Casino Lab Solutions STATION 1. Probability Questions 1. P(7 or 11) = 6 36 + 2 36 = 8 36 = 2 9 2. Casino Craps Interesting Facts: Page 3 This category is for questions and answers related to Casino Craps, as asked by users of FunTrivia.com. Accuracy: A team of editors takes feedback from our visitors to keep trivia as up to date and as accurate as possible.

I’ve written previous posts in this series about craps — that examined the staff at the craps table and the equipment used to play (the dice and the table). This post is the 1^st one in which I discuss the nuts and bolts of how to play a craps game in a casino.

1. Craps is a gambling game found in most casinos based on rolling two six sided dice. Most players who walk into a casino and try to play craps for the rst time are overwhelmed by all the possible bets. The goal here is to understand what these bets are and how the casino makes money. 1 Probabilities and Expected Values.
2. What are your casino choices in Atlantic City for craps and Spanish 21? When you mention that it is wise to take full odds on a bet while playing craps, do you mean to match your bet with an equal odds bet, or to make the highest allowed odds bet along with your bet (ex: at a table with 10x max odds place a $1 bet with a $1 free odds bet, or a $1 bet with a $10 free odds bet).
3. Craps is a game where players make wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. The craps table at any casino is always packed because this isn’t your typical game of dice. Saying that craps is a casino game played with dice is like telling people that Mount Rushmore is a sculpture of some dead guys.

Part 3 of 6

• 1 The Craps Dealers and Other Staff at the Dice Table: Who’s Who
• 2 How the Craps Table Layout Works and How the Dice Work
• 4 The Best and Worst Craps Bets You Can Make
• 5 Craps Bets Ranked According to House Edge
• 6 How (and Why) to Act Like a Craps Player

I’ve seen other pages that explain how to play craps, and some of them are very good indeed. I hope, though, that this post will include a level of detail heretofore unseen on the internet as it relates to how to play craps.

First Things First

You walk up to a craps table that’s just opened for action. A few other players join you. Maybe a class on how to play craps just finished—casinos usually hold those earlier in the day and then open up a table immediately afterward.

You and your new companions will start by buying in. You’ll put cash on the table and get chips in exchange. Once everyone has bought in, the stickman will give the dice to the player on his left. Dice is like cards, by the way.

If you don’t go broke 1^st, you’ll get a chance to roll the dice, too. Don’t worry about that. You just have to wait your turn.

Also, you and the other players aren’t required to roll the dice. You can always pass on that, for any reason you want to. No one will give you a hard time about it, either.

The player gets to choose 2 dice from the 6 or 8 dice he’s given. Once she picks those dice up, the stickman puts the other dice away until there’s a new shooter. (They go in a dice tray.)

But the game still can’t start, because no one has placed a bet yet. Actually, though, at a real craps table, bets will have been made already. I just haven’t mentioned that yet.

Usually, players will start by making pass bets and don’t pass bets. You’ll see a lot more pass bets than don’t pass bets, too.

In this case, “pass” means for the dice to win. “Don’t pass” means for the dice to lose.

If you read my previous post about the table layout, you’ll already know where those bets go on the table. In fact, those are bets you can place on the table yourself, as opposed to some of the bets where the dealers have to place the bet on your behalf.

But you’re not limited to just those 2 options. You can bet on the field. You can bet on big 6. You can bet on big 8. You can even place a proposition bet in the center of the table.

One Roll Bets

It seems appropriate at this point in the discussion to point out the different kinds of bets available. Bets like pass and don’t pass are multiple roll bets. They stay in action as the dice are rolled repeatedly until they’re resolved.

The proposition bets, and some of the other bets, like the field bet, are one roll bets. These are bets made on the outcome of the very next roll. They win or lose based on what happens on that roll. They don’t stay on the table.

The Come Out Roll Is When the Action Starts

The 1^st roll a new shooter makes is called “the come out roll.” If she rolls a 7 or an 11 on the come out roll, the dice win. Anyone who placed a bet on the pass line gets paid off at even money. Anyone who bet on don’t pass loses their bet, and their money gets collected.

But if the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12 on the come out roll, the pass line bet is an immediate loser. This is called “crapping out.” Those totals—2, 3, and 12—are “craps.” The don’t pass line, though, MIGHT be a winner.

Remember when I discussed the layout and how the don’t pass bet includes the words “bar 12” or “bar 2?”

This means that if the shooter rolls a 12 (or a 2, depending on what the layout says), the don’t pass bet doesn’t win any money. Instead, it’s treated as a “push” or a “tie.” You get your money back, but you don’t get any winnings with it.

Any other total sets a point. The possible points are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10.

If the shooter doesn’t set a point, she gets to keep the dice and continue to roll. It doesn’t matter if the dice won or lost on the come out roll. And any time the shooter hasn’t set a point, the next roll is always a new come out roll.

