So Oklahoma is within months away from having Craps with real dice and Roulette with a real ball in their casinos. On paper, it would seem that this gets rid of the 'catch' when playing craps and roulette like there is now. As of right now, its either played on a video screen (roulette) or craps is played with cards or some other goofy workaround. Three Card Poker; Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. And the player’s bet is removed on craps 2, 3, or 12. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a thriving nation of. Sep 02, 2018 Some of the American Indian casinos right across the Oklahoma line from Arkansas have started offering games of roulette and craps, making them a little more like Las Vegas casinos. Mar 27, 2020 You might even be able to get an edge at this kind of game with a card counting strategy, although I suspect most people don’t have the bankroll for that. Also, I have a feeling–and I’ve read forum posts suggesting–that the security at the casinos in Oklahoma frown even more on blackjack advantage players than the casinos in Las Vegas do. The craps and roulette in Oklahoma are not the same as it is in major casino states. In addition to the ante, cards are used instead of dice and roulette wheels. Some Oklahoma casinos have come up with some very creative ways to spread these games with decks of cards. Oklahoma casinos may spread other table card games.

  1. Craps With Cards Oklahoma City
  2. How To Play Craps With Cards
  3. Oh Crap Card Game
  4. Craps With Cards Oklahoma City Oklahoma
  5. How To Play Card Craps

The game of craps in California casinos doesn’t use dice. This might be confusing to some of my readers, so I thought I’d write a blog post about California craps games.

This post examines how craps in California is played and why the odds aren’t really any different — even though they’re using a different mechanism to arrive at the outcomes.

Also, if you love “shooting dice,” you might want to play craps in a different state.

You can play craps online for free, no matter which state you live in. And when you play for real money, you’ll get a 350% deposit bonus on your first deposit. WildVegasCasino.

Craps in California Is Played with Playing Cards, Not Dice

In some states, it’s illegal to use certain devices for gambling purposes. Until recently, Oklahoma didn’t allow spinning wheels or dice, but it did allow cards. They’ve recently changed their laws regarding that, so now you can shoot dice and play roulette in Oklahoma just like everywhere else.

But California still doesn’t allow casinos to use dice.

They still want to offer craps, though, so they use a deck of cards as a workaround.

You can use a deck of cards to duplicate the odds in a craps game in 2 different ways:

The more intuitive way for most players to understand is to have the ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of one suit represent one of the 2 dice, and to have the same set of cards for another suit represent the 2nd of those 2 dice.

You still have the same probability for each of the 2 “dice” this way — each number comes up 1 out of 6 times.

You also have the same bell curve that you’d see when rolling a pair of dice.

The other way is to have a deck consisting of 36 cards, each of which represents a possible outcome of a die roll. This is the method that the Winstar used until recently.

Why Are There 36 Possible Outcomes in California Craps?

There are 36 possible outcomes in craps of all kinds, not just in California craps. Understanding that is the key to understanding how craps probability works.

You only have 11 possible totals in craps:

  1. 2
  2. 3
  3. 4
  4. 5
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 8
  8. 9
  9. 10
  10. 11
  11. 12

But some totals can happen in multiple ways.

For example, a total of 2 can only happen in one way — you have to roll a 1 on the first die and also roll a 1 on the 2nd die.

That’s also true for rolling a 12 — you have to roll a 6 on each die, and there’s only one way to do that.

But look at the probability of rolling a 3. You have 2 ways you can get an outcome of 3:

You can roll a 1 and a 2 OR you can roll a 2 and a 1.

It might not be immediately or intuitively obvious why that’s 2 different ways of accomplishing this, but that’s why you have a bell curve in craps.

The least likely totals are 2 and 12.

The totals of 3 and 11 are the next least likely outcomes.

Then 4 and 10.

And then 5 and 9.

Then 6 and 8.

Finally, the most common outcome is 7 — you have the following ways of getting a 7 on a roll of two dice:

  1. 1, 6
  2. 2, 5
  3. 3, 4
  4. 4, 3
  5. 5, 2
  6. 6, 1

Craps With Cards Oklahoma City

No other combination of dice has that many possibilities.

An Example of California Craps at the Pala Casino

The Pala Casino uses a deck of 36 cards, each one of which is mapped to a combination of 2 dice. The craps dealer deals 2 cards, one in a blue box and one in a red box.

The shooter still gets to roll dice in this version. One of the dice is blue, the other, red.

The blue die has a 2 and a 3 on it — and no other numbers.

How To Play Craps With Cards

The red die has a 1 and a 4 on it — and no other numbers.

The die with the higher number determines which card determines the outcome of the throw.

It’s funny how the casino still uses dice, but they’ve added the cards to randomize the outcome for legal reasons. The Pala Casino’s version of craps probably “feels” more like craps than other versions.

You could, in fact, just draw a card from either of those decks and have an outcome in line with the probabilities involved in craps.

But that would make the gameplay so fast that it wouldn’t feel much like craps at all.

Craps at the Viejas Casino

When you play craps at the Viejas Casino, NO dice are used for any reason. This version of craps isn’t even played at a craps table. Instead, it’s played at a table that looks more like a blackjack table.

This version of craps uses 264 playing cards numbered 1 through 6 dealt from a continuous shuffling machine. The cards get put back into the shuffler after every roll.

