Smart Craps

To play craps, smart or dumb, the first thing that is required is a casino (unless, of course, you are engaged in a private game, which is something else entirely). Next comes a green felt crap layout, then the dice then the four house employees (two dealers to place the bets, one boxman to supervise and arbitrate all play, and one stickman to push and pull the dice and to call the game). Finally, there are gamblers who may number from one to infinity, as many as the table will accommodate.

The basic game is simple. A shooter starts the action by throwing the dice. This is his "come-out," the first roll of the game. If on the come-out the shooter casts a "natural," a 7 or 11, he immediately wins and a new game begins. If he throws a 2, 3, or 12 he "craps out" and immediately loses. If he throws anything else on the come-out: a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, this number becomes his "point." This means he must continue to roll, trying to make his point before the number 7 turns up. If 7 does appear first, the shooter "sevens-out" and loses the game along with privilege of throwing the dice. If the point comes up before the 7 he wins. Meanwhile, as the shooter is casting the dice, both he and the other players are making all sort of bets, not only for or against the shooter's chances of winning, but on the various types of combinations that the dice will be making on each roll. This is the basic game.

Now, if a player wants to play smart craps he must limit himself to four basic bets. These four bets are: Pass, Don't Pass, Come, and Don't Come, unquestionably the most sensible in craps. Yet it is possible to improve these bets. The way to do it is to bet the "odds," the only bets in any casino that give the house almost no edge at all.

For example, suppose you make a ten-dollar Pass bet and the come-out is 6. The house then allows you to bet an amount equal to your original bet (by placing the chips just behind your original bet) that the shooter will win; and if he does, this second bet pays off at true odds. True odds means that actual probabilities of the dice showing the shooter's point. In the case of a 6 the probability that it will turn up is 6 to 5, so the odds bettor will receive a 6-to-5 payoff on his odds bet. For a point of 5 or 9 the payoff is 3 to 2. For a 4 or 10 it is 2 to 1. For an 8 it is 6 to 5, and so on.

Consequently, odds bets reduce the already low 1.4 percent house edge on Pass and Come bets to literally a fraction of a point. And that's not all. Some houses, this is rare, to be sure, allow the player double odds; he can take or give odds for twice the amount of his original bet, lowering the house advantage even more.

Obviously, all aspiring winner should thoroughly familiarize themselves with the how's and why's of odds betting. The casino never advertises such bets, nor will the croupier ever suggest them; they do not make club owners rich. The only reason they are offered at all is as an enticement to hip crap players who normally would never go near the dice table if the only things it offered were the sucker bets advertised in such bold and brazen letters across the felt.

Pass, Don't Pass, Come, Don't Come, plus the odds, that is the way to bet at craps, the only way, unless of course you have perverse self-destructive urges. Or unless you want to play just for the fun of it. If that is the case, don't go away. You are a candidate for, if you will pardon please the expression, dumb craps.