The Game Of Craps

The game of craps (once it was named by the name "Crabs") is an Online Casino game of dice. This game is especially famous in USA. The game of craps is a lighter version of the game "hazard". Basically the player who plays the game bet against the casino dice roll result, or against a series of two dice rolls.

Game Basics

The player bet on the dice result (no matter who rolls) than takes turns and roll the dice. The player who rolls the dice is known as a "Shooter". And the first roll of a round is known by the name "Come out Roll", and the bets are based on the total amount of the dice together or some other combination of the dice.

Craps game features a lot of betting ways, the most known bet type is the "Pass Line" bet which all players usually bets on. When a "come out roll" roll is done, player's pass line bet is considered a win when the dice rolled either 7 or 11. Dice rolls of 2, 3 or number 12 losses, and it is called "Craps". When any other number: 4, 5, 6 8, 9 or 10 is rolled it is called "Point", once a point has been rolled, the player who put the pass line wins if the Point was rolled again, and loses if the number 7 was rolled first, this is also known by "Seven Out", after this roll, the game goes to the next shooter.

The "Don't Pass" is the opposite of "Pass Line" bet which the wins come out with a roll number of 2 or the number 3 loses the game at number 3, creates a tie game at number 12 and goes into the Point round if the other numbers has been rolled. Players that don't put any bets on the passes are called or known by "Wrong Bettors" while the players who do put bets are called "Right Bettors".

A casino craps table is maintained by four casino employees:

• Boxman: the boxman guards the chips, supervise the dealers, and handle the players.
• Two base dealers: they stand on the box man either sides, and collect the bets and also pay the bets.
• Stickman: the stick man stands directly across the table and announces the result of each roll, and also collects the dice with an elegant stick made of wood, and also in charge of managing the bets on the table (hardways, yo – number 11, horn… etc).

A player who once put a bet on "Pass Line" or "Don't Pass Line" is presented five dice by the stickman and than pick two dice which are most likely to him. It is possible that the dealers will consist and request that a player will throw the dice using one hand and that the dice must bounce out of the corner of the table or to throw the dice in controlled way. If a die leaves the table after a player threw the dice the shooter will be asked to select another die from the other remaining three dice or request to use the same die if the boxman agrees after inspecting the die, this in order to reduce cheating in casinos: players can substitute the die with a fake die.

Types of Craps Bets

The basic bet in Craps is the "Pass Line" bet, which the players bet that the dice will pass (rolling a Point before rolling the number seven). A pass line bet is also consider a win if the roll came out 7 or 11. If other numbers, such as: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 have been rolled (Point was set) most casinos allow taking odds by placing one to 5 or in some casinos up to 100 times the pass line bet.  The additional bet wins if the point is rolled again before the player rolled the number seven and pays the odds, 2:1 if the number was 4 or 10, 3:2 if the number was 5 or 9, and 6:5 if the number was 6 or 8. The house might have a small percentage of advantage (around 1.4%) on pass lines, but doesn't have any advantages over odd bets. Taking the maximum odds (different between casinos) can than lower the house's percentage for any placed bet around 0.5%. Odds bets in the game of craps are ones of the bets that have a completely free house advantage. Another bet is also the "Double Up" bet option offered to the players in some video craps, or poker games after you win a round. There are 36 possible combinations of dice: 

So the dice can roll 36 possible combinations, for the come out roll there are eight ways to win, four ways to lose, and 24 (36-12=24) ways to start a game point. The odds of rolling a point are the ratio of the number of times it takes to roll a seven. As an example: there are five ways to roll number 6 or 8, so the odds of 6 or 8 are 6:5. Therefore an odds bets of $5 on the number six or the number 8 will result in a pay of $6. Many players who are very experienced in the game of Craps only bet pass and odds bets since the odds bets are far more payable to the player than any other bets. The pass line and odds bets are one of the best ways to get good pays at gambling.

Betting Types

Note: casinos might have different odds than the ones that are written below.

