Smash Vegas

Craps is a game with a bit of a reputation for being complicated.  It has a lot of terminology and side bets.  There’s also a certain amount of ceremony and ettiquette to scare off the new player.

In fact the core game is quite simple (though that shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement to play).  If you want to learn the game then all you really need to focus on are two bets - the Pass and Don’t Pass lines.

Players take turns rolling two dice, with the rolling player known as the shooter.  The other players place bets on the shooter’s dice rolls.  The game is played in two rounds.  The first is known as the come-out roll and establishes a point for the shooter to try to roll.  The second round ends with the shooter either hitting their point or rolling a seven.

A player who is made shooter must first place a bet on either the Pass or Don’t Pass line.  Essentially these are betting on hitting the point or not.  They are sometimes even called Win and Don’t Win bets.  He picks two of the five dice presented to him by the stickman and rolls them.  If his roll is 2,3 or 12 then it is craps; pass line bets lose while don’t pass bets win on a 2 or 3 with 12 being declared a draw or push.  If his come-out roll is 7 or 11 it is called a natural resulting in a win for pass line bets and a loss for don’t pass bets.  In either case the shooter continues with the come-out roll until a point is established.  Rolling 4,5,6,8,9 or 10 establishes that number as the point and ends the come-out roll.

In the second round the shooter continues to roll until the point is rolled again (resulting in a win for pass line bets and a loss for don’t pass bets) or a seven is rolled (resulting in a win for don’t pass bets and a loss for pass bets).  In either case the round is over and the dice are offered to the next player clockwise round the table.

There are lots of different bets offered for each round and each roll.  Though only a few are worth considering.

The come and don’t come bets are exactly the same as pass and don’t pass except they can only be made in the second round after the come-out roll.  With one exception the pass/come and don’t pass/don’t come bets are the best at the table with a house advantage of 1.41% and 1.36% respectively.

The exception is the odds bet which can be made after a pass/come or don’t pass/don’t come bet.  In the case of pass/come the odds bet is that the point will be rolled before a 7 and pays at the true odds of 2-to-1 if 4 or 10 is the point, 3-to-2 if 5 or 9 is the point, and 6-to-5 if 6 or 8 is the point.  The don’t pass/don’t come odds bet is the reverse - that a 7 will be rolled before the point is made, it also pays the true odds of 1-to-2 if 4 or 10 is the point, 2-to-3 if 5 or 9 is the point, 5-to-6 if 6 or 8 is the point.

Since the odds bet pays at true odds there is zero house edge.  However since it can only be made as a continuation to the pass/come or don’t pass/don’t come bets you can only use it to lower the house advantage on those bets.  As the house advantage gets averaged over the original bet and the odds bet you reduce the house edge but never eliminate it.

So there you go - the optimum play (other than not playing at all) is to make a minimum unpopular don’t pass bet and then bet as much as allowed on the odds bet.  You’ll still lose money to the house edge but at least it will be a slower.

Unless of course you are a master of dice control in which case this is still the best way to lower the house edge.

In a future article I’ll discuss the other bets on offer and why you should avoid them.