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C R A P S Strategy
| We
won't bore you with a protracted discussion on the vagaries of the craps
table here, but we will teach you a few basic betting strategies and
show you lot of bets to avoid.
If you thrive on
stratospheric highs and gut-wrenching lows, then it's the game for you.
Craps is a dangerous, dangerous game and gamblers either love it or hate
it and there's not much in between. It's the fastest of all table games
and can be the most fun, too. Problem is, in the blink of an eye you can
wind up broke.
When the galloping
dominoes are passing, adrenaline-soaked dice players are the loudest,
laughingest, and most arrogant blokes you'll ever find.
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When
they're not, diceheads turn into the most miserable, self-loathing SOBs
on the planet.
The concept behind
craps is pretty straightforward. You make a bet on the Pass Line (or
"Don't Pass-we'll get to that later). If you roll a 7 or 11 on the
"come out" roll, you win. If you toss a 2 (snake eyes), a 3
(cross eyes) or a 12 (box cars), you lose. Any other number becomes the
"point." Now all you have to do is roll that number again
before you roll a 7 to win.
Unlike the other
games of chance, it matters a whole, whole lot where you bet your money
on the dice table. The best bets to make are Pass and Don't Pass, and
Come and Don't Come, with or without the Free Odds.
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We'll look at Free Odds
first.
When you make a Pass Line bet,
the house has about a 1.4% advantage. But, you can "back up" your
original wager (also called a "flat bet") with a "Free Odds"
bet which pays the true odds of hitting a particular number. For example, if you
roll a 4, you're a big underdog to roll it again before chucking a 7. But, we'll
pay you 2-1 on your Free Odds if you hit the 4. Confused yet? Take a look at the
table. Keep in mind that we offer Double Free Odds (the back up the bet is
double your original wager).
| Number |
Pass
Line Bet |
Pays |
Double
Odds |
Pays |
Total |
 |
| 4 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$20 |
$25 |
|
| 5 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$15 |
$20 |
|
| 6 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$12 |
$17 |
|
| 8 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$12 |
$17 |
|
| 9 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$15 |
$20 |
|
| 10 |
$5 |
$5 |
$10 |
$20 |
$25 |
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They're called "Free
Odds" because, over time, they don't cost anything and no matter how much
you intend to wager (unless it's 1c) they reduce the house's edge. Look at 10 in
the example above. You could either bet $15 on the pass line and win $15 or bet
$5 on the pass line, back it up with a $10 Free Odds bet and pick up an extra
$10 with NO EXTRA RISK.
The way to maximize your Free
Odds potential is to determine what you want to wager, divided it by 3 and put
that much on the line. Then, when you've backed up the bet, you have a full
wager which guts the house's leverage.
Keep in mind that on your TOTAL
wager, you have reduced the house's advantage, but the house still has a
favorable over you on the original bet. The key to smart craps play is to keep
the original bet as small as possible (1/3 of total you wish to wager)
Odds are a great way to get a
lot of money in action but be warned: You'll need a pretty hefty bankroll if you
start off betting anything more than a few dollars a roll.
For starters, we suggest that
you play in practice mode for a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the
mechanics of the games, because it can get pretty confusing. Once you've got bet
and odds placement down, then you can take us on for real.
If you don't like the house edge
on the pass line, you can bet that the dice will NOT pass. We know what you're
thinking, "If the house has an edge against anyone who bets on the pass
line, that means if I bet that the dice won't pass, I'll have an edge on the
house." Fat chance!
Casinos are built on gambler's
misguided logic and this is one of the prime examples. See, we've got this
little catch. If you look at the table, you'll see that Don't Pass line has a
pair of 6's painted on it. That means if the shooter (that's you) rolls a
twelve, the Pass line loses and the Don't Pass line ties.
Believe it or not, that's all it
takes for the house to have an advantage over you. It's not all bad news,
though. Once a number is rolled, Don't Pass bettors are the favorite over the
house.
A look at the charts below shows
that the Don't Pass bets are the best bets you can make on a dice game. Yet,
Don't Pass bettors are rare in standard casinos. Why? Because if you bet that
the shooter is going to crap out, most of the other chaps at the table are going
to give you some big hairy eyeballs. In fact, it's not uncommon for fisticuffs
to break out when a Don't Pass bettor starts cheering when everyone else loses.
That's not a problem here,
though. The nice thing about playing from the comfort of you home is that you
can bet on anything you want and the only dirty looks you're going to get is
when you pass the mirror after booking a nasty loser.
