Thu, Apr 21, 9:56am by Charlotte Lee
Last Updated Fri, Jul 3, 4:48am
A craps table with all manner of characters kissing the dice, shouting at them while they’re rolling and sparking wild celebrations when they come good is a staple of Hollywood Casino-based movies. The game is, in fact, ripe for high drama and big fluctuations in wins and losses, which is part of the reason why people enjoy playing the game of online craps so much.
The flipside is that it’s far from being the simplest casino you’ll ever find. There are dozens of different bets you can place at different odds and rather like Baccarat, the game can have more than one round to it depending on what happens with the first roll of the dice. It could have ten rounds to it until the number is rolled that decides the outcome one way or another.
Let’s look at online casino craps basic rules, some bets you can place, how the game unfolds and some strategies to put you in the right direction.
When you play online craps for money, the game is about throwing a pair of dice after you’ve placed one or more bets on what numbers your dice might add up to when you throw them. Sooner or later, either you will win or the Casino (the ‘House’) will win.
There are endless bets you can place, too many to cover in detail here, but the most obvious is wager is on the Pass Line bet. Choose your wager and press Roll to deliver what is known as the come-out roll. A 7 or 11 and it’s an automatic win for you, paid out at even money. A 2,3 or 12 and that’s bad news for you because you lose straight away.
Should you not roll either of those five numbers and whatever you roll, becomes the Point. So this will be a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. If you roll a 5, then 5 is your number and when you re-roll, that’s the number you want your dice to add up to. Then it’s a race to see if you can get your number before you roll seven, which would mean you lose and the House wins. You can keep on rolling until one of you wins.
A Don’t Pass bet works in almost the same way as for the come-out roll with 7 or 11 being good and 2 or 3 being bad and but in this case the 12 (only possible with two 6s) pushing rather than losing. If none of those five numbers comes up, we go through the same process again but this time you keep the 7 onside yourself and it’s the House who wins if you hit the number that became the Point.
Another possible bet is The Field, where getting any of 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 or 12 makes you a winner and anything else makes you a loser. Here you have the added advantage of 2 paying out 2x your bet and 12 paying out 2x or 3x your bet, depending on the casino.
You can also place bets on getting a particular set of double numbers (e.g., 2 and 2, 4 and 4) or on getting your dice to add up to 3 or 11. The odds of these outcomes vary between 7/1 and 30/1. Or you can go for Any Craps (2,3 or 12) which pays out at 7/1, Come, or Don’t Come.
Like any casino game or online pokie, there’s no foolproof strategy that will guarantee your chances of winning. But here are some good methods to think about:
All the different bets you can place have true odds and the odds at which the Casino pays out. The best chance you have is to play in a way that the odds paid out are as close as possible to the genuine odds on them happening and in this regard, the bets offering the odds of the best payout are Pass/Don’t Pass and Come/Don’t Come bet, where the house edge is just 1.4%.
Some other bets carry a much greater house edge with ‘Hard Way 4’ or ‘Hard Way 10’ (getting to those numbers without getting doubles) having a house edge of 11%. The Proposition bet of ‘Any Seven’ is the worst of all, with a house edge of 16.8%. It may payout at 5/1 if you get it but you’re getting a poor payout from a probability point of view, even when you do win.
In other words, it pays to keep it simple and focus on the bets we’ve mentioned when playing craps online for real money.
The first is that playing at land-based casinos are full of rules such as the dice having to hit the wall at the end, where you sit at the table and so on, plus a load of details regarding etiquette at the table. No such worries when playing the dice game online. It’s just you against the Dealer, the dice throw is automatic, and you don’t have to worry about anything other than what your next bet is going to be.
Another is that playing craps at land casinos can sometimes happen at a very fast pace where it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on. Online craps you can play at your pace without having to worry about anyone else.
The reverse is also true. If you like your online craps game to be played at a breakneck pace and don’t want to end up waiting a long time while the Shooter takes his time, you can play super quickly. This is especially the case where after the come-out roll, there are lots of cases in a row of the dice not leading to losing or winning rolls.
And of course, one of the main advantages to all online casino games is the numerous casino bonuses and promotions available to players. The welcome bonus alone can see players add thousands of dollars in free money to their casino account. And arguably, the great benefit the convenience of the mobile casino allowing players to enjoy games anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi signal.
We don’t need to tell you that much about Bank Craps, because that’s the one we’ve been describing all the way through. It’s by far the most popular version online and therefore the one most readily available. If you play online, this will most likely be the one you come across.
Similar to Bank Craps but the big difference is that those betting on Pass/Don’t Pass or Come/Don’t Come will never lose if Craps (2, 3 or 12) are thrown. Craps are the house’s big edge so with it taken away, the odds have improved for you. No wonder not many real money casino sites want to offer it.
The clue is in the name. You only ever roll once and are looking to roll 2, 3, 4, 10, 11 or 12. Should you roll 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 and you’ll lose your bet. The House Edge here is just 2.8% so bigger than what you get playing Pass/Don’t Pass or Come/Don’t Come in Bank Craps, but less than on some other bets you can place.
Put away the second die because you won’t need it. Roll the one die and you win if you get six, lose if you get 1. Any other number and it becomes the Point number which you then need to try to hit. You’ll have three chances to get it before a 1 comes up. If 1 is thrown before you get it, you lose. And if neither 1 nor your number comes up in three goes, the game resets.
Online Craps has become a very popular game among Australian casino players so many do offer it, but not all. It can usually be found under ‘Specialty Games’ or just ‘Table Games’.
If you’re playing for real money, every Casino will have a minimum stake for online craps. Just like they’ll have a maximum one as well. This will vary from Casino to Casino.
The vast majority of sites will let you play online craps for fun without using real money. Playing craps for fun is always a good way of getting your head around the game, getting to know all the rules and develop some good strategies.
Not as far as we know. When craps are played in land-based casinos, it’s the player who physically throws the dice rather than the Dealer so it’s not possible to replicate the process with the Dealer rolling the dice from a studio. Whereas other Live Dealer Games the dealer’s duties more mundane.
The Martingale strategy, where you double the value of your stake after a losing bet, can be used on any casino game where the odds are very close to 50%, including craps. But you’d have to play on the Pass/Don’t Pass or Come/Don’t Come to put the Martingale strategy into place when playing online craps.
