How To Play Craps Card Game

Types of Craps Bets

Craps rules determine how a typical round of dice shooting happens. Craps rules are easy to learn, though the game has a lot of slang and terminology which might cause issues for beginners. Craps also has a lot of different bets, so a tutorial is needed when learning to play craps. Regulation craps table. The game odds are the same as a regular Craps game and the bets pays off just the same as a regular Craps game. The game is played with two separate decks of cards, one red and one blue, and two “dice” (We will refer to the “dice” as random number generators or RNG’s). The two decks will each consist of six.

Craps has dozens of wagers available, but the game is structured around the pass line bet. Players bet by placing chips on the pass line on the craps layout. Some other bets require that the dealer move your chips. The pass sequence starts with a comeout roll and the shooter rolls the dice. Each player is trying to get 4 of the same Crab Card in their hand. One side plays at a time. On a side’s turn, all players on that side can simultaneously swap any card from their hand with a card from The Ocean. You should always have 4 cards in your hand and there should always be 4 cards in The Ocean. Craps Tutorial - How to Play Craps When you place your original bet, your chips are placed on a 'pass line' bar on the craps table. If you win, you are paid even money or 1:1 odds. Now if you place an odds bet, you can add more chips to your original bet half way between the round when you determine how good your odds are.

Line Bets:
Single Roll Bets:
Multi Roll Bets:
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Craps can appear to be a complicated game at first because of array of numbers and lines sprawling along the table. So if you are a beginner of craps and would like to learn craps for the first time, then this is the page for you. First of all, the only complicated part of the game is choosing on what to bet on. One thing you should know is that craps has the lowest house edge out of every casino game. This means that you have the highest odds of any game in the casino when playing craps and it is beneficial to learn how to play craps correctly and easily.

Learn Craps Betting

Craps is a game of throwing dice and betting on what the dice will be. Now one of the main concepts of the game begins with the shooter or dice thrower. A 'craps' is a term used when the shooter or dice thrower rolls a 7 or 11. Players can bet for or against a craps throw. If the shooter throws anything other than a craps, then the term is noted as throwing a 'point number' and a small chip or 'point' is moved over this number in order to keep track. You can also bet that the dealer shoots a point number other than a 7 or 11 sum of the dice.

If the dealer does throw a point number, players can actually make an additional bet in the middle of a round before each throw. Although players who bet on a point can also make another bet on this same point number. This bet is called a free-odds bet. The odds bet is actually the best bet in the house and is sometimes known as a 'secret bet'. When you make an odds bet after the point has been made, you are essentially betting that the dealer will throw this same number again before he throws a 7.

Note that in most games with two dice, the probability of rolling a 7 is greater than throwing any other number. Always keep this craps tip in mind as it's the most cardinal of rules and craps strategy. Although rolling every other number vs. a 7 is actually greater, which is why betting on a point number is best. This betting strategy is required if you want to do an odds bet as well.

Craps Tutorial - How to Play Craps

When you place your original bet, your chips are placed on a 'pass line' bar on the craps table. If you win, you are paid even money or 1:1 odds. Now if you place an odds bet, you can add more chips to your original bet half way between the round when you determine how good your odds are. You are paid 'true odds' when you win on these types of bets. True odds means that there is no house edge! The house edge is 0 so this is like 50/50 odds and there is no bet like this in the casino. In fact, the craps table doesn't even have the bet displayed on the table because it is not good for the casino. This is why the odds bet is commonly known as the 'secret craps bet'!

Free Odds Bet Payout Chart

Pass-Line Point Number	House Odds	Payout Odds
4 or 10	2 to 1	2 to 1
5 or 9	3 to 2	3 to 2
6 or 8	6 to 5	6 to 5

Notice that the payout is $2 for every $1 bet when the point number is a 4 or 10. These two numbers are equally likely to be rolled but less likely than the 5 or 9 and 6 or 8 point numbers and especially the 7. These are the actual true odds in the game of craps so you are getting paid the fair amount.

