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|The Elements Of The Game| |The Right Bettor| |The Wrong Bettor| |Figuring The Odds| |Refinements| |Sucker Traps|
3.PROPOSITION BETS
The wagers in the central part of the layout in front of the stickman are called proposition bets. To make any of these bets, you would place your chips on the center of the layout and announce to the stickman both the amount of the wager and the type of bet you want to make. For example, you might say, "Twenty on the hard eight." When one of these bets wins, the stickman instructs one of the dealers how, much to pay and which player to give the winnings to. The dealer will place the payoffs directly in front of the winning player.
However, the original bet remains on the layout and counts as a bet for the next roll. Proposition bets are never returned to the player unless he asks the stickman to do so. I am telling you all this just for the record. These bets represent the worst gambles available at craps. If you insist on making any of the proposition bets, do me a favor and don't tell anyone you read my book. To satisfy your morbid curiosity, I am going to tell you just what these bets consist of.
Hardways When a number is rolled by getting the same number on each of the two dice, this is known as making the number the hard way. Obviously, the only point numbers that can be made this way are 4 (2-2), 6 (3-3), 8 (4-4), and 10 (5-5). Any other way of rolling one of these four numbers is called making the number the easy way. When a player bets a particular number the hard way, he is wagering that this number will be rolled the hard way before it is rolled the easy way and also before a 7 appears. If either the 7 or one of the easy combinations of that number is rolled first, the bet will lose.
Since both 4 and 10 can be rolled by the same number of combinations, the hardway 4 and hardway 10 bets both have the same payoff odds of 7 to 1. True odds are 8 to 1. The eight losing combinations are the six ways a 7 can be rolled plus the two easy ways the 4 (or 10) can be rolled. By holding out one unit in what should be a nine-unit pot, the casino gives itself an advantage of 1/9 or 11.1 percent.
The 6 and 8 can also be rolled by the same number of combinations, so they also have the same payoff of 9 to 1. True odds are 10 to 1. The resulting house edge is 9.09 percent. With percentages like this against the player, making hardway bets can only be considered a sign of a self-destructive personality . Any-Seven. This and the remaining proposition bets are all one-roll bets. This means that you are betting on what will happen on the very next roll.
Of the bets we have covered so far, only the field bet also falls into this category. An any-seven wager means that you are betting that a 7 will come up on the next roll. There are six different ways of making a 7. If any of the other thirty possible combinations comes up on the next roll, you lose. Clearly, your chances of winning are 30 to 6, which can be simplified to 5 to 1. The house pays 4 to 1. You pay 16.7 percent of the money you wager. If you bet this long enough, that should come to all your money.
Any-Craps. You win if the shooter throws 2, 3, or 12 on the next roll. You have four combinations going for you, and the remaining thirty-two against you. That works out to 8 to 1 correct odds. The house pays 7 to 1, for a 11.1 percent edge.
2 or 12. These are two different bets, but they work the same way. If you bet on the 2, you have one way of winning and thirty-five ways of losing. The house pays 30 to 1. Doesn't sound fair, does it? The bite is 13.9 percent. A bet on 12 works the same way and costs just as much.
3 or 11. Once again, these two bets work the same way. (Remember, 3 and 11 are symmetrical pairs). If you think 3 will be thrown on the next roll, you have two chances to win and thirty-four to lose. That means true odds of 17 to 1. The casino will pay you 15 to I if you are crazy enough to take this proposition and lucky enough to win. The house advantage works out to 11.1 percent. The same bad news applies to a bet on 11.
The Hardway Hop This bet appears on the Lake Tahoe/Reno layout but not on the Las Vegas/ Atlantic City layout. However, in their eagerness to cover any suicidal bet a player is willing to make, many casinos will allow you to make this wager even if it does not appear on the layout. If you think the shooter will make a hardway 4 on the next roll, you can make such a bet by placing your chips in front of the stickman and telling him you want to bet a hardway 4 on the hop. (A hop is a wager that a particular combination will appear on the dice on the very next roll. ) He will leave the bet on the unmarked part of the layout beneath the section on which the proposition bets are marked and will acknowledge the bet by stating the amount and nature of the bet. The same bet can be made on the hard 6, 8, or 10. This kind of bet is also known as a hardway on the turn or a one-roll hardway.
The house will give you 30 to I odds. If you want to know how this breaks down mathematically, look at the analysis of the 2 and 12 bets above. Although the numbers are different, the math is the same because in each case you are talking about only one winning combination out of thirty-six possibilities. The house edge is 13.9 percent. This is true whether you bet the hard 4, 6, 8, or 10. The number you are betting on changes, but both the true odds and the payoff odds remain the same. Therefore, the house edge is the same.
Other Hops. You can make the same kind of one-roll bet on any easy combination for any total. For example, you may wager that an 8 will be thrown as 5-3 on the next roll. Simply tell the stickman you want to bet the 5- 3 on the hop. The bet will be handled by the stickman exactly as explained in regard to hardway hops that do not appear on the layout. Since this time you have two possible winning combinations (5-3 and 3-5), the house pays 15 to Ion this bet, for an edge of 11. I percent. This is exactly analogous to the 3 and 11 bets discussed above.
