Craps Strategy

Craps is a highly popular table game at most casinos, and it’s quite exciting to play. Players that decide to try out craps might be a bit overwhelmed at the amount of money that is bet in every round of the game, and also at all the different rules and betting options available. For that reason many players shy away from this excellent game in favour of something simpler and easier to pick up and start playing. That’s a real shame because craps can be a pretty profitable game if you know what you’re doing. To help new players get the hang of the game we’ve broken down the basics of the game below, and we help explain how new players should begin playing craps for the first time, and also where they should be playing.

These Craps Tips Will Help You

Understand the game
Decide which bets to place every round
Win more consistently
Avoid making costly mistakes

How to Play

Craps is a confusing dice game, but essentially you’ll be placing a bet for or against the dice roller. Different players roll the dice and when they do they are known as shooters. You’ll bet on the outcome of those rolls to determine whether you are going to win money or lose it.

The Come out Roll

The beginning of a new players turn is known as the come out roll. This is the start of a round and you’ll have an opportunity to bet. You can either choose the Come or Don’t Come lines. If you choose the Come line you’ll be hoping that the shooter rolls either a 7 or 11 because you’ll win money. If you choose the don’t Come line you’ll be rooting for 2 or 3 and a 12 will get you your money back.

The game remains in this phase as long as the shooter rolls a 7, 11, 2, 3 or 12. As soon as he rolls a 4,5,6,8,9 or 10 he establishes what is known as a point and the game changes.

Now you’ll want to bet on the Pass or Don’t Pass spots. The point is whichever number the shooter rolled in order to move the game on to the next phase. If you bet on the Pass box you’ll win money if the shooter rolls his point number before a 7 or 11. If you’re on the don’t pass box you’ll win money if the shooter rolls a 7 or 11 before the point number.

If the shooter rolls his point before a 7 or 11 he goes back to the Come Out roll, if he rolls a 7 or 11 the game moves on to the next shooter who is eagerly waiting to play.

Brief history

Craps started out its life as the English dice game known as Hazard. This highly complex game was difficult to learn and something that many players simply weren’t interested in learning to play properly. Once it was simplified.

Beginner’s Strategy

As a beginner it’s important that you stay away from more complex bets and that you keep things simple. This means betting the Come and Don’t Come, as well as Pass and Don’t Pass. If you just stick to these four betting options you’ll have a really good chance of winning money over time, and you can enjoy that money that you would have had trouble winning with one of the other bets that offer lower odds to the players of the game. Betting on specific numbers, groups of numbers or placing a field bet will dramatically lower your chances of winning the game and make it easier for you to lose money as you play.

In craps it also makes more sense to bet against the shooter than it does to bet with the shooter, though you won’t make many friends by doing this at a live casino. Making this decision actually gives you slightly better odds of success with the game.

Common Phrases

Here are the most common phrases that you’ll hear when walking up to any craps table around the world. Knowing that this slang means will help you follow conversations and maybe even improve your success.

Craps – 2, 3 or 12
Yo – 11
Snake Eyes – Two ones
Jimmy Hicks - 6
Centre Field - 9
Hard 10 – 5 and 5

Finding the Best Craps Casinos

When you play craps online you’ll have decent odds at most casinos, so it’s more important to find locations that are safe to play at and that offer decent welcome bonuses and loyalty rewards. Finding all these things isn’t too difficult when you rely on the opinion of experts to help you make decisions. Our expert team of reviewers looks over leading casinos and rates them for their gameplay, security, mobile support and bonuses to help you figure out which are worth playing and which should be passed up. If you rely on this help you’ll be able to pick and choose from the best craps casinos and enjoy more success with the games.