Casinos can be intimidating and their games a little confusing, but here's a tip: The best bet on the craps table has no house edge, and it isn't shown anywhere on the layout. There's no mention of 'odds' on the table. You must have a Pass or Don't Pass bet to take odds on, but then you're on your own. If you don't know about odds, you'll miss the best bet in the casino.
Odds for Each Number. By looking at the possible combinations, the 'true odds' for each number can be established. Knowing the odds in craps is good so you have a feel for the likelihood of one number being rolled before another one (e.g., is the 4 going to be rolled before the 7?). 'Winning Craps' combined together with sound money management will make you a consistent winner at the casino. You will learn the same strategy that The Gaming Pro plays and will consistently win 10-40 units per hour at the Craps table. 'Winning Craps' has been tested on: combined database, actual rolls of the dice, and on the Internet. Casino Craps Winning Strategy – Slot machines: the odds of winning the jackpot Slot machine odds But the situation gets a little trickier if side bets are required to activate game features such as pick’em bonuses or free spins, hotel stays.
If you know how to play craps, you know that new shooters have to place a wager on the Pass or Don't Pass line. Once that new point of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 is made, they can just keep shooting. The odds bet, the one that has zero house edge, isn't mandatory; it's optional.
The Pass Line always pays even money, but the real beauty of the Odds wager is that you are paid the true odds of the point rolling. To make the wager, simply place chips behind your original Pass Line bet on the craps layout. This wager can at least equal your Pass Line bet, so if you have an original wager of $10, put another $10 behind it to take odds. The amount you should wager depends on the point number.
If the point is 4, 5, 9, or 10, match your bet. If the point is 6 or 8, bet $6 in odds for every $5 you have on the Pass Line. When the shooter makes their point, you'll get a much bigger payoff.
Pass Line Odds Payoffs
If the point is:
- 4 or 10, you are paid 2 to 1 on your Odds wager.
- 5 or 9, you are paid 3 to 2 on your Odds wager.
- 6 or 8. you are paid 6 to 5 on your Odds wager.
Most casinos allow you to take double odds on you Pass Line bet. That means if you put $5 on the Pass Line, you could make an odds bet of $10.
Your Pass Line bet has a house edge of 1.41 percent. The Odds bet has no house edge, so by taking it you lower the house edge on your overall wagers. A Pass Line bet with single odds has a house edge of 0.85 percent and with double odds, the house edge drops to 0.61 percent.
Over the last few years, many casinos have allowed players to take larger odds bets. Some casinos compete with each other to see who can offer the highest odds, up to 100 times odds. Although this sounds great, it is impractical for average players to wager this much unless they have a very big bankroll.
3-4-5 Times Odds
To make things quick and easy for everyone, from the players to the dealers to the Box Men, many casinos have incorporated a simplified odds system in which they allow odds of only 3, 4, or 5 times a Pass Line wager. With this system, players are allowed to take three, four, or five times odds, depending on the point number. You can get odds on Come Bets too.
If the point is::
- 4 or 10 you can take 3 times odds.
- 5 or 9, you can take 4 times odds.
- 6 or 8, you can take 5 times odds.
Craps Odds Bets
The Odds: Numbers
Since craps is a game of chance, you need to understand why you have a greater or lesser chance of rolling different numbers. Because you're rolling two dice, your chances of rolling a specific number in craps are determined by the number of die combinations that can add up to that number. For example, 2 can only be rolled with two 1s, but 4 can be rolled with either a 1 and a 3 or two 2s. That means you have twice the chance of rolling a 3 as you do a 2. Because the 7 has the greatest number of combinations (six), it is the number that has the potential to come up most often, which is why 7 is the magic number in craps.
There are 36 possible number combinations in craps. Here is a chart showing the possible combinations for each number using two die.
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From the chart, you can see that the most likely number you'll roll is a 7, followed by the 6 and the 8, then 5 and 9, then 4 and 10, then 3 and 11, and finally (and least likely) the 2 and the 12. This means you'll roll a 7 once out of every six rolls, a 6 or an 8 once out of every 7 to 8 rolls, and so on.
Odds for Each Number
By looking at the possible combinations, the 'true odds' for each number can be established. Knowing the odds in craps is good so you have a feel for the likelihood of one number being rolled before another one (e.g., is the 4 going to be rolled before the 7?).
House Edge
Craps Betting Odds
Now, true odds are not what the casino pays you unless you're also betting 'free odds' on top of your main bet. Free odds, which is an additional wager you place with your original line bet, pay true odds so the casino's edge is reduced. (We'll talk more about free odds in Strategies the Winners Use.)
To better explain how the casino edge works, let's take the example of flipping a coin. You have a 50/50 chance of the coin landing on heads, and a 50/50 chance of it landing on tails. If that were a bet on which you were being paid true odds, you would be paid even money. The casino, however, has to have an edge in order to make a profit on the game. So, the payoff for any given bet is less than what true mathematical odds would dictate. For example, on a bet that had true odds of 1:1, you would think that if you bet $1 and win, you would be paid $1 in winnings. But in a casino, depending on the bet, you might only be paid $.96. The difference between the true odds and what they pay you is how they make money -- it's called casino odds.
Another way to better understand casino odds versus true odds is to look at the definition of the casino (or house) edge. WizardOfOdds.com defines it as, 'The ratio of the average loss to the initial bet,' going on to explain that it's based on the original wager rather than the average wager so that players can have an idea of how much they are going to lose when they place a bet. For example, by knowing that the casino has a 1.41 percent edge in craps, you can know that you'll be losing 14.1 cents for every $10 bet.
Craps Betting Odds Strategy
For charts of odds for all types of bets, visit the Wizard of Odds.com.
Craps Betting Odds Horn
On the next page, we'll talk about types of craps bets, their odds and what the casino pays for each.