Your Chances To Win At The Craps Table Depends On The House Edge & Other Variables

How are you going to win?

The shooter was yakking like a carnival barker. Watch this boys, gimmee those dice, let’s heat this table up. Bravado spewing from a shooters mouth is part of the game and as often as not is a precursor to a very short hand. Tonight this was not the case.

"You better get your money out if you want to win," he says. Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard that before. I always wait before betting on every shooter and this shooter was no exception. I finally waded in and thankfully his hand continued. I didn’t win much, and could have won more if I hadn’t been so distracted. Distracted? Yes very distracted. Well, lots of shooters run their mouths telling you how much you will make on their hand or what numbers they will throw next, so what is so distracting about that? It wasn’t his motor mouth, it was the constant stream of bad bets that came from his mouth on each and every roll that distracted me.

"Hop the 5, and the 6 and 8 easy for two bucks each, and gimmee the hard 6, 8 and 10 for a nickel each and an eight dollar horn."

 What’d he say?

Let’s see that’s $20 in hoppers and $15 in hardway bets, on every roll! For the entire time this shooter had the dice I stood there trying to figure out what number he thought he was going to roll that would allow him to make a profit. When the stickman did call one of his numbers the game stopped to give the stick time to subtract all of the losing bets. The stickman would always ask, "Do you want to stay up the same way?" Of course he did so drop six bucks and you’ll be up the same way. Of the 36 possible dice rolls only the 2, 12, hard 6, 8, or 10 would result in money going the player’s way. That’s 31 ways to lose and 5 ways to win.

He had a great roll...

and only lost about $80!

This shooter was lucky since a friend came to play before he got the dice again so he had someone to borrow money from to fund his next hand. Another nice hand was in store for his friend and the rest of us. His friend is a place bettor and placed the numbers that the shooter was betting on the hop. The easy 10 was the shooter’s number on this hand and since his buddy had bought the 10 he made out like a bandit, whereas it cost the shooter $25 every time it showed.

Could this shooter ever make money playing craps? I know it’s possible but the events that would have to take place are so unlikely he would be better off with lottery tickets. Did this shooter know how to play? He did know what the bets were but obviously didn’t know what they paid or how he could profit from them, much less what the house advantage was on those bets.

Do YOU know what has to happen for you to make a profit in the next hand that you play? Take a step back and look at your bets. Are they low house advantage bets? Are you making too many bets? Look at your method of betting to see what has to happen for you to have a chance at winning. It may show you why you are losing so much.

Find out what the house advantage is on every bet and choose the best bets and you will have a better chance to win.