The Advantages and Disadvantages of Hedging Your Bets in Live Dealer Craps

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A photograph of a craps table in a casino with a player getting ready to place their bets on one side of the table and a Stickman holding the craps stick (or mop) on the other.
BetMGM Jul 15, 2024, 1:27 PM

As a game of pure chance, craps has a strong element of unpredictability. While your odds of winning are fixed depending on your wager with each play, you can control your risk by deciding on what bet to place.

Among those myriad bet options is the choice to hedge your bets while playing the live dealer game version of craps. Depending on the situation, doing so can either be an expert move or a novice mistake.

When playing live dealer craps at BetMGM, you’ll need to be familiar with the concepts behind hedge bets in craps so you can ascertain the situation and decide whether placing such a wager is to your advantage. The more familiar you are, the more easily and quickly you’ll be able to respond.

What are Hedge Bets in Live Dealer Craps?

The basic premise of hedging your bet in live dealer craps is the same as in craps in a physical casino or any other form of gambling. It’s a separate wager you place to try to limit your losses on an initial wager.

A common example is placing a come bet. You can place this bet after the point has been established.

If the shooter rolls a seven or an 11 on the next roll, you win your bet. If the result of the new roll is a two, three, or a 12, you lose.

Any other number from the shooter becomes the point for your come bet. Should you desire, you can then place other bets on the don’t pass line as a hedge against your come bet.

There are many other ways to hedge your bets in live dealer craps, like placing bets on the opposite numbers of your hardway bets or any seven bet on a pass line wager.

As you learn about all the options, what’s equally important for you to learn is when it does and doesn’t make sense to use this strategy. As in most circumstances when it comes to gambling, it’s all about managing your bankroll and weighing risk vs. reward.

How to Know When to Place Craps Hedge Bets

Like when you’re playing any online casino game, the first rule of thumb is to set your bankroll for that session. Goals for the novice craps player can include simply ending your time playing with more money than you started with.

Don’t be mistaken; luck will be the dominant factor in whether that happens. However, clever bankroll management can help, and hedging your bets at the right time can assist in that endeavor.

Hedging your bet can reduce the size of your losses. It can also cut down on the value of your wins, though. A deciding factor can be the state of your bankroll.

If you have a run of bad luck, you might want to think about placing some hedge bets to try to make your bankroll go farther. That might sound like chasing losses, but the difference is that you are limiting your risk to try to build your bankroll back up over time instead of taking bigger risks to try to win it all back right away.

On the other hand, if you run into some good fortune, that might be the time to put the hedging aside. You can use your winnings like house money to place some riskier bets, knowing that even if you lose, you are still going to break even at worst.

Another way to hedge your bets is by watching BetMGM’s casino promotions for bonuses that you can use when you play live dealer craps. New players on BetMGM can use their casino welcome bonus this way, for example.

Even the most experienced craps players once were beginners. You can start your journey to joining the ranks of live craps regulars when you register for BetMGM.

Actress Vanessa Hudgens flipping casino chips next to the text "The King of Casinos"
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Our BetMGM editors and authors are casino experts with a wealth of knowledge of the online casino industry at all levels. Their coverage includes company news, game reviews, how-to instructional articles, strategy guides, and editorials showcasing BetMGM’s superior product and game library.

Our BetMGM editors and authors are casino experts with a wealth of knowledge of the online casino industry at all levels. Their coverage includes company news, game reviews, how-to instructional articles, strategy guides, and editorials showcasing BetMGM’s superior product and game library.