This is actually the best craps bet in the casino. Although there are actually over 100 difference craps bets available and we will try our best to explain each one in our tutorials. You can learn everything you need to get started in playing craps and if you would like to play free craps, click on one of the banners and visit an online casino where you can practice with free money and eventually deposit real money.

Best Craps Bet - To sum it up, make a 'pass line' bet first and then an odds bet after a point number is rolled. You can literally play all night using this bet and you would have the best craps odds in the house and a huge chance of winning a lot of cash!

For decades, craps was the most popular table game in any casino. Its popularity was usurped by blackjack in the 1960s with the rise of both basic strategy and card counting, but craps remains one of the big 3 table games in any casino:

1. Blackjack
2. Craps
3. Roulette

But in Oklahoma, casinos aren’t allowed to use dice to power games of chance. The laws restrict table games to the use of playing cards to generate random results. Someone somewhere figured out how to create a craps game that uses cards instead of dice and maintains the same bets and probability.

The playing cards determine the results, which are then displayed using animated dice on a television monitor above the craps table. It would be easy to think that a random number generator computer program is creating those results, like it would with an online casino, but if you pay attention, you can watch the dealers actually drawing and manipulating the cards.

They use a scanner to read the cards, and that scanner converts those cards into the corresponding dice totals.

The purpose of this post is to explain how to play craps with playing cards in Oklahoma.

The Basics of Craps in General

Whether you’re playing street craps or casino craps, the basics of the game are the same. You start with a “shooter,” someone who rolls the dice. The game is played in “rounds,” and each round begins with a roll of the dice called the “come-out roll.”

Most people bet “with the shooter” or “with the dice.” This is an even-money bet called the “pass line bet.” It wins if the dice succeed, and it loses if the dice lose. Winning and losing are defined as follows:

On the come-out roll, if the shooter rolls a 7 or an 11, the dice immediately succeed, and the pass line bet pays off at even money.

But if the shooter rolls a 2, 3, or 12, the dice immediately fail, and the pass line bet loses. A new shooter starts a new round after this.

If the shooter rolls any other possible total, a “point” is “set”. The possible points are:

• 4
• 5
• 6
• 8
• 9
• 10

The shooter’s goal on subsequent rolls is to roll the point number again before rolling a 7. If he achieves this goal, the pass line bet pays off at even money. If he rolls a 7 first, he fails, and the pass line bet loses.

That’s the basic game in a nutshell. I know it seems more complicated than that when you’re watching, but that’s because there are so many possible bets you can make. Most of the bets at the craps table are awful for the player, though. You should just skip them.

One of the bets, though—the odds bet—is special. It deserves its own section:

The Odds Bet in Craps

The house has a mathematical advantage on every bet in the casino. The pass line in craps is no different. In fact, we know the exact mathematical edge the casino enjoys on this bet—it’s 1.41%.

When a point is set during a round of craps, though, another bet becomes available that has no house edge. This bet pays off at the same odds as of winning. It’s called the odds bet.

The odds bet is placed behind your original pass line bet. The amount is a multiple of your original bet. Casinos place a maximum amount on this bet as a multiple of your initial bet.

2X is as common a max as you’ll see, which means if you bet $5 on the pass line, you can make up to a $10 bet on the odds bet. If you placed a $10 pass line bet, you can bet $20 on the odds, and so on.

In casinos with higher maximum odds, you might be able to bet 10X or even 100X the size of your pass line bet. So if you bet $5 on pass at a 10X max table, you could bet $50 on the odds bet.

The payoff on this bet is based on the point that’s been set. And the payoff odds are the same as the odds of winning the bet.

• If the point is 4 or 10, the payoff is 2 to 1. The odds of winning are also 2 to 1.
• If the point is 5 or 9, the payoff is 3 to 2. The odds of winning are also 3 to 2.
• If the point is 6 or 8, the payoff is 6 to 5. The odds of winning are also 6 to 5.

