The best bet in craps is the Pass/Don't Pass and the Come/Don't Come bets. The reason why they are the best craps bets is that they have the lowest house edge at 1.41%. As a result, these bets should feature strongly in your craps strategy. The most common and popular bet at the craps table is the pass line bet. To take odds on the pass line, bet $5 on it and wait for a point to be established. If this point is a 4 or 10, you’ll typically be able to stake up to $15 as an odds bet, but our demo gives more leeway. The best Craps betting strategy will tell you to max out the odds bet, but don’t feel obliged to. A lay bet is the opposite of a buy bet, and also comes with a 5% commission. With this wager, you are betting on a 7 being rolled before a specific number, in the same way as a place lose. It offers higher payouts than a place lose, which vary depending on the number chosen.
This post in my playing and winning at craps series looks at the various craps bets available and ranks them from best to worst. If you don’t know who the people are running the craps game, if you don’t understand how the table and dice work, or if you’re not sure how the game plays out, check out my previous posts in this series.
Part 4 of 6
- 1 The Craps Dealers and Other Staff at the Dice Table: Who’s Who
- 2 How the Craps Table Layout Works and How the Dice Work
- 3 How to Play a Craps Game in a Casino
- 5 Craps Bets Ranked According to House Edge
- 6 How (and Why) to Act Like a Craps Player
The basic bets in craps, as it turns out, are the ones that offer the best odds for the player. The more complicated the craps bet is, the worst it is for the player mathematically.
Craps is a game of streaks, and you can win or lose a lot of money playing fast.
But you’ll almost certainly lose your money faster if you take the sucker bets.
Stick with my list of the best craps bets on this page, and avoid my list of the worst craps bets on this page, and you’ll be all set.
The Best Bets at the Craps Table
The come out roll is the 1st roll of each “round” of craps. This is the most important roll in the game, and the best bets at the craps table are tied closely to the concept of the come out roll. So I’m going to reiterate how that works:
- The shooter starts a round of craps with a come out roll.
- If she rolls a 7 or an 11, the dice win. If she rolls a 2, 3, or 12, the dice lose.
- If she rolls any other number, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, a point is set.
If a point is set, the shooter continues to roll the dice until she rolls a 7 or until she rolls the point again. If she rolls a point before rolling 7, the dice win. If she rolls a 7 before rolling the point, the dice lose.
The Pass-line bet is the most popular bet at the craps table, and it’s also one of the best bets you can make. This is called right betting. If you bet on the Pass-line bet, you’re a right bettor. You’re betting that the dice will win.
Craps players are no different than most people. They like to root for people to succeed. At most craps tables, the players are almost all rooting together for the dice to win.
I should point out, though, that the casino doesn’t care if you’re betting the Pass-line bet or the Don’t Pass bet. The casino has a mathematical edge regardless of which bet you place, so they know in the long run they’re going to profit.
I should also point out that you can only make a Pass-line bet before a come out roll. You cannot place the Pass-line bet before subsequent rolls during a round.
It’s the most prominent area on the table, too, so it should be easy. The bet pays off at even money if the dice win—and I discussed the winning criteria above. The bet loses if the dice lose.
The Don’t Pass bet is the opposite of the Pass-line bet. It’s called wrong betting, and if you place this bet, you’re a wrong bettor. This wager is a winner if the dice lose, but casinos—to maintain an edge over the house—either bar 2 or bar 12 from winning. Which number is barred will be listed on the craps table in that section.
These are the 2 main bets available at the craps table, and they’re also the 2 best bets at the craps table.
A right bettor has a high chance of winning on the come out roll. He can win 8 different ways immediately. There are only 4 ways for him to lose immediately.
How do you know this?
- There are 6 ways to make a 7, which wins on the come out roll: 1-6, 2-5, 3-4, 4-3, 5-2, and 6-1.
- There are also 2 ways to make an 11, which also wins on the come out roll: 5-6 and 6-5.
But there’s only one way to roll a 2 and only one way to roll a 12. There are 2 ways to roll a 3, for a total of 4 ways to lose immediately on the come out roll.
