Episode: 665
Title: HPR0665: Hacking the Craps Table
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0665/hpr0665.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 00:37:21

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Hello everybody, my name is K5 and I am recording for HPR, that's Hacker Public Radio.
My topic for the evening is how to play the game of craps.
And there's a couple of things I want to get out of the way right, off the bat, before
we talk about playing any gambling games.
First of all, if you are in any way uncomfortable with losing money, you should definitely
stay away from any kind of gambling game.
One of the things about the way concenos and casino games are constructed is that the odds
are always in the house's favor.
And that's the same with Blackjack, 3 card poker, Bacarat, Roulette, and even craps.
All of the odds are in the house's favor.
Now there's one specific thing about craps, which makes it worth playing and that's that
the odds that are in the house's favor are so minuscule, especially depending on how much
they give you in the odds option that they are essentially negligible.
Now there is only one other game on the entire casino floor that gives you those same odds.
And that game is PyGal poker.
Now many of you have may have seen PyGal poker.
And the thing about PyGal poker is the odds between you, the player, and the house in PyGal
are exactly even, they are dead even.
But the house gives them self an advantage by charging you an ante or a commission in
order to play the game of PyGal poker.
That's how they maintain their edge.
Now how do they do that?
Well, when you place your bet, the house basically is matching your bet.
But when you win, they take a commission on your winnings.
So you don't actually make two to one, you make two to one minus a small commission.
That's how they maintain their edge because the odds are exactly even.
Now the odds and craps are not exactly even.
They are very, very slightly tilted towards the house.
But that being said, if they give you odds, in other words, they allow you to place odds
against your bets.
The higher the odds they give you, or the higher the odds they allow you to place, the
closer you are to even odds with the house.
And even if they don't allow you to play large odds, the house advantage is still limited
to about 10th or 100th of a percent.
This makes craps one of the most beneficial games you can play in a casino.
So what happens is, since the house realizes that the odds are so close, since they're giving
players a very close to even advantage when it comes to playing against the house, what
they do to discourage people from playing craps is to make the table extremely intimidating
most people will walk up to a craps table, take one look at it and say, I have no idea
how to play this game so I'm not even going to approach the table.
And that's exactly why they've designed the table the way they have to intimidate
the average player so they won't even put their money down because that also gives the
house an advantage.
So one of the first things you need to know about the game of craps is that most of the
table that you see when you approach a craps game is irrelevant to how you want to play.
Now most people will tell you there's only one way to play and that's to bet with the
shooter.
And when they come around to you explaining how to play the game, that's how they'll
tell you to play.
I'm going to explain to you how to play that way and how to play craps in general.
But then I'm going to explain to you how to play craps in a way that will actually
net you more money over a long term investment and is actually the way that craps is supposed
to be played which is why the house and most people who explain the game to people won't
tell you about because it's essentially what they call the dark side or the wrong way
to play but statistically it's the right way to play and that's what I'm going to explain
to you in this episode.
So let's start with the fundamentals of the game.
I mean there have to be some basics to how craps has played correct so let me explain
to you what those are.
Basically if a round is going to start there is what is called the come out role.
Now if you look at a craps table and I might suggest at this point that you want to be
looking at the picture of a craps table if you can be while you're checking out this
episode it'll make some of the things that I say much more easy to understand.
But if you can't then go ahead and listen to the episode and then take a look at a craps
table later and it will probably make a lot more sense to you.
Basically there are two types of roles on the come out role which is the first role of
a turn or a round.
The dice are passed to one person who will roll them you know this will be the very first
time they roll the dice on this particular trip around the table and it's called the
come out role.
Now if you're looking at a craps table around the outside there will be what is called
the pass line.
Now the pass line is placed closest to the players because this is the line they want
you to play this is the line the house wants you to play and on the surface of it it
would seem that the pass line is the way you want to bet because when you're talking
about the role of the dice there is one role of all roles that is the most likely the
most statistically likely to happen and that is the role of a seven because there are more
ways to roll a seven on two dice than any other combination of those two dice.
So what the pass line is saying is if you put a bet on the pass line during the come out
role which is basically the only bet you can make.
If the shooter the one who's throwing the dice rolls a seven or an eleven you are an
instant winner you will immediately double your money that's a two to one bet on the
pass line.
So if you put down five dollars or more than likely a ten dollar bet on a typical casino
on the pass line and the come out role is a seven or an eleven you will make your ten
dollars back instantaneously and we're going to assume a ten dollar table for the purposes
of this discussion because five dollar tables are usually pretty hard to come by ten
dollar tables are pretty typical so that's where we'll start here.
