Taking "craps hardways bet" apart starts with the shape of one round. Craps is played with two dice and a crowded layout, and almost all of it makes sense once that shape is clear. One player throws, everyone at the table may bet, and the round runs from the first throw to the moment the table either repeats a number or rolls a seven. The bets printed around the layout are answers to what can happen inside that sequence.
The round opens with the come out roll, thrown with the marker sitting off to one side. A seven or an eleven wins immediately for the pass line, the bet most players make first. A two, a three or a twelve is craps and loses it. Any other total — four, five, six, eight, nine or ten — becomes the point, and the marker is turned over onto that number to show the round is under way and that the next throws are measured against it.
The rest of the layout holds wagers that settle differently. The field is a single roll bet on a group of totals. Place bets sit on a chosen number and stand until it arrives or a seven does. Hardways ask for a pair — two threes for a hard six — before either a seven or the easy version of that number. The middle holds one roll propositions, called out to the stickman rather than placed by hand, and the crew is a boxman over the bank, two dealers and that stickman.
A hardway such as hard six needs two threes, and it loses if a seven or the easy version of that number, like five and one, lands first.
A come bet, placed after a point is set, treats the next roll as its own come out and can then take a point of its own; don't come mirrors it.
Odds behind a line bet pay at the true chance of the point repeating with no built in margin, so the house limits it to a multiple of the original stake.
A boxman supervises the bank, two dealers handle bets around the layout, and a stickman moves the dice and takes calls on the one roll propositions in the middle.
Don't pass wins where the pass line loses, except that a twelve on the come out is a push instead of a win.
A seven or eleven wins at once for the pass line, while two, three or twelve is craps and loses it; any other total sets the point.