Craps Or Blackjack Odds
Many people will be visiting a casino this summer, whether on a trip to Vegas, on a cruise ship, or just at a local casino during a 'staycation.'
3-4-5 Times Odds. To make things quick and easy for everyone, from the players to the dealers to the Box Men, many casinos have incorporated a simplified odds system in which they allow odds of only 3, 4, or 5 times a Pass Line wager. With this system, players are allowed to take three, four, or five times odds, depending on the point number.
- From 24/7 $5 blackjack tables to the exhilarating action of Craps Fire Bet, there’s always a good time and a great game waiting at Santa Fe. The Best Las Vegas Table Games From classic roulette to fast-paced Pai Gow, table games at Santa Fe are in no short supply of fun.
- The Casino Royale on the Las Vegas Strip offers 100X odds on their two craps tables. Their betting limits at the craps table range from a minimum bet of $3 to a maximum bet of $500, and the maximum odds bet you can place is $2500 per bet.
But before you go, you may want to know which games give you the best chance of winning.
So we went behind the scene at two casinos, and spoke with the game managers, to find out which games give you an edge.
Table Games Your Best Bet
Jay Bean, a Caesar's floor manager, agreed to sit down with us and talk about the games with the best odds.
He said many people don't realize that table games have much better odds than slots. They are intimidated by thoughts of card sharks taking their money, with images of an intense Texas Hold 'Em tournament in their minds, and so they stick with the safe games: the slots.
But they are doing themselves a disservice, he said.
Bean's advice? After you've spent some time on the slot machines, move on to the Blackjack table, and start by just observing.
1. Blackjack
Blackjack has the best odds of winning, with a house edge of just 1 percent in most casinos, Bean said.
Plus, you are playing against only the dealer, not hooded poker champions.
'Blackjack is one of our easiest games to play,' Bean said. 'You're just looking for a number that beats the dealer's number without going over 21.'
If you're a novice, Bean said to sit down during a less busy time, such as the afternoon, and the dealer will walk you through the game.
But the same is not true with poker: You should practice the game with your friends first, at home, Bean said, until you are comfortable with it. Bean said novices are best off passing on the poker tables, where yes, the competition can be tough.
You can find out more information about the game of blackjack at the following link:
http://wizardofodds.com/games/blackjack/
Craps Or Blackjack Odds Video Poker
2. Craps
So from the Blackjack table, he suggests moving on to the dice game Craps, the game with the second best odds, also nearly 50-50.
The Craps table can be a bit intimidating for the beginner with all the boxes on the table, Bean admitted. But it's really not tough, and it has one of your best chances of winning. In the end, all you are really doing is betting on a dice roll.
For more information on craps, visit:
http://wizardofodds.com/games/craps/
3. Roulette
Craps Or Blackjack Odds Against
Bean said your next stop should be the Roulette wheel. It's simple, and pays fairly well.
'So you bet on your favorite numbers,' Bean said. 'The dealer spins, and if your number comes in you win.'
If you stick to betting on just Reds or Blacks, you have nearly a 50-50 chance of walking away a winner. If it lands on red when you choose red, you will double your bet, Bean explained.
While it may seem you have an even chance of winning by simply choosing a color, there is one catch that gives the house its edge: the extra green 0 and 00 position on the wheel. It's on all American roulette wheels.
Or, if you feel lucky, play just one number. It's hard to win, but if you do it pays out 36 to 1.
For more information on roulette, visit:
http://wizardofodds.com/games/roulette/
Worst Odds
Your worst odds? The casinos, understandably, did not want to talk about games with poor odds.
So we turned to Forbes Magazine, which in a report about Best Bets at the Casino, said two popular games -- the Wheel of Fortune and the ever-popular slot machines -- have the lowest odds of winning, with a house edge of 10 percent or more.
The Experts Agree
Professor of Analytics Michael Magazine has crunched the numbers, and agreed that blackjack is the best way to go home with money in your pockets. He said if you take a little time to learn the game, you have the best odds of winning.
'You are somewhere between 44 percent to 48 percent in every single hand of winning,' he said, noting that no other casino game gives you odds that good.
But Magazine cautioned that he's not promoting gambling, because he said even games with the best odds still favor the house.
'Play it long enough and you will lose. In the long term the house doesn't lose,' Magazine said.
If You Love The Slots....
Finally, if you really enjoy playing the slots, here is some good information to know, from state casino reports we examined.
With slots, the more money you put in per bet, the higher your chance of winning. If you put the max in a penny machine, which is usually around 50 cents, you have much better odds than if you put in 2 cents.
In addition, penny slots have the lowest odds, with $1 and $5 slots paying much better.
Always gamble responsibly, and don't waste your money.
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You can learn more about specific odds of slots machines in each state that has casino gambling by visiting the American Casino Guide.
Don't Waste Your Money is a registered trademark of the EW Scripps Co.
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The question “Does craps or blackjack offer better odds” was posed to me at breakfast this morning with Ryan.
I said “Blackjack”.
Ryan replied, “I’ll make you a $10 bet that Craps has better odds than Blackjack”.
I took that bet.
The problem with this bet is a common one in business… it’s a very poorly defined contract. We did not write it down. We didn’t define a number of key terms. We didn’t say which situation this should apply to.
Best Odds Craps Or Blackjack
Here is some of the issues:
- Real life or hypothetical? Hypothetically, Craps could approach nearly 49.999% odds of winning for the player if the player only played the pass line bet than went 1,000 time higher on the Odds bet. In real life, the very best deal we could find was a casino in Vegas offering 100 to 1 on the odds bet. Hypothetically, a perfect Blackjack player could count cards and have somewhere around a 51.5% chance of winning. Which leads to the next point…
- Is this just a one time bet or over the course of an entire day of playing the game? I was thinking it was over the course of time… no one just plays one hand of Blackjack, you sit down and play for awhile. Ryan thought it was just one individual bet inside of one single toss of the dice for Craps.
- I also simply have never played Craps and had to have him explain the structure to me. Ryan seemed more knowledgeable in Craps, but not an expert. He did not seem to know much about Blackjack, and I know just enough to be mildly dangerous.
- In a casino or at home? I think we both meant in a casino, but this was not defined.
- Bad players vs good players vs optimal players vs superhuman players? Most people who play both craps and poker are not good players and lose significant money at both. This article from UNLV analyzes this a bit… a craps player playing pass / come gives the house a 1.4% advantage, but a player playing craps with pass/come with double odds only gives the house a 0.6% advantage. The average blackjack player gives the house 2% odds, a good blackjack player only gives the house a 0.5% advantage, and a card counting player actually has a positive 1% advantage for himself. Ryan tried to counter the card counting player by saying theoretically a superhuman craps player could control how to roll the dice like a bowler bowls, but there is no real life examples of this.
I argued vociferously that most people can be trained to do a basic card counting system, therefore blackjack is the best game in a casino for the optimal player. I also said that an average player will do better with blackjack by just following the dealer’s advice and only give the house a 1% advantage, whereas the average craps player usually does lots of weird bets that make the game more fun but give the house a 10-20% advantage.
Craps Or Blackjack Odds Real Money
Ryan argued equally strongly that card counting is not allowed by casinos and we should only look at a single portion of a single bet (the 50-50 ratio of the Odds bet in craps) vs a single hand of blackjack.
Craps Or Blackjack Odds Poker
I think the real lesson here is the vital importance of only making agreements that both parties have a much stronger understanding of than what Ryan and I had here. It was fun though to debate and learn more about each game though.