Among the dozens of options of craps, regardless of whether you're playing online or in a live casino, a few stand out as the best bets that give you the best run for your money.
Pass and come, don't pass and don't come, free odds and lay odds, and the place bets on 6 and 8 all carry house edges of less than 2%. All are multi-roll bets, giving the house edge fewer chances per 100 rolls to work against you.
The best deals of all are the free odds and lay odds, which carry no house edge at all. But only pass and come bettors can take advantage of the free odds and only don't pass and don't come bettors can lay odds.
Among the wagers that can be made independently of any others, don't pass and don't come have slightly lower house edges than pass and come, and pass and come have slightly lower house edges than placing 6 or 8.
How does that work? What separates them? Let's take a look.
Pass or Come vs. Don't Pass or Don't Come
Most players view don't pass and don't come as the opposites of pass and come. That's almost true, but not quite.
Pass and come bets win while don't pass and don't come bets lose if the comeout roll is 7 or 11. The don't bets win while pass or come lose if the comeout is 2 or 3.
After the comeout establishes a point, pass or come bets win if the shooter repeats the point before rolling a 7. The don'ts win if the shooter rolls a 7 before repeating the point.
So far, they're opposites. The difference come if the comeout is 12. Then pass and come lose, but don't pass and don't come don't win. They push.
If the bets were pure opposites and the don'ts won on a comeout 12, then don't bets would have a 1.41% player edge that was opposite the 1.41% house edge on pass and come.
The house could not let a bet with a player edge on the casino floor. Everybody would make that bet, the house would lose money and the game would fold.
The solution was to have comeout 12s push instead of win. That gives the house the 1.36% edge on don't pass or don't come. The edge is slightly lower than that on pass or come, but it's still an edge to the house that makes the bet possible.
Pass or Come vs. Placing 6 or 8
Place bets give you the opportunity to choose the numbers that are winners for you. You can place 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. You win if the shooter rolls your number before a 7, but lose if the shooter rolls a 7 first.
The best bets of these are 6 and 8 with a house edge of 1.52%. If you place 5 or 9, the edge is 4%, and it's 6.67% on 4 or 10, making any place bets other than 6 or 8 wagers to avoid.
With two six-sided dice, 6 and 8 are the most frequently rolled numbers other than 7. Six of the 36 possible combinations total 7, with five each for 6 and 8.
Many craps player want those frequently rolled numbers working so they place 6 and 8. If you bet on pass or come, only about 42% of point numbers will be 6 or 8, with the rest divided among the less frequently rolled 4, 5, 9 and 10.
So why is the house edge on pass and come, at 1.41%, lower than the 1.52% on placing 6 or 8?
The comeout roll is the key. On that first roll of the betting sequence, players have eight ways to win and only four ways to lose. Pass and come bettors win on any of the six ways to make 7 and the two ways to make 11, while losing on the two ways to make 3, one way to make 2 and one way to make 12.
For that one roll, pass and come bettors have a big edge. The house takes its edge only if the shooter establishes a point number.
On the place bets, there is no comeout roll and corresponding player edge. You go straight to the part where the house is in control.
Coupled with the ability of pass and come bettors to take free odds, the comeout makes pass and come more favorable bets than placing 6 or 8.
Free Odds and Lay Odds
Playing the odds is one of the best deals you're ever likely to see in any casino game. They're paid at true odds, so there is no house edge.
You can only get that deal if you start with a pass, come, don't pass or don't come bet. And odds bets don't come into play unless the shooter establishes a point.
On pass or come, you can back your initial bet with a free odds wager. If the point is 6 or 8, there are six ways to lose – the six ways a shooter can make 7 and five ways to win – the five ways to make 6 or the five ways to make 8. The odds are 6-5 against you winning, so the free odds are paid at 6-5 odds. A $5 bet wins $6.
Similarly, the odds against making 5 or 9 are 3-2, so winning free odds bets are paid at 3-2 odds. Odds against making 4 or 10 are 2-1, so winners are paid 2-1.
On any point number, your winning pass or come bet is paid at even money. Only the odds portion is paid at true odds, so there remains a house edge on a pass-plus-odds or come-plus-odds combination.
In the game's most basic configuration, your odds bet must equal your pass or come bet. That's called "single odds." Most modern casinos permit you to make an odds bet several times as large as your initial bet. Double odds, 3x odds, 5x odds, 10x odds, even 100x odds have appeared in live and online casinos.
One common configuration is called "3x, 4x, 5x odds." Your odds bet may be up to three times as big as your pass or come bet if the point is 4 or 10, up to four times as big on 5 or 9 or five times as big on 6 or 8.
The overall house edge on a pass or come plus odds combo drops as more of your bet goes into the no-edge odds. The house edge starts at 1.41% on pass or come with no free odds, but dips to 0.8% with single odds, 0.6% with double odds, 0.4% with 3x, 4x, 5x odds and so on, ever downward to 0.02% at 100x odds.
Free odds are best used to minimize your pass or come bet while reserving chips for the odds. That minimizes your exposure to the house edge on pass or come and gives you a chance to collect bigger payoffs on the odds. If you bet $5 on pass and reserve the rest of your normal bet for 3x, 4x, 5x odds, you may bet as much as if you wagered $20 on pass with no odds, winning about as much but with lower risk and lower average losses.
Lay odds work in much the same way, but in an opposite direction. You must spot the house the odds, betting $6 to win $5 on 6 or 8, $3 to win $2 on 5 or 9 or $2 to win $1 on 4 or 10. Your don't pass or don't come but is paid at even money.
Even so, it's to your advantage to reduce your don't pass or don't come bet to the minimum while reserving funds for the lay odds. That way, you reduce your exposure to the comeout roll, where don't bettors have only three ways to win, one way to push and eight ways to lose. Lay the odds, and you have your big bets on the table after there's a point, when don't bettors become the favorites to win the bets.
A Final Word of Caution
We've seen why don't pass and don't come have lower house edges than pass or come, and why pass and come have lower house edges than placing 6 or 8. We've also seen that keeping pass, come, don't pass and don't come bets to the minimum while reserving chips for free odds and lay odds can give you the best run for your money.
However, you will have to bet at least the table minimum. Layering odds bets on top of a minimum pass, come, don't pass or don't come bet can get expensive. It can be too rich for the blood of some low rollers.
In any casino game, let your bankroll be your guide. If you need to skip the odds and stick to the basics, then at least stay with the few bets detailed that give you the lowest house edge. Have fun, take your chance, but never overbet.
