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If you would like to play craps then you should know that the Don’t pass bet is the least favorite bet. There are several betting options, but people rarely place a Don’t pass bet. There are several reasons why craps bettors do not place such a bet. First of all the Don’t pass bet is against the dice.

This means that while most people at the table paced Pass bets, you did the opposite. You bet that all the other people at the table will lose, so do not be surprised to see that they will not take kindly to you. Another reason is odds on don’t bets take more money than pass bet odds.

If you are willing to properly place your bets, then you will get the best odds that a dice game can offer. This means taking or putting up the odds on a shooter’s point. In a dice game the house edge is higher on the Pass bets than the Don’t pass bets. On the Don’t pass bets the edge is just over a tenth of a percent better. The house edge is 1.414 on the Pass line and 1.402 on the Don’t pass bet. It may not seem like much, but it will make a difference on the long run. You must give or take the odds in order to get this edge as low as possible.

Let us take a look at an example. Let’s say that 10 is the point. If the shooter makes his point the Pass line bettor can take the odds and get paid 2 to 1 on their money. The Don’t bettor has to put up the payoff as odds and will only get half the money put up if the shooter does not make the point. A Pass line bettor will win $20 for a bet of $10. A don’t pass bettor will win $10 for a bet of $20.

This is one of the main reasons why people do not place Don’t pass bets. It is a good idea to place such a bet though, but only if the table is running cold. You should adapt you play according to the situation. Place Pass line bets when the table is hot and place Don’t pass bets when the table is cold.

Craps History

Craps has been around for a long time, it has a long and rich history. According to the historians, craps has been played since the times of the crusades. The game of craps is believed to be derived from the game Hazard. The person that invented Hazard is Sir William of Tyre. The English nobility appreciated the game during the 17th century and enjoyed playing it.

The game eventually found its way to France, where it was a big hit. The French renamed the game and called it “crabs”. The term crabs also referred to the lowest value dice roll. The game then spread to The United States, where it was originally played in Mississippi river boats.

John H. Winn, a famous dice maker, had a great influence of the game. He actually revolutionized craps by changing the layout of the board and introducing the “Don’t pass bets” area.

Types of Craps

There 3 main types of craps played in the world today:

- Casino craps;

This type of game is played in a casino, just as the name suggests. It obeys the rules of the game and the terms and regulations of the casino. Special tables and precision dice are used.

- Street craps;

This type of game is played in the streets, just as the name suggests. It is very informal and it is popular amongst soldiers and students looking to pass the time. A craps table is not required and all types of dice are used.

- Online craps.

The popular game of casino craps has been transformed thanks to science. This type of craps is similar to casino craps, just that it is played in an online casino and not in a land based casino. While some craps players consider online craps as dull since there is no crowd, other players consider this an advantage as they get to better focus on the game.

The best part about online craps is that you can always play a game for free. Most online casinos offer free variations of the game they offer, including craps. Since you are online you could also check out information regarding craps strategies, history, vocabulary, and even tips.

Craps Rules

The first thing that you must know is that craps is a dice game. When playing craps you are playing against the casino and not against other players at the craps table. Usually a large crowd will form around the craps table, giving the participants a sense of camaraderie.

The shooter is the player that gets to roll the dice. The outcome of the game depends on his roll. Each player around the table will get his chance to be the shooter. The first throw of the dice is known as the come-out roll.

There are several rules that apply to the “come-out roll”. “Natural” means that the shooter has rolled a 7 or 11. In this case the pass line bet wins. “Craps” means that the shooter has rolled a 2, 3 or 12. In this case the do not pass line bet wins. The do not pass bet ties if the shooter rolled a 12.

If the shooter rolls a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 as his come-out roll then this number becomes his “point”. The stickman will place a puck on the table layout, on the number that the shooter has rolled. The puck has the word “on” written on it and serves as a reminder of the shooter’s point.

The outcome of pass line or do not pass line bets will not be decided at this time. The shooter will continue to roll the dice. Pass line bets will win if he will roll the same number as his “point”. But if he rolls a 7 before the point number then all pass line bets will be lost. The round will end, losing bets will be collected and winning bets will be paid.

The same player will be the shooter for the next round. He will continue to be the shooter until he sevens out. This means that as long as he rolls naturals or as long as he makes the point he will continue to be the shooter. But if he rolls a 7 before the point number, then he sevens out. Another player will be asked to be the shooter. This is done in a clockwise manner.

The Craps Table and Betting options

The craps table itself is similar to a blackjack table. It is covered with felt, each end is a mirror image of the opposite and it is really long. It does not need to be so long, but the casinos made it so long in order to let more players gamble at the same time.

