Super Craps

Super Craps 2003 Silverthorne Publications All rights reserved
1
Sam Goldsmith
Super
Craps
SILVERTHORNE
PUBLICATIONS
2
Super Craps
COPYRIGHT 2003 Silverthorne Publications
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Without limiting the rights under the
copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
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Silverthorne Publications, Inc.
7200 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Suite 172
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109
United States of America
www.silverthornepublications.com
orders@silverthornepublications.com
For information on Super Craps, please visit -
http://www.silverthornepublications.com/SuperCraps
Manufactured in the United States of America
The material contained in this book is intended to inform and educate
the reader and in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or
illegally.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Why Craps? 12
The Game 20
Seven is King 34
The Bets 42
Winning with the Seven 60
Wrong Betting Strategy 69
Right Betting Strategy 85
Three Days at the Tables 98
Variations of Play 116
What It Takes to Win 132
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Introduction
Why are you reading this book? Is it because you want to
be entertained? Well, that's certainly valid. Is it because you are
looking for a system or method which will make you rich? That's a
little better.
Applying the methods, techniques and strategies in Super
Craps may make you rich. But as a minimum, it shouldn't make
you poorer. Most people approach casino gambling with about the
same amount of preparation that is used to pick a movie to attend.
This approach may get you to the casino, but the likelihood of
coming out of it with more money than you started with is
doubtful.
OK, you recognize this. That's why you bought this book to
begin with. You know that you have to know more than you do to
win at gambling. So you have already separated yourself from the
crowd. But you still may not have the whole picture.
I know from experience that many people expect to learn
one secret that will make them instant winners at gambling. A lot
of books have been written purporting to reveal this secret, and I
am not going to run down all books on gambling. I have written a
number of them, and I know that each of these books I have written
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or published, including this one, will help make the reader a better
gambler. So I am going to tell you the biggest secret to winning at
gambling right now. No suspense. No waiting until the last
chapter. Are you ready?
You have to have guts, knowledge, bankroll, discipline and
patience.
Guts are required before entering any gambling endeavor.
You need the intestinal fortitude to enter a contest where the odds
favor the opposition, and to keep a cool head, successfully apply a
winning strategy and leave a winner. Knowledge is deceptive.
Most people manage to acquire some knowledge of a game and
then think that their limited knowledge is all they need to become
winners. Knowledge is important. I am still amazed by the
number of people who will walk up to a craps game and ask how
to play the game. If you don't understand the game, a casino is not
the place to learn it. But knowledge is not everything. You may
know every wager and every payoff in craps and still be a lousy
player. You need all of the ingredients to be a winner.
Bankroll is the amount of money you bring for gambling.
Different games and different systems require set amounts of
bankroll. Yet people ignore this. They will take whatever money
they have and enter a craps game. Usually their wagers are too
large for their bankrolls. The results are all too predictable. They
lose. They blame their lousy luck, the crooked dealers or the
crummy book where they learned the gambling system. Having an
adequate bankroll is a key ingredient for winning.
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Discipline. Without it, everything else falls apart. How
many times have you been up while gambling and ended up
playing until all of your money was gone? Without discipline, you
are dead in the water. No system will save you from yourself.
Patience is the final category. It deserves a special mention
in a book about craps. Because craps players probably have the
least patience of any casino players. Craps is fast. Craps is
exciting. The fortunes of craps players can rapidly change with
just a few dice rolls. So players get antsy. If they lose a few
wagers they rapidly up their bets to recoup losses. If they get a few
bucks ahead, the size of their wagers jump. And eventually the
game gets them. They have no patience to wait out a few bad rolls.
They try to recoup everything in a couple of rolls.
You want to know the one thing that illustrates the stupidity
of most craps players? They will stay at a table until they lose
every single chip. For many, the last few rolls seem to be
dedicated to losing their last chips so that they can take a break.
Why they can't leave the table with chips in their hand is beyond
me. People don't act like this at any other endeavor except
gambling. Can you imagine going to the corner drugstore, paying
for an item which costs $5.95, handing the clerk a ten dollar bill
and walking away? Craps players do it every day.
The information contained in Super Craps is enough for
anyone who applies it to become a winner. But I can't predict that
you will become a winner. That is up to you.
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I do know that the author of this treatise, Sam Goldsmith, is
an excellent craps player. He has to be. He plays the game for a
living. Several times a week he matches wits with the casinos and
nearly always comes out a winner. When he has a losing session,
he limits his losses and walks away from the table.
When he is winning, he may continue to play for hours, so
long as winnings come his way. When the tide turns, he walks.
He is the toughest player in the world to beat. He never loses
control and drops a bundle. And when he is winning he keeps on
pressing the casino for all it is worth. He is a firm practitioner of
the old stock market adage of "Cut your losses and let your profits
run."
Whenever I come across a reputed "winning" gambling
system, I always take it with a grain of salt. There are almost as
many gambling systems out there as there are gamblers. More than
one pit boss has remarked that the casinos love system players,
they will send taxis to the airport to bring them in.
To say that I am skeptical of gambling systems would be an
understatement. Nearly every system has such obvious and fatal
flaws that it will fail in short order.
I have developed a list of criteria I use to review any
gambling system I come across. Checking a system against these
tests will eliminate most systems in short order.
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First, the system or strategy has to be definable. This would
seem obvious, but most gambling systems are not well defined
enough that other people can play them and experience the same
results as the author. Many of the gambling books I have read over
the years recite the author's extraordinary experience and how he
won at such and such game. But when you look for a knowable,
definable strategy, there isn't one. I remember one memorable
craps treatise I read some years ago where the author won
$250,000 or some such amount by playing the old pass line - come
bet with odds strategy and happened to hit some hot craps tables.
The book recounted each of the author's trips and the
memorable rolls when he rolled the dice for thirty minutes or some
such nonsense. "Great" I thought. Now how can I do this?
The answer is you can't. The author was either spinning a
yarn or had a very lucky run at craps. Strategy? System? Well, if
you want to try his system and only use it on hot craps tables, I
wish you the best. But the practical side of this is that there is no
way to define his strategy in such a way that it can be used to win
time after time. It was a product of luck or timing or happenstance.
It may or may not ever happen for you.
Secondly, the system needs to use a realistic and
controllable amount of bankroll. Some systems require simply too
much money to be practical. For example, if a system requires that
a player start with one dollar wagers, eventually increases the
wagers to as high as $2,000, and requires a bankroll of $5,000 per
session, then this system is simply unrealistic. If you come across
a system like this, do not try it.
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Other systems do not even consider bankroll requirements
or set them too low. Be suspicious whenever someone tells you
that you don't need much money to play because his system is so
good.
I look for a reasonable bankroll requirement as compared to
the amount of hourly winnings the system can produce. The
winnings possible with the system should bear a reasonable
relationship to the bankroll and the size of the bets used. A system
fitting this description can be adjusted up or down depending on
the player's preference, but will produce winnings proportionate to
the session bankroll used.
The losses or draw-downs produced by the system must be
reasonable and as small as possible. There are many systems
which produce small winnings per session with occasional monster
losses which wipe out all of the winnings. These systems must be
avoided. A reasonable system will not allow for ten hours of work
to be wiped out in one losing session.
The system or strategy must produce consistent results. I
have always shown winning broken down as winnings per session
or winnings per hour in every book I have published about
gambling. Most authors don't. Beware of systems and authors
who can't or won't show all aspects of the system. It is either not
definable and therefore unpredictable, or if it is predictable it
produces losses.
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And finally the system must be profitable. Sound easy? It's
not. The reason most systems fail one or more of the above tests is
that they are not profitable. It is easy to come up with a gambling
system. Anyone who has knowledge of the game (or a lack of
knowledge in some cases) can do so. So what? If it doesn't meet
all of my tests and produce a profit over a reasonable period of
time, why bother. Anyone can figure out how to lose money at
casino gambling - no system needed.
Sam Goldsmith's Super Craps strategy passes my tests
easily. It is definable and therefore teachable. It does not depend
on some extraordinary streak of luck.
The Super Craps strategies are adjustable to different
bankroll levels. It is not just a high roller system. Neither is it a
nickel and dime proposition. Winnings of over a $1,000 a day are
reasonable and doable with a moderate bankroll.
The losses or draw-downs are reasonable. You will not
experience ten hours of winnings wiped out in one bad session.
You will have some losing sessions. These are unavoidable. No
system wins 100% of the time. But your losses will be infrequent
and of reasonable size.
You will be able to win consistently. The system is geared
to the player wanting to win $150 to $200 an hour at craps. But it
will accommodate the $50 an hour player as well as the $500 an
hour player.
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And it is profitable. I have had very good experience
playing craps with Sam's system.
I present this system to you without apology. It is a good
one. And it is Sam's story from this point on. Best of luck.
Martin J. Silverthorne
Publisher
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Why Craps?
Dice have been used as gambling devices for several
thousand years. Even the language of dice reflects its influence on
history. When Caesar made his decision to take his army across
the Rubicon in defiance of the edicts of the Roman Senate, he
chose his response from the language of the dice player: "Iacta
alea est." The die is cast.
Gambling with dice is pervasive. It has been found in
almost every culture, from American Indians to Africans. The
Greeks and Romans used dice made of bone or ivory, others used
dice made of bronze, onyx, alabaster, marble or even porcelain.
Craps is of American origin. Some time after 1800 around
New Orleans, the American Blacks begin playing a version of the
game, no doubt adapted from the English game Hazard, which the
French sometimes called Craps.
The New Orleans version of Craps moved up the
Mississippi on the nineteenth century river boats. By about 1890
the game began appearing in the form of Bank Craps in some
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American casinos. The big casino game at this time was Faro, and
Craps did not become really popular until World War II when
thousands of GIs learned backroom Craps.
Street Craps, also called private Craps, backroom Craps or
even back alley Craps, was where a lot of us first cut our teeth.
I learned to play Street Craps before I was old enough to
buy a drink (at least legally). I used to cut school at lot and hang
out around some of the pool halls. I didn't know beans about the
game, and I used to regularly bet pennies or even nickels in the
games where I was tolerated.
An old Craps hustler let me in on the secret of beating the
game. With Street Craps, the players bet against each other. In
order to make a bet, you had to find a player to take your action
and fade your bet. The hustler explained to me that about two-
thirds of the players would always bet right, that is, with the
shooter. Almost a third would bet wrong (against the shooter)
when someone else held the dice, and would switch to betting right
when they got their hands on the dice.
A very small percentage - maybe two or three percent of the
players - would bet wrong 100% of the time.
And only this small percentage of wrong betters stood much
of a chance of being long term winners in the game.
Street Craps always favors the wrong better. The
mathematics of dice, which we'll talk about a bit later, favors the
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wrong bettor in the back alley game. Most people don't know this,
and most players wouldn't change their betting if they did.
There are a couple of problems with betting wrong all of the
time. For one thing a lot of players don't like it. They figure you
are running some kind of scam or are a dice hustler (which of
course my mentor was). The second risk is that when the dice get
hot and stay hot, the wrong bettor can find himself facing
escalating losses which can wipe out hours of winnings in a few
minutes.
The hustler figured a way out of these problems. He bet
wrong nearly all the time except when the dice got hot. Then he
would go with the shooter for a few rolls. This strategy kept him
from getting labeled as a hustler or con man and also protected his
bankroll.
But when he switched to betting right, he would always
drop the size of his wagers and only increase his right bets if the
shooter kept popping numbers and winning his bets.
On the wrong side he was willing to increase his bets after a
couple of losses, figuring that every roll has to come to an end and
hanging in there with the shooter for a couple of passes was just
good business.
And he made some pretty good money using the system. I
never learned to hustle dice games. I played if there was a game
going and did pretty well using the hustler's system.
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The casinos have simplified the game of craps by banking
the game. It is no longer necessary to find another player to fade
your bet; the house or bank fades all the bets. This can be a real
advantage for the wrong bettor. He doesn't have to disguise his
moves because the house doesn't really care how he bets since they
figure that they hold the hammer on all players anyway. But the
house did one thing to hurt the wrong bettor. They took away his
mathematical advantage over right betters.
With street craps, the right bettor (betting for the dice to
pass) fights odds of about 1.4% against him. The wrong bettor
(betting for the dice to miss) has an advantage of about 1.4%
working for him. This is why the only sensible way to bet in Street
Craps is to bet wrong.
When the casinos cleaned up the game, they barred the
number 12, or in some cases the number 2, as a win for the don't
bettor on a come out roll. With this rule change, the wrong bettor
bucks about the same odds of losing as the right bettor. So in
theory it doesn't make much difference which way you bet in bank
craps, the house holds the hammer on all bets.
Except that it is still possible to play a version of the old
hustler's system. It has been modified to work for Bank Craps.
You give up a little because the casino takes the Come-Out 12
away from the wrong better. But every other advantage for the
wrong bettor stays in place.
So why play craps? Because its origins are ancient?
Because some old dice degenerate taught me how to beat the
game? Naw. Not good enough. I don't think that anyone ought to
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play the game unless they play to win. Not for fun. Not because
the game is the number one casino action game. These reasons are
not good enough. The only reason to play the game is to learn how
to hold the hammer over the bastard casinos.
And I am not trying to talk anyone into taking up gambling.
I don't have to. Nearly everyone gambles. And most do it badly.
If you don't gamble, don't take it up on my account. But if you do,
I want to present a little theory on why you should consider Craps,
and if you do pick Craps, how you can learn to hammer the game.
Let's assume that you don't know zip about casino gambling
and you are thinking about the choice of games. I plan on
presenting a pretty good case for choosing Craps. But don't take
my word for it. Consider for a minute the house edge or advantage
over the player in most casino games. Table 1 summarizes the
house advantage in certain casino games.
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TABLE 1. HOUSE ADVANTAGE
IN CERTAIN CASINO GAMES
Keno Average about 25%
Slot Machines 2% to 25%, use 10%
as an average
Big Six Average about 18%
Roulette Double zero - 5.27%
Single zero (Atlantic
City) -
Single zero and
en prison (Europe) -
2.70%
1.35%
Baccarat Player -
Banker -
1.36%
1.17%
Blackjack No strategy -
Basic strategy
with multi decks -
Card counting
theoretical
advantage -
5% to 20%
1.5%
2.0%
Craps Pass, Come,
Don't Pass, Don't
Come -
Odds Bets:
Single odds -
Double odds -
Place, field,
proposition bets -
1.40%
0.8%
0.6%
1.5% to 16.7%
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If you look at the numbers in the table, the only number
with a minus in front of it, meaning the player has an advantage, is
for card counting at blackjack. I didn't come up with this number,
it is the number the card counters like to use. I don't believe it. I
have never met one card counter who successfully made a living at
blackjack. Most of them develop elaborate systems, try them a few
times to see how miserable they really are in the real world, and
then write books and newsletters. I have my own approach to
blackjack, and I'll go up against the card counters any day. But
that's another story.
Ignoring the unproven claim of card counters, where do you
see the best numbers in Table 1? For those of you who cut classes
like I did, best means lowest numbers, as in the lowest house edge
against the player. The best numbers are in the craps section.
When you can get numbers down to less than one percent against
you, the game is beatable. If you know what you are doing. And
that's why I'm here: to show you what to do to beat craps.
Craps has some advantages over the other casino games that
don't show up in tables of house advantages. It is the only game
that lets you bet that a number won't show. Ever try that in
roulette. Walk up to the table and tell the croupier that you want to
bet a no-36 on the next roll. They'll send for the men in little white
coats.
But in craps you can always bet that a number does or
doesn't show. You have the ultimate flexibility in putting together
a winning strategy.
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The old hustler always went with the probabilities of
winning. He wasn't playing for fun. He followed the dice and tried
to stay on the side that was winning. And that's what I am going to
show you how to do.
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The Game
If you have ever played craps in the back room of a store,
or on an old bed cover spread on the floor, you have played street
craps. The shooter would establish his point, and everyone would
stand around until he made his point, or sevened out.
The casino version of the game is called Bank Craps. The
casino acts as the bank, rather than players betting against each
other. In addition, numerous other bets are allowed.
In the casino version of Craps, you can bet Pass or Don't
Pass, Come or Don't Come, make Place bets, Buy and Lay bets, or
bet the Hard Ways or any one of several proposition bets. You
can make one roll bets like the Field, or make bets which stay up
until a decision occurs, like Pass Line wagers. You have a great
variety of bets which can be made. A right bettor (one who
expects the shooter to make his point) could have as many as
twenty bets on the table at one time.
Craps is the traditional game of high rollers. It is the fastest
and most exciting casino game. It is the only casino game where
it is possible to run a $100 stake into $10,000 in a couple of hours.
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And it is the most vocal of all casino games. Walk into any
casino and listen to where all the noise is coming from. It's the
craps players yelling up a storm. Every throw of the dice evokes a
new response of whoops and hollers.
Now stroll back to the Blackjack tables or the Roulette
wheel. Hardly a whimper from the players. The Blackjack
players are using hand signs to signal the dealer. A Blackjack
player could play for a week and not utter a word. In Craps, the
players are constantly talking to the dice, the dealers and each
other.
CRAPS LAYOUT
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To the novice player, the game appears very intimidating.
Everyone else knows what they are doing, or so it seems. Once,
when I was showing a lady companion how to play the game, she
looked down for her bet and it was gone. "What happened to my
bet?" she asked. The shooter had rolled a come out craps and her
Pass Line bet had been whisked away by the dealer. She felt like
she had hardly settled in and they already had the audacity to take
her bet.
The game moves very fast to the newcomer, but after you
learn the game, you will notice the times when the game is slowed
down (to your irritation) much more than speeded up. The game
is fast, but it only seems fast when you don't understand the bets or
what the dealers and players are doing.
Because of the speed of the game, and the variety of bets
available, what is normally the best casino game for a player
becomes a trap for many. Many people lose money at a ferocious
rate at Craps because they lay down too many bets and have no
patience. Most casinos figure to keep about 20% of the drop, that
is, win 20% of all money exchanged for chips at the craps table.
The thing I like best about Craps is that when you start to
win, there's not a damn thing the house can do about it. Blackjack
card counters get thrown out for winning. Winning Craps players
can cause the casino bosses to break into a cold sweat, but they are
not thrown out. Usually the bosses start engaging in "slow down"
tactics at a table where the players are killing the house. The
boxman may reprimand the shooter for his shooting style. (I've
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seen players chewed on for shooting too high, too low, too hard or
too soft you tell me).
