Craps update. That'll learn ya.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I finally lost at a craps session. 

For those of you just joining in,I started playing craps again after about a 20-year layoff.  I either broke even or won the first five sessions that I played. I won as much as $150, and as little as $20, plus the one time I left the table dead even, for a total  win of about $270.  So when I lost 50 bucks on Monday, it didn't really hurt very much.

I basically just played the way I described in a previous blog post. Pass line bet with full odds, then place the 6 and the 8. Then make a come bet and take full odds on it. Stay away from the props and the field. It's not rocket science, it's just making bets on numbers that have a good chance of coming in and don't have a massive house advantage against you.

I lost because four shooters in a row, including myself, all sevened out Within just a couple of rolls of establishing their first point. Nobody at the table wins any money doing that, unless you're a "don't" better. That's someone who bets on the don't pass and the don't come. They make their money when the player fails to hit their number after establishing point, but instead rolls a seven.

It's not a bad way to play, mathematically it's just as valid of a way to play as betting on the pass line. But most craps players don't play that way, and the don't better is usually disliked by the other players at the table, for superstition reasons. The mathematical problem is that it's a little more expensive to play as a don't better because you have to put up more money when you take the odds.

For example, say you place $20 on the don't pass line. The point is established as a 4. if you took single odds on that, you would Place $20 behind the four. if the shooter sevens out you would win your $20 flat bat and then only $10 for your $20 in odds.

You would have been better off just making a $40 flat bet to begin with. So most "don't" betters don't even take odds. If they did, they would be spending more to win less, then players who bet the "right" way.  Plus, on the occasion that a player gets on some kind of a monster oll, say rolling 20 or 30 rolls before sevening out, the don't better ends up losing all his money while everyone else table makes a ton.

Anyway that's enough about "Don't" betters.  All you really need to know is you don't want to be one. I'll see you next time, good luck everybody.