Craps Newsletter – March 2003

March 2003

WHAT’S NEW

THE BONE MAN, craps dealer and author of the NextShooter website has been a littleslow developing content recently due to time being spent in settling the estatematters of his recently deceased second wife Elizabeth, but he is now hard at worktrying to locate any bona-fide CRAPS PROFESSIONALS — individuals who make a substantialportion of their income from playing craps. If you know of any self-professed crapspros (excluding people who claim to be pros so they can sell you the “secrets oftheir winning systems”), then please forward that information along to us.

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BETS

Most craps players are mystified by the dealers’ ability to keep track of all playerbets, especially when many players can not keep track of their OWN bets. And whenthese players ask what numbers they have wagers on, the dealers always know theanswer, without fail. How do they do it? What most players do not know is that wagersare placed on the table layout according to where the player’s bank is located onthe table RACK. Player position is therefore determined by where their gaming checksare located…not where they are STANDING (or sometimes SITTING).

There are eight player positions on each side of the table on a standard craps table.The player positions are numbered 1-8 on each side of the table. If your bank islocated on the RACK right next to the Stickman (woman), you are position Number1. Positions 2,3,4,5,6,and 7 follow around the table to position #8 which will beright next to a Dealer. Dealers place player wagers for Place Bets, in the ComeBox, or in the Don’t Come Box in the same exact order in which the players BANKis located on the RACK. On multiple bets your wagers will be positioned in the sameplace within each respective box. (Same on Hardway Bets.)

Dealers PAY wagers in the exact order in which the wagers are placed. COME BETSare paid FIRST from “STICK” (position ONE) to EIGHT. Then PLACE BETS are PAID inthe same order (from STICK to “BASE”). If you are a PLACE bettor, you have to waitfor the COME BETS to be paid even though it may appear as though the dealer is payingoff out of sequence. DON’T BETS are paid when the shooter “SEVENS OUT” and are paidin the same order…STICK to BASE (1-8).

If you ever have any confusion about where your bets are placed, the best thingto do is to try to position yourself in POSITION #8, right next to either DEALER.In this way it will be easy to talk directly to the dealer with a minimum of confusionand the dealer will clarify the positioning of your wagers AND the dealer will beable to inform you if you do not have wagers placed to your preference. (Dealerwill make certain that you are “COVERED”.)

NEW DISCOVERY

We have just discovered that because gaming cheques are round that when thrown atthe dealers while making Place Bets or when posting Odds for Come Bets, they tendto ROLL. In fact when THROWN they tend to ROLL into the dealers BANK… AND allover the damn table. AMAZING! INTELLIGENT players who may have already discoveredthis amazing fact will sometimes set their wagers down neatly and clearly identifythe nature of their wager to the dealer so as to avoid this ROLLING phenomenon.

SECRETS OF PLACE BETTING

The Place bet is basically an on-demand Point: You’re betting that the Place numberwill be rolled before a 7.

Here is the House Take for the Place Bet:

• 6 or 8 — 1.52%
• 5 or 9 — 4.0%
• 4 or 10 — 6.67%
• 4 or 10 (Buy Bet) — 4.76%

Why would you EVER place bets on the 5,9,4 or 10? ONLY because you are too IMPATIENTto wait for a result on your Pass Line bet OR you just can’t stand to sit thereand watch other players win when the 5,9,4 or 10 happen to roll against the natureof the true odds. Mind Your Own Business! If you want to be effective in managingyour bank and reducing your losses than it is always better to increase your wageror Press up the 6 or 8 than to ever place additional wagers on the 5,9,4 or 10.

SPECIAL NOTES:

A current trend in many casinos is to take the BUY VIGORISH (5%) for the 4 and/or10 ONLY AFTER A WIN. According to our friend the Wizard of Odds, this reduces the House Take to 1.67%. Consequently inthese casinos the worst Place Bets are the 5 and/or 9 where the House Take is still4%.

If you are a player who likes to “Go Across” ALL the numbers by PLACING them aftera Point has been established, we suggest that you re-read this article about 100times in order to GET THE PICTURE!

CRAPS QUIZ

Here is the answer to the February quiz:

Which wagers do craps dealers pay first?

When a point number is rolled (after a point has already been established) dealerspay Come Bets first, then pay Place Bets, then place Free Oddson Come Bets if a player so choses. If you are a Place Bettor you need to be patientand WAIT for the Come Bets to be serviced FIRST.

March 2003 Quiz:

When a player says “Down with Odds” they mean:

• Give me back the Odds that I have on my Come Bet(s).
• Take down my Place Bet and use what you need for Odds on my new Come Bet.
• I’m calling for the overthrow of the oppressive Odds regime.

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The NextShooter.com newsletter is a monthly mailer sent to subscribers and membersof NextShooter.com. At NextShooter.com, over 100 man-years of dealer experiencetells you all the secrets of the game of craps. NextShooter.com was created to providea unique view of the game of Craps as seen from “The House” and “Dealer” side ofthe table and to present this view without the distractions of pop-up windows, gimmickyor flashing Internet gaming banners.