When playing craps, should a player on a limited budget play a pass line bet with odds, or a pass line bet and a few come bets? Gary D.

On a pass line bet, Gary, the house has an edge of 1.4 percent, whereas it has none on an odds bet. Except for counting cards in blackjack, odds are the absolute best wager in the casino. Therefore, the more action that goes into odds bets, the lower the house edge (as a percentage of your action). By this reasoning, you should always take the full amount of odds allowed. However, if you’re on a really limited budget, or you are a college student whose dominant purpose is to park on the rail hoping to be served free beers, you may not want to take full odds because the increase in wager size might wipe out your meager bankroll.

If either of those piteous conditions are the case, you might try this: When not taking full odds, make the minimal line bet allowed, establishing one point at a time. Then use the additional money as odds on your single line bet. If the gaming gods look favorably on your play, increase your odds until you reach the table maximum. Only when you are taking full odds should you start to establish even more points by making additional come bets.

Dear Mark,

When you are dealt more than one face card (for example, an ace, a king, and a jack), should you hold only one of them or all three on a 9/6, jacks or better machine? Mary Anne G.

Great question, Mary Anne. The video poker strategy discussed here is for the 9/6 or 8/5 machine (called 9/6 because of the 9-for-1 payoff for a full house and 6-for-1 payoff for …

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