The “crew” is the official name for all the people standing around the craps table. On each side of the table you will see two dealers. They are responsible for their half of the table. Their responsibilities include exchanging cash to chips and collecting or paying off bets. The seated boxman is found in between the two dealers. He will keep an eye on the crew and all the betting. If any problem arises he will solve it.

Across the table from the seated boxman you will see the stickman. He is called this way because he has a big, curved stick which he uses to push and pull the dice. He is responsible for setting the pace of the game, announcing the outcome of a roll and keeping track of the center bets. Some players are attracted by their calls while others are intimidated and avoid the craps table because of this.

On the craps table you will find these betting areas:

- Pass and Don’t Pass Line betting area;
- Come and Don’t Come betting area;
- Odds Bets;
- Place Bets;
- Field Bets.

Note that there are several other bets that you can place, such Pass Line, Don’t Pass Line, Come, Don’t Come, Place, Odds, Field, Buy, Lay, Proposition Bets, C & E Split, Big 6 and Big 8, Any Seven, Any 11, Horn and Hop Bets. For additional information about them consult craps sites or expert articles.

Craps Etiquette

The crowds that gather around the craps table tend to be very particular about craps etiquette. So if you are playing craps in a land based casino, keep the following things in mind:

- Never say “seven” because it is considered bad luck and craps players are rather superstitious. Say “big red” instead.

- Do not leave the table after a successful come out roll because it is considered bad luck.

- Do not change the dice in the middle of a roll because it is considered bad luck.

- Keep your arms and elbows out of the way. You must not interfere with the roll in any way.

- Do not place food or drinks on the table rail.

- Do not place late bets. Place your bets while the dice are in the middle of the table.

- Remember to tip the dealers, especially if you had a run of good luck.

When it comes to craps many players will tell you that it is a fun, exciting, fast paced game. But other players will also tell you that they know very little about craps and consequently are intimidated by it. The simple truth of the matter is that craps does not have to be intimidating. All you have to do is take the time to learn the rules of the game and some betting options. The rules are quite simple and so are the betting options, so it should not take you long to understand them and get ready to play craps.

If you want to learn the basics of craps all you have to do is keep reading this article. We will cover the basic information you need to know, such as information about the craps table and some betting options. If you keep this in mind craps will no longer seem like an intimidating game. Also once you know the basics you will easily pick up on all the other betting options and rules.

The “crew” is the official name for all the people standing around the craps table. On each side of the table you will see two dealers. They are responsible for their half of the table and each can handle around 7 or 8 players at the same time. Their responsibilities include exchanging cash to chips and collecting or paying off bets. The seated boxman is found in between the two dealers. He will keep an eye on the crew and all the betting. If any problem arises he will solve it. Across the table from the seated boxman you will see the stickman. He is called this way because he has a big, curved stick which he uses to push and pull the dice. He is responsible for setting the pace of the game, announcing the outcome of a roll and keeping track of the center bets.

When you find the craps table of your choice, look for an open spot and step up to the table. A word of warning though: craps players are extremely superstitious. So if you step up to the table and there is a hot roll going on, avoid putting your money in the table. You should wait until the stickman places the dice in the middle of the table. The reason for this is very simple. If the dice were to touch your hand while placing your money on the table all the players will not look at you kindly. Remember that they are very superstitious and they will consider any tampering with the game or dice as bad luck. As a rule of thumb you should avoid any situations when the rolled dice might hit your hand. Simply keep your hand out of the pit when a player is rolling the dice.

When the timing is right, and by that I mean the dice are in the middle of the table and nobody is rolling the dice, you should put your money on the table. The dealer will take your cash money and exchange it into chips. Pick up the chips and place them in the rail in front of you. You can now start to play craps.

Let us now take a look at some of the betting options that craps offers. The simplest of bets is the “pass line” bet.

The player that rolls the dice is called the shooter. The first roll of the dice is known as a come out roll. The “pass line” bet applies to the come out roll. This is a “with the dice” bet, meaning you are wagering the shooter will win. Here is what will happen, according to the number that comes up on the come out roll:

- If a 7 or an 11 is rolled out on a come out roll, the shooter wins. All the players that made a “pass line” bet will be paid even money.

- If a 2, 3, or 12 are rolled out on a come out roll, the shooter loses. All the players that made a “pass line” bet will also lose.

- If the shooter rolls out a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 on his come out roll, this number will become the point. A white colored puck with the inscription “on” will be placed on the corresponding number on the table layout. The shooter will continue to roll the dice until the outcome of the game is determined. If he rolls a 7 before the point number he will lose the Pass line bet. All the players that made a “pass line” bet will also lose. If he rolls the point number before a 7 he will win the Pass line bet. All the players that made a “pass line” bet will be paid even money.