So to summarize the pass line bet you place on the come out role if you bet ten dollars
and the come out role is seven or eleven you win at even odds you'll be paid ten dollars
for your ten dollar bet.
If a seven or eleven is rolled on the come out role then that round is over and the shooter
will be allowed to roll again a new round will start and they will throw the dice.
If the next roll happens to be a seven or eleven again you will get paid again for your
pass line bet and on and on and on no matter how many times they roll a seven or an eleven
on the come out role seems pretty simple so far yeah well let's go on to the next line
which is the don't pass bet the funny thing about the craft table is it is entirely designed
to get you to play the game in the way the house wants you to play the pass line bet is
actually closest to you which makes it the most convenient to place a bet on the line
that's the next furthest away is the don't pass now the don't pass is kind of what it
sounds like it's exactly the opposite of the pass line bet in other words if you put
a bet on the don't pass bet you are betting that the come out role is going to be not a
seven or eleven what you're betting on is what they call crafts now the crafts rolls are
two three and twelve unfortunately twelve is kind of a special bet in the crafts world
it's usually what's called a push now if you're familiar with gambling at all a push
is basically when you and the house are exactly even no one wins so if a twelve is rolled
on the come out roll and you are betting on the don't pass nothing happens same thing
with the pass line bet now if a two or a three is rolled on the come out roll you win just
like somebody who is betting on the pass line would win if the come out roll was a seven
or an eleven so basically when it comes to pass line bets or what are called pass bets
if you are betting with the shooter you're hoping for a seven or an eleven if you're betting
against the shooter with the don't pass bet you're betting on crafts which is two or three
now once the come out roll has been thrown there's something else that can happen we've
already established that a winning come out roll if you want to call it that is a seven or
eleven and they losing come out roll is a two or a three unless you happen to be betting against
the shooter the twelve is a push and twelve is sometimes called box cars a pair of sixes so what
happens if the role isn't any of those what happens if it's a four five six eight nine or ten
well if it's any of those then what happens is a point is established and then what will happen
is a little puck will be put out on the table one on each side because each side of the table is
a mirror of the other side this is to allow more people to actually congregate around the table
and play at the same time so let's say for example that on the come out roll a six is rolled
well that establishes the point as six and the folks who run the crafts table will put a little
puck on the six to say that the point has been established as six now what the shooter is hoping
for or anyone who has bet a pass line bet is that a six is going to be rolled again before a seven
I realize this sounds a little complicated but you have to remember that there are two sides to
play it crafts once is with the shooter and the others against the shooter if you're playing with
the shooter and the point is six you are hoping that a six will be rolled before seven if you're
betting against the shooter you are hoping that a seven will be rolled before six and that is the
essence of the crafts game now I'm hoping that I'm making this as simple as it needs to be because
it really is a simple concept and I'm going to sort of aggregate it down for you in one little
sentence or two here before we move on to the next step and the reason I'm doing this is because
that the whole purpose behind the layout of the crafts table is to make it intimidating so that
you don't even bother to go up and play so again if you're playing on the pass side you are hoping
that the comeout roll will be a seven or an eleven and if the comeout roll doesn't happen to be a seven
or an eleven it will most likely establish a point which will be four five six eight nine or ten
once that point has been established you are hoping that that number will be rolled again
before a seven comes up now if you're betting the other way the dark side or the don't pass
bet you're betting on crafts which means you're going to be betting on a two or a three if a two or
a three comes on the comeout roll you win if a point is established instead what you are then
hoping is that his seven gets rolled before the point and that's pretty much the way things go
now most books will tell you that if you bet on the pass line you're betting the way most people bet
and if you go to a casino you'll find that this is in fact the truth that's the way people bet
now there's a reason for this because remember what I said back at the beginning the most common
roll in crafts is seven there are more ways to roll a seven but any other combination of two dies
which means for the sake of argument that if you're betting on the pass line your chances of
the shooter rolling a seven are very high because that's what happens most often statistically speaking
the big problem with that is what happens when that doesn't happen so if the comeout roll doesn't
happen to be a seven if it happens to be a four or a nine for example then a point is established
well remember though that after that first roll it is still statistically relevant that the
most common roll from that point on is a seven and if you're betting on the pass line you are now
behind what we'll call it the eight ball for purpose of the discussion but you are now behind
the eight ball because statistically the most common roll is now a seven and you're hoping that a
nine comes before a seven which means you're backs up against the wall hoping that a nine comes
first so at this point we have to get into a little bit more about some of the different bets that
