Online Craps Strategy

Without as much fanfare in the background as roulette and blackjack, craps remains one of the most played casino games, both online and in brick and mortar casinos. The game has a simplistic nature of perseverance that is very much appealing, and once you get hooked you only get more and more invested into it. Craps is a game of dice, very clear and innocent in its execution but somewhat complex when it comes to its surrounding rules and circumstances under which payouts are carried out. Most of new players have reported to be confused by all the betting options in craps, but once you master all these options you’ll have no problem switching from tension to pleasure. We’ve gathered up a few helpful advices and strategy suggestions for you to consider, as these could immensely improve the quality of your online craps experience, as well as the final outcomes of your play.

Learn the Game

The best favor you could do to yourself is learning the rules of the game in detail and with dedication so that you could be confident later on in seeing them in practice. For starters, you don’t even have to learn all the possible bets – begin with casting light on the basic ones, and slowly move from there. Players can place wagers on the roll outcome, or a rolls-series, of a pair of dice. The round begins with bet placement after which the shooter (in this case computer) rolls the initial dice roll, also known as the ‘Come out Roll’. The two dice can produce 36 combinations of numbers. If numbers 2, 3, 7, 11 or 12 get rolled the round ends and winning bets get paid, but if the roll results in numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, the point is established and the shooter rolls again. If the point value is repeated, the winnings get paid at the end of the round. The sum of 7 ends the round automatically. These are just basic premises, and if you feel like you would enjoy such a game, because it does get extremely exciting along the way, we recommend you to read some tutorials and familiarize yourself more with the gameplay.

Best Bets

It just so happens that the two bets most common in a game of craps carry house edges which are among the lowest within an online casino. The common recommendation is to focus on these two bets, namely the Odds Bet and Pass Line Bet. The Odds bet features zero house edge, and it comes after you’ve already placed a Pass Line bet on the ‘Come out Roll’. Once the shooter establishes a point you are allowed to place a bet below the Pass Line, usually amounting to a double value of the Pass Line you’ve made earlier.

The Pass Line bet, or Pass/Don’t Pass, has a house advantage of around 1.40% with tendency to be reduced even further. The bet implies that if the shooter rolls number 7 or 11 you will win, but if the roll outcome is 2, 3 or 13 you will lose. A very similar effect to your success in playing craps can be attributed to the Come/Don’t Come bet. It shares the same house advantage as the Pass Line bet, even the same rules of winning and losing, the only difference is that you can place this bet only when a point is established.

Wagers like Place 6, Place 8 and Field 2 or Field 12 on occasions are often referred to as ‘second best’ to the ones we’ve already mentioned.

Bets to Avoid

Whatever remains inside the craps layout of betting possibilities considerably lowers the odds for the player. Some of the wagers can do some harm, and some of them are just plain bad and should be completely avoided. Without contradiction, Proposition bets are the worst idea you could get attached to. These wagers get settled after a single roll, and that’s what makes them undeniably attractive. However, these one-roll bets are high-edge and will seriously damage your bankroll, especially in the long run.

Hard 4, Hard 10, Big 6 or Big 8 are also wagers that should be placed with huge amount of care and preferably avoided. Hard 4 and Hard 10 pay out according to odds of 7 to 1 for an 11.11% house edge percentage. Is it worth it? We think not. Big 6 and Big 8 could be described as deceiving bets, because if you bet on 6 or 8 in the Place section of the table you do so for a house edge of 1.52%. When it’s Big 6 and Big 8 you’re dealing with a 9.09% house edge.

A final piece of advice – when it comes to craps you should really rely on the odds and trust their guidance. After mastering the secrets of the craps table and a few successful sessions, you’ll agree with us that craps is a game worth learning and adapting to.