Jazz Guy's Request

"Jazzguy" asked a couple questions about two weeks ago that I wanted to get back to. The first was to talk about some craps strategies other than those talked about in my Craps 101 posting. The second was to point out cheap places in town to play some craps.

First off, I don't really want to get into any crazy strategies other than the most common. Dealing all night to a table full of local, chain-smoking stiffs lets me view some of the most idiotic "systems" known to man! Mostly, it involves the "get rich quick" strategies that make the middle of the layout (with all of the sucker bets) loaded up with stupid bets that take forever to pay off when they do hit.

So the #1 strategy to remember is to STAY AWAY from the middle of the layout. I guess if you wanted to make a hardway bet every once in a while, that's okay. Just don't go overboard. Let me show you how the casino makes its money in the middle of the layout. Let's take the hard-eight for example.

You can bet as little as a buck on a hardway like the hard-eight. This bet pays "10 for 1", or another way to say it is "9 to 1". For every dollar bet, you'd win 9 dollars. To win, the dice have to hit a hard-eight, which is 4-4. Any easy-eight will cause the bet to lose, which are 6-2, 2-6, 5-3, and 3-5. Also, seven will cause the bet to lose. The seven combinations are 4-3, 3-4, 5-2, 2-5, 6-1, and 1-6. So if you've been counting along, there is exactly ONE way to roll a hard-eight. But there are TEN ways to roll a combination that will cause your hard-eight to lose. However, as already mentioned, they don't pay you $10 for every dollar bet, they only pay you $9 for every dollar bet. This illustrates how the bets in the middle are ripoffs. And trust me, all of the other middle bets (or prop bets) are even worse! Horn bets, crap checks, c & e, hop bets, 3-way craps, 3-way sevens, etc. etc. They are terrible bets, and its how the casino makes most of its money on dice tables.

So if you are looking for "systems" that are endorsed by me, there is only one. Bet the pass-line for the table minimum bet and back it up with as much odds as the casino allows, or as much odds as you can safely bet given your gambling budget for the night. Also, if you want to play more numbers, feel free to do the exact same thing with the come bets. Make a come bet or two with the table minimum, and put as many odds on them as you can when they go to a number. It would also be a good bet to do this exact same strategy on the don't-pass and don't-come bets, but you'll need a bigger bankroll because laying odds pays you less than you're betting.

Why am I pushing so hard for you to take odds? Because the odds bet on the craps table is the ONLY BET IN THE ENTIRE CASINO that does NOT have a house edge associated with it. Let me illustrate why this is so.

Let's say you bet $5 on the pass-line and the casino allows you to take up to 10x odds. The shooter rolls a five, which is now the point. So you now take full odds by putting $50 behind your pass-line bet. You are rooting for another five to roll before a seven, since a seven would cause your bet to lose. If the five rolls again, you win and the dealer will pay you even-money, which is $5 for your pass-line bet, but $75 for your odds bet. So the casino paid 75 for every 50 bet on the odds, or if you break it completely down, it's 3 to 2. For every $2 you bet, you got $3 back on the win.

Why is it that the odds bet has NO house edge. Because the casino pays you exactly what the odds are of you winning/losing the bet. There are 6 ways to roll a combination that results in seven. They are 4-3, 3-4, 5-2, 2-5, 6-1, 1-6. There are 4 ways to roll combination that results in a five. They are 2-3, 3-2, 4-1, 1-4. So for every 6 times you lose on that bet, you win 4 times. 6-4 is the same as 3-2, which is what the casino pays you. Get it? If not, just trust me on it.

The exact same math can be done for the other "point numbers". So if you make a pass-line bet with maximum odds, the only bet that the casino has an edge over is the actual pass-line bet. So in the above example, you have a $5 pass-line bet with $50 in odds, which means you have $55 in action, with $50 of that having no casino edge over the long run. That's the key though. The edge only evens out in the long run, so in the short run, you can either win a bunch of money, lose a bunch of money, or perhaps break even. So if you only want to gamble with $100 in a given session, putting $50 in odds down probably isn't the best thing to do because if you don't get lucky right away, over half of your gambling budget for that session goes down the drain! So just bet enough so that you can afford to lose and still not go broke in 10 minutes!!

Now on to cheap craps. Basically, if you're on the Strip, don't even try to find a "cheap" craps table. By cheap, I mean tables that have minimum bets lower than $5. I guess there's ONE big exception and that would be the famous $2 craps table at Slot-A-Fun across the street from the Riviera. It only has 2x odds though, so it's basically just a table to kill time at and not one where you'll win or lose a ton of money.

There were three casinos in town that offered $1 craps. Not only that, the tables came equipped with 25-cent chips. What were three is now two, because one of those places happened to be Nevada Palace out on Boulder Highway, which was my very first casino gig (my "break-in" joint). As of last Friday, Nevada Palace closed its doors forever in preparation for the new place to open right behind it called "Eastside Cannery". In fact, NP took out all of its table games a few months ago, so that particular $1 dice table was laid to rest in November I think. The other two $1 tables are still around though, and they are located within Joker's Wild casino which is on Boulder Highway, just south of Sunset Rd. and the Eldorado, which is located in old downtown Henderson on Water St. Those tables usually close either at 2am or midnight every night, and they also turn into $2 tables on the weekends.

There are some $3 tables around. I know that Boulder Station, Fiesta Henderson and the Silverton offer $3 craps during off-hours, with Boulder always offering it on at least one table. The nice thing about those places is that they also give you 10x odds. so you could make a measly little $3 bet and always back it up with $30 in odds if you wanted to. Even though I've never been in Arizona Charlies, I would have to imagine it does the same. I also think Fiesta Rancho has $3 craps, but don't quote me on it. The Golden Gate and the El Cortez both offer $3 craps downtown and bump them up during busy times.

Oh, I also forgot to talk about Casino Royale, which is on the Strip between Harrah's and the Venetian. When I was in there last, they offered $3 craps with 20x odds......and if you bumped your flat bet up to $5, you could take 100x odds!! It's the only place in the entire Vegas area that still offers 100x odds!

Okay, maybe I'm able to talk about craps tonight since I just got off my 8-hour shift dealing nothing but $5 double-deck blackjack and $5 "Super Fun 21". I'm on dice tomorrow night (and ALL four days next week), so don't expect to hear much more dice talk from me for a while!