A put bet is a pass line bet placed after the comeout roll, once a point is already established.
Casinos accept it, but you buy in after the eight ways to win on the comeout have gone, while every way to lose stays in play. The house edge runs from 9.1 to 33.3% depending on the point.
On its own, that makes the put bet one of the weakest wagers on the table. With enough free odds, it becomes a legitimate way to pick your own number and play it. The difference comes down to how much the table lets you put behind the bet.
What Is a Put Bet in Craps?
When you learn how to play craps, online or offline, you're taught that the pass line bet belongs on the comeout roll. If the comeout has passed, you bet come instead, with the same basic odds and the same gameplay.
A put bet ignores that rule. It's a pass bet made on a roll other than the comeout, and the casino will take it. You jump into the action after a point has been established: you win if the shooter rolls your number again, and you lose if a 7 shows first.
What you give up is the comeout itself. On a regular pass bet, the comeout gives you six ways to roll a 7 and two ways to roll an 11 in your favour, against one way to roll a 2, one way to roll a 12 and two ways to roll a 3. That's eight ways to win and four ways to lose, before a point even exists. A put bet skips all of it.
Craps Put Bets House Edge
The house has an edge on every point number. There are six ways to roll a 7 and only five ways to roll a 6, so if the point is 6 and you make a put bet, you're a 6-5 underdog. The same applies on 8. You're a 3-2 underdog if the point is 5 or 9, and a 2-1 underdog if it's 4 or 10.
Like pass bets, put bets pay even money. You're being paid less than the true odds of winning, so the house edge on an unbacked put bet works out at:
- 9.1% on 6 or 8
- 20% on 5 or 9
- 33.3% on 4 or 10
The lack of a comeout roll makes an enormous difference. Bet pass before the comeout, and the house edge is 1.41%. Come bets are also 1.41%, and place bets on 6 or 8 are 1.52%. Against options like those, an unbacked put bet is a wager to avoid, and four of the numbers sit worse than the 16.67% edge on any 7.
How Free Odds Change a Put Bet
You can back a put bet with free odds exactly as you can take free odds on a pass bet, and that single option is what separates a bad put bet from a playable one.
What Do Free Odds Pay?
Free odds are secondary wagers made after a point has been established, and they pay at true odds. Instead of even money, winning free odds bets pay 6-5 if the point is 6 or 8, 3-2 if it's 5 or 9, and 2-1 if it's 4 or 10.
Put $5 in free odds on 6 a total of 11 times, with the dice coming up in the normal proportions of six 7s and five 6s. Your total risk is $55.
On each of your five wins, you keep your $5 bet and collect $6 in winnings, which is $11 on your side of the table five times. At the end of the trial, you still have $55. The house has no edge on that portion of the wager at all.
How Much Can You Put in Odds?
The size of the free odds wager permitted varies from casino to casino and from table to table. A dwindling few allow a free odds bet equal to your pass, come or put bet.
Others allow twice your original bet, some allow three times, and five times, 10 times and occasionally 100 times all exist. Online craps tables set the maximum multiple in the game rules, so check it before you build a strategy around it.
For a put bettor, that flexibility is the whole point. You choose your number, play 6s and 8s while skipping the higher house edge numbers, and you push as much of your total wager as the table allows into the free odds portion.
When Is a Put Bet Worth Making?
A put bet backed by odds becomes worth making when the odds multiple is high enough to bring the combined house edge down to what a place bet on the same number already offers. Below that multiple, the place bet is the better wager.
Put Bets on 6 or 8
At low odds multiples, you'd be better off making a place bet. Winners on 6 or 8 pay at 7-6 and carry a house edge of 1.52%.
The break-even point arrives at 5x odds. Take the same 11 rolls, six 7s and five 6s, with $5 on put and $25 in odds. You risk $30 per roll, so $330 in total.
On each of the five winning rolls, you keep your $30 in wagers, collect $5 in winnings on the put bet and $30 on the odds, which is $65 on your side of the table. Five wins leaves you with $325 of your original $330.
Divide the $5 kept by the house by the $330 wagered, then multiply by 100, and you get 1.52%: the exact house edge on a place bet on 6 or 8. Above 5x, the balance shifts in favour of put plus odds. At 10x odds, the combined house edge on a put-plus-odds play drops to 0.83%.
Put Bets on 5, 9, 4 and 10
On the other place numbers the tipping point comes earlier, at 4x odds. With your odds bet at four times your put bet, the house edge works out at 4% on 5 or 9 and 6.67% on 4 or 10. Those match the place bet edges on the same numbers, though neither route is as good a deal as the same play on 6 or 8.
What Bankroll Do Put Bets Require?
Even on 6 and 8, getting the house edge down to place bet level takes wagers well above the table minimum. A $10 put bet at 5x odds puts $60 on the table every roll. Don't overbet your bankroll or risk money you can't afford to lose. If you wouldn't normally bet enough to back a put bet with 5x odds or more, stay with smaller bets on pass, come or place.
Key Takeaways
- A put bet is a pass line bet made after the comeout, on a point that's already established.
- It skips the comeout roll, where a pass bet has eight ways to win and only four ways to lose.
- Unbacked, the house edge is 9.1% on 6 or 8, 20% on 5 or 9 and 33.3% on 4 or 10.
- Free odds are paid at true odds and carry no house edge, so they pull the combined edge down.
- On 6 or 8, 5x odds brings a put bet level with a place bet at 1.52%, and 10x takes it to 0.83%.
- On 5, 9, 4 and 10, the same break-even point arrives at 4x odds.
- Reaching those multiples takes a bankroll well above table minimums.
