Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson View Post
Dan, let me ask you this: why even bother to bet the odds? The odds don't improve your chances of winning. So why put more money at risk?
They definitely give you a better chance of winning in the long run. They reduce the house edge to near zero, because odds bets are even-money bets.

The Pass/Don't Pass and Come/Don't Come bets are much worse than even money, but if you place 100x your bet when laying odds, this causes over 99% of your total bet to be even-money, while less than 1% of your bet is at the house edge. This effectively reduces the house edge by a factor of over 100.

Of course this makes variance HUGE, so my suggestion is to start with as small of a base bet as allowed, and then lay the maximum odds. This will bring down the variance, because your overall bet won't be all that much higher than what you were originally betting without odds.

Let me give an example.

Let's say you like betting the Pass line $100 each time.

Instead, find a $1 table with 100x odds (not easy to find, I know), and instead make $1 Pass bets and lay 100x odds for $100. This will make your total bet $101, which is similar to your $100 Pass Line bet, but with much better odds!

It is important to understand that you will still be playing at a slight disadvantage, even with this method. So don't use this as a method to make money -- just use it as a way to almost bring yourself to even odds with the casino!