The colourful language that surrounds a craps table is unlike anything else in the casino world, and understanding the names for various dice rolls is essential for anyone who wants to feel comfortable at the felt, whether playing street dice or sitting down at a high-stakes casino game.
From Snake Eyes to Boxcars, the lexicon of dice rolling culture has evolved over centuries, blending American slang, regional vernacular, casino dealer patter, and popular culture references into one of the most entertaining vocabularies in gambling.
Names For Various Dice Rolls From 2 To 12
Every possible total rolled on a standard pair of six-sided dice has accumulated its own set of nicknames, some dating back to the earliest days of organised dice games in the United States, and others invented spontaneously by creative stickmen working the floor of Las Vegas casinos.
The number seven is never spoken aloud at a craps table by superstitious players, earning it the alternative name Big Red, a reference to the red ink used to display it on the craps layout, and dealers will always find creative ways to announce it without using the word itself.
Dice Roll Nicknames by Number
| Roll | Combination | Popular Nicknames |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1+1 | Snake Eyes, Aces, Midnight Eyes, Craps |
| 3 | 1+2 | Ace-Deuce, Yo Down Under, Lawrence Welk, The Shocker |
| 4 | 1+3 or 2+2 | Little Joe, Little Joe from Kokomo, Ballerina (Hard 4) |
| 5 | 2+3 | Fever Five, Five-Spot, No Field Five |
| 6 | 3+3 or 2+4 | Lumber Number (2-4), Hard Six, Colombian Breakfast (Hard 6) |
| 7 | Various | Big Red, Natural, Seven Out, The Devil |
| 8 | 4+4 or 3+5 | Hard Eight, Square Pair (Hard 8), Ozzie and Harriet |
| 9 | 4+5 or 6+3 | Center Field, Niner, Nina from Pasadena |
| 10 | 5+5 or 4+6 | Hard Ten, Puppy Paws (Hard 10), Woman’s Best Friend |
| 11 | 5+6 | Yo, Yo-leven, Natural, Australian Yo |
| 12 | 6+6 | Boxcars, Midnight, All the Spots We Got, Cornrows |
Hard Ways and Soft Ways Explained
| Hard Way | Meaning | Opposite (Easy Way) |
|---|---|---|
| Hard 4 | 2+2 | 3+1 |
| Hard 6 | 3+3 | 4+2 or 5+1 |
| Hard 8 | 4+4 | 5+3 or 6+2 |
| Hard 10 | 5+5 | 6+4 or 7+3 |
The Stories Behind The Most Famous Names For Various Dice Rolls
Snake Eyes, the most iconic roll in all of dice culture, describes the visual appearance of two ones staring up from the table like a pair of serpent’s eyes, and it immediately loses on the come-out roll in craps, making it one of the most feared outcomes for any shooter.
Boxcars gets its name from the visual resemblance of two six-faced dice to the box-shaped freight cars found on a railway train, with the twelve being the highest possible two-dice roll and equally disastrous on the come-out, producing an instant loss alongside Snake Eyes and Ace-Deuce.
Little Joe is the colourful dealer call for a roll of four, most commonly said as “Little Joe from Kokomo,” and the origin of the name is somewhat debated, with the most popular theory being that it derives from the name Jo-Jo, a slang term for a four in old American dice culture.
Yo, the universal casino term for eleven, exists purely to avoid confusion with the word seven, since both numbers sound remarkably similar when shouted across a noisy casino floor, and dealers have used this shorthand for decades to ensure there is no ambiguity in their calls.
Key Craps Terminology At A Glance
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Come-Out Roll | First roll of a new round |
| Natural | A 7 or 11 on the come-out |
| Craps Numbers | 2, 3 or 12 on the come-out |
| Point | Number established after come-out (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) |
| Seven Out | Rolling 7 after the point is set |
| Hard Way | Both dice showing the same number |
| Easy Way | A total rolled with non-matching dice |
| Bones | Slang term for the dice themselves |
The Australian Yo is a particularly inventive piece of craps lingo, earning its name because the opposite sides of a 1 and 2 face when flipped upside down are a 6 and 5, totalling eleven, and Australian means “down under” in this context, referencing the inversion of the dice.
Puppy Paws describes a Hard Ten, two fives facing up, with the five dots on each die said to resemble the paw print of a dog, and it is one of the more whimsical entries in an already colourful lexicon of craps nicknames.
The Lumber Number, a call for a six rolled as a 2 and 4, references the standard dimensions of a piece of construction timber in the United States, specifically the 2-by-4 piece of wood that is ubiquitous on building sites, and it is one of many examples of craps slang taking inspiration from everyday working-class life.
