Craps betting and a free ace

20 August 2013

By Frank Scoblete

FROM LAWRENCE: I read a couple of your books but can't find whether you flat bet the Place bets on your own shoot or do you press it up more aggressively.

I have a SRR of 7.1 over 1000 practice rolls using the Hardway set exclusively.

Would appreciate your insight.

FRANK’S RESPONSE: My betting is usually a Place bet on the six and eight plus a Pass Line bet with full odds. If my Point is either the six or eight I just keep those two bets up. I will start to increase my bets if my roll starts getting over 30 or so but I tend to bet my edge right from the top.

On random rollers I make only one bet after the 5-Count. Everyone penny you bet with a random shooter is a penny wasted. So one bet; one random shooter, after the 5-Count.

I am sending you a free copy of my new book “The Virgin Kiss” for your letter.


FROM BENCHWARMER: Received another Casino coupon in addition to my $10 match plays which I use on craps Pass Line. A Lucky Ace coupon becomes first card on first hand of 21 and is an Ace, although a blackjack with coupon pays even money. Limit $100 wager with coupon.

What is my edge with a first card Ace? Figure it has to be worth the $100 maximum wager.

FRANK’S RESPONSE: I asked my good friend and Casino City Times columnist Henry Tamburin to do the math on this. Here is his response: “An Ace coupon has an expected return of 54.3 percent of your initial wager (so for a $100 wager, the ER is $54.30). The ER varies slightly depending on rules and number of decks but 54.3 percent is close enough.”

I am sending you a free copy of my new book “The Virgin Kiss” for your letter.


FROM PK: In your article "The Changing Landscape of Slot Payouts" there was mention of situations where a jackpot must hit by a certain level and a suggestion was made that it usually would hit by that level, but not always.

I have another answer that would be truly random and perhaps could be the way that these bonus jackpots are paid. It would be very easy to program the chip to choose randomly a payout time for the bonus jackpot based on a random number of plays for it to hit rather than on an amount. For simplicity, let’s say a jackpot must hit by $100 and the progressive moves up in $1 increments. The random number generator would make a separate choice of a number between 1 and 100 and secretly store it. Then when that play came up, voila, bonus jackpot.

The number of plays to include would be based on how many plays it would take the jackpot to reach the level by which they say it will be paid. This is completely separate from the regular RNG function that selects the payout on a given spin.

This way the casino is true to their word and it is completely random.

In case you do not remember me, I was the one from San Diego who gave you three suggestions which you published in an article about craps years ago in which I said:

1. Take over the action of Don't bettors who want to remove their bet if the point is 6 or 8

2. Play minimum pass line bets all day and if you shoot the monster the winners will often make bets for the "shooter" and

3. Find a casino that does not charge a vig on a buy bet when going up on a number, but only when you win making a buy bet on the 5 and 9 better than a place bet and really dropping the house edge quite a lot on buying the 4 and 10.

FRANK’S RESPONSE: Thanks PK, I do remember you. I think you have given us an interesting way to look at the changing slots landscape.

I am sending you a copy of my new book “The Virgin Kiss” for your letter.