Have you ever heard the phrase “to hedge your bets”? Well, hopefully you have. If not, here’s the definition:

“If you hedge your bets, you don’t risk everything on one opportunity, but try more than one thing.”

So, in a horse race you might have backed more than one horse, you might have backed a couple of teams at the start of the season to win the Superbowl, or instead of gambling analogies, you might be dating two or more people. In all the examples, you are increasing your chances of winning (or getting lucky) for a bigger outlay.

How does this apply to craps? As the article asks: what is craps hedge betting? Well, simply put, you have more than one wager on an outcome in the hope of winning a small profit or, at worst, minimizing any losses you might incur when playing on a small bankroll.

How can this be employed in craps? Well, first off, some players like to hedge their bets by betting on the pass line on the come out roll and then betting on “any craps” with a smaller stake in case 2, 3, or 12 is thrown. Let’s say we’re betting in units of $10. So, we bet $10 on the pass line and $2 on the “any craps”. If the thrower then throws a 2, 3, or 12, the players pass line bet loses, but the “any craps” bet wins. “Any craps” pays 7-1, so this is the final result:

Pass line bet – lose. LOSS $10.
“Any craps” bet – win. PROFIT $14.

Result: $4 PROFIT.

If any other number comes up, we lose the $2 bet, but our pass line bet still stands and if that ends up winning, either by a 7 on the come out roll

So, that’s one example of hedging your bets in craps. Is it a profitable system? Like all systems, it’s not. If you hedge every bet, you’re going to lose in the long term. Why? The odds of actually rolling craps (2, 3, or 12) is 8-1 and the casino only pays you out 7-1 odds on this, thus making the bet a loser.

Don’t believe me? Why not try out this strategy in our Craps Flash Game? Hedge your pass line bet on every come out roll and see how long your bankroll lasts. Sure, it won’t just disappear, but you will, more than likely, come out a loser.

But, of course, hedging your bets is not designed to guarantee you win, it’s designed to help you win more bets, albeit for a smaller loss, so let’s look at other ways of hedging your bets playing craps.

Another way of hedging your bets playing craps is to hedge the 6 or the 8. This is done when you have a bet on the don’t pass line and the point is set at 6 or 8. Why do this? Well, since a 6 or an 8 are the 2nd most likely numbers to get rolled when playing craps, it makes some sense to cover them if you’re looking to hedge your bets, as they’re points that are most likely to get made before a player sevens out. Let’s do another example, using the $10 don’t pass bet and we’ll see how we can hedge that to hopefully minimize our losses or guarantee a better win.

So, we bet $10 on the don’t pass line. The come out roll is an 8, so the point is set at 8. Since we’ll look to hedge our bets on any 6 or 8, we need to cover this. Remember, if the point is anything other than a 6 or 8, we don’t cover it. Now, because 6 & 8 both pay 7-6, we’ll look to put $9 on it.

So now, if the shooter sevens out, we get the following result:

Don’t pass bet – win. PROFIT $10
Point bet (8) – lose. LOSS $9.

Result: $1 PROFIT.

However, if the shooter makes the point before he sevens out, this is the result:

Don’t pass bet – lose. LOSS $10.
Point bet (8) – win. PROFIT $10.50

Result: $0.50 PROFIT.

Now, you can tinker with the amounts you bet so that you might make a loss if the shooter makes his point. You could be $6 on the point in the above example so your profits if the shooter sevens out would be $4 and if the shooter made the point, the loss would be $3 and so on.

This looks like a sure-fire way of winning. Well, it’s not. You have to remember that your don’t pass line bet might lose and, in theory, it’s around about 50-50 that it does (it’s not strictly 50-50, but it’s close enough). But yes, if you don’t lose your don’t pass bet, you can guarantee a profit if you bet it correctly or, at the very least, minimize your losses. There is nothing stopping you from hedging your bets on other numbers.

So, there you are, that’s how you hedge your bets playing craps. It’s easy to do and you can try out your own strategies, too, to find out what the best play for you is. Remember, these don’t guarantee profits, but they can allow you to play on a tight bankroll for a little bit longer and they make playing craps a lot more fun. If you want to try your hand at hedging your bets playing craps, get on over to Bovada where you don’t even have to download their software if you want to try it out for free, or for real money (yes, even you US players can play craps at Bovada).

Additional Craps Hedge Betting Questions:

Do Craps Hedge bets reduce the house advantage?

These bets do nothing to change the house advantage, but instead offer a way to cover up weaknesses in your other bets.

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