Answering "craps hardways bet" 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 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.
Behind a line bet a player may add odds, an extra wager that pays at the true chance of the point repeating rather than at even money. It is capped as a multiple of the original stake, and the multiple is set by the house rather than the player. Odds is the one wager on the table carrying no built in margin, which is why the cap exists and why the line bet has to come first.
The shooter keeps rolling until the point repeats, paying the pass line, or a seven arrives first, which is a seven out and passes the dice on.
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.
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 place bet on a chosen number stands until that number is rolled or a seven arrives, whichever comes first.
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.