Craps Strategy
Even though craps has an inherent house advantage, there are certain craps strategies you can use to cut that advantage to a minimum. Additionally, some other craps strategies are useful to help you stay within your bankroll and maximize your time at the tables. As long as you understand that there’s no such thing as a sure thing, you’ll do fine.
Cutting the House Advantage
You can cut the house advantage in craps by simply choosing your bets wisely. Some craps bets have 0 house advantage while others have a whopping 17% advantage. Your strategy should consist of learning the best craps bets and having the discipline to avoid the worst bets.
The Odds Bet
The very best craps bets of them all are the odds bets. These bets pay out at true odds so there is a 0% house advantage. The one problem with these bets is that you can only place them after having placed a pass line or don’t pass line bet. The good news is that the pass line and don’t pass line bets have house advantages of just 1.41% and 1.36% respectively.
There are two types of odds bets: taking the odds and laying the odds. These two bets are basically opposites of each other. The “taking” bet can be placed after a pass line bet and the “laying” bet can be placed after a don’t pass line bet. You may place either bet after the come-out roll.
When taking the odds, you are just placing an additional wager that the point will be rolled again before a 7. When laying the odds, you are wagering that a 7 will be rolled again before the point.
Because there is no house advantage, casinos limit the size of your odds bets to some multiple of your original pass line bet. Some casinos say you can only bet 3x odds. In that case, if you bet $10 on the pass line bet, you could only bet $30 when taking the odds. One strong strategy is to look for the casinos that offer the highest maximum odds bets. The great amount you can bet on the odds, the more you can cut the house advantage.
Avoid the Hard Ways and Proposition Bets
The odds bets and pass line bets are the best but if you don’t stick with those exclusively, you must at least avoid the hard ways and proposition bets. These are the worst bets you can make at the craps table.
The hard way bets have a house advantage that ranges from 9.09% to 11.11% and the proposition bets range from 11.10% to 16.67%. That is a major advantage and it will eat your bankroll up in no time.
Money Management
Money management is just as important as picking the right bets. Craps is a gambling game, pure and simple. Even though you can minimize the house advantage, you can never eliminate it entirely. The most important lesson to take from this is that you never play with money you can’t afford to lose.
In all gambling games, there is always a risk that you lose whatever money you’re gambling with. Once you understand that risk, you can then play with a light heart and not have to worry about financial problems later. Plus, it’s just healthy gambling to only play with money that you don’t have set aside for other purposes.
If you’d like to maximize your time at the table, a little bankroll management will take you a long way. You can safely assume that the smaller your bets relative to your bankroll, the less chance you have of going broke during any given session. On the other hand, you’ll go broke a high percentage of the time if you bet your entire bankroll on every throw of the dice.
A general rule of thumb for craps bankroll management is to stick with bets equal to 2% to 5% the size of your bankroll. For example, if you have a $100 bankroll, $2 and $5 bets will keep you in the game for quite a while. You can always adjust this based on your time constraints and risk tolerance.
Craps Betting Systems
Craps betting systems don’t actually change the odds in any way. No matter how you place your bets or size them, the house advantage remains the same. You will often see advertisements for betting systems that can guarantee you wins at the craps table. These will even sometimes be accompanied by testimonials from “real players.” Trust me, there is no such thing as a winning craps betting system. You can’t change the math behind the game.
As long as you understand that, there’s really nothing wrong with using a betting system. You just have to be careful because some systems, like the Martingale system, suggest that you double your bet every time you lose a bet. You can quickly get in over your head if you follow such a system without regard for your bankroll.
My recommendation for craps betting systems is that you just save yourself the time. The odds of the game will always be the same. You’ll do a lot better for yourself by just learning the best bets and having fun at the tables.