A strange thing happens when
you bet the Don't. After you make a number, when you're the favorite, but you
still get to take odds. But now, you have to give us true odds. So, instead of
us coughing up $20 for your $10 odds bet on 4, you have to put up $20 to win
$10!! A bad deal? Nope. It's perfect odds. Neither one of us is the favorite.
You'll also see a two betting
boxes that read "Come" and "Don't Come." They play exactly
like the Pass and Don't Pass bets, complete with Free Odds, but you make those
bets after a point has been established. Basically they allow you to start a new
game anywhere in the middle of a roll. If you like to get a lot of money in
action, they're the only way to go.
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| Payoffs
for Free Odds Bets
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| Point |
Pass
Line or
Come Pays |
Don't
Pass or
Don't Come Pays |
| 4 |
2
to 1 |
1
to 2 |
| 5 |
3
to 2 |
2
to 3 |
| 6 |
6
to 5 |
5
to 6 |
| 8 |
6
to 5 |
5
to 6 |
| 9 |
3
to 2 |
2
to 3 |
| 10 |
2
to 1 |
1
to 2 |
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When you open our game,
you'll see a complex layout featuring a dazzling array of other bets that's
confusing, at best. It gets worse. Some bets can only be made before the come
out roll, some only after the come out roll and some can be made any time. Even
experienced gamblers get dizzy trying to figure out how to play all of the bets
on the table. No worries! Other than Pass/Don't and Come/Don't, ignore them.
They're all bad and the savvy craps player avoids these gyp bets like the pox.
If you've ever been on a live
table and heard some guy bellow "come on, two fours, two fours, baby needs
a new pair of shoes," just before he 7's out, it doesn't surprise you that
baby needs a new pair of shoes. Baby's big daddy is a dope.
The only thing more pitiful than
prop players are the system no-hopers who buy into the drivel spewed out be
so-called "experts" who promise untold riches if you'll only
"insure" bets (by betting against yourself), double up when you lose,
blah, blah, blah, blah. If these "experts" are so bloody smart, why
aren't they out playing craps instead of selling useless systems?
Convinced? Good. Now let's get
back to why all of those prop bets are so bad. A quick glance at the
"Summary of Craps Wagers" shows you why.
If you still insist on putting a
little woffle dust on the dice and making goofy proposition bets, keep the bets
small or go to practice mode and wager all of the fun money that you like. After
a few minutes watching your virtual money disappear, you'll think twice about
watching you real money disappear.
Craps Summary
 | Bet 1/3 your normal wager
| Bet Pass/Don't Pass and
Come/Don't Come
| Bet Double Free Odds
| Avoid all Proposition Bets
| Don't Believe the System
Jokers |
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You'll see that the Pass/Come
and Don't Pass/Don't Come with double Free Odds are the best bets you can make
(In Yellow). Other Pass and Come combos, along with placing the 6 and 8 are OK
(In Green). Anything else is bad (In Red). As you can see, the Any 7 bet is the
absolute worst table game bet you can make in our casino.
| Main
Bets |
Your
disadvantage |
| Pass,
Come (no odds) |
-1.41% |
| Pass,
Come (1x odds) |
-0.85% |
| Pass,
Come (2x odds) |
-0.61% |
| Don't
Pass, Don't Come (no odds) |
-1.36% |
| Don't
Pass, Don't Come (1x odds) |
-0.68% |
| Don't
Pass, Don't Come (2x odds) |
-0.46% |
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All
Day Bets
(before a 7
after point) |
Your
disadvantage |
| Hard
4, Hard 10 |
-11.11% |
| Hard
6, Hard 8 |
-9.09% |
| Place
4, Place 10 |
-6.67% |
| Place
5, Place 9 |
-4.00% |
| Place
6, Place 8 |
-1.52% |
| Don't
Place 4, Don't Place 10 |
-3.03% |
| Don't
Place 5, Don't Place 9 |
-2.50% |
| Don't
Place 6, Don't Place 8 |
-1.82% |
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| One
Roll Bets |
Your
disadvantage |
| Field
Bet |
-5.56% |
| Two |
-13.89% |
| Hard
4, Hard 6, Hard 8, Hard 10 |
-13.89% |
| Twelve |
-13.89% |
| Three |
-11.11% |
| Eleven |
-11.11% |
| Any
Craps |
-11.11% |
| Any
7 |
-16.67% |
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