Craps Place Bet Or Buy

I’m writing a series of blog posts about casino games and the good and bad strategies for playing those games.

1. Craps Place Bet Vs Buy
2. Craps Place Bet Or Buy House
3. Craps Place Bet Or Buying
4. Craps Place Bet Or Buy A House
5. Craps Place Bet Or Buys

Craps is one of my favorite casino games, so I’ve been looking forward to writing this one.

And the beautiful thing about craps is that it’s a game of pure chance. The best strategy is just to choose the bets with the lowest edge for the house and have fun.

A buy bet on any number has a house edge of 4.76%. Place bets on 4 & 10 has a house edge of 6.67%; 5 & 9 - 4.0%, and 6 & 8 - 1.53%. Even buying a 4 or 10 is still a high house edge bet that should be avoided. As you can see here, the payouts are slightly lower than true odds. The house edge for place 4 and place 10 is 6.67%, the house edge for place 5 and place 9 is 4.00% and the house edge for place 6 and place 8 is a very nice 1.57%. I tried to provide a screenshot of different place bets below. Overall, the pass line bet is definitely one of the best bets on the craps table with a house edge of 1.41%. In addition, adding odds onto this wager is without a doubt the best way to extend your gambling bankroll. The pass line is simply one of the best ways to try and win big. #1: The Don’t Pass Bar.

But I’ll have some things to say about some of the strategies and systems that other writers promote, too.

The Buy bet becomes a bad bet compared to the Place bet if the casino requires the vig up front. The house advantage for Placing the 5 and 9 is 4.00%, whereas the house advantage for Buying for 5 and 9 with the vig up front is a bit worse at 4.76%. Place bets are just like odds bets, except no pass line bet is required, and don't pay as much odds. To be specific, place bets on the 6 and 8 pay 7 to 6, the 5 and 9 pay 7 to 5, and the 4 and 10 pay 9 to 5. The tables below show the best odds are on the 6 and 8.

They’re mostly bad craps strategies.

Here’s the Only Craps Strategy You Need

When you’re dealing with an entirely random game – like craps – the only strategy that matters is choosing the bets with the lowest house edge and having fun.

I’ll have something to say about shooters and whether they have control over the outcomes later in this post, but for now, let’s just agree that games like craps are purely chance.

In other games that are entirely random, like slot machines, you don’t even really need to decide which bet to place. It’s chosen for you before you sit down.

When playing craps for real money, you have a handful of good bets you can make, but most of the bets on the table are bad. Just skip the bad bets, and you’re all set.

The Bests Bets at the Craps Table

The best bets at the craps table are the pass line bet and the don’t pass bet.

The come and don’t come bets are also great wagers.

I always advise casino gamblers to try to limit their gambling to games where the house edge is lower than 2% — preferably 1.5% or lower.

The house edge for the pass and come bets is the same, 1.41%, which means they qualify.

The house edge for the don’t pass and don’t come bets is even lower, 1.36%, but the 0.05% isn’t worth worrying about. Most people prefer to root for the shooter to succeed.

The other bet to think about at the craps table is the odds bet. This is a bet you can only place after making one of the 4 bets I already mentioned and when the shooter has set a point.

This is one of the only bets in the casino that has no house edge. It’s a break-even bet, but it can be expensive.

It can also drive the effective house edge on the money you have in action down to almost nothing.

Here’s how that works.

How the Odds Bet Changes the House Edge for the Better

If you’re betting on the pass line and the shooter sets a point, you can expect to lose $1.41 for every $100 you bet. That’s on average and in the long run.

If you’re playing at a casino that only allows you to place an odds bet at 1X the size of your pass line bet, you can put another $100 into action.

Your expected loss remains $1.41, though, which effectively cuts the house edge in half, from 1.41% to 0.71%.

If you’re able to bet 2X your original bet on the odds bet, you can lower that even further to 0.36%. (You have $300 in action, but your expected loss is still only $1.41.)

The more you’re able to bet on the odds bet, the lower the house edge for all the money you have in action becomes.

It’s clear why betting on the pass line and taking the most odds that you can is an effective strategy. With the odds bet, you can get the house edge in craps lower than 0.5% at least some of the time at the table, making it an even better game than blackjack.

And what’s more, you don’t have to memorize basic strategy to get the low house edge at craps.

You just need a big enough casino bankroll to make the right bets, and you need enough sense to avoid the bad bets at the table – of which there are many.

Any Strategy that Involves Placing ANY Other Bets at the Craps Table Is a BAD Craps Strategy

There’s a reason gambling experts measure bets according to their house edge. That’s because it’s the single best indicator of how good or bad a bet is.

The house edge is a statistical estimate of how much money you’ll lose as a percentage of your original bet over the long run.

If the house edge is 1.41%, the casino expects to win an average of $1.41 every time you bet $100.

If the house edge is 16.66%, the casino expects to win an average of $16.66 every time you bet $100.

Which bet looks like the better bet for the casino?

