- Winning Craps Strategy
- Winning At Craps Table
- Craps Odds Chart
- Probability Of Winning Craps
- Craps Winning Numbers
The following is a glossary of terms used in the dice game craps. Besides the terms listed here, there are many common and uncommon craps slang terms.[1][2][3]
A[edit]
Basic craps Statistics. One question I get asked a lot is 'what is the probability of a shooter lasting x rolls in craps?' The following table answers that question for up to 50 rolls. The first column is the roll number. The second column is the probability of a seven-out on exactly that roll. The minimum bet on a hardway bet in craps is usually $1. The payoff is 9-1 for the 3-3 and the 4-4, and 7-1 for the 2-2 and 5-5. You win the hardway bet if your hardway number is rolled before any other combination of that number. This is my favorite craps betting strategy. Do I always win with this craps strategy? Actually I rarely do. But hear me explain in this video why I still rea. Offering a payout of 1/2, this bet has the lowest odds on the craps table. The chance of you winning is 66.7%, so the house edge is 2.44%. Yes, you have the best chance of winning, but the payout means that the casino still holds the advantage. There's no such thing as a consistently winning craps system. You can try the Iron Cross Craps Strategy but don't be blinded by the false hope of beating the craps out of the casino that other websites try to peddle. Every book and Internet article by authors claiming to have a consistently winning craps system is pure bologna with one only purpose–transfer your hard-earned.
- ace deuce
- A roll of 3
B[edit]
- Big Red
- The number 7 or a bet for any 7 to appear
- bones
- A slang term for the dice
- box numbers
- The place numbers (4,5,6,8,9,10)
- boxcars
- A roll of or bet on 12
C[edit]
- center field
- Nine, often called Center Field Nine
- change only
- when a player buys into a game specifically with cash, the 'only' means no bets are being placed at the time of the buy in. Can also be used when a player colours in. (Dealers will say this out loud so that a player can't take a shot and say he wanted a bet on X.)
- Cheque change
- Breaking down a chip into smaller denomination chips.
- colour up
- The process of changing denominations of chips to larger denominations
- cold dice
- also known as a cold table; an expression used when players are not hitting the established point and sevening out
- come out
- 1. The initial roll of the shooter
- 2. To roll the dice when no point has been established[4]
- crap out
- To roll a 2, 3, or 12 on the come out roll. A player betting on the Pass line or Come loses on crap out, but the roll does not lose when a point is established. Don't Pass and Don't Come wins if a 2 or 3 craps is rolled on come out, but ties (pushes) if a 12 is rolled on come out. The shooter may continue rolling after crapping out.
- craps
- the numbers 2, 3, and/or 12
D[edit]
- double pitch
- In dice control, when the dice stay on axis which rarely occurs (less than 5% of the rolls), but one turns two faces more than the other. If players set the dice with the same face, such as a hard ways or 3V set, the roll may likely result in a seven.
- down
- To remove or reduce a bet, players often say 'take it down'
E[edit]
- easy way
- Rolling an even number with any combination other than doubles. Applies to 4, 6, 8, and 10 only.
- even money
- Any bet that pays out at 1:1.
F[edit]
- fever five
- A roll of 5, also called five fever
- free odds
- Simply known as odds, is the odds which can be taken or laid behind the Pass/Come or Don't Pass/Don't Come. These are paid at true odds.
- flea
- A player who bets at or near table minimum, normally for extended periods of time; very annoying.
G[edit]
- garden
- Slang for the field bet
- George
- A good tipper
H[edit]
- hard way
- Rolling a 4, 6, 8, 10 with a pair of the same number
- hi-lo
- a single roll bet for 2 or 12
- hi-lo-yo
- a single roll bet for 2, 11, or 12
- high
- A bet on or roll of 12, also see boxcars
- hop
- A single roll bet for a specific combination of dice to come out. Pays 15:1 for easy ways and 30:1 for hard ways
- horn
- A divided bet on the 2, 3, 11, 12
- horn high
- A horn bet with addition units going to a specific number. For example 'horn high ace deuce' would generally mean a 5 unit bet with 2 units going on the 3.
