About the Author

HOW A MATH NERD PLAYS CRAPS

Todd Gades is a 37 year old software developer

for a large financial institution. He holds a Bachelors of
Science degree in computer science and a minor in
mathematics from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud,
Minnesota.
Todd is not a professional gambler and does not
claim to make a living from playing craps. Instead, he
has a unique insight into the game of craps and hopes to
simplify the game as well as provide techniques for
playing craps smartly so that anyone can play the game
and have a good shot at coming out ahead.
Todd is married to Amanda Gades and they make
their home in Lakeville, MN. Todd can be reached on
Twitter @YoEleven_

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 Table of Contents Chapter 28 : Build Your Own System .................................... 74

Chapter 1 : Introduction ............................................................ 3

Chapter 2 : Why Craps? ............................................................ 5
Chapter 3 : The Game ............................................................... 8
Chapter 4 : Craps Lingo .......................................................... 12
Craps Table Layout ................................................................. 14
Chapter 5 : The Bets ............................................................... 15
Chapter 6 : Roll Distributions and Probability ....................... 20
Chapter 7 : House Edge .......................................................... 22
Chapter 8 : The Best Bets ....................................................... 23
Chapter 9 : Bankroll ................................................................ 24
Chapter 10 : The Luck Factor.............................................. 28
Chapter 11 : A Simple 6/8 Strategy ........................................ 29
Chapter 12 : An Expansion of the Simple 6/8 ........................ 32
Chapter 13 : Betting Units ................................................... 35
Chapter 14 : Betting the Passline ............................................ 37
Chapter 15 : Passline + Come ................................................. 39
Chapter 16 : More On Place Bets ........................................... 41
Chapter 17 : Buying the 4 and 10 ........................................... 43
Chapter 18 : A Combination Strategy ..................................... 44
Chapter 19 : Expanding on the Combination Strategy ........... 46
Chapter 20 : Guarantee a Profit .............................................. 48
Chapter 21 : Other Systems .................................................... 51
Chapter 22 : Martingale Betting ............................................. 55
Chapter 23 : Fibonacci betting ................................................ 57
Chapter 24 : Pressing Strategies .......................................... 59
Chapter 25 : True Stories ........................................................ 62
Chapter 26 : Etiquette ............................................................. 69
Chapter 27 : Electronic Games ............................................... 72

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How a Math Nerd Plays Craps
Chapter 1 : Introduction
The game of craps, I believe, is easily the most
fun game in the casino. And aside from counting cards
or cheating at a game, it offers the best chance to
actually win money. The poker boom of recent years
has brought a lot of attention to casino gambling. More
and more states are allowing casinos as a source of
revenue, and more and more people are gambling in
hopes of being like the people they see on TV winning
money. Lets face it though, not everyone can be a poker
professional. Very few can, actually - ditto for being an
expert card counter at blackjack. Not to mention the
chance of being caught and banned from casinos
forever!
Craps, however, takes very little skill to play well -
very well, in fact. Played well, I believe it is the easiest
game to consistently have the best shot at making
money. You can play with almost no house edge at
times, meaning you only need to get slightly lucky to be
successful. Just one or two random rolls of the dice out
of 100 in your favor can turn the tides and give YOU the
advantage over the casino. Even if the dice are slightly
out of your favor, you can still profit from craps. There
are no basic strategy systems to memorize with large
3
and complex tables that end up being not-so-basic, and
no shrewd ways of playing which require advanced
intelligence. This can be a beatable game in the short
haul, which is what most of us play, and I hope to tell you
the best ways of how to do it.
Im a self-professed math nerd and proud of it.
True, it doesnt make a lot of women swoon, but it does
help a lot in terms of earning money, keeping money, and
making money grow (no, not on treesat least not yet). I
have a degree in mathematics and have always enjoyed
applying it in real life. Applying mathematics at a craps
table in order to make money while gambling seems
more interesting to me than calculating the strength of a
bridge or ideal insurance rates, how about you?
In my college days pursuing a computer science
degree, I spent a lot of late nights in the computer lab
working on programming projects. One night my lab
partner and I got bored and decided to download what
was a new phenomenon back then - an online casino!
We fired up the craps table and were completely lost as
to just what the #@%& was going on. Sometimes bets
won, sometimes they lost. Sometimes the same number
rolled on the dice would win for a bet and sometimes it
would lose for that same bet! WTF is going on here?
we thought. It must be a software error! So we decided
to figure out what the program's glitch was, looked up the
rules to the game and found out the program was
working correctly, we just didnt understand the game!
It turned out I had found the game which intrigues
me to no end. The math involved here, the probabilities,
the house edge, betting strategies, money management math cannot be avoided at times, but Ill try my best to
strategies, betting progression theories theres some keep it simple.
serious depth and potential here. And it isnt difficult to
play this game well!
So what is this book about? Ive taught many of
my friends the game of craps. Some play it with me,
some dont. Some win money, some dont. But, suffice it
to say, we have fun, and Im addicted to it. Ive been
successful playing craps. Im not going to BS you; I dont
play thousands of dollars for hours upon hours, winning
tens of thousands of more dollars. I go with my wife and
friends to Las Vegas and we want to hit the pool, we
want to hit the buffet, we want to do some people
watching. We're truly "low-rollers". For the most part, Id
say Ive recouped about a third of all my Vegas expenses
playing craps. Are there mega jackpots? No. Go waste
time and money at the slots if you want a shot at that. Do
I earn tons of comps points such that casinos are
asking me to come play and giving me tons of freebies
to keep me happy? No. A math nerd plays to win some
money for dinners, get some free drinks while playing,
maybe help pay for the airfare, and some extra
entertainment bucks.
This book isnt about math. I wont bore you with a
bunch of formulas and advanced concepts. They might
just bore and confuse you even more and turn you off to
the game. Instead Ill try to explain the math in more
real-world terms. If you can count chips and do some
simple adding and subtracting, you will easily be able to
handle the math involved in the game of craps. The

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Chapter 2 : Why Craps?
Why does a math nerd choose craps to play?
Why does a math nerd gamble in a casino at all? These
are both great questions. All casino games are set up for
the player to lose. Yes, all. Including craps! An
extreme math nerd would avoid a casino altogether and
buy 10-year treasury notes or something similarly FDIC
insured. *Yawn* I cant chastise him that much, because
those products will make you money, but seriously?
Booorriiing..!!
Im interested in taking a risk of losing some of my
hard-earned money, though, and likely you are too if
youre reading this book.
Blackjack is one game that a player can get an
advantage over the house if he or she is an expert player
who has memorized basic strategy and is a perfect card
counter. Card counting is an entire book in and of itself,
but it takes months and years of practice to learn and
play it perfectly. Then you actually have to get away with
it in a casino, and casinos are becoming more and more
adept at catching card counters! Teams of counters
have been able to further exploit this advantage and even
increase it. But again, very few people are able to
perform this expert skill. Even fewer could be part of a
successful counting team.
A solo card counter may be able to get away with
it if he or she is good. But a card counter must play a
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very long time in order to eek out a small 2% or so
advantage. The casinos normally have this advantage,
and they are open 24 hours a day and always playing,
which is why they are the winners in the long run. On top
of that, casinos are now changing the rules of blackjack
to dissuade counters. They will pay less than the
traditional 3 to 2 for blackjacks and/or increase the
number of decks in play - both of which are not
advantageous for the player.
Another problem I have with blackjack is the
shuffle. Assuming a player has basic strategy
memorized and plays it strictly and every player at the
table plays it strictly, the players destiny is essentially
determined once the shuffle and cut is complete. Those
cards are not coming out randomly; they are in a set
order. The shuffle itself may mix up the cards very well,
but it is not random by any stretch of the definition. That
small 2% advantage comes into play assuming a player
goes against many shuffles, whereby you are likely to
see a fair distribution of cards such that it appears
random.
Ive been at a blackjack table where I played
perfect basic strategy and yet lost 7 hands in a row.
Why? The shuffle simply was not in my favor. Had I
gone outside the basic strategy and done something
incorrectly, I could have potentially altered the outcome
of my hands to shift them in my favor. (Maybe I should
have!) But you are essentially a robot if you are playing
basic strategy blackjack. Theres no creativity in playing
like a robot. Craps, on the other hand, is full of creativity!
(More on that soon)
The opposite can also be true; the shuffle may be
so much in your favor that it doesnt matter much how
you play, those cards are just coming out winners for you
over and over. This is where a counter really does his
damage. Personally though, it really bugs me when Im
playing how the math and strategy dictates I should play,
but I keep losing because the decks order was against
me the entire time.
What about slots? A math nerd would say that
slots are simply a waste of time. They require no skill
and are boring. They are not random either, despite
clever computer algorithms that make it look like the
numbers are random. The machines are programmed to
pay out a certain amount and keep a certain amount. In
many states, this is actually a legal requirement, not a
casinos choice. Over the long run every machine will
have to pay out a big jackpot or it will be breaking the
gaming laws. You may, I emphasize may, be able to
track how long certain machines have gone before
theyve paid a jackpot to help determine when it may be a
good time to hop on, but lets face it, youve got better
things to do. If you must play slot machines, play low
denominations and make sure you get a free drink or two
while you play.
How about Video Poker? This can be a lucrative
game for a math nerd. But again, there is a different
basic strategy for every type of poker game which needs
to be memorized and practiced. On top of playing
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hundreds or possibly thousands of scenarios perfectly,
you must get a machine with a favorable pay table in
order to get your 98% or 99% expected payout, and then
hope you get some favorable hands dealt to you. And
you have to find a machine that no one else is using!
There are a lot of people in the casino who know which
machines have the good pay tables, and those machines
are the ones people flock to.
Live poker is a game that can be beaten, but
again, this takes years of practice in reading people,
knowing how to tell tells (pun intended), and take
advantage of weaker players, all while knowing when
you, yourself, are beat and when to get out of a hand.
Very few people are successful in this business.
Roulette is a fun game, but the house edges on
the bets are very high. If you can find a wheel with only
one single-green-zero slot, youve got better chances of
coming out ahead, but realistically the bets in this game
have a house edge that are too high for a math nerd to
take seriously.
Craps however is a game of virtually true
randomness with the dice throws, excellent bets with
house edges as low as 1% or lower, and a helluvalotta
fun to play! Many people shy away from it because it
looks very complex. My hope in this book is to break
down the complexity of craps into smaller parts that are
simple to understand. Some people are embarrassed to
step up to a craps table because they dont know how to
play. Or worse they get up to a table thinking they are
a hot shot only to lose their shorts because they dont
know how to play. Im here to show you the good bets,
the not-so-good-bets, explain the game, and tell you the
best ways of how to win. Craps is a good mix of skill and
luck. The luck, of course, is in the dice throws. The skill
is in making good bets, knowing when to bet more,
knowing when to bet less, and in managing your money
wisely.
Winning at gambling always feels good, no matter
what game you are playing. But unlike losing at
blackjack or video poker, when I lose at craps it is more a
feeling of, Oh well, the dice just werent rolling my way
this time! than a feeling of It didnt matter what I did
because the cards just kept coming out against me,
theres nothing I could do about it!" or "This stupid
machine! In craps, all that needed to have happened
was for that one die to have flipped a hair more to one
side and avoided a bad number for you. In blackjack,
guess what? If you sat down when the deck was in a
bad shuffle for you, youre screwed and thats final.
This is why I love craps. Anyone can easily make
the best bets in the house and get extremely low house
edges. Craps is a very social game and you can play
with friends or even make new friends at a table. All of
this and it doesnt require memorizing any complicated
perfect systems, doesnt require advanced intelligence,
and doesnt require hours and days and months and
years of practice. So here it is how I, a math nerd,
plays craps

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Chapter 3 : The Game
If you already know the rules of the game, Ill be
honest, skip this chapter. The one-liners contained
herein arent that good. Go directly to chapter 6. Do not
pass GO. Do not collect $200. (Well, hopefully you will
on the felt).
Okay for those of you still left and not yet bored
out of your mind, first thing you do - hop on the internet
and download a craps game. There are many out there,
either online casinos (which dont require you to play with
real money) or a standalone software program. Practice
makes perfect is what my mother always said, and I
believe it to be true here as well. Once I get into talking
about my strategies, youll find being able to practice
them on a computer simulation game is an invaluable
asset.
But let me talk about the live game. First, theres
one guy in a casino uniform holding a big stick. No, he
does not whip you with it, even if you ask him to. He
uses it to gather up the dice as the shooter throws em.
On each end of the table stands a dealer in an equally
bad and matching uniform. Hes the one taking your
chips when you lose and giving you more when you win.
In between the dealers is the boxman, usually wearing a
normal business suit, thank goodness. Hes there to
monitor everything, track comps, rule on any iffy-bets that
some drunk slob threw out onto the table just as the dice
8
were being thrown, and generally harass you about your
funny looking Minnesota drivers license after he cards
you (It happened to me, seriously!). Around the rest of
the table stand the players. Which brings me to another
point - why the #@%& dont they bring chairs? But I
digress
Heres how the game works. Im not going to
discuss the bets right now. Instead, you first need to
understand the flow of the game before you start
throwing chips on the felt. If you dont understand how
the game works, then youll lose chips like we did with
the online casino back in the college computer lab, I
promise.
Lets say a brand new table opens up with a group
of frat boys on spring break. The guys start throwing
chips around and the dice are handed to one of them by
the stickman. Dont worry about how the frat boys are
betting just yet, well get to that. For now, I just want to
explain the flow of the game.
The person rolling the dice is called the shooter,
and he rolls the dice to the opposite end of the table to
start a game. Think of a game as a series of rolls, as
short as 1, as long as infinity, during which the shooter
either wins or loses.
I know what you are thinking: Whoa math nerd!
Infinity? Stop talking theoretical BS here, WTF does that
mean?
A pass means the shooter has won a game. A
miss means theyve lost the game.
 Ok ok so how do you win?
You know in the movies or on TV, people jump up
and down whenever someone rolls a 7? Or the Elvis
line, "Let me shoot a 7 on every shot"? If its the first roll
of a new game and you toss a 7, bingo! Thats an
immediate pass (win). Same if its an 11.
Oh yeah, 7 come 11, Ive heard that before!
The flip side though and youll see
EVERYTHING in craps has a flip side is craps. 2, 3,
and 12 are called the craps numbers. If the first roll of a
new game is craps, its an immediate miss (loss).
These rules for 2, 3, 7, 11, and 12 only apply to
the first roll of the game, called the comeout roll. It
has nothing to do with a closet, its just the first roll of the
game. Its an important term, though, so remember it!
Read this paragraph again. Repeat it until you firmly
have a solid understanding of the comeout roll. (Hint: its
in the boldface text!)
Now that you know the first roll of the game is the
comeout roll, maybe youre wondering, How can you tell
if the next roll is a comeout roll?
There are 3 ways to know if the next roll is a
comeout roll. First, the stickman will say its the comeout
roll just before the shooter throws the dice. Second, the
black pucks in front of the dealers will say OFF. Look on
your internet craps game or software program, you will
see a round black marker about the size of a hockey
puck that either is black and says OFF or is white and
9
says ON. Third, if a new person becomes the shooter,
his or her first roll is always a comeout roll. Again, the
stickman will say something like, new shooter coming
out!
Okay, so we covered 2, 3, 7, 11, and 12 for the
comeout roll, what about the other numbers? This is the
meat of the game. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 are the other
possible numbers you can roll. If this happens, that
number becomes the point. The shooters goal is to
then roll that same number again which is called the
point before he or she rolls a 7. Again, read this
paragraph one more time. Its important you understand
what the points are, and how the shooter tries to roll their
point a second time. Lets go through a quick example
Lets say the comeout roll is a 7. Its a pass!
Way to gooooo, shootah! High fives all around! A new
game starts right away, because the previous one just
ended with a pass/win (remember I said a game could be
as few as 1 roll?).
Next comeout roll is a 2. Craps! A loser! Well
easy come, easy go, right?
Lets give this a 3rd try. New comeout roll is 5.
Okay, thats a point number. The point is a 5. The
dealer will now take the black puck which says OFF, flip it
over to the white side that says ON and move the puck
next to the number 5.
So whats this point thing mean again, math
nerd?
 The shooter will now roll over and over and over Player 1 throws again: its an 11 (notice this is
until they either roll the 5 again, in which case, the game NOT a win because its not the comeout roll)
is another win, people jump up and down and scream
Player 1 throws again: its a 6! Winnah winnah 6!
(oh.. so this is why there are no chairs!), or they roll a 7
The game is a pass or win!
and the frat boys start swearing and bragging about how
much better THEY could have done. If he does roll a 7,
thats called sevening out, and it means the game is
New game, player 1 keeps the dice and throws on
lost. The dealer will flip the puck back to the OFF side
the comeout roll: its a 3. Craps a loser! (But he
and move it to the end of the table. The dice will then
keeps the dice because he did not seven out)
move to the next player on the left, and the whole
shootin match starts over with a new comeout roll. Player 1 throws another comeout roll: its a 10
(The point is now 10)
So what does this mean for betting? Right now
Im just explaining the flow - how a game starts, how it Player 1 throws: trying to roll another 10, but
ends and how the dice move around the table. But instead its a 7! Seven out! The game is a miss or
generally, you can make a bet that the shooter will win loss, and the dice are given to the next player
their game, OR you can even bet that the shooter will
lose their game. If you are correct in how you bet the
game will end, youll win. If youre not, youll lose. New shooter player 2: come out roll is 7!
Automatic win on the 7 since it was a comeout roll!
Heres another example which will help you
Cue shouting and high fives!
newbies :
Player 2 a new come out roll is a 4. (The point is
4)
Player 1 is the shooter: come out roll is a 6 (The
point is 6) Player 2shooting for the 4: Its an 8. Nothing
exciting happens here.
Player 1 throws again: trying to roll another 6
nope, its a 5. Player 2 throws again and this time its a 4!
Winnah winnah 4! Player 2 made their point! Cue
Player 1 throws again: trying to roll a 6 nope its high fives once again!
a 9.

10
 Got it? Thats the flow of the game. Notice how
the same shooter keeps the dice until he or she sevens
out. That is when the table is wiped clean of all losing
bets, winners are paid and a new shooter starts. Try a
few games on your internet game or software program
and you should be able to follow it after a short time. You
can now step up to a table and know just what the heck
is going on. But uh you have no idea how to bet yet!

