To Come (bet) or not to Come (bet) . . .

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This is one of those eternal questions debated by players, dealers, and math guys alike. To Come Bet or to Place Bet - that is the question.

Let me just begin by saying that my BIGGEST wins have pretty much always come when I was Come betting. Sort of. Because I generally start out with some sort of place bets - at the minimum the six and eight. Those big wins have come when I converted my Place bets to Come bets - playing continuous Come bets and gradually working up the size of my Free Odds - then the base bet itself. Works great - some of the time. But some of the time you get the bases loaded and then the ugly thing happens. And there's nothing worse than getting the numbers covered, then the shooter knocks everything off on the Come Out roll after making his first point. Yep, those Come bets are up and working on the Come Out, when the seven SHOULD be your friend. How do you handle that? Well, the math guys will tell you just to sweat it out. Personally, I prefer to toss out a little sevens-hop action to hedge the bets on the Come out. But if you're playing $10 base bets and have all six number covered you're looking at having $15 in hop action to hedge that $60. That's pretty expensive insurance.


Okay, some of the reasons Place bettors prefer Place betting to Come betting.

1. The number has to roll twice for you to get paid if you are Come betting. Place bettors get paid the first time the number rolls.

2. Established Come bets get knocked off by the seven on the Come Out roll.

3. You have no control over where the bet travels to.

4. Your bet is exposed to the craps numbers when you're trying to get them established.

5. Come bets are contract bets that cannot be taken down.

What do Come bettors say in response to this?

1. The Come bet provides a minor hedge against the seven as it wins when the other bets on the table lose.

2. The dice decide which numbers are going to be covered, which takes all of the decision making about what number to bet out of the picture.

3. Come betting is the lowest vig way to play (next to DP and DC betting)

As I said before, when I get into long-roll mode I like to convert to Come betting just to put evereything on auto-pilot. If you start with something like $160 across, collect on a few hits, regress, then start making continuous Come bets you can rack up a substantial win on a hot hand. The downside? Volatility. The chop kills you and a PSO is a prescription for an afternoon's rest in your suite.

What do you guys think? To Come Bet or not to Come Bet. That's the question.

[alanwr]

I will use a come bet to test the waters. I think the biggest mistake a lot of players make is placing odds on the passline before the come bet travels.

If a point sevens comes you've lost your odds bet. I will wait till the come bet is established, then place odds.

Also when one of my odds bets hit I remove the remaining odds bet and make another come bet equal to 1/2 my total payout plus odds i took down. I continue to do this with all come bets that hit.

Best Alan