Craps is a very popular land-based casino game. Therefore it is no wonder that all online casinos offer this game in their portfolio. As in land-based craps, the Pass Line bet is one of the most popular bets in online craps. There are many reasons for this. It offers one of the lowest house edges among all the craps bets, that of 1.4%. The bet is played over a number of rolls and is therefore sufficiently engaging. It is also complex enough to interest the seasoned craps player.
In online craps the wager for the Pass Line bet is placed on a band marked Pass Line. After the wager is placed the first roll of the series is made. In craps parlance this is known as the come out roll. If in the come out roll 7 or 11 are rolled then the player wins without any further rolls taking place. Likewise if in the come out roll 2, 3 or 11 are rolled then the player immediately loses his wager. The action begins if any other number is rolled in the come out roll. That number then becomes the point for the subsequent rolls in the series. If the point is rolled before 7 then the player wins. However, if 7 is rolled before the point then the player loses. Whether the player wins during the come out roll or later he receives the payout of 1 to 1.
Land-based craps games offer a supplementary bet to the Pass Line bet, which is known as the Free Odds bet. Unfortunately not all online casinos offer the Free Odds bet, but some of them definitely do. The Free Odds bet allows players to place another wager on the same outcome and the additional wager has no house edge. It pays as per the mathematical calculations. Hence the house edge of the combined wager decreases to less than 1.4%.
The payout for the Free Odds bet is not 1 to 1 as in the case of the Pass Line bet. It depends on the number established as the point. If the point is 4 or 10 then the payout is 2 to 1; if the point is 5 or 9 then the payout is 3 to 2 and if the point is 6 or 8 then the payout is 6 to 5. The combined bet works as follows. Suppose a player wagers $5 on the Pass Line bet and after the point is established as 4 he wagers another $5 on the Free Odds bet. If the player loses then he loses the entire $10. If the player wins then the payout is calculated in the following manner. For the Pass Line bet his payout is 1 to 1 and therefore he receives $10 from the online casino, which is to say that he wins $5. For the Free Odds bet his payout is 2 to 1 and therefore he receives $15 from the online casino, which is to say that he wins $10. In all he receives $25 and after deducting his wager he wins $15. The payouts for the combined bets in case of other points can be similarly calculated.
Usually the Free Odds bet is restricted to between the amount of the original wager and double that amount. Players should choose the amount of the Free Odds wager very carefully so that they do not lose out if the online casino rounds off the payout to the minimum chip size. If they do not exercise this caution the players can lose the advantage offered by the Free Odds bet. And since not all online casinos offer the facility of the Free Odds bet, serious craps players should locate an online casino that does so and register there.
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This is a good tip thanks especially for someone like me whose not by any means the most savvy craps player. I like being able to learn new things about these games that I'd really be much more keen on playing both online and offline more often!