24
When the shooter starts to make pass after pass with lots of
numbers in between the action can get serious. When the majority
of players have black ($100) or pink ($500) chips in play, the
casino can drop $50,000 to $100,000 in short order.
I have seen individual players win over $100,000 at the
craps table. The bosses will try to slow down the game,
excessively examine the dice between rolls, bring in fresh racks of
chips and in general make total nuisances of themselves, but the
players are allowed to keep on winning. Don't you like this game?
I recently showed a young man how to play Craps in a
casino. He was a died in the wool Blackjack aficionado, with
delusions of counting down multiple decks and all that crap. After
an hour at the Craps table I asked him what he thought. He calmly
turned to me and said, "Well, I guess I'm finished with Blackjack."
If you have played the game before, forgive me my waxing
eloquent. If you haven't played, then please take the time to try it
and better yet, use my system so you will win.
Most casinos will have at least one craps table, except for
the slot palaces specializing in the one-armed bandit trade. Some
states allows slots and blackjack, or some other combination of
casino games, and exclude craps. The "real" casinos will have at
least one craps table. The big joints in Nevada and Atlantic City
will have eight or more craps tables per casino.
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Within the last year, I experienced some of the most
enjoyable Craps in Mississippi. Those Southern boys know how
to play the game with a vengeance.
The area where the craps tables are grouped is called the
craps pit with the casino employee in charge of this area known as
the craps pit boss.
A casino craps table may range in size from 14 to over 20
feet. They look like oversized billiard tables. In the old days
some of the floating craps games and games in sawdust joints used
to convert billiard tables by attaching boards to the sides of billiard
tables to act as backstops for the dice. This was also handy when
the law showed. Pull the side boards down and the boys were just
having an innocent game of billiards.
The number of players who can play at a craps table is
limited only to the number who can squeeze in. If the table is
crowded, it is considered polite to ask if you can fit in, rather than
just shoving your way into the table. Some craps players have
been known to shove back, and asking is usually the better policy.
If the table is crowded, the nearest dealer will usually ask the
players to scoot over, if you ask nicely.
The table is covered with felt which is usually colored
green, but I have seen them in shades of blue, purple and even eye
jarring red. I don't recommend the red ones for all night sessions,
too hard on the eyes.
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The possible craps bets are marked on the felt in a pattern
of betting areas called the craps layout. In the old days, these were
drawn on billiard tables with chalk, now they are all nice and
printed.
The table layout has three sections. The middle section,
called the center, rests under the watchful eye of the person on
stick. The end sections are mirror images of each other, with one
dealer per end.
The center bets contain the lousiest bets in the game such
as the hard ways bets and a number of one-roll bets. I will tell you
about these bets, but in general, you can enjoy a long and
successful craps career without ever tossing a chip to the center
section for a wager.
The more important wagers are available on the end
sections of the table. Here you will find Pass Line bets, which are
made by over 90% of all craps players, Place bets, Come Bets,
Don't Pass wagers, Don't Come Bets, Field bets, the Big 6 and Big
8 wagers, and Buy and Lay bets. Odds bets, which are not marked
on the table, are also made on the end sections of the table.
There are usually four casino employees at a craps table.
The person seated in the middle of the table, in front of the
casino's chips, is the boxman. Today, many of these boxmen are
box woman, so I guess you ought to call them box people, which
doesn't quite sound right. Anyway, these box whatevers are the
people in charge of the craps table. They drop your cash into the
dropbox when you buy in, watch the dealers, settle disputes with
27
players, and in general act as managers of the game. Many times a
floor person will be standing behind the boxman. If you have
casino credit and need a marker to buy in, the floor person will
accommodate you. They will also rate you if you are trying to get
a comp (a freebie from the casino, usually a meal).
Many times the floor person may be joined by the pit boss,
the big honcho of the craps pit. If the game is very active, another
boxman may be brought in as well.
Recently, playing in Mississippi, I played at some tables
with no boxmen. I hadn't seen this before. I asked one of the
dealers about it, and he told me that it saves the casino about
seventy grand a year per table. I think eliminating the boxmen
may be one of those cases of being penny wise and pound foolish,
but time will tell if it becomes a trend.
In addition to all the bosses, there are three working stiffs
who handle all of the players' wagers. The dealer in the center of
the table is called the stickman and handles all of the center bets
for players, calls the game and moves the dice around with a stick.
The dealers on each end handle the bets for the end sections of the
table.
There are four dealers to a crew, and they rotate positions
every twenty minutes, with one of the crew taking a break at that
time. Each dealer takes turns at the stick and at each end of the
table.
An active stickman can really liven up the game. The
action of the game can be announced in a very enthusiastic and
28
colorful fashion. This tends to stimulate the players to make more,
and bolder wagers, which is exactly what the house wants. The
person on the stick will constantly extort players to make bets in
the center of the table where the odds range from miserable (Hard
Six or Hard Eight 9.09% in favor of the house) to ridiculous
(any of the one roll bets house odds from 11.11% to 16.67%).
The stickman often uses craps superstitions to exhort the players to
make the worst bets. One craps superstition is that if the player's
point is one of the even numbers of 4, 6, 8 or 10, for which there is
a corresponding hardway bet, betting the number to show the hard
way will help bring out the number.
In general you can ignore the betting advice of the dealers
on stick. Their recommended bets are the best wagers for the
house, not for you.
Each table has its own table limits. These limits are usually
shown on small plaques at each end of the table on the side rail,
next to the standing dealer. Both minimum and maximum bets for
the table are shown. Typical table limits are $2 minimum, $200
maximum (smaller casinos) or $5 minimum, $1,000 maximum
(larger joints). Minimum wagers will vary from casino to casino
and from table to table in the same joint. A $5 minimum table
may be operating next to a $25 minimum table. Table minimums
will be raised whenever more players are available such as at night
or on weekends. It is always to the casino's advantage to have
higher minimums set. Many players, who should be making $2
wagers, will make $10 or even $25 wagers if that's what the house
mandates.
29
From a player's viewpoint, higher minimum wagers can be
devastating. If the house does not offer a minimum wager within
your range, then don't play the game. Many players have no idea
of the relationship between the bankroll used for a craps session
and the minimum wager which should be used, and get cleaned
out in short order playing beyond their means.
If you want to play where the maximum wagers won't
restrict your style, try the Horseshoe Club in downtown Las
Vegas. The place caters to craps players, offering ten times odds
and wall-to-wall craps tables. Your maximum wager is limited to
the amount of your first wager. If you want to bet a million bucks
a pop, just clear it with one of the Binion bosses, they will
accommodate your action.
While we are on the subject of downtown Vegas, I want to
mention quarter craps. Some of you eastern players who have
been weaned on ten buck minimum tables may sneer, but I have
had some of my best action on the quarter craps tables. For
twenty bucks, you can begin your craps education. Here, for five
bucks, you can have several bets working for you.
Casinos use checks or chips in place of cash at the craps
table. Chips come in $1, $5, $25, $100, $500 and $1,000
denominations with twenty five cent chips thrown in for the tables
which allow them. Each chip is colored differently. One dollar
chips may come in any color, or the casino may use dollar slot
tokens as chips. Five dollar chips are usually red, $25 chips, green
and $100 chips, black. Five hundred dollar chips are usually pink.
The big $1,000 chips come in various flavors. I'm sure you will
remember the color if you are playing with them.
30
Cash is not used at the table, so you must change your cash
for chips. When you first arrive at the table, you lay your cash on
the table and ask the dealer for change. Watch the table before
you barge in. Wait until the shooter has thrown the dice. It is
extremely bad dice etiquette to have the dice bounce off your arm.
Do not hand the cash to the dealer, place it on the table
when the dice are not rolling. If you want a certain number of
chips of different denominations just ask the dealer.
The dealer will hand your cash to the boxman who will
count it, drop it into a slot in the table where it falls into the
dropbox, and tell the dealer the amount of chips to give you. The
dealer will place the chips in front of you, and it is your job to pick
up the chips and get them off the table. Your chips may be kept in
the rail in front of you on the top of the sidewall of the table.
When you have finished playing, you must take your chips
to the casino cashier to convert them to cash. The craps table only
takes cash for chips, not vice versa.
With your chips in the rail in front of you, you are now
ready to begin playing. I recommend that you keep one hand over
your chips. Some thieves like to snatch chips from careless
players and you should keep you eye on your chips.
Unless you are the only player at the table, the craps game
will be in progress when you arrive. The game consists of a series
of mini-games. A player who rolls the dice is called the shooter.
This player will roll the dice on one or more Come Out rolls until
a point number of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 is rolled. After a point
31
number is rolled, the shooter will continue to roll the dice until one
of two things occurs. If a 7 is rolled before the point number, the
shooter has sevened out and a new shooter will try his or her hand
at making a point. If the point number is rolled before a 7, the
shooter has made the point and has the opportunity to shoot again.
Each mini-game consists of the shooter establishing a point
and then rolling the dice in an attempt to repeat the point number.
Of course, in Bank Craps, a lot of wagers can be made in between.
After a shooter fails to make his point and sevens out, the
dice will be offered by the stickman to the next player. The dice
rotate around the table in a clockwise fashion, with each player, in
turn, being offered a chance to roll the dice. The only requirement
to shoot the dice is for the shooter to make a Line bet, that is a bet
on the Pass Line or Don't Pass Line.
Any person who does not wish to shoot the dice may refuse
when the dice are offered. There is no stigma to not shooting the
dice and many players do not shoot as a rule. Usually the players
who are betting against the other shooters (Wrong bettors in craps
parlance) by making such wagers as Don't Pass and Don't Come
bets, will refuse to shoot.
A marker or "buck" is used on the table to indicate whether
a shooter is in the "coming out" phase of the game or whether he is
trying to roll an established point. When the player is coming out,
the marker or buck rests in the Don't Come betting area, with the
black side marked "Off" showing. After a point is established, the
buck will rest on the backside of the point box for the shooter's
point, with the white side marked "On" showing.
32
It is important to know which phase the game is in before
betting. Some bets are made only before the Come Out roll, other
bets may be made at any time during the game, while still others
are made only after a point is established.
One more word of advice before moving into the intricacies
of the game. Keep track of your own bets. Dealers track
individual bets by positioning the chips in each betting area to
correspond with the position of the player at the table. By
observing where your chips are placed by the dealer you can tell
exactly which bets are yours. When the table action is heavy it is
not uncommon for a dealer to miss paying off a winning bet, or to
place your winning chips in front of another player. It is your
responsibility to watch your own bets and know when they win or
lose so that you won't reach for another player's winnings or let
another player pick up your winnings.
Whenever you win a bet, remember to pick up the chips
promptly. Chips left on the table will probably be considered to
be a wager and if you forget to pick up your winnings, you will
probably be making another wager whether you intended to or not.
Many players act like the dealers are the enemy at the craps
table. They're not. Most are decent people working at a thankless
job where obnoxious players are the rule rather than the exception.
There are a few dealers with an "attitude." When I
encounter one of these people, I just change tables. Life is too
short and all that. But most dealers are competent, efficient and
friendly if you give them half a chance. A good dealer will
remind you to take odds or to make some bet that you normally
33
make. Most dealers are rooting for you to win. A dealer's salary
is very low, and dealers depend on tips or tokes to make a decent
living. When you are at a table with friendly, helpful dealers, you
should plan on toking them.
Many players toke dealers by tossing a couple of chips for
the boys on the hard way bets. These are long shot bets which pay
either 8 for 1 (Hard 4 and 10) or 10 for 1 (Hard 6 and 8). Most
dealers appreciate a bet made on their behalf on a wager with a
better chance of winning. If you are wagering on the Pass Line,
you should make an occasional Pass Line wager "for the boys."
When you make a wager for the dealers, tell your dealer that the
bet is for the dealers. He will tell the boxman, and if the wager
wins, you will have toked the dealers. You will notice that when
you make a dealer bet which wins, a dealer will place the winnings
in his breast pocket.
It is not necessary to tip the dealers if you are losing. They
will understand. If you are winning, they appreciate the
occasional tip. It is better to tip the dealers while you are playing
rather than tipping as you prepare to leave. When the dealers
know that you are not a stiff, their normally good service becomes
even better.
I have had many occasions when I have been overpaid by
dealers whom I was regularly tipping. I have also had losing bets
ignored and left up. If a dealer overpays you should never call
attention to it. I have felt in many occasions that the dealers were
repaying me for my tipping, with an unspoken agreement between
us.
34
Even if you are not rewarded by overpaid bets, the
atmosphere at the craps table will improve once you are perceived
to be a tipper, and you will enjoy the game more. What's more, all
of the casino personnel will respect you as a class gambler who
knows the rules and respects and appreciates the hard work the
dealers perform.
35
Seven is King
All of the possible payoffs in craps are determined by the
combinations possible with two six-sided dice.
Each die is imprinted with from one to six dots so that the
lowest number which can be rolled with two dice is a 2 (1-1) and
the highest number, 12 (6-6). Together, a total of thirty-six
combinations are possible ranging from 2 to 12.
Casino dice are different from the ordinary dice sold with
most games. The casino dice measure about 3/4 of an inch in
diameter and are precisely made so that each side is the same size
as every other side. They are made of clear transparent plastic and
usually colored red.
Each die has a code number imprinted on it corresponding
to a numbering scheme used by the casino where the dice are used.
The code numbers of the six to eight dice used at a craps table are
noted by the boxman, so that no other dice resembling the official
dice may be introduced into the game by dice cheats.
36
The combinations of numbers possible with a pair of six-
sided dice are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 for eleven
numbers. Not all of these combinations are equally likely to
appear. The differences in the likelihood of different
combinations appearing form the basis for all payoffs and
probabilities in craps.
The most common number is 7. There are more ways that
a 7 can be rolled than any other number. If you examine a die,
you will notice that the totals of any two opposite sides always
total 7.
A 7 can be made no matter what number is on one die, for a
7 can be made with either a 1 or a 6 showing on one die, which no
other number can do. For instance, a 6 cannot be rolled if a 6 is
showing on one die, and an 8 is not possible with a 1 showing.
The key number in dice is 7, and it determines most of the odds of
the game because of its unique status determining winners and
losers, on both come out rolls and against established points.
The following table shows the various ways that dice can
be rolled:
37
TABLE 2. COMBINATIONS OF DICE
Number Combinations
Ways
Number Can
be Made
2 1-1 1
3 1-2, 2-1 2
4 1-3, 3-1, 2-2 3
5 1-4, 4-1, 2-3, 3-2 4
6 1-5, 5-1, 2-4, 4-2, 3-3 5
7 1-6, 6-1, 2-5, 5-2, 3-4, 4-3 6
8 2-6, 6-2, 3-5, 5-3, 4-4 5
9 3-6, 6-3, 4-5, 5-4 4
10 4-6, 6-4, 5-5 3
11 5-6, 6-5 2
12 6-6 1
Total 36
All point numbers are measured against the possibility of a
7 being rolled in determining the correct odds against rolling a
point number before a 7 is rolled.
The point numbers are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. If any of these
numbers are wagered on, either through Pass Line wagers, Come
bets, Buy bets or Place bets, the odds are always against that
number being rolled before a 7 is rolled.
38
The advantage the 7 has over any point number is
overwhelming. Table 3 shows the odds against rolling any point
or box number before a 7 shows. These odds are determined from
Table 2, where the number of ways a number can be made are
compared for each number versus the six ways a 7 can be made.
TABLE 3. ODDS OF ROLLING
A 7 VERSUS POINT NUMBERS
Point
Number
Ways to
Roll Point
Number
Odds
Against
Point
Number
4 3 2-1
5 4 3-2
6 5 6-5
8 5 6-5
9 4 3-2
10 3 2-1
In addition to the point numbers, there are other numbers of
2, 3, 7, 11 and 12 on which wagers are made. One-roll bets can be
made on any of these numbers. With these bets, the player is
wagering that the number will appear on the next roll of the dice.
Table 4 shows the correct odds against any of these numbers
being rolled on the very next roll.
39
TABLE 4. PROBABILITIES OF
2, 3, 7, 11 OR 12
BEING MADE ON NEXT ROLL
Number Ways to Roll
Odds Against
on Next Roll
2 1 35-1
3 2 17-1
7 6 6-1
11 2 17-1
12 1 35-1
In my approach to craps, you will not make the one roll
bets. The casino does not pay these long shot bets at high enough
odds to make any of them worthwhile.
The wagers we like are the ones where the odds are in our
favor to win. Take another look at Table 3. Do you see any
numbers which have an advantage of being rolled over a 7 being
rolled? The 6 and 8 come close, but even these numbers are
16.67% less likely to be rolled than a 7. An obvious strategy for
beating craps would hinge on putting the 7 to work for us. There
are wagers available in the game where the casino will pay us 1 to
1 for a win where the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor.
40
Look at the probabilities of a 4 or 10 showing before a 7 is
rolled. If we wager that a 7 will show before either a 4 or 10, we
have a 2 to 1 bet in our favor. And if the casino would pay us
even money on our wager, we'd have a stranglehold on it, wouldn't
we?
The wagers which can put the 7 to work for us are Don't
Pass and Don't Come wagers. I will explain these wagers as well
as the other major craps bets in the next chapter. Those of you
who already know the game will be quick to point out that there is
no free lunch in craps. You may agree that a bet against any point
number showing before a 7 is rolled is a good bet, but you may
point out the difficulties of getting the wager up.
In craps, the number 7 cuts two ways. On come out rolls,
Right bettors, wagering Pass Line or Come will win if a 7 is rolled,
and Wrong bettors, betting Don't Pass or Don't Come will lose if a
7 is rolled. That is the bane of Wrong betting. Once a Don't bet is
in place it has a devastating advantage over the house, but it must
run the gauntlet of the first roll.
41
But what if there was a way to take the sting out of 7s
rolled on come outs? Then the Wrong better would have the
casino by the throat, wouldn't he? You'll have to wait a chapter
before we expand these concepts into a workable system. The
next chapter discusses the various wagers available at craps. If
you already know the game, you may want to skip this chapter.
For novices, I recommend reading it, just so you don't miss any of
the good stuff that follows.
42
The Bets
I am going to briefly review the bets available at Bank
Craps. This is not intended to be an in depth discussion of all
craps bets. The Super Craps strategy does not employ all craps
bets. If you want to learn more about every craps bet, as well as
craps betting strategies, I suggest the book, How to Play Craps
Like a Pro, available from Silverthorne Publications.
