Our list of the best bets in craps continues with the place wagers on six or eight. If you place a bet to win, the house edge amounts 1.52 percent and placing the wager to win has a house edge of 1.82 percent. The house edge is quite reasonable in these two cases. Another addition to the best craps bets selection is the lay wager against four. For example, by knowing that the casino has a 1.41 percent edge in craps, you can know that you'll be losing 14.1 cents for every $10 bet. For charts of odds for all types of bets, visit the Wizard of Odds.com. On the next page, we'll talk about types of craps bets, their odds and what the casino pays for each. Craps purists would argue that the 'best' way to cover multiple numbers at craps is with a wager on Pass followed by a series of Come bets. This will, in fact, minimize the house advantage – a strategy which is certainly commendable. Depending on the Odds multiple taken, adverse edge can drop below half a percent. Here is an overview of craps bets with medium odds that you can make. Have a 16.7% chance of winning an Any 7 bet, with a payout of 4/1. This gives the house a substantial edge of 16.9%. This is quite high compared to some of the bets we’ve seen above, yet still a solid choice if you’re chasing more slightly more daring bets.
Casinos can be intimidating and their games a little confusing, but here's a tip: The best bet on the craps table has no house edge, and it isn't shown anywhere on the layout. There's no mention of 'odds' on the table. You must have a Pass or Don't Pass bet to take odds on, but then you're on your own. If you don't know about odds, you'll miss the best bet in the casino.
If you know how to play craps, you know that new shooters have to place a wager on the Pass or Don't Pass line. Once that new point of 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 is made, they can just keep shooting. The odds bet, the one that has zero house edge, isn't mandatory; it's optional.
The Pass Line always pays even money, but the real beauty of the Odds wager is that you are paid the true odds of the point rolling. To make the wager, simply place chips behind your original Pass Line bet on the craps layout. This wager can at least equal your Pass Line bet, so if you have an original wager of $10, put another $10 behind it to take odds. The amount you should wager depends on the point number.
If the point is 4, 5, 9, or 10, match your bet. If the point is 6 or 8, bet $6 in odds for every $5 you have on the Pass Line. When the shooter makes their point, you'll get a much bigger payoff.
Pass Line Odds Payoffs
If the point is:
- 4 or 10, you are paid 2 to 1 on your Odds wager.
- 5 or 9, you are paid 3 to 2 on your Odds wager.
- 6 or 8. you are paid 6 to 5 on your Odds wager.
Most casinos allow you to take double odds on you Pass Line bet. That means if you put $5 on the Pass Line, you could make an odds bet of $10.
Your Pass Line bet has a house edge of 1.41 percent. The Odds bet has no house edge, so by taking it you lower the house edge on your overall wagers. A Pass Line bet with single odds has a house edge of 0.85 percent and with double odds, the house edge drops to 0.61 percent.
Over the last few years, many casinos have allowed players to take larger odds bets. Some casinos compete with each other to see who can offer the highest odds, up to 100 times odds. Although this sounds great, it is impractical for average players to wager this much unless they have a very big bankroll.
3-4-5 Times Odds
To make things quick and easy for everyone, from the players to the dealers to the Box Men, many casinos have incorporated a simplified odds system in which they allow odds of only 3, 4, or 5 times a Pass Line wager. With this system, players are allowed to take three, four, or five times odds, depending on the point number. You can get odds on Come Bets too.
If the point is::
- 4 or 10 you can take 3 times odds.
- 5 or 9, you can take 4 times odds.
- 6 or 8, you can take 5 times odds.
Craps Odds Bets
A lot of people keep asking us “What is the best bet when playing craps?” and “Which bet has the lowest house edge when playing craps?”. The answer to these question is always The Odds Bet! The odds bet is actually advantageous to both the wrong-way bettors and the players betting on the pass-line and the Come bet, but the payout is lower for odds bets on the don’t-pass line.
In this section of our site we will explain the odds bet to you and how it works. We will also teach you the best strategy for playing the odds bet and give you advice on which online casino to chose depending on how any times the odds bet they offer.
All of these may sound like Greek to you at the moment but keep reading and you will be a full feathered craps pro in the 10 minutes it takes to read the article properly.
Since the odds bet is one of the best bets in any casino it’s not often advertised a lot and you will have to dig deep to find information about the current limits at the table. When playing in a land based casino the odds limit is always posted on the end zone of the table below the rim. When it comes to playing craps at online casinos it might be a bit trickier to find this information, especially if you are looking for odds bet limits at an online casino where you are not yet registered. That’s why we have created the table below where you can see the odds limits for the different online casinos that we recommend. Since the odds bet is such a good deal for the player we would suggest creating an account at Rushmore Casino for your craps play as they are offering 100x odds bets.
| Craps Casino | Bet Odds Limit | Bonus | Play now |
| 3x | $888 | Play Now | |
| 3x | $10,000 | Play Now | |
| 3x | $7777 | Play Now |
If you have never played the odds bet before it might be a bit confusing for you to figure out where to place the wager as there is no designated box for the odds bets. In the image below you will see a picture explaining where to place the chips to make the odds bet.
