Introduction
If you’re like me, you’ve probably walked into a casino overwhelmed by all of the different games available, and in my humble opinion way too many slot machines… you’ve probably walked by tonnes of Blackjack tables, other card games, watched a live show, maybe even looked in at the Texas Hold’Em Poker table. But one thing I started to notice is how much fun and noise was going on over at the Craps table. As with most people, I walked up to the table with very very little knowledge of what I was doing. Placed the most basic bet, rolled the dice, and lost. Tried again, placed a different bet, and lost. Placed both of those bets, won one, lost the other. After about 10 minutes at an empty table, I had lost $25 with very little idea of why or how. Now being the vengeant jerk that I am, I decided to learn more about it, practice, and have gone in with $30 in my pocket, got as high as winning about $120 and walked out with $85 beyond that $30 I started with. And more importantly, played for about 2 hours, had the chance to meet new people, joke around with the crew around the table, and had a blast rather than losing money and feeling horrible. In the next few Factoidz, I’m going to go over exactly how to play and more importantly, how to win, at Craps so that you can save your money and have fun playing one of the most fun and fast paced game in the casino.
Credits:
Before I begin, I want to give credit where credit is due. If it weren’t for the articles at http://mark.interapps.com/winningatcraps/welcometowinningatcraps.htm then I’d still be lost and confused. It took me hours of reading, practicing online, and practicing at a real table to understand all of the things they go over so although I give credit to them, I intend to make this article short, to the point, and enough personal experience to save you the effort.
Disclaimer:
Even with solid strategies and a good gut instinct, playing Craps is still gambling. You can win some, you can lose some, and the game as with any game in the casino is slanted so that overall, the house always wins. My goal is to make it so that you win more than the house overall, but to do that, keep a few things in mind:
1. DON’T GET GREEDY! EVER!! If you’re up, you’re up, if you’re down, you’re down. I’ll outline some solid goals to have while playing but when you make your goal, leave the table now! If you stay, you will lose, simple as that.
2. Don’t be impatient! Get to know the table, the players, the energy, everything you can about how the game is going before you step up and give your money and get chips in return. If you dive in with the wrong strategy for that table, you’ll have a crappy time (no pun intended… well… maybe just a little pun).
3. Know your bankroll! Yes, I like to go up to the table with $25 and make the most of it. Realistically, you should have 10X your starting/minimum bet for each time you walk up to the table. If all you’re doing is the table minimum pass line and maybe 1 come/don’t come bet, that’s $10 so you should start with at least $100. Any less and the statistics are against you of even doubling your money. The bottom line is if your goals are unrealistic for your bankroll, don’t be surprised if they’re not met and/or you walk out with no money.
The table:
Pretty, isn’t it? Oh, don’t have a picture of a table in front of you, eh? One sec:
Like I said, pretty, isn’t it? And really overwhelming… So lets go from the bottom to the top and left to right about what each area is used for.
Suppose you’re standing exactly where the picture has placed you. You’ll be standing next to the stick man. They’re easy to point out: they’ve got a big stick. They also call out the numbers as the dice finishing moving around and who would’ve won on that roll.
First thing right in front of you are the Pass and Don’t Pass line. This bet is the very first bet made as a new shooter starts their roll. The Pass bet means two main things: you win if the shooter’s next roll is a 7 or 11, you lose if it’s a 2, 3, or 12, and any other number becomes the point. If the point is rolled again before the 7, you win and a new session starts. The Don’t Pass Bet is the opposite: you win if the next number is a 2, 3, or 12, lose if it’s a 7 or 11, and you’re betting that the point number won’t be rolled before a 7.
Next above is the Field. It’s an easy bet to make and shows all the numbers you can win on. You bet $5, the next number is one of the ones mentioned on that area, you get $5. I never bother with this bet because it’s boring, random, and bets on the next roll only.
Next above is the Come line. It’s used to make the same sort of bet as the Pass line but the session has already started, as in the shooter has established a point number of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10. The difference is if they roll one of those 6 numbers next, your bet moves to that number. If the number is rolled another time before 7, you win depending on which number it was.
Just like Pass has a Don’t Pass bet, there’s a Don’t Come bet as well. Same idea except when the bet moves to the point number, you’re betting that 7 will come up before that same number. The Don’t Come is located on the top-right of the picture.