you see on the table in order to explain how you do the betting and crafts and how you probably should
not play the pass bets because over time you're more likely to win playing what's called the don't
pass or the dark side betting and that's what I'm going to get into next so if you look at a
craps table again the pass line is closest to the players the don't pass line is the next one
further away and then what you'll see are the combat and then there's a little box usually
tucked away in the corner called the don't come bar and then you'll see the point numbers the four
five six eight nine and 10 and then you'll have two spaces one above the numbers and one below the
numbers and those spaces are pretty important to this game but let's start back towards the beginning
again I'm going to explain this game as if I were a typical casino better and then I'm going to
explain the game as I would play it which will give you a better advantage in playing crafts
if you go into a casino with your money so I walk up to a table and I put down my $200
and I get $200 in chips we're on the come out roll the table is wiped clean we're starting at the
very beginning now if I'm a typical better what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my $10 bet
and I'm going to put it on the pass line what you'll find is that most players at the table are
doing the exact same thing as you and actually if you're in a typical casino environment that
every player at the table is doing exactly the same thing as you so then someone is assigned the dice
they become the shooter they throw the dice out and what you're hoping for is that that seven
or an 11 shows up because if either of those numbers shows up you're a one-to-one bet winner
so let's say for the sake of argument that the shooter throws out the first roll and it's a seven
a five and a two that means everybody who plays to pass line bet has won their money back
everybody who put down a $10 bet gets another $10 if you put down a $30 bet you just made $30
so on and so forth pretty straightforward let's say that you put down your $10
pass line bet and the come out roll is a three well that's a craps and you just lost your $10 bet
if somebody put down a $40 pass line bet they just lost their $40 and this happens if the come
out roll is a two or a three if the come out roll is a 12 that's a push with the house whether you're
betting pass line or don't pass line nobody wins so let's take the come out roll from the other
perspective let's say you place a $10 bet on the don't pass bar you know whatever the one thing
is the don't of it is the exact opposite so if you place a $10 bet you're hoping for a seven
or 11 if you get it you win if you place a $10 bet on the don't pass and you get a craps
to our three you win seven or 11 you don't any other number not counting 12 which is a push
establishes a point and those other numbers are four five six eight nine and 10 and you'll see
on the table there are spaces for those six numbers whichever way you're playing makes those
numbers important as I said there are spaces on the table both above those numbers and below
so let's take the pass line better's position let's say that you put down your $10 on the pass line
and the point or the first roll is an eight so the puck goes out it's placed on the eight
your bet stands so what you're now hoping is that the roller the person who's shooting the dice
rolls another eight because if they roll another eight before a seven comes up
you win your pass line bet if a seven comes up before an eight you lose your pass line bet
now if you're thinking statistically you'll realize that it's much more likely once a point is
established that a seven is going to show up before any of those other numbers four five six eight
nine or 10 this is why statistically it's better to play the other way because it's more likely
once a point has been established that a seven is going to show up before any of those other numbers
including the point and I know this all seems a little bit complicated but I hope you're staying
up with me on this because it's if you want to play the game of crap it's pretty important
they've designed this game to make it seem very complicated and they really don't want people to play
it especially the way I'm going to tell you how because if you do you can actually keep up with the
house pretty effectively okay so now let me get into something that's pretty important here before
I move on to the next thing unless that the pass line bet and the don't pass line bet are only
valid on the come out roll however you can still make additional bets on those same conditions
using the come bet and they don't come bet again those are opposites of each other however
the come bet is the same as a pass bet on a non come out roll and a don't come bet is the same
as a don't pass bet on a non come out roll exact same bet but you can only bet one the pass line
or the don't pass line on the come out roll and you bet the come or don't come on a non come out
roll in other words after a point has already been established other than that they're the same
bet now a couple of times I've mentioned these spaces on the table above and below the point numbers
what those are are called place bets and lay bets now the spaces below the numbers are called the
place bets those are for people who are playing the pass bet and the come bets in other words you're
betting with the shooter those are designed so that you have to specify what you want to bet in
other words if you want to bet on the number four being rolled you would place a bet on number four
if you are expecting an eight to be rolled you would place a bet on number eight those pay pretty
good odds they pay better than one to one odds and the reason they pay better than one to one odds
is because statistically it is more likely for a seven to be rolled than any of those other numbers
that's why the house pays a premium for place bets now the space above the numbers are called lay
bets now the way lay bets work are if you bet on the don't come in other words a point has been
