A lot of people who are interested in playing do not know the correct craps payouts on the bets they place. If you want to lower the house edge to as low of a number as possible then you need to make smart bets at the craps table and stay away from some of the sucker bets that really raise the house edge.
Proposition bets are those located in the center of the craps table and are tempting to the average bettor because of the high payouts offered, but those came at a cost because the house edge on these bets is significantly higher.
As for the 11, or the “yo” as it is sometimes called, it is a one roll bet that the shooter will make a certain number of your choosing, in this case the 11, on the next roll. The 11, the 3, or “ace-deuce,” and a “hi-lo,” a combination bet on the 2 or 12, all pay off at 15-1, but the actual odds are 17-1 which gives the house a huge edge of nearly 14%. “Snake eyes,” the 2, and “box cars”, the 12, pay off at 30-1, but the actual odds of a 2 or 12 appearing are 35-1.
A hardway is a wager that a shooter will make a number the hard way, such as 4-4 (8) before throwing a 7 or a 8 the easy way (5-3 or 6-2). The hard 4 and hard 10 pay off at 7-1 odds with the actual odds being 8-1, and the hard 6 and hard 8 pay off at 9-1 odds with actual odds of 10-1. This means that the hard 4 and hard 10 give the house an edge of 11.1% while the hard 6 and the hard 8 are slightly better bets, but not really recommended at a house edge of 9.09%.
Any Seven, nicknamed “Big Red,” is a bet that the shooter will roll a seven on the next roll. The true odds for this bet stand at 5-1, but the casino is only willing to pay out 4-1 so the house has a massive 16.67% edge on the bet. This makes it the worst variety of a series of bad wagers available to you on the crap table.
Any Craps is a bet that the shooter will roll 2, 3 or 12 on the next roll. The true odds are 8-1, with a casino payoff of 7-1. The house edge on this bet is 11.1%.
The Field bet is a wager that any of these numbers, the 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 will appear on the next roll of the dice. This bet pays 2-1 on the 2 or 12 and even money on the others (3, 4, 9, 10, 11), although many casinos do generously pay 3-1 on the 2 or 12. The casino advantage is typically 5.5% on a Field wager, but reduced to 2.77% if the 2 or 12 pay off at 3-1. Unlike the other proposition bets above, a Field bet is physically placed by the player in a box between the Don’t pass line and the Come box and is not handled by a stickman or dealer.
All of the wagers above can be quite costly to the player and take a big chunk of the player’s bankroll. We don’t recommend betting on any of those bets above because the house edge is just way too high. If you want the action, excitement, and camaraderie that the craps table can offer, then we suggest you put your hard-earned cash on either the Pass line or Don’t Pass line with full odds, complementing the Pass line wagers with place bets on either the 6 or the 8.