Craps Lingo

Craps has its own lingo for the different possible roll combinations—when the dice come to a stop, the stickman is likely to shout out the nicknames in the table below rather than just announce the value of the dice. The order of the dice does not affect either the value or nickname of the roll— a roll of a 5 and a 6 has the same value and nickname as a roll of a 6 and a 5. The most common nicknames include:

Roll	Nickname	Explanation
	Snake eyes	The two dots look like two beady eyes.
	Joe Louis	Joe Louis was a boxer who threw a mean “one-two” punch.
	Little Joe	The origin of “Little Joe” is unclear.
	Two windows, square pair	The four dots look like windows; they also form squares.
	Nina from Pasadena, Jesse James	“Nina” resembles “nine”; Jesse James used a .45-caliber gun.
	Double nickels, Big Ben, sunflowers	Nickels are worth five cents; “Ben” rhymes with “ten”; the five dots look a little like a sunflower.
	Yo, yo’leven	The “yo” is added to avoid confusion with the similar-sounding “seven.”
	Boxcars	The two sets of six dots look vaguely like boxcars.

Other Craps Lingo

Along with the nicknames used for certain dice combinations, a few other pieces of lingo are regularly said at the craps table:

Bones: Dice
On (working): Bets that are “on” or “working” are active, so they may be won or lost
Off (not working): Bets that are “off” or “not working” are temporarily on hold and can’t win or lose until they’re on again
Pit: The area containing all the craps tables at a casino
Pole (whip): The specially designed stick used by the stickman
Toke: A tip that you give the crew (see Craps Etiquette)
Vig, vigorish, juice, house edge: The casino’s advantage on a bet; for instance, a house edge of 1.0% means that you can expect to lose $1 for every $100 you wager

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

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Craps Lingo and Basics