The Horn. The horn bet is one wager that will be new to some who have done all their crap playing in Las Vegas. The horn is not listed on the Las Vegas Strip layout but is prominently displayed on the layouts used in Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City. When a player bets the horn, he is wagering that either a 2, 3, 11, or 12 will appear on the next roll. The horn bet must always be made in multiples of four units, since the player is, in effect, betting one unit on each of four different numbers. If a 2 or 12 appears on the next roll after the player makes his bet, one-quarter of his wager will be paid off at 30 to I odds, and the remainder of the wager is forfeited. If a 3 or 11appears, one-quarter of the player's wager will be paid off at 15 to 1, while the rest of the bet is forfeited.
Of course, if neither a 2, 3,11, or 12 appears, the entire wager is lost. Some players figure that there are six ways of making a 2, 3, 11, or 12 and thirty ways of making any other number. They conclude, therefore, that they have a 5 to I chance of winning the bet and convince themselves it is a pretty good gamble. The fallacy of this kind of thinking is that the horn bet is really four different wagers. Remember, only one out of every four units bet will be paid off if a 2, 3, 11, or 12appears. The true odds against a 2 appearing in one roll are 35 to I. These odds also apply to your chances of getting a 3 in one roll. But the casino pays only 30 to Ion either of these numbers. The true odds against rolling a 3 are 17 to 1. The 17 to I figure also applies to your chances of making an 11 in one roll. But the casino pays only 15 to Ion these two numbers. Thus, the house is giving itself a massive 13.9 percent edge on the 2 and 12 and 11.1 percent edge on the 3 and 11. In the long run, you figure to lose about twelve dollars and fifty cents out of every hundred dollars bet on the horn.
The Horn High. A common variation of the horn is called the horn high bet. In this case, the wager must be made in multiples of five units rather than four units. One unit is bet on each of the four numbers 2, 3, 11, and 12, plus an additional unit wagered on whichever of the four numbers the player chooses. A bettor might, for example, hand the stickman five dollars and say, "Horn high eleven. " The 11 will be covered with two dollars, and the 2, 3, and 12 will be covered with one dollar each. Needless to say, this bizarre variation does not make the wager any better. Basically, the horn and horn high bets are a casino gimmick to get players to make four different sucker bets at the same time.
Craps-Eleven. Also referred to as the C & E for short, the craps-eleven bet is a wager that either a craps (2, 3, or 12) or an 11 will appear on the next roll. If a craps is rolled, the bet pays 3 to 1; if 11 is rolled, it pays 7 to 1. This is exactly the same as making two equal bets, one on any craps and one on 11. Both of these wagers were discussed above. Other Split Bets. There are many other proposition bets that, in effect, consist of the bettor making one wager that is divided over two or more different one-roll bets. One example is the three-way craps. Unlike the any-craps bet, this is a three-unit bet that is equally divided between the 2bet, the 3bet, and the 12bet. Other split bets include 11 and 12 split; the high-low bet (pays on 12 or 2); the ace-deuce and 11bet (pays on 3 or 11); the aces and ace-deuce bet (pays on 2 or 3); and the ace-deuce and any-craps (pays on 2 or 12, and extra on the 3). There is really no point in analyzing each of these bets separately, since the individual components have all been discussed above. They are all strictly for suckers;
I mention them only for the sake of completeness. .'To" vs. "For" Throughout this book I have followed the format of citing odds as "X to Y. " This is also the more common format used by gambling casinos in listing odds on their layouts. However, you \\"ill also encounter crap layouts where the odds are listed as "X fur )'." Don't make the mistake of thinking this means the same thing as "X to Y." Here is what really happens. Let's assume you are making one-dollar bets. If the layout says the bet pays 5 to1, it means that if you \\"in, the house will give you five dollars in addition to letting you keep the one dollar you bet. However, if the layout says the bet pays 5 for 1, it means that if you win, the casino will take your one-dollar bet and give you five dollars in exchange for it. It gives you 5 for your 1. A little reflection will show you that changing the word from "to" to "for" costs you one dollar. Frankly, I feel this "for" double-talk is just misleading advertising. If you don't spot the difference in terminology or don't understand what it means, you may assume a casino is giving you better odds than at other clubs you have played in. For example, an unsophisticated player seeing that this layout pays 6 for 1 on the any-seven bet may assume he is getting a better deal here than at a casino that pays 5 to 1. In fact, both games are giving exactly the same odds. Alternately, the "for" ploy may give the impression that the house is offering the same odds as the competition when in fact it is actually giving short odds. A wager like the 12 bet may be listed as 30 for I instead of the standard 30 to I. T o the uninformed player, this looks like the same odds he is used to seeing on the layout. In fact, the house has boosted the already-prohibitive 13.9 percent house edge to a grotesque 16.7 percent. If you remember that 10 for I means the same thing as 9 to I, you won't be misled. see more > > >
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GAMBLING: RULES, STRATEGY, SYSTEMS, CASINOS? |
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GAMBLING: RULES, STRATEGY, SYSTEMS, CASINOS? |
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