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Beginners’ Guide: How to Play Craps and Be a Winner

Beginners’ Guide: How to Play Craps and Be a Winner

Almost all gambling enthusiasts have played Craps – an exciting casino game with dice. Notwithstanding the fact that many people consider it to be very complex, the game attracts more and more gamblers in casinos. Why? The answer is obvious: if you try the game, you will become addicted to it forever because it’s super-fan!

What is Craps?

It’s necessary to say that it’s your personal choice of how to play the game – online or at a land-based casino. In online casino games, dice’s result is established randomly. In land-based casinos, players throw dices themselves.

As it’s stated above, Craps is the game where players use 2 dices. Speaking about dices, they are usually replaced after each game in land-based casinos and players should follow the rules on how to roll them correctly. The game has basic rules but a player can make various bets and choose any strategy he or she believes to be right. The game is both, difficult and simple. While learning how to play Craps, you will feel that there aren’t any obstacles that can prevent you from playing it.

Craps include many synchronous actions and a player should have a practiced eye and be very attentive in order to succeed. Experienced Craps players say that the main thing to do is to differentiate kinds of bets. When you know how each of them works, the game seems very simple and exciting. The game bets are quite clear and logically-reasoned. Nevertheless, the question of how to play Craps for dummies is usually complicated. It’s so because of a big variety of bets in it. To make a long story short, read the guidelines on how to make wagers and the game will run smoothly.

The game history

Craps came from the U. S. as a simplistic version of a popular game – hazard. Bernard de Marigny was the gamer who brought hazard to New Orleans and made the game easier for understanding and playing. However, players of privileged circles weren’t interested in the primitive game they called “Crapaud”. That’s why Marigny showed the game to the gamblers of a poor class. It was a starting point for Craps’ popularity, as the game quickly spread among them.  

How to play Craps for beginners: common rules and peculiarities

You have found out from the game history section that Craps is the alternative to the old game called hazard. It means that Craps rules aren’t so confusing and scaring as they were hundreds of years ago. On the contrary, novices often get overwhelmed with information on Craps’ terms and all these numbers and figures. But don’t panic, if you want to become a strong opponent in Craps! You need some free time and a bit of patience and thinking to understand the game. Believe us, the rules aren’t so difficult to explain. Let’s start.

Speaking about how to play Craps, dice are to launch the game. Players begin the process when they throw the dice. Gamblers call it “a come-out roll”. There is such a word as “the shooter” in the game. Who is he or she? The definition is the following: a player who casts two dice on a gaming table. It leads to several possible results:

  • Natural – undoubtedly, the best one. When a gambler gets 7 or 11 from the roll, it means a “natural” outcome. He or she will be asked to cast the dice once again and, yes, the player is a winner in this round.
  • Craps – the dice shows two, three, or twelve. Unfortunately, it leads to a player’s loss. However, he or she can try again and roll the dice.
  • Point – the word refers to 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. If players get one of them, the number is assigned to them as their points. A table manager places a puck with this number and a player sets the dice into action. The aim is to get the same figures but with another dice’s result. If a gambler is lucky enough and the necessary number appears once again then congratulations, it’s a success! As you see, 7 is missed on the list. When the game participant gets 7, he or she fails and shouts out “seven out”. After this, a new player uses the dice and continues the game. By the way, if the shooter makes “point” again, it leads to the start of the next circle and 7 doesn’t result in a loss.

These rules are considered an essential part if you are interested in how to play Craps at the casino. So, don’t be lasy to spend some time on them. 

Other key things to remember are the betting guidelines. You should rack your brains here. The first two essential bets: Pass Line/Don’t Pass. A gambler makes a bet, stating one of these wagers. Pass Line option suggests that win is possible when a natural or point appears before “7 out”. If the game participant chooses Don’t Pass option, the winning numbers for him or her are two or three, and the unlucky numbers are eleven or seven. When players hit twelve, the situation becomes more interesting: they get Push that is the golden mean – no win or loss.

Now let’s consider two more opposite types of bets: Come wager and Don’t Come wager. They aren’t the same as Pass/Don’t Pass because these wagers can be done only when the point is carried out. The Come Bet brings a win to a gambler if he or she hits 7 or 11 after the bet placement while two, three and twelve points lead to losing. If the dice hits the point, it becomes Come Bet. It has the mechanism as Pass Line has – if Come appears before 7, it’s a success; if not, a player loses. Don’t Come has common features with Don’t Pass. So, the winning numbers should be two or three; number twelve stands for Push; seven or eleven gives a loss.

