Craps Terms - Part Two

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Today, we continue our Craps Terms series with more terms. We stopped off at "for the boys" last session. Today, we pick it up with an animal-the Buffalo. Let's get started.

Buffalo: Okay, it's not an animal. When you make a buffalo wager, you're betting on each of the Hardways and Any Seven. If you want to mix it up, you can make a Buffalo-Yo wager, which is all of the Hardways and a Yo (eleven) bet.

Buy: When you place a number, you can buy it. When you buy the number, you're paying a 5% commission for true odds. You'll rarely see the 5,6,8 or 9 bought. It's almost always the 4 and 10. Why? Well, when you buy the 4 and 10 you get 2 for 1 odds rather than 9 for 5. Imagine you bought the 4 for $25. Each time the 4 hits, you would be paid $50. Your commission would be $1. The commission is off the bet not the win. Also, the commission is rounded down, as most Craps tables don't have 25-cent cheques.

C and E: This is an extremely common wager on the come out roll. When you make a C and E wager, you're betting on Any Craps and Eleven (Yo). It's a one-roll wager. You can make this bet any time, but most people do it on the come out roll to protect their Pass Line bets.

Charting: If you go to the casinos in Downtown Las Vegas, you're likely to see a charter. Charting is when you record the action of a table. Usually this is done on a notepad. Why chart a table? Many people who do it believe there are patterns in the dice-not true. Others do it on a person by person basis, because they believe people have certain patterns. If you play online, you can do this easily and without standing out like you would at a real table.

Change Only: IMPORTANT! If you do nothing else, remember this command. When you are at a real Craps table and you throw money down, it plays where it stays unless you say "Change Only." Many unsuspecting people have thrown their money down expecting change only to see it gobbled up after it lost. Now, if you want the money to be a bet, just don't say another word or say "Money Plays." That's the command for letting the money sit and play. The dealer shouldn't touch the money.

Cheques: This is the official term for what many call chips. Let's say you have a $100 cheque and you want a stack of $5 cheques, you would put down your cheque in the Come area and say "Cheque Change." That's the dealer's cue that you don't want it to play and that you want smaller cheques/chips.

That ends today's Craps terms session. Next time we'll pick it up with terms like cocked dice, cold table, coloring up, come out roll and many more.

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Nick Niesen

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Nick Niesen
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