Since there are 36 total possible combinations, it’s easy to calculate the probability of winning on the come out roll as a percentage, too. 8/36 is 22.2%, and 4/36 is 11.1%. A third of the time, the outcome of the round will depend on the come out roll immediately. This also means that 2/3 of the time, a point will be established.
And when a point is established, the odds favor the wrong bettor. If the point is a 6 or 8, the odds of a wrong bettor winning are 6 to 5. If the point is 5 or 9, the odds of winning are 3 to 2. And if the point is a 4 or 10, the odds of a wrong bettor winning are 2 to 1.
The Free Odds Bet
I mentioned in a couple of my previous posts that the absolute best bet on the craps table isn’t printed on the table. That bet is the odds bet or the free odds bet. This is the only bet in the casino that has no house edge.
You can only place an odds bet after a point has been set. When you place this bet, it’s in addition to your existing Pass-line or Don’t Pass bet. This bet pays off at the same odds of winning, so the house edge is 0.
- If the point is 4 or 10, the odds bet pays off at 2 to 1—the same as the odds of winning.
- If the point is 5 or 9, the odds bet pays off at 3 to 2—the same as the odds of winning.
- If the point is 6 or 8, the odds bet pays off at 6 to 5—the same as the odds of winning.
Casinos limit the amount of money you can bet on odds to a multiple of your original bet. In a casino where you’re only allowed to match your original bet, this is called single odds. In a casino where you’re allowed to place an odds bet that’s twice as much as your original bet, it’s called double odds.
The effect of the odds bet on the total amount you have in action is to reduce the house edge. For example, on the Pass-line bet, the house edge is 1.41%. If you make a single odds bet, the house edge drops to 0.8%. A double odds bet reduces the house edge to 0.6%. And so on.
Some casinos are generous with this. You can find casinos that allow you to bet 10X and even 100X on your odds bet.
And the closer your cumulative edge gets to 0, the closer the game gets to a break-even game.
When you’re making an odds bet on a Pass-line bet, you’re taking odds.
But wrong bettors can also place odds bets. They work slightly differently, but the house edge is still 0. Wrong bettors placing an odds bet are said to be laying odds.
The payoffs, in this case, are the opposite.
- If you lay odds on a 4 or 10, the payoff is 1 to 2.
- If you lay odds on a 5 or 9, the payoff is 2 to 3.
- And if you lay odds on a 6 or 8, the payoff is 5 to 6.
In other words, if you’re a wrong bettor and place the odds bet, you must risk more money than you’ll win. This doesn’t matter to smart math types like you and me, because we understand the house edge is the same. But for many players, risking more money if you lose than what you’ll win is foolish.
As a result, many wrong bettors turn their nose up at laying odds, even though they shouldn’t.
I also want to point out here that there’s nothing wrong with being a wrong bettor, regardless of what the other players at the table might think. Any time you’re gambling, you should ignore the attitudes of the other gamblers.
In fact, the house edge for being a wrong bettor is only 1.36%, as compared to 1.41% for being a right bettor. So the odds are slightly better for being the wrong bettor.
3X 4X 5X Odds
In some casinos, the maximum odds you can take are listed as 3x4x5x odds. This means that if the point is 4 or 10, you can bet 3x your original bet on the free odds bet. If the point is 5 or 9, you can bet 4x your original bet on the free odds bet. And if the point is 6 or 8, you can bet 5x your original bet.
The casinos didn’t just decide on these multiples randomly. Their goal was to simplify their payout procedures on these bets.
Since the payoff on a 4 or 10 free odds bet is 2 to 1, if you bet 3x your original bet, your total payoff (including your original Pass-line bet) is 7 to 1.
The total payoff on a 5 or 9 free odds bet combined with a Pass-line bet is also 7 to 1. You get 3 to 2 on your money.
The same holds true for the payoff on the 6, or 8 free odds bet.
