How To Win Craps
If you win with a 6 or 8, it has a payout of 7:6; these bets pay 7:5 on the number 5 or 9 and 9:5 on the number 4 or 10. Another type of place bets, called place to lose bets, is the exact opposite. Like the don’t pass or don’t come bets, you win if the shooter rolls a 7 before your chosen number.
We all love craps and we would all love to win at craps every time we play.
While there is no sure-fire five-minute strategy that will teach you how to play craps and win every time, there are a bunch of strategy tips and smart bets that can improve your chances of winning.
Wrong bettors win whenever the other lose (and lose when the other players win) - which, in a gambling game like craps, is going to happen often. Similarly, the Don’t Come bet is the one that you should go for after a point has been established in case you want to bet against the other players. If you only understand one bet in craps, it should be this one. The Pass bet is put on the the pass line itself on a come out roll. You can tell it is a come out roll if there is a black laminated marker on the table that says 'off.' If the come out roll is a 7 or 11, then you win even money. If the come out roll is a 2, 3, or 12, then you lose. Alright now craps can be complicated, yes, however Roger is here he's gonna take us through all of the basics. Roger give us craps 101. Read up on Craps Etiquette. Roger: Well, first we're gonna start with the pass line, come out roll. We're gonna try to throw a 7, 11 and win.
In this article, I am going to run you through all the most common strategy tips to play craps. I will show you how to pick the right bets when you play and how to understand when the house edge is too high for you to stay in the game.
Throughout the article, you will find references to concepts like casino bankroll management, common casino mistakes, and the way odds in craps are calculated.
If any of these sounds foreign to you, remember to check out the articles I just linked before you sit at the craps table.
Beating the C*ap Out of Craps
Despite what many beginners believe, craps is not the easiest game on the casino floor.
While it is true that your winnings are always one dice roll away, the game of craps comes with such a sophisticated set of bets that you won’t win unless you know how to play.
It's not so much down do using the right strategy to win at keno — it's about knowing how the game works.
Is There a Craps Strategy to Beat The Casino?
Rules are boring, I know. Unfortunately, there’s no way you can become a good craps player if you don’t know how the game works.
To help you get started, I set up a rules page for you to learn how to play craps.
Together with the game's rules, that article gives you some useful strategy tips on bankroll management and practical advice on how to limit your losses.
The key to getting more chances to win at craps is to learn what bets you can go for and what bets you need to avoid every time you play.
The only way you can do so is if you know the house edge connected to each one of the bets in the game.
How to Bet in Craps
If you want to be sure to get the best chances to win at craps, you need to pick the Pass/Don’t Pass or the Come/Don’t Come bets.
Picking any of the four bets indicated above reduces the house advantage to 1.40%. This is the best you can get in craps, especially if you combine it with laying or taking odds in order to reduce the percentage advantage even more.
Since choosing only the Pass / Don’t Pass and Come / Don’t Come bets would be awfully boring, I am going to give you some more craps strategy tips related to bets you can put your money on.
The other bets that give you the best odds of winning at craps are:
- the Place 6
- the Place 8
- the Field 2
- the Field 12
These four, combined with the ones I mentioned earlier, are the only bets worthy of your money. Anyone familiar with the basics of the craps optimal strategy know that all the other bets come with worse conditions and a higher house edge.
Keep in mind that when I say “higher house edge”, I mean that you stand little to no chance of winning when you pick one of the other bets.
Bets like the Hard-Way 4 and the Hard-Way 10 have an house edge of 11%. Why would you ever pick these ones instead of the much more favourable Pass / Don’t Pass line and Come / Don’t Come bets?
The next time you open a crap table at your favorite live casino online, have a look at what people bet on before you start playing.
Check out how many players don’t stick to these craps strategy tips I just gave you and count how many of those who try the top-paying bets end up in the red.
Pass and Come Bets
As you should know by now, the Pass / Don’t Pass and Come / Don’t Come bets are by far the best ones in the game.
