Question: What do you consider the very best bets?

Last month we talked about some of the high vig. - crapper bets; see a horn bet a horn etc.
These bets offer greater rewards, but can be dangerous and have a much higher house edge.

When you work with the math in the game of craps, the very best bets are as follows:

Pass line with full odds. 
6 & 8 pay $6.00 to every $5.00. 
5 & 9 pay $3.00 to every $2.00,
And the 4 & 10 pay a whopping $2.00 for every $1.00!

Come Bets with full odds are a great bet also. The only thing about the "come bets" I don't like, are that you have to hit a number twice to get paid once. Also, the "come bet" is a contract bet just like the pass line, and once you place the bet - you cannot remove it. You can remove the odds on the come bet, but the original come bet stays in play until you hit that number or a "7" is rolled. 

And be careful with those Come Bets. If you normally set for sevens on the come out, you will lose your come bet if you roll a seven. (They will return your odds) For a hedge bet on the come out roll, one would have to bet $1.00 for every $5.00 bet on the come, on Big Red. (Big Red pays 5 to 1)

The bets I like to make are the place bets: Placing the 6 & 8, (which pay $7.00 for every $6.00) and placing the 5 & 9, (which pays $7.00 for every $5.00). Now when you reach a $60.00 bet level on the 5 or 9, you may want to consider buying the 5 /9 - which would pay you $3.00 for every $2.00. In other words, a $60.00 bet would pay $90.00 minus the vig of 5% ($3.00).
The very best "buy bet" is of course the 4 & 10, which pay true odds of $2.00 for every $1.00 bet minus the 4% to 5% vig. (The vig. is only 4% up a $100.00 bet, then increase to a 5% vig.)

A few months ago Heavy and I took our students downtown to the Fremont Hotel & Casino for a casino session. I started off with the dice at table end; we had one student at outside hook, one at stick right one and the other at stick right. The rest of the students were at the other side of the table with Heavy. We held the dice at our end for about two hours! The point I am going to make is this, at my right there was a Hawaiian fellow who bet only the pass line with full odds. He would bet $75.00 on the pass line, when a seven or 11 rolled he would press his bet. And then take double odds. If a crap would show he would start over with a $75.00 bet. He bet no other bets, just the pass line with double odds. At the end of the two-hour session he was up a whopping $10,000.00!!

So if you want to play to win, stay away from the props, hops and hard way bets.
The house loves for you play all of these bets ... that's how they pay the rent!

The Dice Coach