12 Craps Secrets The Casinos Don’t Want You To Know

If you’ve played craps before then you know how simple it is to play, all that’s happening is that you are betting on the outcome of a pair of dice. Playing it at a real casino or online offers an exciting experience and you might think that apart from learning a few bets there is nothing more to know about the game.

Well, we have uncovered some craps secrets that whether you are playing at Atlantic City, Niagra or Vegas or even on the internet from the comfort of your favourite chair that the casino’s don’t want you to know about.

So without further ado, we are going to share them with you here!

Keep it Simple

The more complex your strategy is the more risk you are taking. If you are trying to make a complicated strategy high-risk strategy work with lots of different bets and odds of winning the chances of it paying off are slim. Craps experts suggest playing the game long and slow and wagering on the pass line at first. If the pass line bets are working for you and your bankroll is looking heavier now’s the time to make a strategic choice. There is no shame in playing a conservative game so you can carry on as you are but if you want to make a higher risk strategy then the time to try it is when you have some extra winnings to risk.

Play The Best Bets

Really this is no big secret but you will be surprised at how many craps players ignore this advice. The greatest chance a player has of winning is to play the very best wagers to safeguard their bankroll. If you go to the table and watch a game in progress you will witness players making crazy wagers such as the Any Seven bet with its 16.67% house advantage. OK, they might win from time to time but the players making the pass or come bets at 1.41% will have a much greater chance of coming away from the table a winner. Let’s look at it in hard money terms, you can expect to lose $16.70 for every $100 wagered on Any Seven. Betting on the pass line you can expect to lose $1.40. Knowing this is crucial over the long term.

Steer Clear of Hedge Bets

When you are playing at a casino you’ll likely hear the dealer call ‘Any Craps’ if a new craps shooter is coming out. Any Craps are 2, 3, and 12 and you’ll be encouraged to protect the pass line bet by playing this hedge bet. As you probably realise the casino’s main function is to diminish your bankroll so you can guess that if they want you to play any craps they are not looking out for you! The odds are against you when you play hedge bets there is more risk and fewer returns. If you want to protect your pass line bet play the free odds bets instead.

The 5 Count System

This is a system that first appeared in the book Forever Craps written by Frank Scoblete. He claims that this was not a method that he created himself but was shown to him by his mentor ‘The Captain’ a famed craps player who may or may not actually be a real person!

The method behind the 5 count is to find shooters who are going to be worth betting on. They might be craps players who are naturally good at rolling dice or are practised at shooting. You will only bet on a shooter if they have proved that they can roll five times without hitting a seven.

So here is how it works

1st Count: The Shooter rolls any point on the come out roll [4, 5, 6, 8, 9 10]

2nd Count: The Shooter rolls any number but not a 7

3rd Count: The same as the 2nd count. Any number is good unless they crap out.

4th Count: The same as the 2nd and 3rd count any good number will do

5th Count: Any Point [4, 5, 6, 8, 9 10]

If the shooter hits the fifth count then you can start to place low wagers on the shooter.

An example of this in play would be if the shooter rolls a point on the come out let’s say a 6, on the 2nd count they roll an 11, the 3rd a 9, the 4th count a 12 for the 5th count it has to be a point so if they roll an 8 you would start betting.

By wagering on only the hot shooters and betting less the 5 count system will reduce your risk at the craps table. The disadvantage of making use of the 5 count is that if you have a table full of dud shooters you can end up standing on the sidelines more than you play.

Ignore The Superstitions

Well, ignore some of them! You don’t want your fellow players to get angry at you, it’s unlucky to call out ‘seven’ in a game of craps. If you start calling the number seven during the game even if you aren’t superstitious some of the other players will be and you’ll get a bad reputation at the craps table. If you must call ‘seven’ then use the more craps friendly term of the ‘big red’. But as for some of the other superstitions such as blowing on the dice for luck or how a woman shooting her dice for the first time is lucky we’d suggest ignoring them.

You Don’t Need to Learn All the Bets

The total number of different wagers that can be played at a craps table is reputed to be 120, we’ve never done the math but this sounds about right. You certainly don’t need to learn them all. The pass and come bets are enough for many experienced craps players. Many of the craps bets are high-risk and have a high house edge so are best to avoid anyway.