The only way you will be respected by experienced players and dealers is if you show them you know this principle and you stick to these safe bets when you play craps.
The low house edge makes the Pass bet the most popular one in the game. With an house advantage of 1.41%, you always win unless the shooter hits a 2, 3, 2, or 7 after the point was hit.
The Come bet is equally popular and lets you win every time you or the shooter hit a 7 or 11 after the come bet is made. You lose the Come bet only when you or the shooter hit a 2,3,12.
Don’t Pass and Don’t Come Bets
If you don’t like to sit with the majority of players, you can also play “against” the others and become what is usually referred to as a Wrong Way Bettor.
Don’t let the name mislead you. Wrong bettors win whenever the other lose (and lose when the other players win) - which, in a gambling game like craps, is going to happen often.
Similarly, the Don’t Come bet is the one that you should go for after a point has been established in case you want to bet against the other players.
Whenever you opt for this bet, you win if the 3 or 2 is hit after the point has been made, and you tie if a 12 is rolled.
Win At Craps Every Time
The Don’t Come bet pays even money and, like all the best bets in craps, has a house advantage of 1.41%.
Payout and House Edge of All the Bets in Craps
While the best explained above are the ones the optimal strategy to win at craps suggests, the game features a lot of other bets with different house edges.
To help you understand the bets you should avoid and the ones you should go for, here’s a table with all the information you need to pick the right one.
Craps Bets
Bets | Payout | House Edge |
---|---|---|
Pass | 1 to 1 | 1.41% |
Come | 1 to 1 | 1.41% |
Taking Odds on Pass/Come 6 or 8 | 6 to 5 | 0% |
Taking Odds on Pass/Come 5 or 9 | 3 to 2 | 0% |
Taking Odds on Pass/Come 4 or 10 | 2 to 1 | 0% |
Don’t Pass | 1 to 1 | 1.36% |
Don’t Come | 1 to 1 | 1.41% |
Laying Odds on Don’t Pass/Don’t Come 6 and 8 | 5 to 6 | 0% |
Laying Odds on Don’t Pass/Don’t Come 5 and 9 | 2 to 3 | 0% |
Laying Odds on Don’t Pass/Don’t Come 4 and 10 | 1 to 2 | 0% |
Place 4 or 10 | 9 to 5 | 6.67% |
Place 5 or 9 | 7 to 5 | 4.00% |
Place 6 or 8 | 7 to 6 | 1.52% |
Big 6 and 8 | 1 to 1 | 9.09% |
Field 3,4,9,10 or 11 | 1 to 1 | 5.56% |
Field 2, 12 | 2 to 1 | 5.56% |
Lay 6 and 8 | 19 to 25 | 4.00% |
Lay 5 and 9 | 19 to 31 | 3.23% |
Lay 4 and 10 | 19 to 41 | 2.45% |
Buy 6 and 8 | 23 to 21 | 4.76% |
Buy 5 and 9 | 29 to 21 | 4.76% |
Buy 4 and 10 | 39 to 21 | 4.76% |
Hardways 6 and 8 | 10 to 1 | 9.09% |
Hardways 4 and 10 | 8 to 1 | 11.11% |
Craps Proposition Bets
Bets | Payout | House Edge |
---|---|---|
Any Craps (2,3 or 12) | 8 to 1 | 11.11% |
Any Seven | 5 to 1 | 16.8% |
Any Eleven | 16 to 1 | 11.11% |
Ace Deuce (3) | 16 to 1 | 11.11% |
Aces (2) | 30 to 1 | 13.9% |
Boxcars (12) | 30 to 1 | 13.9% |
Horn 3 or 11 | 15 to 1 | 12.5% |
Horn 2 or 12 | 15 to 1 | 12.5% |
Essential Strategy Tips for your Craps Games
When considering how much to bet to beat a casino at craps, you should also consider how much money is in your expendable bankroll.
