Craps Gives You Excellent Chances to Beat the House

Online casinos offer so many games that it isn’t surprising that one or two games are played less often than the others.  At Springbok, slots are king followed by three super popular table games: roulette, table poker, and blackjack.  Rounding out the top five games at Springbok online casino is video poker.

One of the games that is played less often is craps.  We at Springbok Online Casino, the top online casino for South Africa, think that one reason is that many players don’t know how to play craps.  So, in this tips article, we will go over the basics of the game of craps.  In the end, you will see that the best strategy is to understand the bets and get lucky!

Simple in Theory

In craps, the players around the table take turns rolling the dice if they choose to do so.  The first roll is called the come out roll.  On this first roll of the dice, a seven or an eleven are like getting a blackjack in blackjack.  The roll is even called a natural as in blackjack and you win automatically.

The game gets its name from the possible rolls of a two, three, or twelve which lose automatically.  They are called craps.

That leaves only six numbers that you can roll that don’t either win at once or lose at once: four, five, six, eight, nine, and ten.  If you roll one of these numbers, it is called your point.  The dealer highlights the point so even newcomers to the table know what the point is.  At Springbok, we also highlight the point in keeping with tradition.

Roll ‘em

After you have set your point, you keep rolling the dice until you either roll it again which wins, or you roll a seven which loses.  If you roll your point before a seven, it is called a pass.

It is easy to see that the other players can bet on whether you’ll pass or you don’t pass.  Both a pass bet and a don’t pass bet are 1-1 bets.  They pay off the same as the 1-1 bets in roulette.  In craps, there is a rule that if the shooter rolls a 12 on his or her come out roll and you have bet don’t pass, the shooter loses as we have said but they don’t pass bet is a push.

Pass Favours the Shooter

Now let’s look at the shooter’s options.  He or she has to make either a pass or a don’t pass bet before they throw the come out roll.  There is only one way to roll a two, three, or twelve but there are four ways to roll a seven or eleven.  So, for the shooter, the pass bet is better before the come out roll.  However, the don’t pass bet is better after the come out roll. 

Odds Bet

The casino allows the shooter to make what is called an odds bet after the point is established.  This bet is paid off at true odds so it effectively lowers the house edge by close to half or even more depending on how much the casino allows for an odds bet.

One thing that seems to confuse craps players is exactly how the odds bets work.  We always suggest playing a new game in free play mode so you get to see how everything works in the game.  In short, the odds bet is very good for the shooter and every analyst says that a shooter who has made a pass bet before the come out roll should then make an odds bet.

The odds bets for the don’t pass bets are the same in terms of the house advantage which is zero.   The difference is that in an odds bet for a don’t pass bet, you have to give the casino the odds.  Nevertheless, the chances of winning this bet are the same whether you give the odds or take the odds.

We feel that the odds bets for a don’t pass bet are confusing to players.  This is another reason why we urge you to play in free play mode at first.

Come and Don’t Come Bets

These bets are the same as pass and don’t pass bets but you make them after the point has been set.

The come or don’t come bet win and lose automatically as in the pass and don’t pass bets.  There is a very big difference here.  If the shooter throws a number that doesn’t win or lose for you automatically as per your come or don’t come bet, that number becomes your point.  That means that there can be more than one point at the table at any one time.

You can also make an odds bet on the come or don’t come bet.  We admit that it can be a bit confusing at first for new craps players.  At a land based casino, there is a dealer at each end of the table and a stick man who wields a long stick with which he can reach every corner of the table.  These three men or women are experts at the rules of craps.  It is extremely unusual at any big land based casino for a mistake to be made even if there are several points at work at the same time.

At Springbok online casino, the computer software we use knows every rule and we have never encountered a glitch in the way the “dealers” handle the game.

Strategy for Winning

The house has the edge in craps but the edge can be reduced to less than half a percent.  That means that the odds in craps can rival the odds in video poker with the great advantage that in craps, you are relying on one element in your favor and one element that is out of your control.  The element in your favor is simply knowing which bets give you the closest chances against the house.

These are pass or don’t pass and come or don’t come bets.  You also take the free odds bets.  The element out of your control is the roll of the dice.

In video poker, you have to know how to handle every hand and play with perfection in order to get close to even odds against the house so, if you are looking for a game with close to even odds, craps might just be the game you have been looking for!