No Straw into Gold on
these Wagers
23 June 2006
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark,
I am interested in the following proposition
bets that were getting a lot of play the last
time I was on a crap table: Bets like the 11
appearing on the next roll, Hardways, Craps, and
someone was even betting on the Seven appearing
on the next toss. Could you please provide a
brief explanation of each, list the payoffs and
actual odds, plus, which of the above mentioned
bets do you recommend, if at all, to play? Al M.
Proposition bets, Al, are generally located in
the center of a craps table, and although they
pay off at temptingly high odds, they come with
a significantly higher casino edge.
As for the 11, the “yo,” it is a one roll bet
that the shooter will make a certain number of
your choosing, in this case the 11, on the next
roll. The afore-mentioned 11, the 3, or
"ace-deuce,” and a "hi-lo," a combination bet on
2 or 12, all pay off at 15-1, but the actual
odds are 17-1, giving the house a wallet
thumping 13.9% edge. “Snake eyes,” the 2, and
“box cars”, the 12, pay off at 30-1, but the
actual odds of a 2 or 12 appearing are 35-1.
A Hardway is a wager that a shooter will make a
number the hard way such as 3-3 (6) before
throwing a 7 or a 6 the easy way (5-1 or 4-2).
The hard 4 (2-2) and hard 10 (5-5) pay off at
7-1 odds with actual odds of 8-1, and the hard 6
(3-3) and hard 8 (4-4) pay off at 9-1 odds with
actual odds of 10-1. The hard 4 and 10 carry a
casino advantage of 11.1% and the hard 6 and 8
come in slightly lower at 9.09%.
Any Seven, also nicknamed "Big Red," is a bet
that the shooter will roll a seven on the next
roll. The true odds are 5-1, yet the casino only
pays 4-1, giving the casino a humongous 16.67%
house edge, making it, Al, the worst variety of
the worst species of wager on the crap table.
Any Craps is a bet that the shooter will roll 2,
3 or 12 on the next roll. The true odds are 8-1,
with a casino payoff of 7-1. The house edge on
this bet is 11.1%.
The Field bet is a wager that any of these
numbers, the 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 will
appear on the next roll of the dice. This bet
pays 2-1 on the 2 or 12 and even money on the
others (3, 4, 9, 10, 11), although many casinos
do generously pay 3-1 on the 2 or 12. The casino
advantage is typically 5.5% on a Field wager,
but reduced to 2.77% if the 2 or 12 pay off at
3-1. Unlike the other proposition bets above, a
Field bet is physically placed by the player in
a box between the Don't pass line and the Come
box and is not handled by a stickman or dealer.
All these wagers that you have showed interest
in can be quite costly and damaging to a
player’s bankroll. So, Al, since the house’s
edge on the bets we’ve hung out to dry above, is
far above my forever-suggested 1.5%, my
recommendations as to which one to bet is,
trumpets please, ta ta ta ta ta ta, NONE.
The canny craps player would instead put his/her
hard-earned cash to work on either the Pass line
or Don't Pass line with full odds, and
complementing the Pass line wagers with place
bets on either the 6 or 8.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Poker is a game of
people. It's not the hand I hold, it's the
people that I play with.” —Amarillo Slim
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