Above that are the point numbers. If you’re placing a Buy bet as most people will, you’re betting that that number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) will come up before a 7 days. If you’re placing a Lay bet it’s the opposite: you think a 7 will come up before that number. 1 unit of a 6 or 8 is $6, 1 unit of a 4, 5, 9, or 10 is $5, as in if you want to bet on that number, that’s the minimum you can bet and if you’re right, get an even dollar amount winning back. Some casinos have a minimum Lay bet amount for each number so you’ll want to double check before attempting one. Otherwise,the cheapest way to get what’s similar to a Lay bet is making a Don’t Come bet instead.
On the left are bets on specific rolls of the dice. The first at the top is that the next roll is a 7. The next group of 4 are called the Hard way bets. It’s an ongoing bet that the next 4, 6, 8, or 10 will be made with matching dice so 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, or 5-5. You win if that’s the next way that number comes up, you lose if that number comes up any other way or if a 7 is rolled. The final group of 4 are one-time bets for the remaining numbers: 1-1, 1-2, 5-6, 6-6. These are most used to hedge your first roll, which is called the come out roll and are occasionally used in the middle of the session because of how much you can win if you’re right.
The 8 sets of 2 small circles with a line between them are "c" for any craps, meaning that the next roll is a 2, 3, or 12, or "e" for eleven.
I don’t bother getting in the Big 6 and Big 8 because for all intents and purposes, they don’t exist. Sure, you can put money there, but there’s very little reason why.
Who’s shooting?:
Well, the turns go clockwise so when someone rolls a 7 after a point has been made, then the dice move on to the next person and so on.
Statistics:
The game is based around your ability to guess what a pair of dice are going to do. There are 6 sides to each dice, two of them, so 36 different ways the dice can land. In another article, I’ll go over how to make them more likely land the way you want them to rather than just letting the dice decide. So the total values of what could come up are 2 (aces, snake-eyes), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (yo), and 12 (boxcars, midnight). There’s only 1 way to make aces and midnight each, 2 ways to make 3 or yo, etc. all the way up to 6 ways to make 7. Why am I boring you with the stats? Well if you’re a numbers nut like me, you’ll realize quickly the "right" way of betting is pretty much betting against the statistics, as in you’re putting money on a number coming up before the most frequent number possible, being 7. Aces, 3, and midnight are called "craps" numbers. I never bothered to find out why they are, but they’re numbers you lose on on the first role of the dice. 7 is 7, and yo you win on for the first role and doesn’t have much other use normally unless you want to bet specifically on it. The rest of the numbers (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) are called place numbers. Now that you have a bit of an idea of what you’re up against, let’s go to how the session plays out.
Charting the table:
This is a term for figuring out how the table is doing: should you bet for the shooter or against the shooter. There’s four main levels the table achieves:
1. Hot/Pass and Place Numbers betting. This table is where at least 2 consecutive shooters hit there point number at least once, preferably more than once, and also roll a 5, 6, 8, or 9 3X or more before rolling a 7.
2. Medium Hot/Place Numbers betting. This table is where at least 2 consecutive shooters roll a 5, 6, 8, or 9 3X or more before rolling a 7.
3. Medium/Regression betting only. This table is where at least 2 consecutive shooters roll a 5, 6, 8, or 9 at least once, preferably twice, before rolling a 7.
4. Cold/Don’t betting only. This table is when the most of the shooters are often rolling craps (aces, 3, midnight), rarely rolling a 7 on the come out roll, and once the point is made, roll only a couple of numbers before rolling a 7.
Now just as a table can get hotter or colder, so too can the shooters themselves. I’ve seen tables go from totally full to 2 people standing there in only a few sessions so be aware of who is the hot shooters and just as importantly, how they’re shooting. Some shooters end up naturally picking up on the energy of the table and toss the dice down the table with great results. But then they’re just playing to the statistics of what the number will be. If there’s a shooter that takes their time setting up the dice, spinning them a bit, looking at them a few times, and picks up and throws the dice the exact same way, and is successful, then THAT is the person you want to bet on the next time around as long as they stay there.
