An Introduction to Craps Mathematics

Since gambling has a huge element of luck involved in it, knowing a bit of math to work the probability of a winning throw or a winning hand has been an integral part of it all.

While there are many who say math does not have any role to play in something like gambling, especially in games that depend more on luck than on skill, the truth is that math can help to an extent in planning your strategy while gambling, even for games that need you to depend more on your luck than on your math skills. The same is true about craps as well.

The Effectiveness of Employing Craps Math

The effectiveness of employing math while playing craps has been so great that you find books and websites dedicated to the subject. There are a few things that you should know before getting down to using your math skills to ensure a winning streak in craps.

First of all, you need to understand that the house advantage is for real in craps, and that is one reason why no amount of mathematics can ensure you get into a play mode where your objective is to make big money by winning at craps. It is possible to use math to ensure you win four times out of five; however the fifth hand that you lose will likely cost you more money than all that you won in the four previous hands.

How Does Craps Math Work?

You may now be wondering how craps math works. Basically, the best way of making the math work is to employ a math system that uses the enormous number of bets available at a craps table and helps you play to your advantage. Using such a system, you can ‘hedge your bets,’ meaning you can cover one bet with another.

The best thing to do is to try and figure out how frequently the 11 numbers that can possibly appear – 2 through 11 – actually make an appearance when you throw two dice. There can be an enormous number of combinations of the dice that can throw up any of these 11 numbers. Once you know the different combinations possible, calculating the odds becomes that much easier.

You must understand that there is no hard and fast strategy or rule to determine how often you can win at craps. However, knowing your math – a little bit of the probability theory is always handy – is a big help in ensuring you have a fair idea of the odds involved in a game.