Gaming Guru

Craps A to Z Series - U is For Units

© 2003 By Larry Edell

When you play craps, wouldn't it be nice to find some way of keeping track of your bets, so you could easily increase them when you are winning and easily decrease them when you are losing?

Let's find out how!

Professional crapshooters always break their bets down into units. For example, if they bet $25, they are really betting five $5 units. If they bet $100, they are betting twenty $5 units. If you look at your own bets this way, they will be easier to change and, if you change them at the right time, you will be making more money.

Craps is a game of streaks, and if you latch onto a positive streak, you should be increasing your bets. If a negative streak shows, however, you should either be switching to the don't side or decreasing your bets. You can easily increase or decrease your bets by using one unit progressions.

For example, let's say you have $5 (one unit) on the pass line and one unit also in the come box. The shooter starts throwing and repeating numbers. You can start to increase your odds until you reach the table maximum (2X) and then increase your bets by one unit. So, if you are on the pass line and win five consecutive decisions, your unit progression would look like this:

1 (1 unit flat bet)
1+1 (1 unit flat bet plus 1 unit odds)
1+2 (1 unit flat bet plus 2 units odds)
2 (2 unit flat bet)
2+1 (2 unit flat bet plus 1 unit odds)

The total in winning five decisions on a 2X table for the points 4 or 10 is ($5) + ($5 + $5) + ($5 + $10) + ($10) + ($10 + $5). So you won $35 for the flat portion and $40 for the odds portion, a grand total of $75.

If you are on a 10X or 100X table, you have an even better deal. You can bet the minimum flat bet ($5 or one unit) and keep on betting one unit only. The odds bet has no house advantage, so you should always minimize your flat bets and maximize your odds bets for the same amount of money. For example, a $25 bet with $50 odds on the four means you have $75 in play and will win $25 (flat bet) plus $100 (odds bet). However, a $5 flat bet with $70 in odds also gives you $75 in play, but you win $5 (flat bet) plus $140 (odds bet) -- so you win a total of $20 more with the exact same money in play!

You can increase your odds portion by one unit on a win, and decease it by one unit on a loss. So, on the 10X table, if you won five consecutive decisions, your unit progression would look like this:

1 (1 unit flat bet)
1+1 (1 unit flat bet plus 1 unit odds)
1+2 (1 unit flat bet plus 2 units odds)
1+3 (1 unit flat bet plus 3 units odds)
1+4 (1 unit flat bet plus 4 units odds)

The total in winning five decisions on a 10X table for the points 4 or 10 is ($5) + ($5 + $10) + ($5 + $20) + ($5 + $30) + ($5 + $40). So you won $25 for the flat portion and $200 for the odds portion -- a grand total of $225. This is triple the winnings for the 2X table!

So, have you ever wondered how you can make more money with unit betting?

Well, now you know!

And, as always, good luck at the tables!