If the shooter rolls a 7 and it is not his come out roll he will lose his “pass line” wager. The expression “seven out” is used to announce that he lost his wager. He will no longer be the shooter. The stickman will give the dice to the nest player, in a clockwise manner. If he takes the dice he will be the new shooter and he will get to roll the dice.

Note that you do not have to take the dice and become the new shooter. Refusing to be the new shooter is always an option. The stickman will simply offer the dice to the next player, and so on, until a player will accept to be the new shooter.

Let us now take a look at “place bets”. On the table layout you will see several boxes with the numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 written on them. Making a “place bet” means that you are placing a bet on any of these numbers. You will win if the shooter will roll this number before a 7. If he rolls that number first, you will receive a payout. If he rolls a 7 first, you will lose your wager.

To make a “place bet” simply take as many chips as you wish, hand them to the dealer and tell him on what number you wish to wager. He will take the chips and place them on the number you have told him.

When playing craps the 2 dice can get a total of 36 combinations. Since you are using a pair of dice the odds of you getting a certain number depends on the dice combinations that can add up to that number. There are three dice combinations that make up a 4 and a 10, four dice combinations that make up a 5 and a 9, and five dice combinations that make up a 6 and an 8.

Here are all the dice combinations that you can get for all the “place bets”:

- 4: 1-3, 3-1, 2-2;
- 5: 1-4, 4-1, 2-3, 3-2;
- 6: 1-5, 5-1, 2-4, 4-2, 3-3;
- 8: 2-6, 6-2, 3-5, 5-3, 4-4;
- 9: 3-6, 6-3, 4-5, 5-4;
- 10: 4-6, 6-4, 5-5.

All place bets have a built-in house advantage. This means you will not be paid true odds. Your odds will always be influenced by the edge the casino has. This is true for any casino game, not just craps. The house advantage is the main reason why they make any money. Without it the casinos would not make any profits. Let’s take a simple example. When you toss a coin into the air you have a 50/50 chance of getting heads or tails. “Even money” is when you bet on such a game and are paid true odds. “True odds” means that for a bet of $5 for example you will be paid $5. But this will never happen in a casino. There’s no money to be made by paying true odds. So the casinos will always pay a little less than that.

For example, the true odds against making a 4 or a 10 before a 7 are 2-1, but you are paid 9-5 for your place bet on a 4 or a 10. The true odds against making a 5 or a 9 before a 7 are 3-2, but you are paid 7-5 for your place bet on a 5 or 9. The true odds against making a 6 or an 8 before a 7 are 6-5, but you are paid 7-6 four your place bet on a 6 or 8.

Here is what payout you can expect to get for a winning place bet of $5:

- A winning $5 bet on 4 or 10 pays $9;
- A winning $5 bet on 5 or 9 pays $7;
- winning $5 bet on 6 or 8 pays 7-to-6 and because of that you are advised to bet those numbers in increments of six dollars. You will thus get a $7 payout for all winning place bets on 6 or 8.

When making place bets the choice is always up to you. You can increase the betting amount, decrease it, or give up place bets altogether. Craps is a flexible game that allows you to wager as you see fit. In fact this is one of the reasons why craps is such a popular game.

Let us now take a look at the “field bets”. When placing a Field bet you are actually betting that the shooter will get a 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 on his next roll.� You will win if he rolls those numbers, but if he rolls a 5, 6, 7, or 8 you lose.

Usually the game only lasts about one roll, and your Field bet applies to the next roll. Chances are that the next roll may not even occur. If you are lucky enough to win a Field bet then you will be paid even money for the central numbers and sometimes the payout ratio is 2-to-1 if 2 or 12 come up. You will even get a 3-to-1 payout ratio for 2 and 12, but you will not be paid even money for the central numbers.

Let us now take a look at the “proposition bets”. You will find the Proposition betting area in the middle of the craps table, a bit to the right. This area is slightly separated from the rest on the betting areas. The Proposition bets are some of the more exotic bets that you can place at the craps table. They are one roll bets and they include the “Hardways” bets.

You can place a Hardway bet after the point has been established. A Hardway bet means that you are betting a hard total will come up. A hard 6 for example is made up of two 3’s. A hard 8 is made up of two 4’s. Any dice total that is made up of a pair of numbers is a hard total. If you decide to bet on a hard 6 or 8, the payout ratio is 9-to-1 but the house advantage is 9.1%. The payout ratio for a hard 4 or 10 is 7-to-1 and the house advantage is 11.11%. Ironically enough making a Hardway bet is indeed a pretty hard way to win at craps.

Other proposition bets include any seven bets and any craps bets.

The any seven bet is a next roll bet. You are betting that the shooter will get a 7 on his next roll.