And which one looks like the better bet for the gambler?

Craps Place Bet Vs Buy

It shouldn’t be hard to make the distinction.

Even the best of the bad bets on the craps table are inferior to the 1.41% or 1.36% you can get from the pass, don’t pass, come, and don’t come bets.

And trust me on this:

You can have PLENTY of fun sticking with the basic bets at the craps table.

Betting Systems Where You Raise and Lower the Size of Your Bets Are Bad Strategies

The classic example of this kind of betting system is the Martingale System, where you double the size of your bets after each loss. When you do this repeatedly, you eventually win back the money you’ve lost along with a profit of one unit.

The problem with a system like the Martingale is that you’ll eventually run into a big enough losing streak that it will wipe out all those small profits and then some.

Most people underestimate how quickly a bet’s size gets when doubling after every loss.

They also overestimate how likely they are to avoid long losing streaks.

If you double a $5 bet once, that’s $10.

But if you run into a losing streak of 8 bets in a row, you’re looking at having to bet $640 to make up for your losses.

Also, every roll of the dice is an independent event. The odds don’t change based on how many times you’ve won or lost in a row.

You might think the probability of losing that 8^th bet is lower than the likelihood of losing the first one, but the truth is that the dice have no memory. They have the same 6 sides, no matter how many times you’ve lost in a row.

Each bet in craps is an independent event, and any betting system will assume that the odds are changing based on how many times in a row you’ve won or lost.

Money Management Strategies Don’t Hurt Anything, but They Won’t Improve Your Odds of Winning, Either

Money management strategies involve having strict gambling discipline about how much of your bankroll you’re willing to risk before quitting the game. They also require you to stop when you’ve won an arbitrary amount of money.

Craps Place Bet Or Buy House

Money management techniques are often used in conjunction with betting systems.

Here’s an example of a money management strategy in craps:

You decide your bankroll for the session is $250, and you’re playing for $5 per roll of the dice.

Your stop-loss limit is $100, so, if your bankroll drops to $150, you must quit the craps session and go do something else.

Your win goal is $250, so once your bankroll gets up to $500, you must quit the game and go do something else.

This kind of strategy might increase your chances of walking away from the game a winner.

But that’s only because a lot of gamblers will just keep playing until they’ve lost their entire stake. They just don’t generally have a lot of sense about that sort of thing.

The Jury’s Out on Dice Setting or Dice Control

I’ve seen multiple reputable gambling writers express interest and some belief that some craps shooters can influence the probability of specific outcomes. I’m skeptical – in the extreme – but I’ll give it an appropriate amount of credence.

The idea is that you hold the dice a specific way – “setting” the dice – then throw with a minimum amount of force – just enough to hit the back wall and eliminate most of the rolling action.

A controlled shooting expert doesn’t have to be perfect. Instead, they’re trying to be like someone who’s playing darts. They improve the probability enough to change the negative expectation on a bet to a positive expectation.

You can buy books and videos explaining how to get an edge at craps this way, but I can’t imagine the amount of practice and record-keeping required to have any confidence in your ability to change the odds.

Imagine if you spent 1000 hours trying to learn how to control the dice and coming up short. Maybe you just don’t have the knack for it.

That doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.

I’d rather learn to count cards in blackjack.

Conclusion

Those are the best and the worst of the strategies I know of for playing craps in the casino. I know plenty of people who would disagree with every recommendation I’ve made, but the math behind the game doesn’t lie.

The best strategy is to stick with the bets with the lowest house edge and have as much fun as you can.

It’s no surprise that multitudes of strategies have been developed around place betting the (6) & (8) as these numbers give the craps player one of the be best advantages of beating the casinos.

First of all, both the (6) and the (8) are the numbers likely to roll most often, next to the (7). There are 5 ways to roll (6), 5 ways to roll an (8), and 6 ways to roll a (7).

It doesn’t stop there. Here’s are some more advantages of Place Betting the (6) and/or (8).

• Place Bets only need to be hit once to win, versus a Pass Line or Come Bet, which needs to be hit twice
• The payout on a Place Bets exceeds that of Pass Line or Come Bets at lower betting levels
  • It takes approximately 5X odds before the benefits of PL/Come Bets exceed that of Place Bets
• Place Bets can be made or taken down at any time the player wants versus PL/Come bets which are contract bets
• The player controls the numbers that are bet, versus the roll of the dice being the determining factor
• Already mentioned, the (6) and (8) are most likely to be rolled aside from the (7)
• Betting both the (6) and (8) gives you a 10 to 6 advantage of one of your numbers hitting before the (7)
• The house edge on place betting the (6) or (8) is only 1.52%, one of the lowest on the table

If the toolbox of strategies you bring to the craps tables does not include a (6) and (8) strategy, then it might be time to find one that works for you.

We’ll cover a few of the most popular, and some not-so-popular 6/8 strategies for you to assess and possibly include in your own repertoire of strategies.