Basic bets:
So presuming the table minimum bet is $5, which is very often the case, here’s how to bet on each type of table and shooter:
1. Hot: $20 on the Pass line bet, then throw $6 to the stick man and say "3 way craps". Repeat until a point is made. If they hit their point number before a 7, reduce to $10 and throw $3 to the stick man and say "3 way craps". Repeat until a point is made. If they hit that point number, $5 and throw $1 to the stick man and say "Dollar Any". Repeat until point is made. If they still hit their point, make no bet next time and wait for them to hit their point again. Last bet, put $5 on the Don’t Pass line, then throw $1 to the stick man and say "Dollar on 7, please". Leave the money as it is, collect any winnings, and wait for the next shooter.
I’ll go over exactly what I’ve done here. The first time, you’re betting $20 that 7 or 11 is coming up next and if not, they make a point number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) and make that number again. Just to make sure you’re not going to lose that bet early with aces, 3 or midnight, you’re also putting $2 on each of those numbers for the next roll. That way, if 3 is rolled they take your $20 bet and give you $30 making a total profit of $10, or if aces or midnight is rolled they take your $20 and give you $60 for a total profit of $40. The downside, of course, is that if the bet wins as I mentioned to begin with, you’re net profit will be $14 (the $20 you bet, minus the $6 you used to hedge against it). But that’s still a tonne better than having the chance of losing $20 on the first roll.
Similar situation for the next few rolls, so if you get all the way to the 5th session before waiting for the next shooter, you would have won $14, $7, $4, and another $4, for a total of $29 profit from one shooter on Pass/Don’t Pass line bets only! The reason this strategy works best is that even though the amount you win each round is half, or close to it, from the last round, that means if you’re wrong about this shooter, the table only took half of your last profit. This means as long as you were right the first time, if you’re wrong the 2nd time you still won $1, wrong the 3rd you still won $16, the 4th time nothings on the line so you’re still at $25 profit, and last time you’d end up with $19. And the best part of all of this is that doesn’t even include any craps being rolled on the come out roll!
2. Medium Hot: Similar to hot, just start at $10 and $3 "three way craps" instead.
3. Medium: Wait for the table to warm up before making a Pass line bet of any sort. If you really want to, do a $5 Pass line and $1 "any" to the stick man.
4. Cold: Make sure it’s ice cold, like the table was empty when you got there or just got empty. Place $10 on Don’t Pass and throw $3 to the stick man and say "2 dollar 7, 1 dollar yo, please". If the point number is a 4 or 10, I suggest putting $5 on Don’t Pass Odds. Politely ask the crew member closest to you if they prefer odds placed behind or beside your first bet first, though, as some tables are different than others. I’d suggest doing this only once. Tables are rarely cold for long which brings you back to Medium or waiting until you know for certain how the shooters and table are doing.
Goals:
There’s 3 main types of goals you can have. Time, money, or multiple. I suggest only having a multiple goal as that will lead you to the most success each time you walk up to the table. The time goal is something along the lines of I’ll just keep playing for 1 hour and then leave or playing another game instead. This is probably the worst goal to have as it can go both ways. Either you’re lucky and you leave before the table gets cold, or you’re unlucky and the table has gotten horrible before you time is up. And since every game is setup for the house to always win, the second scenario is the most likely. A money goal is something like I’m gonna make $100 before I leave the table. Not horrible, however to make $100, you’ll probably need $100 bankroll to begin with at least. If you’re going in with $25 and want to leave with $100, I’m not saying you shouldn’t, I’m just saying it’s unlikely. A multiple goal is I’m walkin’ in with $100 and gonna win $100. This one’s the best one to have because it’s realistic and will overall give you the most success.
Conclusion:
I’ll write a few more Factoidz about the other bets to make and how to have a better chance of knowing what the next roll is going to be whenever you’re the one rolling because both require a lot of in depth explanation and more importantly, this Factoid has gotten way too big! Man, I’m bored just writing it now, I wanna head to the tables now! Either way, the game of Craps is intended to be a fun, social game. I’m not writing these articles to show you how to make money fast. I’m writing them so you can have fun and learn a new hobby. Also, these strategies don’t really work on online Craps tables for the simple fact that online tables are purely a number generator creating the dice combinations. You have no human element which is both anti-social and the other half of how a night will go. If things are going well at the table, applaud. If things are going poorly, groan. Get to know new people. And always remember, if you didn’t win money but had fun, the table will still be there next time.
Good gambling to you.
