When you’re shooting craps, choosing the right craps bets can be the difference between profit and loss. The structure of craps betting allows a number of different outcomes to be called, each with their own rate of return and corresponding house edge. While the bet you choose won’t dictate whether you win or lose, playing the bets and the odds to your advantage is the most effective way to improve your success with the dice. One popular bet players choose to opt for is the buy bet, which offers a slimmer house edge relative to other outcomes.
What Is A Buy Bet?
In craps, bets are broken down into a series of numerical outcomes, which correspond to the numbers you roll on the dice. These generally pay out on Place bets at casino generated odds, which factor in the percentage of casino advantage from the outset. With a Place bet, i.e. the standard positive bet on a craps shoot, the player can back numbers 4-10 (excluding 7), which will correspond to the number rolled. If the number comes up across the two dice, great – you win. If a 7 is rolled first, you lose. If any other number is rolled, there is no change in your position.
With Buy bets, you get the sometime advantage of true odds. In other words, the casino edge is removed from the equation, and you are actually betting on the true, likely odds of the number you have picked coming out as a winner. This is in exchange for commission on the stake you are buying, down to as low as 4.76%. This represents a clear benefit to the player in many circumstances, especially for larger stakes, where the difference in odds can weigh more heavily to your advantage. Of course there is always the pass / don’t pass craps strategy with odds bet featuring no house edge and no commission. But there are situations when buy bet is the only option.
Other Craps Bet Odds
Buy bets on the 4 and 10 come up with an advantage for the player, versus the standard odds offered by the casino. However, this is offset by the odds on place bets between 5 and 8, which actually work out cheaper for players. In these instances, players are no better off switching from a place bet to a buy bet, and so are recommended just to stick with a straightforward place bet across these numbers.
Both place and buy bets can be drawn down at any time before the next roll if required, and you can convert place bets to buy bets if you choose. Sometimes you may be restricted by the amount the casino will allow you to buy from – i.e. the house will set a minimum betting threshold you have to meet to qualify for buy bets. In practice, smaller stake bets are more commonly place bets than buy bets, but depending on where you play it may still be possible to take advantage of the better odds of a buy bet on the 4 and 10 for a similarly small stake.
When Does It Make Sense To Buy
True odds can make more sense for craps players, but only where there is a saving coming from house edge versus the commission payable. It makes sense to buy bet on 4s and 10s, and to place bet on 5, 6, 8 and 9 – this is because the advantage is nulled on 5, 6, 8 and 9 because the in-built house edge is actually slimmer than the commission payable.
Players who choose the buy bet do so to save money, and to get a better reflection of the true odds when they are playing. This limits the distortions introduced by casino edge, but doesn’t always make sense depending on the numbers you are playing.