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Chapter 4 : Craps Lingo Nickel : $5 chip

Quarter : $25 chip (You may ask a dealer when buying

Heres a list of terms Ive heard and know about
in to give you nickels, or quarters, or both)
which you may also hear. I will use a lot of these
throughout the book so hopefully these will help you out.
Aces : A roll of 2. (Each die has a 1)
Shooter : The player who is throwing the dice.
Ace-Deuce : A roll of 3.
Line / Front Line : Same as the Passline.
No-field 5: A roll of 5. (The field loses when a 5 is rolled)
Backline : Same as Dont Passline
Forty-five: A roll of 9 where the dice show a 4 and 5.
Sometimes also called a Colt, as in the handgun, Colt
Seven out : When the player rolls a 7 instead of their
45.
point number. The game is considered a loss.
Puppy Paws : A roll of 10 where the dice show two 5s. If
Line Away : What the stickman often says when a
you look, they resemble puppy paws.
shooter sevens out.
Yo / Yo 11 : A roll of 11. Eleven sounds very similar to
Pay the line : When the stickman often says when a
Seven, so to avoid confusion, people will say Yo instead.
shooter makes his or her point. The game is considered
a win.
Boxcars : A roll of 12.
Comin out : The next roll is a comeout roll.
Hard : a roll of doubles, i.e. 2,2 or 3,3, etc.
Craps : A roll of 2, 3, or 12.
Easy : a non-doubles roll, i.e. 2,6, or 4,6, etc.
Bones : Dice
3x, 4x, 5x odds : The maximum bet allowed in odds is 3-
times your bet for the 4 and 10, 4-times your bet for the 5
Checks : Same as chips

12
and 9, and 5-times your bet for the 6 and 8. Some tables one $100 chip instead of twenty $5 chips... it's easier to
will have different variations but 3x, 4x, 5x is common. carry)

Color me up : Asking the dealer to count your remaining

chips and give you the correct change in fewer chips. (i.e

13
 Craps Table Layout

14

Chapter 5 : The Bets
Look at a picture of a craps table. Pretty wild,
huh? Or as a Canadian would say, Pretty wild, eh?
Better yet, look at one with chips on it. Even crazier! But
hey, Im here to help.
Passline This is the outer ring closest to where you
stand, and where you typically see chips directly in front
of a player. What does it mean? It means youre betting
that the shooter is going to pass, or win this next game.
It pays even money which means youll win the same
amount as your bet if you win. Remember the 7 or 11 on
the comeout roll? Thats the passline. Remember
making the point? Thats the passline. Remember
sevening out? Thats the passline. The passline is used
in many of my strategies, so you should take some time
to understand it. If you bet here and the shooter rolls a 7
or 11 on the comeout roll you will win the same amount
as your bet. If the shooter makes the point you will win
your bet. But if you bet here and the shooter loses the
game, either by throwing 2, 3, or 12 on the comeout roll,
or by sevening out, your chips are swept away to the
dealers stack. NOT what a math nerd likes to see! But
the house edge here is only 1.4%, which means that over
time, for every $100 wagered on the passline, the casino
is expected to take $1.40 in profits for themselves.
Thats outstanding in terms of casino odds. You will
15
always want to make bets with the lowest house edges
because mathematically, these are considered better
than bets with high house edges. Once you've bet on the
passline and a point has been established, you cannot
remove that bet, it is locked in place until the game has
finished.
But wait, there's more! The passline unlocks the
key to the best bet in the house. The only bet in the
entire casino which has 0.00% house edge. No, I'm not
joking. That's right... NO HOUSE EDGE! It's
appropriately named the odds bet. If you've made a bet
on the passline and a point is established, you can then
add more money to the bet and get paid TRUE ODDS on
those extra chips if the point number is rolled again. You
make this bet by putting more chips behind your passline
bet in the unmarked area of the felt. There are no
markings on the felt for the odds bet. The casino
probably doesnt want you to bet here because they have
no edge. However, dealers will often ask you about
adding odds to a passline bet. Its their job to get more
money on the table.
Besides having no house edge, another great
thing about odds bets are you can also increase or
decrease your odds at any time or even taken them
completely off the table. Here's an example describing
betting on the passline and also adding odds: (Warning,
math ahead!)
 $5 Passline alone : always pays even money. If
the point is 4 or 10, there is a 2:1 disadvantage
(meaning you should lose 2 times for every 1 time
you win). If the point is 5 or 9, there is a 3:2
disadvantage, and there is a 6:5 disadvantage if
the point is 6 or 8.
$5 Passline + $10 odds : pays $5 + true odds if
you win :
If they make the 4 or 10 as the point, you'll get paid $25.
($5 pass + 2/1 x ($10 odds)) So you risked $10 more,
but won $20 more!
If they make the 5 or 9, you'll get paid $20. ($5 pass +
3/2 x ($10 odds)) So you risked $10 more, but won $15
more!
If they make the 6 or 8, you'll get paid $17. ($5 pass +
6/5 x ($10 odds)) So you risked $10 more, but won $12
more!
Playing "double odds" in this example, $10, or twice your
passline bet of $5, reduces the house edge down to a
measly 0.6%. Thats almost nothing! Passline + odds is
very powerful.
16
Dont Pass Simply put, its the exact opposite of the
passline with one exception: the 12 will not win on this
bet, it will push (meaning it doesnt win or lose). Not
many people bet on the dont pass line. If they do, they
are said to be betting on the dark side and can be the
target of a lot of negative chi. However, it also has a
1.4% house edge, so for a math nerd its actually a really
good bet. But like the red-headed stepchild, it just
doesnt get much attention. This bet is really good on a
cold table, where shooters are not making their points
and are sevening out often. Like the passline, it pays
even money for winning bets.
Field This bet looks really enticing. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11,
12! Look at all those numbers! And it pays even money!
If the next roll is one of these numbers, you win.
Otherwise, you lose. Ah but a math nerd would do
some counting here there are 16 ways you can make
these numbers, out of 36 total possible rolls. Uh 16/36
is quite a bit short of even 50-50, which is what the bet
pays if you win. 16 ways to win and 20 to lose!?
However, most casinos pay double for the 2 and 12,
some will even pay triple for the 12. So that brings you
up to as high as 19 wins for 20 losses which is better, but
that is still short of 50-50. This setup with the payout
double for the 2 and triple for the 12 has a house edge of
about 2.75%. Not bad, but we can do better.
Come This is exactly the same as the passline, except
you only bet here after a point has been established. I
know what youre thinking, Huh? The come bet often
confuses new craps players, but it's not that difficult to
understand if you can see it in action on your online
craps game. Within the game where the shooter
establishes a point for the passline, you can have
separate new mini-games for the come bet! Wild!!! It
pays the same amount as the passline - even money. It
also pays on the 7 or 11 if its not a comeout roll and
loses on 2, 3, or 12. Otherwise the chip is moved up to
the new point number just rolled and youve got a new
come point working outside of the passline point! As
you might expect, the house edge here is also 1.4%.
You can also add odds bets to come point numbers just
like the passline. Put the chips down on the felt and tell
the dealer you want to add odds to the bet. The dealer
will stack the extra chips on top of the come bet. Try this
bet on your online craps game simulation and it will make
more sense. Again, you only make a come bet after a
point has been established (when the puck says ON).
Dont Come Exactly the same as the dont pass bet,
except its made after a passline point is established.
Again, the same exception push rule for the 12 applies.
Push means the bet does not win or lose, nothing
happens. Also, it has a house edge of 1.4%.
17
Place bets Dont see the word place on the table?
Stop looking; it isnt there. Look at the large numbers, 4,
5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. This is where the dealer will put your
chips when you tell them you want a place bet on one of
these numbers. Place bets are great because you can
make them, increase them, reduce them, or even take
them completely off the table at ANY time during the
game. And unlike the passline or come point, the
number only needs to be rolled once to win on a place
bet.
So, hows it work? Very simple - if the number you
bet on is rolled before a 7, youll win. If the 7 shows up
instead, youll lose. Beware that by default, on the
comeout roll these bets are considered Off, meaning
they wont win if the number is rolled and they wont lose
if the 7 shows up. You can, however, ask the dealer to
make your place bets On during a comeout roll if you
wish. This is one reason why the puck says On or Off.
You can easily tell if your place bets are working or not
by looking at what the puck says.
The payouts for place bets vary on the number
and this is important to understand. Most of the bets I
have described up until now all pay even money. But this
is where some of the complexity of craps comes into play
and, unfortunately, why many people shy away from the
game because they dont understand all the payouts.
But they arent too difficult to understand if you look at
them in pairs:
The 4 and 10 each pay $9 for every $5 wagered.
 The 5 and 9 pay $7 for every $5 wagered.
The 6 and 8 pay $7 for every $6 wagered. Yes,
thats correct, SIX dollars wagered. The place 6
and 8 should be made in six-dollar increments.
The house edge for these bets also varies based
on the number. 6s and 8s are pretty good at about
1.5%. A math nerd loves place bets on the 6 and 8, and
you will see I use them extensively. The 5 and 9 are a
little worse at 4%. There are some instances when a
math nerd will place the 5 and 9, but not too often. The 4
and 10 have a house edge of 6.67%. A math nerd
NEVER places the 4 and 10 at this pricebut
Buy bets Instead, a math nerd will BUY the 4 and 10!
If the right conditions exist, that is. A buy bet works the
same as a place bet, except that the casino pays true
odds for the bet, minus a charge or vig, as the casinos
call it. Think of it as a fee you are charged for the
privilege of having the casino pay you true odds for a
winning bet. Always ask the dealer what they will charge
if you buy the 4 or 10 before you make the bet. A math
nerd will look for a casino that will charge only $1 if you
buy the 4 or 10 for $25 and it wins. The 2:1 payout on
this bet is $50, minus the $1 charge, which is only 2% of
the winnings. Not a bad deal. A math nerd will NOT buy
the 5, 6, 8, or 9, as the buy bets have a higher house
edge than the equivalent place 5, 6, 8 or 9. There is no
box on the table for a buy bet, instead the dealer will put
your chips on the number much like a place bet and will
18
put a small token on top of the bet which says "buy" to
indicate it is a buy bet.
Lay bets These are the opposite of a buy bet. Again,
the casino will charge you a fee for this bet. If you lay a
number, you are hoping that the number is NOT rolled
before a 7. A math nerd might lay the 4 and 10 after a
big winning session with about a 2.5% house edge, but
will otherwise stay away from these. Again, ask the
dealer how much they will charge you to lay the 4 or 10.
Sometimes these bets are also called no bets, meaning
you want to bet against the number. $20 no 4 would be
the same as $20 lay 4. Again, a lay bet looks similar to
a buy bet on the table, with a token labeled "Lay" placed
on top of the chips.
Big 6/8 This works like a place bet on the 6 and 8, but
only pays even money. Do yourself a favor, pretend like
you dont see Big 6 or 8 because it is a rip-off. If you win
a big 6 bet with $5, you win $5. Alternatively, if you win a
place bet with $6, you win $7! Place the number instead
and earn the extra money. Casinos put this bet on the
table with big numbers and close to the players as a
sucker bet to players who dont know what theyre doing.
Feel free to point and laugh at someone you see betting
big 6 or big 8. A polite math nerd, though, would explain
to the person the difference and tell them to place the 6
or 8 instead. Some casinos have eliminated the Big 6 /
Big 8 bets from their tables altogether so you might not but it might really make someones day if that bet wins for
even see this bet on the table you play at. them.
The fire bet is another proposition bet that you
see at some tables. It is a bet you would make when a
Proposition bets These bets are in the middle of the
new shooter first gets the dice. If they make 4 unique
table, and the stickman usually controls these bets as
point numbers or more, you will get paid a handsome
they are closest to him. Generally speaking, a math nerd
sum. As you may have anticipated by now, it has a very
will NEVER make a proposition bet with any seriousness
high house edge and should really be avoided. It would
in hopes of winning. These include the hardways bets,
make for a pretty fun story if you had a really hot roll and
where you are hoping that a 4, 6, 8, or 10 is rolled as a
actually won on a fire bet, but youll probably waste a lot
double pair: (2,2), (3,3), (4,4) or (5,5) before the number
of dollars trying to win a fire bet.
is rolled the easy way, such as 4 being rolled as (1,3) or
8 being rolled as (6,2) or (5,3). The doubles way is the Some tables also feature a bet called "All Small,
hard way, hence the name. Hardways bets will win if you All Tall, All or Nothing At All". All Small is a bet that the
roll the number the hard way before your roll the shooter will roll a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 before rolling a 7. All
number the easy way or a 7, in which case they lose. Tall is that they will roll an 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 before a 7.
And All or Nothing At All is that they will roll every number
Other proposition bets are that the next roll will be
EXCEPT a 7. These can be fun and have high payouts,
a 2, 3, 7, 11, or 12, or several combinations of these.
but seriously high house edges, too. A math nerd stays
Some of the combinations have fun names like Horn,
away from them.
Hop, Any Craps, C and E or Any-7. The payouts
for prop bets look high (30 to 1, 15 to 1, etc), but the
house edges for these bets are all very high. The only These are the bets generally accepted at a craps
time a math nerd might play these bets is when he is table. Focus your attention at the passline, odds, and
making a tip bet for a dealer or another player. Yes place bets if you want to review this chapter again.
you can make bets for other people at the table, including
the dealers! If youve been winning, show your
appreciation for the shooter or the dealer by placing one
of these exotic bets for THEM. Even if youve been
losing, consider making a simple tip bet for the dealers as
you leave the table. Yes, you are throwing money away,

19

Chapter 6 : Roll Distributions and
Probability
Now that Ive talked about the bets and how the
game works, we need to take a look at the dice and see
really whats going on here. Weve all thrown dice in
board games since we were kids, but do you really know
what numbers are most likely to show up? A math nerd
will quickly tell you that when throwing 2 dice, there are
36 different number combinations that can show up. 1
thru 6 on one die and 1 thru 6 on the other. 6 times 6 is
36. Here is a diagram showing the roll possibilities:
Total (first die, second die)
2 (1, 1)
3 (1, 2) (2, 1)
4 (1, 3) (2, 2) (3, 1)
5 (1, 4) (2, 3) (3, 2) (4, 1)
6 (1, 5) (2, 4) (3, 3) (4, 2) (5, 1)
7 (1, 6) (2, 5) (3, 4) (4, 3) (5, 2) (6, 1)
8 (2, 6) (3, 5) (4, 4) (5, 3) (6, 2)
9 (3, 6) (4, 5) (5, 4) (6, 3)
10 (4, 6) (5, 5) (6, 4)
11 (5, 6) (6, 5)
12 (6, 6)
Bookmark this page as I will refer to this chart
many times throughout this book. It is very important.
20
Notice that the 7 is the most common number
which should be thrown. It can be made six different
ways. Thats why it is such a key number in the game of
craps. In the bet descriptions in the previous chapter,
many of the bets are won or lost when the 7 is rolled. No
matter what one die is showing, the number 7 can
always be made by the other die. Notice also that
pairs of numbers have the same likelihood of showing
up. The 2 and 12. 3 and 11. 4 and 10. 5 and 9. 6 and
8. Now its making sense why the bets on these pairs
pay out the same amount if they hit, right? You should
remember these pairs, as many of my strategies involve
betting pairs.
Now, in a perfect world where the laws of
probability are strictly obeyed, every group of 36 rolls
would produce one and only one of every combination in
the chart listed on the previous page.
What the heck are you talking about, math nerd?
I mean, if you took 2 dice and rolled them 36 times
and kept track of each die, you would use every possible
one of the combinations on the chart, without any
repeats. Now Im going to tell you that is impossible to
do. Well, ALMOST impossible. Id be willing to bet its
never been done, although I have no proof of this. The
truth is, youre going to have a mix of everything in the
previous chart. You may have rolled only three 7s when
you should have rolled six of them. You may have rolled
three 12s when you should have only 1. Hell, you could
even have thirty-six 12s! But over the long run of
hundreds and thousands of rolls, the roll distributions will
look pretty similar to the chart. Every roll is independent read in my strategy chapters soon. Together, these 2
of the previous one, so you cannot say that you can numbers showed up twelve times instead of the expected
predict a certain number is due because it hasnt ten. If I had been betting only on the 6, Id be pretty
showed up in awhile. Nor can you say other numbers disappointed, but the 6 and 8 together would have been
are repeating and will certainly show up again. Sure, its pretty good!
possible a shooter may hold the dice the same way, toss In groups of 36 rolls, you will almost always have
them the same height, hit the same spot, and the same some numbers showing up more often than they
numbers appear to be showing up, and more power to should, and some showing up less often than they
the guy who can do this (I do believe Ive seen it done should. Theres no way of knowing which ones these
once, and I won a lot of money from that shooter), but a will be, when a cold number will turn hot, or vice
math nerd knows this cannot be relied upon. versa, but know that it definitely happens. Many of the
Now that Ive said all this, consider again a group strategies in this book try to take advantage of these
of 36 consecutive rolls. Try it once yourself and write temperature changes in hopes of catching cold numbers
down how many times each number showed up. This is warming up or hot numbers cooling off. I like to think of
an important exercise, so yes, seriously, go grab a pair of dice rolls in craps as a series of 36 rolls. Which numbers
dice and do it! were hot, which numbers were cold? Of course, the past
does not predict the future, but the rules of probability say
The probability says there should be five 6s rolled.
that eventually, the cold numbers must heat up and the
Did you get exactly five of them? Its possible, but not
likely. What if you got ten 6s? I would certainly want to hot numbers must cool down.
have been betting on that number, wouldnt you? What if
you got only one? I would hope I hadnt been betting on
it!
I just did 36 rolls of my own and rolled only three
6s instead of the expected five. Not good if Im betting
on the 6! So, if there were only three 6s, there must
have been some numbers showing up more often than
they should have, right? I had the 8 appear nine times,
almost twice as often as the probability says it should
have been rolled. This is why I like to bet equivalent
pairs of numbers, like the 6 and 8 together as youll