The any craps bet is also a next roll bet. You are betting that the shooter will get an 11.

This pretty much sums up the basics of craps. As long as you have understood all the information presented here and you keep it in mind you should not have any problems playing craps. Knowing the basics will allow you to play craps without feeling intimidated and you will surely pick up on all the other betting options and rules as you play.

Even though others may argue, craps is one of the games that have also good bets and bad bets as well. The last category will be pointed out further on.

Generally, these bad bets will be presented to the player as being the largest betting area and the stickman will certainly try to tempt you into this. If you are among those players who know what craps is about, you will surely avoid such bets.

Proposition Bets

“Proposition Bets” can be found easily on the craps table, and since these bets promise an attractive payday, they can be very exciting to the players. But, in fact, the true payoff has nothing in common with the actual odds. You can recognize this type of bets quite easily, since they are heavily advertised at the table.

Every time such a bet may hit, the stickman’s job will be to attract towards this kind of bets those players that are not very experimented or well informed.

In general, the payoff for such bets ranges from four-to-one to 30-to-one; on the other hand, the house edge may run from 9.1 to 16.7 percent.

In most cases, the worst bet is also among the most attractive, since it sounds plausible. For example, the “any seven” is the kind of bet that pays off at four to one if you manage to shoot a 7 on the next roll. This sounds plausible because there are six ways to make a seven, which is by far more possible than for any other number. But, you should also take into account the other numbers that can be rolled. The actual odds for a seven are five-to-one.

You should also avoid bets on the two and twelve, and also three and eleven. The first category, bets on the two and twelve, are even worse than those on three and eleven, being able to give the house a 13.9 percent advantage. They say that the pay off for these bets is 30-to-one, but in reality, the odds are 35-to-one. This means that the bettor will pay $25 for a $5 bet.

For bets on three and eleven, the prop bet is 17-to-one, but, in reality, you will only be paid 15-to-one, the house gaining an 11.1 percent edge.

Another type of bet, the “any craps” bet sounds quite fun. In this case, two, three or twelve bets are house numbers, but generally the odds are prohibitive. And, it should also be mentioned that the house gets an 11.11 percent edge.

There are some bettors who use this kind of bets as insurance for their own bets. Let’s take an example: if you put a bet of $15 on a come out of $2, such a bet is paid at seven-to-one, so it turns out that you will lose only $1.

Yet, you should not fall to this, as reasonable as it may sound. Your bet will only speed your downfall.

Another form of betting is represented by the hardway bets.� Making a number the “hard way” means that the player rolls a pair of numbers. For example, a hard six means rolling two threes, and a hard eight means rolling two fours. These numbers will carry a house edge of 9.1 percent. The other combinations, the hard four and the hard ten give away an 11.11 percent.

Big Field Bets

The field bet stands among the most attractive for less experienced craps players. Certain books even recommend that this bet should represent the start point for new craps players. This bet occupies a large part of the craps table. A craps player can bet on a two, three, four, nine, ten, eleven or twelve. But if a five, six, seven or eight rolls over, you will lose.

At a first glance, the winning numbers are more numerous than the others, but, appearance is deceiving. There are 16 possibilities to roll the winning numbers, but there are 20 ways to roll the other numbers, which means that the house gets a 5.5 percent advantage.

The big six or eight is another famous bet among dice games. This happens because the six and eight are rolled very frequently and so the players imagine this is a good bet. The player bets that a six or an eight will be rolled before a seven.

The big six or eight is quite the same as the place bet on the six or eight, except that the pay off is much worse. For a six or eight the player gets a seven-to-six payoff, while a winning bet for the big six or eight gets even money. For an $11 bet the player loses $1 at a 9.09 casino advantage. If you place a six or eight, the casino’s edge is reduced considerably to a 1.5 percent, which means that a player will lose $1 for a $66 bet. But, be sure that such advertisement won’t be shown anywhere in the casino. You have to be a very experienced player in order to realize that you can make very good bets, avoiding in the same time the “sucker bets”.

The following dice bets players should avoid:

•� � � Any Seven - with 4-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 16.7%.
•� � � Two - with 30-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 13.9%.
•� � � Twelve - with 30-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 13.9%.
•� � � Three - with 15-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 11.1%.
•� � � Eleven - with 15-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 11.1%.
•� � � Any Craps - with 7-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 11.1%.
•� � � Hard Six - with 9-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 9.1%.
•� � � Hard Eight - with 9-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 9.1%.
•� � � Hard Four - with 7-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 11.1%.
•� � � Hard Ten - with 7-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 11.1%.
•� � � Field - with 1-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 5.6%.
•� � � Big Six or Eight - with 1-to-1 odds and a house advantage of 9.1%.

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