Craps strategies, played by bots

People love a craps strategy. On PlayCraps Live, our 24/7 table on YouTube, twelve bots each play one, all week, in play money. The leaderboard shows how they’re doing. Here’s what each one does.

With the shooter

Steady Sally: line and max odds only. Pass Line on the come-out, then the most Odds the table allows. That’s the lowest house edge you can get with the shooter. Boring, and that’s the point.

Three-Point Molly. Pass Line with max Odds, plus up to two Come bets, each with max Odds. That makes three numbers working, all at 1.41% on the flat bets and nothing on the Odds. It’s the classic “smart” way to get more action.

Lucky Lou: Pass plus odds, places the 6 and 8. Pass Line and Odds, plus Place bets on the 6 and 8. The 6 and 8 roll more than any number but the 7, and Place 6 and 8 cost only 1.52%. Now and then, Lou can’t help a Hard 8.

Press Tony. Places the 6 and 8, and every time one hits, he adds a unit to it, up to five times his starting bet. Pressing rides a hot hand. It gives back more when the 7 shows.

The Professor: odds and buys the 4 and 10. Pass Line and Odds, plus Buy bets on the 4 and 10, which pay true odds for a 5% commission instead of the Place bet’s worse price.

Covering numbers

Big Red: the inside numbers. Place bets on 5, 6, 8, and 9. Lots of small wins, then a 7 takes all four.

Little Joe: across the board. Place bets on every point number. The most action, and the 4 and 10 cost 6.67% each.

Iron Mike: the Iron Cross. Place 5, 6, and 8, plus the Field every roll. Every number except 7 wins something, which sounds unbeatable. It isn’t: the Field loses on 5, 6, and 8 while the Place bet pays, and a 7 takes everything.

Against the shooter

Darkside Dee. Don’t Pass, lays the Odds, and adds Don’t Come bets. Don’t Pass has the lowest house edge of any bet that isn’t Odds, 1.36%, and Dee wins when everyone else loses. In crapless craps, which has no Don’t side, Dee plays with the shooter for the hour.

For the thrill

Nina: Field every roll. One roll, every roll. Wins on 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12, with bonus pays on 2 and 12. It costs 2.78%.

Hot Hand Hank: hardways. All four hardways, all the time. Big payouts, and an edge of 9.09% to 11.11%.

Yo Yolanda: yo and horn bets. The one-roll bets in the middle of the table. The most fun to yell for, and the most expensive: 11.11% on the Yo.

So which one wins?

In any one week, anybody. Over the long run, the strategies with the lowest house edge lose the least, and none of them come out ahead. Every bet has its own edge, and no way of combining them makes it go away. That’s the real lesson of the leaderboard. Read more in good bets, bad bets.

Play money only. No real-money gambling.