Pass Line Bets
Pass Line bets, also called front line, or Do bets are the
basic bets made by Right bettors, those bettors who are betting that
the shooter will make his point.
The bets are made by placing chips in the long narrow
space on the craps layout marked Pass Line in this country, or Win
Line in some games outside the United States. The house pays the
wager at even money (1 to 1) and enjoys a percentage advantage
of 1.414% over the wager. It is the most common bet at craps.
A Pass Line bet is made before a Come-Out roll. Come-
Out rolls occur during three different circumstances:
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1. When a new shooter is starting.
2. After a natural (a 7 or 11) or a craps (a 2, 3 or 12) is
rolled on a Come-Out.
3. After a shooter has made a point and is rolling the dice
to establish another point.
A Pass Line wager wins on a Come-Out if a 7 or 11 is
rolled, and loses if a craps number of 2, 3 or 12 appears. If any
other number is rolled (a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10), that number becomes
the shooter's point. If the shooter repeats the point number before
a 7 is rolled, the Pass Line wager wins. If a 7 shows before the
shooter is able to repeat the point number, the Pass Line wager
loses.
Don't Pass Bets
Don't Pass wagers, also called back line or Don't bets are
the basic bets made by Wrong bettors, those bettors who are
betting that a 7 will be rolled before the shooter makes his point
number.
The bets are made by placing chips in the area marked
Don't Pass or Don't Win. In a private craps game, the wager gives
the player a favorable percentage of 1.414%. In Bank Craps, the
casino bars either the two sixes or two aces on the come-out roll.
When the barred combination appears on that roll, it is a standoff,
44
there is no action for the wrong bettor. With either the 2 or 12 win
barred, the Don't Pass wager gives the house an edge of 1.402%.
The wager pays even money, that is, 1 to 1 for a win. Don't
Pass wagers are much less common that Pass Line bets. At a
typical craps table, you will see one or two Wrong bettors, with
the remaining players making Pass Line bets.
A Don't Pass wager wins on a Come-Out roll if a 2 or 3 is
rolled if the 12 is barred or on a 3 or 12 if the 2 is barred. If the
casino bars the 3, don't play there, they are taking advantage of
you. If a 7 or 11 is rolled on a Come-Out, the bet loses. If any
other number is rolled (4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10), that number becomes
the shooter's point. If the shooter rolls a 7 before repeating the
point number, the wager wins. If the shooter repeats the point
number before a 7 is rolled, the bet loses.
A Don't Pass wager is at its greatest disadvantage on the
Come-Out roll. There are 8 ways in which a 7 or 11 can be rolled
for a loss, and only 3 ways a 2 or 3 can be rolled for a win. Thus,
on a Come-Out roll, the Don't bettor faces 8 chances of losing
versus 3 opportunities of winning.
Come and Don't Come Bets
The difference between a Come bet and a Pass Line wager
is only in the timing of the bets. Pass Line wagers are made on a
Come-Out roll before a shooter has established a point. Come
bets are made after a point has been established.
45
Come bets win or lose exactly like Pass Line wagers. If a
natural of 7 or 11 shows on the first roll of a Come bet, the bet
wins. If a craps number is rolled on the first roll, the bet loses. If
any other number appears, that becomes the point number for that
Come bet.
Likewise, a Don't Come bet differs from a Don't Pass bet
only in its timing. Don't Pass wagers are made before a shooter's
Come-Out roll, while Don't Come bets are made after a point is
established.
Come bets and Don't come bets are made by placing chips
in the areas of the craps layout marked Come and Don't Come
respectively. After a point has been established for that wager, the
dealer will move a Come bet inside the front part of the box for the
come number. When a point is established for a Don't Come
wager, the dealer will move the wager to the back part of the box
for the particular number.
The bets pay even money for wins. Pass Line and Come
bets must be left up once made, as these wagers enjoy a temporary
advantage on Come-Out rolls, and the house will not allow you to
make these wagers only on Come-Outs. Once you make the bet,
you are stuck with waiting to see if the shooter can repeat the
number.
Don't Pass and Don't Come wagers may be pulled after
Come-Out rolls, as the player has the house at an overwhelming
disadvantage once the bets are up. Anyone who pulls a Don't Pass
or Don't Come wager after it is established, is making the single
most foolish move in craps.
46
Odds Bets
Odds bets are the only wagers in craps where the house has
no advantage over the player. But there's a catch. The odds
wagers can only be made in conjunction with Pass Line and Come
bets for Right bettors or with Don't Pass or Don't Come bets for
Wrong bettors.
Because the Odds bet must be coupled with another wager,
the Odds bet only reduces the house advantage over a particular
wager. Remember, there is no free lunch in craps.
With Pass Line and Come bets, as well as Don't Pass and
Don't Come bets, the odds are taken only after a point is
established. The house will define the size of the odds bets which
may be taken by allowing single odds, double odds, five times
odds or some such multiple. These multiples define how large the
odds bets may be in relation to the original wagers.
For Pass Line wagers, odds bets are made by placing the
chips representing the wager directly behind the Pass Line wager.
For Don't Pass wagers, the chips are placed next to the Don't Pass
bet in the Don't Pass betting area. With Come and Don't Come
bets, where the dealer has placed the wagers in Point Number
Boxes, you will have to have the dealer make the wagers by
placing the chips to be used for the Odds bet on the table and
telling the standing dealer what you want.
47
Odds bets may be pulled down at any time, at the player's
discretion. If the odds are taken or laid in conjunction with a
Come or Don't Come wager, you will have to have the dealer's
assistance. Odds bet taken are automatically off on Come-Out
rolls unless you instruct the dealer otherwise. Odds laid are
always working unless you take them down or tell the dealers that
your odds bets are off.
Odds bets pay in exactly the same proportion to the point
number as the number's chance of being made as compared to a 7
being rolled first.
The following are the odds payoffs for odds taken on Pass
Line or Come bets:
Number Odds Payoff
4 or 10 2 to 1
5 or 9 3 to 2
6 or 8 6 to 5
These payoffs are determined mathematically by
comparing the number of ways a number can be made as
compared to the number of ways a 7 can be rolled. Since there are
only three ways a 4 or 10 can be made, compared to six ways a 7
can be rolled, the odds of rolling a 4 or 10 before a 7 is 6 to 3,
which reduces to 2 to 1. With four ways of rolling a 5 or 9,
compared to six ways of rolling a 7, the odds are 6 to 4 or 3 to 2.
With five ways of making a 6 or 8, the odds of rolling either of
these numbers before a 7 are 6 to 5.
48
When single odds are taken, the wagers should conform to
the following rules:
1. Odds taken on 4 or 10 are always the same or less than the Pass
Line wager. If $5 is wagered on the Pass Line, with 10 as the
point, the odds wager will be $5 or less.
2. Odds taken on 5 or 9 are always for an even amount. If $5 is
wagered on the Pass Line, with 5 as the point, the odds wager
should be for $4 or $6, so that the wager, which pays off at 3 to 2
may be paid off correctly.
3. Odds taken on 6 or 8 are always in increments of five units
dependent on the betting unit the player is using. A $3 Pass Line
wager, with 6 or 8 as the point, may take $5 odds. A $15 Pass
Line wager may take $25 for odds ($5 is the basic betting here)
when 6 or 8 is the point. A $75 Pass Line wager may have $125
taken as odds with a point of 6 or 8. In general, casinos offering
single odds allow players with three unit wagers to round the odds
portion of the bet up to the nearest five units, when the point is 6
or 8.
For example, assume you make a $5 Pass Line wager and
the shooter's point is 5. If you take $6 for odds, you total wager
will be for $11, consisting of a $5 Pass Line wager, and $6 in
Odds. If the shooter repeats the point number before a 7 is rolled,
you will be paid $14 in winnings, consisting of $5 for the even
money Pass Line bet, and $9 on the $6 Odds wager. Of course,
your original wager of $11 will be returned, so you will receive a
total of $25 for the $11 wager.
49
With Wrong bets, Odds must be laid rather than taken.
Since the 7 is more likely to be rolled than any point number, the
player must lay more odds than the payoff for a winning wager.
Odds are laid as follows:
Number Odds Payoff
4 or 10 1 to 2
5 or 9 2 to 3
6 or 8 5 to 6
Odds should be laid so that the correct payoffs can be
made. When single odds are laid, the wagers should follow the
following rules:
1. Odds laid against a 4 or 10 can be as much as double the size of
the original wager. If $5 is wagered on Don't Pass, odds of $10 or
some lesser even amount may be laid.
2. Odds laid against a 5 or 9 should be divisible by three. Here
you will lay three units to win two. With a $5 Don't Pass wager,
odds of $9, $6 or $3 can be laid.
3. Odds laid against a 6 or 8 should be divisible by six. Here you
will lay six units to win five. With a $5 Don't Pass wager, odds of
$6 can be laid to win $5. With a $3 Don't Pass wager, the house
will still allow you to lay $6 odds. With a $15 Don't wager, you
may lay $30 to win $25.
50
Place Bets
Place bets are some of the most popular bets in Bank
Craps. The point numbers can be played by making Pass Line
wagers, which give the player the opportunity to bet on one
number, Come bets which allow the player to wager on multiple
numbers and Place bets which also allow the player to bet on
multiple box or point numbers.
Place bets are made by placing the chips on the table,
usually in the Come betting area, and telling the dealer the
numbers you will to "Place."
Place bets differ from Come bets in a number of ways.
They win or lose in basically the same way: the number on which
you have wagered must show before a 7 is made. The differences
between Come and Place bets are:
1. For a Come bet to win the number must be repeated. A Come
bet which has 6 as a point can only win if the 6 is repeated before
a 7. With Place bets, a 6 needs to made only one time for the bet
to win.
2. Come bets are always working, even on Come-Out rolls. Place
bets are automatically off on Come-Outs unless the player
stipulates otherwise.
3. Place bets may be pulled at any time by the player. Come bets
must stay in place until they are either won or lost.
51
The flexibility of Place bets attracts many players. Place
bets may be made and pulled after a couple of wins. With Come
bets, once the bet is established, the player must wait for a
decision. Many times a hot shooter will make his point and then
roll a 7 on a Come-Out roll. The Place bets are safe as they are off
on the roll, but the Come bets will all go down with the
appearance of a 7. The Come bettor must start all over in
establishing his bets, while the Place bettor will have his bets in
place with the first roll after the Come-Out.
Place bets pay off at less than true odds. Table Five shows
the correct odds for payoff on the point numbers, the Place bet
payoffs, and the house edge on each wager.
TABLE 5. PLACE BET ODDS AND PAYOFFS
Place Number
Correct Odds
Versus a 7
Casino Payoff
on Place Bet
Casino
Advantage
4 or 10 2 to 1 9 to 5 6.67%
5 or 9 3 to 2 7 to 5 4.00%
6 or 8 6 to 5 7 to 6 1.51%
Place bets should always be made in multiples of five units
for bets on 4, 5, 9 or 10, and six units on wagers made on 6 or 8.
In quarter craps, where a twenty five cent chip is the basic chip,
the minimum Place bets are $1.25 (five chips) on 4, 5, 9 or 10, and
$1.50 (six chips) on 6 or 8.
52
Buy Bets
Point numbers may also be bought. Buy bets pay off at
correct odds, but you must pay the casino an amount equal to five
percent of the wager in order to receive true odds. The effect of
this commission paid to the casino is to give the house an edge of
4.76% over a Buy bet. Because the house vig is larger than any of
the Place bets, except for the 4 and 10, only the 4 and 10 should
ever be bought.
If your Place bet on 4 or 10 is larger than twenty units on
one number, or ten units each, if both the 4 and 10 are place, you
should Buy the numbers rather than placing them. With a $20
wager on one or both numbers, the casino will charge you a $1 vig
for the privilege of buying the numbers. A $20 Place bet on the 10
will pay off $36, while a Buy bet on the same number will pay off
$40, less the $1 commission, for a net $39. So long as your
combined wager on the 4 or 10 is at least twenty units (which is
five bucks at twenty five cent craps), the Buy bet is a better deal
than the Place bet.
Lay Bets
The Lay Bet is the opposite of a Buy Bet, and is used by
Wrong bettors who are wagering that a 7 will show before the
number laid against. Lay Bets are paid off at correct odds, but the
bettor must pay the house a commission on the projected win to
get this payoff.
53
Lay bets may be made at any time and normally work on
Come-Out rolls unless called off. They are made by placing your
chips on the table, along with the required commission and telling
the dealer what you want to do. The dealer will place the bet in
the back part of the box for that number where the Don't Come
bets are placed.
Because of the five percent commission paid on possible
winnings, it is necessary to lay enough so that the possible win is
at least $20. On the 4 or 10, $40 would be the minimum lay bet,
as a win, paid at 1 to 2, would pay $20. On a 5 or 9, you would
lay $30 to win $20 (paid at 2 to 3), and on a 6 or 8, you will lay
$24 to win $20 (paid at 5 to 6).
Lay bets may be added to, reduced or removed at any time.
Big 6 and 8 Bets
Big 6 and Big 8 bets are prominently marked on the craps
layout. These bets can be made at any time. Like the Place bets,
with these wagers you are betting that the number you bet on,
either 6 or 8 or both, will repeat before a 7 shows on the dice. If it
doesn't show before a 7, you lose your bet. If a 6 or 8 (whatever
you bet on) is rolled before a 7, you win your bet.
These wagers usually pay off at even money. With an even
money payoff, instead of the correct odds of 6 to 5, the wager
gives the house a 9.09% advantage. In Atlantic City casinos, the
bet pays off at 7 to 6, the same as Placing the 6 or 8.
54
Some players play the Big 6 and Big 8 at $1 or $2
minimum tables and wager less than the $6 required to make a
Place bet on 6 or 8.
My advice is to never make these bets, except where the
wagers are paid off the same as Place bets. If you are short of
bankroll and want to bet on the 6 and 8, you should find a twenty
five-cent craps table, where the 6 and 8 can be placed for $1.50
each.
Field Bets
Field Bets are one-roll bets that one of the numbers shown
in the field, 2, 3, 4, 9, 11 or 12 will show on the next roll. Seven
out of the possible eleven dice numbers are in the field, which
makes the wager look like a good one to many players.
The Field Bet is paid off slightly differently in downtown
Las Vegas and in Northern Nevada. In downtown Las Vegas, the
casinos pay off a 2 at 2 to 1 and a 12 at 3 to 1. In Northern
Nevada, some casinos pay a 2 at 3 to 1 and a 12 at 2 to 1. In either
case, field numbers other than 2 or 12 are paid at even money.
With either the 2 or 12 paid at 3 to 1, the house edge is 2.77%.
Most casinos pay 2 to 1 on either a 2 or 12, and even
money on any other field number. With these payoffs, the house
advantage is 5.56%.
In either case, the house edge is too high for Field Bets to
offer much interest to those who want to win at Craps.
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Proposition Bets
We now come to the center of the table, where bets are
placed and paid off by the stickman. There are a number of bets
available, none of which are worthwhile. In order to complete our
review of craps wagers, I'll cover them.
Hard way Bets
A Hard way Bet is a bet on one of the even numbered point
numbers of 4, 6, 8 or 10 that the number will be rolled as a pair,
before either a 7 or the number rolled any other way shows. For
example, if you bet the Hard 6, you are wagering the a 6 will be
rolled as a 3-3 (a pair) before it is rolled as a 1-5, 5-1, 4-2, 2-4, or
before a 7 is rolled. Rolling a number as a pair is referred to as the
"hard way." If the number is rolled any other way, it is referred to
as the "easy way."
Hard way bets can be made any time and stay up until they
either win or lose. They may be called off on Come-Out rolls.
Casinos usually pay 9 to 1 (usually shown as 10 for 1,
which is the same payoff) on the Hard 6 or 8, and 7 to 1 (8 for 1)
for the Hard 4 or 10. With Hardway wagers on 6 or 8, the house
edge is 9.09%. Hardway bets on the 4 or 10 give the house an
11.11% edge.
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Any Seven
This is a one roll bet which pays off at 4 to 1 (5 for 1) if a 7
shows on the next roll. Since the correct odds of a 7 being rolled
are 5 to 1, this wager gives the house an edge of 16.67%.
Any Craps
The Any Craps wager is a one roll bet that a craps number
of 2, 3 or 12 will show on the next roll. The bet is paid off at 7 to
1 (8 for 1). Since craps numbers can be rolled only four ways out
of thirty six, the true odds on rolling a craps number are 8 to 1.
The lower payoff gives the casino an advantage of 11.1%
Betting the 2, 3, 11 or 12
These are all one roll bets which win or lose depending on
the whether the number bet on appears on the next roll of the dice.
The 2 or 12 can be rolled only one way, and the odds
against rolling either of these numbers on the next roll are 35 to 1.
The casinos usually pay these wagers at 29 to 1 (30 for 1), for a
house edge of 16.67%.
The 3 or 11 can be rolled two ways each, and the correct
odds against rolling either number on the next dice roll is 17 to 1.
With typical payoffs of 14 to 1 (15 for 1), the house edge is
16.67%.
The house loves the action on any of these bets with the
sucker like odds in favor of the casino.
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Horn Bets
With this wager, the 2, 3, 11 and 12 are covered with one
bet. At least four chips must be used for the wager. If any of
these numbers show on the next roll, the casino will pay the usual
payoff for that number, and keep the three losing chips.
Hop Bets
Hop bets are not shown on the craps layout. They are bets
that a particular number or a particular dice combination will show
on the next roll. Numbers with one way of showing, such as a 3-3
or a 5-5, are paid at 30 to 1 (correct odds are 35 to 1). Wagers on
numbers which can be made two ways, such as 5-4 or 2-3 are paid
at 15 to 1, where the correct odds are 17 to 1.
Table 6 shows the correct odds on all craps bets.
