Craps Tips

Among all the skills needed to get the most out of casino games online and offline, one of the most important for casino players is choosing your wagers wisely.

And an important part of choosing your wagers wisely is knowing which bets never to make.

Casino gamblers know that the house has the edge on them; lottery players are also aware that the state-sponsored games also have a house edge, although most of these gamblers do not know what those edges are, how they are obtained, or what they mean in terms of the players’ losing expectation.

I think most successful athletes, scholars, writers, doctors, actors, chefs and, yes, casino gamblers often need a mentor; someone who can jog the unthinking fog that often settles in our brains when we perform an activity.

There are a wide variety of bets when you're playing craps. Some of these bets have low house edges; a few with under 2% and these tend to pay one-to-one.

So many people want to learn how to play craps, yet the layout looks too complicated and before even making an attempt to learn the game these people flee for the safety of what they consider simpler games such as blackjack, roulette, slot

There are dozens of craps bets advertised right on the live casino table felt - wagers including pass and don't pass, come and don't come, place numbers, the field, hardways, one-roll propositions.

When craps players put together combination bets, there are two key things to keep in mind:

The house edge is a weighted average of the house edges on all bets in the combination.

The overall house edge can never be lower than the best individual bet in the combination.

Casino players have the rare opportunity to play craps with a house edge of less than 1 percent. Unfortunately for low rollers, may require wagers too large for their comfort zone.

When craps players bet against the shooter in a live casino, the most common strategy is to play don’t pass and don’t come.  Backing those bets by laying the free odds cuts the house edge to the bone for “Dark Side” or “wrong bettor” – as the majority who bet with the shooter refer to don’t players.

Just after my book Advanced Advantage Play came out, a highly regarded AP asked me why I didn't include loss rebates against craps in it (I do cover exploiting loss rebates against baccarat, blackjack and roulette). He opined that I was no doubt saving it for myself.

Craps is a great game with great bets. Craps is an awful game with awful bets. You choose which one you want to play. You can play one (the great game) or the other (the awful game) or a combination of both (most players actually play a combination of both).  

Just because people play certain games, perhaps playing them aplenty, does not mean they necessarily understand those games. Even some dealers are not conversant with the true odds and underlying math of the very games they deal.

I am a degenerate gambler, degenerating all the time at craps.

When craps players learn the basics of how to play craps online or offline, they’re taught that the time to make a pass line bet is on the comeout roll. If it’s not the comeout, you can bet on come instead, with the same basic odds and gameplay.