Craps Online: Strategy of Craps

Craps Strategy

Craps strategy is not a guaranteed winning device, but it is a well established method to maximize your odds. There are a lot of different articles dedicated to craps strategy, and here you may find the best selection of them.

Here you may study both sophisticated and simple craps strategies. However, all of them revolve around a basic but logical theme: in a game where the expectations are against you, you're most intelligent strategy is to play the best available bets, manage your money so that you extend your entertainment time and play with winnings, and take a couple of simple risks that could produce a good profit if you're lucky enough to snag a hot shooter on a roll.

Perhaps, the best thing to start from is to understand the math behind craps. Notice that 7 is the most likely number to be rolled at any given time. The last column shows the true odds of rolling the point numbers (4,5,6,8,9,10) before a 7. The casino actually uses the true odds when paying your winning free-odds bets, which is why craps can be the best game to play in the house.

Number	Possible combinations of two dice	Chance of rolling, single roll	Odds of rolling before a 7 (after point is established)
2	1-1	1 in 36	n/a
3	1-2 2-1	1 in 18	n/a
4	1-3 2-2 3-1	1 in 12	2 to 1
5	1-4 2-3 3-2 4-1	1 in 9	3 to 2
6	1-5 2-4 3-3 4-2 5-1	1 in 7.2	6 to 5
7	1-6 2-5 3-4 4-3 5-2 6-1	1 in 6	n/a
8	2-6 3-5 4-4 5-3 6-2	1 in 7.2	6 to 5
9	3-6 4-5 5-4 6-3	1 in 9	3 to 2
10	4-6 5-5 6-4	1 in 12	2 to 1
11	5-6 6-5	1 in 18	n/a
12	6-6	1 in 36	n/a

Craps strategy 1

In some craps books you may find a strategy that involves making the same few bets over and over - most of the other bets you see on the table are sucker bets. There are rules which advice what wagers are reasonable to make and what ones are better to avoid.

- Bet on the pass line, not on the Don't Pass line. It's much easier to figure out correct odds and payouts when playing the pass line. Just for reference, the house advantage is virtually the same whether you play pass or don't pass.

- Always take the highest odds possible on your free-odds bets. For example: if you are at a casino that allows 5x odds on craps, make sure your free-odds bet is 5x your pass line or come bet. On a $2 pass line bet, put $10 on your free-odds bet (if you can afford it). this is critical in lowering the house percentage. The casinos only pay even money on pass line or come bets, but they pay true odds on free-odds bets! The larger your free-odds bet is in proportion to your pass line or come bet, the lower the house percentage.

Some casinos like Binion's Horseshoe and the 4 Queens allow 10x odds - of course this means you would have to place a $50 free-odds bet on a $5 pass line bet to take full advantage. If you can't afford to make bets that big, make your free-odds bet at least 3-5 times your pass line or come bet.

- Work at least two points at all times during a roll; work three to be aggressive. An example of working three points at all times: a six is rolled on the come out roll, so six is the point for your pass line bet. You place a come bet, then a five is rolled - five becomes the point for your come bet. You place another come bet, then a ten is rolled - ten becomes the point for that come bet.

You now have three points working: six for your pass line bet, five for your first come bet, and ten for your second come bet. At this point you stop making come bets and pray that one of your points is rolled before a seven. Say the next roll is a ten, so your come bet that landed on the ten has just won. Your winnings are passed to you, but your come bet that landed on the ten is no longer there. In order to keep three points working during this roll, you would place another come bet, which in turn will eventually land on another point number at which point you will have three points working again.

- Only place pass line and come bets, and of course the accompanying free-odds bets. Don't take any of the other bets on the table - they're all for rookies. With the possible exception of making a place bet on six or eight, everything else on the table has horrible payoffs. You will often hear the stickman enticing people to place these bets, because those are the bets where the house makes an easy buck. All of the bets in the center of the table are terrible. Example: if you bet on snake eyes (that the next roll will be a two), you win 30 to 1 if two comes up. Sounds great, doesn't it? But look at the math - the real odds of rolling a two are 1 in 36, meaning you would collect 35 to 1 if the house paid true odds. That is how the casino makes money on all games - they pay you less than the true odds would. In this case, you would get shorted $5 every time you won.

Craps Strategy 2 (by Ted Knuden)

Craps is a little less structured than blackjack, and it's certainly more random. To follow basic craps strategies the same way you would blackjack would mean only betting on the best bet there is, the pass line bet with odds. But that can get quite boring.

Any craps strategies are based more around ways to control your bankroll, and control your game. It's a strange feature of craps, but after you've played for a while, you tend to start making bets you usually wouldn't make, calling out hardways, asking for C & E, all sorts of silly things. This is most likely a product of getting a little tired of playing the same bets. Pass line bets and place bets can just sit there waiting to be resolved for a while, so in the meantime you might get fidgety and want some more 'action' as they say.

When this happens good strategies should suggest having to start playing some come bets, which can have a nice low house edge, and you can back with free odds if you desire. This is a smarter boredom breaker than hitting the proposition bets where the house edge simply gets out of control.

Bankroll

Your overall bankroll expectations are also a very important variable to pay attention to. Many people go into a game with rather unrealistic expectations, and decide ahead of time that they will leave if they turn 100 dollars into 200 dollars. Experts agree you've done well for yourself if you can walk away 20% up, but it can be a hard decision to make. The best way is probably to fall somewhere in between these two styles.

This bit is important when learning strategies. A lot of people walk into the casino single mindedly and when they think about their game they think about wins and losses, and doing well if they do better than breaking even. However, every player should always discount some of his or her bankroll as being well spent entertainment money.

Alteration

A smart strategy then, is to play with a reasonable bankroll and if you go up early, pocket the majority of your buy in so that you're playing with pure winnings. An extension of this general concept can be applied at a more fine level within the game. One of the best craps strategies is a simple alteration while you're playing the smart bets on the table. If you like to place the 6 or 8 during the game try this:

Do your normal place bet and if it wins, take your winnings as you normally would. The place bet remains on the table unless you tell the dealer to 'take it down' for you.

If the place bet wins a second time, instead of taking the winnings tell the dealer to 'press it', which means they will take the winnings and stack it on top of the original bet. At this point you're playing with winnings only, so taking a little extra chance isn't such a bad idea. Everything you win after this point is pure gravy, it hasn't cost you a thing.

If the shooter keeps hitting sixes or eights, you may wish to press your bet one more time, but start taking the winnings in. You'll quickly find that even after pressing a 6-dollar place bet once or twice, when you start to collect the winnings from it, you're really raking it in. They'll just start pushing you more and more chips, and you're not even really wagering anything because you know the best craps strategies are the ones that only let you gamble with winnings.

Tipping

The one important thing barely related to gambling strategies in any formal sense is tipping. In craps it is common courtesy, as it is in most table games at the casino, to tip the dealers. Tipping in craps can be a little different than elsewhere. Most people tip by placing a bet for the dealer. You will undoubtedly hear a few players throwing chips out into the proposition area yelling things like 'yo dealer' or 'hard eight for the dealers'. This means the player is placing a bet for the dealer, which if the dealer wins they can push into the collective tip for their co-workers. Some experts believe that you're likely to have a much better time playing craps if you tip the dealers. They will be more responsive towards you, friendlier, and thankful. The game-play tips they give you throughout the session will likely recoup anything you've given up anyway.