If you have looked around on any craps' sites, you may have seen adds for "The Craps Lesson". Guy was also on A&E at some point on one of their Vegas shows. Here is a take on the strategy this guy promotes as "the smartest way to play":
By now you’ve probably seen the banner ads, You Tube videos, and perhaps the A&E television program featuring The Craps Lesson. In the video you get a glimpse of a Vegas craps “pro” betting a client’s bankroll at the table while his wife and the client cheer after every roll of the dice. Why? Because they are winning on every box number thrown. Oh, and did I mention that the craps “pro” gets half of the client’s winnings? No wonder his wife is excited!
Between the letters endorsing the lesson on the craps pro’s website and the trip reports posted by his students on the Internet it’s pretty easy to lay out the strategy. First off, the required bankroll for the session is $1600. We know both from the A&E video and from Internet trip reports that he starts out betting all the numbers “across” the board, and that the first bet is $160 across including the point. This is a classic “by the book” play. Notice that the required bankroll is ten times the initial wager. This gives the player a shot at winning on at least ten shooters. Unless the table is so cold it will sink the Titanic someone should catch a hand in that time. And if the table is lukewarm and a couple of players catch decent hands the money can roll in quickly.
How quickly? Let’s look at the press strategy, beginning with the Inside numbers. The Craps Lesson strategy calls for the player to “same bet” the first four hits on inside numbers. So if the five, six, eight, or nine roll you rack your winnings until your inside action is “paid for.” In fact, you will have taken $140 off the table so you will only have $20 “at risk” after the first four hits in this game.
At this point the player begins pressing every other hit on the Inside numbers. You press ONLY the number that hits - you do not press in pairs. You might end up with a $300 six and still have $30 on the eight. If so, no problem. The big bets are on the numbers that are rolling.
If your $30 six or eight hit you press that number to $60 and lock up an additional $5. You press every other hit, so the six/eight series would look like this:
$30 hit - lock up $5 - press to $60
$60 hit - lock up $70 - same bet
$60 hit - lock up $10 - press to $120
$120 hit - lock up $140 - same bet
$120 hit - lock up $20 - press to $240
$240 hit - lock up $280 - same bet
$240 hit - lock up $40 - press to $480
$480 hit - lock up $540 - same bet
I have not seen any reports of players getting beyond the $480 level on the six or eight in the Craps Lesson, but if you used the same pattern the next bet would be $960. Full pressure will take the bet to $1020. My preference would be to lock up $420 on the second hit at $480 and go to $600. Then you could press to $1200, $2400, then to $4800 - numbers that keep it simple for payoff purposes.
Now let’s take a look at the press moves on the five and nine. You’ll start out with $25 each on the five and nine, and press every other hit on either number once all of the inside action has been “paid for” by four inside hits.
$25 hit - lock up $10 - press to $50
$50 hit - lock up $70 - same bet
$50 hit - lock up $20 - press to $100
$100 hit - collect $140 - same bet
$100 hit - lock up $40 - press to $200
$200 hit - lock up $80 - press to $400
$400 hit - lock up $160 - press to $800
$800 hit - lock up $320 - press to $1600
Alright, from there you’re just a couple of hits away from table max. The next hit takes you to $3200, then you’re there.
You could hit table max quicker if you took full pressure or power pressed your action. For example, in the five/nine series you could drop $15 on top of the first $35 pay off and take that number straight to $75. The next hit pays $105. Take full pressure to $180 and the next hit pays $252. Go to $250 on the place action and take down $182. At that point you have a $140 profit on just three hits, and you are positioned to press to $500, $1000, and then power press to $2500. My point is, there are plenty of ways to personalize this type of play. And while the strategy is aggressive as is - you can really supercharge it if you don’t mind risking the action.
Now let’s talk about the four and ten press moves. The four and ten area handled differently than the inside numbers in the Craps Lesson. The inside numbers “pay the rent” for the four and ten, and the four and ten put money in the bank. In order to get into a profit-making position quickly the strategy calls for the player to power press the first hit on the four or ten. You’ll have $25 Buy bets on each of the numbers initially. The first hit on either kicks off $50 less the $1 vig. At this point you drop $26 on the layout - $1 for the vig and $25 for the power press. Tell the dealer to “make it look like $100.” On the second hit the number is pressed to $300. On the third hit you take $600 profit and go with the “same bet.” Then, on the fourth hit, you drop $100 plus the vig and power press to $1000. Let’s chart it out:
$25 hit - drop $26 - power press to $100
$100 hit - drop $5 vig - press to $300
$300 hit - drop $15 vig - collect $600
$300 hit - drop $115 - power press to $1000
$1000 hit - drop $100 vig and collect $2000
From this level I’d recommend going to $2500, collecting once and then pressing to $5000 or table max. Note that the vig may vary slightly from casino to casino - and often from dealer to dealer within the same casino. Most will charge $1 for every $20 won, but from time to time you’ll run across a dealer who will charge $1 for every $25 win. Some casinos, like the Santa Ana Star in Albuquerque, don’t charge any vig on the four or ten - a good reason for a Route 66 road trip this summer!
Does the Craps Lesson strategy work? Certainly - when everything gels and a shooter catches a hand. But the odds of winning in a random game are not improved by any betting strategy - regardless of how aggressive or conservative it is.
