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Craps Dice

Craps is a game all about the dice. The dice is the center of the game. Everything depends on how the dice are manufactured, inspected, handled and thrown.

About The Dice

Modern craps dice are most commonly made from cellulose or another type of plastic. Each side of each die is marked with spots numbering from one to 6. The opposite sides of a die will always total seven. Casinos use a limited number of styles for

craps dice. Some casinos will variety the type of edge style of the dice. Most use craps dice that have square edges or just slightly rounded or feathered. The spots on a die can be concave, a bird’s eye or a flush spot. You’ll often see red transparent dice in casinos.

How To Throw The Dice

When trying to perfect your throw you should always try to throw from the same position at the table. Try to get the positions to the immediate right or immediate left of the stickman. This will reduce your throw to the smallest distance possible.
When you are ready to throw the dice, try to see the throw in your mind. Try to visualize the dice leaving your hand and flying through the air in a straight line and landing near the Pass Line. See them bounce off the back wall and end showing your winning number.

Try to toss the dice at a slight angle to minimize the energy they would get from falling. Toss them low, but not any lower than 45 degrees from the table. The dice should leave your hand at the same time and not change direction or wobble around. They should together through the air spinning forward. They should land on the pass line spinning and bounce off the back wall and come to a stop without hitting any chips.

Loaded Dice

The most common form of cheating at craps involved the altering of craps dice in ways to encourage them to land on some numbers more often than others. Often they were weighted or their shape was altered by shaving off slivers. Any casino you play craps at now has their own logo on them and sometimes they number the dice. Before a set of dice are set into play, they are checked to ensure they are the casino’s dice. Although it’s rarer today, sometimes, loaded craps dice appear at craps tables. However, casino staff are watching carefully when dice leave the table or anything else attempts to distract them from the game. Many casinos have transparent dice - the best protection against loaded dice.

Dice Control

The idea of being able to accurately control a pair of dice that has been tossed in their air has been dismissed by many. However, when we talk about a bowling, golf, darts, horseshoes or baseball, we do not doubt that a skilled player can accurately control an object launched into the air. The idea of “rhythm rolling” or “dice control” has been dismissed for many years, but recently experts are giving the idea a second chance. Skilled craps shooters are showing they can control the outcome of a throw.

Many confuse the terms dice control and rhythm rolling. Controlling the dice on every roll is impossible. Rhythm rolling is a way to influence the dice by holding and throwing the dice in a certain way every time. This throw can said to be controlled. The desired result is to avoid a completely random result when the dice come to a stop. Many are now embracing this as a valid craps playing strategy.

To successfully produce a controlled roll or rhythm roll you must first understand how hold the dice. Positioning the dice in a certain way can influence the result of your throw. If your desired result is to avoid rolling a seven, a common dice set is the 3 V set.
3 V dice setting

There are different theories and methods for setting dice. Once such method suggests the following:

To avoid rolling a seven:
Position the dice so that the two sides showing 3 on the dice are face up and forming a V when placed side by side. You should also have six on the front (5 and 1), eight on one side (6 and 2) and hard eight on the back (two 4s). No sevens are showing on this setting of the dice.

To roll a seven:
Move the dice so that 4 - 3 are on top and 2 - 5 are in front. The idea is to have all sevens showing out. This is a good set for the come out roll.

This system of dice setting involves positioning the dice side by side with certain numbers showing on the “axles” similar to hubcaps. The throw should spin the dice on their axles, keeping the hubcaps on each end.

If this type of system is successful, then your throw will not have the traditional 36 possible outcomes. No longer are their six faces of one die times six faces of another. Now, there is a possible 16 outcomes - four faces on each die times two - a much better probability distribution.

The following chart shows the results for a random throw and the 6 different ways dice can be set, excluding pairs. The chart shows the number of ways an outcome will appear out of 36 throws for random setting and 16 for an intentional setting of the dice.

result	random	1-6/1-6	2-5/2-5	3-4/3-4	1-6/2-5	1-6/3-4	2-5/3-4
2	1/36	0/16	1/16	1/16	0/16	0/16	1/16
3	2/36	0/16	0/16	2/16	1/16	1/16	1/16
4	3/36	1/16	2/16	1/16	1/16	2/16	1/16
5	4/36	2/16	2/16	0/16	2/16	2/16	2/16
6	5/36	3/16	1/16	2/16	3/16	2/16	2/16
7	6/36	4/16	4/16	4/16	2/16	2/16	2/16
8	5/36	3/16	1/16	2/16	3/16	2/16	2/16
9	4/36	2/16	2/16	0/16	2/16	2/16	2/16
10	3/36	1/16	2/16	1/16	1/16	2/16	1/16
11	2/36	0/16	0/16	2/16	1/16	1/16	1/16
12	1/36	0/16	1/16	1/16	0/16	0/16	1/16

Controlled throws of the dice can have a substantial effect on the house edge in a game of craps. According to the book, “The Edge at Dice Controlling the Dice”, the house advantage can be reduced to 0 if a shooter rolls one controlled throw out of every 43 rolls.