Secrets Tip – Never bet the Big 6 or Big 8 located at the corners of the table. They carry a 9.09% House Edge versus Place Betting the same numbers for a 1.52% House Edge.

All examples include betting both the (6) and (8) on a $10 minimum craps table.

6 & 8 Collect and Press

• Place Bet both the (6) and (8) for $12 each (Total $24)
• Take these steps on the (6) and (8) independently
  • 1^st Hit – Collect and rack the $14 in winnings (you now only have $10 of your money at risk)
  • 2^nd Hit – Press your bet to $24
  • 3^rd Hit – Collect and rack the $28 in winnings (now your up $20)
  • 4^th Hit – Press your bet to $48
• From here, you can either continue alternately ‘collecting’ and ‘pressing’ your bets through the end of the roll or take down your bets at any point in the progression you want.

__________________________________________________

6 & 8 One Unit Continuous Press

• Place Bet both the (6) and (8) for $12 each (Total $24)
• Take these steps on the (6) and (8) independently
  • 1^st Hit – Win $14 – Press your bet by $6 to $18 (collect & rack $8)
  • 2^nd Hit – Win $21 – Press your bet by $6 to $24 (collect & rack $15)
  • 3^rd Hit – Win $28 – Press your bet by $6 to $30 (collect & rack $22)
  • 4^th Hit – Win $35 – Press your bet by $6 to $36 (collect & rack $29)
• Either continue to press one unit each time one of your numbers hits, or take down one or both of your bets at any point you want.

__________________________________________________

6 & 8 – $72 Regression

• Place Bet both the (6) and (8) for $36 each (Total $72)
  • 1^st Hit – Win $42
  • Immediately take both the (6) and (8) down to $12 each
  • You’re now positive $18 and only have casino winnings on the table
• Use the (6) and (8) Collect and Press for the remainder of the shooter’s roll

__________________________________________________

Craps Place Bet Or Buying

6 & 8 – 1-3-2-6 Positive Progression Strategy

Craps Place Bet Or Buy A House

• Place Bet both the (6) and (8) for $12 each (Total $24)
• Take these steps on the (6) and (8) independently
  • 1^st Hit – Win $14 – Drop $10 and press the bet to $36 (Net winnings = -$34)
  • 2^nd Hit – Win $42 – Drop your bet to $24 (Net winnings = $18)
  • 3^rd Hit – Win $28 – Drop $60 and press your bet to $72 (Net winnings = $0)
  • 4^th Hit – Win $84 – Take all bets down (Net winnings = $168)
• After taking your bets down and collecting your net winnings of $168, you can wait for the shooter’s roll to end or decide to start the betting progression over.

__________________________________________________

6 & 8 – $48 Hit and Spread

• Place Bet both the (6) and (8) for $24 each (Total $48)
  • 1^st Hit – Win $28
  • Immediately take the (6) and (8) down to $12 each
  • Add the (5) and (9) for $10 each
• After the 1^st Hit, you’ll now have 4 inside numbers covered for a $16 investment.
• Utilize a collect and press strategy for the remainder of the roll.

__________________________________________________

6 or 8 – Low Roller Inside Spread

Craps Place Bet Or Buys

• Place the (6) or (8) for $12 (Total $12)
  • 1^st Hit – Win $14 – Rack $2 and place the opposite number for $12 (Net = -$10)
  • 2^nd Hit – Win $14 – Collect and rack $14 (Net winnings = $4)
  • 3^rd Hit – Win $14 – Rack $4 and place the (5) or (9) for $10 (Net winnings = $8)
  • 4^th Hit – Win $14 – Rack $4 and place the opposite 5/9 for $10 (Net winnings = $12)
• You now have all inside numbers covered AND a $12 profit.
• Utilize the collect and press strategy for each number covered through the end of the roll.

__________________________________________________

6 or 8 – Low Roller Run Up

• Place the (6) or (8) for $12 (Total $12)
  • 1st Hit – Win $14
    • Parlay your winnings and add $4 to your bet
    • Bet is now $30 – Total investment $16
  • 2nd Hit – Win $35
    • Parlay your winnings and add $1 to your bet
    • Bet is now $66 – Total investment of $17
  • 3rd Hit – Win $77
    • Take all bets down
• Collect $126 in winnings ($14+$35+$77) from a total investment of $17
• At this point, you can either start the strategy over or wait for the next shooter

__________________________________________________

There are many other variations out there, and if you didn’t find one you’re comfortable with above, a quick google search will uncover many, many more.

Keep in mind, no strategy will change the house edge (casino advantage) on the bets placed. The goal is find the betting strategy that works for you and your bankroll and apply it at the right times at the table.

Feel free to share your own (6) and (8) betting strategies in the comments below.

.

Craps Secrets has merged with the Black Chip Club

Please visit us at BlackChipClub.com

.

*****************

If you have any questions, suggestions or recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

In the meantime…

BEST OF LUCK AT THE CASINOS!!!