If your bankroll is limited (and I am pretty sure it is), you should limits the amount you press on the lay or place odds unless you want to be pushed out of the game after a single bad roll.
If you come to the table with a big bankroll, you should take advantage of the best bet in the game and not be afraid of pressing the maximum amount allowed by the table’s rule.
If you are looking to have more action at the table, you should at all costs stay away from most prop bets and stick to the Place and Lay bets.
Like in all gambling games, the key to beating a casino at craps is to walk away while you are ahead.
You need to know when to stop and take a break, Cash your winnings and leave the table. If you keep on playing, you put your winnings at risk - and you don’t want that.
Free Video Craps Strategy Lessons
Here’s a list of quick videos you should watch if you are serious about craps strategy and you want to take your game to the next level.
The 4-Minute Guide to Craps Strategy
Besides being an hilarious video (and I tend to agree with Roman Praha on the redhead being high), this is video is pure gold.
It drives you through everything you need to know before you start and it explains the essentials of the game in less than four minutes.
Plus, if you liked Leisure Suit Larry you will love this one.
The Mathematics of Craps
In this video, former craps dealer at the Hilton Las Vegas, Jim Luciano drives you through the numbers of craps to explain how to calculate odds, payouts, and winning chances.
This video complements the section of this article dedicated to the bets and the odds.
The 10-Minute Full Craps Strategy Course
This video features everything you need to become a pro. Watch it once you are familiar with the numbers in the game and the use these craps strategy tips from the Players Network!
The Five-Count Strategy System
In the video below Gaming author, Frank Scoblete, describes the so-called Five-Count System, an alternative craps strategy you can read on hit book Beat the Craps Out of the Casinos
The five-count system begins when a shooter rolls a point number of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10. Once any of these numbers is rolled, the next roll is the two-count. Assuming there is a third roll, here is where you would start betting with a come bet.
If the roll continues, it is considered to be the four-count where you would place another come bet. Once it reaches a five-count, here is where you would start to place odds on your come bets and also make your third come bet.
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Disclaimer: Gambling is a game of chance and there's no sure-fire formula that guarantee winnings. You can improve your winning chances by using the right in-game strategies but there is no way to predict when a machine or a Casino game is going to pay. Also, this page contains affiliate links. If you click through and play, we might earn a commission. That’s what allow us to keep CasinoSmash free and bring you the best online Casino bonuses!
Plenty of gamblers claim that they’re winning craps players, but are they telling the truth? If you play craps like most gamblers, the math says that you can’t win in the long run. But there are some things that you might be able to do to help.
Here’s a list of six ways you can play craps that can help you win. Part of this article deals with things you need to know and art of it deals with things that you need to do when you play craps.
Even if you don’t figure out how to win, there’s little doubt that you’re going to learn how to improve your results when playing craps for real money.
Know the Craps Numbers of Importance
You only need to know two numbers when you play craps to make the best betting decisions. These two numbers are called the return to player and the
casino house edge.
The craps return to player number is the percentage of a wager that you win back, on average, when you make the wager. The edge is the percentage that you lose, on average, on each wager.
The best craps bet options have the highest return percentage and the lowest edge, and the worst craps wagers are the ones that have the lowest return numbers and highest edge. As it turns out, you only need to know about a few wager options because most of them are terrible.
Here are the numbers for the best wagers at the craps table:
Bet | Return | Edge |
---|---|---|
Don’t Pass | 98.64% | 1.36% |
Pass | 98.59% | 1.41% |
Odds | 100% | 0% |
Place 6 or 8 | 98.48% | 1.52% |
Understand How Every Craps Result Is Derived
Before you make a bet at the craps table you need to understand how each possible result is derived. Craps results come from the total of two dice. Knowing that each die has 6 possible results, you can use this information to determine the likelihood of any result from 2 to 12.
