Learn to Play Casino Craps – The Place Bet

Be smart, play smart, learn how to play casino craps the right way!

A place bet is a “standing” bet, which means that the bet continues to work, or stands, until you win or lose, or until you remove it. It can be made on any of the point numbers: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Like the pass line bet, it works against the number 7. After a place bet is made, the only numbers that matter are the Place number and 7; all other numbers are meaningless. After you place the bet, each subsequent roll can produce one of three outcomes: 1) a 7 comes up and your place bet loses, 2) the place number comes up and your place bet wins, or 3) any other number comes up and nothing happens to your bet. bet (ie all other numbers have no effect on your Place bet).

Place bets do not pay according to the actual odds. Instead, the house gains its advantage by paying them at less than the actual odds (ie, they stick it to the player by not paying their fair share when the player wins).

The odds for The Place are not as good as the actual odds. The house asks the player to win money by paying less than the actual odds. For a $5 winning bet on the 4 or 10, the Place odds pay only $9, but the true odds say we should be paid $10. For a $10 winning bet on the 5 or 9, the Place odds pay only $14, but the true odds say we should be paid $15. And for a $30 winning bet on 6 or 8, the Place odds pay only $35, but the true odds say we should be paid $36.

You might be thinking, “How much should I put in to place a place bet?” As always, the amount of the bet depends on the odds. The place odds for 4 and 10 are 9:5, and the place odds for 5 and 9 are 7:5. Therefore, the place bets for the 4, 5, 9 and 10 must be multiples of $5. For example, a $10 winning bet on 4 gives you $18. A winning bet of $15 on 9 gives you $21. Don’t let the math scare you! Since these bets are multiples of $5, simply divide your bet by 5 and then multiply by the odds of winning to determine your win amount. So, for your $10 place bet on 4 (which has 9:5 place odds), $10 divided by 5 = $2, and $2 x 9 = $18. For your $15 place bet on 9 (which has 7:5 place odds), $15 divided by 5 = $3 and $3 x 7 = $21.

The place odds for the 6 and 8 are 7:6, which means the bet must be in multiples of $6. For example, a winning $12 place bet on the 6 gives you $14. A $30 winning bet on the 8 gives you $35. Do the math. For your $30 place bet on 8 (which has 7:6 place odds), $30 divided by 6 = $5 and $5 x 7 = $35.

Learn the difference between place odds and true odds. Learn the difference so you don’t have to think about it. You don’t want to appear like a newbie fumbling with how much to put for each place number. (James Bond never asked the dealer, “Um, excuse me, how much are those six?”). However, if he has trouble remembering the odds of the place the first time he plays, don’t be afraid to ask the dealer how much to pay. drop. It will be as easy as pie after 15 minutes on the table.

If you’re like me, you’ll find and play at a table with a $3 minimum bet instead of the typical $5 or $10 minimum bet. Suppose you find a $3 table (there are still a few left in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip). Since the minimum bet is only $3, you can place $3 place bets, but you don’t get the full place odds. The payout odds for a $3 bet on 6 or 8 are 1:1, or even money. For 5 or 9, it’s 4:3 (ie your $3 bet wins $4). For 4 or 10, it’s 5:3 (ie your $3 bet wins $5).

For a $3 place bet, you get slightly less than full place odds because the lowest chip denomination on the craps table that casinos allow is usually $1, so they can’t pay you a fraction of a dollar (that’s say, cents). For example, suppose you place a bet of $3 to 5. The full place odds are 7:5, but the reduced payout odds for a $3 bet are only 4:3. Because? Because it gives the casino another excuse to hit the player! The roulette table has 25 cent or 50 cent chips, so why can’t the craps table have less than $1 chips? That’s how it is. They hit you again! The full place odds are 7:5, which means that for a $3 place bet on 5, we divide $3 by 5 = 60 cents, and then multiply 60 cents by 7 = $4.20. Therefore, for a $3 place bet on the 5 or 9 with full place odds of 7:5, we expect to receive a payout of $4.20 when we win. The craps table does not have 20 cent chips, so the casino rounds up to $4.

