This is commonly called the back line. This bet is favored by smart dice casino players, but few other players take this action. Because this wager has a standoff they think erroneously that it has a high house percentage. To illustrate: The player who wants to bet the shooter to lose before the come-out places his bet on the layout space marked either DON'T PASS, LOSE or DON'T. In a private game this bet would give the player a favorable P.C. of 1.414% over the shooter or right bettor. But no bank could stay in business long taking 1.414% the worst of it. It resorts, therefore, to a simple tactical maneuver; it bars either the two sixes or the two aces on the come-out roll. When the barred combination appears on that roll, it is a standoff; there is no action for the wrong bettor. In a private game the fader or wrong bettor would have won the bet, but at the Bank Craps table it is no decision for the wrong bettor only.
Bank Money
In order to see what this means to the bank, suppose we place a $5 bet on the win line and a $5 bet on the lose line. The shooter can be expected to throw two sixes an average of once out of every 36 come-out throws, and whenever this happens, the bank sweeps the $5 off the game win line while the $5 on the lose line must remain there until a new decision is effected. If the bank had not barred the two sixes, it would have broken even. Barring the two sixes has earned it $5. The same, of course, holds true for the bar on the two aces.
How much does this cut down that 1.414% advantage? Reference to the Shooter's and Fader's Chances of Winning table (page 279) reminds us that the right bettor can10:25 AM 7/30/2007 expect to win 976 rolls and lose 1,004 out of a total of 1,980. One thirty-sixth of those 1,004 losing rolls, or 55 rolls, are double-sixes. (The same is true of double-aces.) When the bank counts those 55 rolls as standoff or neutral rolls, it reduces the 1,004 losing rolls by 55 and stands to win 976 rolls and lose only 949.
The bank thus has a 50 54/77% chance of winning as against the wrong player's 49 23/77% chance. Of the 1,925 deciding rolls, there are 27 more rolls that win for the bank than for the wrong player, an advantage of 1 31/77% or a P.C. of 1.402%, which is about 7¢ on a $5 wager. If you choose to count the 55 ties as trials, the house edge is 27/1980 = .01364 or 1.364%. However, I'll stick with my figure of 1.402%. The stand-off on the two sixes has not only wiped out the 1.414% advantage which the wrong bettor ordinarily has, but has replaced it with a 1.402% disadvantage I This is so nearly the same that for all practical purposes the bank has just as much edge in its favor, no matter whether the players bet the dice to win or lose.
The Ace-Deuce Standoff
The first Bank Craps games barred ace-deuce instead of double-sixes or double-aces, and some banks still do. Some online casino players think it doesn't make too much difference. And those who do try to figure it out usually decide that since ace-deuce can be made in two ways, and a double six in one way, ace-deuce must be twice as strong. This may sound good, but the logic is bad and the answer is wrong. The bank won't argue the matter with you, however; it's the customers with the wrong answers who make their business a profitable one.
The correct computation is made as follows: 1,004 losing rolls for the bank which is acting as a right bettor, minus 110 standoff rolls, leaves 894 rolls that lose for the bank as against 976 that win for the bank. The bank's edge is 82 rolls or 4 72/187%. Decimally this is 4.385% or about 22¢ on a $5 wager.
