The best gamble in the casino

By David McClary

There is no more romantic a game in any casino than Craps. The action of a big roll can often be heard before itπs seen. When the dice are hot, the excitement of the players will surpass anything found at a sporting event. Craps can also present one of the best values for your gaming dollars. By playing smart, you can have tons of fun while shaving the casino advantage below one percent.

Craps can be intimidating. The ocean of different bets on the layout encircled by the apparent cigar-chomping experts may not seem like the place for a novice. Once you know what is important however, I think you will have a hard time passing up a craps table for a slot machine. Youπll also have a much better chance of leaving a winner.

Letπs begin with an overview of how the game is played. Craps is based on rolling two dice and adding the numbers that are shown. There are a dozen or more ways to wager on the outcome of the dice but we will stick to those that have the lowest advantage for the house. A craps hand starts with the Come Out Roll. To start the hand most players will place a bet on what is called the Pass Line. The pass line wager is a bet that the dice will ultimately roll an outcome that is favorable to the shooter. If the shooter wins the hand the dice are said to have Passed.

After the initial bets are made, the shooter throws the come out roll. When the dice come to rest one of three outcomes has occurred. If a 7 or 11 are rolled the pass line wins and is paid even money. If 2, 3, or 12 comes up the pass line loses. If 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 appear then additional rolls are needed to determine the winner. Numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 are called points. When a point is rolled on the come out roll, a shooter must roll that number again before rolling a seven for the dice to pass.

Points also offer the most significant advantage to any gambler which is the Free Odds Bet. Letπs assume that a 4 has been established as the point earlier in a hand. The goal of a shooter is to roll a 4 again before a 7 is thrown. On two dice there are only three ways to make a 4 (1 and 3, 2 and 2, 3 and 1) while there are six ways to make a 7 (1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4, 4 and 3, 5 and 2, 6 and 1). This means that a shooter is twice as likely to throw a 7 as a 4. After a point has been established, a player is permitted to back up a pass line bet with a free odds bet. This bet will bepaid at the correct odds of the event actually happening. In the case of the point being 4, an odds bet would pay 2 to 1.

In some casinos your odds bet is limited to the size of your pass line bet. If you bet $5 on the pass line, you can take $5 in odds behind it. In areas with many casinos players can find double, triple, 10X or even 50X odds games. It is important to shop for the best game. Finding the largest odds bets available is a big part of this. If you could afford to bet $60 on one hand, you may have to choose between a table with single odds ($30 pass line and $30 odds) or 5X odds ($10 pass line and $50 odds). This choice is a no-brainer. The 5X game has $50 getting paid at the true percentage of the event happening.

The other nice feature of craps is that you donπt need to bet that the dice will pass. Players may bet on the Donπt Pass Line. The dice have the same rules as above but the bets are paid when the dice donπt pass. There are odds bets for the donπt pass line as well. Donπt pass bettors must lay odds however. In the example of the 4 used above, a donπt pass bettor must lay two bets to win one. This is because they are twice as likely to win this wager. In the long run wrong bets also have an even smaller house advantage making them an even better wager.

The downfall of playing just the pass line is that it only involves two numbers in any one hand. If the point is nine but the shooter rolls eighty-four 3πs in a row then the game can become boring in a hurry. The real profit for the casino is in all of the bets that can be made while waiting for the outcome of the pass line bets. Nearly all of these are poor wagers for players but one bet great. At any time when a point has been established a player can make a Come/Donπt Come bet. This works just like a Pass line bet but it establishes itπs own point. The dice are rolled only once for all bets but wagers are paid individually. Letπs say the point is 6 and a player has $10 on the pass line along with $10 on the Come. If the shooter rolls a 7, the pass line would lose (7 out) but the Come would win (natural). These wagers still have the great value of the pass line but keep you from waiting around during long stretches when your numbers never seem to come up. These bets also let you have a several wagers on the table at once when the dice are hot.

Even after this brief introduction, Iπm sure you have questions. The casino is a service business in a way; it is in their interest to have you play. Donπt be shy about asking questions if you are confused. The game has plenty of time between rolls so new players donπt slow things down. It also has very few actual outcomes so you can be well versed in less than an hour of play. I hope you give the excitement of craps a try. If you do, you may never go back to that slot machine again.