Buy, Lay, Place - What's
a player to do?
21 April 2003
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark, Although you state it is a terrific
bet, I generally do not make a pass line wager
on a crap game. Instead, I prefer betting
specific individual numbers. The crap table
offers different opportunities: A buy bet, a
Place bet, and a Lay bet. Of these three bets on
a crap game, which do you recommend? Scott H
Among the wagers you mentioned, Buy, Place, and
Lay, one is respectable (Laying the 4 or 10),
one is your checkmate play, (Placing the 6 or
8), and all the rest are sometimes called tired
trotters. Let's poke about a bit, Scott, and
scrutinize them one by one. Gitty up!
Place Bet: Place betting involves just six
numbers on a crap table: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10,
and curiously enough, offers the best and some
of the worst bets there are. At any time during
a roll, you can pick one of these six numbers
and bet that it will appear before a 7.
If it does, you receive a payoff that is
slightly less than the true odds. For example,
the true odds are 2-to-1 that a 4 or 10 will
appear before a 7. Yet, if you win a place bet
on the 4 or 10, you will only be paid off at
9-to-5. This works out to a house edge of 6.67%.
If you were to place the 5 or 9, you would
reduce the casino advantage to 4.0%. Better,
yes, but that checkmate play, placing the 6 or
8, is the cat's meow. The true odds are 6-to-5
that either the 6 or 8 will appear before a 7.
The casino will pay you off at 7-to-6, which
works out to a casino advantage of 1.52%.
As you can see, Scott, the place bet on the 6 or
8 gives the casino its lowest edge among all the
bets you mention, making it one of the best bets
you will find on the crap table, Top Dog, you
might say.
And now for the also-rans:
Buy Bet: A buy bet is essentially the same as a
place bet except you that pay a commission of 5%
on the amount of your wager. If you win, the
casino will pay you at the true odds, but stare
at that 5% commission until wisdom sets in.
For the best deal on a buy bet, you would need
to wager at least $20. Why so steep when a Place
bet can be had for $5? Because the minimum
commission the casino will charge you for making
a Buy wager is a buck (which happens to be 5% of
$20), but a higher percentage of lesser wagers.
The casino edge on any Buy bet for $20 works out
to 4.76%.
Lay Bet: A lay bet is the polar opposite of a
Place bet or a Buy wager.
With a Lay bet you are betting with the house
and against fellow sports in the game and hoping
that a 7 appears before a point number (4, 5, 6,
8, 9, or 10).
Lay bets are paid off at true odds like Buy
bets. But you must also shell out for that 5%
commission; it's figured on the amount that you
will win rather than on the amount you are
betting. Again, when making a Lay bet you should
always remember the minimum payoff of $20,
because 5% of $20 is $1, and that's the casino's
minimum charge.
For the 5 and 9 you will have to Lay $30 to win
$20. Here, the casino edge is 3.23%. For the 6
and 8 you will have to lay $24 to win $20. The
casino edge on that bet is 4.00%. And for that
respectable wager I mentioned, Laying the 4 and
10, you'll have to lay $40 to win $20 to get the
house edge down to 2.44%.
Gambling thought of the week: "While the high
roller is fawned over in a sickening manner, the
low roller must grovel to get a few crumbs."
Frank Scoblete, Guerrilla Gambling
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