Craps - Basic Playing Strategy
Part 1
Okay, go ahead and admit it! Okay, You've always wanted to be part of that raucus
and rowdy crowd gathered round the craps table, haven't you. Trouble was,
everything looked so fast and complicated.. The speed of the bets, all the yelling, and the strange language just made it too intimidating, so you've never played. Perhaps you've heard a "DOLLAR
YO!" or "LAY THE TEN". Why couldn't these people speak English? Well, now you can learn everything you always wanted to know about craps, a little at a time. You'll learn the most important things first, and the finer points later. This time we'll take a quick look at exactly how
the game is played. As you probably know, a game of craps is played with a pair of identical dice. The opposing faces of each die always adds up to seven. For example, the one is always opposite the six, the two opposite the five, and the three opposite the four. And that's it - there are only three combinations on each die. Pretty simple so far, huh. Now, you have six numbers on each die (1- 6) so a pair of dice will give you 36 different combinations. The game of craps is based on
how often these different combinations appear when someone rolls the dice. The following chart is a diagram of all 36 different dice combinations - Number Combinations Ways to make
2 1+1 1
3 2+1, 1+2 2
4 3+1, 1+3, 2+2 3
5 4+1, 1+4, 3+2, 2+3 4
6 5+1, 1+5, 4+2, 2+4, 3+3 5
7 6+1, 1+6, 5+2, 2+5, 4+3, 3+4 6
8 6+2, 2+6, 3+5, 5+3, 4+4 5
9 6+3, 3+6, 5+4, 4+5 4
10 6+4, 4+6, 5+5 3
11 6+5, 5+6 2
12 6+6 1
TotalTotal: 36
As you can see, in 36 possible combinations, the seven will appear the most - six times. The six and eight will appear five times each, and the five or nine will appear four times each.