These limits make it easier for the casino to pay off your bets. A table with 3x 4x 5x odds is a better deal than a table with single odds or double odds, but it’s not as good as a table with 10X odds or 100X odds.
5 Best Bets In Craps Machine
An Example from Real Life Play
Brian sits down to play craps. He has $1000 total, and he bets $10 on the Pass-line on the come out roll. The shooter rolls a 6, setting a point.
This casino offers 10X odds, so Brian places a free odds bet of $100. He now has $110 in action on the table.
On the next roll, the shooter makes the point, making Brian a winner.
He gets paid off $10 on his original bet of $10.
5 Best Bets In Craps Game
Since the point was 6, he gets paid off at 6 to 5 on the $100 free odds bet, which means he wins another $120 on that bet.
Brian’s bankroll has increased to $1130. He likes this shooter and thinks she might get hot, so he places a $20 bet on the Pass-line on the next come-out roll.
This time she rolls a 10 as the point. Brian now places $200 on the free odds bet, putting $220 total into action.
It takes her several rolls, but she does eventually roll a 10, so Brian collects winnings again—this time $20 for the original Pass-line bet, but also 2 to 1 on the odds bet, for winnings of $400 there. That’s $420 in total on an initial bet of $220.
Brian now has $1550, and the shooter hasn’t even changed yet. In fact, he’s only made 4 bets.
Now that he’s confident the shooter is hot, he decides to let his winnings ride on the Pass-line bet, although he does collect his winnings on the odds bet. So he now has $40 on the Pass-line bet.
This time the shooter rolls a 9 and Brian places $400 on the odds bet. She succeeds again, and Brian collects $40 on his Pass-line bet as well as 3 to 2 on his $400 odds bet, which is $600 more in winnings. That’s a total win on this round of $640.
Brian now has $2190. He’s double his money in just 3 rounds of craps, all with the same shooter.
Doubling your money at the blackjack table would take at least an hour if you got hot, even if you’re betting fairly big. This is one of the reasons I love craps so much.
Of course, winning streaks can evaporate and become losing streaks just as quickly. But it’s hard not to find these winning streaks exhilarating when they happen.
An Odds Bet Trick Based on Some of the Actualities in the Casino
If you’re betting something simple, like $10 or $20, on the Pass-line, betting the odds is easy. You just bet the largest multiple you’re allowed on the odds bet. It’s easy to calculate—if you have double odds, you bet $20 or $40, and so on.
But if you’re betting $5, $15, or $25, the odds bet gets trickier because of the payoffs. For example, suppose the point is a 5 or 9, which pays off at 3 to 2. It’s easier for the casino to pay you off at 3 to 2 if you’re betting $6 instead of $5. That’s because a 3 to 2 payoff on a $5 odds bet is $7.50, and the casino would rather not deal in change. If you bet $6, a 3 to 2 payoff is $9.
There’s no need for anything special on the 4 or 10 points because a 2 to 1 payoff never involves change unless you bet change. 2 to 1 on $15 is $30—no problem there.
But the 6 or 8 is another unique situation because that bet pays off at 6 to 5. Most casinos allow you to bet 5 units on the odds bet if you have 3 units bet on the Pass-line, even if the casino only offers single odds.
So if you bet $15 on the Pass-line, and the point is 6 or 8, you can bet $25 on the odds bet.
Strategy Considerations Based on the Odds Bet
Since anything you can do to lower the house edge is something you should do as a gambler, the obvious correct strategy in craps is always to take the biggest odds bet you can. Based on the information in that last section, if you’re playing at a table that only allows single odds bets, you should always bet 3 units so that you can make that 5 unit odds bet if the 6 or 8 comes up.
You won’t run into many casinos in Las Vegas that limit you to single odds, though. Most of the Vegas casinos allow at least 2X odds, and many of them offer 3x4x5x odds. A few of the casinos which cater to high rollers also offer 10x and 100X odds. So that section might not come into play unless you’re playing craps in Reno or Atlantic City at a casino which does limit you to single odds.