Of course, the net effect of having a pass line bet and an odds bet in play at the same time is to reduce your overall house edge on the 2 bets. Here’s what the house edge looks like on the combined bet at various multiples:

• 2X Odds – 0.85%
• 3X Odds – 0.47%
• 5X Odds – 0.33%
• 10X Odds – 0.18%
• 100X Odds – 0.02%

Keep in mind, this is the house edge for the 2 bets combined. No matter how much you bet on the odds, you can never reduce the house edge to 0 or less in craps. The initial pass line bet always gives the casino an edge.

Also keep in mind that at least 1/3 of the time, the pass line bet will be resolved on the come out roll anyway. You’ll be able to take an odds bet most (2/3) of the time. But that’s not the same as being able to take the odds bet every time.

But How Do You Play a Dice Game with Playing Cards?

If I were designing a card game based version of craps, I’d just use 2 tiny decks of cards with an ace through 6 in each deck. You’d draw one card from each stack. This would give you the same potential combinations that you have in a regular craps game. There are 36 possible combinations, even though there are only 11 possible totals:

• 2 – One possible combination: 1, 1
• 3 – 2 possible combinations: 1, 2 or 2, 1
• 4 – 3 possible combinations: 1, 3 or 2, 2, or 3, 1
• 5 – 4 possible combinations: 1, 4 or 2, 3 or 3, 2 or 4, 1
• 6 – 5 possible combinations: 1, 5 or 2, 4 or 3,3 or 4, 2 or 5, 1
• 7 – 6 possible combinations: 1, 6 or 2, 5 or 3, 4 or 4, 3 or 5, 2 or 6, 1
• 8 – 5 possible combinations: 2, 6, or 3, 5 or 4, 4 or 5, 3 or 6, 2
• 9 – 4 possible combinations: 3, 6 or 4, 5 or 5, 4, or 6, 3
• 10 – 3 possible combinations: 4, 6 or 5, 5 or 6, 4
• 11 – 2 possible combinations: 5, 6 or 6, 5
• 12 – One possible combination: 6, 6

The problem with using my solution of 2 decks of 6 cards is that such a deck would be hard to shuffle. You’d also need to keep the 2 tiny decks separate from each other. That wouldn’t be impossible, but both of these challenges would require more finesse than you might be expected to need.

The casino’s solution is to use a deck of cards with 36 cards in it. Each of those cards corresponds to a specific combination of dice. This duplicates the probability you’d have with a standard craps game.

The cards used for this purpose are the ace through 9 of each of the 4 suits. The table has a card reader with a camera in it. This device recognizes the card and compares it to see which combination that card corresponds to. The boxman is the person at the craps table who handles the cards and the card reader.

The cards are dealt using a shuffling machine. Once the cards are shuffled, the boxman spreads them out across the table and uses the middle card as the determining card. Once it’s been scanned, the television screen above the table displays the animation and the result. The stickman also announces the result at the table.

All the other rules for the game are the same as for a standard craps game. I’ll cover the rest of the basics below, but if you already know how to play craps with dice, you can just skip that section and go play.

The Only Other Craps Bets Worth Making

The only craps bets I’ve covered until this point were the pass line bet and the odds bet.

But you have another good bet you can make before the come out roll. It’s called the “don’t pass” bet.

This is a bet that the shooter will fail.

It wins even money on the come out roll if the shooter fails, although a roll of 12 on the come out roll is treated as a tie (or a “push.”) A push is a situation where the bettor gets his initial bet back, but he doesn’t get any winnings.

The house edge for this bet is 1.36%.

You can lay odds on the don’t pass bet, too, but the payouts are reversed. Instead of getting 2 to 1 for the odds bet on a 4 or 10, you get 1 to 2. Instead of getting 3 to 2 for the odds bet on a 5 or 9, you get 2 to 3. And instead of getting 6 to 5 for a 6 or 8, you get 5 to 6.

How To Play Fact Or Crap Card Game

Combining the don’t pass bet with the odds bet has the same effect on your house edge as combining the pass line bet with the odds bet. It reduces it dramatically.

