Craps for Beginners
Casinos
Apr 7, 2000, 12:55
By M. Wilson Staff
|
|
Craps for Beginners -- A K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
In folktales, when people gamble with the Devil for their souls, do you know what game they always play? Craps. Look in the casinos: It's the wildest, loudest, most exciting game on the floor. Where there's a hot game going, the players shout, throw money and chips all over the table, exult when they win, swear when they lose. Because a casino does not control the dice, Lady Luck is really the pit boss at the craps table, perhaps more so than in any other game.
THE TABLE
Always wanted to play but were afraid to do it? No problem; let's look at the table. It's a long rectangle with rounded ends and a little wall around part of the edge for the dice to bounce off. At the center of the table, on one side, is the Stickman. He holds the hooked stick used to rake up the dice and deliver them to the player whose turn it is to roll. Directly across from him, also at the table's middle, stands the Boxman, who is the monitor of the entire table. In front of him you'll see the bank of chips needed for that table. To his left is one Dealer, to his right is the second Dealer. Each Dealer changes your cash into chips, pays off winning bets and takes in the losing bets for that half of the table.
Printed on the table is a sort of grid. A band runs around the outside of the table's edge which says "Pass Line." Just inside of that is the "Don't Pass" bar, which runs almost all the way around too except it's interrupted at the corners. In the center of the table across from the Boxman is an area blocked into boxes saying things like "Any Craps," and "Seven." This is the Proposition Bets area. Players and watchers gather on 3 sides of the table, mostly squeezing in at both ends -- since that's where the dice land.
ROLL, OR JUST TRY A COUPLE OF BETS, PASS LINE AND ODDS BETS
Watch a table a while to see how it goes, first. A beginner really should go to tables with the lowest minimum allowed bet($1 or $5), and these limits will be written on the table's wall, under each Dealer. A player will roll the dice, several times, until he gets a 7 or has completed a game and doesn't want to roll again. Then the dice are passed to a new player. You'll notice that each time a new player(shooter) gets the dice, he must put a bet down on the Pass Line, or the Don't Pass Line, before he rolls. The first roll of the dice is called the Comeout Roll. The shooter stands at one end of the table and the Dealer offers him 5 or 6 dice; he picks 2 and throws them down toward the other end, where they must bounce off the wall. (If they fly off the table, or don't reach the wall, he throws again. Takes a little practice; I had to try it on a pool table first.) Anyone and everyone around the table may place a bet too, before he rolls, and many of these will be Pass Line Bets. When you bet on the pass line, you are said to be betting with the shooter, and you're hoping that he will do one of these things:
a) Roll a 7, or 11. This is called a "Natural," and anyone with money on the Pass Line in this instance has won his bet already, paying even money. Players should leave their original bet there, just picking up the winnings if they wish, because the shooter will roll again and they have additional chances to win.
b) Roll any of these numbers: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 . When one of these comes up it is called the shooter's Point. He will keep rolling and he must roll this point number again before he rolls a 7, to win his (and your) Pass Line bet.
c)You do not want him to roll a 2, 3, or 12. This is Craps,or crapping out, and loses. But he still rolls again.
Any player, including the shooter, can bet the Don't Pass line. If they do they are betting for Craps to come up on the Comeout roll, or for the shooter to establish a Point and then roll a 7 before rolling the point number again. They are not really betting against the shooter, but this is how it's described; Don't Pass bets are just bets against certain combinations of the dice and for others. We call those betting on the pass line Right Bettors, and those on don't pass line, Wrong Bettors. People like you to bet with the shooter, you'll notice!
Okay, so now one roll has been made. If the first was a natural or craps, this second roll is actually another Comeout roll. If the shooter established a point, the Dealer places a Puck whose up side says "ON" on that point number's square on the table. Everyone will be putting more bets down before the second roll. Some of these will be Odds Bets,also called free-odds, or Frontline odds.
If you originally made a bet on the Pass Line and a point was set, it's a very good idea to back it up now with an odds bet. This means you are making an additional bet on the number, and if the shooter makes his point, your odds as well as your pass line bet wins. The pass line win pays you dollar for dollar, but odds pays according to the true odds, the actual probability of that number occurring. Where single odds are permitted, you can bet up to the amount of your original pass line bet. Some casinos allow you to bet double your pass line bet, and some allow more. The house has no advantage on odds bets, so you should maximize them. In craps you should play to win, not play just not to lose, and these are some of the best bets you will find in the casino. Suppose the point was a 4; the true odds of 4 recurring before a 7 is 2 to 1. If you bet $5 on the pass line, then put down double odds on the point, or another $10, and the shooter makes his point, you'd have turned your $15 into $40. You make an odds bet by putting the additional chips on the table behind your pass line bet. The odds on points 4 and 10 pay 2:1, on 5 and 9 pay 3:2, and on 6 and 8 pay 6:5.
A Come Bet is a bet made after the comeout roll and works the same way as a pass line bet, winning if the next roll is 7 or 11, losing if it's craps, but if it's another number, this is the Come Point for that come bet. The bettor hopes the shooter will repeat this number before a 7. And his bet continues to be in play until either the come point is rolled, or a 7. Another bet you can make is the Don't Come Bet, made, again, after the comeout roll, and it works opposite of the come bet -- you win if the next roll is 3 or 12 (2 is a tie, or push. In some casinos, 12 is a push instead of 2), lose if it's 7 or 11, and if any other number is rolled, it becomes the Don't Come Point. And now you actually want a roll of 7 before the don't come point is rolled again. You can make Come and Don't Come bets after any roll -- it will apply to the next roll of the dice.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
Let's go back to the odds bet, which is betting additional chips that the shooter will make his point. A Don't Pass bettor can make an additional bet that the shooter won't make his point, and this is called Laying Odds or Backline odds. This wins if the original Don't Pass bet wins. Pays true odds for the point number.
Thus far, we've talked about the safest bets -- which doesn't mean they are actually safe! Want a little more to play on? You can make a Field Bet, which is betting that any one of a group of numbers will occur on the next roll: either 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12. It may look like a great bet, having more numbers to possibly win on, but if you look at the odds on different rolls of the dice, you'll see that it is the midrange numbers, 5, 6, 7, and 8, that are most frequently rolled, because there are more ways the dice can fall to make these numbers. And totaled, there are more ways to roll the midrange numbers than the total ways to roll all those field numbers. There are 5 combinations of the dice that add up to 8, 6 combinations that make an 7, 5 ways to make a 6, and 4 ways to make 5. So there are 20 ways to roll the midrange numbers, and when you add together the combinations that make the field numbers, it's only 16. Although the field numbers 2 and 12 pay better odds than the rest, it's not enough to overcome the house edge.
Because they are so popular, you should also know about the Place Bet, which is betting that a specific point number, either 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, will be rolled before a 7. Make a place bet by giving the dealer your money and tell him to "place the 6," or whichever you've chosen. You can do this on as many of the point numbers as you want, and place bets can be made any time during a game. Place bets are not in play, however, during the comeout roll, unless you tell the dealer make them "work" (be in play).
Other bets are described in Craps K.I.S.S., Part 2.
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
|
