Craps: Come Bets

Many players love Come bets because they provide fast action as well as profits. Come bets work the same way as a Pass Line bet, the only exception to this is that you can bet Come on every roll of the dice – and with highest odds. Many experienced crapshooters plan on betting one Pass Line and two come bets when they play. The main advantage to this way of betting is that you can really clean up on hot shooters.

However, one of the disadvantages of Come betting is that you will sometimes have one or more “leftover” bets. Since you are betting on new points in the same manner as the Pass Line, you are looking for each of your personal points to repeat before the seven shows. But when the shooter makes his point, you may be left with your Come points (with odds) still on the layout. On the new Come-out, everyone else is rooting for a Come-out seven. But if that seven rolls, you lose the flat portions of your Come bets. The house will generously let you call your odds bet “on” or “off”. But how do you decide which is best?

Say you make a $5 Pass Line bet and the shooter rolls a six so you put $25 in odds behind the line. Then you make a $10 Come bet, the shooter rolls a four, and you add $20 in odds. Finally, you make a second Come bet and the shooter rolls a nine so you add another $20 to that bet.

Now the shooter makes his point, the six, so you win on the Pass Line. You have $10 bets on four and nine, each with $20 in odds. If the same shooter rolls a seven you could lose both bets, but if he rolls a four or nine you win. The dealer looks at you and asks “on or off”? If you choose not to say anything then the odds are set to “off”. The odds will also be set to off if the dealer forgets to ask you what you want.

The casino wants the odds set to “off”. However is that what you want?

Let’s examine this a little closer. Out of 36 rolls the seven will hit six times. The four (or ten) will hit three times, the nine (or five) four times, and the six (or eight) five times. This means that if you have Come bets on both the four and ten, they will hit the same number of times as the seven (three plus three or six times). If you have bets on any other two numbers they will hit more times than the seven.

If, for example, you have Come bets on the six and eight, they will hit ten times (five plus five) thus giving you the odds of five to three that either will hit before the seven, so you should have both odds bets working. If you have Come bets on the four and ten, it’s a toss-up so go with your instincts on the shooter.

In the above example, you have bets on the four and nine. These numbers combined will hit nine times (four plus five) so the odds are nine to six that one will hit before the seven, so call is to make the odds “on” - the opposite of what the casino would normally do.

A simple rule to remember is that if you have two or more Come bets up (with odds) on the new Come-out, always call them “on”. If you have only one Come bet up, call it “off”.

So the next time the dealer asks you “on or off” you won’t have to worry about what to do the answer will roll off you tongue.