21

Chapter 7 : House Edge
Okay I mentioned earlier about the house edge of
various bets. Whats up with that and why is it important?
One simple way to think of it is: its the amount of money
that the casino does NOT pay you for winning bets that
the mathematical probability says it should if it were a
perfectly "fair and square" game. Still confused? Lets
step outside the box for a moment and think of a river
current. If you jump off a dock into a river with a flowing
current, youre going to be taken downstream by the
moving water. The higher the percentage of house edge
that a bet carries, think of it as a faster river current, and
youll need to swim even harder to make it back to the
dock. Smaller house edge bets would be a slower river
current, making it easier for you to swim back to the
dock. In other words, get back to even.
Expanding on this river current analogy, you
should also think of the amount of money you are betting.
Lets say you are betting a high amount, $100, on a good
bet like the passline with a house edge of only 1.4%.
Then you bet $1 on a bad proposition bet like Any-7 with
a house edge of over 16%. There is a far greater weight
assigned to the good bet than the bad bet, so in this
instance a math nerd shouldnt yell at you for playing that
horrible Any-7 for $1. Just dont get into the habit of
playing these bad bets too often.
22
Every time you have a winning bet, think of taking
the number of swim strokes upstream into the current
equal to the number of dollars won. Every time you have
a bet lose, take that number of swim strokes
downstream. If youre above the dock, youve won
money. If youre below the dock, youve lost.
Now, also consider the length of time you play.
The longer you play, the longer you have to fight that
current. Even a slow current, if you stay in the water long
enough, will make it hard to swim back to the dock. The
less you play, the less current you have to fight. Thats
why a math nerd wont play craps for hours and hours on
end. Most math nerds are not marathon swimmers. You
probably arent, either.
Typically, I play craps for about 20-30 minutes.
Usually this is sufficient enough time for me to have won
or lost enough to quit. More on when to quit later...
The house edge is probably the most important
thing to a math nerd because all casino games, including
craps, are set up so the casino will win over the long
haul. Generally speaking, the fancier looking the bet, the
better it is for the casino and the worse it is for the player.
The odds bet with no house edge isnt even marked on
the felt anywhere! Minimizing the house edge is vital to a
player who wants to win money consistently. So now Ill
start to tell you what the best bets are, how to play them,
and how to hopefully win on a consistent basis.
 This strategy of passline + odds offers you the
Chapter 8 : The Best Bets best chance to come out ahead in the long run and if
you're going to be playing a long time, say, several hours
or more, this is the only way to play. But craps is a game
This should be a short chapter. The best bets are with so many options and it can be insanely fun to
those that win! Yay, chapter done! Uhokay, you want experiment with. Just passline and odds alone is great,
more than that, I gotcha. A math nerd will tell you the and its a strategy I often play, but there are many other
best bets are those with the lowest house edge, and the strategies and bets which can still give you outstanding
math nerd would be correct. So that rules out ALL of the chances to consistently come out ahead as well as get
proposition bets, but includes the bets like passline + you more involved with the game. Therefore, I will offer a
odds (or come + odds). The dont pass line alone also few other good strategies with low house edges that you
qualifies even though not as many people play it. Place can play. But before I give you a bunch of fun strategies
bets on the 6 and 8 are also some of my favorites, as you for you to try out I need to explain more about bankroll
will soon find out. Other acceptable bets for a math nerd and money management which is probably more
are the field, place 5/9, and buy 4/10. There you have it, important than good bets vs. bad bets.
those are the only bets a math nerd will make at a craps
table!
A math nerd will also tell you to get the lowest
possible house edge, and you should listen. That means
make the minimum bet on the passline (or come) with a
house edge of 1.4% and the maximum amount on the
odds with 0% house edge. And you know what? Hed
be right! Ive been to a casino where the minimum
passline bet was $2 and they let you bet up to 100-times
that on odds. $2 on passline and $200 in odds!?! That
table is a math nerds dream come true! Thats almost a
0% house edge for the combined bets! But lets be
realistic here, Im not willing to bet $202 on a single
number showing up instead of a 7 because thats usually
my entire bankroll for that session.

23

Chapter 9 : Bankroll
If theres only one rule in this book you should
follow it is this: Dont gamble more than you can
afford to lose. Read that sentence again. Read it a 3rd
time. Got it memorized? Beyond all the bets, house
edges and systems I explain in this book, that one rule is
by far the most important. Ill repeat it because its so
important DONT GAMBLE MORE THAN YOU CAN
AFFORD TO LOSE!
So youve looked at your budget and youve got
some extra money youre willing to lose. How much do
you play with? This answer to this first depends on the
table minimums. My rule is the lower the table
minimum, the better. Typical table limits may be $5 -
$2000 or $10 - $5000. The lowest minimum Ive ever
seen was $2 that was a fun table! Unless youve really
got a lot of extra money on hand, you wont be betting
anywhere near those upper limits. If youre that kind of
player, I doubt you have the free time to read this book,
anyway.
Usually I end up playing at a $5 table, which
means the lowest I can bet on the passline is $5. The
lowest I can bet on place 6 or 8 is $6. One point to
remember about the minimums is they do not apply to
the proposition bets like the hardways or any-craps. The
casino will gladly take even $1 on these because theres
such a high house edge for these bets.
24
Okay so lets say youre at a $5 minimum table,
what is a good amount to buy in with? This really
depends on how much you plan on betting. If you are
only going to bet $5 on a simple bet like the passline or
the field, you wont need to buy in for much more than,
say, $50. If you are going to throw in some place bets,
maybe odds for the passline, then multiply whatever the
most money you expect to have out on the felt by about
10. This should be what you buy in for. If this goes over
your limit of what you can afford to lose, then you either
have to bet less or find a lower minimum table, or go
home! Theres no mathematical basis to this 10-fold
number, but you want to make sure you can withstand a
couple of bad luck hits to your bankroll and still have
some in reserve to fight back.
What about when to quit? This is a good question
and a tough one to answer. It follows the old adage of,
buying stocks is a science, but selling stocks is an art
form. One good answer for when to quit is, quit before
your plane or bus leaves for home! But I hope you wont
be playing THAT long. Instead, set some win goals and
loss goals. A 10-20% win of your initial bankroll is
certainly a reasonable win goal. Thats $10 to $20 if your
buy-in was $100. It might not sound like much, but when
you consider you are fighting a house edge - swimming
against that current - ANY profit, really, is good since all
casino games are set up for you to lose. Most people
consider a 10-20% gain in the stock market a good gain
for an entire YEAR!
 Also consider where you have been during the
game with your bankroll. Did you lose a bunch right
away but have fought back to get even with the house?
Maybe thats a good time to quit. Are you already up
20% on your very first roll? Maybe thats a good time to
keep going; your next bet is essentially playing with the
houses money.
Here are the limits I try to adhere to. Notice I said
try to. No one is perfect, this is a fun and infectious
game and you can get caught up in the action VERY
easily, as you will read later in my true stories chapter.
First of all, I say quit if you have lost half of your buy-in
amount. Obviously the rolls are not going your way at
this point. Swallow some pride and take a few chips with
you away from the table and try again later. Losing is
bad enough, but nothing is worse than leaving with
nothing! Its happened to me and it wasnt a good feeling
losing my last chip. One trick I sometimes use is to put
half of the chips in my pocket and leave them there. If
you buy in for $100, put $50 in your pocket and dont
touch them. That forces you to leave the table with chips
if things go badly.
On the upside, also quit if youve doubled your
buy-in. 100% profit may seem like a wild expectation,
and it is. That is why I say if you have doubled your buy-
in, youve been at a very hot table, and it is probably
going to cool down. Take your profits and leave. If you
really want to stay, pocket your original buy-in plus about
half of your winnings and play with the rest.
25
Anything in between a loss of 50% or gain of
100% is sort of a gray area. You really need to think
about where youve been in your game play and where
youre at now. If you have been up 75% but now find
yourself only up 25%, a math nerd would say you should
quit; your numbers are cooling off. If you were down
40% but are now even, you may want to quit, happy to
have gotten back the chips you were down. Its really all
about how you feel and whether you can leave the table
happy. Think of the 2 examples above. Would you be
happier having been up 75% but walking away up 25% or
would you be happier having fought from way down back
to even? Thats a difficult question to answer. I can
justify either scenario as being better.
Also, I would say that 3/4ths of all craps players
are ahead at some point during their game. 3/4ths of
those people lose it all back, and more! Dont be one of
them! If youre ahead, pocket your profit and leave.
Even if that means you win on your very first roll, a math
nerd might just get up and leave right away. Theres
certainly nothing wrong with that. Ive done it. Ive paid
for a few meals that way.
Heres yet another scenario for you to ponder and
one that I hope you will come across. Lets say you
bought in for $100 and planned on making a $5 passline
bet with $5 in passline odds, an excellent strategy as I
will soon explain. A $100 initial buy-in makes sense for
this strategy. Now lets say after 30 minutes the dice
were really hot and youve doubled your money to $200.
You could definitely quit here and I hope you would
seriously consider it. But lets say youre in the mood to
keep going. Set aside $125 - $150 in your pocket. This
is your initial buy-in plus $25-$50 in profit. Dont touch it!
This will leave you about $50-$75 left in chips to play
with. Now step up your bets. Maybe do $5 passline with
$10 in odds. Maybe add a field bet to the original
passline + odds. Youll have more fun cheering for more
numbers and potentially increasing your earnings even
faster. And if the dice turn against you, which they
eventually will, you still have that profit saved in your
pocket and you can walk away ahead even if you start
losing.
Also, here's a trick that I use to help keep an eye
on my bankroll during a game. With a bunch of chips in
the trays in front of you, it can be difficult keeping track of
how much you have. Lets use the example where white
chips are $1, red chips are $5, and green chips are $25.
Typically when I play, I have mostly red chips, some
white chips, and some green chips. I try to use the white
or green chips as separators for the red chips. I will
stack in front of me 5 red chips, then a white chip, then 5
red chips, then a white, etc. That makes it visually easy
to see quickly how much money I have in front of me.
Each group of red chips is $25, and the separators are
each $1. Or you can separate green chips with red chips
if you are a little higher end player than I am. It just gives
you a quick way to add up how much you have by
glancing at the colored sections of chips and doing some
mental math.
26
Another trick that I have used and really like is
how to separate your bankroll across several days.
Typically when I travel to Las Vegas its over an extended
weekend so I might have 3 or 4 days worth of gambling
in front of me. Lets say you bring $500 to gamble with
for a weekend. Separate that into $100 for each of the
first 3 days, and maybe $200 for the last day.
On Day 1, use your $100 as your buy-in. Follow
some win/loss limits for that day as you play. If you
follow the loss limit, especially, you will have some
money to carry over to the next day. Lets say you had a
good day and youre up $60. Take that $160 and add it
to the $100 for Day 2. Now youve got $260 to buy in
with, and you can make some more bets, or bet more
money on each of your good bets.
Maybe Day 2 didnt go as well as planned, and
your $260 dropped to $210. Take that money and add it
onto another $100 for Day 3 for a new buy-in of $310.
See the pattern? As you progress throughout a
multi-day stay, youll always have some money to play
with. If you follow the win/loss guidelines, youll generally
have MORE money each day to play with. I would hate
for you to be at a cold table your first day and lose most
or all of your bankroll and not have much to play with the
next couple of days!
Of course, you can split up your own bankroll
however you want. If youre a higher end player, you
could split up $5000 into $1000-$1500 each day, for
example. And maybe even take that a step further and
say youre going to take your $1500 per day and split that
into a $500 buy-in, 3 times per day. The possibilities are
nearly endless.
As I stated at the very beginning of this book, you
arent going to win tens of thousands of dollars playing
craps. Craps is not like some slot machines were you
can put a few dollars in, and possibly walk out with
$50,000 or more. Personally, my own bankroll for a
weekend in Las Vegas is between $500 and $1000 for
the entire trip. Ive typically ended a weekend ahead
anywhere from $100 to $350 (I believe was my best trip).
Its not huge winnings, thats for sure, but Ive been able
to consistently come out ahead on all of my weekends in
Las Vegas except one trip where the dice simply werent
landing my way. And that trip I was only down about $60
over 4 days of play which isnt too horrible.
I believe the key to winning at craps is money
management. The dice will do what they do. You cant
control that. But you can control how much you come to
play with, what you bet on, how much you bet, and when
to leave.
Ill say it again. Dont gamble with money you
cant afford to lose. None of my strategies or systems
will make you rich. Theyre meant to provide a good way
to play as well as you can against the house and give
you a good chance to win money over a medium length
period of time, say an hour or less.

27

Chapter 10 : The Luck Factor
Okay you've read about the dice and how each
throw is random and independent from the others. Ive
mentioned how we need to fight the river current which is
always working against us when we are betting. And it
works against us in different ways the type of bet, the
amount of money we wager on that bet, and the total
amount of time we play. I concluded the last chapter
saying I hope to give you a strategy which gives you a
good chance at winning over about an hour at the table.
(Warning! Math ahead!)
First, though, think of the lottery, where you bet a
dollar and then pick 5 or 6 numbers from about 50 ping-
pong balls. If you get them all right, you win millions of
dollars. You have to be EXTREMELY lucky to do this.
Most mega jackpot lotteries have odds of 1 in hundreds
of millions! Youre far more likely to be struck by
lightning. But, now think of flipping a coin and seeing if it
lands heads up. Its a 50/50 chance, right? You dont
need to be all that lucky to flip a heads. What about
flipping 2 heads in a row? Thats a 1 in 4 chance. In
other words, flip a coin twice and repeat this four times,
one of those should result in getting 2 heads. If you had
two groups where you got both heads, I would call you
slightly lucky. If you had 3 groups where you got both
heads, I would call you very lucky. If none of the groups
had both heads, then you would be slightly unlucky.
28
You could do this all day long, keeping track of
coin flips, but youll get bored quickly, trust me. But the
math will eventually work out that about 1/4th of the time,
youll flip 2 heads in a row. You will have streaks where
that happens more often than it should, and streaks when
it rarely happens. Now change the thought of flipping a
coin to tossing dice. The same rules about probability
apply. You will have streaks where numbers are rolled
more often than they should, and streaks where they do
not. Look back at the 36 rolls of dice you did earlier. See
that some numbers showed up more often than they
should? Others showed up fewer times than they should
have. If you do another series of 36 rolls and keep track
of them, youll probably see that the totals evened out a
bit from your first 36 rolls.
My craps strategies aim to hopefully take
advantage of these small short term fluctuations in how
many times various numbers are rolled, versus how often
the probabilities say they should be rolled. Using good
bets and solid money management, you dont have to get
that lucky in order to be a successful craps player. This
book is titled How a Math Nerd Plays Craps, not how a
math nerd always wins at or makes money at craps.
This is important to understand because this IS gambling,
and all of the bets (except the odds bet) do have an
advantage for the house. So these strategies are
designed to give you the best chance at winning at a
game that youre not supposed to win at.
 earned them for ya. Thank them, even if you are not a
Chapter 11 : A Simple 6/8 Strategy believer in good karma or positive chi. Its polite, and a
lot of math nerds are polite. You will see this pattern in
almost all of my systems, where you start with a large
This is really the first system I learned, and the wager, then, after it hopefully wins, you reduce your bets
only system I played on my first trip to Las Vegas. I won and pocket profits.
about $300 in $7 and $14-increments that trip playing
Ok, enough rambling, math nerd! Whats the
only 4 times and thats how I became hooked on the
system? Okay okay You wanted the best, you got the
game of craps.
best! Here it is :
First Im going to tell you what many people do,
Lets assume youre at a table where the minimum
and why I believe its wrong. People usually bet the table
bet is $5. Dont bet anything on the comeout roll. Sure,
minimum and then increase their bets as they win, called
youll miss out when the shooter bangs out a few 7s and
"pressing" the bet. Their idea is to bet only a small
11s and everyone else is jumping for joy. But this
amount, win, and then press the bets up to build more
strategy does not call for a passline bet. After a point is
off your profits, and build and build exponentially. But
established, either the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 it doesnt
sooner or later that 7 will roll and theyve now lost
matter, you take $24 off your chip tray, put it down on the
everything that they had won. The word won in the
table in front of you and tell the dealer, place the 6 and 8
previous sentence is in quotation marks because they
for $12 each. You can also shorten it to Twelve dollar 6
never really won anything. Those chips were sitting out
and 8 if you want. The dealer will know what you mean,
on the felt in no mans land, they were never in your chip
this aint his first rodeo. Note that a typical buy-in amount
tray. I always like to think of chips on the table as the
based on my money management philosophy for this
casinos chips, not yours. They are only yours when they
strategy is about $240. Okay, make it an even $250 or
are in your tray or in your pocket. Also, with this type of
$300 just so the dealers dont look at you funny.
betting, when the 7 hits youre down your original
minimum bet from your own stack. Not cool! Now you wait for the shooter to roll, hopefully a 6
or 8! If he does, youll win $7 for every $6 bet. Youve
I say, put the BIG BET OUT FIRST and THEN
got $12 out there on each number so a math nerd
REDUCE your bet after it wins. Thats right, pocket some
calculates youll win $14. You dont care which number
chips after a winning wager. Those are now MY chips
hits, either the 6 or the 8 as they have an equal chance of
once they are in my pocket or on my chip tray and I
showing up (remember I said in chapter 6 to bet pairs of
earned them. Uh... actually whoever rolled the dice
numbers?) and you have the same amount bet on each

