Craps strategy question

If I walk up to a $10 minimum craps table, and I only have a $100 stake, what is the best strategy?

Should I play:

Pass line only, no backing odds, and try to stretch out my stake?

Pass line only, full odds, putting my whole stake on the line?

The pass line and the come line, to spread out the numbers, but still no odds?

The pass line and the come line, with as much odds as I can afford, again putting my whole stake on the line?

Some other strategy?

TIA

It depends on what you mean by “best strategy.” If you want the one that minimizes the house edge, then pass line and full odds.

For a $10 minimum table, I usually play $10 pass and $15/20/25 odds (that is, $15 if the point is 4 or 10, $20 if 5 or 9, and $25 if 6 or 8).

Thanks for the quick reply Don. Best strategy to me means minimizing the house odds, while stretching my stake out as long as possible.

Your $10 pass with 15/20/25 odds sounds good, do you bet the come line too when you do this or just stick with the one point?

I don’t play come bets - just the pass line.

For “minimizing the house odds while stretching my stake out as long as possible,” bet the minimum amount that’s a multiple of $10 on pass, then bet the maximum you can on odds. The more you expose to the pass line itself - or any other bet besides odds - the more you stand to lose to the house advantage.

The pass line bet is a multiple of $10 because it is the only way to guarantee you will get full odds regardless of the point. If the bet is not an even number, you won’t get the full 3-2 on a 5 or 9, and if it is not a multiple of 5, you won’t get the full 6-5 on a 6 or 8.

Yep I understand. Thanks again, I will play that game tomorrow and letcha know how I do!

You need to define it a bit more rigorously. By that standard, the best strategy is to keep on walking past the craps table, past the slot machines, and out the door of the casino.

But that’s clearly not what you want. You want to gamble. Do you want to gamble for as long a time as possible? On as many rolls as possible? With as much money in play over the course of the evening as possible? With the potential to win as much as possible? These will all give you different answers.

The best bet is start your own casino. With blackjack and hookers.

I’m in.

Buy the 10 and pray.

$10 Don’t Pass / Don’t Come on every roll, no odds on anything. This is high action with low variance, stretching out your $100 as long as can reasonably be expected with a reasonably minimal house advantage.

You can’t really afford to play odds on a $10 table with only $100 buy-in even if you only play the pass line. If the first 3 points lose you’re done, and that’s not unlikely. All the prop bets are sucker bets, so all that leaves is the lines.

If you don’t like betting against the table, you could do the same thing on the light side. Virtually the same house advantage, but instead of lots of small losses and a few big wins, the light side expects lots of little wins with occasional big losses. That’s just less fun to me, but either way is the same net effect.

Darkside tries to survive come out rolls to establish points and then roots for a 7. Lightside tries to make its money on the come out rolls (with 7s and 11s) and hopes to not establish any points at all. Lightside is just less fun in practice unless you’re doing full odds with maybe one or two points.

In fact, forget the casino!

Ellis is basically right. It’s mostly a question of how much you want on the table at any time. If the goal is just to be there for a while, take the Don’t Pass and don’t lay odds. If you want to risk losing more, start taking action on the Don’t Come and don’t lay odds. Just be quiet and down on the end, since many players don’t like seeing others taking the Don’t.

My experience at tables actually playing it is that most people won’t really grok what you’re doing.

If you play the Don’t Pass with full odds, plus maybe 1 or 2 points on the Don’t Come with full odds, you’ll be the “I HOPE YOU ALL LOSE!!!” guy, no question.

If you put down two $5 chips every single roll, you become background chatter. You’re never rooting for this particular bet to win at the expense of everyone else.

One potential point of interest when playing no-odds darkside on every roll: Your winning roll is a 7, but the $10 you just put down loses on a 7. (It’s on a come out roll.) So if you have one point established and roll a 7, that’s a break even: +$10 for the established point, -$10 for the come out roll, net 0. You need 2 points established to make a profit. On the flipside, you never lose all your money at once, but instead can only lose a maximum of one bet on any given roll.

I typically bring between $200 and $300 for a session on a $10 table. The first thing I do is play it all one time through with a darkside no odds warmup. With $300, I typically expect to end that warmup session 30 to 45 minutes later with around $280 remaining. Then I switch to my “real” strategy, which is typically light side full odds with one or two points in addition to the pass line.

Thanks for all the advise. I put my $100 down, and played the $10 pass line with the 15/20/25 odds system That Don Guy suggested. Hit 2 points to start, then sevened out 4 times. Was at the table for about 30 minutes.

I picked up my last $25 chip and went to the cashier window. On the way I decided to drop it on a $25 Blackjack game. Won three quick hands right off the bat and got my stake back. Cashed out and went home. It was fun!

I don’t have mathematical proof, but the no-pass or pass line with a $10 odds bet will be a good strategy for milking the game even if it gets puzzled looks from the dealer.
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IIRC the don’t pass has slightly better odds than pass. If you do play don’t pass don’t lay odds. Odds pay true odds, but if the point is already established the money you have on the table is now paying at better than even, and laying odds will just lower that ratio. All that being said, if your goal is to simply win as much as possible while having the best odds, the thing to do would be to bet all $100 on the don’t pass. The more bets you make the more the house edge will eat into your stake.

Do you raise your bet size after a point hits, or just keep the same amount?

Same amount, but I might add or stop replacing additional points to increase or decrease action.

Cool. I usually do the pass line and 2 come points with full odds. Sucks when all 3 points are set just for the next roll to 7 out :frowning:

I sometimes start out by playing the pass line with odds and place the 6 and 8 for $12 each, but that’s vulnerable to the dreaded point/7.

One “strategy” is to take advantage of the craps class that casinos offer. When the class is over they open the table and let you play for $5 minimum. Hard to find a $5 table anymore.