More words from the world of craps!

(Thanks to Billy the Kid of Golden Touch Craps for his input.)

Craps has a language of its own and knowing this language makes playing the game that much easier for you, the other players and the dealers.

1. Prop bet
Prop bets are the bets that are in the center of the craps layout. The legendary Captain of Craps (Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution!) calls these bets the Crazy Crapper bets because they have such high house edges that you have to be crazy to make them. They include the hardways, the craps numbers and the eleven. All of these bets should be avoided.

2. High or heavy
Sometimes you might make a bet that includes two or more numbers, and you might want to bet more on one or more of them. You will alert the dealer to your intention by saying it will be high or heavy on the number or numbers you select. Some of these phrases might be: "Give $34 inside heavy 6 and 8," or "Give me $5 hard 6 and 8 heavy on 6," or "Give me horn high 11."

3. To and For
Craps layouts give players a lot of information about the game being offered, and when you step up to a table it will serve you well to use the readily available information to your benefit. In the prop bet, Crazy Crapper, section that is in front of the stickman the layout lists the pay-offs for those bets. These bets will be listed as "to one" or "for one."

These pay-offs are not the same. Thirty for one is not equal to thirty to one. This is a trick that some casinos play on players. The bets that pay thirty to one will pay 30 times the bet and the ones that pay thirty for one will pay 29 times the bet. Even if you are a smart player and avoid these bets, this little observation tells you that this casino gives the player a better deal on 30 to 1 and it is likely that there are other things about this game or casino that you will find to be player friendly.

4. Press
This is a phrase that a player needs to learn and then learn how to avoid using. When a player says "press," the dealer will usually increase your bet by a factor of two. If you say "press after a win" the dealer will double your bet and hand you the change. Pressing your bets will get more money in action and if the hand continues you will win more — unfortunately, the house edge now works against more money and ultimately you will definitely lose more by pressing your bets against random rollers.

So the problem with learning how to say press is that you won't know if your guess was correct until the hand ends. You can also use this phrase to instruct the dealer to increase your bet in an amount that will be less than double. By saying "press my bet to" or saying "press my bet one unit" you can give the dealer a clear path to follow to get your bet to the amount that you want.

5. Make my bet look like
This phrase should be part of every player's vocabulary. Players and dealers use this phrase to describe common betting arrangements quickly and clearly. Here are two easy examples. You are in an extended hand and have pressed some of the place bets that you have. Some of the bets are many units higher than others.

The shooter makes the point and you decide that you want your bets to be an even amount on each number that you have in action. This might mean that some bets might be increased and some might be decreased. If you were to ask the dealer to adjust each bet individually it would be very confusing, so you can simply say, "Make my bets look like $44 inside," or "Make my bets look like $40 outside," or "Make my bets look like $32 inside no eight."

You might be betting on the hard ways and during the course of the hand the shooter has thrown some easy numbers causing some of your hard ways to lose. One of your hard way bets happens to hit, and you want to either add to that bet or replace the bets that have lost, you could say, "Make my hard ways look like $3 each 6 and 8 and $2 each 4 and 10." The stickman would know exactly what you want and would instruct your dealer to hand off the change less the amount bet. Of course hard way bets are not recommended bets because the house has very high edges on them.

6. House Advantage
Learning about the house advantage, or house edge, on all the best is of utmost importance. There are many bets offered on a craps layout; a few are great but many are awful. Once you learn which are which, only make the best bets. That will increase your fun because it increases your chances to go home a winner. And that is what it is all about.