established let's call it eight and you place a bet on the next roll of don't come in which you're
saying that a seven is not going to come on the next roll let's say the next roll is a five okay
then your don't come bet is going to be moved to the space above the five and that's a lay bet
on five and what that means is you're not actually betting on five you're betting on seven
if you're betting the don't come the don't pass or lay bet you are always betting on seven
and as we've already explained when you're betting on seven you're statistically more likely to
be betting on the number that's going to come up next than any other number on the dice well
this sounds like a good thing right and it certainly is because seven is the thing you want to be
betting on so this is basically how it goes if you're betting against the shooter which I'm
telling you right now is the way you should bet if you want to play crafts on the come out roll
you place a ten dollar don't pass bet and let's say for the sake of argument that the shooter
throws a ten well what happens then is the point is established as a ten now you as a don't pass
better are hoping that a seven will show up before the shooter throws another ten and this is the
position you want to be in because it's much more likely that seven's going to come up before a ten
from now on what you want to do is before every roll of the dice you want to place a don't come
bet this is often called a DC bet in casinos so what you want to do once the point is established is
you'll want to get one of the dealer's attentions preferably the one closest to you
and you'll say that you want to place a don't come bet before the next roll and you'll put your ten
dollars down on the don't come bet and then what you're saying is you're hoping that another
non-point roll is going to happen so let's say that you put down a don't come bet of ten dollars
and the shooter rolls a five well what happens to your ten dollars is it gets moved from the don't
come bar to the space above the five which means you're laying a bet on five okay so it's just
about to roll again you tell the dealer that you want to place a don't come bet again so you do
that and the next thing that happens is a four is rolled okay so your don't come back gets moved
to the space above the four so you're laying a bet on four okay well here's where things get a
little interesting but you just kind of have to hold on and you know wait this out this this isn't
a game of instant gratification you you kind of have to just hold on and and wait for things to
happen so it's at any point you can stop placing don't come bets or you can keep placing them it
doesn't matter the more you place and the more times that a shooter rolls a different number other
than the point the more lay bets you'll be placing now for every lay bet that gets placed you can
put odds on it the dealers will be happy to explain to you what you have to bet in order to place
the proper odds for each of your bet but the more odds you place on all of your lay bets or your
bets above the line the closer to even house odds you're playing some houses only allow you to
play certain odds say five to one which means if you have a lay bet of ten dollars then you can
only place an additional odds bet of fifty dollars some will allow you to play ten to one twenty to
one fifty to one hundred to one you know it all just depends on the house you know up to your
comfort level you should play as high an odds bet as you possibly can because the higher the odds
you play the more likely you are to recover your money so here's a quick example of what happens
to bets that are placed either below the line i.e. place bets or above the line which are lay bets
what happens to bets below the line are if you bet ten dollars for example on number four
then if a four is rolled before either a seven or the point then you will win whatever the odds are
now in a lot of casinos that's nine to five so for example if you place a ten dollar bet on four
and a four is rolled you will win eighteen dollars for the ten that you play now a lay bet is kind
of the opposite if you have a lay bet on a four and a four is rolled you lose your money your money
goes away this can seem like a bad thing however there is a point where this becomes the way you
want things to happen and that's when that seven is rolled because what happens is for all of the
people who are playing on the pass line if a seven is rolled before the point then every single
place bet on the table is a loss they lose all of that money but every lay bet on the table that
you've been playing you win unfortunately this is a little bit contradictory to the way the table
works because everybody is going to be down in the dumps because a seven came up and they're losing all
of the money that they bet while you're raking in all the money they lost because you won every lay
bet on the table unfortunately I wish there were an easier way to explain this in an audio format than
there is and I thought that I would be able to do a really good job with this because I happen to
know how to play the game and I really love it but the more I talk about it the harder I realize
it is to express how to play this game through the podcast format so I'm going to try and line it
up for you the way I think you should play crafts in order to if not make money at least break even
over the long haul when you go to a casino so here we go on the come out roll if you're betting on
the pass line you are betting on seven or eleven if a seven or eleven comes you win one to one if
you're betting on the don't pass line on a combat you're betting on two or three if a two or
three comes you win one to one well is considered a push and everything else establishes a point
now at this point I'm not going to explain how to do pass line and come betting because they are
basically just the opposite of the don't pass and don't come betting which is the way I'm telling
you if you want to play this game and win at it this is how you play so on the come out roll you