The Come and Don’t Come Bets Are Great, Too—And They’re Not as Hard to Understand as You Might Think
Some new craps players ignore the come and don’t come bets because they don’t understand them. That’s a shame because these are on the short list of the best craps bets you can make.
The come bet allows you to make a series of bets on rolls subsequent to the come out roll. In other words, this bet treats the next bet as a new come out roll, and it wins just like a Pass-line bet would win.
In other words, it’s another way to bet on the dice winning.
You bet $5 on the come out roll, and the shooter rolls an 8. You already had a $10 bet on the pass line, but now you can also bet $20 on the odds bet. (The casino offers 2x odds.)
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But you can now also make a come bet. This bet will win just like a Pass-line bet would. If a 7 or 11 shows up on the next roll, you win, and if a 2, 3, or 12 comes up, you lose. If a point is set here, it’s called a come point number. And for your come bet to win, that number must come up again before the shooter rolls a 7.
You can even take the free odds bet on the come bet. The house edge on the come bet is the same as the house edge for the Pass-line bet.
Don’t come works like don’t pass, but again, it treats that subsequent roll of the dice as a new come out roll.
You get to keep making come or don’t come bets until the shooter rolls a 7 and “sevens out,” or until there’s a new come out roll.
So here’s how the come bet works in a nutshell:
You can only make a come bet on a roll subsequent to the come out roll. You can keep making come bets as long as you want, too. Or you can wait and only make come bets once in a while. You can wind up with lots of money in action this way.
One of the things you’ll hear gamblers say about the come bet is that it’s “always working.” This means that it still applies even on a new come out roll. The free odds bet, though, is off on the come out roll.
If you understand come bets, you also understand don’t come bets. They’re just like the don’t pass bet, but on those subsequent rolls.
The Worst Craps Bets You Can Make
All the rest of the craps bets are worse than those 5 bets. To review, the best bets are:
- Pass
- Don’t Pass
- Come
- Don’t Come
- Free Odds
Some of the worst bets are better than others, but there’s really no reason you should ever mess with any of the other bets on the table. The house just has too much of an edge over the player.
But the worst of the worst of those bets are the proposition bets in the middle of the table. You can place some other bets occasionally for grins, but not these. The house edge on these is over 9%, and in some cases, it’s almost 20%. That’s too much of an edge for the casino for a smart gambler.
I’ll cover those other bets in detail in the next post in this series.
Best Strategy For Craps Betting
Conclusion
The best bet at the craps table is the free odds bet, because it has no house edge. It pays off at the same odds as the odds of winning it are.
But you can only take the free odds bet after you’ve taken one of the other basic bets. The Pass-line bet and the come bet are both bets on the dice to win. The Don’t Pass and don’t come bets are both bets on the dice to lose. The house on those bets are 1.41% and 1.36%, respectively.
The house edge on all the other bets skyrockets. Those are the worst bets at the table, but the worst of the worst are the proposition bets in the center of the table.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.I’ll be honest: craps is my absolute favourite table game. All craps players know that it’s the best game in terms of atmosphere, and when you get on a roll there is no better feeling than hearing the other players cheering your every throw of the dice.
I play every time I’m in Vegas, and I also play craps online whenever I find a good online casino that offers it.
But now, things got even better. Thanks to mobile technology, you can now play real money online craps games on the move via your Android, iOS or Blackberry. So if you’ve never played before, now is a great time to learn!
Today I’m going to show you the best casinos that offer mobile craps, and how to play on any mobile device.
Best Online Casinos For Craps Players
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One of the frustrating aspects for craps players is that not all online casinos offer it. And of those that do, some tend to hide it within their table games or speciality games sections.But rest assured, all of the online casinos listed above offer real money craps games on both desktop and mobile devices. They’re also some of our top rated casinos, with plenty of banking options and some great bonus options for new players too. So you’re certain to get a great service overall.
How To Play Craps At Mobile Casinos
Unlike many other casino games, there is really only one version of craps in existence. So you won’t have a bunch of different variations to choose between – there’s normally just one option. But don’t let that put you off playing craps online, because you’d be missing out. Craps is one of the best casino games to play and also (in my personal experience) one of the easiest to win!