The reason why rolling a 2 or 12 is hard is because there’s only one combination of the dice that produces either result. You have to roll a 1 on each die to roll a 2 or a 6 on each die to roll a 12. While there’s only one way to roll a 10 with a 5 on each die, you can also roll a 10 with a 4 on the first die and a 6 on the second or a 6 on the first and 4 on the second. This means there are three combinations to roll a 10, so a 10 is 3 times more likely than a 2 or a 12.
Here are the numbers for combinations that produce each total in craps:
- 1 combination produces either a 2 or a 12
- 2 combinations produce either a 3 or an 11
- 3 combinations produce either a 4 or a 10
- 4 combinations produce either a 5 or a 9
- 5 combinations produce either a 6 or an 8
- 6 combinations produce a 7
Gambling Odds Verses the Odds
Using the information in the last section you can determine the odds of particular totals coming up or particular combinations of the dice coming up. In total, there are 36 possible outcomes of rolling 2 dice.
The odds of a particular roll, like a 1 on each die, are 1 out of 36. The odds of rolling a 7 are 6 out of 36, or 1 out of 6.
You need to consider the odds when you decide which bets to make when you play craps.
For example, if you make a place bet on the 8, you win if an 8 is rolled before a 7, and lose when a 7 is rolled before an 8. The odds on this bet are 6 to 5, because there are 6 chances of rolling a 7 and 5 chances of rolling an 8.
This is only one type of odds. The other type, and it’s just as important if not more important, is the bet called the odds. You learned why the odds wager is so important in the first section. It has a 100% return and no edge for the casino.
The odds wager is an important tool that every smart craps gambler uses. Any bet you can make with a 100% return is a bet that you should make at every opportunity.
Do Bonuses and Casino Comps Help Craps Players?
Craps players can use bonuses in mobile and online casinos and earn casino comps for their play in live casinos. Both of these things look and sound good, but does either of them really help?
Craps bonus offers aren’t as clear cut. The question isn’t whether a craps bonus gives you a bigger bankroll to play with. This isn’t in question, because it does give you a bigger bankroll.
The question is if a craps bonus does anything that helps you win? A craps bonus doesn’t help you win because it doesn’t change the return or edge. You can use craps bonus offers for bankroll purposes, but don’t expect them to change your long term results at the craps table.
Does Doubling Up Work in Craps?
A gambling trick or system that’s been around for years is to double the size of your bet after a loss. These wagers are traditionally made on bets that pay even money or 1 to 1.
How To Win Craps Machine
For example, you make a $20 bet on the pass line and when you win you get your $20 back and a $20 win. If you lose, your next bet is $40. You keep doubling your bet after a loss, and when you win you go back to making a $20 wager.
This sounds like the perfect craps system, and that’s why some gamblers try it. This usually gives you some profits in the short term, but it always ends in disaster. You always run into a string of losses that destroys your bankroll, and even if you don’t, the table has a maximum bet amount that stops you from making huge wagers.
You simply can’t make a profit playing craps using the double up strategy.
See if Dice Control Is Real or Not
I’m going to be 100% up front with you before I talk about dice control. I don’t believe that it works. I believe that if you could make it work it can change the return of craps. But I’ve never found proven evidence that it works, just a lot of yelling and claims that aren’t backed by facts.
The basics of dice control are simple. You set the dice the same way every time, hold them using a particular grip, and throw them exactly the same on every roll. By doing this you can supposedly control the results of your rolls.
If you can control the results of your rolls you can make a lot of money playing craps. Even if you can only control the outcomes of a small percentage of your craps rolls you can erase the casino edge.
This is why I recommend finding out if dice control is real or not. Do your own research and try the techniques out. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I’m not holding my breath.
Win More Playing Casino Craps
You only need to know two important numbers when you think about craps strategy. When you know the edge and return for every bet option you know exactly what you need to do and what you need to avoid.
It’s also important to understand how craps results are derived. Most people don’t really understand how dice works and how the odds work. Speaking of odds, there are 2 different types of odds in craps and you need to know the difference.
Bonuses and comps can help, but they don’t do much. Doubling up can help in the short term, but is deadly over the long run.