29
number. You cheer for the 6 or 8. But unfortunately, if
the 7 does show up, its lights out and you just lost $24
and you take 24 swim strokes downstream! Ouch!
Lets be more optimistic though. Look back at the
roll distribution chart in chapter 6. A math nerd will add
up that the 6 or 8 can show up ten different ways on the
dice, whereas the one bad number, the 7, can show up
six ways. So youve got a 10 to 6 advantage of winning
on each roll, thats 62.5% which is a decent amount over
50/50.
Here come the diceBang! The shooter rolled an
8! Great! The dealer will take $14 off HIS stack and sort
of look at you like, uh what now, buddy? Tell him
Reduce my 6 and 8 to $6 each. Now hell do a double-
take, maybe even have you repeat yourself, because
most people will press winning bets up. Not a math nerd!
The dealer will do what you asked him to do and will
hand you a stack of chips. Put them in your tray.
So what just happened? How much am I up?
Lets look - originally you put $24 out there. You
just won $14 with the winning roll, and youre bringing
back $12 of your original opening bet. That totals $26
being handed back to you. Count it when the dealer
gives it to you! Dealers are people too, and while they
rarely make mistakes, it sometimes happens. I've only
had this happen twice that I know of and the dealer was
happy to correct the mistake both times.
30
Okay okay, I see now, I was just handed $26,
which is $2 more than what I put out there to start with
so Im up $2? No matter what?
Exactly! Youve got it! Take 26 swim strokes
upstream against that very slow river current of 1.5%
which is the house edge for place bets on the 6 or 8.
And youve still got $6 out there riding on each of the 6
and 8, which you can think of as betting with the houses
money now. Even if the shooter sevens out and you lose
the chips on the table, youre still ahead $2 from where
you started. $2 might not sound like a lot, but remember,
ANY profit is good in a casino.
Lets keep going with this system. The shooter will
roll again, and guess what? That same 10 to 6
advantage you have over the 7 applies. The dice have
no memory, right? Lets say they roll a 3, nothing
happens. Then a 12, nothing happens. Then a 7
seven out! Your $12 out there is now gone. But you are
ahead $2 and upstream from where you started! Think
what would have happened if instead you started with the
minimum $6 bets on each of the 6 and 8, pressing the
winnings instead. You would have won $7 when the 8
rolled, pressed up that 8 to $12 taking back $1 for
yourself, and then the 7 rolled and you would have lost
everything out there. Now youre down $11! Up $2 or
down $11? It doesnt take a math nerd to tell you which
is better.
But lets continue to be optimistic. What if the
shooter didnt roll a 7 when you had $6 on the 6 and $6
on the 8? Instead, that 62.5% works in your favor again,
this time with another winning roll of an 8! The dealer
takes $7 off his stack, chastises you for not betting more
(but screw him!), and you say take all my bets down.
Now hes REALLY going to chastise you for quitting.
Dont be intimidated! Actually most dealers will not do
this, or if they do, theyre probably joking with you. I had
one dealer at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas tell me I was
playing smartly by taking my money down. I gave him a
nice tip bet which won him $15 when I left the table
ahead about $50. But I digress
So you just won $7 on another winning 8, and I
told you to take the remaining $12 off the table. Thats
another $19 being handed to you. You were already up
$2, now youre got another $19, so the math nerd does
some mental math hey, $21! Blackjack! Uh.. wrong
game, sorry. Take 19 swim strokes upstream and then
set a safety net against the current.
Huh? Safety net? Youre taking this river
analogy a little far, math nerd.
Heres what I mean you just took all your bets off
the table. You cannot lose any more. The river current
isnt even affecting you now! Youre ahead $21 for
playing intelligently and getting a little lucky, even though
that 10 to 6 advantage is always in your favor. Now you
wait for the shooter to either make their point or seven
out. You dont really care. Order a White Russian from
the cocktail waitress. Explain what youre doing to the
cute girl you chose to stand next to, she might be
wondering how youre winning.
31
So to summarize this system wait for the point to
be established, then bet $12 on the place 6 and place 8
each. If (hopefully when) you win one of these bets, take
your $14 winnings and reduce your place bets to $6
each, taking another $12 back and locking in a $2 profit
no matter what happens next. If youre lucky and get that
second win, take that $7 in winnings and the other $12
off the table, and youre now up $21. Theres only one
feeling better than winning money with this system, and
thats when youve taken all your chips off and you see
that 7 get rolled. You did not lose anything because you
do not have any bets out there!
There it is. Thats the system. Its that simple,
and Ive used this system more than any other system.
And thats the truth.
Table 1 Simple 6/8 Regression - $24/$12/off
Situation Profit or Loss
0 hits on the 6 or 8 - $24
(immediate 7-out)
1 hit on the 6 or 8, reduce + $2
bets, then 7-out
2 hits on the 6 or 8, take + $21
all bets off

Chapter 12 : An Expansion of the Simple
6/8
Okay so youve practiced the simple 6/8
regression strategy. You like it. Youve used it. Its
worked some of the time for you and other times it hasnt.
There have probably been a few times when youve won
your 2 hits, taken all your chips off the table, then a
series of more 6s and 8s show up before the 7 out or the
shooter makes the point. About now you're thinking,
Dammit!, all these 6's and 8's and I'm lettin em go with
nothing out there! Geez, this system is kinda
monotonous. $12, 6, off. $12, 6, off. (yawn) Got
anything ... uh... MORE?! Hell yeah I do!
Like before, start with the normal $12 on the 6 and
8 and reduce to $6 each after the first hit, locking in your
small $2 profit. After the 2nd win, though, pocket the $7
profit, but keep your other chips out there on the 6 and 8.
You are still guaranteed to be up $9 even if the dirty 7
shows up. But now youll make another $7 on the 3rd hit,
the 4th hit, etc. Lets say you do win 4 times, where does
that leave you? $14 + 7 + 7 + 7 for $35 in winnings and
$12 still out there at risk on the felt - a guaranteed profit
of $23! At this point, a math nerd would probably take
back the other $12 and pocket it all. But lets say youre
greedy and you like this little hot streak and want to take
a little more risk.
You could, instead, press up the 6 and 8 back to
$12 each and start the entire series over. Lets say the
32
hot streak continues and you get a 5th hit, another $14
win! Should you drop down to $6 each like the basic
system? Absolutely! Theres nothing wrong with that,
but now a very greedy math nerd might instead press the
bets up to $18 each! Who knows, maybe the shooter's
got the rhythm down and is hitting that same spot every
time. I've seen it done... honestly (although theres no
proof it was skill instead of luck). Does it hit again? Go
to $24 on each number! Why not? You're still pulling
back even MORE profit each time, and winning more
each time. If you get a string of these wins in a row, trust
me, you'll be feeling fine, even if Tiffany still has not come
back with your White Russian! I will explain a similar
system like this with betting the passline in a later chapter
along with a true story of how it worked nicely on a great
hot roll.
This variation gives you a little more action, but
remember, youre also in that house edge river current
all this time, too, and when that ugly 7 shows its head,
and it will, anything out there on the felt is GONE. A
math nerd would rather be keeping small profits in HIS
chip tray than seeing massive unrealized gains out there
on the felt getting stacked into the dealer's stack after
losing. Here are two tables summarizing a couple
variations of the strategy.
Table 2 Expanded 6/8 Regression - $24/$12/keep bet at $12 until Table 3 Expanded 6/8 Regression with pressing after 5 hits
7 out Situation Profit or Loss
Situation Profit or Loss 0 hits on the 6 or 8 - $24
0 hits on the 6 or 8 (immediate 7- - $24 (immediate 7-out)
out) 1 hit on the 6 or 8, reduce + $2
1 hit on the 6 or 8, reduce bets, + $2 bets, then 7-out
then 7-out 2 hits on the 6 or 8, leave + $9
2 hits on the 6 or 8, leave bet + $9 bet alone, then 7-out
alone, then 7-out 3 hits on the 6 or 8, leave + $16
3 hits on the 6 or 8, leave bet + $16 bet alone, then 7 out
alone, then 7-out 4 hits on the 6 or 8, leave + $23
4 hits on the 6 or 8, leave bet + $23 bet alone, then 7 out
alone, then 7-out 5 hits on the 6 or 8, press + $18
5 hits on the 6 or 8, leave bet + $30 the 6 and 8 up $6 each, then
alone, then 7-out 7 out
6 hits on the 6 or 8, leave bet + $37 6 hits on the 6 or 8, press + $20
alone, then 7-out the 6 and 8 up another $6
7+ hits + $44 + $7 more each, then 7 out
dollars each hit 7 hits on the 6 or 8, press + $29
the 6 and 8 up another $6
each, then 7 out
8 hits on the 6 or 8, reduce + $81 !!!!!
to $12 each on 6 and 8,
then 7 out

Notice how in the above tables, after you get that

first hit, there are no negative numbers. This is a very
key point and is really the basis for how a math nerd
plays craps! You only have to sweat that first hit with
your biggest bet of the series, unless you are playing the

33
expanded version where you start to press your bets
after you have already pocketed plenty of earnings. In
Table 3, you will see the huge jump from $29 to $81 at
the end. This is when you are taking back some of your
bets. It is highly unlikely you will win 8 times before you
see the 7, but the point here is: when you reduce your
bets, you really see your profits increase. It seems kind
of backwards that when you bet less, you win more, but
in this case it is true. Once you get that first hit, you must
stay in profit range. Dont increase your bets until youve
won a lot. Or better yet, dont increase them at all,
instead REDUCE them, or take them off the table
completely.
Before you get overly excited about leaving bets
out there and pressing them up, notice in Table 1 in the
previous chapter, the simple system, you are ahead by
$21 after just 2 hits and you remove your bets. Now look
at Table 3 after 7 hits, you are ahead only $29. Thats
only 8 dollars more than the first system, yet it took you 5
more wins to get there. Thats because you would have
$48 on the felt at risk with the Table 3 system, versus
nothing at risk with the Table 1 system.
A math nerd would suggest you stick to the first
system as you start to learn and practice the game of
craps. Your bankroll will last longer, you will get to play
longer, and you have less money at risk. Move to the
other systems if you have already profited a lot.

34

Chapter 13 : Betting Units
For much of the rest of this book, I will often talk
about betting in terms of units. Its all based on what
the minimum bet of the table is. If the table minimum is
$5, then a one unit bet would be $5. Two units would
be $10. 3 units would be $15, etc. Remember that the
place 6 and 8 must be made in $6 increments, so even at
a $5 minimum table, a one unit bet would be $6 and two
units is $12 for the 6 and 8. If the table minimum is $10,
then one unit for most bets would be $10, or $12 for
place 6 and 8. 2 units is $20 or $24. You get the picture.
One special note about tables with a $10 minimum :
Casinos will often accept a $10 bet on the place 6 or 8
even though these bets should be made in $6
increments. The payout for a $10 place on the 6 or 8 is
usually $11. A math nerd would calculate it is more
advantageous to bet $12 instead of $10, anyway, to
boost your payout to $14 if it wins.
I will also refer to odds on passline or come bets in
terms of units. One unit of odds is equal to the amount of
the passline or come bet, with exceptions for the point
being 5 or 9. Recall that the odds pay out 3:2 for the 5
and 9. If you bet $5 on the passline and the point is 5,
you will want to put out $6 in odds, not $5. Why? The
casino will cheat you out of some money, thats why! A
3:2 payout on $5 is $7.50, but every craps table I've ever
played at, except one, does not have $2.50 chips or 50-
35
cent pieces. They will instead pay you $7.00. But if you
put $6 in odds, a 3:2 payout is a much nicer $9. So by
risking an extra $1 in odds for the point being 5 or 9, you
will win $9 instead of $7. Many dealers will even ask you
to put down $6 if you try to put $5. Theyre actually
watching out for you! Similarly, triple odds for the 5 and 9
would best be made as $16, where you will enjoy a $24
payout should it hit.
So lets go through an example - assume you bet
$5 on the passline and the point is 4, 6, 8, or 10. A single
unit of odds would be $5, two units would be $10. If the
point were 5 or 9, a single unit of odds would be $6 and
two units, also called double odds is still $10. (Warning!
Math ahead!)
Quick quiz I say to bet $5 passline with double
odds, and place 2 units each on the 6 and 8. How much
money are you betting? Well, $5 + $10 in odds, and
place bets on the 6 and 8 are $6 per unit, so $12 on each
of those numbers. 5 + 10 + 12 + 12That comes to $39.
Did you get it correct?
One more You already have $5 on the passline
and the point is 9. Bet single odds on the passline, one
unit on the 6 and 8 and one unit on the field. What is
your total amount of chips on the table? $28! Did you
remember single odds for the 9 is $6, not $5?
Discussing betting in terms of units instead of
dollars makes sense because not everyone plays at the
same level as others. What might be a costly bet of $25
to one person might be a normal bet for someone else.
Other people reading this book might not be betting in
dollars, but some other currency. You can use your own
betting level amount and multiply it by the number of
units I describe to determine how much you really would
be betting.

36

Chapter 14 : Betting the Passline
Ive mentioned the passline carries one of the
lowest house edges on the table at 1.4%. Thats a very
slow current to have to swim against! And also
remember that adding the odds bet to your passline bet
effectively reduces the house edge even further! This is
the most common bet people play, many times the ONLY
bet people will play, and a very conservative math nerd
will likely do the same. Aside from the low house edge, it
also lets you participate in the social aspect of the game
since most people are rooting for the shooter to make his
or her point, or roll some 7s on the comeout roll. You
always know when that happens because people scream
for joy!
Few things are as infectious as being at a craps
table when everyone is betting on the passline and the
shooter is making their points. Everyones jumping up
and down, making money and high-fiving each other.
Oh waitress? Complete strangers who never knew
each other become instant best buddies. Who knows,
maybe youll see that shooter and his wife out at the pool
or in the buffet line. You may have a new friend! Ive
had good rolls where other players high-fived me and
said youre my hero! And whats more, the opposite
isnt really true. If youre losing money for the table by
rolling bad numbers, people dont hate you, at least I
37
have never witnessed any animosity towards a cold
shooter. This is a fun, fun game all around.
Okay enough nostalgia, lets get to the betting. Its
pretty simple, throw money on the passline before the
comeout roll (the puck will say OFF). If a 7 or 11 is rolled
you win, but if its craps (2, 3, or 12) you lose. Repeat.
Ive told people who are going to Vegas that want a
simple strategy for craps the following : Put 5 bucks out
on the passline. If the dealer slides you another chip,
pick it up and put it in your tray. If he takes the chip
away, put another one down. You honestly dont really
need to do much more than that to have a solid craps
strategy with a low house edge. You dont need to know
about probability or what the heck is going on over the
rest of the table. No strange 7 to 6 payouts or 3 to 2
payouts. Its an even-money bet, which is what most
people are accustomed to seeing from other games like
blackjack, baccarat or many roulette bets.
Understanding the passline further, as I eluded to
in chapter 5, add the odds bet to your passline wager to
enhance its earning potential.
Geez youre talking like my stock broker now!
Well, in a way its similar. Youre adding more
shares to your position to increase the amount of money
youll hopefully make. And a bonus the odds bets pay
a TRUE payout based on the probability. Its like adding
a dividend-paying stock to your portfolio! They, in effect,
reduce the 1.4% house edge of your passline bet. So a
simple passline and odds strategy might be:
 On the comeout roll, bet 1 unit ($5) on the passline or come bets with odds, you'll want to find a table that
and after the point is established, bet 1 unit of odds ($5 allows the most amount of odds. Keep in mind, though,
for the point being a 4, 6, 8, or 10, and $6 if the point is 5 your bankroll. The more odds you use, the lower the
or 9). Cheer for the point! Your bankroll will increase house edge, but the higher the variance! For a math
very quickly with a hot shooter banging out a couple nerd, craps is often a battle between house edge,
points for you with extra odds bets. An easy way to variance, and bankroll.
remember which points have the odd/strange bet
amounts for odds is they are the odd numbers of 5 Table 4 Passline and odds by point. 1 unit = $5
and 9. 4, 6, 8, and 10 are all even numbers. Or make it Point 4 or 10 5 or 9 6 or 8
really simple and just double your passline bet in odds or (win/loss) (win/loss) (win/loss)
ask the dealer, they will help you. Passline +$5 / -$5 +$5 / -$5 +$5 / -$5
only
The passline bet is really quite simple and good
Passline + +$15 / -$10 +$14 / -$11 +$11 / -$10
mathematically, too. Adding odds even better! Look at
single odds
the table below and see how the more odds you add to
Passline + +$25 / -$15 +$20 / -$15 +$17 / -$15
your bet, the greater amount youll win if your number
double
hits. Passline alone will only pay you even money. A
odds
math nerd loves adding odds!
Each table or casino may have differing rules on
how much in odds you are allowed to add to your
passline (or come) bets. The rules are usually displayed
on a placard near each dealer on the side of the table
along with what the table limits are. In Las Vegas, most
casinos will allow "3x, 4x, 5x" odds, which means if the
point is 4 or 10, you can place up to three times your
passline bet in odds. If the point is 5 or 9, you can place
up to four times your passline bet in odds. And for points
of 6 or 8, you can bet up to five times your passline bet in
odds. Other casinos may allow 5x odds no matter what
the point is, or even 10x odds! Some, however might
only allow 2x odds. If you plan on playing the passline,

38

Chapter 15 : Passline + Come
Remember my description of the come bet? Its
just like the passline, except you play it after the comeout
roll. This can be somewhat confusing at first until you
see it working. Try it on your craps simulation game on
the internet. On the comeout roll make a passline bet
and wait for the point to be established. Once it is, put a
bet on Come and watch what happens. Lets say the 7
rolls right away. Your passline bet loses of course, but
the come bet wins! Its like an insurance policy for the
passline! Every non-comeout roll for the come bet works
like comeout rolls for the passline. But if the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
or 10 rolls, the dealer will move your chips up to that
number and youre cheering for that number (the come
point) to roll again. And youre still cheering for the
passline point, too! Of course though, once that 7 shows
up, theyre all toast. This is a way to get multiple
numbers working for you. Remember the roll
distribution we tried earlier? Some numbers show up
more often than they should, some show up less. By
spreading out your bets across multiple numbers, you
have a better chance at catching that hot number.
Lets build a strategy. On the comeout, make a
passline bet. After the point is established, make a come
bet to get another number working. Then make another
come bet until you get 3 numbers working. Now wait for
either the numbers to win or lose. There is a 1.4% house
39
edge on all of these bets, which as Ive said is pretty
good. But now youve got 3 times as much money out
there, so youre risking a lot more if the 7 shows up. If
youve got extra money and are willing to risk it, add odds
to the passline and come bets increasing their power. Its
what a math nerd with a sufficient bankroll would do.
Okay, math nerd, Ive tried this and its fun, but it
seems I maybe get 1 or 2 wins, then the 7 wipes
everything away and Im still down overall!
Yes this is common. The 7 may be cold for
awhile, but it is the most common number rolled so it will
not stay cold very long, usually. Put another way, the 7 is
the most likely number to heat up. How do we beat that?
Well we cant beat that, but we can play smartly. Lets
say you successfully get 3 numbers working, and you put
1 unit of odds on each come bet, as well as your passline
bet. (Well say $5 = 1 unit) Lets say the point is 4, and
you also have the 5 and the 8 with come bets + single
odds on each. The 8 hits and you are paid $21, your $10
original bet plus $11 in winnings. Youve got $21 still out
there on the passline and the 5. ($5 passline, $5 odds.
$5 come bet on the 5 and $6 in odds). If the 7 shows up
here, youll be down $10. A math nerd knows the 7 is
more likely to show up than either the 4 or the 5, so it
may be smart to remove your odds, taking back $11 of
your original bet. So youve won $11 on the 8, and have
$10 out there in come bets which you cannot remove. If
the 7 does show up, youre still ahead by a dollar. And if
you get lucky and the 4 or 5 does show, youll be up even
more. Sure, it would have been nice to have those odds
out there to collect more, but you should always be
fearful of the 7.
You may see some people playing strictly passline
+ come bets. A math nerd approves of this strategy as it
has a low house edge. If you find that you really love the
game like I do and you want to play for long periods of
time, say, an hour or longer, this is the way to play. Bet
ONLY passline + odds and/or come + odds. If you add
odds to the bets, it reduces the house edge even more,
but you also end up putting a lot more money out there.
Even with single odds at a low $5 minimum table, you
could very quickly have $40, $50, even $60 on the table
which requires a substantial initial buy-in. With all of
these numbers working for you - when that 7 shows up,
youre wiped out. Come bets are great when you get the
same number rolled several times before a 7, but I have
never had too much success in my personal play trying to
get a lot of numbers working with multiple come bets. I
have better luck with winning on bets where numbers
only have to be rolled once which are the place bets

