In the Axis Power Craps Seminars I do around the country I talk about the fact that there are two distinct sides of the game. The first side is the Come Out game. The second side is the Point Cycle game. New players generally don’t recognize this. Their approach to the game is the same no matter if it’s their first toss of the dice or their fiftieth. They pick the dice up, shake them and throw them down the table. The result is entirely random and ultimately they are doomed by the math of the game.
As players grow into the game you start hearing them shout things like “Come on seven-eleven” on the Come Out and rooting for their point once it’s established. Recognition of the two sides of the game is dawning on them, but the player is still playing a random game.
It’s not until the player sits down, analyzes the various elements of the game and determines that craps can be beaten by skilled shooters with knowledge of the various dice pre-set arrangements that the player starts down the road to advantage craps play. Once they take that first step down the AP Highway they inevitably start approaching the Come Out game differently than the Point Cycle game. Many of us old timers call this the “game within the game.”
Here are a few ways to turn a profit on the Come Out game:
Toss a seven and win on the Pass Line. Let’s face it. There are more combinations of the dice that add up to seven than any other number, so why not capitalize on that. A Pass Line winner is money in the rack, and the seven is the easiest number to toss. Most players opt to use the All Sevens set with the 5-2 up and the 3-4 facing. Of course, you can turn this set around, over, upside-down, or swap places with the left die and right die. The main thing is to keep the six pips and the ace pips on the lateral (sides) faces of the dice. By doing that you axle-off the two, three, and twelve craps so you not only increase the chances you’ll toss a seven – you decrease the odds that you’ll throw a craps.
Interestingly enough, once a player determines that he’s pretty good at tossing sevens on the Come Out he invariably looks for additional ways to profit from that toss. What other bets win on the seven? Ah. And at this point dyed-in-the-wool right side players start looking seriously at the Don’ts.
If you stick with this same version of the All Sevens you’ll discover that while there are four ways to roll a seven on axis with that set there is only one way to roll the four or ten. That means there may be an additional profit opportunity to the skilled DI by Laying the four or ten – or both.
Let’s say out player decides to Lay the Four and Ten for $41 each. He has $10 on the Pass Line, sets for and tosses the seven. After allowing for the vig he wins a net $19 each for the Lay bets, or $38 – plus his $10 Pass Line win. In other words – he starts out his hand with a $48 win. Not a bad play if you can keep the dice on axis.
Of course, if a little bit of something is good for you then a LOT of it must be even better. So the next step on the seven-shooter’s Come Out game is to Lay ALL the numbers on the Come Out. The proper bet here is to Lay $194 Across. A seven on the Come Out will kick off a net $114 plus your $10 Pass Line win for a $124 profit BEFORE a point is established. Of course, the danger here is that you’ll toss a box number on the Come Out. But with this set the odds are the point established will be an inside number so the player rationalizes that he’s just risking one bet – $25 to $31 – for the possibility of locking up a $124 win. In the players mind it’s worth the risk for the possibility of a 4 or 5-to-1 payoff. And if he does set a point and knock off one of his lay bets he can always take sufficient odds on the Pass Line to recoup that loss as his hand continues into the Point Cycle.
Another way to profit through Come Out sevens is to use Hop bets. Hop bets, as our friend Golfer once pointed out, are the crack cocaine of craps. They are extremely high-vig bets that should be avoided by most players. Nevertheless, some DI’s have learned how to profit from them. A simple $3 three-way-sevens Hop bet pays the same as a $1 Yo – 15-to-1. Hop the sevens for $3 and hit any of the sevens combinations and you’ll win $15. The dealer will try to keep you up on the hop bet and pay you $13 and up to win again. However the play most DI’s shoot for at this point is to take $1 from the pay-off and parlay the remainder of their winnings. Their next bet is $15 sevens hop. The second hit on the sevens pays $75 – or $80 and down. The aggressive player takes the second parlay, locks up $5 and makes the hop bet look like $75. A third sevens hit will pay the shooter $375 – or $400 and down. This may sound like pie-in-the-sky, but how many times have you seen a shooter toss three sevens in a row? Better still, how many times have you done it yourself?
As the DI continues to experiment and learn, this next play often shows up in their repertoire. It’s one of Maddog’s favorite Come Out strategies. Lay $31 No Five and $31 No Nine. Then set the All-Sevens variant of the Straight Sixes on the Come out and toss a seven. You’ll win $38 for the two Lay bets plus your $10 Pass Line wager, just as you did in our example where we Laid the Four and Ten. But using the Straight Sixes gives the shooter an advantage he didn’t have in our Four/Ten example. There are no fives or nines on-axis when you set the Straight Sixes. That means the only way you can toss a five or nine is if the dice tumble off axis.
Of course, the Straight Sixes stimulates other thinking when it comes to the Come Out game. The strategy I play personally involves placing a World (or Whirl) bet in conjunction with a High-Low bet. A $5 World bet consists of $1 each on the 2, 3, 11, 12, and Any Seven. An extra $2 split between the 2 and 12 “energizes” those numbers when they show. Toss a two or twelve on the Come Out with this $7 action bet and you’ll be paid $55. Of course, the down side of this play is that you also lose your Pass Line bet to the 2, 3, or 12 and that happens frequently with this play. So in a $10 game I’d be looking at a net $45 win on that first hit. And if I did not get a second hit on the prop action that $7 would fall, further reducing my Come Out win to $38. And you don’t have to lose a lot of those $7 action bets to find yourself falling way behind the curve on this play.
Perhaps a better approach would be to reduce this $7 action to $4 and play $2 on the High Low and $2 on the ace-deuce. Or you might consider tossing $3 on Any Craps instead. Of course, the BEST prop bet is NO prop bet. But you knew that already.
The great thing about craps is that it offers such a wide variety of ways to attack the game. Are some better than others? Absolutely. That’s why the strategy we TEACH in the seminars is the one I mentioned first. Set for and toss a seven on the come out and lock up a Pass Line win.
You can do it.
I know you can.