But if a point number has been rolled, the shooter keeps rolling until she either:

• Rolls the point number again. (In which case, the dice win.)
• Rolls a 7. (In which case, the dice lose.)

If the dice win, the shooter keeps the dice and continues to shoot. Also, the pass line bets pay off at even money.

If the dice lose, the next person to the left of the shooter gets a turn as shooter. Also, the don’t pass bets pay off at even money.

After this action is completed, there’s a new come out roll, regardless of whether or not there’s a new shooter.

That’s the basics of craps right there—the come out roll and whether the dice win or lose. Sometimes they win or lose on the first roll; sometimes there are subsequent throws which determine whether they win or lose.

But the other bets are whether the casino really cleans up.

Summarizing the Action

It helps to think of craps as being a game played in rounds. Each round starts with a come out roll.

The dice can win or lose immediately on the come out roll. If you roll a 7 or an 11, that’s an immediate win. If you roll a 2, 3, or 12, that’s an immediate loss.

Any other number sets a point. In that case, the shooter continues rolling the dice until she either rolls a 7 or the point again. If she rolls a 7 before rolling the point, the dice lose. If she rolls the point before rolling the 7, the dice win.

The pass bet pays off at even money when the dice win.

The don’t pass bet pays off even money (or pushes) when the dice lose. The only time it’s a push is when a 12 is rolled on the come out roll. (Or if a 2 is roller in a casino that says “Bar 2” instead of “Bar 12.”)

And that’s it.

Craps is a much simpler game than you expected, isn’t it?

The real wrinkles start when you look at the dizzying arrays of bets that are available to be made in the game besides the pass and don’t pass bets.

I’ll look at the available bets in the next post.

Conclusion

A craps game starts when players buy in, place bets, a shooter is chosen, and then that shooter rolls the dice. The most basics bets in the game (the pass and don’t pass bets) pay off based on whether the dice win or lose, respectively.

You do, of course, have multiple other bets available on the table. Some of them are one roll bets, like proposition bets, while others are determined after multiple rolls.

This is the 3^rd post in my series about playing craps. My next post will include details about how the other bets on the craps table work.

Show me a player making opposite, or near opposite, bets and I'll show you a player up to something. He is probably trying to take advantage of a promotion or comps. If I ran a casino, I would give credit only for money being risked. One could argue he is risking $10, because a 12 will cause the pass to win and the don't pass to push. However, that will happen 1 in 36 pass line bets only. If I ran a casino, I would give him an average bet of $0.

No, you were paid correctly. The 11 does pay 15:1 on the $5 of your bet. However you lost the other $15 on the 2, 3, and 12. So $75-$15=$60. Instead of taking the $15 from your bet, they take it from the winnings.

Thanks for the compliment. The Spanish 21 rules are the same across Atlantic City. I only know of two that have the game, the Tropicana and the Claridge, but there could be others by now. If I'm not mistaken, the best craps game is at the Sands, which offers 5X odds. When I say to take the maximum odds I mean bet the maximum allowed on the odds. For example, $50 after a $10 line bet. Keep in mind that you won't win more money by taking the odds, you just get to bet more without losing more in the long run.

Mary from Rising Sun, USA

I don't know the hold for any game. For the benefit of other readers, the hold percentage is the ratio of casino profit to chips purchased at the table. Since the same chips will circulate back and forth between the players and dealer for an unknown period of time, the mathematician has no way of calculating the hold or hold percentage.

I asked my friend Larry Drummond, a craps dealer and former webmaster of Next Shooter for help on this question. Larry can be a bit abrasive but is a good source of hard to find information on craps. Here is what he said, 'Comps for craps vary from Casino to Casino and from Boxman to Boxman. A player should get to know the Boxman. The Boxman sets the players average bet and tracks the TIME that a player is at the table. It is easier for the Boxman to track action for COMPS. if the player is consistent in their wagering pattern. Now, I ask you ... if a player goes $52 or $54 across after a Point is established with a $5 flat bet on the Pass Line. Is that a $57 or $59 average? ... Or a $5 average with a whole bunch of other INDIVIDUAL bets? The answer is... IT DEPENDS ON HOW WELL YOU KNOW THE BOXMAN and HOW MANY TIMES TO YOU ATTEND THIS PARTICULAR CASINO.'
Larry added in another e-mail the following, 'In addition to the information I already sent to you ... ODDS on Pass Line and Come bets are often NOT included in the AVERAGE for comps. Same with LAYING ODDS on the Don’t Side... as in the long run this should be a WASH. But ... If a smart boxman wants someone who is spending big bucks on ANY 7, the worst bet on the table... he would probably average the ODDS and the LAYS to keep the sucker coming back to the casino ... you can re-word this to make it a little more palatable for your site ... In addition ... A good boxman will COMP to the MAX if he sees that the PLAYER is 'betting for the boys.'