40

Chapter 16 : More On Place Bets
Okay back to the place bets. I gave you a couple
of options for playing the 6 and 8, where you reduce a
larger starting bet down after winning. I firmly believe this
is the best way to do it. I also gave you some options for
playing longer after locking in a profit and eventually
pressing the 6s and 8s back up to take advantage of a
hot streak in the roll distribution you may be in the middle
of. What about the other numbers?
The only other place bets a math nerd will make
are on the 5 and 9. These bets pay $7 for every $5
wagered. (A true payout would be $7.50 to $5). That 50
cents which you are not being paid will add up over time,
so I do not recommend playing these very often. In
contrast, the $6 bet on the place 6 or 8 should pay you
$7.20, but actually pays you $7.00. Thats 20 cents you
are not being paid, which is a far less percentage than
the 50 cents for the place 5 or 9. Still though, these bets
on the 5 and 9 can be useful at times.
Lets say youve been doing $12 on the 6 and 8,
hitting and regression to $6 each, locking in $2 of profit.
They hit again and you can either come down completely
for $21 in profit, or let them stay there for another
chance. What if, instead you placed the 5 and 9 for $5
each along with your $6 on the 6 and 8? Where does
this leave you? Well you had won $21 from your
previous 2 winners and you would have $22 out there at
41
risk, so you could potentially lose $1 if the 7 showed up
right away. This setup is called 22-inside, and the
dealers will know what to do if you tell them 22 inside.
Look back at the roll possibilities. There are six ways to
make a 7, but 18 ways to make either the 5, 6, 8 or 9!
This is a 3:1 advantage over the 7 and at this point youre
really only risking $1 of your original money. This is
sounding better now, huh? Or a Canadian might say,
This is sounding better now, eh? But I digress
Its a pretty good advantage over the 7 at this time,
and if you get a hit, then maybe take all the bets down
and youre now ahead $28! Or, take them down
incrementally - if you get that next hit, maybe take only
the 5 and 9 back off since they have the higher house
edge and are less likely to show up compared with the 6
or 8. If you want to do it this way, a math nerd would
keep the 6 and 8 out there for more possible wins. The
place 6 and 8 are mathematically better than the 5 and 9.
They show up more often and have a lower house edge.
But place bets on the 5 and 9 can be useful!
One special note about the 5 and 9, if you're
betting higher amounts, say $20 or more, it might be
advantageous to BUY the 5 or 9 instead of placing it.
You'll want to ask your dealer about how they will handle
the vig on a buy 5 or 9. If you are only charged the vig
for a winning buy bet, go ahead and buy it instead of
placing it. You might see a math nerd smile at the other
end of the table.
Back to the 6 and 8, what if you started with $18
on the place 6 and 8? Ive done this myself and as long
as you get that first hit, you have a multitude of options. 8 each and regress to $30 after one hit. Or go
If one of these hits, its a $21 win. You can instantly immediately to $44-inside. Or even go all the way down
regress down to $6 on each number to lock in a $9 profit. to the minimum $6 on the 6 and 8. In this case, you
You could go to 22-inside, which, again, puts you $1 at would have locked in $58 in profit after your first hit! You
risk, but you are 3 times more likely to get a win over the have many options when youve locked in profit and
7 on every roll here as mentioned above. The nice thing experimenting with the place 6 and 8, 5 and 9 in different
about place bets on the 5, 6, 8, and 9, is that they all betting amounts can be a very fun time at the craps table.
have the same payout - $7 per unit (of $5 or $6). This
makes keeping track of how much youve won pretty
easy, its always a multiple of 7. And you can take the
bets off at any time unlike the passline and come bets.
Want a good shot at a free cheap lunch? Use 22-
inside. You have a 3:1 advantage over the 7. Those are
pretty good odds it will win you $7, which is enough for a
combo meal at most fast food joints. How about a good
shot at a free buffet? No, dont stand there for 3 hours
betting huge amounts earning comps points. Use 44-
inside! Its simply $10 on the place 5 and 9 and $12
place 6 and 8. One hit and you win $14. Take all your
chips off and head over to the buffet line.
As you can see, there are many different ways to
create place bet strategies. Again, I firmly believe that
you start with the 6 and 8 betting more than the table
minimum, lock in a profit with 1 hit, then gradually spread
things out, possibly fanning out to the 5 and 9. If you are
still winning, then consider pressing the bets up 1 unit at
a time, pocketing the rest as more profit. Place bets kick
ass, and a math nerd loves them!
If you are a higher end player, this basic principal
still applies. You could initially bet, say $60 on the 6 and

42
 inside with Buy $25 4/10, I can see how this could be
Chapter 17 : Buying the 4 and 10 profitable if you get that first hit. Just PUH-LEEZ take
some money off the table and lock in a profit.
I have only made this $25 buy 4/10 bet in my life
All this talk about 6 and 8, 5 and 9 what about
once and fortunately I was lucky enough to roll the 4 on
the 4 and 10? There are a couple of reasons why I dont
my very first roll. I then took both wagers off the table
like to play the 4 and 10. First of all, each of them is only
and proceeded to roll two more 4s. Oh well Another
half as likely to show up as the 7. The two of them
guy on the opposite side of the table was betting the
combined, then, have an equal chance of showing up as
same way except he pressed his bets. Now the math
the 7 does. If you play them as a pair, its simply a coin
nerd looks like the dummy, but hey, I was happy with my
toss in terms of the probability of either showing up
$49 win and it brought me back to even for my session
instead of a 7. Look back at the roll distributions - I like
after I was down! I quit after I finished rolling and was
the pair of 6 and 8 best for its 10 to 6 advantage, and
definitely relieved to have gotten back to even.
then 5 and 9 together have an 8 to 6 advantage.
Secondly, in order to get a good house edge for a buy
4/10, you may need to bet a significant amount more
than your other bets. If you can find a table where they
will only charge you $1 for a winning buy bet of $25, this
can be a fun bet. A $25 winning buy bet on the 4 or 10
will pay $50, minus the $1 charge. Thats only 2% of
your winnings. If you were to buy the number for only
$10, you will win $20, but they will still charge you $1,
which is now 5% of your winnings. The key is to bet the
most such that they will charge you the least. You will
want to ask the dealer what they will do for different dollar
amounts before you make a buy bet on the 4 or 10.
For a math nerd, it is difficult to play a good
strategy like $12 6 and 8, then have to throw $50 more
out there on the 4 and 10 which are less likely to show
up. If youve got a big bankroll and were doing an $88-

43

Chapter 18 : A Combination Strategy
Hopefully by now youve gotten the hang of the
game. You understand the bets and why some bets are
better than others. Youve practiced it on the internet or
at home and youre ready to move on to bigger and
better things. Well, bigger for sure; better we hope.
Here is a strategy using some of the best concepts from
what youve already read.
Bet the passline for 1 unit and wait for a point to
be established. Then place the 6 and 8 for 2 units and
put down single or double odds on the passline. Now, as
your numbers hopefully start winning, go to the
regression system with the place 6 and 8, and also
regress your odds as well.
What?! the math nerd is saying take a bet off
the table which has no house edge! This guys a quack!
Yeah yeah yeah I realize this goes against the
ultra conservative math nerd who puts out all the odds
possible. More power to him, but I like to take big wins at
the beginning and then pull money back. Maybe, just
MAYBE, I will make the ultra conservative math nerd a
little happier by saying this if you get your hits on the 6
and 8, take those bets off and instead place a portion of
your winnings back into the passline odds. Now you
cheer for the point! Oh waitress?
44
Starting this strategy over from the beginning, if
the point number becomes a 6 or 8, the place bet on that
number with the 1.5% house edge does not make sense
because you can now take an odds bet on the passline
which has NO house edge! So in this case where 6 or 8
is the point, place the other number that is not the point
for 2 units and put down 2 units of odds for the passline.
Now play the regression down on both the place bet and
the passline odds and then consider adding some odds
to the passline if you have locked in a profit after a couple
wins. If you want to get 3 numbers working in this case
where youve got a point of 6 or 8, try the come bet! If
the shooter 7s out right away, that come bet wins, which
will cancel the loss on the passline. Also put odds on
the come bet after it gets moved to a number to improve
its earning potential.
One note about come-bet odds : odds are like
place bets on the come out roll they are not ON. If
you have a come bet on the 9 and double odds from the
previous game and on a new comeout roll the shooter
rolls a 9, you will only win even money on your come bet.
You will not win 3:2 true odds on the come-odds, the
odds are just simply returned to you. The reverse of this,
however, if they roll a 7 on the comeout, you will only
lose the flat come bet itself, you will not lose the odds,
they are simply handed back to you by the dealer. You
can, however, ask the dealer to turn your odds bets ON,
just like you can with place bets.
See how the passline and come counter each
other? They will cancel each other out when the 7 shows
up. This is another reason people like making come bets
when they have a passline bet.
Try out this combination strategy on your own.
Youll find out that if you hit a hot streak, youll really pile
up the winnings. But, with so many bets out on the table,
that 7 will wipe you out quickly, too. A combination
strategy like this will require a pretty decent sized buy-in
to start with. If youre following my money management
strategy of adding $100 per day to your bankroll, a
combination strategy might be good for the last day of
your trip when you more likely going to have a larger buy-
in.

45

Chapter 19 : Expanding on the
Combination Strategy
Now youve seen how I combine the
passline/come + odds with place bets on the 6 and 8,
regressing the bets down each time to pocket some
profits. If you were to play this strategy as Ive explained
it without any changes for a long time, the house edge
will eventually eat away at you and you WILL lose
money. How do we attempt to counter this? Vary our
bet sizes! You will certainly notice some hot and cold
streaks while you are at the table. Bet more during the
hot streaks and bet less during the cold streaks.
Wait a sec, math nerd, youve already said you
cant predict the dice. Youve also said hot streaks cool
off and cold streaks warm up. WTF?
Yes, both these things are true. Theres no
guarantee that if the 6s and 8s havent been hitting for
you for the last 2 hours, they will all of a sudden get hot.
I believe, though, that you CAN tell if a table has been
hot or cold. From this, you hope that you are in the
middle of this hot or cold streak and you adjust
accordingly. Theres nothing mathematic behind the
word hope so a purist math nerd will take offense to that
last sentence. But lets be realistic, this is gambling, a lot
of it is hope anyhow.
46
Going back to the combo strategy, I said start with
2 units on your place bets and odds. If youve had 2
consecutive seven outs without getting any hits on your
numbers, reduce your next bet to only 1 unit of place bets
and odds (or leave the table completely!). This table
appears to be cold so you dont want to lose as much.
Then, once you get two games in a row where youve
won money and taken your bets down, youve locked in
some winnings so you are now able to go back up to 2
units per bet. Get 2 more complete series wins in a row?
The table could be heating up! Now start with 3 units per
bet and when you win, regress down to 1, then off on
another win. 2 more series wins? Wow things are hot!
And now you can afford to risk more! Go to 4 units per
bet, regress to 2, regress to 1, then off. Winning streaks
like this are extremely rare, but if you are fortunate
enough to be a part of one, get your money out there. As
soon as you get 2 losses in a row, thats a sign to me
things are cooling off. Id probably quit the game entirely
at this point, ahead a good amount. But if you wish to
keep playing, you could restart your series again back
at 2 units as your base bet.
Of course, remember your loss limit. I said 50% of
your bankroll is a good loss limit. You may already be
well below that after even a semi-cold streak. Dont think
that the dice are due to turn anytime soon. Also
remember the 7 is the most likely number to heat up.
In all the systems I play, the 7 is my enemy.
When I say the table is hot or cold, it is usually
referring to the 7. If there are fewer 7s being thrown,
then there are more of the other numbers, which
hopefully you are betting on. If there are more 7s being
thrown, that means there are fewer of the other numbers
being rolled, and it only takes one 7 for you to lose
everything on the table.
Its worth mentioning again the amount of money
you should consider for your initial buy-in. This strategy
can have a pretty high maximum amount of chips on the
table so you need to consider this when determining how
much to buy in for. You want to be able to withstand a
couple of bad hits to your bankroll if you hope to fight
back and therefore youll need a substantial buy in to play
a system like this.

47

Chapter 20 : Guarantee a Profit
The title of this chapter is a little misleading.
There are no guarantees in craps. I say guarantee a
profit after 1 hit, no matter how small that profit may be.
The simple 6/8-regression is an example of this as you
read earlier. 22-inside, then off, is another example. In a
casino game that is set up for you to lose, a math nerd
tries to keep as much as possible OFF the table so you
are not swimming against the current more than you
necessary. Instead, have that safety net set up so you
cannot be taken downstream. Play with the casinos
money as much as possible, not your own.
Even with my combination systems, there are
ways to guarantee a profit after 1 hit. You really need to
practice this to get the hang of it so I hope you
downloaded a good simulator game like I suggested!
You must be able to keep a tally of how much money
youve won so this requires quite a bit of concentration on
your part when playing it live. Hopefully by practicing the
place bets on the 6 and 8, passline or come bets and
odds, it has become almost second nature to you,
knowing exactly how much you are winning with each hit.
And remember my trick for stacking your chips, using the
different colors as separators? This will come in very
handy for this system.
I will now use dollar amounts instead of units in
most of these examples because thats the bottom line
48
we need to look at in order to guarantee a profitdollars
won.
Start with a $5 passline bet and assume the point
is 4, put double odds on the passline for $10 and $12 on
the place 6 and 8 each. Youve just risked $39. Lets
say the place bet on the 8 wins for you, a nice $14 score!
Now reduce the bets on the table such that you have
fewer than $14 at risk. You could take down all the place
bets and leave the passline + $5 in odds. Or you could
take all the odds off locking in more profit. Since you
cannot remove the passline bet, as an option you could
leave $6 on either the 6 or 8, but not both. Since I prefer
to always play the 6 and 8 as a pair, I would likely choose
to leave the passline + $5 in odds which has a lower
house edge than the place 6 and 8 and it also impresses
a math nerd. Now wait for the point to be decided.
If the shooter 7s out instead of making the point-4
(which is twice as likely to happen in this case), start this
series over again. You will have an overall $4 profit. But,
lets say the shooter does make the 4. You win an
additional $15 for a total profit of $29.
Repeat this system for the next point, placing the 6
and 8 for $12 each and double odds on the passline.
Again you have $39 at risk, but with your previous
winnings you are gaining ground!
Now lets say this system has been working for
you and you are ahead about $60. Now expand the
system up to 3 units of odds and place bets. You will
have $56 or $57 at risk, depending on how much you
have in passline odds. This is less than the $60 profit
you have accumulated thus far, so even if the 7 screws
you over here, you are still ahead for your session. But if
the numbers keep coming your way youll be winning
even more, allowing you more options.
For example you have the $18 place 6/8 and
passline of 5 + 15 in odds. Let's say the 6 hits, giving
you a $21 win. Now reduce your bets on the table so you
have less than $21 out there. What are your choices?
One option is a passline bet with no odds ($5) and place
6 and 8 for $6 each, which is an outlay of $17, locking in
a $4 profit. Another would be passline + single, double,
or even triple odds. This is still locking in a profit, while
giving you that excellent passline + odds bet.
Lets say you reduce to $6 place 6 and 8 and
remove the passline odds. Now the 8 hits! You now
have even more choices instead of just paper or plastic.
Take those winnings and replace some of the passline
odds? Yup! Or how about take the 6 and 8 completely
off and instead put the passline odds back? Yup! What
about taking EVERYTHING down? Yup! All are good
choices for a math nerd. You have more freedom with
this system which makes it more fun.
Your winnings can really pile up quickly if the dice
are behaving. As long as you get that first hit, you are
golden because you can reduce your bets locking in a
profit. Remember, AGAIN, the 7 is the most likely
number to be rolled and the most likely number to heat
up. Much of the time spent in this strategy, quite
49
honestly, is managing small $1 thru $4 profits. To me,
thats still better than losing a lot.
But, losing a lot is also possible with this system.
Got $39 out there and the 7 shows? Youre screwed. Its
just how the game works. Remember in my combination
strategy I said reduce to single-unit bets on the 6 and 8
and odds if you lose a couple in a row (or leave the table
completely!)? Do this here as well. Even with a $6 place
bet winning you $7, removing everything except the
passline bet will yield a $2 profit in this case. Trudging
around in the trenches eeking out $1 or $2 profits is a lot
better than losing your shorts. Unless you dont like your
shorts, of course.
Maybe youve tried this strategy on your simulator
but you are getting points which are 6 and 8. This is
quite common, of course, but it throws a bit of a wrench
into the numbers I listed above. Recall how I said it is
better to take passline odds for a point of 6 or 8 instead
of placing the number? That is still true here! Place the
other number for $12 and take $10 in passline odds.
Now make a come bet to get 3 numbers working and add
double odds to it. This scenario will give you a bet total
of $42. Keep track of these numbers and how much you
are winning if your numbers hit. Reduce your bets to lock
in a profit.
One way this strategy can get you into trouble is if
the dice have been cold and youve reduced your bets to
single units. The point is 8 so you take $5 in odds and
place the 6 for $6 and do a come bet. Now the 6 hits so
you are paid $7 and the come bet goes up to the 6 and
you take your passline odds off. Oops, wait a sec you These systems are ones that I, a math nerd, have
still have $10 out there but only won $7? You didnt lock used or would use. In the next chapter are a few others
in a profit! Easy solution - if you have reduced to single that I dont personally play, but they may interest you.
unit bets, dont make a come bet to get 3 numbers Hopefully you will have success with them if you give
working. Hope and pray the 6 and 8 bring you back out them a shot.
of the hole and net you some chips to increase back to 2
units where you have more flexibility.
Other things that can throw a wrench into this type
of system are the natural wins and losses, which I have
not written very much about. By these, Im talking the 2,
3, 7, 11 and 12s which either win or lose your base bet
on the passline or come. While the place bets and odds
provide the most amount of your wins or losses, these
natural wins and losses absolutely do affect your
bottom line. Lets say you just made a point of 4 with
single odds for a payout of $15. Great! Now the next
comeout roll is a 2 and you lose $5. The next comeout
roll is 12 and you lose again. Now they finally establish a
point of 6. You may want to adjust your bets keeping in
mind you just lost $10 on the passline during the last two
comeout rolls, eating away much of your last win.
The opposite is also true, maybe you made the
point of 4 with single odds, then won 3 more naturals of 7
or 11 for another $15! You may then want to increase
your place bets in the next round, or keep the odds up
longer than you may have before. Every dollar counts!
There you have it, perhaps my best complex
system to date.