One player who used this strategy reported getting to the $1000 level on the four or ten twice in about five hours play. Twice he had over $2000 on the table and almost $3000 profit in the rack. But the recurring theme in Craps Lesson trip reports is very familiar. The player just couldn’t “get over the hump” and hit that next big bet.
One player commented that he did not think adding money to the four and ten (power pressing after the first hit) was a good idea unless the table was very hot and you already had a profit racked. I would tend to agree with this comment. My preference on the four and ten would be to start at $25, go to $50, then $100, 250, $500, then $1000. I doubt that you’d ever see me with more than $1000 on the four or ten - probably a profit limiting mind-set - but it is what it is.
How does the strategy play out with one of our better shooters handling the dice? Here’s a series of numbers extracted from one of Dave of San Antonio’s recent posts. We’ll assume he played a $10 Game with a Pass Line wager and 2X odds plus $125 - $130 across - an initial investment of about $160. Since he is setting for the sevens on the Come Out we will not work our action on the Come Out.
Point of 9 established.
PASS - rolled the 9
PROFIT - $40
Point of 8 established
Roll is 6 - Collect $35 - Same Bet
Rolls 5 - Collect $35 - Same Bet
Rolls 10 - Drop $26 and Press to $100
Rolls 5 - Collect $35
Rolls 10 - Drop $15 and Press to $300
Rolls 11 (Do not bet “see a horn - bet a horn!”)
Rolls 11 (Hey! That stuff can’t work!)
Rolls 6 - Collect $35 - Same bet
Rolls 10 - Drop $30 - Collect $600
PASS - rolled the 8 - Collect $38
Come Out - 7 - Collect $10
Come Out - 11 - Collect $10
Come Out - 9 is point
Rolls 10 - Drop $130 - Press to $1000
Rolls 8 - Collect $5 - Press to $60
Rolls 2 craps (Here we go again with the “see a horn - bet a horn” thing!)
Rolls 3 craps (Oops - We missed another)
Rolls 3 craps (Oh! I get it! This is a skilled shooter who is double pitching the V-2 into the three craps. Numbers WILL repeat!)
Rolls 11 (Ridiculous, isn’t it. Four horn numbers in a row. The odds against that are over 1200 to 1. Perhaps what we need is a Five Count Horn method. NOT!)
Rolls 10 - Drop $100 - Collect $2000
Rolls 4 - Drop $26 - Press to $100
Rolls 10 - Drop $100 - Press to $3000
Rolls 4 - Drop $15 - Press to $300
Rolls 8 - Collect $70 - Same bet
Rolls 5 - Collect $15 - Press to $50
Rolls 4 - Drop $30 - Collect $600
Rolls 4 - Drop $130 - Press to $1000
Rolls 5 - Collect $70 - Same bet
Seven Out - Line Down
Okay, I did this on the run so feel free to review the numbers and check my math. My point is not to be accurate to the penny - simply to give you a DI world example of how the strategy can produce. It looks to me like we took about $2400 off the table in that series. Net out the initial line bet, odds, and place action and you’re looking at roughly a $2240 profit for the series. That’s about a 14-1 return on your initial investment. Not bad. Especially since we avoided all of those nasty high-vig prop bets. However, we didn’t get into a strong profit situation until roll number thirteen, when we collected a $600 payoff on the 10.
By the way, when all was said and done we left almost double out winnings on the table for the seven to rake. Considering how rare thirty-plus number hands are, the more conservative among us would probably consider incorporating a regression after a hit at the $1000 level, or simply sticking at that level and riding out the roll.
Before we wrap this article up let’s take a look at a Craps Lesson type strategy starting at a lower level that many of you will be more comfortable with. In this case we’ll start with $64 across including the point. As with the Craps Lesson, we will “same bet” the first four inside hits, then press every other subsequent hit. We’ll press the four and ten more aggressively, going directly from a $10 place to a $30 Buy. On the second hit we power press the number that rolled to $100. On the third hit we lock up our initial investment and press to $250. After that you are off to the races, pressing every other hit to $500, $1000, and $2500.
Let’s chart out the inside numbers first. Here are the press moves once you have scored your four hits and have your action paid for:
$12 hit - six or eight - lock up $2 - press to $24
$10 hit - five or nine - lock up $4 - press to $20
Second hit on any inside number - collect $28
$24 hit on six or eight - drop $2 - press to $54
$20 hit on five or nine - drop $2 - press to $50
Third hit - collect $63 on the six or eight - $70 on the five or nine
$54 hit on six or eight - drop $3 - press to $120
$50 hit on five or nine - press to $120
From this point on it’s relatively easy to run the moves. The six and eight go from $120 to $240 to $480. From there I would consider taking it to $600 and remaining at that level. The five and nine go from $120 to $250 to $500. Remember, it only takes eight to ten inside number hits to get your wagers up to a significant size. It is also very easy leave a large amount of money on the table for the seven to wipe out. Keep that in mind when testing out these aggressive styles of play. And remember - you control the action. You can turn your wagers off or take them down at any time.
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Might be the worst bet on the table. Why bet big six and big eight for even money when you can simply "place" the 6 and 8 and get odds?