The next bet type is Odd which is a side bet. If you dream of being a competent player who knows how to play Craps in Vegas, remember this type as well. It’s a kind of peculiar because the bet can only follow the bets mentioned a

bove. Odds are divided into four types:

  1. Pass Line Odds;
  2. Don’t Pass Odds;
  3. Come Odds;
  4. Don’t Come Odds.

Odds support four main bets. To give explanations of the scheme – when the point is carried out, you can use Odd to make a wager. To use Pass Line Odd bet while playing, a person applies the phrase “taking the odds”. Commonly, casinos set the limit for using Odds, and, usually, it’s 3. However, some of them allow more. Payouts are defined by the point, e. g. (Pass Line Odds) :

  • four or ten – the payoff is two to one;
  • five or nine – the payoff is three to two;
  • six or eight – the payoff is six to five.

Players say “laying the odds” to announce Don’t Pass Line Odds, if they want to apply them. 7, occuring before the point, means a win, otherwise, it’s a loss. The payouts also depend on the points:

  • 4/10 means 1:2;
  • 5/9 stands for 2:3;
  • 6/8 means 5:6.

Of course, there is too much information about the rules to read, remember and use. The most common and utilized method to learn how to play Craps – video but you can also upload a PDF file with the instructions and save it.

If you want to become a skillful specialist in Craps, you need to find out more information about such bets as Place Win/Place Lose, Buy/Lay, Field, Hardways, Big 6/Big 8, and Proposition bets. It seems a little bit difficult, but it really isn’t! Placing Buy bet, a gambler selects any number from this list: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10. One of the mentioned numbers appears before a 7 is rolled out and, in such a case, a player is a winner of “true odds”. And lay bet works vice versa. Place Win and Place Lose are similar to Buy and Lay ones. When 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 occurs before 7, a player succeds. If 7 is the first, a player loses. Big six and Big eight wagers, for instance, mean that six and eight are hit before 7. When a player announces field bet, it suggests that the dice will display 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 or 11. A standard Craps table includes a special section with field bets. So-called proposition wagers belong to single-roll ones and it’s necessary to use them very carefully because of a big disadvangade – a significant benefit of a gambling establishment.

How to play Craps: strategies gamblers will never tell you about

If you search for the data on the topic, you will probably read a lot of materials about the strategies with examples. There are many recommendations on playing Craps on the websites dedicated to the game. However, there isn’t any secret. The main advice for beginners is to try all strategies and see which are the most successful ones.

Try all bets and build your personal system. It is easy to find the game on many online casinos where you can play it as long as you want. Online casinos are the best training platforms to become an experienced player. Of course, it’s a bad decision to play Craps using real money just after you have read this article. Take time to think the information over at first. Both, theoretical and practical parts, are very important for your future wins.

According to Craps experts, Pass Line and, of course, Don’t Pass line wagers more often result in wins. The chances are estimated as 50/50 and a house edge isn’t very high. Another efficient method is betting on the contrary of the game’s run. The win is possible when another participant of the game rolls out and gets seven ahead of the point. Among other strategies, experienced Craps players also emphasize on buying 4/10, place six or eight. What is interesting, some bets don’t include any benefit of a casino.

How to play Craps and win – tricks and recommendations

The first recommendation for being super lucky in Craps is to follow the above-mentioned strategies. A skillful player doesn’t build hopes on his or her lucky chance and always has a prepared strategy for every game. But tips and tricks still exist and it’s better to be informed about them.

The most essential tip – you should always prefer safe bets! Remember, that your main goal isn’t only to win money but also not to get rid of them. The game decisions with high risks very often don’t result in wins! Next, as you already know, Pass bets are highly-advisable to use. They are usually the safest and the advantage of a house is only 1.41% which isn’t too much. Gamblers recommend not to place Pass wagers after a coming-out roll. It isn’t prohibited in casinos but it significantly decreases your bet value. If you seek for the bets with a non-excessive house benefit, apply Don’t Pass wager in Craps. It’s a reasonable solution in terms of safety and the percentage a casino gets of it. The bet’s edge is small 1.36%.

It isn’t surprising that every player wants to increase his or her winnings. Odd bets will surely help with this. First of all, there isn’t any house edge in these bets. So, you get what you win.  Secondly, combining Odd bet with Pass or Don’t Pass ones, you have more opportunitiesno to make the game successful. As an option, you can also apply Come/Don’t Come bets. The winning chances are equivalent to in Pass or Don’t Pass bets so it is worth trying.

You should always be wise and think about the consequences. Risky decisions, reckless bets, and bets with a big house edge are not as safe as you might think. Every game, and Craps isn’t an exception, is based on mathematical model and casinos have special schemes to benefit from your wins. Seeking for more useful data on how to play Craps? YouTube is a gold-mine of information!

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