1. What Numbers Are Craps Numbers
2. Craps Buying Numbers Versus Placing
3. What Numbers Crap Out
4. Craps Number Payouts

Buying the 4 and the 10 Buying the 4 and/or the 10 is the most worthwhile Buy bet on the craps table, both in terms of odds and payout. Whenever you make such a wager, you are betting on whether or not the next roll of the dice will result in a 4 or a 10.

The odds always favor buying the 4/10 over placing, no matter when the Vig is taken. The 5/9 deoends, if the Vig is taken only on wins it is technically better to buy than place while if the Vig is taken when the bet is placed, then placing is better than buying. 6/8 is always better to place than buy. There are also bets over $40 where Buying beats Placing. Placing the six or eight for $24, the lowest multiple of $6 that could qualify for a Buy, would lose $24 six times and win $28 five times - giving the house $144 - $140 = $4; Buying the same number for $25 would mean putting up $26 to net $29, giving the house $156 - $145 = $11. Last week, you learned that buying a 4 or a 10 at the craps table was a much better bet than placing either of those numbers. If your casino of choice charges the 5 percent commission only on winning bets and will allow you to buy a $35 bet for the same $1 vig as a $20 bet, then you've whittled the house edge down to.95 percent.

The Odds: Numbers

Since craps is a game of chance, you need to understand why you have a greater or lesser chance of rolling different numbers. Because you're rolling two dice, your chances of rolling a specific number in craps are determined by the number of die combinations that can add up to that number. For example, 2 can only be rolled with two 1s, but 4 can be rolled with either a 1 and a 3 or two 2s. That means you have twice the chance of rolling a 3 as you do a 2. Because the 7 has the greatest number of combinations (six), it is the number that has the potential to come up most often, which is why 7 is the magic number in craps.

There are 36 possible number combinations in craps. Here is a chart showing the possible combinations for each number using two die.

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From the chart, you can see that the most likely number you'll roll is a 7, followed by the 6 and the 8, then 5 and 9, then 4 and 10, then 3 and 11, and finally (and least likely) the 2 and the 12. This means you'll roll a 7 once out of every six rolls, a 6 or an 8 once out of every 7 to 8 rolls, and so on.

Odds for Each Number

By looking at the possible combinations, the 'true odds' for each number can be established. Knowing the odds in craps is good so you have a feel for the likelihood of one number being rolled before another one (e.g., is the 4 going to be rolled before the 7?).

House Edge

Now, true odds are not what the casino pays you unless you're also betting 'free odds' on top of your main bet. Free odds, which is an additional wager you place with your original line bet, pay true odds so the casino's edge is reduced. (We'll talk more about free odds in Strategies the Winners Use.)

To better explain how the casino edge works, let's take the example of flipping a coin. You have a 50/50 chance of the coin landing on heads, and a 50/50 chance of it landing on tails. If that were a bet on which you were being paid true odds, you would be paid even money. The casino, however, has to have an edge in order to make a profit on the game. So, the payoff for any given bet is less than what true mathematical odds would dictate. For example, on a bet that had true odds of 1:1, you would think that if you bet $1 and win, you would be paid $1 in winnings. But in a casino, depending on the bet, you might only be paid $.96. The difference between the true odds and what they pay you is how they make money -- it's called casino odds.

Another way to better understand casino odds versus true odds is to look at the definition of the casino (or house) edge. WizardOfOdds.com defines it as, 'The ratio of the average loss to the initial bet,' going on to explain that it's based on the original wager rather than the average wager so that players can have an idea of how much they are going to lose when they place a bet. For example, by knowing that the casino has a 1.41 percent edge in craps, you can know that you'll be losing 14.1 cents for every $10 bet.

For charts of odds for all types of bets, visit the Wizard of Odds.com.

On the next page, we'll talk about types of craps bets, their odds and what the casino pays for each.

What Numbers Are Craps Numbers

From Chapter 2

Craps Buying Numbers Versus Placing

Craps Buy Bet

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In This Chapter

• Craps Personnel
• Flow of the Craps game
• Dice totals and their frequencies, probabilities and odds
• Craps Bets

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Buy Bets

The Buy bets are another way for a right bettor to cover the point numbers. These Craps bets can be made at any time. Buy bets can be pressed (increased), reduced or taken down (removed) at any moment prior to a roll. They work the same way the Place bets do, but the payoffs for the Buy bets are made at the correct odds. For that increase in the payoff ratio a player has to pay the house a 5% commission on the amount of his bet.

What Numbers Crap Out

Suppose a player wants to make a $20 Buy bet on the number 6. A 5% commission, which is also called the “vig”, the “vigorish” or the “juice”, will be $20 x 5% = $1. A player places $21 on the layout and tells the dealer that he wants to buy a 6. A dealer collects $1 vig and puts $20 in an appropriately numbered box on the layout. He also puts a small “Buy” button atop the chips to distinguish them from the Come bets. If the 6 repeats before a 7 is thrown, a player is paid at correct odds of 6 to 5 – $24.

How big is the house advantage when a player makes the Buy bets? If the house did not charge a 5% commission, the Buy bets would be the even proposition bets without any advantage for the house or the player. Thus, if we’ll use our example above, all we’ll have to do to calculate the house advantage is to divide that $1 commission charge by the amount wagered, which is $21. The result is 4.76%. We can see now, that it is cheaper to buy a 4 or 10 than to place them, because the Place bets on a 4 or 10 carry a 6.67% advantage for the house. On the other hand, it is better to place a 5,6,8 or 9 than to buy them due to a smaller house edge on the Place bets for these numbers.

If you want to buy bets you have to make at least $20 bets. If your bet is only $10, than the 5% commission on that bet is equal 50 cents, but the house will charge you $1 anyway, because $1 chips are the smallest chips on the craps table. In this case, the house advantage against you will sharply increase to 9.09%.

Craps Number Payouts

The Buy bets are off on a come out roll, unless you instruct the dealer to make them work.

Copyright Progress Publishing 1998