There are good craps bets and then there are bad craps bets.  The best bet in a craps game is the pass line bet; it has a house advantage of about 1.41%.    Other bets on the table have odds that are much worse than this.  As a beginner you’ll want to stick with the pass line and the don’t pass line bets (which has a house edge of 1.36%).  Although, most shooters don’t like it when you’re ‘rooting for the other team’.

Second to the come-out roll in terms of house advantage is the odds bet.  Once your come-out roll has allowed you to score a point, you can make an additional bet that’s a result of your winnings.  This amount varies from casino to casino, but twice your original bet is quite common.

The great thing about the odds bet is that the house has a 0% payout advantage.  You should always take the odds bet.

The combination of the potential win from the odds bet with low house advantage of 1.41% on the come out roll lowers your disadvantage quite drastically.  The more you’re allowed to bet; the greater your advantage: should you bet twice as much, the house edge will drop from 1.41% to 0.61%.

While pass, don’t pass and odds bets all have really good house advantages, there are some bets that will be available to you during the course of a craps game that offer truly terrible odds.  The ‘Big Six’ and ‘Big 8’ bets offer a 9.1% house advantage; this is worse than on a roulette game.  It should be common sense that it simply is not good strategy to take such odds, or odds that are worse than that!  The ‘Hard 4’ and ‘Hard 10’ bets offer a house edge of 11%+.  But, these are not the worst of them…

The worst odds at a craps table can be found with proposition bets.  A proposition bet proposes that something will happen on the next roll i.e. a certain number will be thrown.  Proposition bets that a 2 or a 12 will be thrown next offer the worst odds: 13.9%.  An Any 7 bet has the worst odds: 16.67%.  An Any 7, or Big Red, bet wins if the shooter rolls a 7.

So, stick to the bets where the house edge is low, it’s there where you’ll make your profit.

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