50

Chapter 21 : Other Systems
Field bets! Field bets! Come getcha field bets!
These can be fun to play. As explained earlier, youre
betting that the next roll is 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12. The 2
and the 12 pay double your bet. Sometimes the 12 will
pay triple! Look for a table that pays triple if you want to
make some bets on the field.
Many people will make a field bet after a 5 is
rolled. There is a craps myth that After 5, the fields
alive. Theres absolutely no basis for this claim, but its
amazing how many people who never play the field will
toss a chip out there after a 5 is rolled. Hell, even a math
nerd has done it a few times!
One interesting strategy using the field worth
mentioning is called anything but 7. Okay okay, I lied
earlier, I have played this strategy, and it worked. I did it
out of desperation, however which is NOT a good
move for a gambler. But I digress Heres what you do:
bet $5 place 5, $6 place 6 and 8, and $5 field. As long as
the next roll is not a 7, youll win. If its a 2 youll win $10.
A 3, 4, 9, 10 or 11, youll win $5. A 5, 6, or 8, youll win
$2 (remember the field bet loses). And if its a 12 youll
win $15 (assuming 3x payouts for the 12 on the field)!
Theres only a 1 in 6 chance any given roll will be a 7, so
theres a pretty good shot this bet will work for you a few
times. Dont get greedy though, if that 7 does show up,
youre down $22.
51
Okay math nerd, whats the math on this
strategy?
Looking back at the expected roll distributions, out
of 36 total rolls, you should expect to roll six 7s for a loss
of $132. Your wins work out to a +$123, so the net result
is an expected loss of $9. So if you can avoid just 1 of
these 7s or maybe get lucky with an extra 2 or 12 and
you can work this system into profit territory! Remember
that the place bets are OFF on the comeout roll so if
you play this system on a comeout roll, tell the dealer you
want the place bets ON!
Dont Pass/Dont Come - Not too many people
play the dont side of the game. Theyre the ones
quietly snickering when the rest of the table lets out a
disgusted sigh when that 7 shows up. However, there
are some very valid reasons for playing this way. Like
the passline and come, the bet pays even money. But
this time you are betting against a number that has just
rolled. What have I been saying all along in this book?
The 7 is the most common number to be rolled and the
most likely number to heat up. Getting paid even
money on the chances that a 7 is rolled instead of a 4?
Thats golden! A 2:1 edge over the dice! Even the 6 or
8, which I have been pushing you to bet this entire book,
dont stand a chance in the long run against the 7. The
dont-6 or dont-8 should win 6 times for every 5 times it
loses.
The risk on betting dont pass or dont come is
when you first make the bet on the dont pass or dont
come, you have to fight the 7 and 11 which lose. True,
the 2 and 3 help offset this (the 12 does not), but you do
need to get through the dont pass or don't come in
order for you to be sitting pretty. It can be a lucrative bet,
no doubt.
My previous systems youve just read about deal
with decreasing your bets, or leaving the table entirely
when the 7s start showing up and taking away your
chips. Imagine switching sides to betting the "back door"
where you can also profit. Its like shorting a stock you
can win on the way down as well as on the way up! So
you should consider playing the dont pass/come if the
table cools off.
Here is a bit about dont pass/dont come odds. If
you're only occasionally playing the don't, dont use em!
Heres why once you get that dont number
established, you have an advantage of 2:1, 3:2 or 6:5
depending on the number. Getting paid even money for
that wager is awesome! By adding more money to it,
however, and getting paid the true odds of 1:2, 2:3, or 5:6
dilutes your advantage. Heres an example to show
this:
$5 dont pass number of 4. If it wins you are paid
$5, even money. You risk $5 to win $5.
$5 dont pass number of 4 with $10 in odds. If it
wins, the dont pass bet pays $5, but the odds also
pay $5. So you risked $15 to win $10? See why it
doesnt make sense? Plus if they do roll the
52
number, which should happen 1/3rd of the time,
youre now out $15 instead of just $5!
Next : Proposition bets Some people go crazy
with these, but theres no arguing that the math behind
these bets is not good for the player. Still, they can add
quite a lot of entertainment to the game, for a small price
of a buck here or there. Thinking back to many of the
times Ive played craps, a lot of the better memories
actually involve these silly bad bets! I hit a hard 8 as a
point once when I had a side bet with my friends along on
that trip which said, the first of us to make a point the
hard way, everyone else had to make four hardways bets
for that person. I have also done from time to time a 2-
way hardways bet. That means you bet $2, one dollar
for you and one dollar for the dealers. They love it when
you make bets for them. Normally you feel like its you
against the dealer, but when youre making bets for them,
youre all on the same page and they want to win as
badly as you do.
Many people will make an extra wager when the
point is 4, 6, 8 or 10, that the shooter will make the point
the hard way. Again, these bets simply have such a high
house edge that in the opinion of a math nerd, these bets
should not be made. But when they do hit, you hear an
extra loud eruption from a craps table and the enjoyment
you get from that might be worth the few bucks you
sacrifice in this generally bad bet.
 Another thing you will often see people do, they
will bet any craps on a comeout roll. This bet pays 7:1
if a 2, 3, or 12 is rolled on the very next roll. (True odds
are 8:1) People will put $1 on this bet as an insurance
against losing a passline bet of $5 or $10 on the comeout
roll. At first it sounds reasonable, since it protects the
passline wager, but if you do this on every comeout roll
over an hour or so, youre going to lose a lot of $1
wagers compared with the protection youll receive
against the 2, 3, or 12.
Horn bets Betting that the next roll is 2, 3, 11, or
12. People like these, mostly because I think its fun to
say and the payout is big. A horn high bet is the same
thing, except there is an extra dollar in play. For
instance, a $5 horn high 11 means $2 on the 11, and $1
on the 2, 3, and 12. These are common on comeout rolls
as well, as it provides the hedge against craps, but an
even stronger bonus for the 11, as the bettor wins their
passline bet AND a big $30 for the 11. Every other
number, however, means a loss.
Hop bets These bets aren't very common but I
did seen one woman make a $10 hop bet and she won,
so I guess that means I have the egg on MY face, huh?
Or a Canadian would say I have the egg on my face,
eh? But I digress A hop bet is simply predicting what
each die will show on the next roll. It could be anything, 1
and 6. 2 and 3. 5 and 5, etc. The bet pays 15:1 or 30:1
for the doubles numbers. It could be a fun wager if you
really believe you are psychic. A math nerd stays away
from this nonsense.
53
Straddle the point
This is a catchy little strategy Ive witnessed at the
tables a time or two. You start by making a 1 unit
passline bet and wait for a point to be established. Then,
whatever that point ends up being, you place the
numbers on either side of the point number on the table
for 1 unit. For example, if the point was 6, you would
place the 5 and 8, the numbers on either side of the six.
If the point was 9, you would place the 8 and 10. AHH!!
Place the 10!?! Noo!!! This is why I disagree with the
system. NEVER place the 4 or 10. One could modify
this strategy easily to not include the 4 or 10.
Alternatively, you could also make a $25 passline bet,
then make your place bets for $25 (5/9), $24 (6/8), or
buy the 4 or 10 for $25. The whole idea is that the
shooter is trying to roll the point number, but might be off
by just a bit, so surround the point number with more bets
in case they are slightly off. To a math nerd, this whole
concept is slightly off, but if you make these bets in a
smart way, this strategy might be workable.
Playing both sides
I have seen only one player do this but lets think
outside the box for a minute. What is the best bet on the
table? The odds bet. There is no house edge on this
bet, hence no river current for you to have to swim
against. In order to make the odds bet you have to make
a passline bet. This itself has a very good house edge of
1.4%. But the 7 is still a major risk here, as both your
passline and odds bets will lose if you see a 7 get rolled there is no house edge. Weve already surrendered the
while trying to make the point. What about that box right fact that we will lose 1 unit per 36 games for the 12 on
behind the passline called the dont passline? It wins the comeout, and the odds bets should also come out to
when the shooter 7s out. That bet will cancel the 0, so this, like every other craps strategy out there, is still
passline bet. Now you are only risking your odds bet, expected to be a losing strategy in the long run. But
which as Ive said probably 100 times by now, has NO once again, think of the roll distributions over those 36
house edge! games. If you can get just slightly lucky and make 1
Lets investigate this further. If you made both a more point than you should, this becomes a winning
system. If you can buck the 12 on the comeout, youre
passline and dont pass bet, the 7 wins for the passline
always guaranteed that your passline and dont pass will
and loses for the backline. Ditto for the 11. The craps
cancel. The odds are your free ticket to chances at
bets are the opposite, the 2 loses for the passline but
pure profit.
wins on the backline. Ditto for the 3. But the 12? Ah ha!
So there is a hole in this! The 12 loses for the passline You could also make a come and dont come bet
but does not win for the dont passline. So no matter and then add odds to the come bet after a number is
what, these two bets are guaranteed to lose you money established and it would have the same outlook at the
when the 12 is rolled on the comeout. There is no passline + dont passline bets together. Practice this
chance to win money making these two bets yourself, its worth looking into.
simultaneously by themselves.
How bad is it, though? Out of 36 comeout rolls,
the probability says only 1 of those should be a 12. It
could be more, of course, but you can expect 1 out of 36.
Remember how Ive said the 7 is the most likely number
to heat up? The 12 (and 2) would be the least likely to
heat up.
Okay so weve established we can expect to be
down 1 unit over 36 comeout rolls between the passline
and dont pass in combination. Otherwise, these two
bets are guaranteed to always cancel each other out.
After a point is established, enter the passline odds! The
expected outcome of your odds bets is always 0 since

54

Chapter 22 : Martingale Betting
First and foremost, this is a risky style of betting
and I do not condone it. Why am I even writing about it
then? Mostly because I claim to be a math nerd and
believe that this is a popular way people play but it can
lead to disaster. So what is it?
Betting a Martingale style of wagering on even-
money bets that means every time you lose a bet, you
make the same bet for twice the amount you just lost.
When you finally win a bet, that win covers all your
previous losses and gives you a small profit equal to
whatever your first bet was. Heres a simple example :
1. Bet $5 on the field and lose. You are down $5.
Now you double your bet :
2. Bet $10 on the field and win. You won $10, had
previously lost $5, so now you have a $5 profit.
Lets work this example out a few more times :
1. Bet $5 on the passline and lose. You are down
$5, double your bet.
2. Bet $10 on the passline, lose again. Now down
$15, double your bet.
3. Bet $20 on the passline, lose again. Now down
$35, double your bet.
55
4. Bet $40 on the passline, lose again. Now down
$75, double your bet. (see how this is growing
quickly?)
5. Bet $80 on the passline, finally win. You win $80
on your bet and had a previous loss of $75, so you
have a net gain of $5 which is the same as your
original bet.
Sounds promising, huh? The math is there. If you
figure that the passline is a 50/50 bet (it isnt, but its
close enough for this example), you can do some extra
calculations. Remember my example earlier of flipping a
coin and how many times would you get 2 heads in a
row? 1 in 4. What about 3 in a row? 1 in 8. 4 in a row?
1 in 16. If you were betting on tails this entire time, you
would be hurting, but you are probably thinking the
chances of losing so many in a row are very bleak. As
long as you can avoid that 1 in a million shot at losing
so many in a row... youll be fine! Many people have
made this mistake, and when it hits you, you will be down
huge. In the previous example you were betting $80 just
for a net gain of only $5! In the opinion of a math nerd,
thats not smart.
Furthermore, this strategy requires an infinite
amount of money. The tables I often play at have table
limits from $5 to $2000. If you started at $5 and lost 8
bets in a row, your 9th bet would be $1280 which is
approaching the table limit and you would have already
lost $1275. And what if you lose that 9th bet? You
cannot double your bet to $2560 because thats over the
table limit. Recall what I said about the distribution of
rolls, you may be stuck in that bad streak and losing
everything you may have won up to this point.
Martingale betting is very risky. Stick with better money
management.

56

Chapter 23 : Fibonacci betting
No, Fibonacci is not a type of pasta. Although if it
were, a math nerd would probably love it! The Fibonacci
sequence is named after an Italian mathematician and
has some similar properties to the risky martingale
betting, but isnt as risky. Let me explain the sequence of
numbers and how it works. Each number in the
sequence is the sum of the previous two. For example,
start with 0 and 1. The next number is the sum of those
two, 0+1=1. Put that number at the end of the original
sequence and now we have 0,1,1. The next number,
again, is the sum of the previous two, 1+1=2. Now we
have 0,1,1,2. Keep the sequence going, 1+2=3. 2+3 =
5. 3+5 = 8, etc. Here is a longer Fibonacci sequence:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144.
How does this relate to betting? Take a pair of
numbers next to each other in the sequence like 5 and 8.
Add these together and you get 13. Now look at the sum
of the numbers before the 8 and youll find they all add up
to 12. If you were to bet each of these numbers in
sequence and keep losing, when you finally win 2 in a
row, you will be ahead by whatever the sequence started
with, in this case 1. Go even deeper into the series, look
at 55 and 89. These total 144. The sum of the previous
numbers is in the sequence is 143. Again if you bet $144
and won youd be ahead by $1. See the pattern?
57
So heres the strategy. Start with the first bet in
the Fibonacci sequence. As you lose, move further down
the sequence. If you win, move backward one number in
the sequence and make that bet. If you win that one,
you'll be ahead by the first number in the series, so start
the series over. You can see, this betting strategy
requires you to win 2 in a row to lock in your profit.
What? 2 in a row? You just got done saying with
the Martingale system.. wtf?
I know, I know But the difference with this
system, however, is it doesnt grow as quickly as the
Martingale. Remember with the Martingale, if you had
lost 5 in a row and started with a $5 bet, youd be down
5+10+20+40+80 = $155. With the Fibonacci betting, the
same 5 losses in a row would put you down
5+5+10+15+25 = only $60. This would be advantageous
to players with smaller bankrolls.
Lets see how this would work compared with the
Martingale in the previous chapter. I need to continue
the examples in the previous chapter one more time, but
with another win, because this system requires 2 wins.
Also, I will multiply the Fibonacci series numbers by 5
since Im usually playing at a $5 table.
1. Bet $5 on the passline and lose. Down $5. Move
to the next number in the series, $5 again.
2. Bet $5 on the passline and win. Youre even,
move back one number in the series, again 5.
 3. Bet $5 on the passline and win. Youre up $5.
Same net result as the Martingale.
Things will make more sense with a second
example :
1. Bet $5 on the passline and lose. Youre down $5.
Next number in the sequence is 5.
2. Bet $5 on the passline and lose again. Youre
down $10. Next number in the sequence is 10.
3. Bet $10 on the passline and lose again. Youre
down $20. Next number in the sequence is 15.
4. Bet $15 on the passline and lose again.. Youre
down $35. Next number in the sequence is 25.
5. Bet $25 on the passline and win. Youre down
$10. Back up one number in the sequence, 15.
6. Bet $15 on the passline and win. Now youre up
$5.
Lets go back to the example where you were
down 35, bet $25 and won so you were down just $10.
Lets say you dont get that 2nd win in a row. You bet
$15 and lost, so now you are down $25. You march
further down the series again to the $25 and lets say you
win this time. Youre even! You could now start the
series over at $5 and just be glad it didnt get any worse.
If you, instead, went backward only 1 number like the
basic system says to, you would bet $15 again and if you
won it, youd be ahead $15. Personally I would say you
should have quit the series when you got even. But even
more personally, I would say you should not play this
system at all. Its better than the Martingale, but it still
requires an infinite amount of money if you work the true
theory. If youve got that kind of money, you dont need
my help in the first place and youre also not reading this
book.

Again youre at the same net result as the Martingale, but

you were down at most only $35 in this example. You
would have been down $75 with the Martingale.
So the Fibonacci is a little better than the
Martingale. Your bets wont grow exponentially like they
did with the Martingale. Unfortunately, you need to 2
wins to snag a profit. But do these two wins need to be
in a row?