- hot dice
- also known as a hot table; an expression used when players are hitting the established points or rolling for long durations without seven outs
I[edit]
- inside numbers
- betting on the 5, 6, 8, 9
L[edit]
- lay
- To bet on a seven to come before a specific point number. Lays are paid at true odds with commission taken.
- lay odds
- To give odds behind a Don't Pass or Don't Come. Betting against the shooter
- Little Joe
- Point 4
- low
- a single roll bet for a 2
M[edit]
- mechanic
- A shooter who allegedly implements dice control
N[edit]
- natural
- Rolling a 7 or 11 on the come out roll
- Nina
- Rolling or betting on a 9
O[edit]
- Off
- 1. The come out roll; when no point has been established
- 2. To have a bet on the table but not in play. The bet can not be won from or lost when it is Off.
- On
- 1. When a point has been established
- 2. A bet that is in play (working).
- outside numbers
- betting on the 4, 5, 9, 10
P[edit]
- parley
- To parley a bet is to take all the winnings from the previous bet (or up to maximum allowed for bet if winnings exceed maximum) and add it to the next bet.
- press
- To double a bet, players generally say 'press it' when doubling a bet, players can also press an additional one or more units and can increase the bet less than the original bet by saying 'press X units'
- push
- a tie
S[edit]
- same bet
- To keep the previous winning bet as is. If a player says same bet it does not mean to double the bet, that is referred to as 'pressing it'
- seven out
- A roll of 7 when the point is On. All bets on Pass, Pass Odds, Come, Come Odds, Place bets, Buy bets, hard ways and any single roll bets not for a seven loses. All bets on Don't Pass, Don't Pass Odds, Don't Come, Don't Come Odds, Lay bets and any single roll bets for a seven wins.
- snake eyes
- A roll of 2
- stroker
- A player who makes bets overly complicated and/or gives dealers unnecessary additional work
T[edit]
- take odds
- To bet odds behind a Pass or Come. Betting with the shooter[5]
- take down
- See down
- true odds
- The real odds for payout where house edge is 0%
W[edit]
- working
- A bet which is in play and can be won or lost.
- whirl
- A five-unit bet that is a combination of a horn and any-seven bet, with the idea that if a seven is rolled the bet is a push, because the money won on the seven is lost on the horn portions of the bet. The combine odds are 26:5 on the 2, 12, 11:5 on the 3, 11, and a push on the 7.
- world
- See whirl
- wrong way bettor
- When a person is betting against the shooter on the Don't Pass Line.
Y[edit]
- yo
- A roll or bet on 11 (6-5, 5-6), short for Yo-leven
References[edit]
- ^'Craps Lingo'. readybetgo.com. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
- ^'Craps Etiquette and Lingo Casino Gambling Game Rules and Strategy Guide'. VegasTripping.com. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
- ^Jack Botermans (2008). The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History. Sterling. pp. 545–. ISBN978-1-4027-4221-7.
- ^Craps A Smart Shooters Guide. Cardoza Publishing. pp. 24–. ISBN978-1-58042-576-6.
- ^R. D. Ellison (2001). Gamble to Win: Craps. Lyle Stuart, Kensington Publishing Corporation. pp. 42–. ISBN978-0-8184-0621-8.
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.
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.
Winning Craps Strategy
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. Garden of the gods casino new mexico.
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.
Winning At Craps Table
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.
Emu casino no deposit bonus 2018 guidelines. 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.
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.
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.
Winning Craps Strategy
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. Garden of the gods casino new mexico.
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.
Winning At Craps Table
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.
Emu casino no deposit bonus 2018 guidelines. 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.
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.
Craps Odds Chart
Conclusion
Probability Of Winning Craps
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.
Craps Winning Numbers
The best strategy is to stick with the bets with the lowest house edge and have as much fun as you can.