seven-out at the wrong moment turns a stack of $2 wins into a loss.

The reason is simple: combining bets never lowers the edge on any of them. The field is still 2.78%, the place 5 is still 4.00%, the 6 and 8 are still 1.52%. The Iron Cross is just those four bets at once. What it changes is the shape of the ride, from a few big swings into many small wins and one big loss. Some people like that shape. Just don't mistake it for a system that beats the 7, and see strategies compared for how it stacks up against a plain pass line with odds.

When the field is defensible

Three honest cases.

Short, cheap fun. You have $5, one roll to kill, and you want the chip to matter. The field resolves immediately, pays out often, and at 2.78% costs you about 14 cents in expectation on a $5 bet. A hardway or a horn bet would cost you more for the same thrill.

Learning the dice. Because it settles every roll, the field is a great way to feel how often the middle numbers really come up. Bet it for 50 rolls on the practice table and count how many times a 5, 6, 7, or 8 takes your chip. It won't feel like four numbers out of eleven. It'll feel like more than half the rolls, because it is.

Nothing else. The field is not a hedge. People bet the field to “cover” a comeout craps roll, or to soften a seven-out on their place bets, and it doesn't do either. The field loses on the 7, so it hedges nothing on the seven-out. And a 2 or 3 on the comeout pays the field while the pass line loses, but you've paid 2.78% on every other roll for that small comfort. Hedging with negative-edge bets just adds edges together. There is no combination of losing bets that produces a winning one. That's not opinion; it's the arithmetic of the 36 ways, and the myths article goes through the common versions.

So: read the 12 box, bet it in small amounts for a few rolls if you like the action, and keep your real money on the pass line with odds.