Craps Check

[heavy]

Occasionally when I’m in the casino some novice at the table will ask me what a “craps check” is. I pretty much have my pat answer down for it these days. “It’s a one roll bet on the 2, 3, and 12 which pays 7 to 1 when any of those numbers hit. It’s primarily used to hedge the Pass Line bet on the Come Out.” At least I tell them something like that. Sometimes, if I haven’t had my coffee yet, I might say “It’s half of a C&E.” That’s sure to wind them up. If I'm feeling our-of-sorts I might just tell them to buy a book. But the first answer is correct.

When used as a hedge, you might bet $1 for each $5 you have on the Pass Line. That way you can’t actually lose on the come-out roll since a 7 or 11 would pay $5 and you lose the $1 craps bet, netting you $4. Or if a craps number rolls win $7 on the Any Craps bet and lose the $5 Pass Line bet for a net $2 win. Seems like genius, doesn’t it? The problem is, most of the time some other number will roll, becoming the point. That fact – and the fact that the true odds on the payoff on the Any Craps bet SHOULD be 8 to 1 – means this bet carries a house edge of around 11%. So for every ten $1 Any Craps bets you make you are essentially throwing $1.10 into the pit and saying “this is for the house because I love you guys.”

But even if you convince yourself that it’s worth the cost to spare you from the occasional Come Out loser, how do you explain the fact that some players, on every roll of the dice, will toss out $2 on the C&E or $1 Any Craps or a $1 Yo? The reason, I often think, is that they have “stupid money.” And I define “stupid money” as money you don’t mind losing on stupid bets. Of course, that’s when someone else is making those bets. When I’m making them I refer to them as “entertainment bets.”

My old pal Roadrunner used to have an interesting approach to the Come Out hedge. Instead of playing an Any Craps for a buck or two he’d toss out $3 on a three-way-craps. On a three-way-craps bet a hit on the 2 or 12 would pay 30 to 1 (minus the two losing bets). The 3 craps paid 15 – 1. And anytime he hit on that wager he’d either be $15 and down or $30 and down. Then he’d parlay those winnings into a Field bet. That gave him a good chance at doubling up that $15 or $30.

Speaking of the Field, if you’ve played with me in the past you may have heard me drop $10 in the Field and refer to it as a “Mississippi Craps Check.” That’s because the Field pays you on any of the Craps numbers, the Eleven, and the Four, Nine and Ten. It’s a decent enough hedge for your Pass Line wager as long as it wins. When it loses you’re out $10.

The smart solution to all this is, as I’ve said many times, to trim your hedges. If you do that your profits will grow.

[London Shooter]

I quite like the idea of the Mississippi Craps Check more than the standard way - but only if the field pays treble. The downside is you are putting more money in action this way if you are a hedge junkie and overall a $1 craps check instead may well mean you lose less, despite the much larger house edge that bet entails.

I guess another small intangible of the Mississippi Craps Check is that if it loses, at least you know you are being left with a more gettable number for your passline.

[slowdriver]

Those $1 C&E's really add up to real money But they are fun to bet, sometimes when i have extra white chips they start flying all over the table..hardways, hops, tips ect. But sometimes i will stack them up on the drink rail and try to forget about them i have thought about grabbing a chip rack from the poker room to keep them in and see how many white chips i can gather.

[SHOOTITALL]

Slowdriver: Generally I have found that when you get ~20, the box man wants them back and will color them in. Especially if he has a crop circle in the white chip bank area.

[Bankerdude80]

A few times I've tried a $2 C&E, then parlay that to a $8 horn. Rarely has it worked out for me for big $$ on unknown shooters. That Field play by Roadrunner piques my curiosity. I may have to give that a "whirl".