Heavy's Axis Power Craps Forum

An observation made over the past weekend at the Crapsfest live sessions had me wondering.
We were instructed to keep our bets off the passline when group members on the opposite side
of the table were shooting, and it was recommended to make place bets for the point instead.
Not thinking this last step completely through, I was place betting the point for the table minimum ($10-$12).
Typically I would have had a passline bet plus 2-3x odds behind. So in essence, I should have been
placing the point for $40-$42 and in many cases I think I may have missed out on making some
additional money.

I am curious to know how others handled this or, what the recommended course of action is?

I'd say that if you're risking $30 - 40 typically, you should place bet higher than $10 - 12. I wouldn't say that you needed to bet in the $40 - 42 range as such, for one you have no flat bet to overcome with the additional odds. As a for instance if the point is a 4 or 10 and you take 3x odds on a $10 table, you risk $40 to win $70, a $35 place bet with $2 vig would net you a $68 win once you subtract the vig. That being the case the math on those bets looks like 40 - 37 = 3, 70 - 68 = 2... so your PL bet with 3x odds required you to risk an extra $3 to make an extra $2. If the odds were 2x then the numbers are worse, you risk $30 to win $50, a place bet of $25 w/ $1 would net you $49, so a $4 additional bet would get you $1 extra. Call me crazy but if I don't like doing lay bets I probably want like getting paid as if it was a lay bet. On a 6 or 8 the $40 risked on a PL w/ 3x odds would win $46 whereas a $42 place bet would win $49.

My take is if you're willing to risk $40 because its a $10 table and you have that flat bet you have to overcome that's one thing, but you could still be fine betting less than that level on a place bet, with the added benefit of being able to turn the place bets off, though at table minimum there is no regression move open to you and a press move means you couldn't recoup your risk in a single hit. If you bet $42 on a place 6/8 you could press $6 on a win and still lock in a $1 profit whereas on a $12 your pressure of $6 nets you $8 which requires one more hit before you have a profit unless you come down.