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TABLE 6. CRAPS BETS, PAYOFFS
AND CASINO ADVANTAGE
Bet Casino Payoff
Casino
Advantage
Pass Line 1 to 1 1.41%
Come 1 to 1 1.41%
Don't Pass 1 to 1 1.40%
Don't Come 1 to 1 1.40%
Taking Odds
Pass or Come
4 or 10 2 to 1 none
5 or 9 3 to 2 none
6 or 8 6 to 5 none
Laying Odds
Don't Pass or
Don't Come
4 or 10 1 to 2 none
5 or 9 2 to 3 none
6 or 8 5 to 6 none
Place Bets
4 or 10 9 to 5 6.67%
5 or 9 7 to 5 4.00%
6 or 8 7 to 6 1.52%
Buy Bets
4 or 10 2 to 1 4.76%
59
Lay Bets
4 or 10 1 to 2 2.44%
5 or 9 2 to 3 3.23%
6 or 8 5 to 6 4.00%
Big Six and Big
Eight
1 to 1
6 to 5 (Atlantic
City)
9.09%
1.52%
Field
With 2 and 12
paying 2 to 1
With 2 or 12
paying 3-1
1 to 1 except 2
and 12
1 to 1 except 2
and 12
5.55%
2.77%
Hard ways
4 or 10 7-1 11.11%
6 or 8 9-1 9.09%
Any Craps 7-1 11.11%
2 or 12 29-1 16.67%
11 or 12 15-1 16.67%
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Winning with the Seven
There is no question that the seven dominates the game of
craps. It cuts both ways, that is, causes wins and loses, for both
Right and Wrong bettors.
Right bettors, who bet with the shooter by wagering Pass
Line or Come, enjoy a temporary advantage over Wrong bettors,
but only on the Come-Out roll. On Come-Out rolls, there are
eight ways a right bet can win, and only four ways it can lose. A 7
or 11, which can show eight ways on a pair of dice, are instant
winners on a Come-Out for the Right bettor. The craps numbers
of 2, 3 and 12 can only show four ways, giving the Pass Line or
Come bet an 8 to 4 or 2 to 1 advantage on Come-Outs. The other
twenty four possible combinations out of the thirty six possible
dice combinations, represent point numbers.
After a point has been established, it is all downhill for the
Right bettor. Because of the dominance of 7 in craps, the least
disadvantage for a Right bettor is with a point number of 6 or 8.
Here the Right bettor is at a disadvantage of 16.67% to the house,
the same as some of the lousy proposition bets. With a point of 5
or 9, the player's disadvantage is 33%, and facing a point of 4 or
10, the house holds a 50% advantage over the Right bettor.
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The only things which keep a Right bettor in the game are
strings of Come Out wins, which occur occasionally, and the
occasional hot roll. Otherwise, the plight of the Right bettor is
grim. He faces overwhelming odds against a point number being
repeated before a 7 shows.
The Wrong bettor has his own set of problems. He has an
additional obstacle to overcome on Come-Out rolls. Betting Don't
Pass or Don't Come, the player faces eight ways of losing on
Come-Outs and only three ways of winning. If a 7 or 11 shows he
will lose the bet. These numbers can appear in eight ways. He
will win only if a 2 or 3 (in Northern Nevada a 3 or 12) shows.
And a 2 or 3 only have three combinations possible out of the
thirty six dice combinations. Once the Come-Out has been
passed, the odds swing overwhelmingly in favor of the Wrong
bettor. But strings of Come-Out loses can beat the Wrong bettor
badly as can the occasional hot shooter who continues to make
points and roll lots of point numbers in between.
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In either case, the number 7 does its damage on the player.
The Right bettor is blessed by the 7 on Come-Outs, but cursed by
it after a point is established. The Wrong bettor is cursed up front,
but once he survives a Come-Out roll, the 7 is his friend.
To further complicate the plight of the craps player, my
studies of casino games have shown that craps is choppier than
either Roulette or Baccarat. By that I mean that trends are shorter
and more likely to be interrupted by counter trends.
In general, a good way to approach gambling is to find a
table trending in a certain way and then to jump on the trend.
With the other table games, trends of moderate length of five to
eight decisions are fairly common. In craps, they are fairly rare.
An easy way to play Roulette, for example, is to bet that the
even- money wager which just showed will repeat. In roulette,
you could wager on red or black to repeat. You may face short
periods where red and black alternate, thus defeating the system,
but on nearly every table I have ever played, black or red will
dominate for five to eight decisions after just a few spins of the
wheel.
Likewise with Baccarat. Either the Player or the Banker
side will develop moderate trends of domination, and the simple
system of betting the previous winning side to repeat is usually a
good way to select bets.
Now we come to Craps. This game seems to go out of its
way to defeat players betting for a repeat. Pass Line wins are
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followed by Come-Out craps, thus negating the Pass Line player's
win. Wins on players sevening out, are followed by Come-Out 7s,
killing the Wrong bettors. Switching to betting for the previous
winning side to repeat is almost an exercise in frustration for craps
players. Most players just choose one side or the other and
continue to bet until the casino grinds them down.
The reason for the excessive choppiness of Craps is the
dual role played by the 7 and the changing ways of winning and
losing on Come-Out rolls as compared to other rolls. The same
numbers can appear in Craps and have totally different outcomes
for Right and Wrong bettors, depending on the order in which the
numbers are rolled. With Roulette or Baccarat, order has no
meaning. If Black appears four times out of five spins, then the
player betting Black will win on four out of five plays. If the
Player hand wins in four out of five deals, then the bettor betting
Player will win on four out of five hands.
Assume the numbers 11, 7, 6, 3 and 6 are rolled in that
order. Let's compare the wins and losses of a Pass Line wager
versus a Don't Pass wager for these numbers, assuming that we
start with Come-Out roll.
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Outcome
of Roll
Pass
Line
Outcome
Don't Pass
Outcome Explanation
11 Win Loss Come-Out roll
7 Win Loss Come-Out roll
6 Point established
3 No effect
6 Win Loss Point made
Total 3 Wins 3 Losses
Now, let's consider the same numbers being rolled, but with
the order changed. Once again, we will start with a Come-Out
roll.
Outcome
of Roll
Pass Line
Outcome
Don't Pass
Outcome Explanation
3 Loss Win Come-Out roll
6 Point established
11 No effect
7 Loss Win Seven Out
6 Point established
Total 2 Wins 2 Losses
65
The order in which the numbers are rolled makes all of the
difference. For this reason, the same numbers can be rolled with
more or less similar frequencies and produce drastically different
results for the players. Of course, 7 is the critical number for all
craps players.
My studies of the game show that 7s tend appear in short
groups, where the 7 will be rolled more frequently than its
probability of showing, interspersed by less frequent, but longer
periods where the 7 won't appear at all. These longer periods,
where 7s appear infrequently, or if they do show, it is on Come-
Out rolls, are called "hot rolls." If we average both types of
trends, we will find that a 7 will show once every six rolls, just
what we would expect.
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The Right bettor is chopped to pieces by the short groups
dominated by 7s, and hopes to recoup when the hot roll appears.
The Wrong bettor wins fairly steadily during the 7 dominated
short groups and is destroyed by the infrequent, but deadly hot
rolls.
What to do about these situations has plagued craps players
and craps experts for decades. The standard solution for the Right
bettor is to wait for a qualified shooter, that is, one who proves
himself by making a point and then repeating a point number.
Only after this qualification will the Right bettor risk money on
the shooter.
The conventional advice for the Wrong bettor is to limit
losses to two bets per shooter. If a shooter causes the loss of two
wrong bets, then a wrong bettor will back off and wait for a new
shooter.
Each of these techniques addresses the problems the two
types of players face. The Right bettor is seeking to improve his
performance by "choosing" his shooters, with some qualifications
set for a shooter. The Wrong bettor hopes to avoid the devastating
hot rolls by limiting losses to any one shooter.
After many years of play, I am convinced that the heart of
any successful winning Craps system is the ability to have the 7
working for you most of the time. I believe that players can buck
the 7 for short periods by betting Right, but that the Wrong bettors
have the advantage most of the time.
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Let's look again at the advantages a Wrong bet has after a
point is established. Table 7 compares the odds in favor of a 7
showing over any point number and the advantage of player's bets
against any of the point numbers.
TABLE 7. ODDS IN FAVOR OF ESTABLISHED
DON'T PASS AND DON'T COME WAGERS
Point
Number
Odds in
favor of 7
over Point
Number
Payoff
for Don't
Bet
Correct
Payoff
reflecting
true odds
Don't
Players'
Edge
4 or 10 2:1 1:1 1:2 50%
5 or 9 3:2 1:1 2:3 33%
6 or 8 6:5 1:1 5:6 17%
Column one shows the point numbers for each case.
Assume that you have wagered Don't Pass and the shooter
establishes a point of 4. Following the row across for points of 4
or 10, we see that the odds in favor of a 7 being rolled before a 4
are 2:1. The next column shows the payoff we will receive if a 7
shows before a 4, 1:1. The correct odds payoff for this wager are
1:2. The final column shows our advantage over the house on the
wager, in this case, 50%.
It's pretty clear that the Wrong bettor has it over the casino
sixteen ways from Sunday once his bet is established. The
problem with the Wrong betting is, and always has been, getting
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past the Come-Outs. But you would have to agree that if we could
find a way to minimize the impact of Come-Outs, then having bets
on the table with advantages from 16.67% (17% rounded) to 50%
in favor of the player would be the way to go?
I will show you how to minimize the negative impact of
both Come-Out 7s and hot rolls in the next chapter. I will show
you the strategy I use day in and day out to beat the Craps tables
using Wrong bets
69
Wrong Betting Strategy
Basic strategy
In order to maximize our potential with betting Wrong, we
will concentrate on two different types of wagers: Don't Pass and
Don't Come.
As discussed in the previous chapter, little streaks can come
up in Craps, which are just long enough to make or break a betting
strategy. By choosing to wager on both Don't Pass and Don't
Come, we gain a number of advantages over wagering exclusively
on either wager singly.
We will have only one Wrong bet on the table at a time.
Many systems advocate that many wagers be made
simultaneously. My experience has shown that many wagers just
increase your chance of losing.
With Wrong betting, the all important number is 7. Once
your wager is up and established, every time a 7 shows you will
win. To lose an established Don't Pass or Don't Come wager
requires that the shooter roll (repeat) the point number on which
the Wrong bet is wagering against before a 7 shows. With
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multiple Wrong bets, a hot shooter can knock down your wagers
one at a time, causing multiple losses from one decent roll. With
only one bet risked at a time, your risk is more limited. And if the
bets are made properly, the potential winnings are high enough to
satisfy any player.
We will start a session by buying in for the correct bankroll
and observing the first shooter. The outcome of the first shooter's
roll will determine whether we begin betting on the Don't Pass or
Don't Come.
Let's say the first shooter sevens out (rolls a 7 before
repeating his point number). We will now make our first wager on
the Don't Pass side. If the shooter had made his point, our first
wager would have been on the Don't Come side.
We will tolerate only a maximum of two consecutive losses
per side selected, in this case, Don't Pass. If our first Don't Pass
wager loses to a Come-Out 7, we will try one more bet on this
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shooter. If this Don't Pass wager also loses, we will wait and
observe the roll. If the shooter makes another point, we will begin
wagering Don't Come. If the shooter sevens out, we will resume
betting Don't Pass.
We will add another rule. We will continue to bet on either
Don't Pass or Don't Come until we lose two consecutive bets.
Assume we have a Don't Come bet up and the shooter rolls a 7.
Even though the shooter sevened out, we don't switch to betting
Don't Pass. We will stay with Don't Come wagers until we lose
two consecutive wagers.
There is one more rule we use when betting either Don't
Pass or Don't Come. If the shooter rolls our point number, causing
the loss of our bet, we will cease betting on this shooter and wait
until the shooter sevens out. This rule applies even if we are
betting Don't Come.
The rules we have covered so far are:
1. We will observe a shooter's roll whenever we first enter a
game, or after we have lost two consecutive wagers betting either
Don't Pass or Don't Come. This observation roll is called a Setup
Roll. The outcome of the shooter's series of rolls will determine
our next bet. If the shooter makes his point, we will bet Don't
Come. If the shooter sevens out, we will bet Don't Pass.
2. Once we have picked a side by observing a Setup Roll, we will
stick with that same side until we have lost two consecutive
wagers. After losing two consecutive wagers, we will skip betting
until a new Setup roll has been completed, per rule 1 above.
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3. Anytime that a point number is repeated, causing a loss of our
Don't Pass or Don't Come wager, we will cease betting on that
shooter and not begin betting again until the shooter sevens out.
4. After backing off on a shooter, per rule 3 above, we will
resume betting on the same side after the shooter sevens out, so
long as we had not previously lost two consecutive wagers.
Let's illustrate this technique with a brief example. We
walk up to a table, buy in and watch the first shooter. He makes
his point. After the Come-Out roll, we place our bet in the Don't
Come betting area. The shooter rolls a 5. Our Don't Come wager
is moved to the rear of the box for the number five by the dealer.
The shooter rolls two other numbers and then repeats the 5. Our
Don't Come bet is lost because the shooter repeated the number
we were wagering against prior to rolling a 7. Because we had a
loss from a number repeating, we cease betting on this shooter and
wait till he sevens out. Assume that he rolls a couple of more
numbers and then sevens out.
After the new shooter establishes a point, we will make a
new Don't Come bet. Even though the previous shooter sevened
out, we will stick with betting Don't Come for now, because we
have only lost one consecutive bet. We make our Don't Come bet
and a 9 is rolled. Our bet moves to the box for the number nine.
Two rolls later the shooter sevens out. The dealer pays our
winning Don't Come and places the chips in the Don't Come
betting box. We pick up our chips and wait for the next shooter to
establish a point so that we can make a Don't Come wager.
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We will continue betting Don't Come in this manner so
long as we don't lose two bets in a row. We will continue our
example. Assume that we have now won five Don't Come bets,
with only one loss. We make a new Don't Come wager. The
shooter rolls an 11. The Don't Come bet goes down. Because this
loss did not occur because of a number repeating, we immediately
make a new Don't Come wager. The shooter rolls a 4 and two
rolls later, repeats the 4, wiping out our Don't Come wager. We
have now lost two consecutive bets on this shooter, so we stop
betting. The outcome of this shooter's rolls will determine our
next wager, as with two consecutive losses, this roll becomes a
Setup Roll. The shooter rolls a few more numbers then sevens
out.
Because the shooter sevened out, we now start betting on
the Don't Pass. If the shooter had made his point, we would
resume betting on Don't Come.
Please notice what may seem like a conflict in rules. We
have one rule which says that if a shooter makes a point number,
causing the loss of our Don't Pass or Don't Come wager, we will
cease making any more bets until the shooter sevens out. We have
another rule which requires us to back off betting if we have lost
our second consecutive wager betting either Don't Come or Don't
Pass. In the previous example, we lost our second bet to a number
repeating. If this had been our first loss in the series, we would
have waited until the shooter sevened out, and made our second
Don't Come wager with a new shooter. Since we had lost our
second wager on Don't Come, we were required to observe the
remainder of the shooter's roll as a Setup Roll, and since he
sevened out, we switched to betting Don't Pass.
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While this "switching" aspect may seem confusing, it is
part of the power of this system. Most systems or betting
strategies require that the player continue to try the same betting
pattern over and over. The Super Craps system anticipates that
short term craps patterns can easily destroy the player who insists
on making only a set pattern of wagers. Rather than using a
mechanical betting pattern, we let the dice determine how we will
bet.
We may spend a whole game betting nothing but Don't
Pass. If so, we are delighted, for it means we have not lost two
consecutive wagers, or that if we did, the shooter sevened out in a
Setup Roll and we resumed betting on the Don't Pass and
eventually won.
We may switch back and forth from Don't Pass to Don't
Come several times during a game. We can't forecast what might
happen. What we do know is that the dice rolls will determine
where we should bet.
This approach to playing Craps evolved after many years of
trying every possible combination of betting. I have bet Pass Line
plus the Odds and Come Bets with Odds. If have tried hedge
betting systems, such as betting Don't Pass and Placing bets. I
have used Lay bets to hedge Don't Pass bets against Come-Out
sevens. In short, I have tried just about every possible system you
can try at Craps. And you know what? This system works the
best.
With this Super Craps wager selection strategy, you will
always play at an advantage over the house once a bet is
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established. To prevent long runs of Come-Out losses from
destroying the system, we limit our losses per shooter. To prevent
hot rolls from knocking down our wagers as number after number
are rolled, we refuse to lose more than one time to a repeating
number from a hot shooter.
Nearly every system I have ever seen is purely mechanical
and leaves you at the mercy of the Craps rolls. With this system,
the flow of the table determines your wagers.
A betting series
We will use a preset betting series for making our wagers.
While where and when we wager will be determined by the dice
rolls, we will use a set of rules for determining the size of our
wagers.
The size of your wager is determined by your bankroll. We
will have a whole chapter on this later. Needless to say, you pick
a bankroll that you are comfortable with and this bankroll governs
the size of the wagers you make. If your bankroll is $20, you
won't start out making $5 bets; this size bet is too rich for your
bankroll. Likewise, if your bankroll is $500, you won't need to
only make $1 bets.
I am going to show you the betting series I use for a $500
table stake. By table stake, I mean the amount I buy in for. My
bankroll is larger than this; however, I would never risk my entire
bankroll in one session. Don't panic if this is larger than the
amount you are comfortable with. The principles of what I am
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going to show you apply to different size bankrolls. I am merely
going to demonstrate the system using a $500 bankroll, which fits
my comfort range.
77
With a $500 buy in, I will use a series of bets as follows:
$10 $25 $50 $60 $80 $125 $150
My first wager will always be the lowest wager in the
series. When I begin playing, I always wager $10 first. If I lose
this wager, then my next wager will be for $25. If I win this
wager, I will be back to $10 again.
After any loss, you will increase the next wager to the next
highest bet in the series. If I lose a $25 wager, my next wager will
be for $50.
Any time I win a wager, my next wager will be the next
lowest wager in the series. If I win my $50 bet, my next wager is
for $25.
If I win two bets in a row, or win two out of three bets, my
next wager will be two levels down. Assume I have just lost a $50
bet. My next wager is for $60, which wins. I drop back to $50
and win again. Because I have won two bets in a row ($60
followed by $50), I drop back two bets, and my next wager is for
$10. Let's assume that after winning the $60 wager, I lost the $50
wager. I would move my bet up one level and wager $60.
Suppose the $60 wager won. I would have won two out of three
bets ($60 won, $50 lost, $60 won) and I would drop back two
levels and bet $10 for my next bet.
This betting series, or a larger or smaller one, depending on
your bankroll, will be combined with betting using our strategy for
betting Wrong.
