Insurance bets are the side bets of small size, supposed to get a small profit or minimize losses from the main bet.
Although usually insurance bets are disadvantageous for a player, sometimes they can be used to gain at least a small winning or stay in the game longer with a small bankroll.
In craps, insurance bets are mostly made during the first phase, known as the come out roll.
- The player makes a 5$ bet on Pass Line, and then he bets 1$ on craps.
- In this case, if the roll is 2, 3, or 12, he loses his 5$ but gets 7$ from his bet on craps.
- If the shooter hits any other number, he loses a 1$ bet.
This may seem like a good strategy, but only for a rookie. Ensuring the main bet by craps, you are unlikely to be successful for a long time.
The reason is that the house edge for a bet on craps is over 11%.
Refusing the Don't Pass bets
Some players, wanting to insure themselves against losing, consider it reasonable to remove the Don't Pass bet if the shooter has made the Point and the game passed to the next level. Almost all casinos permit to remove the Don't Pass bet after the Point. And this is natural because such behavior is in the casino's favor.
After determining the Point number, your chances of winning increase significantly, comparing to the first level. As you know, if you place the Don't Pass bet while the Point is stated, the shooter rolls the dice until he hits 7 (the bet wins) or Point (the bet loses).
So, if you carefully study the odds of rolling certain numbers in craps, it becomes clear that 7 rolls more often than any other.
That's why it makes no sense to withdraw the Don't Pass bet when Point is used. It has no reason even when the Point is 6 or 8, which roll not as frequent as 7.
Insurance of 6 and 8
Some players prefer to ensure the Don't Pass bet by making an additional bet on the Point. This leads to a small win if the player rolls 7 and a small loss if he hits the Point. Here is an example.
- The player bets 10$ on the Don't Pass and rolls 6, which is now the Point.
- The additional bet is 6$ on the Point.
- Now, if he hits 7, the player wins and loses 10$.
- The net profit is 4$.
- If he rolls 6, the player loses 10$, but wins 7$, losing just 3$.
There are many different insurance systems, but using most of them can hardly be reasonable. The most common systems are carefully discussed in our following articles.
