Casino Craps Tips
A good casino Craps strategy is to utilize place bets. This is done by putting money on any of the numbers in the 4-5-six-8-nine-10 area after the come-out roll. You’ll win if it’s rolled before a 7 and lose if the 7 appears first. No other numbers matter for place bets. Craps is undoubtedly the most exciting games at every online casino. Players can have huge percentages of their bankroll out on the table at any given time, and can only hope that the shooter makes them rich. The camaraderie among players and fast-paced action make craps many a player’s favourite. Of course, the casinos love the game, too. The best bets at the craps table are the pass line bet and the don’t pass bet. The come and don’t come bets are also great wagers. I always advise casino gamblers to try to limit their gambling to games where the house edge is lower than 2% — preferably 1.5% or lower. In a live casino craps is a very fast-paced game. In fact, no other game moves at the speed of craps. There are bets continually being called by players and dealers.The dice are in the air every few seconds.
Have you come here to find an answer to the eternal question how to make a killing at a casino? I don’t want to disappoint you, but there is no definite answer to this question. Nobody has and won’t be able to reach such level of skill which could influence on the outcome of rolling a pair of dice during a craps game. The best strategy is managing your bets.
- Like with other casino games, set a loss limit for yourself and decide when to walk away with winnings. If you can’t afford to lose more than $300, you should decide beforehand that $300 will be your absolute limit for losing and then you must stick to that limit. In the horrid event that you lose your $300 bankroll, you should stop playing, as opposed to wagering more.
- It might be a good idea to split your bankroll: If $300 is your loss limit, divide it in half, putting $150 in different pockets. If with the first $150 you win any sum that puts you more than $80 above your starting $150, put $150 back in your pocket and play with your winnings. Try to play exclusively with your winnings, and smart betting can help you achieve it. If, in spite of everything, Lady Luck is not with you, and you lose first $150 bankroll and then a second $150 without a significant win, quit for the night!
- Keeping calm while playing craps is very important. Since all players are betting against the casino, groups of players can get quite noisy when they win or lose together. It is nice to join with enthusiastic displays, however, do not allow you to do so because this will distract you from sensible management of your bankroll and informed betting.
- Try to bet on 1) Pass Line bets backed by free odds 2) Come Bets backed by free odds and 3) Place Bets on 6 or 8. You know there is a wide variety of bets offered on a craps table, but only a few have a reasonable house edge. Dealers and Stick men have been trained to encourage you to make other, less favourable bets; pay them no mind. Betting in craps is rather complex so you should get experience making the basic and more likely bets before risking any of the more unlikely ones. Furthermore, although advanced craps strategy involves multiple simultaneous bets which can earn players more profit in the game, beginners are advised to gradually increase the complexity of their craps betting. This way you can master the skills of craps betting step by step.
Guide to Getting the Most out of Playing Craps
We can’t guarantee you will win every session with these tips, but according to anecdotal reports these tips increase your chances of winning. Your mileage may vary. Good luck and may Lady Luck shine down upon you.
- Dice control. Watch for shooters who don’t shake the dice before each roll, and who roll the same way each time. They have better control over the dice than random throwers. When you find one of those shooters, play at his/her table, and bet with the shooter, if he/she is winning.
- Hit and run. If you understand the advanced wagers and you want to win big and quickly, bet the long odds. Be prepared to lose quickly, as well. Cut and run when you have made your killing. Without the discipline to walk away a winner, it is assured that you won’t walk away a winner.
- Go with the streak – Bet more when you are hot, less when you are not.
- Keep your eye on the player with the most chips. This is so obvious that you might not think of it. Emulate the table winner. There’s no law against being a copycat, and imitation is the highest form of flattery. You can bet smaller amounts than the high roller. Remember the saying, ‘Follow the money!’
- Assess the situation. Before plunking your money down at any old craps table, take the time to assess the table, the players and the current shooter.
- Don’t make Proposition bets. Leave them to others unless you like to play the worst odds at craps, let those who fall for the dealer’s hoopla play the Proposition bets.
- Avoid table minimums over your head. Find a table minimum that is within your budget.
- Pay no attention to the dealer’s appeals. When the dealer induces to make the high house advantage bets, ignore this appeal, and place your money on Odds bets instead.
- Back up your Pass/Don’t Pass and Come/Don’t Come bets with Odds bets. If you are not willing to bet the Odds bets, search for a lower-minimum table or another game to play. Always back up the basic bets with Odds bets to decrease the house edge to a bare minimum and maximize your chances of winning.
- If they lay, they play. If you don’t collect your winnings when the dealer places them in front of you, you’ll wind up parlaying your winnings into the next roll whether you want to or not.