If you bet on the pass line, you’re called a “right bettor,” but if you bet “don’t pass,” you’re called a “wrong bettor.” Most craps players prefer to bet with the shooter and the dice. Most of the other bettors at the table are doing so, and this gives you all the opportunity to root for the same result.

Also, most gamblers prefer to place bets where their payoffs are greater than the amount they bet. When laying odds, your payoff is always less than the amount you’re risking. That’s just plain uncomfortable for a lot of gamblers.

The difference of 0.05% in house edge is so negligible that it’s probably worth it to be a right bettor if you enjoy the camaraderie provided by that situation.

Those aren’t the only bets worth making, though.

How To Play Craps With Cards In Oklahoma Casinos

You can also place bets called “come” and “don’t come” after a point has been established. These are bets that treat a roll later in the round as a new come out roll. The “come” bet is the same concept as the “pass” bet. It just comes at a different point in the round. The “don’t come” bet is the same concept as the “don’t pass” bet, too.

And you can place or lay odds with either of those bets just like you would with a pass line or don’t pass bet. The house edge for these bets are the same, too.

Those are the best bets at the craps table:

• Pass
• Don’t pass
• Come
• Don’t come
• Odds

Most of the other bets at the craps table have a much higher house edge. There’s not much point in making any of those bets, because the odds favor the house so much.

I’ll look at a random set of those bets below so you can see just how much they benefit the house.

Sucker Bets at the Craps Table

To understand why so many of the bets at the craps table are such a bad deal for the player, you need to understand a little about how the odds of winning such a bet are determined. You also need to understand that the difference between the odds of winning and the payout odds are what create the edge for the house.

“Odds” in probability are just a way of expressing how likely something is to happen. It compares the number of ways something can’t happen with the number of ways something can happen. For example, if you say the odds of winning a bet are 2 to 1, that means there are 2 ways to lose for every one way to win.

Let’s look at a real example from the craps table, though. All the bets being promoted by the stickman are proposition bets. The house edge on these bets is terrible.

One of the bets he’ll try to convince you to place is a bet on hard 8. (It could be a bet on a hard 6 or 10, either. They’re all terrible bets.)

This is a bet that the shooter will roll a total of 8 using the combination of 4, 4 (a pair) before rolling a 7. It’s a multi-roll bet. It doesn’t pay off until one of those 2 outcomes happens, regardless of how many rolls it takes for it to happen.

The odds of rolling a hard 8 before rolling a 7 are 10 to 1.

The bet pays off at 9 to 1.

To calculate the house edge, you just assume a perfect set of 11 bets. You win this bet once, and you lose it 10 times. You also assume that you’re betting $100 every time.

You’ll win $900 on the one roll where you win. And you’ll lose $1000 on the other 10 bets. That’s a net loss of $100 on 11 spins.

The average amount you’ve lost per spin is $100/11 spins or $9.09/spin.

Since we were dealing with an amount of $100, it’s easy to convert that $9.09 to a percentage. It’s obviously 9.09%.

It means that every time you bet $100 on that bet, you’ll lose an average of $9.09. Compared to losing an average or $1.41, the superiority of one bet over the other is clear.

This huge difference between the payout odds and the odds of winning is what makes all these other bets at the craps table such a great deal for the casino. It’s also what makes them such a bad deal for the player.

If you stick with the 5 bets I suggested in the previous section, and place or lay the maximum amount on the odds bet, you’ll have more fun and more winning streaks at the craps table than you can possibly imagine.

It’s still a negative expectation game for the player, so eventually, you’ll be a net loser. It will just take longer to get there, and you’ll be likelier to have the occasional winning streak.

Conclusion

Learning how to play craps with playing cards in Oklahoma casinos isn’t any harder than learning to play craps with dice in a Las Vegas casino. In fact, if you already know how to play craps with dice, you just need to understand how the results are generated using playing cards.

If you’re new to craps, you should still consider learning how to play. The game is too good to not play, even if the learning curve is slightly steeper because of the difference between using cards and using dice to generate results.

If you stick with the 5 bets I mentioned earlier in this post, you’ll be facing some of the best odds in the casino.

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