Place Less Bets

This carries on from our last craps secret, the more bets you place the more chance of losing. While you might think that you are spreading the risk by placing more bets you are in fact adding to the risk of losing your money.

This often occurs in games where the point has been established and it is taking a long time for the point to be rolled or a 7 to show. Players get bored and make riskier bets to provide some excitement which is usually the wrong move! If you do want to go ahead and place an additional bet then stick with Place 6 or 8 or Lay 4 or 10 as these have a fairly low house edge.

Know Your Rights

You are probably aware that when you are gambling money at a casino and staff believe that you might be cheating you can be ejected from the casino just on suspicion. The casino has the right to remove any player even if any misconduct can’t be proved.

What many casino goers don’t realise is that if you feel that there is something wrong at a craps table you can ask for the game to be stopped while your dispute is settled. If the dealer won’t listen to you then speak with the pit boss. As an example, if you think you were underpaid on a bet you can ask the dealer to double-check for you. Obviously, this will be genuine matters if you are constantly disrupting play and arguing for petty reasons you will likely be asked to leave. We are not suggesting interrupting play as a strategy but if you seriously need to stop play you are in your rights.

Play The Darkside

You are described as a darkside if you are a player who bets against the shooter. For instance, when you place bets on the don’t pass or don’t come bets. At a land-based casino, you might need to have a thick skin if you decide to bet on the darkside. You’ll at least get some nasty looks from the rightside players and some have been known to get abusive if this happens you should put in a complaint to the dealer as it shouldn’t be tolerated.

But why play the darkside and make yourself unpopular? The reason is that the don’t pass bets have the lowest house edge at 1.36%. It makes even more sense to place a darkside bet when you play online as you are always the shooter so you won’t have any moody rightside players to contend with!

Casinos Encourage Comp Chasing

As you might be aware casinos will reward players with all sorts of freebies such as free drinks and meals, free shows and hotel rooms for placing more bets. This often results in gamblers spending more than they can afford to chase after the comps. The pit boss will reward players more for placing risky proposition bets. When you actually realise that many casinos only pay comp at 0.1% you’ll understand why never to play high-risk bets just for the rewards. When you factor in the losses that free drink probably won’t be so appealing.

Don’t Get Carried Away With The Crowd

When you have a dozen people all playing craps and the vibe is good, you’ll hear cheering, laughing and shouting. There will be a communal atmosphere where everybody feels they are in it together. Because of this emotionally charged atmosphere, many players will follow the herd so to speak and place bets that they really shouldn’t have.

With the crew at the table egging players on as well as all the other players it is not unimaginable to believe that this community element to the gameplay helps make more money for the casino. If players were just playing as individuals against the house such as in blackjack they would be more likely to make better betting decisions.

While there is nothing wrong with that feeling of affinity at the table you need to control your emotions and avoid following the group by playing bad wagers. Enjoy the emotions and join in the fun but keep your bankroll in check. Don’t rely on the judgement of others, just because most of the other players are taking the proposition bets it doesn’t mean you have to. So yes, by all means, have fun with the rest of the group but use self-judgement when you bet.

You are also sure to come across that one ‘expert’ player who will keep giving you advice on when to bet and how to bet, Politely tell them you’ll handle your own betting and they should concentrate on theirs.

Know The Odds

If you take one dice or die which is the correct term for a single unit it will have pips that number 1 to 6 on each of its sides. if you add any two corresponding sides they will add up to seven. So two and five, three and four and six and one. The game is played with two dice. There are 36 different combinations that can be made and there are only eleven possible totals that can be rolled between 2 and 12.

The most frequent combination rolled is 7 with six ways to make that combination. To work out the odds for this we can divide 6 by 36 so the odds of rolling a 7 is 1/6.

So the possible combinations are seven are 1 in 6, six and eight 5 in 36, five and nine 4 in 36, four and ten 3 in 36, three or eleven 2 in 36 and two or 12 is 1 in 36.

The casino will also have a built in house advantage so while the actual odds might be 1/36 it would pay out 35:1.

In Summary

So now you know 12 craps secrets that you can put into practice next time you are at a casino. If you utilise them all you will put yourself in a powerful position and have a distinct advantage over your fellow players next time you play.