58

Chapter 24 : Pressing Strategies
This strategy sounds like it goes against what I
have said throughout most of my strategies, that you
should NOT press your bets, but rather REGRESS them,
like the basic $12 / $6 / off strategy on the place-6 and
8. Ive said how its a mistake to press your bets right
away because when you eventually lose (and you will),
you lose all, or most of your winnings, plus your original
bet. But there is a way you CAN play a system that
involves combining regressing and pressing your bets. I
touched on this when discussing the place bets where
you would start at, say, 2 units on the place 6 and 8,
regress them down after a hit, and then start pressing
them as you win more and more. You take back some
profit each win, while increasing the bets so that if you do
catch one of those hot series of rolls, you can really
rake in some chips. Heres a simple system for an even-
money bet which works best on the passline, but could
also be used on the field, though youre less likely to win
close to 50% of your bets on the field unlike the passline.
Start with 2 units (1 unit = $5) on the passline. If it
wins, take the $10 in winnings and $5 of your original bet
off the table, leaving $5 on the passline for the next
game. Now, even if you lose this bet, youre still ahead
$5. But lets say it wins a 2nd time and the dealer slides
another $5 chip your way. Now press that $5 back up to
$10. If this bet loses, youre still ahead $5 from where
59
you started. So if the sequence goes win-loss, or win-
win-loss, youre up $5. But lets say you hit a hot streak
and the $10 bet wins. Now pull back $5 back to your
stack and press the bet to $15. Win again? Pull back
$10 in profit and press to $20. Get the picture? Each
time you win youre pulling back more and more profit,
and increasing the bet to potentially win more. This
requires a pretty hot streak of many wins in a row to
really do some damage, but its not unreasonable to see
3 or 4 wins in a row during your time at the table. Of
course, you can also see 3 or 4 losses in a row so you
have to be careful and remember your loss limits if the
dice are not rolling in your favor.
I was fortunate to be playing this strategy when I
went on a hot roll at the Excalibur in Las Vegas. I threw
9 consecutive winners (both points and natural wins)
during 45 minutes of craps bliss! That was a loud table,
believe me! Lets see how the bets went down to see
how much profit I made, and how much I *could* have
made had I not reset my bets towards the end of that run.
1st hit - Bet $10, won $10, pull back $15 to my
stack so Im guaranteed +$5.
2nd hit Bet was $5, won $5, press the bet back to
$10 so Im still guaranteed +$5.
3rd hit Bet was $10, won $10, pull back $5, press
to $15, guaranteed +$10.
 4th hit Bet was $15, won $15, pull back $10,
press to $20, guaranteed +$20.
5th hit Bet was $20, won $20, pull back $15,
press to $25, guaranteed +$35.
6th hit Bet was $25, won $25. At this point I
figured the end of the streak HAD to be near so I pulled
back the entire $25 winnings, plus $15 of the original bet
for $40 and reset my series back at the $10 original
wager. So I pulled back $40 and my guaranteed profit
was now $75 and my bet was back to $10.
7th hit Bet was $10, won $10, pull back $15 so
the remaining bet is $5, guaranteed +$80.
8th hit Bet was $5, won $5, press the bet back to
$10, still guaranteed +$80.
9th hit Bet was $10, won $10, pull back $5, press
to $15 at which point I sevened out, resulting in a profit of
$85. Not too shabby!
If, instead of dropping back to $10 after I won on
my $25 bet I had pressed it and kept pressing like before,
the resulting win would have been $145. But the math
nerd in me said I needed to play it a little more
conservatively since I had already gotten 6 wins in a row
which is rare. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I cannot be
too upset with myself for not continuing to press the bets.
I was thrilled with that hot roll and so was everyone else
at the table. I think everybody but 2 people cashed out
when I sevened out. Smart people they were all ahead
and QUIT WITH PROFITS! Good for them!
60
Here is a similar strategy for pressing place bets.
This strategy is best played after having a winning bet
where you can guarantee a profit if the dirty 7 shows up.
First, start with $18 on the place 6 and 8. (Or a higher
starting amount, but for this example Ill start with $18).
After you get a win on either the 6 or 8, youll win
$21. Take the $21 and reduce the 6 and 8 to $6 each.
Now youll have a $9 profit if the shooter 7s out. But if
you get another win, that will be an additional $7. Take
$5 off of your stack and drop it on the table asking the
dealer to press the 6 and 8 each. So now youre up to
a $12 6 and 8, with a guaranteed $4 profit if they 7 out.
After another hit, place the 5 and 9 for $5 each, taking
back $4 into your stack so youre guaranteed to be ahead
$8 at this point and you have on the table $5 on the place
5 and 9 and $12 on the place 6 and 8. Next, if the 6 or 8
hits again, press the 5 and 9 up by $5 each taking back
another $4 to your stack so youre now up $12 in profit
territory. But if the 5 or 9 hit for you instead, you have to
decide whether to press the 5 and 9 immediately or wait
for another hit. If you want to press right away, give the
dealer $3 from your stack. Now you have $44-inside and
this is where the strategy gets really fun.
Remember the 5 and 9 have a 4% house edge
and the 6 and 8 are at 1.5% each. So its better to have
more money on the 6 and 8 compared with the 5 and 9
plus, they are rolled more often! From this point on, I say
if the 5 or 9 is rolled for you, take $12 of the $14 winnings
and press the 6 and 8 $6 for each number, taking back
$2 to your stack. But, if the 6 or 8 is rolled, keep the
entire payout for your stack and leave all remaining bets
the same. If you are lucky enough to get to this point,
youre on a really hot streak! The 5 and 9 will always
stay at $10 each, and are essentially a feeder for
pressing the better 6 and 8 bets. You have a 3:1
advantage over the 7 with bets on the 5, 6, 8 and 9 so
youre sitting pretty at this point. And youve been locking
in more and more profit the whole way. If youve got a
really hot roll going on, you could see your place bets on
the 6 and 8 climb to $30, $36, or even higher. You may
end up becoming hoarse from all the screaming youll be
doing as you collect more winnings!

61

Chapter 25 : True Stories
As I have said playing craps is a social game.
Usually several people are all winning, or losing at the
same time. Played with a group of friends, craps can be
a lot of fun when you are all winning. And it provides a
shoulder to cry on if you all lose. Even playing at a table
with complete strangers, you form a bond with the other
players when youre all in the same boat. Nearly every
time Ive played craps live, other players at the table are
rooting for the shooter, even asking their name to call out
Lets go, Jim! or whatever their name is. Here are a
collection of more true stories Ive been involved with at
craps tables.
In my very first trip to Las Vegas with the same lab
partner I mentioned at the beginning of this book I won
about $300 playing strictly the $12/$6/off regression
strategy on the 6 and 8. The only time I strayed from this
was when I was rolling and was forced to make a
passline bet. I was 22 years old but looked more like 14.
I had been carded a couple of times for simply
WATCHING a craps game and not even standing at the
table! I was pretty nervous the first time I bought in at the
Tropicana at a $5 table, but I was confident I knew how
to play that system and wouldn't make a fool of myself. I
just needed the dice to cooperate a little! I dropped $60
on the felt for my buy-in and was surprised when the
dealer didn't ask for my ID, but I played it cool and waited
62
for a point to be established and then dropped $24 on the
table and said "Place the 6 and 8, 12 dollars each". The
dealer didn't bat an eyelid and set up the bets. A few
rolls later a 6 rolled and I knew I was on my way! After
just a few minutes, I found myself ahead by probably $40
or so, and at THAT point, the boxman asked for my ID.
"Ah ha!", I thought to myself. Had I been losing, they
wouldn't have cared if I was at least 21 years old, but
now that I'm winning it's a different story! I only played 4
times that weekend but walked away with "big" profits
each time (roughly doubling my $60 initial buy-ins).
When I got home I couldnt wait to tell everyone that the
system had worked, and worked well!
After this trip I taught several of my friends to play
craps and I even bought a small craps table for my home
(ironically costing $300 the same amount I had won in
Las Vegas). We had a lot of fun times working different
systems and strategies. One of my friends was simply
trying to lose all the fake-money chips he had, and in
doing so, went on a streak of field winners rarely seen.
He ended up winning every chip I had instead of losing
all of his. Unfortunately, the following year in Vegas, this
same guy was the only person to lose money at a REAL
table when the rest of us were winning. Im not sure hes
played a serious game of craps since.
I taught a high school friend of mine the simple 6/8
strategy as well in about 10 minutes one day. He later
told me he won over $200 on a cruise ship playing that
system. How proud was I?!
 Remember the Buy 4/10 strategy? I watched 2
guys at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas go
crazy with buying the 4 and 10. It was about 8 in the
morning when the casino was practically empty. I stood
there and watched as these guys fought the 7 and won
hundreds, maybe thousands, on the 4 and 10. I did not
know the color-dominations of the chips they were using
so I cannot say for sure. The one time I finally got the
courage to do this bet myself for $50 at the MGM Grand,
I also won and immediately took my bets down.
The first high roller I saw lose a ton of money was
at the Aladdin (now called Planet Hollywood). He was
doing what Ive described as a good strategy - passline
with come bets and full odds. That casino offered 3-
times, 4-times, and 5-times odds on the 4/10, 5/9, 6/8,
respectively (Often shown on the table as 3x, 4x, 5x).
His base bet was $100, so he was betting a total of $400,
$500 and $600 per number after he had his full odds on
each number.
Now, one craps myth is that if the dice hit a chip
when they land, that roll will be a 7. Again, theres
absolutely no justification whatsoever for this myth, but
this guy would probably argue otherwise. A man on the
opposite side of the table threw the dice towards him
while he had every number working, all 6 of them, for
$3000 total. You could tell by the high trajectory of his
toss that the dice just didnt look right. Sure enough,
when they landed, chips splashed everywhere 7 out,
shooters a loser. The shooter lost maybe $30. The
high roller lost $3000. We came back about an hour later
63
and the guy was still standing there, down another $5000
or so by our estimates. It was a tough night for him,
indeed.
The biggest high roller I ever saw was at the MGM
Grand. I knew something was up when I saw chairs at a
roped off craps table. The MGM has $25,000 chips
which are larger in diameter than a standard chip and
bright orange. They are called pumpkins. Soon
enough, an older gentleman, his wife, and another couple
started playing. The older man was playing with $5000
base bets on the passline and come. He threw out a
couple of pumpkins for odds on the 6 or 8. I was in
absolute awe at what I was seeing. Honestly, I didnt see
a whole lot because there were security guards standing
a few feet away from the table and I didnt care to put my
scrawny 145 lb frame anywhere near them. But I
watched him play for at least half an hour; he had to have
bet hundreds of thousands of dollars. Interestingly
enough, I dont recall hearing one scream of joy, or
scream of agony either. Whatever this guy might have
won or lost at the table really made no difference to him.
He was just payin the bills for whatever free
everything (comps) he was given that weekend. Ive
been at many tables where the players betting $10 or
$15 scream louder when they win than the guy next to
him whose got $400 or $500 out there. To each his
own I suppose?
Knowing when to quit is, of course, very important
when playing craps. It is for any form of gambling! A
hard lesson I learned about when to quit happened at the
Wynn in Las Vegas. I had been playing the simple
strategy of just $10 passline and $10 odds for about 30
mins. The table was fairly hot, and I found myself ahead
about $50 and felt it was probably a good time to quit.
The shooter had sevened out, and even though I wanted
to roll myself, there were 2 players ahead of me for rolling
and I wanted to leave with a decent profit. So I gathered
up my chips and prepared to tell the dealer to color me
up when I noticed that neither of the two players to my
right had bets on the passline. The dealer asked the first
player if he wanted to roll and he said no. Then he asked
the player to my right but he was confused about needing
to put a bet on the passline in order to roll. I thought to
myself, oh, heres my chance to roll! and I put $10 down
on the passline thinking the stickman would give me the
dice. But, then, the guy to my right went ahead and put
$10 on the passline and the dealer gave him the dice. I
thought to myself, No problem, I can play a little bit
longer. He established a point and I dropped down
another $10 in odds. Seven out, line away. Grr... will be cold! Well it certainly was. We went all the way
There goes $20 of my profits down the drain.
Now it was MY turn to roll, so I was excited to
keep playing. $10 on the passline and I established a
point. $10 more in odds Seven out, line away.
Argh! Another $20 in profits down the drain!
The moral of this story is, leave when you tell
yourself you should leave! I could have left with $50 in
profits but instead only left with $10 because I wanted to
roll. A little bit of confusion with the players on my right
kept me at the table longer than I told myself I should
64
play, and it cost me. Sure, you could say that maybe I
could have won more, but remember the longer you swim
in the river, the longer the current works against you and
this is a prime example of that.
There have been a couple of other times I can
remember leaving the table with a decent profit, maybe
around $50-$70 or so, but my friends kept playing. Sure
enough, when I return a half hour later, or I saw them the
next morning, the story was "You quit at the right time, it
got cold after that, we all lost." Remember what I wrote
earlier? It seems that 75% of all players are ahead at
some point and 75% of them lose it all back and more!
Craps isnt always glory and profit, however. Ive
had a couple of rough rolls myself. At the Mirage, about
4 of my friends and I decided we would open up a new
table where no one was playing. This is yet another
craps myth with no basis never open up a new table, it
around the table and not a single one of us made a point
or rolled a 6 or 8. By the time the dice got all the way
around, my entire $100 buy-in was gone.
I also lost my full buy-in of $100 in a matter of 10
mins or so at the Palms just a couple of months after it
opened. That time it wasnt a new table being opened, I
just simply got spanked. Hmm kinky. But no, I didnt
enjoy it. Fortunately, these are the only 2 times Ive lost
everything shooting dice. Needless to say, these 2
events prompted me to create my 50% loss rule. Id be
$100 richer today if I had used that rule back then.
From the Im Gonna Be a Big Shot file : it was
my bachelor party and the guys and I decided to head to
a casino in Wisconsin for the weekend. My only
stipulation was that it, of course, had live craps. This
promised to be a great weekend and I was going to play
craps, and play craps big at my bachelor party! I was
ready to throw down! I was happy to find $5 craps tables
which meant I could play my normal $12 6/8 strategy, or
$5 in passline + odds. In the back of my mind, though, I
wanted to play big, but I still fell back to my old habits of
bets around $5 - $15. The first day went well and I was
ahead around $70. My friends kept giving me a rough
time about how I said I was going to play big but wasnt!
So the 2nd day I said screw it and decided I was going
to finally play big and upped my bets to $25 and higher.
You guessed it, I quickly lost all my profits and probably
$200 more in a matter of minutes. No discipline! Yes,
its important!
The stupidest player I ever saw walked up to a $5
minimum bet table and dropped a wad of $100 bills onto
the felt. Everyone was stunned! The boxman counted
out 37 of them and then the player asked for 2 of them
back! WTF? He didn't even know how much he had!
Anyway, they gave him $3500 in chips and he spread
$3000 of them "across", meaning $500 buy bets on the 4
and 10, $500 place bets on the 5, 6, 8, and 9. So, why
was this extremely stupid in my opinion? Anyone who's
played craps more than once knows the place 6 and 8
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should be multiple of $6, so he really should have made
a $600 place bet on the 6 or 8.
Anyway, what happened? The first roll was a hard
8 and the dealers took a minute to figure out what a $500
place bet on the 8 pays. Turns out, it's $583. The dealer
cut out $583 in chips and handed it to him. Next roll - 7
out, everything gone! Our jaws dropped and I felt bad for
the guy, but only a little bit, someone that stupid needs to
be spanked.
But wait, the story doesn't end there. He
immediately took out another 25 $100 bills and dropped
them onto the felt. The boxman counted them out and
gave him 5 more $500 chips. Sure enough, $3000
across was set up for the next roll, the point was a 4.
First roll - VERY FIRST ROLL! 7 out! $3000 swept away
into the dealer's stack. Wow. The player left the table
and punched the nearest chair of an open video poker
machine next to the craps pit. He lost $5417 in just 3
rolls. Unreal.
Another buddy of mine has a knack for playing the
field. No, not with women, on the craps table! One year
in Vegas he felt that every casino we passed owed him
$20. His strategy was walk in, put $5 on the field, win,
press the $10, win again, pocket the $20 and leave. Ill
be damned if he didnt do this at 5 or 6 casinos up and
down the strip in one night. On top of this, we got to the
Bellagio where the table limits minimum was $10. He
puts $10 down, it wins. He presses that $20 bet and a
triple-12 is rolled! Theres another $60! Luckiest SOB
Ive ever seen. His streak finally came to an end at the
San Remo (Now the Hooters hotel and casino) following
breakfast the next morning.
This same guy also went 3 for 3 on horn high
bets the first year I went to Vegas with him. I had
coached these guys what to bet, what not to bet (i.e. the
horn bet), but he went off and did it anyway! And won
each time! He even made a horn-high-11 bet for the
dealers once and it, too, won! Those were some happy
dealers! I shook my head in amazement while they
laughed it up.
Going back to the field bet my friends and I
seem to have a wicked winning streak at one Vegas
casino that we call the No Please. It was given this
name because the dealer didnt appreciate our politeness
in asking to place the 6 and 8 for $12, please.
Eventually he snapped and yelled JUST SAY NUMBER!
NO PLEASE! But I digress I, personally, have never
lost money in all my weekends in Las Vegas playing at
the No Please. I did have to fight to break even once,
and quit as soon as I got there, but Ive never lost there.
Anyway, one night at the No Please, there was a
guy at our table who bet $5 on the field. A friend of mine
rolled a field number and this guy won his bet. He
pressed the $10 and it won again. He pressed the $20, it
won again. He pressed $40, it won! By now were
starting to wonder if this guy was clairvoyant or what?
He pressed $80, it won! By now were practically
BEGGING this guy to take his chips off the table! He
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finally quit at $160. My friend rolled another field number
right after that which would have won him $320, and then
ANOTHER field winner on the following roll, that time a
Triple-12! The guy would have won $1280 if he had
stuck it out. We stopped giving him advice after that. In
fact, we left the casino shortly after that!
Speaking of clairvoyance, I did call one of my own
rolls before I threw the dice one time. A young guy and
his buddies came up to a nearly empty table and he
bought in for about $100. He was only making $5 field
bets each roll but the dice weren't going his way and after
awhile he was down to his last $30. I was the shooter
when I saw him drop his remaining stack onto the field. I
said to him, "You probably want me to roll a 12 don't
you?" He said, "I'd LOVE it if you threw a 12!" So I set
the dice to 6 and 6 were showing at the top and said
"Here goes..." and I launched them to the other end of
the table. "Craps 12!" This guy jumped for joy and
screamed like he had just caught the winning touchdown
pass. That $90 win for him got him back above even.
He even thanked me and tossed me a $5 chip!
Another field story I was rolling at the Bellagio at
a $10 minimum table. I was having a decent roll and was
up about $40 and started to increase my bets. Even
though the table was full, hardly anyone was playing big
money, it was mostly minimum bettors like myself. I
almost felt like I was getting no respect for having a hot
roll and nobody had big money out there! Anyway, while
trying to hit a 6 or 8 I threw the dice toward the opposite
wall and leaned forward to see if I could see the result. I
heard the stickman call out Craps 12. A player standing
to my left jumped up and screamed YES! I wasnt sure
what he was so excited about until I looked down at the
table and he had put $200 on the field. The field paid
triple on that table so that was a nice $600 score for him.
He should have thanked me but didnt. Again No
Respect!
Another time I was playing at the Excalibur while
my friends played in a poker tournament. I was by
myself at the table except for 3 or 4 other strangers.
Things didnt start out very well and I was quickly down
about $40. A new shooter got the dice and things turned
around. He made a couple of points and 6s and 8s for
me, and soon enough I was back to just above even. As
a thank you I threw out $1 and said to the stickman
Dollar YO for the shooter. It was a tip-bet I made for
the guy shooting. The dice landed and it was a 6 and a
5! YO-Eleven! The dealer slid $15 towards the shooter
and the guy said, looking confused, Whats this? The
stickman pointed to me and said This gentleman made
that bet for you, sir. This guy must have been in a giving
mood, because he took $5 and said, $5 YO right back at
ya! Now I felt appreciated too! Nice of him to return the
favor, huh? Or a Canadian would say Nice of him to
return the favor, eh? But what are the odds of him
throwing another 11 what are the odds!? Okay a math
nerd will tell you its 18 to 1, and hes right. He tossed
the bones and they landed right in front of me. Sure
enough, 6 and 5 again! Another $15 for him, and now
$75 for me! Plus our passline bets! He continued to
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make another 2 or 3 points and soon enough I was up
over $150 and quit the game, walked over, shook his
hand, said thanks, and headed over to the poker room to
tell my friends the crazy story.
I touched on this next story in a previous chapter,
but it is something that sticks out in my mind so much I
have to tell the full story. I was playing at the Flamingo
and had lost about $50 playing mini-baccarat. One
buddy of mine and I walked over to a craps table that
was extremely loud (which is usually a good sign) and I
bought in with the other $50 I hadnt lost playing mini-
baccarat. Before I could even get my first bet down, the
shooter who was standing right next to the stickman (so
he had the shortest distance to throw) banged out a
winner 6. I was disappointed I had missed it. The table
erupted! Finally settled now, I started the Passline +
odds and 6/8 strategy. The shooter established an 8, I
put down my double odds, and he banged the 8 right
back on his first roll. The table erupted. He continued to
roll and roll winning numbers, most of them were 6's and
8's. I noticed he was holding the dice the same way,
throwing them at nearly the same trajectory, and hitting
the exact same spot on the table within about 2 inches
every time. The dice would hop once, barely hit the wall,
and land softly. I had heard stories about people
controlling dice throws but never believed it. Now here I
was, either witnessing it for myself in person, or he was
just simply getting very lucky. One of the dealers even
commented weve been waiting all day for a streak like
this. To make a long story short, I made about $150 in
profits at that table before he finally sevened out. He
received quite an ovation and a lot of tips from the entire
table. He had rolled for 30 mins while I was standing
there. I dont even know how long he had been rolling
before I got there. It was magical.
Perhaps only a math nerd can appreciate this
humorous comment made by a stickman, at the MGM
Grand. I had been playing my standard 6/8 strategy and
doing fairly well when the dice started heating up. There
were a lot of hard 8s being thrown. Needless to say,
many people started pouring money onto the hard 8
proposition bet. Several people also made dealer bets
for the hard 8. Now EVERYONE was cheering for the
hard 8! Then the 8s dried up and the rolls came out
something like 2, 9, 6, 5, 5, 10, 12, 6, 3, 11, 2, 5, 6, 9, 9,
6, 4 no 8s! It seemed like it would never end!
Between each of these rolls the stickman was BEGGING
the shooter to roll a hard 8. Remember, the dealers
make money too when you bet for them! Finally the
stickman was getting impatient and said, Roll a hard 8
ANY hard 8! I lost it. Of course, there is only 1 hard 8.
Not funny? Maybe you had to be there. Maybe you have
to be a math nerd.
Another funny situation I found myself in was at
my favorite place, the "No Please". My wife and I walked
into the casino and I immediately went for the craps
tables. She said she was going to find some video poker
and the No Please was small enough that we knew we
could easily find each other eventually without too much
trouble. So after awhile the dice came to me and I
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started playing the passline, along with 6 and 8, per
usual. I rolled an 8 and the dealer slid me $14. Just then
someone taps me on the shoulder and says in a very
sexy European accent, "Vat vas zat bet you zhoost
made?" I look to my right and here are my dreams come
true, a gorgeous European blonde woman is asking ME
how to play craps? But of course I went into math nerd
mode and told her about my $12 on the 8, and what it
pays if I roll it, just some very basics about the game.
She stood and watched for another minute or so
and I explained a little more. I found out she was from
Germany and I can speak a little German too, so that
was fun. But of course, a moment later I hear my wife
say, "Hi Todd!". I turn around with that "I'm just giving
this gorgeous German blonde girl some advice on how to
play craps, nothing else!" look. Haha... How did my wife
know?! HOW DO THEY ALWAYS KNOW!? Why did
this never happen to me when I was single! It was all
good though, the woman's equally gorgeous boyfriend
was also there, so my wife had some eye candy to look
at, too. The girl then bought in for $10 and started
playing while I figured I'd better go elsewhere with my
wife so we found some video poker to play. A half hour
later we left the casino, but the German girl was still
playing craps and looked to be up about $50. I hope she
still plays!
You can quickly create a list of your own fun true
stories. Get out there and play! But play smartly!

