Personally, I’ve avoided craps tables for many years because it looked like a complicated game. Not to mention, the tables were always surrounded by people making a lot of noise. I prefer simple games that don’t involve too much noise.
But a friend invited me to play craps and we played before the casino got busy, so I gave it a try. I’ve since found that the base game of craps is extremely simple. And once I got into playing, I didn’t mind the noise as much. It contributed to the excitement of the game.
Here’s a list of seven proven craps strategies you can use when you start playing.
1 – Small Wagers Are Usually Better
Craps is exactly like other casino games in one important area. All casino games are designed to keep a percentage of all of the money wagered on the game. Some games are definitely worse than others, but they’re all designed for profit.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but some gamblers seem amazed when they learn this. You need to use this information when you play craps or any other casino game.
The most important thing that you need to understand about this information is that every time you make a wager in a casino, the odds are against you. Every $1 you risk is on something that’s designed to only give you back .80 to .99 cents. This doesn’t look like much, but when you’re risking hundreds of dollars or more every hour, it adds up to large losses quickly.
In order to limit your craps losses, you need to make small wagers on any bet that doesn’t pay back 100%. Craps is unique in that it offers one wager that does pay back 100% over time. You’re going to learn more about this opportunity in the next section.
On every other wagering option at the craps table, you need to make the smallest bet available. In live casinos, this can be as low as $10 or $20. And if you play online or mobile craps, it can be as low as $1. Never bet more than the craps table minimum wherever you’re playing craps except when you make one wager.
2 – Largest Odds Wager Possible
The craps wager that pays back 100% over time is called an odds bet. When you make a bet on the come out roll and the roll isn’t resolved immediately, a point is set.
When a point is set, you can make an odds wager if you made a bet on the come out roll. The odds wager is the only bet offered by the casino with a 100% payback. This means that you should wager the maximum amount on the odds when you have the chance.
Quick Tip:
You have to consider the size of your bankroll when you do this. Some casinos offer odds up to 100 times your come out roll wager. If you bet $20 on the come out roll, a 100 times odds wager is $2,000. You have to have a huge bankroll to do this.
Even though all of the money you bet on is eventually going to be returned to you, sometimes, you’re going to lose several odds wagers in a row.
Most craps tables have smaller max odds limits than 100 times. Common limits are 3, 4, 5, or 10 times the amount you bet on the come out roll.
Bet as much as you can afford on the odds wager when you can make it, without risking too much of your bankroll.
3 – To Pass or Not to Pass?
You have two choices when it’s time to place a wager on a come out roll. You can place a wager on the pass line, which is what most craps players do, or on the don’t pass option. Remember that you have to make one of these two wagers in order to be able to place the odds wager.
The question you should be asking at this point is, which of these two options is better?
While both of these wager options are decent when you compare them to other casinos games, the don’t pass is slightly better than the pass option. You’re going to learn more in the next section, but these two options and the odds are by far the best options at the craps table.
When I play craps, the only two wagers I use are the don’t pass and the odds. If you’re going to make don’t pass wagers, you need to know that some craps players aren’t going to like it.
It’s nobody’s business how you play craps, but some craps players believe that players that make don’t pass wagers are working against everyone else at the table. This isn’t true, but be prepared to run into this wrong type of thinking when you play craps.
4 – Every Other Wager Option
The craps layout offers many different betting options. But the three that you’ve learned about so far in this article are the only three you need to know about.
The best odds and return comes from making small don’t pass wagers and maximum odds wagers. Any other wagers you make when you play craps is going to cost you money.
I admit that there are a few other wager options that aren’t terrible when you play craps. But I never want to give the casino a single cent more than I have to, so I won’t make a wager with a smaller return or worse odds.
5 – The Speed of Online and Mobile Craps
Mobile and online real money craps is good because they offer lower wager amounts. It’s also easier to open your computer or phone and play craps wherever you are. But online and mobile craps also has something that can be dangerous to your bankroll.
At a live craps table, you play at a speed dictated by how fast players throw the dice and how fast the game is run. But when you play mobile or online craps, you can play much faster.
When you play faster, it means you’re making more wagers, which means that you’re risking more money. Be careful when you play craps online or in a mobile casino and make sure you’re not playing too fast.
6 – Does Controlled Shooting Work?
A small percentage of craps players believe in something called “controlled shooting.” The theory is that you can train your arm to throw the dice in a repeatable way that controls the outcome of the rolls.
This Sounds Great, and if It’s True, It Can Be Very Profitable
The problem is that nobody can prove that it’s real. And the casinos don’t seem to be worried about it, which tells me that controlled shooting isn’t costing the casinos much money—if it’s costing them anything at all.
The people screaming the loudest that controlled shooting is real are the same people trying to sell you a course on how to do it. This is usually a bad sign.
Plenty of people believe that card counting in blackjack is real, because it’s been mathematically proven to work. I can’t say the same for controlled shooting.
On the other side of the coin, you don’t have to alter the outcome of many dice rolls to get an edge. Depending on what wagers you’re making, you might be able to overcome the edge if you can alter 5% or less of the rolls you make.
7 – Do Craps Winners Exist?
This is an interesting question that has a couple different answers. Many craps players win some of their playing sessions, but they still lose more than they win over time.
I’ve personally never met a craps player that was making more money than they lost over time, but a few people claim that they do. The one thing that I know is that you can’t beat craps in the long run with random dice rolls.
This means that if a true winning craps player exists, they’ve figured out how to control the dice. As you learned in the last section, you don’t need to control the dice perfectly to get an edge. But I still am not convinced that dice control is real.
Conclusion
The best way to play craps is to make the smallest possible don’t pass wager combined with the largest possible odds wager. These two things give you the best odds. Any other craps wagers you make reduce your odds and make you lose more.
How much you bet and how fast you play craps directly influences how much you lose. This is why smart craps players use online and mobile craps games to control their losses.
Controlled shooting when you play craps sounds too good to be true, so it probably is. But you need to find out if it’s possible for yourself.
Michael Stevens
Michael Stevens has been researching and writing topics involving the gambling industry for well over a decade now and is considered an expert on all things casino and sports betting. Michael has been writing for GamblingSites.org since early 2016. …
