Darkside don't betting isn't easy

If you are a darkside "don't" player, which means you are betting against the shooter making his "point," you are the most disliked man or woman in the game of craps. And don't kid yourself into thinking the other players realize that you are also playing against the house edge and not playing against them. That just isn't so: To their mind, you are playing against them and some think you are actually helping the casino win their money.

They see you with their own eyes betting the opposite of themselves at the game. They see you light up when the shooter sevens out. They see you collect money from the casino when the casino is collecting money from them. The other players, the rightside "do" players, are not thinking mathematically; they don't care that the casino has an edge over the darkside player -- they don't like you and some of them despise you and some, yes, even hate you.

That is often a lot to deal with.

That's why darkside players tend to be somewhat quiet at the tables. You rarely hear them cheering when a seven is thrown. I've heard cheers of delight from darkside players maybe 10 times in my over two decades of play. Darksiders prefer to stay in the shadows.

Like rightside players, however, the range of decent bets for darksiders is severely limited. Most darkside bets, to put it bluntly, stink. So let us go through them and see which bets a darksider should make and which bets a darksider should avoid.

The best darkside bets reflect the best rightside bets -- don't pass and don't come. The house edge on these bets is a small 1.4 percent (or 1.36 percent if you count pushes in your equation). Such an edge means that for every $100 you wager on the don't pass or the come, your expected loss over time is $1.40.

For rightsiders who never think in terms of darkside bets, here is a quick primer. On the Come-Out roll, the darksider wants a 2 or 3 to hit, thereby making him money. There are only three ways these two numbers can appear. The 12 is a tie. The darksider loses on the 7 and 11 -- and there are eight ways to make these two numbers. So this is where the house has a crippling 8-to-3 edge over the darksider and where the casino makes its money off them.

Once the darksider gets on a number, the edge over the "Don't" player now reverses itself. Now the darksider has an edge on every number since the 7 comes up six times and the other numbers come up somewhat less or far less. The 6 and 8 come up five times each so the edge for the darkside bet on these numbers is 6 to 5. The 5 and 9 come up four times each so the edge is 6 to 4 or 3 to 2. The 4 and 10 come up three times each so the edge for the darksider is 6 to 3 or 2 to 1.

Now here is the really bad news. If we establish a 1.5 percent house edge as the highest we should play against, the smart darksider is left with only the don't pass and don't come bets as the two bets in his or her arsenal. But don't despair, like the rightside player, the darksider has the option of "laying" odds on his bets.

Laying odds means the player can put up extra money once the bet is on a number and these odds bets have no extra house edge. However, laying the odds means the darkside player is putting out more money to win less money.

The darkside odds bet is $6 to win $5 on the 6 and 8; $6 to win $4 on the 5 and 9; $6 to win $3 on the 4 and 10. The best approach is to make your don't pass and don't come bets low and maximize your odds. Keep in mind that the house edge is working only on the original don't pass and don't come bets and not on the odds bets. So keep those small and keep the odds bets as high as you can afford.

How should a darksider structure his attack? Personally I would only bet one bet per shooter. This eliminates the possibility that one hot shooter can wipe a darksider off the board as he or she hits number after number and point after point. If you get on a number and the shooter knocks you off it, then wait for the next shooter. In this way you will preserve your bankroll.

Yes, it is possible that you could run into a string of losses from successive shooters, but that occasion is highly unlikely. If you want to play your strongest game from the "don't" side then do go with the one-bet-per-shooter method. You'll save money and still be in the action.

As far as dealing with the rightside players and their almost unanimous animosity, there is little you can do. You can't win them over. They will delight when they see you lose, and they will grumble and groan when they see you win. If that doesn't emotionally bother you, then being a darksider is no big deal.

In truth, you are playing against the house, just as the rightsider is playing against the house -- you are not playing against each other, but tell them that!