78
Table 8 shows a typical series of Wrong bets combining the
bet selection strategy and the betting series.
TABLE 8. TYPICAL SERIES OF WAGERS USING
BET SELECTION STRATEGY AND BETTING SERIES
Bet Event Outcome
Bet Out-
come
Running
Total
1 Setup Roll 7-Out
2 DP10 7-Out Won bet +10 +10
3 DP10 Point made Lost bet -10 -
4 Observe roll 7-Out
5 DP25 Point made Lost bet -25 -25
6 Setup Roll Made point
7 DC50 7-Out Won bet +50 +25
8 DC25 7-Out Won bet +25 +50
9 DC10 Come Out 11 Lost bet -10 +40
10 DC25 Point made Lost bet -25 +15
11 Setup Roll Made point
12 DC50 Come Out 7 Lost bet -50 -35
13 DC60 7-Out Won bet +60 +25
14 DC50 7-Out Won bet +50 +75
15 DC10 7-Out Won bet +10 +85
16 DC10 7-Out Won bet +10 +95
17 DC10 7-Out Won bet +10 +105
18 DC10 7-Out Won bet +10 +115
19 DC10 Come Out 7 Lost bet -10 +105
20 DC25 7-Out Won bet +25 +130
79
We will start by observing the shooter as shown in Line 1.
Here the shooter sevens out. Because it was a Setup Roll with no
wager made, there is no effect on a bet or on our running total of
wagers.
Having observed that the previous shooter sevened out, we
select Don't Pass and make a $10 wager on Don't Pass. The next
shooter sevens out and we win our bet, as recapped on line 2.
We repeat our $10 Don't Pass wager with the next shooter
as shown on line 3. Here the shooter makes a point and we lose
our bet. Because we lost a wager by a point repeating, we wait
until the shooter sevens out before resuming wagering as shown
on line 4.
The shooter sevens out and we make a $25 Don't Pass bet,
shown on Line 5. We lose the bet. Having lost two consecutive
Don't Pass wagers, the next series of rolls between Come-Out rolls
is another Setup Roll as shown on line 6. The shooter makes his
point, so we switch to betting Don't Come.
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Line 7 shows the results of our first Don't Come wager.
We bet $50, which wins when the shooter sevens out. Following
our win, we drop back to a $25 Don't Come wager, which also
wins as shown on line 8.
We wager $10 again on Don't Come and lose when the
shooter rolls an 11 on our first Don't Come roll. We immediately
make another Don't Come wager for $25 as shown on line 10.
The shooter hits our point number, causing another loss. We have
now had two consecutive losses on the Don't Come, so we observe
another Setup Roll on line 11. The shooter makes his point, so we
resume betting Don't Come.
We wager $50 Don't Come and lose when the shooter rolls
a Come-Out 7. Since our loss was not caused by a number
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repeating, we bet again on the first roll following the new Come-
Out roll. We wager $60 and win this wager when the shooter
sevens out, as shown on line 13. Since we won a bet, our next
wager drops one level and we wager $50 Don't Come as recapped
on line 14. This wager also wins when the shooter sevens out.
Having won two bets in a row, we drop back to $10 on
Don't Come and win again as shown in line 15.
We stay at $10 Don't Come bets and win three consecutive
wagers as shown on lines 16, 17 and 18. On our next Don't Come
bet of $10, the shooter rolls a Come-Out 7 and we lose our bet.
We come back with a $25 Don't Come wager after the next
Come-Out and win, as depicted on line 20. At this point, we have
played for about twenty minutes and we decide to take a break.
Our winnings are now $130, and we decide to reward ourselves
with a stroll around the casino.
Why does this system work so well? We have
accomplished several things with it. First, we have reduced the
impact of adverse Come-Out rolls by limiting our losses to two per
betting side. If we pick Don't Pass and the shooter rolls a 7
followed by an 11 on a Come-Out roll, we will not fight the losing
trend. We will back off and wait for the next shooter.
Likewise, we limit the ability of a shooter to knock down
our Wrong bets one at a time by repeating numbers. Whenever
we lose an established Wrong bet because of a repeating number,
we wait until the shooter sevens out and then resume betting.
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Finally, the switching aspect of moving our wagers back
and forth from Don't Pass to Don't Come helps us avoid short
adverse patterns which will destroy the player who only makes a
single, fixed pattern of bets.
I know that mathematicians can argue that it makes no
different how bets are selected or how much is wagered each time.
That is the theoretical argument which concludes that no one can
ever win at Craps, at least not over the long run. Maybe I just
haven't lived long enough yet. I continue to win, on a slow steady
basis. How slow? I'll elaborate on this in the pages to come, but
suffice it to say, my winnings exceed $1,000 a day every day I
play.
There is much more to winning at Craps than a winning
system. Patience and discipline are two big ingredients. Let's
consider patience for a moment.
Craps players are notoriously impatient. Most players
won't even wait until their chips are placed in front on them when
they are buying in. They will tell the dealer, "$10 coming," or "$5
Hard 8," before the chips have even reached their hand.
For some reason, most Craps players seem to feel that
every shooter is the make or break shooter for them. They rush to
get their money out and usually get clobbered.
The idea of occasionally missing a roll is an anathema to
these players. "What if the next roll is the big one," they ask. I
say, "So what." There are hundreds of Craps tables operating
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twenty four hours a day. Missing one roll is not going to hurt
anyone and may help you.
The Super Craps bet selection approach promotes patience.
It forces the player to wait for things to change and then to jump in
and start betting. I know this will drive many players loony; they
just can't stand to wait. And I pose a question for you who feel
this way. Do you really want to win, or just keep throwing a
bunch of chips on the layout until you walk away broke?
Like it or not, the player who constantly makes Pass Line
bets, backed up by Odds and then makes two or more Come bets,
also with odds, is going to lose.
The players who constantly Place all of the box numbers,
and then press up (double) each winning wager are doomed to
failure. Yet this is the way that 90% of all players play.
And let's not forget our quiet friend down at the corner of
the table. This gentlemen only bets Don't Pass. He stands there
staring down at his chips, ignoring the screams of the Right bettors
when their bets start to win. He plays for hours grinding away at
the house and then sees his winnings dissipated with one hot
shooter.
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There has got to be a better way. And there is. You just
saw it. But I am going to add another feature. I know that
standing there observing a shooter is more than most of you can
stand. I am going to show you another way of winning while you
wait. It is a limited Right betting strategy which can be mixed
with the Wrong betting strategy we have just discussed. Stay
tuned. The next chapter will fill you in on all the exciting details!
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Right Betting Strategy
Basic strategy
Our basic strategy for Right betting, or betting with the
shooter, entails sneaking in some bets once in a while. We will
not bet Pass Line or make Come bets. The only bets we will make
are Place bets, and then only on certain point numbers, and under
certain prescribed circumstances.
Place bets have several advantages for us that make them
the only candidates suitable for our Super Craps system. First,
Place bets can be made and pulled down at any time. Pass Line
and Come bets, once made, must be kept up. You will recall that
with Pass Line and Come bets, the bettor has an advantage with
the Come-Out roll, and after a Come-Out suffers a major
disadvantage as compared to the all important 7. The best Come
or Pass Line bets are on the numbers 6 or 8, and even with these
numbers, the house holds a 16.67% edge over the wagers.
With Place bets, the house disadvantage is not as great once
the bet is established. In fact, if we restrict our Place bets to only
the 6 and 8, we find that the house's edge over these Place bets is
1.52%. The house edge on 6 or 8 Placed is comparable to the
house edge of 1.40% over Don't Pass and Don't Come bets.
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There are some other reasons we will risk money on
Placing 6 and 8 and not Pass Line or Come bets. With Pass Line
and Come bets, the shooter must roll a number twice before we get
paid. Take a Pass Line bet, for instance. If the shooter rolls a 6 on
the Come-Out, then he must roll another 6 before our Pass Line
wager wins. The shooter must roll two 6s, or any other point
number for Pass Line or Come bets to win. With a Place bet, the
shooter need roll the number only once for a win.
Another reason we like Place bets is that they are
automatically off on Come-Out rolls. Many Right bettors will
laboriously make Come bets and even a shooter who has made a
point will wipe out all of the Come bets on a new Come-Out roll.
There is no way to protect these wagers, as the casino will not
allow these bets to be called off on Come-Outs. With Place bets,
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there is no such problem. Place bets are always off on Come-
Outs, so that we don't have to worry about Come-Out 7s wiping
out our wagers.
A final reason we like Place bets, and especially the 6 and
8, is that we are paid more than even money when we win. A
Place bet on 6 or 8 pays 7 to 6, while a Pass Line or Come bet on
the same numbers only pays 1 to 1. I know that you can take
Odds with Pass and Come bets. I know that Odds wagers
theoretically reduce the house advantage. But underline that word
reduce. Let's compare the payoffs of a Place bet and a Pass Line
or Come bet with Single Odds on a point of 6 or 8.
Place Bet on 6 or 8 Payoff:
Bet Payoff Payoff/Bet
$6 $7 116.67%
For every dollar wagered on a 6 or 8, the house will return
$1.1667 for a win.
Now let's look at a Pass Line or Come bet with Single Odds
on the same numbers:
Pass Line or Come Bet with Single Odds on 6 or 8:
Pass or
Come
Bet
Single
Odds
Bet
Total
Wagered
Total
Payoff
Payoff
/Total Bet
$5 $5 $10 $11 1.10%
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You might argue that I'm being unfair to Pass Line and
Come bets because you always take Double Odds with your
wagers. Okay, let's look at how Pass Line and Come bets with
Double Odds pay. And to make it interesting, we'll throw in these
wagers with ten times odds (some Craps tables now offer ten times
odds).
As shown below, with Double Odds, a Pass Line or Come
bet returns 1.13% of the amount wagered. With ten times odds,
we get $1.18 back for each dollar wagered. So you have me here.
If you are willing to wager ten times odds, you will receive a
slightly better payoff betting Pass Line or Come when the point is
6 or 8.
Pass Line or Come Bet with Double Odds and Ten Times
Odds on 6 or 8:
Pass
or
Come
Bet
Odds
Bet
Total
Wagered
Total
Payoff
Payoff
/Total Bet
Single
Odds
$5 $10 $15 $17 1.10%
10x
Odds
$5 $50 $55 $65 1.18%
Before you get too smug, thinking your Pass Line or Come
Bets with ten times odds will outperform my Place bets, let my
pose a couple of questions? How will you make sure that your
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Pass Line and Come bets only have 6 or 8 for points? And, how
will you pull your bets off on Come-Out rolls?
All things considered, Place bets are the way to go if you
want to only occasionally make wagers on point numbers, if you
want to make sure that your wagers are only on the point numbers
of 6 or 8, and you want to be paid off at a higher rate. And, of
course, only with Place bets can you put your bets up and take
them down at will.
When to Place the 6 and 8
Now we come to the all important question of when we
make our Place bets. I am not about to change my philosophy
about Right bettors. Most Right bettors lose fairly steadily
throughout the course of a game of Craps and then make what
money they make during a hot dice roll.
If we could jump in when the dice were hot and by that I
mean the shooter is rolling number after number without rolling 7s
then we might have a fighting chance of making some money
betting Right.
Many so called Craps experts advise players "to pick their
spots" at the Craps tables. Earlier I touched on the "Qualified
Shooter" theory, where a Right bettor waits until a point is made
and then bets with the shooter on the rolls following the point
being made.
Other experts advise to watch the enthusiasm level of the
tables. If the players are enthusiastic, then bet Right.
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I haven't found either one of these theories to be very good
at helping me decide when to "jump in" a Craps game. The
qualified shooter theory works very sporadically and is not a good
guide of when to bet Right. The enthusiasm of the table theory is
laughable. I have seen tables where the shooter makes number
after number and no one says a peep. Other tables will explode if
the shooter rolls one Come-Out 7. You can't rely on the emotions
of Craps players to judge a table.
So what do you use? After investing a lot of time and
money, I have found one dependable time to bet Right, and only
by Placing the 6 and 8. I will wait until a shooter has rolled four
rolls without a 7. That's it. Just four rolls.
Sounds like you will making Place bets all of the time,
huh? Only four rolls? Yep. You won't be betting that often.
Most shooters do not roll the dice four times without a 7 showing.
The majority of shooters roll only three or fewer rolls after a
Come-Out roll before a 7 shows. Why do you think I like Wrong
betting so much?
But when a shooter rolls four numbers, the odds increase
slightly that he or she will roll a few more numbers before
sevening out. How do I know this? Well, there is no
mathematical theory to support it. Dice have no memory as they
say, and every dice roll is an independent trial. So runs make no
difference, right?
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Hogwash. I have developed this theory the hard way, at the
dice tables. And I will throw in a little theory for those of you
who like to know why you do something.
Remember I stated that most shooters won't roll more than
three rolls before a 7 shows. Well, a 7 will come up on the
average once every six rolls in the long run. How do we get from
one 7 every three rolls to a 7 every six rolls? We get some long
runs of numbers rolled, with no 7s, interspersed with lots of little
rolls where the 7 shows frequently. Mathematicians will not
dispute that this is the way that random events are distributed. An
average is only that. To understand the average you need to look
at how the events are dispersed.
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And after thousands of hours playing this damned game, I
will tell you that sevens appear very frequently most of the time,
and occasionally there are rolls of many numbers between the
appearance of the ominous number seven. And, based on trying
just about every system known to identify these long runs, I will
tell you that the most reliable way to time making Place bets is to
wait for the shooter to roll four consecutive rolls without a 7
showing.
So here's how we implement this strategy. We pursue the
Super Craps Wrong betting strategy and we keep track of the
number of rolls each shooter makes after a point is established. I
usually do this by setting aside a dollar chip for each roll. After
the shooter has rolled four rolls, we place the 6 and 8. We will
leave these bets up a maximum of four rolls. If neither a 6 nor 8 is
rolled in four dice rolls, we pull the bets down.
After placing the 6 and 8, we will pull the wagers down
after each bet wins. Assume that we have counted four
consecutive rolls without a 7 being rolled and we place the 6 and
8. The shooter then rolls a 3. The next roll is a 6, giving us a win.
We pull both of the bets down.
So, after we place the 6 and 8, we will leave our wagers up
for the lessor of four rolls, or the number of rolls it takes for either
the 6 or 8 to be rolled, giving us a win. In either case, we will then
pull both wagers down.
After pulling our wagers down, we will resume counting.
Whenever the shooter has rolled four consecutive rolls without a 7
showing we will place the 6 and 8.
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During a hot roll, you may find yourself placing the 6 and 8
several times, and pulling the wagers after either a win or four
rolls without a win. You may be tempted to modify this strategy,
arguing that you are losing money by pulling the bets down while
the shooter is rolling numbers.
Don't modify the strategy. Any hot roll is only one roll
away from ending. And no one knows when the roll will end.
Use my approach. It will not only reward you amply during a hot
roll, but more importantly, it will limit your losses when the
shooter sevens out.
When points are made, I will continue my count through
the Come-Out roll, so long as a 7 is not rolled on a Come-Out.
Let's assume that the shooter has rolled two numbers, for a count
of two and then repeats his point number. Our count now stands
at three. If he rolls another number on the Come-Out, then I
would place the 6 and 8 as soon as a point is established. Under
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no circumstances should you ever have the Placed 6 and 8
working on a Come-Out roll. If the shooter hits the four count
during a Come-Out roll, wait till after a point is established to
Place the 6 and 8.
A Betting Pattern
With a $500 table stake, I will begin by placing the 6 and 8
for $6 each. So long as I continue to win, I will continue to Place
these numbers for the same amounts of $6 each.
If I have a loss, I will increase my wagers following a loss
on the next qualified roll. Assume that I have just Placed the 6
and 8 for $6 each and the shooter sevens out, causing me a loss of
$12. I will wait until we have four consecutive rolls and then
Place the 6 and 8 for $12 each. As soon as I have one hit at this
level, my bet goes back down to $6 each on the next qualified roll.
Table 9 shows the levels of Place bets to use with a $500
table stake.
TABLE 9. PLACE BET OF 6 AND 8
WITH A $500 TABLE BUY IN
Level 1 2 3 4
Place Bets on 6 & 8 $6 $6 $12
$12
$24
$24
$48
$48
Total Wagered $12 $24 $48 $96
Value of Win $7 $14 $28 $56
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This table shows the four levels of Place bets I use with a
$500 buy in. If I lose my Place bets at the $6 and $6 level, I will
wager $12 and $12 on the 6 and 8 following the next qualified
roll. If I also lose these wagers, my next Place bets will be for $24
and $24, at the appropriate time.
After I have raised my wagers, I will drop them to the next
lower level following a win. Assume that I have lost Place bets of
$6 and $6 and then raised my wagers to $12 and $12 after a new
shooter rolled four no-seven rolls. If I also lose these wagers,
meaning that the shooter sevened out before I had any win, I will
Place $24 and $24 on the 6 and 8 when the next shooter qualifies.
If I win a wager betting $24 and $24, I will lower my bets one
level to $12 and $12 with the next qualified shooter.
You will always raise and lower your Place bets one level
when using this system. A single win is all that is required to
lower your Place bets a level the next time your are able to make
them.
This strategy is conservative. The odds of winning either a
6 or 8 showing before a 7 is rolled are 10 to 6 (the numbers 6 or 8
can be rolled five ways each, or a total of ten ways; a 7 can be
rolled six ways). Your chances of winning using this strategy are
very good, and if you will wait until a shooter has rolled four
consecutive no-seven numbers, your odds are even better.
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The suggested betting series is also conservative. It
recoups losses fairly slowly, but also keeps the size of your bets
from escalating rapidly during a period of losses. If we have lost
bets at the $6 $6, $12 $12, and $24 $24 levels, and then win
wagers at the $48 $48 level, followed by wins at $24 $24, and $12
$12, we will be $14 ahead, as shown below:
Lose $6 & $6 $ (12)
Lose $12 & $12 (24)
Lose $24 and $24 (48)
Total Loss $ (84)
Win at $48 & $48 56
Win at $24 & $24 28
Win at $12 & $12 14
Net Win $ 14
Many times, we will have losses from several shooters
sevening out, and then recoup all of our losses during one hot roll.
However, the times when we will be called on to wager $48 and
$48 will be few and far between, and we will find that this strategy
produces reliable wins.