Bonus Money Guide for Craps
The ability to manage your money is very important when playing craps. Everyone is eager to leave the casino a big winner, however, more likely than not, you will go home with a slight loss. The casinos might go broke if everyone left casino with a win. That’s why the casino always has an advantage over the player. Fortunately, craps has the best possible house edge if you place the Pass/Don’t Pass, Come/Don’t Come bets and the Odds bets.
But that’s not all there is to winning. If you want to win, you must be disciplined and have a proper mental attitude. If you can make good use of your bets by placing the Odds bets, manage your money and keep your head in the orchestrated chaos we call craps, you will surely have a great time and get the highest chances to walk away with some extra money.
Money Management Made Simple
There are lots of money management schemes around, but not all of them successful. Try to find the one that will work for you, and stick to it. You can use several in combination as well. Do whatever that can bring your losses to nothing or leave the casino with some of the money won during a game of craps. Try to be strict with yourself. You’ve declared war to the casino gods whose only goal is to take away your money.
When playing craps you can make and lose fortunes in a flash. In the event that you have managed to somehow win big money (not something you sometimes pull off when you play at a casino); get the heck out of Dodge. Don’t stay a minute longer. Just get out of there. Run; don’t walk, as fast as you can, and don’t look back.
Establish your bankroll, and abide by it. When your bankroll runs out, you should go away. You should never bet with money that you can’t afford to lose.
If you are on a winning streak, try to put away at least half your winnings, and play only with your original bankroll. Once the original bankroll is gone, you still go away with some money. You can also use this strategy in reverse: put your original bankroll away and only play with your winnings.
Divide your bankroll by 50, and you can probably have a good time for hours. For example, if you have $100, wager no more than $2 per round.
Money Stretching Strategy
Assume you start with a stake of $100, and you want to play as long as you can.
- Divide the $100 into two stacks worth of $50 each.
- Play with only one stack, and try to play at a table with a $2 minimum.
- If you win $50, take the $100 off the table and cash in the chips. Put the $100 away somewhere.
- If you lose, only play with the $50 until it runs out. Leave the table and cash in your chips. You can’t play without chips. Save the remaining $50 until after you have taken a break.
If you go away with some money in your pocket, you will be in a good mood realizing you have had a good time at the craps table.
Play with Your Head Screwed on Right
Craps is a vivid and fast-paced game that wants concentration and fast reflections amidst the chaos. Play craps only when you feel you are up to the task. Your energy level probably affects your play, and your play will surely affect your mental attitude. Make sure you are on firm ground when you are going to sit down at the craps table. If you aren’t, consider another less vivid game or go to some other place to have fun until you are up to the craziness that is the favourite of the impetuous crowd – craps!
I’m writing a series of blog posts about casino games and the good and bad strategies for playing those games.
Craps is one of my favorite casino games, so I’ve been looking forward to writing this one.
And the beautiful thing about craps is that it’s a game of pure chance. The best strategy is just to choose the bets with the lowest edge for the house and have fun.
But I’ll have some things to say about some of the strategies and systems that other writers promote, too.
They’re mostly bad craps strategies.
Here’s the Only Craps Strategy You Need
When you’re dealing with an entirely random game – like craps – the only strategy that matters is choosing the bets with the lowest house edge and having fun.
I’ll have something to say about shooters and whether they have control over the outcomes later in this post, but for now, let’s just agree that games like craps are purely chance.
In other games that are entirely random, like slot machines, you don’t even really need to decide which bet to place. It’s chosen for you before you sit down.
When playing craps for real money, you have a handful of good bets you can make, but most of the bets on the table are bad. Just skip the bad bets, and you’re all set.
The Bests Bets at the Craps Table
The best bets at the craps table are the pass line bet and the don’t pass bet.
The come and don’t come bets are also great wagers.
I always advise casino gamblers to try to limit their gambling to games where the house edge is lower than 2% — preferably 1.5% or lower.
The house edge for the pass and come bets is the same, 1.41%, which means they qualify.
The house edge for the don’t pass and don’t come bets is even lower, 1.36%, but the 0.05% isn’t worth worrying about. Most people prefer to root for the shooter to succeed.
The other bet to think about at the craps table is the odds bet. This is a bet you can only place after making one of the 4 bets I already mentioned and when the shooter has set a point.
This is one of the only bets in the casino that has no house edge. It’s a break-even bet, but it can be expensive.
It can also drive the effective house edge on the money you have in action down to almost nothing.
Here’s how that works.
Casino Craps Tips Play
How the Odds Bet Changes the House Edge for the Better
If you’re betting on the pass line and the shooter sets a point, you can expect to lose $1.41 for every $100 you bet. That’s on average and in the long run.
If you’re playing at a casino that only allows you to place an odds bet at 1X the size of your pass line bet, you can put another $100 into action.
