Readers have shown me repeatedly over the years that one good story deserves another. And last month, after I shared a couple of tales of how craps players learned the game my inbox brought a flurry from other players.
Games work for casinos only if customers will actually play them. A game that seems too complicated or that intimidates players won’t do its job of encouraging wagering.
Craps has a reputation of being difficult for newcomers to learn yet is the second most popular table game behind blackjack. Everybody who plays was a beginner at one time. I asked some craps players how they learned.
Newcomers to craps sometimes are confused by the details. It can take a while to sort out the ins and outs of a game with so many different ways to bet. One such novice player asked me why the one-roll bet on any 7 is said to be such a weak play.
I’m often asked, “How does the casino gets its edge,” and the basic answer always is, “By paying winners less than the true odds of winning.” Casinos take your full bet when you lose, but pay only a portion of the true odd when you win.
Whether it’s the bounce of the dice or the turn of a phrase, funny things happen at the craps table. Just ask Wes and Faye, craps players who sent along their stories for our amusement.
When players get serious about craps, they soon learn that the free odds have no house edge. You must make a pass or come bet at the full house edge in order to bet the odds after a point is established, but then the odds bet is paid at true odds.
There’s a long-standing debate among craps players who bet on don’t pass/don’t come: Should you or should you not lay the odds once a point is established?
Craps players have dozens of options with all the different combinations to play. On many multi-roll bets, they also have the option of taking the bet down before a decision is reached.
I don’t like to get bogged down in math in this blog. All casino games have roots in math, but you don’t have to be able to do the math yourself to shop for the best bets. House edges are easy to find online or in books about gaming.
Nonetheless, I do get reader requests for explanations about the underlying arithmetic, especially in craps.
At any game, players come in all levels of experience and knowledge. Some are more familiar than others with game rules, strategies or even the mechanics of how to make a bet.
I hear regularly from Maria, a reader who mostly plays craps. She’s often found herself the only woman at the table, but it doesn’t bother her. She does, however, sometimes take some grief about being the only “wrong” bettor – a player who bets against the shooter by wagering on don’t pass and don’t come.
Table games players have consistently shown a preference for live action. They like to play with real cards and dice and with human dealers.
Still, there has been an increasing acceptance of electronic table games, especially in roulette. Touch screens for electronic betting speed play as wagers are settled automatically, with no mistakes. There’s no down time waiting for dealers to pay winners and collect chips from losing bets.
From beginners to grizzled old veterans, craps players are always thinking about the ins and outs of their game. A couple of questions arrived recently, one from newbie on a basic concept and one from a veteran who was wondering about the possibilities of a different way to play.
Just about every craps player has a favorite way to play. Some play the percentages and make sure they take the free odds offered when you back pass or come bets with additional bets. Some like the place bets on 6 and 8, to make sure they always have the most frequent non-7 numbers working. Some like to take their chances for bigger payoffs on the one-roll props such as yo-leven or any 7, and let the house edge fall where it may.
Recently, I got an email from a reader wondering if he should change his method.
Craps has language and terminology all its own, like “Yo,” or “yo-leven” for 11 and “hard way” for rolling a total with both dice showing the same number – 4-4 is 8 the hard way.
Craps presents so many possibilities that players are continually exploring combinations seeing if they can find a magic formula for profit. One player asked me recently if he could combine place bets with hard ways for some giant-sized wins.
Not long ago, I received a note via email from a craps player who was taken aback when a shooter rolled five sevens in a row. “It would seem to me there has to be a makeup time to get the odds to come out right,” he wrote. “What’s the hidden factor that balances those five 7s in a row?”
A craps table with a hot shooter on a roll is one of the most exciting places in the casino. When the shooter is rolling number after number without sevening out, players are winning together, celebrating and cheering the shooter. Big wins bring tips, so the dealers are happy, too.
In Tunica, Mississippi, we appreciate good entertainment. After all, we feature plenty of it for just about every taste. So, you probably are not surprised that we chuckled at the attempt at humor in recent commercials by a competitor across the river. Clever, but we have to ask: Why don’t they talk about any benefits, just about a shorter drive (and that depends on where you live)?
In Tunica, we also appreciate the difference between fact and fiction.
Fact: closer doesn’t mean better.