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In the next chapter we will look at putting the Right and
Wrong betting strategies together for three exciting days of craps
play
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Three Days at the Tables
Just how effective is this Super Craps strategy? Most
gambling writers are long on theory and short on showing you
actual results. I am going to invite you to join me for three days at
the Craps tables, playing the Super Craps strategy.
The reason most gaming writers do not show you actual
results of their systems, is that the systems do not perform well in
actual casino conditions. These writers will work out strategies
with paper and pencil and then tell you what the theoretical results
might be. I am different. Everything I have written down
describing the Super Craps system is exactly what I use to battle
the casinos. You may be a little overwhelmed at this point. Hang
in there. I will continue to describe the strategy and show you
more examples of how the system works. If your understanding is
a little fuzzy now, just bear with me. I think we can clear things
up for you.
I am going to share with you actual results of playing with
the system for three intense days of Craps play. I have three days
for several reasons. First, these days play were typical of how the
strategy has worked over hundreds of games. I did not "hand
pick" some games just to show the system in the best light.
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Secondly, and this is the main reason I am focusing on
these three days, is that for three days of Craps sessions I recorded
a large amount of statistical information about my sessions. For
example, I kept track of the number of dice rolls in each playing
session. This is not something you ever have to do. Quite frankly,
I did not enjoy playing this way; it made the game seem too much
like work. But I did it for a purpose. My purpose was to collect as
much specific information about the system's performance over a
three day period of playing Craps as I could.
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My three days of play covered 3,434 total rolls of dice.
This represented about thirty five hours of table play. During this
period, I kept track of the number of sessions I played, the number
of dice rolls per session, the amount won through Wrong betting,
broken down into Don't Pass and Don't Come wins and the
amount won through Right betting.
Throughout these three days of play, I began each session
with the same amount of money, $500.00. I would stop each
session when I had either won approximately $150 from Wrong
betting, or had lost the session. By starting each session with the
same amount of money, I was able to develop statistics about the
average amount which was won per hour for a $500 table stake as
well as much more useful information. I could have won more
money if I had increased my table stake after my winnings started
accumulating, but for the sake of developing comparative
information, I started each session with exactly $500.
Over this period of 3,434 rolls, I won a little less than
$3,000, $2918 to be exact. This broke down into $2,495 from
Wrong betting and $423 from Place betting. To be fair, I made
Place bets only during the last fifteen sessions out of the twenty
two sessions played. This occurred because I originally set out to
test only the Wrong betting strategy and then decided after seven
sessions had been completed, to test the Place betting strategy as
well. If I had played all twenty two sessions using both the Right
and Wrong betting strategies in each game, and if the averages for
Right betting had been consistent, then I would have won
$3,115.40 for the twenty two sessions.
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Using this adjusted amount, my average wins per hour
were about $89.00 (3,115.40/35 hours). This was the net amount
won, including the sessions where I lost money. The average net
amount I won per session was (using adjusted totals) $145.59.
For sessions where I used both the Wrong and Right
betting strategies and won the session, my average win was
$221.43. Losing sessions using both betting strategies averaged
$351.50. These numbers might sound a little frightening until you
realize how seldom I lost a session.
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Out of twenty-two total sessions, I had three sessions where
I lost all of the bets in the Wrong betting strategy, and two
sessions where the highest wager in the Place betting strategy lost.
Any time that I would lose all of the bets in a betting sequence,
e.g., the highest possible bet for either Wrong or Right betting, I
would call the session completed.
If we compute the percentage of games won for each
betting strategy, we find that both Wrong and Right betting
strategies won 86% of the sessions played.
The amounts won through Don't Pass wagers and Don't
Come wagers were: $1,370 from Don't Pass wagers and $1,125
from Don't Come wagers for a total of $2,495 won through Wrong
betting.
I won a total of $423 for the fifteen games where I made
Right bets, for an average win of $28.20 per session. I did not
track how many of these wins came from winning Place bets on a
6 versus 8, but the amounts should be about equal.
Using the adjusted total of winnings of $3,115.00, my net
average winnings were about $89.00 per hour. This works out to a
return on the session bankroll used of 17.8% per hour. If we
compare this with the way investment returns are usually
computed, it is simply astounding. Assume that we decided to
play Craps for thirty five hours a week, and used $500 to start each
session. At the winning rate of 17.8% per hour, we would win
$3,115.00 per week or $161,980 per year if we played for fifty-
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two weeks. This would work out to a return 326.96 times the size
of our session bankroll of $500.00 or 32,696% per year. Try
comparing this number with typical investment returns of 10% or
even 20% per year!
For Wrong betting alone, we averaged $71.29 per hour,
which, when compared with our session bankroll of $500, works
out to 14.25% per hour. Converted into winnings per year,
playing thirty five hours per week, we compute winnings of
$129,748 per year, for an annual return from Wrong betting of
25,950% per year.
With Right betting, making only Place bets on the 6 and 8
in accordance with our timing schematic, we made $17.17 an hour
for a return on our session bankroll of 3.55% per hour. With play
of thirty five hours a week, this works out to an annual return of
6,746% per year.
We may want to consider that computing our returns in this
manner severely penalizes the Right betting strategy. Why?
Because while Wrong betting requires the entire $500.00 session
bankroll in order to make all of the wagers called for the betting
series ($10 + 25 + 50 + 60 + 80 + 125 + 150 = $500), Right
betting, by Placing only the 6 and 8, requires a Session Bankroll of
only $180.00, computed by adding up all of the Place bets to be
made if we lose every single Place bet ($6 + 6 + 12 + 12 + 24+ 24
+ 48 +48 = $180.00).
If we compute our win rate for Right betting, using $180.00
as the session bankroll required, we compare winnings of $17.17
per hour to $180.00 for a return of 9.53% per hour. This return,
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playing thirty five hours a week, works out to 17,345% per year.
This is still less than the annual return of 25,950% earned by
betting Wrong, but not by as large a margin.
The main reason that the percentage returned from Right
betting is lower than Wrong betting is that using the Place betting
strategy, we make fewer wagers per hour than with the Wrong
betting strategy. In other words, the lower return from Right
betting does not show that it is a less effective strategy than betting
Wrong; instead it reflects that we do not bet as often betting Right
and therefore earn a lower percentage return on our money per
hour. On a risk adjusted basis, I would suspect that the two
strategies are very comparable.
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Before I totally lose you with all of these numbers, let's
consider what these results mean for us, in a general way. First,
you should recognize that we have a winning system here. It is
very reliable and very consistent. Because of these factors,
winnings can be forecast with some accuracy. By this I do not
mean that we are always confident about winning any given
session at the tables. Every session is a new battle with the casino,
and we can never be confident that we are going to win. We know
that we are likely to win a session, but we never want to become
complacent. Nothing is ever certain in Craps, except that it is
damned hard to win consistently. Please don't ever forget that.
But what we do know is that over a reasonable trial period,
where I kept careful track of the results of the sessions, we won
almost $3,000, and won about 86% of our playing sessions. And
we know that we started each session with the same bankroll of
$500. I mentioned to you earlier that I could have won more
money if I had increased the size of my table stake. Normally I
would have done this, but I didn't because the main purpose of this
play was to test the system and record the results.
What I could have done (and normally would do) was to
increase the size of my session bankroll as my winnings reached
certain predetermined levels. You can do the same thing, and it
dramatically improves the winning potential of the Super Craps
strategy. But you must plan any increases carefully, and only after
you have won enough to protect yourself from losing sessions.
The bane of most gamblers is increasing wagers too rapidly
after a win. You see this all the time at most tables, where Place
bettors constantly tell the dealers to "press my bet," meaning to
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double it and only return any winnings left after the bet is doubled.
Many gamblers act as if every minor streak was going to turn into
a monster roll and last for thirty minutes. As you and I know, the
dominate number in Craps is the number 7, which always shows
sooner or later.
In deciding to increase the size of our session bankroll, we
are going to be very conservative. Many of you will want to
double your session stake after winning a session or two. This
may or may not turn out alright, you can never predict whether
you will win or lose any given session. But the risk to you is very
great if you follow this approach. You are emulating the Place
bettors who rapidly press their wagers, have numerous wins
during a roll, and end up losing money because they left too much
money on the table when the shooter sevened out.
Our conservative approach to increasing our session
bankroll considers the total bankroll we have brought for our play,
not just the amount we have won in a session or two. I always
bring at least five times the intended session bankroll on any
casino excursion. If I am buying in for $500.00 per session, I will
have $2,500.00 available as my total bankroll. This bankroll is not
the amount of money I have in my checking or savings account, it
is the amount of cash I have with me, either on my person, or in a
casino safe deposit box.
The strategy I will use is to wait until I have doubled my
total bankroll from $2,500 to $5,000 before I double my initial buy
in from $500 to $1,000.
107
So, one or two winning sessions are not enough for me to
increase the size of my session bankroll. I will wait until the total
bankroll that I have with me has doubled. And this bankroll will
never be less than five times the size of my session bankroll.
During my three day marathon Craps session, my winning
rate was 17.8% per hour, using a buy in of $500. For purposes of
illustration, let's assume that our return was just 15% per hour.
With a return of 15% an hour, we would average winning
$75 an hour using a session bankroll of $500. It would take about
33.33 hours for us to win $2,500 and double the size of our Craps
bankroll, increasing it from $2,500 to $5,000. Unless we want to
play Craps on a marathon basis, like I did for three days, we are
not likely to double our bankroll on any single casino excursion.
It may take us a couple of trips to accomplish this. The key is to
be patient. If you let the Super Craps system work for you and are
patient, your gambling bankroll will double.
After doubling your gambling bankroll, to $5,000 in this
example, you may start buying in for double the original session
buy in. With a $1,000 session bankroll, all of the bets in the
betting sequences I have suggested will be doubled. Your first
Don't wager will be for $20, rather than $10. When you Place the
6 and 8, you will start with $12 on each number, instead of $6
each.
With a $1,000 session bankroll, if your winning rate of
15% continues, you will now average winning $150 an hour.
Guess what? In another 33.33 hours of play, you can double your
108
gambling bankroll again, moving up from a $5,000 to a $10,000
bankroll.
With a $10,000 Craps bankroll, your session bankroll
becomes $2,000, and with a win rate of 15% per hour, your
theoretical hourly winnings become $300 an hour.
Another 33.33 hours of diligent play will double your
gambling bankroll again. Now you will have a total bankroll of
$20,000, and your session buy in can be for $4,000. At these
levels you will have to start watching table maximums. Your
highest Don't wager will be for $1,200, and your largest possible
Place bet will be for $384. With a 15% an hour average return,
you can expect winnings of $600 an hour with a $4,000 buy in.
You may want to go for a $25,000 Craps bankroll, which
allows a session bankroll of $5,000. On the average, it will take
only an addition 8.33 hours to move from a Craps bankroll of
$20,000 up to $25,000.
With a $25,000 total bankroll, your buy in will be for
$5,000, and with a 15% an hour average return, your average
winnings should be about $750 an hour.
Table 10 shows the total bankrolls for each level of play,
the session bankrolls used, the average wins per hour, using a 15%
return, and the number of hours of play required, on the average,
to increase your bankroll to the next level.
109
I want to emphasize that this table is hypothetical. It does
not represent the actual results of my play. I typically have not
bought in for more than $1,000, or for $2,000 on occasion. It is
not that I do not believe in the system.
TABLE 10. HYPOTHETICAL RESULTS OF INCREASING
BANKROLLS
Session
Bankroll
Win per
Hour at
15%
Total
Bankroll
Needed
Hours to
Reach
Next
Bankroll
Level
Amount
Won
Before
Next
Level
$500 $ 75 $ 2,500 33.33
hours
$ 2,500
1,000 150 5,000 33.33
hours
5,000
2,000 300 10,000 33.33
hours
10,000
4,000 600 20,000 8.33
hours
5,000
5,000 750 25,000 NA NA
It has worked very well for me. It is simply that I do not
feel comfortable buying in for more than $1,000 to $2,000 a
session. A $5,000 buy in seems too high for me. I start to exceed
my comfort level in playing the game. Quite frankly, I enjoy
playing Craps a lot, but the higher buy in inhibits my ability to
enjoy the game.
110
You will have to examine your own playing style and
comfort levels to make these kinds of decisions. I have
acquaintances using this system who always buy in for $5,000 or
even $10,000 and are reportedly doing well with the system. If
you decide to play at this level, the casinos will bend over
backwards to accommodate you, for you will be considered a
moderate level high roller. If you want to play at this level the
choice is yours. But don't feel like you have to play at these levels
to benefit from the strategy. I am content with my $1,000 and
occasional $2,000 buy ins, as my goal is to make $1,000 a day
without playing marathon sessions. If you want to make a lot
more, then be my guest.
For the sake of considering the possibilities of Super Craps,
let's compute what you might win if you played thirty-five hours a
week for fifty weeks. We will assume that you begin playing with
a $2,500 total bankroll and $500 buy ins. You will increase the
size of your buy in as rapidly as possible, using our guidelines of
doubling your bankroll before doubling the size of your session
stake.
As shown below, if you increase your session bankroll to
$5,000 per session and then continue to play at this level, your
possible earnings are $1,253,252.50 per year!
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Calculation of Hypothetical Yearly Earnings
Description: Hours of Play: Amount Won:
Play to increase bankroll
from $2,500 to $25,000
108.33 hours $ 22,500.00
Play with $25,000 bankroll 1,641.67 hours 1,231,252.50
Total 1,750.00 hours $1,253,752.50
You can play all kinds of games with this data. Your
hourly wins will average about $716 per hour. Assuming you put
in 250 days, your daily winnings would average a little over
$5,000 per day.
I am not sure that I could stand to play Craps in this
fashion. I know that some of you believe that you could stand
almost anything to make over a million bucks in a year. But the
reality is that playing Craps nonstop as a business is a very tough
way to earn a living.
These results must be considered to be theoretical. I have
not done this, nor do I know anyone who has. I believe that it is
possible, if you have the stamina for it.
However, it is possible to win respectable amounts of
money with much less than a full time investment in Craps play.
Table 11 shows the hypothetical results of different levels
of play with different time investments.
112
If you are a very casual player and will play no more than
thirty-five hours a year, and you would consider winnings of
$2,625 per year to be reasonable, then you should play with a
$2,500 bankroll and a $500 buy in. If you want to win more for
your thirty-five hours at the tables, you should consider using a
larger bankroll. With a $5,000 bankroll, your thirty-five hours
should be worth $5,250 per year, with a $10,000 bankroll
$10,500 per year, $21, 000 a year playing with a $20,000 bankroll
and $26,250 a year using a $25,000 bankroll.
More hours invested with a higher bankroll equates with a
larger win. If you want to win $100,000 or more per year, you
will not be able to do it with a $2,500 bankroll unless you want to
play more than 500 hours a year. However, if you use a $20,000
bankroll, and play more than 200 hours a year, you should be able
to earn over $100,000 a year.
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TABLE 11. HYPOTHETICAL WINNINGS
SHOWING PLAYING TIME AND BANKROLL
Total Bankroll
$2,500 $5,000 $10,000 $20,000 $25,000
Session
Buy In $ 500 $1,000 $ 2,000 $ 4,000 $ 5,000
Expected
Hourly Win $ 75 $ 150 $ 300 $ 600 $ 750
Hours Played
per Year:
YEARLY WINNINGS FOR
EACH LEVEL OF PLAY
35 hours $ 2,625 $ 5,250 $ 10,500 $ 21,000 $ 26,250
100 hours $ 7,500 $15,000 $ 30,000 $ 60,000 $ 75,000
200 hours $15,000 $30,000 $ 60,000 $120,000 $150,000
500 hours $37,500 $75,000 $150,000 $300,000 $375,000
One thing that should be obvious from this illustration is
that the amount of possible winning are directly related to the
amount of bankroll and the time spent on the game. Most
investors understand these concepts quite well. It is reasonable to
expect to earn more on $10,000 invested than on $2,500.
Likewise, if $10,000 invested for five years should earn more than
the same amount invested for six months.
While these truths are obvious to most investors, they are
not for many gamblers, and that is why I repeat them. Many
gamblers will bring $500 to the casino, hoping to win $5,000.
With such high expectations and such a low bankroll, they are
almost doomed to lose.
114
The Super Craps approach to play forces you to be more
patient in your approach to the game. It also emphasizes slow
steady winnings. If the win rate seems too slow for you, just
review the last two tables in this chapter. Slow doesn't necessarily
mean low, it just means that it takes a longer time investment to
produce winnings.
If you take $2,500 to a casino and play for two hours, don't
be surprised if you don't win exactly $150. On my three days of
play I started off with a loss. If I had computed my hourly win
after two hours, I would have been in the hole. Do not expect to
win the exact hourly amounts I have used in the illustrations in this
chapter. As you play for longer and longer periods, your average
winnings should be close to the averages I have shown you. If
they are not, then you are probably not playing the strategy
correctly. Also remember that anything can happen for a session
or two of Craps. It is possible to lose two sessions back to back,
although not likely. If you are in a losing streak, become extra
cautious. If never hurts to back off from wagering for a couple of
shooters. I am not suggesting that you constantly try to second
guess the system. Don't do that. What I am suggesting is that
even though the Super Craps approach works very well, you can
and will encounter short term losing streaks and you can back off
from wagering during one of these periods.
I want to show you some variations of betting and
strategies for using this system. Before you read further, make
sure that you understand the system as presented fairly well. If
you can't remember exactly how to use it, I recommend that you
review the portions of this book necessary to refresh your
memory.
115
In the next chapter I will cover betting variations which can
make you an even stronger player.
116
Variations of Play
Matching Betting levels to Your Bankroll
You may have gotten the idea that the Super Craps strategy
requires a $500 bankroll or higher. Most of my illustrations have
been based on using a $500 Session Bankroll because this is my
minimum level of play. Once you understand this strategy, I am
sure that you will feel the same way.
But you may not be comfortable with buying in for $500 to
try a system you are learning. Relax. I will show you variations
where you can buy in with as little as thirty bucks. The beauty of
the Super Craps strategy is that it works for any size bankroll,
whether large or small.
The Basic Super Craps Strategy entails making Wrong
bets, using our bet selection process with the following series of
wagers: $10 $25 $50 $60 $80 $125 and $150. During the same
session, we will place the 6 and 8 using a series of $6-6, $12-12,
$24-24 and $48-48. For this level of wagering we need to buy in
for $500.