Your expected loss remains $1.41, though, which effectively cuts the house edge in half, from 1.41% to 0.71%.
If you’re able to bet 2X your original bet on the odds bet, you can lower that even further to 0.36%. (You have $300 in action, but your expected loss is still only $1.41.)
The more you’re able to bet on the odds bet, the lower the house edge for all the money you have in action becomes.
It’s clear why betting on the pass line and taking the most odds that you can is an effective strategy. With the odds bet, you can get the house edge in craps lower than 0.5% at least some of the time at the table, making it an even better game than blackjack.
And what’s more, you don’t have to memorize basic strategy to get the low house edge at craps.
You just need a big enough casino bankroll to make the right bets, and you need enough sense to avoid the bad bets at the table – of which there are many.
Any Strategy that Involves Placing ANY Other Bets at the Craps Table Is a BAD Craps Strategy
There’s a reason gambling experts measure bets according to their house edge. That’s because it’s the single best indicator of how good or bad a bet is.
The house edge is a statistical estimate of how much money you’ll lose as a percentage of your original bet over the long run.
If the house edge is 1.41%, the casino expects to win an average of $1.41 every time you bet $100.
If the house edge is 16.66%, the casino expects to win an average of $16.66 every time you bet $100.
Which bet looks like the better bet for the casino?
And which one looks like the better bet for the gambler?
It shouldn’t be hard to make the distinction.
Even the best of the bad bets on the craps table are inferior to the 1.41% or 1.36% you can get from the pass, don’t pass, come, and don’t come bets.
And trust me on this:
You can have PLENTY of fun sticking with the basic bets at the craps table.
Betting Systems Where You Raise and Lower the Size of Your Bets Are Bad Strategies
The classic example of this kind of betting system is the Martingale System, where you double the size of your bets after each loss. When you do this repeatedly, you eventually win back the money you’ve lost along with a profit of one unit.
The problem with a system like the Martingale is that you’ll eventually run into a big enough losing streak that it will wipe out all those small profits and then some.
Most people underestimate how quickly a bet’s size gets when doubling after every loss.
They also overestimate how likely they are to avoid long losing streaks.
If you double a $5 bet once, that’s $10.
But if you run into a losing streak of 8 bets in a row, you’re looking at having to bet $640 to make up for your losses.
Also, every roll of the dice is an independent event. The odds don’t change based on how many times you’ve won or lost in a row.
You might think the probability of losing that 8th bet is lower than the likelihood of losing the first one, but the truth is that the dice have no memory. They have the same 6 sides, no matter how many times you’ve lost in a row.
Each bet in craps is an independent event, and any betting system will assume that the odds are changing based on how many times in a row you’ve won or lost.
Money Management Strategies Don’t Hurt Anything, but They Won’t Improve Your Odds of Winning, Either
Money management strategies involve having strict gambling discipline about how much of your bankroll you’re willing to risk before quitting the game. They also require you to stop when you’ve won an arbitrary amount of money.
Money management techniques are often used in conjunction with betting systems.
Here’s an example of a money management strategy in craps:
You decide your bankroll for the session is $250, and you’re playing for $5 per roll of the dice.
Your stop-loss limit is $100, so, if your bankroll drops to $150, you must quit the craps session and go do something else.
Your win goal is $250, so once your bankroll gets up to $500, you must quit the game and go do something else.
This kind of strategy might increase your chances of walking away from the game a winner.
But that’s only because a lot of gamblers will just keep playing until they’ve lost their entire stake. They just don’t generally have a lot of sense about that sort of thing.
The Jury’s Out on Dice Setting or Dice Control
I’ve seen multiple reputable gambling writers express interest and some belief that some craps shooters can influence the probability of specific outcomes. I’m skeptical – in the extreme – but I’ll give it an appropriate amount of credence.
Casino Craps Tips
The idea is that you hold the dice a specific way – “setting” the dice – then throw with a minimum amount of force – just enough to hit the back wall and eliminate most of the rolling action.
A controlled shooting expert doesn’t have to be perfect. Instead, they’re trying to be like someone who’s playing darts. They improve the probability enough to change the negative expectation on a bet to a positive expectation.
You can buy books and videos explaining how to get an edge at craps this way, but I can’t imagine the amount of practice and record-keeping required to have any confidence in your ability to change the odds.
Imagine if you spent 1000 hours trying to learn how to control the dice and coming up short. Maybe you just don’t have the knack for it.
That doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.
I’d rather learn to count cards in blackjack.
Conclusion
Casino Craps Tips For Beginners
Those are the best and the worst of the strategies I know of for playing craps in the casino. I know plenty of people who would disagree with every recommendation I’ve made, but the math behind the game doesn’t lie.
The best strategy is to stick with the bets with the lowest house edge and have as much fun as you can.