place a don't pass bet if a seven or eleven comes you lose oh well you just move on to the next don't
pass bet on the next don't pass roll for the next come out roll let's say a point is established
and let's say that point is four okay so a point has been established as four so what you're
hoping for now is that a seven comes before a four so for every roll that is thrown now what you
want to do is place a don't come bet you place a don't come bet before the next roll so every time
you place a don't come bet if that roll is a two or three you win one to one if that roll is a
twelve it's a push again if the roll is a seven then the round is over and every bet that you have
above the line you win if the roll happens to be the point then you lose but what's interesting
is that every bet that you have above the line stays there even if the point is rolled and what's
cool about that is the very next time that a seven is rolled no matter what the circumstances you
get paid on every bet you have above the line and that is really really cool because every other
player on the board loses all those bets when a seven gets rolled and as we've already established
a seven is the most common roll in crafts so it's really nice to get paid for all of those bets
you have sitting above the line when everybody else's bets get wiped off the table and they go home
crying so let's say for example that you place a don't come bet the point is four and the next roll
is a five so your bet gets moved above the five you place another don't come bet the next roll is
a six your bet gets placed above the six well and then let's say that you place a don't come bet
and the next roll is a nine well your bet gets placed above the nine so then let's say the worst
case scenario happens and you place another don't come bet and the next roll is a five okay well
what happens is the bet that you have above the line on the five you've just lost it because
you're laying odds on five but the don't come bet that you just placed gets put above the five
so you lost some money but you've got another bet above the five okay well there's a lot of other
bets out on the table now and you're just paying attention to your own and what happens next is you
decide not to play another don't come bet you're just going to sit and wait and see what happens
and hope that a seven comes up you know then you'll get paid on all your bets and you can you can
be sure that a seven will come so let's say that the very next roll is in fact a seven the four
and three show up and a seven happens the point didn't get rolled a seven happen first so every
bet on the table except yours get wiped off the table everybody has lost all the pass line bets go
away all the come bets go away all the place bets go away all the center bets go away the big six big
eight they all go away and every bet that you have that's sitting above the line you get paid for
so you're sitting there cheering while everybody else loses because you knew how to play this game
and you played it the correct way sounds pretty cool huh and it really is it's it's a lot of fun to
play crap is a great deal of fun it's a good time and you really shouldn't be intimidated by it
but here's a couple of quick rules other than the ones that I just gave you about playing don't pass
and don't come bets that you really need to keep in mind the first is any of the single roll bets
like the ones in the middle of the table like evens odds sevens hardways
crafts bets big six big eight any of those bets don't bet them because they always pay less
than the true odds so stay away the only bets you should be interested in on the table are the
don't pass bet the don't come bet and the bets above the line the lay bets if you always play those
if you can stick to it and if you can wait out you know the down times because there will be
down times statistics aside sometimes the table just rolls in weird ways and you have to kind of
wait them out so if you're willing to put down at least two hundred dollars as an initial bet
and wait out the rough times you're more than likely to win this game if you play
the don't pass on the don't come and remember the more odds you're willing to put down on any
of those lay bets that you place including the don't pass bet the more money you're going to
rake in when that seven comes so everybody should you know belly up to a crafts table place the don't
pass the don't come bets and watch the lay bets and the dealers at the crafts table will help you
with any of the odds calculations that they need to do just tell them what you're trying to do
and they'll help you out with it that's that's kind of like what they're there for they're not
there to judge you and how you're playing so keep in mind that don't pass the don't come the lay
bets play the dark side a little bit and as long as you're willing to wait it out you will probably
have some pretty decent success at the crafts table so I hope this has been fun and a little bit
entertaining and here's a couple of things to keep in mind you should go into a casino expecting to
have fun but you should definitely not go into a casino expecting to win because even at the
crafts table or at the pie gal poker table the odds are in the favor of the casino if you happen to
win consider yourself lucky but consider yourself really a winner if you break even make sure you don't
bet any more than you're willing to lose and don't get into any trouble when it comes to spending
money at a casino if you're not willing to lose $20 or if you're going to feel bad if you lose
$45 then don't put your money on the table because the chances are that you're not going to walk
away with it I hope everybody's enjoyed this little tutorial on crafts and if you have any questions
my name is k5 and you can email me at k5tux at k5tux.us and I'll be happy to answer any
questions you have about crafts or any other kind of gambling for that matter so thank you
for listening to this episode of hpr and I hope to be talking to you all soon bye bye
so