117
However, we can use the same approach with as little as
$50. Our Wrong betting series becomes: $1 $2 $5 $6 $8 $13 and
$15. At this level of betting, we will not be able to make Place
bets. They are simply too rich for our bankroll.
We can play with $50, $100, $150, $250, $500, $1,000,
$2,000, $4,000 and $5,000 buy ins using variations of the size of
bets for Wrong and Right betting. But we can't start making Place
bets until we have a Session Bankroll of at least $150. And we
will need to find a table which uses 25 chips to be able to make
Place bets. Only with a bankroll of $500 or higher can we make
Place bets at Craps tables with $5 minimum wagers. This is
another reason I like to make $500 my minimum buy in.
118
However, you are giving up very little if you drop Place
betting from the Super Craps strategy. Your hourly winnings will
be somewhat smaller, and you will have to endure periods where
the shooter is hitting a lot of numbers without participating. But
the Wrong Betting side of the strategy is strong enough that you
can be very successful using only this part of the strategy.
Table 12 shows the bets to be used for different Session
Bankrolls. You will notice that no Place bets are made for
bankrolls less than $150. With $150 and $250 buy ins, Place bets
may be made, but only at tables using 25 chips. Let me explain.
TABLE 12. BETS USED FOR
DIFFERENT SESSION BANKROLLS
Session
Bankroll
Wrong
Betting Series
Place
Betting Series
$50 1 2 5 6 8 13 15 None
100 2 4 10 12 16 25 30 None
150 3 5 15 17 25 40 45 1.50 3 6 12
250 5 13 25 30 40 62 75 3 6 12 24
500 10 25 50 60 80 125 150 6 12 24 48
1,000 20 50 100 120 160 250 300 12 24 48 96
2,000 40 100 200 240 320 500 600 24 48 96 192
4,000 80 200 400 480 640 1,000 1,200 48 96 192 384
5,000 100 250 500 600 800 1,250 1,500 60 120 240 480
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With a buy in of $150 or $250 you may make Place bets.
But your minimum bets are $1.50 each on the 6 and 8 with a $150
bankroll, and $3.00 each on the 6 and 8 with a $250 bankroll.
These wagers can only be made at tables using 25 chips. There
are a number of these tables in downtown Las Vegas and a few on
the Las Vegas Strip. If you want to play with a lower buy in and
still be able to make Place bets, then you will need to find one of
these tables.
If you are playing where there are no 25 tables, and you
want to play with a lower bankroll, I suggest that you just not
worry about making Place bets and not use this part of the strategy
until you are able to buy in for $500 or more.
You can use Table 12 to compute the Betting Series for
additional Session Bankrolls. Say that you want to play with a
$750 buy in. You can add the betting series for $500 and $250
buy ins as follows:
Buy
In Wrong Betting Series
$250 5 13 25 30 40 62 75
500 10 25 50 60 80 125 150
$750 15 38 75 90 120 187 225
A couple of the bets are a little awkward to use: $38 and
$187. You can adjust the new betting series to round these bets
off to numbers divisible by five, and therefore capable of being
120
made without using dollar chips. To do this we should maintain
the integrity of the betting series by adding and subtracting equal
amounts to the bets we wish to change, so that the total of all
wagers remains the same. Here's how we could do this:
Series Betting Series Buy In
Computed
Series
15 38 75 90 120 187 225 $750
Adjustments +2 -2
Adjusted Series 15 40 75 90 120 185 225 $750
Using Table 12, you can construct different betting series
geared to different buy ins you may want to use. In addition to
constructing the series for $750, like we just did, you may
consider betting series for buy ins of $400, $1,250, $1,500,
$1,750, $2,500, $3,000 and $3,500.
These different levels may be especially helpful if you
decide to increase the size of your buy ins in smaller increments
than I have suggested. You may start by playing with a $150 buy
in and jump to $200 when you have enough winnings to support
this level (you need a total bankroll five times the size of your
Session Bankroll). From $200 you may want to jump to $250,
then $300, then $400 and so on. The possibilities are almost
endless, and the only rule you need to remember is to only
increase your buy in after you have won enough to support this
level of wagering.
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If you use $200 or $300 or other "intermediate" buy in
amounts, do not adjust the series used for Place bets. Use the
series for the next lowest bankroll level as shown in Table 12. For
instance, if you compute the Betting Series for a $300 buy in, you
will make Place Bets using the series shown for a $250 buy in.
Different Betting Strategies
You are not limited to using only a variation of the Betting
Series I have shown in the previous discussion. There is another
approach to betting which is very effective, and you may like as
much or even more than the ones I have shown you.
Before we discuss a new Betting Series, you need to
understand the concept of a Parlay wager. A Parlay wager is
nothing more than a winning wager that we leave up for two
consecutive wagers. If we are wagering $10 and win, we will
leave our original wager of $10 plus the winnings of $10 up for an
additional wager. If we win this wager also, we will have won a
total of $30, an amount equal to three times our original wager.
Any time a Parlay wager wins, we will have won an
amount equal to three times our original wager. The odds of
winning two consecutive even-money wagers back to back is
approximately 4 to 1, so that we can expect to lose a number of
Parlay attempts.
In order to utilize the Parlay concept, we will use a Betting
Series consisting of eight wagers. Any time we win a wager in the
122
series we will attempt to Parlay the original wager plus the
winnings. Any time we lose either a wager in the Betting Series
or a Parlay wager, we will wager the next higher bet when we
make our next wager. If we win a Parlayed wager, we will drop
all the way back to the beginning wager in the series for our next
wager.
So, our betting rules are simple. We will increase our
wager one level after losing any wager or parlayed wager. We
will start the series over after winning any Parlayed wager.
The Betting Series that I like to use is: $10 $10 $12 $25
$25 $50 $50 $100. You will notice that this series has eight
wagers in it, compared to our original series of seven wagers. In
addition, our highest wager is $100, which is only eight times the
size of our first wager of $10. In our original Betting Series, with
a first wager of $10 and a last wager of $150, our final wager is
fifteen times the size of our first wager.
123
But keep in mind that our largest possible wager with this
Parlay Betting Series is not $100, but $200. This is the amount we
will be called upon to wager if we wager $100 and win and then
Parlay the original wager plus the winnings.
Table 13 shows each bet in the Parlay Betting Series, the
Value of a Parlay Win, the amount we would have lost through
losing bets before winning the Parlay bet and the net amount of
our winnings after any Parlay win.
TABLE 13. WINS WITH A PARLAY BETTING SERIES
Betting
Series
10 10 12 25 25 50 50 100
Amount of
Parlay Win 30 30 36 75 75 150 150 300
Cumulative
Loss -0- 10 20 32 57 82 132 182
Net Win
After
Parlay
30 20 16 43 18 68 18 118
The Parlay Betting Series is very effective and produces a
high winning rate per hour. I have found that I seldom have to
progress beyond the fourth or fifth level of wager before I win a
Parlay. And after any win, I am in a position to either drop back
to the lowest wager and start the Betting Series over or count my
chips and consider calling the session over. One thing I like about
playing the Parlay Betting Series is that it takes only two
consecutive wins in order to "win" the series and allow me to
reduce my wagers to the lower levels.
124
Like the Standard Betting Series, the Parlay Betting Series
is used only for Wrong bets and can be adjusted to a number of
different bankroll levels.
Table 14 shows the Parlay Betting Series to be used for
Session Bankrolls ranging from $30 to $3,000. I would not use
the Parlay Betting Series with a buy in larger than $3,000 as the
largest wager called for at this level of $2,000 (a parlayed wager
of $1,000) is at the table limit in most casinos.
TABLE 14. PARLAY BETTING SERIES
Session
Bankroll Parlay Betting Series
$ 30* 1 1 1.25 2.50 2.50 5 5 10
35 1 1 1 3 3 6 6 12
150 5 5 6 12 12 25 25 50
300 10 10 12 25 25 50 50 100
600 20 20 25 50 50 100 100 200
900 60 60 75 150 150 300 300 600
3,000 100 100 120 250 250 500 500 1,000
* Only use at 25 tables.
The lowest level Session Bankroll possible using a Parlay
Betting Series is $30. This may be used only at a 25 Craps table
as it calls for wagers using 25 chips. On tables where the
minimum wager is one dollar and the dollar chip is the minimum
value chip used, you may use a Session Bankroll of as low as $35.
125
Like the Standard Betting Series, you can combine different levels
of betting series to compute the bets to be used for different
bankroll levels.
If you are playing at a $2 minimum table, and want to
wager using a $70 buy in, you can compute the Betting Series by
doubling the wagers used with a $35 buy in.
To compute the wagers for a $450 buy in, add the bets for
the $150 and $300 levels.
I have not shown the Place bets which may be used with
any series of Parlay bets. Here I am going to allow you more
flexibility. You can Place bets at any level you want, so long as
you add an additional amount to your Session Bankroll to allow
for these wagers.
The sensible way to add Place Bets, using the Super Craps
strategy of only wagering on the 6 and 8 in limited circumstances,
is to add an amount somewhat less than the amount allowed for
Wrong bets to your Session Bankroll. For example, if the amount
required to bet the series of Parlay wagers you have chosen is
$300, and if you want to risk a total of $90 on Place bets, then you
can buy in for $390, or $400 rounded.
Table 15 shows the amounts of additional bankroll you
need to add to the Session Bankrolls for the Parlay Betting Series
so that you may bet both Wrong (using the Parlay bets) and Right
(using the Place Betting series.
126
TABLE 15. AMOUNTS NEEDED FOR PLACE BETS
Session
Bankroll
Levels of Place Bets on 6 and 8
$45* 1.50 1.50 3 3 6 6 12 12
90* 3 3 6 6 12 12 24 24
180 6 6 12 12 24 24 48 48
360 12 12 24 24 48 48 96 96
720 24 24 48 48 96 96 192 192
1,440 48 48 96 96 192 192 384 384
2,400 60 60 120 120 240 240 480 480
* Only use at 25 tables.
Assume that you have a total bankroll of $5,000. Dividing
it into five parts, you decide to play with a Session Bankroll of
$1,000. You have also decided to use the Parlay Betting Series for
Wrong betting and the Super Craps Place Betting strategy. You
decide that you would like to use the Parlay series with an initial
bet of $20 for Wrong betting. Looking at Table 14 you see that
this series requires a Session Bankroll of $600. You next decide
to use the largest Place Betting series which your $1,000 Session
Bankroll can accommodate. Looking at Table 15, you select the
series requiring a $360 Session Bankroll.
You can now buy in for $1,000 a session and use a
maximum of $600 of your buy in for Wrong betting, using a
Parlay Betting series, and a maximum of $360 for Right betting,
using our Place Betting strategy. The $40 extra buy in is just that
extra money because you did not want to buy in for the odd
ball amount of $960.
127
You can mix and match different levels of Wrong and
Right betting using Tables 14 and 15. My only caution is to keep
the amount of bankroll required for Place betting somewhat less
than the amount used for Wrong betting. I caution this, not
because the Place betting strategy is more risky, but because it
wins more slowly than the Wrong betting strategy. I believe that
you will enjoy higher wins for your time investment when you
load the betting in favor of the Wrong bets.
Playing With a Partner
The thought of playing craps with a partner may not have
ever occurred to you, but it is an excellent way to increase your
chances of winning. With a partner, even if you have a loss, your
partner can win the session, increasing your chances of winning
overall.
The Parlay Betting Series works well for two partners.
However, we do not want to have both partners betting in the
exact same manner. This would negate most of the benefits of
128
partnership play. Instead we will modify the way in which we
select our wagers. If you can't remember the original rules for
selecting wrong bets, they are summarized on pages 49 to 51.
Partner A will always start out making a Don't Pass bet.
However, if the shooter rolls a Come-Out 7, he will switch to
betting Don't Come for his next wager. He will limit his losses to
two losses per shooter.
Assume that Partner A chooses the $300 Parlay Betting
Series, with the wagers of $10 10 12 25 25 50 50 100. His first
wager of $10 will be Don't Pass, which must be made before a
Come-Out roll. Let's say this first wager loses to a Come-Out 7.
He does not bet on the next Come-Out roll, but waits until the
shooter has established a point, then bets the second wager in the
betting series of $10 on Don't Come.
Assume that the shooter sevens out in a couple rolls,
causing a win for the Don't Come wager. Partner A is now ready
to Parlay his winning wager, making a bet of $20. But he will stay
with a Don't Come bet for his Parlay attempt. We add another rule
that a Parlay wager will always be made on the same pattern
which resulted in the original wager winning. If we win a Don't
Pass wager, we will Parlay it betting Don't Pass. If we win a Don't
Come wager, we will Parlay it on Don't Come.
So after the shooter establishes a point, Partner A wagers
$20 on Don't Come. The shooter rolls three more times and a 7
shows. Partner A wins his Parlay wager!
129
Having won a Parlay wager, he will begin his betting series
at the lowest level wager with the next shooter. Even though he
just won betting Don't Come, he wagers $10 on Don't Pass,
because he always begins wagering Don't Pass and sticks with this
pattern of betting until a shooter rolls a Come-Out 7.
Suppose that the next shooter rolls a 5 as a point and a
couple of rolls later repeats the number. The Don't Pass bet loses.
Because the loss did not occur due to a Come-Out 7, Partner A
makes another Don't Pass wager. However, having lost one wager
to this shooter, he is now wary. This is the last wager he will risk
on this shooter. Our wagering rules limit our losses to a maximum
of two regular wagers per shooter. A loss of a Parlay bet is not
counted as a loss, so we will only stop betting on a shooter after
losing two regular bets.
Here are the rules which Partner A will use for betting
Wrong:
1. Unless he is parlaying a Don't Come win, his first bet will
always be on Don't Pass.
2. The maximum number of losses per shooter are two regular
wagers. If he loses two wagers on one shooter, he will stop
wagering until the shooter sevens out.
3. To reduce the impact of Come-Out sevens on his Don't Pass
wagers, any time he loses his first Don't Pass wager against a
shooter to a Come-Out 7, his second wager against this shooter
will be on Don't Come.
130
4. A winning pattern is not to be broken. Parlay wagers are
always made on the same side as the original winning wager. A
winning Don't Come bet is parlayed on the Don't Come side.
Partner B will play with similar rules with the major
difference being that Partner B will always make Don't Come
wagers. Here are the betting rules which Partner B will use:
1. He will always wager Don't Come.
2. The maximum number of losses per shooter are two regular
wagers. If he loses two wagers on one shooter he will stop
wagering until the shooter sevens out.
I have played with a partner on a number of occasions. The
system I have described is very effective. When you are playing
with a partner, one of the partners inevitably hits a winning streak
where almost every bet wins. After one of these streaks ends is an
excellent time to call a session over. With partnership play, good
wins can be generated even if one of the partner's results is
mediocre.
131
Playing with a partner is a powerful way to play and
something you should consider. Instead of your spouse or other
companion spending time at slot machines or some other pursuit,
you can enlist them and become a craps team. In addition to
increasing your prospects of winning you will gain a major ally in
your quest to beat the casinos and possibly enjoy the game even
more!
132
What it Takes to Win
To win takes guts, knowledge, bankroll, discipline and
patience. Notice that I didn't mention timing or luck in this list.
You don't have to be in the right place at the right time to win.
You don't have to catch that once-in-a-lifetime "hot roll."
You don't have to be smart to win. You don't need a formal
education. You don't even need much money to start winning. If
you have the guts, the knowledge, the bankroll (even a small one),
the discipline and the patience to do it, you can start winning
tomorrow.
Guts
I doesn't take much guts to walk into a casino. Casinos are
filled with dorks and losers. That's how they make their money.
What takes guts is knowing when to walk out of a casino.
The average player plays until one of two events happens.
He or she either runs out of money or out of time.
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The out of money part is easy to understand, although it
shouldn't be a part of your approach to gambling. Your pattern of
play is to continue doing or not doing whatever it is that you are
trying to do until the casino takes all of your money. Then it's
pretty easy to make the decision to quit. It's a no brainer. You let
the casino make the decision for you.
The other prevalent approach is to play on a time schedule.
"I have two hours for craps, and by God I am going to play craps
for two hours." This "schedule" approach to playing is frequently
interrupted by the "I am out of money" event, which, of course,
overrides the arbitrary time schedule.
There are many variations of these two themes. You can
play until not only have you lost all of the money you brought, but
have exhausted loans from friends, credit card advances and have
hocked your jewelry and your automobile. I would call this plan
the "lose all of your money at once" plan.
Or you may stretch the time schedule approach, by missing
your plane flight, and as a side benefit, putting your marriage in
jeopardy.
With either of these approaches or of the many variations
out of control gamblers invent every day, something or someone
other than yourself is calling the shots.
You might as well face the facts. If you play like this, you
are a gutless gambler and you will never win consistently. Not
with my system. Not with the next system you decide to try. Not
ever.
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And, if you fall into one or both of these playing styles, and
you lose, which I know you will, you will blame everyone in the
world but yourself.
But you know who to blame don't you. It's you.
Super Craps is a very good strategy for winning. In case I
haven't mentioned it, I use it all the time and win very consistently.
But I can't just put the system on "automatic pilot" and expect to
win. The system will help me win, but only if I supply the other
ingredients necessary to win.
The first ingredient you need to add to your understanding
of the Super Craps strategy is the guts to walk out of the casino on
your terms.
I mentioned that I like to play for a target win of $1,000 a
day. Do you think that this just happens? The casino is sure not
135
going to tell me, "Sam, you better leave now, you just hit your
$1,000 win." If anything, the casino is going to make it easier for
me to stay. Because they know the secret of winning.
Make sure no one is peeking over your shoulder. I am
going to tell you the casino's secret weapon that makes 95% of all
gamblers losers. It's not the house edge or vig. In a game like
craps, where there are bets giving the casino a little over a one
percent edge, the vig doesn't ever come into play until the long
run. It's not the speed of the game, or the fact that the house has a
lot of bucks and can wait out your temporary forays into its
bankroll. And it's not because the casino cheats you. It doesn't
have to.
The casino wins because most players don't know when to
walk. They don't have the guts to walk out of the casino when
they are ahead. And they don't have the guts or the discipline to
walk out when they are losing.
Remember when I told you that I won 86% of my sessions
in my three day marathon of playing Super Craps? You may have
thought, "Wow, that's great, he wins nearly all the time." And you
would have been partially right. I do win nearly all the time. But
the losses are tough.
