Craps Betting Strategy

To the uninitiated, Craps can appear to be a very complicated game. You have two dice, almost endless betting options and if you are in a live casino, a lot of noise. But the good news is you don't have to be a Craps expert to start playing the game and without risking huge amounts of money. The safest bets in Craps, as with most casino games, are the even money bets which just happen to be the easiest to learn.

For the purpose of this basic craps betting strategy we will concentrate on the Pass and Don't Pass bets but before placing any bets it is important to understand how it works.

To begin, the shooter (the person rolling the dice) will roll the dice for a series starting with the come-out roll (the first roll in a series). The come-out roll will establish the Point (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) which provides the basis for the Pass and Don't Pass Lines.

When betting on the Pass Line you are betting that the shooter will roll a 7 or 11 on the come-out roll or that Point will be rolled again before a 7 is rolled by the shooter.

When betting on the Don't Pass Line you are betting that the shooter will roll a 2 or 3 on the come-out roll or will roll a 7 after the Point has been established but before Point has been rolled a second time.

Both Pass and Don't Pass lines give the house an edge of about 1.4% which is low enough to be attractive for the player but there is a way to make it even lower. The Pass and Don't Pass lines offer an additional wager option for those who placed a bet on either of the lines before the come-out bet. This wager referred to as a supplemental or odds bet, is usually up to double the original bet amount and will reduce the house edge down to about 0.6%.

The way the supplemental bet works is, you have placed a wager on either the Pass or Don't Pass line, the shooter has established the point at which time your original bet remains in place and you have the option of placing a supplemental bet on the same line as your original bet. So if you are on the Pass line, both your original and your supplemental bet wins if the shooter rolls point again before rolling a 7 and if you are on the Don't Pass line your original and your supplemental bet wins if the shooter rolls a 7 before rolling Point again.

The odds on the supplemental bets are:

So if you place a $2 bet on the Pass Line and a Point of 9 is established so you follow that up with a $4 supplemental bet and win your return would be the original outlay ($2 + $4) plus your winnings for the original bet ($2) plus the winnings from the supplemental bet ($6) for a total of $14.

Now there are two things to be aware of, the first is that not all crap games are created equal. Some games will offer you double your bet on all supplemental bets regardless of the Point that has been established while others will offer 2.5 times your bet on supplemental bets where the point is 8 or 6 and double on the rest. Offering 2.5 times is regarded as being a "true double" and is the game that you are looking for.

The second thing to be aware off is that winnings will be rounded down. Now the reason for this is because casinos don't want to work with pennies. For example, you have placed a $4 supplemental bet with a Point of 8 and win. At 6 to 5 your true winnings would be $4.80 but you will be paid $4. Now it is understandable that land based casinos don't want to work with odd amounts but online casinos will do the same thing so you need to protect against giving them any additional advantage.

If you work with multiples of $2 for both Pass and Don't Pass Lines bets and using full doubling (2.5 times on Points 6 and 8) you will be negating the rounding advantage that the casino has. Using this approach will reduce the house edge to about 0.57% for the Pass Line Bets and about 0.45% for the Don't Pass Line bets, which with proper money management and combining with bonus systems should see you coming out in front on a regular basis with this craps betting strategy.

Recommended Casinos for Playing Craps

The following online casinos have Craps with the odds in the above strategy. They have been thoroughly checked out by the Zen Gambling team and are highly reputable. We recommend them for trying out our Craps strategy, whether you want to play for free/fun, or if you want to play for real money. Good luck!

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