Hedging Your Bets in Craps
When you play craps it is possible to cover the losses of one bet by making a contrary bet that could potentially exceed the amount of the loss by a great deal.
This is called hedging bets and is actually a very common practice with experienced gamblers.
Pass Line and Craps Bets
One common way of doing this in craps is to make the very common and very popular Pass Line bet with a fairly sizable bet. The house edge is so low and the odds of winning it are high. However, the Pass Line bet does occasionally fail.
To cover that eventuality, players can make a smaller Craps bet. The odds are still with the Pass Line bet, but in the rare occasion that the bet fails, the player is covered by the smaller Craps bet. The fact that the Craps bet is so much smaller makes it's more likely loss much more palatable.
The Benefits of Hedging
Hedging can sound like a smart plan to always make sure that players win at least a little bit of money on every play. If that was the only factor, though, everyone would do it. Yet, hedging is not the most popular way to bet.
That may be because every hedged bet also makes sure that the player loses some money on every bet. Also, at some point, hedged bets cancel each other out, preventing a player from ever truly getting ahead in the game.
Some of the best online casino guides will caution against overly hedging bets. After all, players who take bigger risks and refuse to play safe end up walking away with more.