But there’s a catch with the Viegas Casino craps:

Some of cards remain in the shuffle’s chute after each deal, so multiple rolls are dealt at one time.

What does this mean, probability-wise?

Oh Crap Card Game

It slightly changes the odds by removing some of the possible outcomes. You just don’t know which outcomes have been removed.

Card craps vs dice craps

The don’t pass bet becomes a better bet than it already is, so if you ever play at the Viejas Casino, stick with being a wrong bettor.

Why Are California Casinos Like This?

My daughters sometimes ask me, “Dad, why are you like this?”

They’re usually frustrated with me, and I get that. I’m frustrating, as people who are from a different generation often are.

But why are California casinos the way they are?

California passed a constitutional amendment in 2000 legalizing gambling on American Indian land. Each tribe negotiates its own arrangement (a “compact”) with the state government regarding what games and activities they can offer.

Some types of gambling are more acceptable than others.

California law is specific about one thing, though:

You can’t determine game results using dice. This would seem to eliminate craps because this law applies to Indian casinos.

The only way California casinos can offer craps at all is to modify their versions of the game to use playing cards instead of just dice. Even in casinos that allow the players to throw the dice, the outcome of the dice only determines which cards get drawn.

It’s a weird loophole. Casinos can use dice to determine part of the outcome, but the playing cards are like a buffer that keeps the dice from determining the final outcome.

Can You Count Cards in California Craps?

The first question that springs to my mind when I find out about card-game-based craps is whether I can get an edge at the game by counting cards.

This would be possible if you didn’t face a casino that shuffles the deck after every “roll of the dice.”

The way card counting works in blackjack is by keeping track of which cards have been dealt in a general way — high versus low. Aces and 10s in blackjack are considered high cards, and they’re better for the player. When a lot of them have already been played relative to the lower valued cards, you should bet the minimum.

But when a lot of low cards have been played when compared to the high cards, it’s time to raise your bets.

In other words, you don’t keep up with specific cards that have been played or that are left in the deck.

Theoretically, if you found a casino that didn’t shuffle the deck every time a card got played, you might be able to get an edge by betting one way or the other.

Imagine, if you will, a huge deck of cards where most of the cards that resulted in a 7 were already gone from the deck.

Would you know which bet would offer you an advantage in that situation?

That’s what I thought.

What’s the House Edge for Craps in California?

In Oklahoma, the casinos charge an ante for playing table games. That ante increases the house edge dramatically, but it’s based on how much you’re betting on each round. Usually, the bigger your bets are, the less of an effect the ante has on the house edge.

As far as I know, though, California craps doesn’t require an ante.

Craps With Cards Oklahoma City Oklahoma

Since the odds of getting all the various results at a craps game in California are the same as they would be if you were rolling 2 dice, the house edge is the same, too.

In other words, stick with the pass, don’t pass, come, don’t come, and odds bets. All those bets have a house edge of less than 1.5%.

And you also want to avoid the prop bets that are also available in card-game-based craps. Stick with the simple, boring bets because those are the bets offering the best odds for the player.

In fact, the house edge on many of these proposition bets at the craps table is in excess of 10% and closes in on 20% in some instances.

How To Play Card Craps

You don’t need to play games with such lousy odds, ever — in California, online, or anywhere else.

Finally

I hope I answered all your questions about craps in California. If I left anything out, or if you have something you’d like to add, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

lobodan
There has been some recent information on Card Craps posted on the Wizard's original and incredibly awesome site. Much of the information is based on the California casinos, especially the Viejas Card Craps game, and the ability to use counting to overcome the house edge by betting on the Don't Pass and laying odds. The Oklahoma version of Card Craps uses two 54 card decks with cards representing each of the die faces, one through six, with nine of each face in the deck. The stick man deals the cards, asking the shooter how many cards to burn before turning over the next two cards to count as the roll. The shooter may burn either one, two or three cards. When the dealer has gone through almost two thirds of the deck, he switches to the second deck while the first deck gets reshuffled in an automatic shuffle master. The information found on the Wizard's site and his suggested link, suggests that there may be opportunities for advantage play. The principle behind this is that the cards in this case do not replicate the randomness of true dice craps. Each time card is dealt, it is not replaced into the deck and this affects the likelihood of either the point or seven coming up. The Viejas Card Craps game has been analyzed extensively and an effective card counting system developed. And although the Viejas version is unique from Oklahoma Card Craps, the principle of non-replacement is unifying. My question is whether a similar counting system can be employed in Oklahoma, where the Don't Pass with Laying odds (10x odds are available) can provide for advantage play? What effect do the 'burned cards' that are dealt face down potentially have on a counting strategy. I invite any of your input, especially form the Wizard since you have touched on this in the past. By the way, The Wizard also felt that there are opportunities to take advantage of prop bets, like the Yo, if several hands have been dealt without seeing any five or six cards. But once again I ask, how do the face down 'burned' cards affect this strategy.
I apologize for the long winded post, but I wanted to be as clear as possible. Part of my profession :)
Finally, Wizard thanks for providing us with this Forum...you're the Man. Maybe you'll reconsider selling Wizard T-Shirts; I'll take one XL for $20.95!