Don’t Pass, Come, Don’t Come Tournament Bets

Casino games tournaments are fun, and they can be profitable too. In upcoming articles, we will continue to publish a series of excerpts from Stanford Wong’s book, Casino Tournament Strategy. Here, we continue the focus on craps tournaments.

Don’t Pass

This bet is almost exactly the opposite of the pass line. The exception is that if the first roll of the dice is 12 (some casinos use 2 instead of 12), pass-line bets lose and don’t pass bets have a standoff. Thus if you bet a dollar on both the pass line and the don’t pass, 35/36 of the time one of your bets will lose and the other will win. The other 1/36 of the time, your pass-line bet will lose and your don’t pass bet will not win.

The casino’s edge on the craps don’t pass is about 1.4%. (The casino has a tiny bit less of an edge on don’t pass than on pass-line bets.)

Don’t pass bets are flexible. You can remove them anytime you want. The reason the casino is willing to let you remove them is you are giving up a percentage by removing a don’t pass bet after a point is established. Suppose you have $10 on the don’t pass and the point is 6.

You have six ways to win that bet and only five ways to lose it. The expected value of that bet is $10.91. That is, $10 on the don’t pass with a point of 6 will sometimes turn into $20 and sometimes turn into zero, but on average will turn into $10.91. So the casino is happy if you want to settle for just $10. Don’t pass bets are flexible, but removing a don’t pass bet means giving the casino more than its usual 1.4%.

You also can make an odds bet on your don’t pass bet. This is called “laying odds,” whereas on a pass-line bet it is called “taking odds.” The payoffs are the reverse of those for pass-line odds. If the point is 4 or 10, you win half on your odds bet. As an example, suppose you have $10 bet on the don’t pass and the casino allows double odds; if the point is 4 you can lay $40 to win $20 that a 7 will roll before a 4. If the point is 5 or 9 you can lay $30 to win $20. If the point is 6 or 8 you can lay $24 to win $20.

Odds bets are flexible; you can make them or pick them up at any time.

Come

Come bets are similar to pass-line bets. If the next roll of the dice is 7 or 11, the come bet wins. If the next roll of the dice is 2, 3, or 12, the come bet loses. If the next roll of the dice is any other number, the dealer picks up the come bet and moves it to a part of the layout containing the number that just rolled. If that number is rolled again before a 7, that come bet wins. If a 7 comes first, that come bet loses. The main difference between the come bet and the pass-line bet is the dealer picks up the come bet and moves it after a number rolls.

You can take odds on come bets the same as you take odds on pass-line bets. You must give your odds to the dealer to place on top of or next to the come bet.

The casino’s edge on come bets is the same 1.4% as on pass-line bets. Come bets are as inflexible as pass-line bets.

Don’t Come

Don’t come bets are to don’t pass as come bets are to pass-line bets. If the next roll of the dice is 2, or 3, the don’t come bet wins; if the next roll is 7 or 11, the don’t come bet loses. If any other number is rolled, the dealer picks up the don’t come bet and places it behind the appropriate number. Thereafter, if a 7 rolls the don’t come bet wins, and if the number rolls again the don’t come bet loses.

Don’t bettors are sometimes called “wrong” bettors, as opposed to “right” bettors who bet the pass line, the come, and make place bets. There is nothing wrong with betting “wrong,” particularly in a tournament.

Odds can be laid on the don’t come bet.

House edge and flexibility are the same as for don’t pass.

This article is part of a series, to be continued…

Excerpted with permission from Casino Tournament Strategy by Stanford Wong, edited for this format.