Chapter 26 : Etiquette
There are some etiquette and procedures you
should follow while playing craps. If youre new to the
game, these will be important so you dont embarrass
yourself, someone else, or slow the game down.
Buy in : When you are ready to step up and start
playing, wait until the dice have already been thrown and
the stickman has collected them. You dont want to stick
your hands or arms out onto the table and have the dice
hit them. The boxman may even call a no roll which will
certainly upset a few people. Once the coast is clear, put
your cash onto the table. Do not hand money directly to
the dealer, they cannot take money directly from you.
Put your cash on the table and the dealer will give you
chips by sliding them to you on the felt. Again, there can
be no hand-to-hand exchange of either cash or chips.
Betting : The dealers often work in one direction,
left to right, or right to left, as they make payouts, make
new bets for players. Before you buy in, watch what
direction the dealer is working and wait until its your
turn to either take your winnings or make a new bet.
Few things are as embarrassing is taking someone elses
chips. I did it once and apologized profusely to the player
next to me. Of course, speak clearly to the dealers so
they know exactly what you want your bet to be. $12
dollar 6 and 8 is better than throwing chips onto the
table, pointing and saying Those 2 numbers. Also, the
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player is only allowed to place chips directly into the
betting boxes on the felt for the passline, don't passline,
passline odds, don't passline odds, come, and field. Any
place bets, lay bets, buy bets, and all of the proposition
bets you need to put the chips onto the felt on or near the
field or come boxes, and tell the dealer what you want for
your bet. Players are not allowed to touch chips in the
proposition bet area, or the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 boxes.
Rolling : When it is your turn to be the shooter, you
must make either a passline or dont passline bet. You
do not HAVE to roll if you do not want to. The stickman
will likely ask if you want to roll if you have not placed a
bet. You can decline and he will give the dice to the next
shooter. But when you DO want to roll, the stickman will
push several dice to you, perhaps 5 or 6 of them. Pick 2
of them and he will take the rest back and put them in the
bowl in front of him. Only use 1 hand to touch the dice
and never take the dice outside of the table. Do not use
two hands to shake the dice or they might scold you
because, in theory, you COULD be hiding a 2nd pair of
cheater dice in the other hand. Some strict boxmen
might also scold you if you take the hand you roll with
and bring it outside of the table. I had this happen to me
once when I reached under the table for my drink with the
hand I was using to roll. The boxman asked me to open
up my hand when I brought it back to the table before I
could touch the dice. I learned my lesson
Also, and this is more of a personal gripe of mine,
but dont take a long time to roll. When the stickman
gives you the dice, that means the dealers are ready for
you to throw. A lot of shooters like to set the dice a
certain way, maybe having the two 3s face up,
sometimes the 6s face up. Some (like myself) wont
throw the dice if they are showing a 7. But, I witnessed
one guy at Bills Gamblin Hall do something that was so
idiotic, I probably had time to use the restroom between
each throw. Thankfully, at least he had a reasonably hot
roll. But anyway, he would take each individual die, and
turn it 6 times so that each number was face-up exactly
once. If he made a mistake and one of the numbers
showed face up more than once, he would throw the dice
backwards toward the wall directly in front of him to, I
guess, reset the dice??? Seriously, it was ridiculous!
So many players think they can control the dice to roll
certain numbers, but honestly, youre throwing the dice
probably 10 or 12 feet each time, theres simply no
controlling a dice throw over a distance that far. Oh
and the worst part was, he would throw the dice so high
that about every other throw would go off the table, and
he would always ask for the same dice to be returned,
so we had to wait for the pit boss to examine the dice
each time. It really slowed down play and made an
otherwise good roll memorable, but for a bad reason.
It also bothers me when players call for the same
dice after throwing them off the table. I understand
some people think theyve picked the lucky dice and
want to keep them, but honestly, theyre all identical, it
makes no difference which ones you use. If you throw
them and one flies outside the table, just take another
one and dont slow down the game, please!.
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Also make sure that when you do throw the dice,
that they travel the full length of the table and hit the back
wall of the table. The wall has some egg-carton-like
material on it which cause the dice to bounce at odd
angles, hopefully ensuring a random roll. If you do not
hit the back wall, the dealers will ask you to try and hit the
back wall.
Dealers : These guys never cease to amaze me.
They are often dealing to 6, 7, 8 or more people at once.
They have to keep track of different amounts of bets
belonging to different people. Occasionally they do make
mistakes so be careful to keep track of what youre
betting on. If youre at a busy table, there are more chips
visible than felt so things can get mixed up easily
especially if the dice hit the chips. Know what youre
betting on, and how much you should get paid if you win.
Ive only had to remind a dealer 1 time when I didnt get
paid for a winning bet so they do an extremely good job.
Wait until your turn to tell the dealer what to do and dont
bet out of turn. Also dont throw chips out onto the table
just before, or as the dice are being thrown. Its
distracting to the dealers who have enough to remember
and think about. Be polite to them and tip them when
you are done. Either a direct tip or make a bet for them.
Walking away : When youre ready to leave,
hopefully with winnings, ask the dealer to color you up.
Hell tell you when its okay to put all of your chips on the
felt. They might want you to wait for the next roll to
complete first. Separate your chips into stacks of like
colors so its easier for them to count rather than a
haphazard mix of various colored chips. If youve used
my trick to use different colored chips as separators,
make sure to always undo the color scheme when
coloring up. When the dealer motions for you to put your
chips down, set them down and hell take them and give
them to the boxman to count up and the dealer will give
you that amount in chips back which you can take to the
cashier. And dont forget to leave a tip or make a bet for
the dealers when you leave!

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Chapter 27 : Electronic Games
Recently, there have been some electronic craps
games showing up in casinos. I have seen some where
the players sit in a circle around a center hopper
containing two oversized dice. Each player has a touch
screen computer terminal in front of them where they
make their bets. The shooter has a button that
activates the hopper which starts vibrating and then pops
the dice up in the air and when they land, thats what the
roll is. There is a countdown timer of about 30 seconds
for players to make their bets before the shooter rolls
the dice. There is no dealer for this game, all bets are
paid electronically and a ticket is printed out when the
player wants to quit much like any other slot machine.
Another variety is a normal looking craps table
with a stickman who collects your cash and hands you
chips when you cash out. The stickman also collects the
dice and passes them to the shooter like a regular live
game. But, each player has a touch screen terminal in
front of them like the previous example where the player
makes his/her bets. The shooter rolls the dice just like a
regular game and the stickman punches the roll result
into the computer and all bets are paid electronically.
A third type of electronic game is an online casino,
like what my lab partner and I first played craps on during
our college days. I would shy away from these with real
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money as there are a multitude of legal, banking, and
security concerns. If you find an electronic game to use
for practice only with fake money, however, a math nerd
is all for it! But for the electronic games found in casinos,
here are my opinions:
Pros : For someone who is a little shy about
stepping up to a craps table because of the intimidation
factor some people perceive, this type of game is more
personal and private. Also, because there are no chips
involved and all payouts are done electronically, theres
virtually no risk of making an invalid bet or having an
incorrect payout. And its more secure because there is
a small risk of theft of chips at a craps table.
Also, remember back to the odds bet for the point
being a 5 or 9? I said that you should make a $6 odds
bet in this case instead of $5 (or $16 instead of $15) due
to the 3:2 payout. Well, at the electronic games, the
computer will actually pay fractions of a dollar for these
types of bets. So a winning $5 odds bet on a point of 5
or 9, you will actually get paid $7.50 unlike in a live game
where you would only be paid $7.00. This is definitely
advantageous to the player.
It is also extremely easy to keep track of your
bankroll on an electronic machine because your balance
is displayed on the screen. At a live table, it can be
difficult to keep track of how much money in chips you
have in your tray and how much you have on the table. I
gave you a trick of using the different colored chips as
separators to help you quickly figure out how much you
have, but having your balance displayed on the screen is
obviously superior.
Table minimums at electronic games also seem to
be lower than at live tables. I couldnt count the number
of times Ive passed by a $25 minimum table, or even
$10 tables looking for an open $5 table. Ive seen
electronic games with $3 minimums, and Ive heard of
others with minimums as low as $1!
Cons : As Ive described throughout this book,
craps is a very social game. Its very fun and exciting to
cheer for the shooter, watch his wife or girlfriend blow on
the dice for good luck. Its fun to high-five a complete
stranger who had a hot roll and just made you a nice
profit or have someone come up to you and thank you for
your own hot roll. These electronic games are much
quieter than a live game. Theres very little camaraderie
amongst the players who are just watching the screen in
front of them. Sure, theres some excitement when the
shooter makes his/her point, but generally speaking from
what Ive witnessed, the electronic game doesnt seem to
be as fun as the live game.
Unknown : Ive seen some debate about the
speed of play at electronic games. Some say its faster,
some say its slower. The betting and payout speeds
must certainly be faster as there is no dealer who has to
tend to as many as 8 players, or more. Many dealers are
extremely efficient and accurate, but they cant compare
to the speed of a computer. However, the electronic
games all seem to have a countdown timer for players to
get their bets in. So that can actually slow the game
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down, as not every roll results in a payouts, losses, or
new bets being made by players. In this case, the live
game is faster.
But is faster always better? This is gambling, and
the game is set up for you to lose. The longer you play,
the more rolls you see, the longer you are in that river
current and the harder it is to come out ahead. So, you
could say a slower game is better! Especially if youre
still waiting for Tiffany to come back with your White
Russian! But as you read in my true stories chapter, that
shooter who was taking forever, nearly always throwing
the dice off the table and demanding the same dice for
another shot really slowed down the game to the point
where it wasnt enjoyable, even though I was winning!
So its really up to each individual player how fast or slow
they prefer the game to go.
Without having any dealers to tip, you could say
the electronic game is better financially. But the dealers
are also there to help you, to explain the game or bets to
you, and they generally are up for some small talk and
can provide other assistance aside from the game.
Dealers often give great tips for where to have a good
dinner, opinions on shows to see, or directions to the
nearest restroom! So, while the electronic game may
speed things up and eliminate betting/payout errors, Im
not sure you can say its actually better.
Try out an electronic game for yourself and see
what you think!
Chapter 28 : Build Your Own System
Ive given you several of my favorite systems. By
no means is this a complete list. Hopefully, you have
learned about the good bets in the game: passline/come,
odds, and the place bets. Mathematically theres really
no difference between some of my strict systems like
place 6/8 with $12/$6/off, and something more random
like wait 9 rolls, then bet $12, wait for a win, take all your
chips off, wait another 9 rolls, bet $6, wait for a win, and
take your chips off. Statistically its the same since
every dice roll is independent of the previous rolls. You
dont even have to bet the pairs of numbers like I have
suggested in this entire book. You could do Bet $12 on
the 6, wait for a hit and take those chips down and bet $6
on only the 8, wait for a hit and come completely off.
Again, statistically, its the same strategy, and this one
requires a smaller initial bet out of your chip tray, too.
Youre only losing half as much as I am when that
shooter 7s out before winning for you. But you only have
half the chance of hitting the 8 versus hitting either the 6
OR the 8. Remember earlier in this book when I rolled
the dice 36 times and got very few 6s but a lot of 8s?
Thats why I like to bet pairs of numbers even if you are
risking more money on each roll.
So you can see there is really a lot of freedom
here, especially with the place bets because you can
increase or decrease them anytime you want. You also
have that same freedom with your odds bets. You can
74
get creative with how you play them. A strict math nerd
will always say, leave them on the table, and bet as
much as you can because they reduce the overall house
edge of your game. Im a little more conservative,
however, and like to guarantee profits when I get wins.
You are free to do as you choose with how you play.
Sometimes bad bets will win you money, as in my story
about betting $1 on the 11 for the shooter, him winning
and making the same bet for me and rolling another 11.
That was simply pure dumb luck. You may get lucky with
some hardways bets at times, too. Just please do not
play these very often. Only if you are already ahead,
have locked in some profit, and feel like the $1 you throw
out there might make for a good story worth more than
the money youll probably lose because its a bad bet for
a math nerd.
In building your own system, I hope you will
adhere to some common principles, however. First and
foremost, if youre losing, quit. Live to play another day.
Second of all, pocket some profit, even if you make that
profit from bad bets. This game is set up for you to lose
so when you do win, dont give it back! Third, use good
bets with low house edges. These will give you the most
return on your bet and give you the best chance at
making money. Fourth, you cannot control the dice.
They will do whatever they do. You ARE gambling and
the longer you play, the greater the chances that you will
lose. Every strategy and bet I have talked about in this
book will lose in the long run, so dont stand there for
hours and hours expecting to crawl your way back to
even, or that your hot streak will last forever. Even the
streak of 9 consecutive passline winners I rolled lasted
only about 45 minutes. Lastly, have fun! This is the most
exciting game in the casino and I guarantee you that you
will have some great stories to tell friends. Teach them
how to play because playing this game with friends is an
absolute blast. Good luck!

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