Playing the odds on pass-line and come bets
Once a point has been established for the pass-line bet you will be able to place an additional odds bet. In order to place your odds bet you just have to place the chips directly behind the pass-line bet as in the image above. You will be able to place your odds bet at any time as long as the game is still “ON”, you don’t have to place the odds bet directly after the come-out roll. You are also allowed to take back your odds bet at any time as long as the point is still “ON”. At online casinos you can usually place odds bets of between 2 – 5 times the pass-line bet. If you want to know what casinos offer the highest limits for odds bets please refer to the table at the beginning of this article.
You might still not know what we are talking about when we say 3 times the odds or 100 times the odds so we will go through it in a concrete example just to show you what it is we are talking about. Let us say that an online casino is offering you three times the odds on your pass-line bets. This means that you are allow (but in no way obligated) to place up to three times the stake you put on the pass-line bet, on the odds bet behind the pass-line.
In Las Vegas the odds bet is often referred to as a free bet due to the fact that the house doesn’t have any advantage over you on this bet, which is something that doesn’t come along very often in the casino world. By complementing your pass-line bet or don’t-pass line bet with an odds bet you will effectively bring the house edge down to under 1%, so taking the odds is something you would definitely want to do when playing craps.
The Odds Bet in Action
Let’s say that you place a $10 bet on the pass-line before the come-out roll in your favorite online casino that allows up to 10x odds. You click the button to roll the dice and a 10 comes up and you curse your luck for rolling a number that is hard to repeat. You are now two times more likely to roll a 7 and crap out than rolling another 10 and winning your pass-line bet. It’s not enough that you aren’t very likely to roll another 10 and win the bet but you will only get paid even money even if you should manage to do the unlikely. This is where the odds bet comes in very handy as it will make sure that you get properly rewarded for rolling another 10.
With this in mind you go ahead and place $20 (double the amount of the pass-line bet) behind the pass-line to mark your odds bet. If you would have wanted to you could have placed up to $100 on the odds bet (10x your pass-line bet) but you chose to keep the stakes low for now.
After a few insignificant rolls you mange to roll another 10 which means you are now a double winner as both your pass-line bet and your odds bet won. The pass-line bet pays out even money so you make a $10 profit on that but your $20 odds bet pays 2 to 1 which gives you an additional $40 profit.
The odds bet always pays out at the true odds and that’s why the casino doesn’t have any edge over you when it comes to this bet.
The Payouts for Odds Bets
The odds you get for your odds bet depends on the point that is decided during the come-out roll. Below you will see the different payouts for odds bets on the various points.
- The odds pays 2 to 1 when the point is 4 or 10.
- The odds pays 3 to 2 when the point is 5 or 9.
Craps Odds Bet Amounts 2019
- The odds pays 6 to 5 when the point is 6 or 8.
Lower the House Edge by Betting the Odds
Depending on the limits your casino will offer for the odds bet you will be able to work the house edge all the way down to 0.02% for pass-line bets. In the table below we will explain to you how the house edge for the pass-line bets go down as the odds bets multiples go up.
1x Odds Bet = 0.85% House Edge
2x Odds Bet = 0.61% House Edge
3x Odds Bet = 0.47% House Edge
5x Odds Bet = 0.33% House Edge
10x Odds Bet = 0.18% House Edge
20x Odds Bet = 0.10% House Edge
100x Odds Bet = 0.02% House Edge
Odds Bet Etiquette at Real Casinos
When playing in a land based casino it’s always important that you try to keep your odds bets in increments that the dealer at the table can easily pay out. An example of this is if your pass-line bet is $5 and the point is 5 or 9 you should always try to bet $6 or $10 etc so that the dealer can pay out an even amount once you win. This will make the game flow a lot smoother than if everyone has to be paid odd amounts at the table which can be a hassle for the dealers.
Free Odds Betting on the Don’t-pass and the Don’t-Come
As a wrong-way bettor you will be able to lay odds on what is called don’t bets just like a right-way bettor can take odds on the pass-line and the come bets. Since the house never wants to end up at a disadvantage to the player the odds offered for the don’t bettor is a lot lower than the ones offered for the right-way bettors. When looking at the odds for laying the odds it might seem as the casino will have a big edge on this bet bet in reality these are the true odds and the house doesn’t have any edge at all.
Below you will find the payouts offered when laying odds:
- The odds bet pays 1 to 2 when the point is 4 or 10.
- The odds bet pays 2 to 3 when the point is 5 or 9.
- The odds bet pays 5 to 6 when the point is 6 or 8.
The maximum odds bet is the way to go
Once the point has been decided after the come-out roll it’s usually best to bet the maximum on the odds bet. When we say the maximum bet we mean the max bet that your bankroll can afford. It’s not a good idea to bet all of your money on the odds bet just because you have heard it’s a good bet. Most online casinos offer a maximum 3x odds bet as a standard which means you can bet three times the amount of the bet placed on the pass-line bet.
Craps Odds Bet Amounts Payout
The higher the free odds bet the lower the house edge will be but if your bankroll can’t take a couple of bad rounds it’s better to keep the stakes lower until you have built up your bankroll. It’s a lot better to place small bets on the pass-line bet and then bet higher on the odds bet than just placing large bets on the pass-line.
Craps Odds Bet Amounts For Today
We hope you have found this article helpful on your way to becoming a winning real money craps player.