How to Play Craps Online the Winner’s Way

1. Know How to Play Craps

The objective in a craps game depends on your perspective, either as the shooter (roller of the dice), or as a player (betting bystander). Players can place a wide array of bets. They can bet with the shooter, or against the shooter.

It is the shooter’s job to roll the two dice. The sum of those dice will determine what happens next.

On the shooter’s first roll…

• If the sum of the dice is 2, 3, or 12, the shooter will lose.
• If the sum of the dice is 7 or 11, the shooter will win.
• Any other sum rolled becomes the Point.

If the shooter wins or loses, his/her turn is over. The next shooter will toss a new first roll, with the same rules as above.

When a Point is set, the shooter rolls again. On all subsequent rolls…

• If the dice total equals the Point, the shooter will win.
• If the dice total equals 7, the shooter will lose (crap out).
• Any other sum, and the shooter will roll again.

2. Learn How to Bet in Craps

Being such a popular game in land-based casinos, you will be a bettor far more often than a shooter. Playing online craps, there is no shooter. The dice roll is generated by a random computer algorithm. So it’s extremely important that you understand how to bet, and which bets are actually worthy of placement.

There are two basic types of bets in craps; single roll bets and standing bets.

Single Roll Bets: These are bets that only last one roll of the dice. The outcome will determine whether the bet wins or loses.

Standing Bets: A standing bet is one that will remain on the table until a certain condition is met. If the current roll does not resolve the bet as a win or loss, it stays in play for the next roll.

The following bets are the ones you need to know. These are the bets I would recommend choosing from. I won’t bother telling you about ridiculous wagers with long odds – a.k.a. sucker bets – as you should not be placing them anyway. For reference, sucker bets include Big 6/8 and all Proposition Bets.

Pass Line Bet

A standing bet on the shooter, this bet wins if a 7 or 11 is rolled, loses if a 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, and becomes a wager that the Point will come again before a 7 if any other number (Point) is rolled. This bet can only be placed on the shooter’s first roll, before a Point is established. Pays 1-to-1.

Don’t Pass Bet

A standing bet against the shooter, this bet wins if a 2, 3 or 12 is rolled, loses if a 7 or 11 is rolled, and becomes a wager that the Point will not come again before a 7 if any other number (Point) is rolled. This bet can only be placed on the shooter’s first roll, before a Point is established. Pays 1-to-1.

Come Bet

A standing bet that the next number rolled will come again before a 7. This bet can only be placed after a Point is established. Pays 1-to-1.

Don’t Come Bet

A standing bet that the next number rolled will not come again before a 7. Pays 1-to-1.

Field Bet

A single-roll bet on a range of numbers – 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12. A winning 2 pays 2-to-1, a winning 12 pays 3-to-1, all others pay 1-to-1.

Place Bets

Place bets are the same as come bets, except that you get to choose the number you think will roll before a 7. Optional place bet numbers are 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. These standing bets can be placed any time, before any roll, and pay 1-to-1.

3. Understand How to Take Craps Odds

This is the most important aspect of any good craps strategy. When a bettor takes odds (or lays odds), they are getting the only “fair odds” you’ll find in any casino. By this, I mean it’s a genuine 50/50 chance. The odds of winning the bet are the same as the odds of losing; a 0% house edge (100% RTP).

Odds can only be taken on certain standing bets that have already been in play for at least one roll (Pass Line/Don’t Pass, and Come/Don’t Come), and only if the number rolled is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10; the same numbers that appear in the Place bet section.

If you place a Pass Line bet and the Point is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10, you can then place an odds bet of 3x, 4x or 5x on the Pass Line bet. The size of the odds will vary by the Point. If the odds are 3x, the bet is 3x that of the original Pass/Don’t Pass or Come/Don’t Come wager.

The multiplier changes to keep the bet fair, since certain numbers are likely roll more often than others. For example, there are five ways to roll a 6, and six ways to roll a 7. If we exclude all other possible rolls of the dice (since they have no impact on your bet), that gives us a 45.45% chance of rolling a 6, and a 54.55% chance of rolling a 7.

So, the point is 6, and you take 5x odds on the 6 rolling again, you’ve increased your original wager by 5x so that the original 1-to-1 payout is now equivalent to a 6-to-5 payout. Therefore the house edge is reduced to 0%.

The same mathematical logic goes for 3x and 4x odds on points of 5 or 9, and 6 or 8, respectively, bringing their edge down to 0%.

4. Craps Strategy & Advantages of Online Play

The thing about online craps is that you will never be the shooter. You will always be a betting bystander. But that’s not such a bad thing. In fact, it makes it a lot easier to bet against the shooter, without drawing scathing looks from everyone else at the table. And based on the house edge, you should bet against the shooter anyway.

A Pass Line/Come bet (with the shooter) carries a 1.41% house edge. A Don’t Pass/Don’t Come bet (against the shooter) has a slightly lower house edge of 1.36%. It’s only a minuscule difference, but to the strategic gambler, every hundredth of a percentile matters.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, playing craps online means you’ll have to place all of your own wagers; as opposed to a live craps table, where you simply say what bet you want to place and give your chips to the nearest dealer for placement. That means beginners are going to need some practice first, which brings us back to the pro side of the online craps argument.

Online casinos offer unlimited craps for play money. You can practice any time you want, for as long as you want, and never run out of chips. Use this to your advantage. Practice placing all the different types of bets described above – especially craps odds bets. I would also suggest looking into some of these unique craps strategies, which can help you reduce the house edge even further.

Craps Strategies

• Three Point Molly
• Iron Cross
• Place 6 & 8