Mobile Casino Games or Craps Apps
When you’ve chosen a mobile casino from the list above, you will need to create an account to be able to play real money craps. This only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s free to join.
All of the online casinos give you the option to play mobile games in “instant play” mode through your phone’s browser. This is probably the easiest way to play a casino game on your phone, and it works on any phone – Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows phone etc.
However, some sites also have casino apps available for Android and iOS. Sometimes known as craps apps, these give you the opportunity to play mobile craps games (and others too) on mobile devices via downloadable software.
It’s up to you which you choose, and there are pros and cons of each. Of course, you can always start off with mobile craps games through your browser, then download the app later on.
How To Find A Mobile Craps Game
Once you’ve created and logged into your online casino account, you’ll need to find the craps game you want to play. Now as I mentioned earlier, online craps isn’t particularly big business for the casinos, so they don’t tend to feature their craps games prominently.
Fortunately, most good mobile casino sites are very easy to navigate. You’ll normally find craps under either the Table Games section (as shown in the screenshot example) or Specialities section.
A few select casinos also offer live dealer craps. This is pretty rare, but new games are being released all the time. So it’s worth checking in the live dealer casino games section as well just in case.
Alternatively, many mobile casinos offer a search option which saves you scrolling through all the various mobile games and lets you get straight to what you want.
So now it’s time to get started. Let’s play mobile craps!
Playing Mobile Craps For Real Money
When you load up the online craps game on your mobile device, the screen will look something like this. The example shows a mobile craps game on an iPhone 11, but the appearance and gameplay would be identical on any other iOS or Android device.
You’ll see the craps table which takes up most of the screen, and the various available chips down the left hand side.
The very top of the screen shows your current balance. You can normally tap on this to bring up the banking options in case you want to deposit or withdraw from within the game.
From here you can place your bets. All of the craps bets you’d get in real world casinos are available to mobile players, and the bets are placed in much the same way.
As usual you’ll see the pass line bet at the bottom, the come bet towards the middle, and the individual numbers at the top. Simply tap to select your chips and tap the relevant part of the craps table to place your bets.
When you’re ready, the button on the top right will start the dice roll.
Craps Rules & Strategy Guides
In case you’ve never played the game of craps before, you might be wondering what all the different bets are, what the house edge is, or how the game works. So we’ve developed a series of guides to help all new craps players get started.
I’d suggest you take a few minutes to read these before you play for real money.
Mobile Craps FAQ
Yes, every craps casino that we recommend is independently audited to ensure their games are fair and not rigged in any way.
The roll of the dice in online casino craps games is determined by a random number generator (RNG). So the results are pure chance, and the house edge is just the same as it is when you roll the dice in a real world casino.
Online casinos and software developers go to great lengths to ensure that their mobile casino games work on virtually any modern mobile device. This includes Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone or tablet.
Remember, you don’t need to download a casino app. As long as your device has a browser and can connect to the internet via data or wi-fi, you should have no issues playing online craps for real money at a mobile casino.
Same Bet Craps
It is true that many online casinos do not offer mobile craps, mainly because players tend to play other games like slots more often.
But there are still plenty of casinos that do offer iOS or Android craps options. And there’s no need to spend ages on a lengthy search to find them! The best real money craps casinos are listed in the table at the top of this page.
Yes, most online casinos offer at least a first deposit match bonus for new players. Most offer other incentives as well, such as reload bonuses or VIP points. It’s rare to get specific craps bonuses, but any general bonus can normally be used on craps as well as most other table or slot games.
What Payment Options Are Available For Online Craps Players?
This really depends on which mobile casino you choose, as they all have different deposit options.
At the very least you can expect bank wire transfer, credit card and debit card. Many online casinos also offer e-wallets such as PayPal, Neteller or Skrill, and some even offer Crypto payments such as Bitcoin.
Discover More In Mobile Casinos
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Last Updated on December 23, 2020