Fiction: you risk alien abduction, chainsaw-wielding maniacs and organ harvesting if you drive to Tunica.
So, in the spirit of good, clean competition, we would like to focus over the next seven days on the Lucky 7 reasons why closer doesn’t mean better. Because when you compare Tunica to Southland, it’s not even close. And be sure to read on to find out how to receive $25 in free slot play and a $5 food credit when you trade up to Tunica.
I’ve been giving you some tips about how to have some biker-style fun at Roadhouse, but now I’m wrapping up the Roadhouse spotlight with its main attraction. Use this guide to gaming at Roadhouse to see if you can be like one of the casino’s latest big winners who won $72,000 at the slots.
Those who are serious about craps probably have looked at charts detailing the house edge on the pass line as the amount of free odds permitted increases. With no odds bet, the house has a 1.41 percent edge on pass. That drops to 0.8 percent with single odds, 0.6 percent with double odds, on down to 0.3 percent at 5x odds, 0.2 percent at 10x and a miniscule 0.02 percent at 100x odds.
It’s hard to not be excited to talk about all the gaming options at a casino with the word “gold” right there in its name. With an award-wining slot machine selection, a team that will actually teach you how to play poker and high-rolling accommodations, Gold Strike is all about helping you find your pot of gold.
The two most commonly rolled point numbers in craps are 6 and 8. Of 36 possible two-dice combinations, five add up to 6 and five add up to 8. The only more frequently rolled number is 7, with six combinations, but that’s a losing number to most players.
A craps player emailed to ask about a bet he hadn’t seen before. “Some of the others were playing something called the ‘Fire Bet,’” he wrote. “When the shooter made a point, they’d put a fire disk on that point. Once the shooter made a couple of points, the guys started to get excited, but I think I only saw it pay off once. I didn’t know anything about it, so I stayed away, figured I’d learn something about it before I got involved. Is this a good bet, or something to ignore?”
In games that offer multiple wagering choice, it’s easy to design a system that will win more often than it loses. That doesn’t mean it’s to your advantage to play the system.
Craps players like the idea that there’s a magic combination of bets that will overcome the house edge, a perfect hedge that will guarantee wins no matter what number comes in. There isn’t, but it’s an attractive idea that led to this e-mail exchange:
The first time I ever encountered Crapless Craps, also called Never-Ever Craps, was back in the 1980s in Las Vegas, at a place called Vegas World that since has made way for the Stratosphere Tower. Since then, I’ve seen the game in Mississippi and Minnesota. It’s not a casino standard, but it pops up from time to time.
I once was privy to a heated conversation between a table games supervisor and a craps player regarding comps. Actually, I should say the entire pit was privy to one side of the conversation, which involved a very loud, very angry player haranguing a supervisor who was trying to calm him down.
Everyone who has ever been to a casino has most likely seen craps tables. If you’ve not gotten close enough to see them, you’ve definitely heard people cheering at them because it’s usually the loudest place in the house. So Travel Tunica decided to get in on the action and learn how to play one of the most intimidating games for beginners on the casino floor.
A craps player told me he likes to make $6 place bets on 6 or 8, but also hedge with $3 bets on 7. That way, a roll of 6 or 8 wins $7 and loses just the $3 on 7. And if a 7 wipes out the place bets, he makes it up by winning $12 with the 4-1 odds on any 7.
Making a place bet on 4 — betting a craps shooter will roll a 4 before the next 7 — is a weak bet, with a house edge of 6.67 percent. Same deal if you place 10. The house edge is still 6.67 percent, and there are several bets at the craps table that are much better percentage plays.
The free odds wager in craps is a rarity, a wager with no mathematical edge to the house. To make it, you have to first make a bet that DOES have a house edge — the pass line, where the 1.41 percent advantage to the house still makes it one of the better bets in casinos.
Ahh…Father’s Day! One of the best day’s of any man’s life is the day he becomes a Father! It’s only then that he can truly begin to understand the years of conversations, scoldings, disappointing looks, praise and pride that his own father has shown him over the years. Being a Father is a tricky thing 364 days a year. It’s Daddy this, Daddy that, Why Daddy, Can I Daddy, Money Daddy, Daddy Please and then, the one day that a Father can call his own, that 365th day – Father’s Day.
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