Let’s look at a $3 place bet on either the 4 or 10. The full place odds are 9:5, which means we divide $3 by 5 = 60 cents and then multiply 60 cents by 9 = $5.40. So for a $3 bet on 4 or 10 with full place odds of 9:5, we expect to win $5.40, but the casino rounds up to $5. (Note how the casino rounds down instead of up.) The player isn’t losing much by placing $3 place bets, so if he’s on a tight budget, these bets are fun and give him more action than pass line bets. The point is to keep in mind that you get slightly less than the full place odds and the house edge increases when you place bets of $3.

Full Place odds are not as good as the actual odds. This is how the house maintains its advantage. Remember, the house is in business to make money, not to gamble. Over time, the house wins because when you lose, you pay the true odds; but when you win, the house pays you less than the actual odds. So by paying less than their fair share when you win, the house can’t help but win in the long run. Let’s take a closer look at how the house sticks to the player.

Let’s look at the number 4. The true odds of rolling a 4 compared to a 7 are 1:2 (that is, three ways to roll a 4 compared to six ways to roll a 7, which is 3:6, which reduces to 1:2). Therefore, since the number 7 is twice as easy to do as the number 4, we expect to get paid double our bet when we win. For example, if we bet $5 on 4 to come up before 7, we expect to get $10 when we win (ie $5 x 2 = $10). However, for a place bet on 4, the payout odds are only 9:5. This is close to 2:1, but not quite. So if we place a $5 place bet on the 4 and win, the house pays us only $9. When the house loses, they don’t pay the actual odds; they pay just $9 instead of $10 and keep that extra dollar for themselves. You might think, “For my $5 bet, I win $9, so I don’t care if they take that extra $1 from me. It’s only a dollar.” Okay, but think of it this way. That is just a place bet made by a player during a game. Imagine keeping that extra dollar when other people at the table make the same bet, multiplied by the number of tables in action, multiplied by the number of hours in a day, multiplied by the number of days in a month, and so on. It’s easy to see how the house makes money in the long run.

You can place or remove Place bets at any time during a game. You can also do them while the puck is OFF (before a new come out roll), but dealers generally prefer that you wait until a point is established and then place your bets. Every once in a while, you see a player try to place a bet while the disc is OFF and ask, “Can you put the six on me now please, so I don’t forget after the out?” The dealer usually complies (as they should, after all, you are the customer), but sometimes a cranky dealer will ask the player to wait until a point is established.

Dealers who ask you to wait to place a place bet until after a point is established are doing so because they are lazy. Suppose you place the 6 before the lead and the dealer moves your chip to the 6 point box. The shooter then rolls a 6 for the point. The dealer moves the ON disc to the 6-point box and then has to ask, “Sir, what do you want to do with your six?” Since his Pass Line bet covers the 6 (because 6 is now the point), he probably doesn’t want his Place bet to cover it again. The dealer then has to move his 6 spot to any other number he wishes, or give it back to him if he decides to remove it. You think, “Wow, that’s a lot of extra work for the dealer.” You’re right, it’s no effort at all, but it’s amazing how many dealers, even good ones, don’t like to move their bets around because they couldn’t wait until after the point was established to place them.

You can make as many place bets as you like, up to a maximum of six (ie the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10), including the point. Yes, you can place the point. For example, suppose you walk up to a table and see an ON disc in the 6-point box (ie, a game is in progress and the shooter’s point is 6). Suppose you love the number 6 and want immediate action, but don’t want to make a sell bet, so you decide to place the shooter point. To do this, place your checkers centered directly on the bottom line of the Pass Lane (ie the line that separates the Pass Lane from the apron). As long as you center your chips on that line, the dealer knows it’s a shooter point place bet rather than a pass line place bet. If you don’t want to place your place bet this way, simply drop your chips into the Come box and tell the dealer, “Place the point, please.” The dealer then moves his chips into the dot box.

The dealer places all the place bets (except when you place the shooter’s point yourself), so you have to put your chips on the table and tell the dealer what you want. The dealer then places them in the appropriate position on the dot box for the number they wish to place. To an untrained eye, the player’s tokens appear to be scattered all over the point boxes. On the contrary, it is well organized. Each player position has a corresponding token position for each point space. The same applies to Lay, Come bets and Don’t Come bets. For all bets in and around the point boxes, the player’s chip locations correspond to their positions at the table.

Now you know! Remember, learn how to play casino craps the right way.