Betting types are usually located at the center of the table, and usually pays high payouts, but have a higher house advantage.

One Roll: one roll bets that the player who rolled the dice will result in 11 or "yo" (pays 17:1), 3, or "ace deuce" (pays 17:1), or "snake eyes" (pays 35:1) and 12, "box cars" or "midnight" (pays 35:1).  A "hi-lo" is a combination of 2 or 12 (pays 17:1).

Hardway:  bets that the player will roll number such as 4:4 (pays 7:1).

Hard 4: rolling 2:2 (pays 7:1).

Hard 5: rolling 5:5 (pays 7:1).

Hard 6: rolling 3:3 (pays 10:1).

Hard 8: rolling 4:4 (pays 10:1).

Horn: bet which involves betting on 1 unit for each of 2, 3, 11 and 12 at the same time for the next upcoming roll. The bet is usually a 4 separated bets, and pays off depending on which of the number is actually rolled minus three losing bets. Most of the players do a "Horn High" bet which involves betting an extra $1 on if of the choices, with the most available extra bet being $5 ("Horn High Yo")

Hop:  a hop bet is any one of the number combination of the next roll, for example would be: hard 8 on the hop pays 30:1 if two fours appear on the dice in the next roll. Easy combination may also bet, such as 3 and 5, 4 and 6, which pays 15:1.  On most of the casinos around the world the Hop is not placed on the table, but is placed in front of the boxman, often with a "Hop" marker on the chips.

Craps: craps is a bet where the player will roll the numbers 2, 3 or 12 on the next roll, which pays 7:1.

C and E:  c and e is actually two bets, a player bets on a unit on craps, and another one on 11, one of the two bets will always lose and the other will pay off as above.

Any Seven: a bet that the player will roll the number seven at the next roll, which pays 4:1, this bet is also known by the name "Big Red", since seven is usually bet on the large red layout.

Whirl or World: is a bet with a combination of Horn and Any Seven, which usually pays 4:1.

Field: is a bet that one of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12 will appear on the next roll round which pays 2:1 on the 2 and 12, some casinos will pay 3:1

Big 6 or Big 8:  is know as a "sucker bets" because the bet pays even money while the player can bet on the same combination by placing the 6 or the 8, which pays 6:5 (some casinos don't have this option, and some players do not take this bet combination).

Most of the above combination aren't that good for the player since the house's advantage is most likely 11% and up. Most Craps players often restrict their bets to "pass line" or "don't pass line", and more aggressive players do take the house bets.

Place, Buy and Lay

Players can place bets on individual numbers (4, 5, 6, 8 and 9) by placing their bet in the come area, and telling the dealer "place" or "buy" the number. Those bets are bets that the numbers will be rolled before the number 7. Buying number results result in a good pay off, but requires from the player to add a %5 commissions to the casino, this lowers the house advantage, especially on the numbers 4 or 10, where the advantage reduces by 3/4. The commission is paid by a rate of $1 chip for every placed $20, but some casinos usually charge $1 for every $25 chips or $2 for every $50.A lay bet is the opposite of "buy" bet, where the player bets on 7 to roll before the number that is "laid". Bets are placed in each $24 when laying the numbers 6 or 8, $30 when laying the numbers 5 or 9, $40 when laying on the numbers 5 or 10, $1 commission is charged in the beginning.

 

Example of a game play

If you example you place a bet of $10 on pass line. On your come out toll you will get 11 so you win $10 and the game starts from the beginning, with a new come out roll. You roll 9 which becomes your point action. Than you decide to bet $10 on the come line before your next roll, and you get the number 6 on the next roll, which is now the point you need to hit to get you $10 back. Your next roll is 9 which is also the point you need to hit in order to win the pass line bet. This means that you just won another $10 on the pass line. Than you place a bet of $10 on the next pass line, than the roll comes out as 7, you win $10 for the first pass line but lose the $10 on the come line.

Optimal House Betting