Player positions at the craps tables

30 September 2012

By Frank Scoblete

Names of Positions at the Craps Tables
by Billy the Kid

Craps tables are divided in two halves, each serviced by a "base dealer." The bets are booked and placed according to where a player is standing. To find out how and when the bets are paid please go to the odds and edges section on the front page.

Each half of the craps table is also divided in half because the craps layouts are divided into box sections where the dealers place the bets, and these boxes must be kept in an orderly fashion so that the base dealer, box and stick can stay on the same page.

When you look at the place bet and come bet boxes, you will see that there isn't enough room to put all of the bets in line, so the dealers put the bets either on the front or back part of the number box. This brings us to how they determine a player’s position.

There is a split in the "hook" where the table makes its first turn towards the base dealer. If a player's chips are on the stick side of the middle of the hook, his bet is placed in the front, and conversely, if the chips are on the base dealer’s side, his bet goes in the back. You should note that it is where the player’s chips are placed that determines whether the dealer puts them in the front or back.

OK, so there are players that the dealers say are "in the front" and players that are "in the back" and THIS is how they will relate to your playing position. If you are in the front next to stick, the base dealer will tell the stick you are his "first," and the stick will call you "my first." When paying a prop bet, the stick will say, "$900 and still up to my first" when he pays your $100 hard eight. When he pays the player that is standing next to the base dealer, he will say, "$9 and still up to YOUR first" to the base dealer. These descriptions of his and yours will move away from the dealers toward the hook.

So you can see that if you are in the front you belong to the stick and if you are in back you belong to the base dealer, and they say that you are their first, second, third or fourth moving around the table. There is never a fifth since the table size will only allow four in front and four in back. When playing next to the base dealer, you will hear him handing you off to his next dealer as "I have three in front, two in back and my second has the hardways.” On a stick change, the leaving stickman will describe the shooter’s position as my first, in the hook, straight out, next to base or the bases first, second, etc.

[This post appeared on the private, members-only Golden Touch website. Get a free 60-day subscription. Just e-mail Frank Scoblete at fscobe@optonline.net.]