I wasn’t planning on it. There are so many betting patterns in craps that one analysis would only fit a small percentage of craps players.

Thank you for the kind words. I still say that the house edge is not dependent on the number of come bets you make. Yes, it is depressing to establish one come point after another and then lose everything on a seven. However there are other times when the shooter takes ages before rolling a seven and you win lots of come bets along the way.

In California dice alone can not be used to determine the outcome of a game. To get around this law many casinos use a hybrid of cards and dice, or cards only. My crap section now addresses some of the ways this is done.

The following tables show the number of hands/tosses per hour in blackjack, craps, and roulette. The source of the tables is Casino Operations Management by Jim Kilby.

In craps 29.6% of total rolls are come out rolls, on average.

You could do a tournament. Every player will buy in for the same amount of non-cashable chips. Establish somebody to be the banker, paying off bets as in normal craps. Whoever has the most chips after some benchmark, for example x 7-outs, wins the pool. Since you will have an even chance with everybody else, I think it would be okay to ask for tips for the use of your house.

Two suppliers of gaming tables I am aware of are TCS John Huxley and Midwest Game Supply. They probably do sell to the public. The price of a craps table at Midwest Game Supply is $3,950. If a used one will suffice, the Gambler's General Store sells used tables.

According to the the Bone Man at NextShooter.com, here is where and when you can find the tubs:

One Tub at Wild, Wild West (probably open only evenings, weekdays, and on weekends).
One Tub at Ellis Island (probably open only evenings, weekdays, and on weekends).
One Tub at Circus Circus in West Casino section, hardly ever open unless on busy holiday.

2010 update: I hear the Ellis Island replaced the tub with a full craps table.

The expected number of total rolls is 1671/196 = 8.5255. Interestingly, the expected number of rolls for a point is exactly 6. That leaves 2.5255 come out rolls. So the percentage of come out rolls is 2.5255/8.5255 = 29.6%.

The answer is 50/50. This will be true for any number of dice rolled, not just two.
A bit off-topic, but I've always thought an odd/even set of bets would be a good way to replace the dreaded big 6/8 bets in craps. To give the house an advantage, here are my proposed pay tables and analysis.

Odd Bet

Even Bet

What is the etiquette of tipping the shooter in craps?

There is absolutely no expectation of tipping the shooter ever! I would go as far as to ask you not to, lest it become a 'thing,' and leeches start hanging around the table, only betting on their turn, and shaking other players down for tips. This whole culture of tipping in casinos is getting completely out of hand.

The Casino Lab Station 1 Craps Answers Questions

This question is raised and discussed in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.

Assume I'm playing craps at a table with 100x odds. I'm debating whether to make a place bet on the 6 or 8 or a put bet. How much odds would I have to put on a put bet to have a better value than the place bet.

Good question. The house edge on a place bet on the 6 or 8 is 1.52%. At 5x odds, the overall house edge is exactly the same on a put bet on the 6 or 8 at 1.52%. At 6x odds, it drops to 1.30%. So, it takes 6x odds to become a better value.

The Iron Cross is a way of betting the field and place bets to win on any roll of the dice except a 7. The field already covers the 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The player will add to that place bets on the 5, 6, and 8 to cover the rest of the numbers, besides 7. The following table shows what the math looks like with a $5 field bet, $5 place bet on the 5, and $6 place bets on the 6 and 8.

Iron Cross

The lower right cell of the table shows an expected loss of $0.25. The total amount bet is $22. This makes the overall house edge $0.25/$22 = 1/88 = 1.14%.

At this point you may be wondering how this house edge can be lower than the house edge of each individual bet. The answer is because the house edge of 1.52% placing the 6 and 8 and 4.00% placing the 5 is based on per bet resolved. If define the house edge on place bets on a per roll basis, then the house edge placing the 6 or 8 is 0.46% and on the 5 is 1.11%.

We can get at the 1.14% house edge by taking a weighted average of all bets made, as follows:

The Casino Lab Station 1 Craps Answers Questions And Answers

($5*2.78% + $5*1.11% + $12*0.46%)/22 = $0.25/$22 = 1.14%.

Be wary of casinos that pay only 2 to 1 for 12 on the field bet. Insist on getting the full 3 to 1. The short pay doubles the house edge on that bet from 2.78% to 5.56%.

The Casino Lab Station 1 Craps Answers Answer

The standard deviation, relative to the pass bet, with full 3-4-5x odds is 4.915632.

The Casino Lab Station 1 Craps Answers Key

The standard deviation, relative to the don't pass bet, laying full 3-4-5x odds is 4.912807.