They are discouraging. They make me mad at myself for
having a loss. They sometimes make my blood boil. I want to get
that money back as soon as possible. But I don't try. I will walk
away from the table after I hit a predetermined loss amount during
a session.
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And what about wins? I like to win. One of the reasons I
use the Super Craps strategy is that the wins come so regularly.
But once I have a win, I recognize that it can be a fleeting thing.
As long as I am at the tables, my money is in jeopardy. So, I set a
predetermined win amount before I begin playing. And when I hit
this amount, I walk away from the table.
With the Super Craps strategy, the amount of your Session
Bankroll determines your loss limit, so long as you adhere to the
buy in guidelines I have shown you. If you lose your Session
Bankroll, you walk. You don't reach in your pocket and pull out
another Session Bankroll. You don't even pull out another
hundred bucks just so you can keep playing. You walk.
I like to use a Target Win equal to one-third of my Session
Bankroll. If I buy in for $100, I will leave when I am $30 to $35
ahead. If my buy in is for $2,000, I will be looking to take a break
when my winnings are between $600 and $700 dollars.
While there is no question that the loss of a Session
Bankroll is a clear signal to take a break, sometimes the Target
Win is not as clear. What if you are well over one-third of your
buy in ahead and the wins are still coming? What you do is
continue playing until you lose a bet or two. Then you pull off.
Another tougher call is the game where you have been
gaining, but slowly and with lots of ups and downs. Here I will
not wait until I have hit my Target Profit. Quit after you have just
won a larger wager.
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The essential rule for pulling off the table is to leave after a
loss or after your target win has been hit. The rule is simple. But
it takes guts to pull it off.
Knowledge
I have seen people walk up to the craps table and start
making wagers and then casually ask the dealer "How does this
bet work?"
If you don't understand the game, don't play. I have
reviewed the craps game in this manual. If you have played the
game before, you probably found this review simplistic. If you
have never played the game, you undoubtedly found the game
confusing.
Before you risk real money, you have got to understand the
game. And you will never learn the game if you confine your
studies to reading about it. You have got to learn how to play the
game by actually playing it.
There are several ways to go about this. If you want a
simulated experience, you can buy one of the little craps layouts
sold in the gift shops where gaming occurs. If you are computer
literate, you can practice on one of the casino software packages
where craps is included.
But if you really want to learn the game, you have got to
invest some time playing it. But your play doesn't have to be
haphazard or cost you money.
138
I have shown you versions of Super Craps where as little as
$30 can be used to play a session. This is the level where you
should start your play. Learn about the bets, the rhythm, the feel
of the craps game. Watch the other players. Even the ones who
sign markers for five hundred bucks a whack don't know as much
as you do. They just have a feel for the game. Watch how often
these folks sign for new markers. Their money goes fast, doesn't
it.
Enjoy the cadence of a good stickman. Watch the boxman
settle a dispute with a player. Watch the chips get raked in by the
dealers when the shooter sevens out.
Learn the payoffs on the bets you will make. Don't Pass
and Don't Come pay even money, so this isn't much of a
challenge. But the six and eight placed pay off at 7 to 6. If your
139
wager is for $48, you better know that the payoff is for $56, plus
your original wager of $48, for a total of $104. Dealers make
mistakes.
I have recently been playing in a lot of non Las Vegas
casinos in places like Mississippi and New Mexico. The games
are great. The dealers are usually friendly. But I have seen more
dealer mistakes than I ever saw in my years of playing in Las
Vegas.
A typical mistake I have encountered many times is not
being paid on a winning Don't Come bet.
Don't Come wagers are not common craps bets. When you
make these wagers, they will probably be the only Don't Come
wagers on the table. And dealers don't see these wagers that often.
So they forget to pay them off when a 7 is rolled. They go
through their practiced motions of picking up Pass Line wagers
and odds, raking in all of the Come and Place bets, paying any
Come Bets in the Come Betting Area and they forget the lowly
Don't Come bet sitting at the rear of the box numbers. It is your
job to watch your own bet.
Not only have I had dealers forget to pay off winning Don't
Come bets, I have had dealers sweep up these bets after a 7 is
rolled, when they should be paying the wager off.
I have had winning craps numbers rolled on a Don't Come
Come-Out and the dealer just stares at the wager instead of paying
it off.
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You don't have to become a Craps expert. It doesn't matter
if you ever learn anything about those proposition bets down in the
center of the table. You don't need to worry about computing odds
payoffs. But you better learn about Don't Pass, Don't Come and
Placing the 6 and 8, because you are responsible for your own
bets.
Bankroll
I have discussed bankroll throughout this book. It's the
money you bring for gambling. And the total amount you bring
should be at least five times the size of your planned session
bankroll.
You can approach the bankroll issue a couple of ways.
You can decide on the size of your session buy in and then
accumulate the total bankroll needed for play. Or you can use the
amount of your bankroll to determine the size of your session buy
in.
But either way, you must bring a Total Bankroll at least
five times the size of your Session Bankroll.
Bankroll is more than just the money you can grab for a
gambling jaunt. It is your investment capital for your gambling
venture. It is the basis of anything else you hope to do with the
Super Craps strategy. Without it you are dead.
Most gamblers are extremely careless with their bankrolls.
And they end up losing them. With the thought of this loss in
mind, most gamblers start the contest with the casino woefully
141
undercapitalized. They don't bring enough money to do the job.
And the reason they don't bring more money is that they are afraid
of losing it. This fear is real, because it is based on their previous
experiences with casino gambling.
So we have a conflict when it comes to the amount of
bankroll. Many people feel they are being conservative when they
bring less, when in reality, by not bringing enough they are
guaranteeing that they will lose whatever they bring.
Craps is a game where you have got to have money to
make money. I don't know how many times I have seen down and
out gamblers buy in for twenty bucks at a five dollar minimum
table. And they usually last about five minutes. With a buy in
only four times the size of the minimum bet required, they really
don't have much of a chance.
This same principle applies whether the buy in is for twenty
bucks or five hundred. A person buying in for $500 who makes
hundred dollar wagers is no wiser than his poorer relation who
risks twenty bucks and makes five dollar wagers. The Session
Bankroll has got to be large enough to do the job. And that
includes riding out losing periods and still having enough chips
left to come back and end up a winner.
With the Super Craps strategy, you don't have to guess the
amounts you need for craps play. But you must not cut corners
either. If you decide to use $500 as your Session Bankroll, you
must bring $2,500 as your Total Bankroll. If you only have
$1,500, your maximum buy in is for $300, not $500.
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Once you bring the correct bankroll, your number one
objective is not to lose it. It is not to double it in two hours or to
win $10,000 in two hours. It is not to lose it.
The Super Craps strategy is inherently a slow winning
strategy. It will not win $10,000 in an hour. But it easily can win
$1,000 a day.
I like to track my progress with the strategy, session by
session. I record the results of every session and keep a running
total of my wins and loses. This is how I know when I have
reached my daily target win. My record keeping shows me. I
suggest that you adopt this discipline. It will not only help you
preserve your bankroll, but is essential in building it to larger and
larger amounts.
Discipline
You have now got a winning craps system that you can use.
So the battle with the casino is all but certain. You will breeze in
there and relieve those guys of some of their money and then
breeze out richer and wiser.
I've got new for you. Those guys are waiting for you.
They love system players. They build new hotel wings on the
backs of system players.
Is this because every system is bad? Of course not. Many
systems are quite good. It's the players who are bad.
143
I don't mean "bad" in a judgmental sense, as in "bad
people." They are bad at developing and applying the discipline
necessary to engage in battle with the casino and walk out of there
with the casino's money.
Discipline is tough. The casino has it and you probably
don't. They sit there with their bankroll exposed to one and all for
twenty four hours a day. They must accept any legal bet, and they
can't cut and run when you start to clean their plough. They have
to put up or shut up. But they have discipline. They will pay off
your winning bets and wait until the tide turns. A virtually
unlimited bankroll, at least as compared to the individual player's
bankroll doesn't hurt, but that is not their real secret. They have
discipline and the players don't.
As a player, you have many advantages over the casino.
You don't have to give the casino a shot at your entire bankroll
every time you play. You don't have to play whenever the casino
wants you to you pick the time and place. You can press the
casino when you are winning and walk when the casino starts to
win. You have every advantage, except for the house vig, and if
you stick with the Super Craps bets, the house vig is almost
irrelevant. But the casino has discipline and the chances are, you
don't.
A funny thing happens to most people when they engage in
casino gaming. Their personalities change. Conservative people
become plungers. Quiet folks start screaming. People who would
drive five miles to save a buck will drop a hundred bucks in five
minutes and just shrug their shoulders. People who budget every
144
household expense become raging spendthrifts. They don't have
discipline.
The casinos know this. They do everything within their
power to lull you into voluntarily handing them your money. I
believe that casino managers are the best applied psychologists in
the world. And even the ones who aren't world calibre at this
game keep raking it in. Because the players make it easy for the
casinos. I believe that a couple of rules in the craps games could
be changed so that the wagers would give the players a
mathematical edge and that the outcome would probably be that
the casinos would win more.
Blackjack has enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity
since the publication of card counting strategies. The first reaction
of the casinos was one of fear. Players could actually beat one of
their games. They reacted by clamping down on the card counters
and even changing the rules of blackjack. They should have
consulted me. I would have told them to relax, the publicity about
card counting would help the casinos win even more. But they
didn't ask me. They found out the hard way. Now the trend is
toward relaxing many of the retaliatory rules against card counters.
Because the players continue to come in and beat themselves at
the game.
You want to become disciplined? Get serious about your
gambling. Okay, maybe I am being too hard on you. You bought
this book after all. That shows you want to learn from someone
with more experience than you. But you may not be willing to
accept all that I am trying to tell you. I know that many of you are
looking for the secret that will make winning an automatic deal no
145
matter how you behave. And I regret to inform you that "there
ain't no such deal." And there never will be. You have got to
develop the discipline to overcome your own tendencies which the
casinos rely on to beat yourself.
Here's how the typical undisciplined gambler would use the
Super Craps strategy. First, he would use whatever bankroll he
could scrounge up, and then divide it into no more than two
Session Bankrolls. He would start out playing the system as it is
described until a hot roll ensued. After losing a couple of Wrong
bets as the shooter rolled numbers, our undisciplined gambler
would decide to start making Come Bets, because after all, I could
not have known that this hot shooter would be making number
after number and if I did, I would probably be the first to advise
them to go for it.
So, out go the Come Bets with a few more Place bets
thrown in for good measure. Since the Super Craps strategy calls
for placing the 6 and the 8, placing the 5 and 9 in addition is only
logical and our earnstwhile player does just that.
This "new and improved" strategy does pretty well for a
few rolls. And then the inevitable happens. The shooter sevens
out. Down go the Come bets. The dealer rakes in the Place bets.
Our undisciplined player feels a lump in his throat. But never
mind. He still has the Super Craps strategy. So he jumps his next
wager up a couple of levels. He reasons that since he lost so much
on the other bets that a higher than called for wager is needed to
even things up.
146
The next shooter is uncooperative. He doesn't care that you
just wagered a large amount against him. He rolls his point. He
rolls a Come Out seven.
Now our undisciplined player is feeling panicky. He has
only a few chips left. Not enough to follow any system. So he
starts making Hard Way bets. A Hard 8, paying 9 to 1 or a Hard
4, at 7 to 1 can do wonders for a diminishing bankroll.
Finally, our chagrined player is down to his last chip. He
throws the chip to the stickman calling "Five dollar Yo." The next
roll is a craps. His bet goes down.
He immediately reaches in his pocket and pulls out the
remainder of his bankroll. And in about thirty minutes he is down
to two chips. His mind is racing. He reasons that since he didn't
follow my advice and bring five times his Session Bankroll, he
can correct that now by getting a credit card advance. His head is
pounding.
I will let you finish the end of this sad story. Our hero will
lose the credit card advance, develop an even worse headache and
decide that I mislead him about craps. And the dealers cheated
him as well. Hopefully at this point, he will finally leave the
casino. Some don't. They stay until they have lost everything,
even their dignity. And the fault is never theirs. It is that damned
casino. Or that lousy system which doesn't work.
You have got to use discipline every minute while you are
playing. Every ingredient I have shared with you is essential.
147
You can't apply just the techniques you like and expect to win.
You must learn to control every aspect of your own play.
Patience
Patience. The bane of all gamblers. If you want to make
money slowly, why gamble? Isn't gambling all about making a
killing in the shortest possible time?
I suppose it can be. You can win the lottery or the
Kentucky Derby. Or a rich uncle may die and leave you his
fortune. These things happen all the time. But let's add another
ingredient. And that's probability. How probable is it that you
will win the lottery or a million dollar slot machine payoff? Or
that Uncle Ned, who has been living like a hermit all these years,
was really a stock market guru and plans on leaving you his
fortune?
I have to deal with probabilities every day. I have
encountered over ten thousand gamblers in my day. Do you want
to know what the smart ones do? Lean closer, I'll whisper it to
you. They lose money all the time, but still walk away with most of
their bankroll intact. They are not especially lucky, they do their
homework, lose some and win some, but they manage to win
overall. And their secret is their patience.
I hope that I haven't given the impression that even with the
Super Craps strategy, which is the best craps system I have ever
seen, beating the casinos is easy. It is not. I have had lousy days
with this system. You know what I do when I am having such a
day? I walk. I do not double up my bets to recoup losses. I leave
148
the casino, hat in hand so to say, and forget about my losses. I
know that tomorrow is another day, the casinos will still be there,
and most likely I will win back the amount lost and then some.
One thing you can do, short of walking out of the joint, is
to pause your play in the middle of a session. Here's what I do.
Say that I have just lost three Wrong bets straight up, that
is, with no intervening wins. The table seems to be heating up.
Lots of bets are down on the box numbers. Now I can't forecast
what is going to happen next. I don't believe that anyone can do
that. But here's where I'm coming from. My Wrong betting is
starting to take a beating. I've got the 6 and 8 placed and these
wagers have won a couple of times. There is no law that says I
have to bet Wrong every turn of the dice.
So I may back off for a few rolls. I know, it sounds like I
am changing the rules, but I am not. I am just trying to show you
that even with a good set of rules like the ones in my Super Craps
strategy, sometimes it pays to be cautious.
Let's continue our example. The shooter rolls a string of
numbers and hits my Place bets several more times. He finally
sevens out. Now I make the next Wrong bet in the Betting Series.
What did I lose by backing off for one shooter? Nada. Zip. I
might have won my Wrong wager. Then again, I might have lost
it. But I listened to a tiny voice inside my head that said, "Maybe
this guy is going to continue this string of passes, and maybe I
ought to back off."
149
The original Super Craps strategy did not use Place bets or
any other Right bets. It was a pure Don't betting scheme. But,
even with my discipline and experience, I had a hell of a time not
making some Right bets during a hot roll. The worst time for the
Wrong bettor is when a shooter is making number after number
and he has to just watch and wait until the table turns. For me, it
was awful. Yet I knew that nearly all Right bettors get clobbered
and I knew that my Wrong betting approach was the best way to
play the game.
So I started experimenting with limited Right betting. I
tried adding a couple of Come Bets with odds. I tried various
combinations of Place bets. I tried different timing schemes. And
finally I came up with the Right betting strategy which is now a
part of the Super Craps strategy.
I like it. I admit that it was developed because I didn't
always have the patience to wait out hot rolls. Now I don't have
to.
But getting back to holding off a couple of rolls from
betting. There's almost no downside to missing one shooter's rolls
at a dice table. There is plenty of downside if you are
experiencing a string of losses betting Wrong. I am not suggesting
that you second guess every shooter. That will defeat you and
destroy the system. But if you have experience three quick losses,
and even though the Super Craps strategy says that you have to
have two losses per shooter before you back off, I have found that
more often than not, it pays to back off after three losses and rely
on the Place bets to enrich you for the remainder of this shooter's
rein.
150
Another thing you will like about this approach is that it
allows you to participate in the manic mood swings of the craps
table. When the table gets hot, it is not much fun to sit on the
sidelines. So don't. After three consecutive losses of Wrong bets,
let your Place bets do your work for you. You can cheer the dice,
if you are so inclined, and when the shooter finally sevens out (as
they always do) you can calmly drop your chips for your next
Wrong bet on the layout.
Putting It All Together
I have been told that the Super Craps strategy is a "grind
system." That is supposed to be a derogatory way of saying that it
takes too long to win with it. I take it as a compliment.
How much of a grind is it to play a few hours and win a
thousand bucks? Or, if you choose to invest more to make more, a
couple of thousand bucks? Or even five thousand bucks?
As part of your education, I want you to experience real
craps action. You will probably be a little intimidated the first
time, but hang in there. Watch the other craps players. If you are
a novice, you may be impressed by any high rollers who join your
table. "Wow," you are thinking, this guy just bought it for ten
grand.
I will tell you a couple of things about these jokers. They
put their pants on the same as you, one leg at a time. And I'll bet
you a hundred dollar bill against a plug nickel that they didn't
make their money gambling. They had a good month in sales. Or
151
they own their own business. Or they are professionals of some
stripe lawyers, doctors or accountants. Or their Uncle Ned just
died, and he really did play the stock market.
Watch their play. The chances are they play like there is a
fire in the other end of the joint and they have only five minutes
left to get all of their chips on the table. They make the dumbest
bets imaginable. And they get clobbered. Zapped.
I don't want you to think that I am picking on high rollers.
The average player is just as dumb. They just don't have the chips
to be as visible. They are making and losing stupid five dollar bets
just as fast as the high roller's five hundred dollar ones.
While you are observing the wonderful characters that
inhabit every craps table, play the Super Craps strategy. Start with
less than a hundred bucks. Keep track of your chips. When you
are up about one-third of your buy in, get ready to take a break. If
you want to keep playing, wait till you lose a couple of bets and
then pull off. But while you are doing this, keep an eye on the
other players who come and go. If there are some big winners at
the table when you pull off to take a break, check back in about
thirty minutes. But make a mental note of how large their chip
stacks are before you leave. When you decide to return to the
table, your winnings intact, chances are that the big fish, who kept
on playing will be down to nickels and quarters (dice jargon for
five dollar and twenty five dollar chips).
152
Guts, knowledge, bankroll, discipline and patience. I know
that you can learn these things. Look for me at the tables. Maybe
we'll share a knowing glance when we are taking our chips to the
cashier.

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