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Craps
Tournaments
The Basics and Beyond
There
seems to be a Craps Tournament resurgence of late. From
the early 80s through to the mid 90s, you could play in the
big-money ($50,000+ prize aggregate) tourneys on pretty much a monthly or even weekly
basis during some seasons. Often times from
early 89 through to late 93; Id be jetting back and forth between Las
Vegas/Mesquite/Laughlin, Puerto Rico, Reno/Lake Tahoe, Bahamas, Atlantic City, Aruba and
St. Maarten trying to fit overlapping events into my schedule. Around
about 94 though, Craps Tournaments rapidly fell into general disfavor, and even
though the entire calendar of events for 2005 only has as many gatherings as they used to
have in a single month; there is a steadily growing number to choose from as craps
contests slowly regain popularity. Tournament
Types and Entry Fees
Typically
there are three types of craps tournaments; the weekly $25 entry-fee kind, the more
expensive annual or quarter-yearly type where the entry fees range from a low of around
$300 to a high of about $1000, and then theres the high-end invitation-only events.
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The
$25 weekly tourneys are run as fun events that anyone can enter, and the prize structure
(which well discuss in a moment) reflects the low cost of admission.
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The
more expensive high entry-fee ones are well organized proceedings that see patrons coming
from all over the country because of the high-value prize structure.
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The
invitation-only events are used as a come-on to draw in additional non-tournament play
from the casinos database of best but-not-always-loyal-or-frequent-visiting mid to
high-rolling patrons. $25
Weekly Tournaments Youll
see these advertised on in-casino posters, monthly Players Club newsletters and on their
websites as well as the Tournament Section of magazines like Casino Player. You
simply show up at the appointed time and pay your $25.
The prize structure is usually quite low, usually in the $500 to $1000 range
for the overall winner, with 2nd through 5th place finishers getting
prizes in the $50 to $400 range. As
I mentioned, these are fun events that can give you a bit of a taste of tournament play. Though it doesnt have a high-dollar
prize-structure, it does offer a way to get your feet wet and familiarize yourself as to
how they are run. As well, it gives you a
better idea of different betting-strategies that might be employed if you ever find
yourself in a big-buck event. High
Entry-Fee Tournaments
Commonly,
these are held annually or on a quarter-yearly basis.
Although the entry-fees which range from $300 through to well over $1500 in
some cases, may seem high; the corresponding prize-structure is even more attractive. For
example, Ive played in tournaments at Caesars in Las Vegas where the top winner
received $300,000 in prize money with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th
and 5th place finishers getting $150,000, $75,000, $37,500, and $18,750
respectively. The
amount of organization that goes into one of these events is significant. You could be competing against as many as 999
fellow entrants, however registration in most of them is restricted to 100 to 400 players
simply due to the sheer enormity of staging it and the limited number of prime tournament
hours in a day. After all, the reason they
hold these things in the first place is to get attendees to lose their money at the
regular tables during most of their other waking hours; so keeping them endlessly in the
tournament area does not serve the bottom-line. Most
big-money tourneys have a Welcome Cocktail Party, an ongoing Hospitality Suite or at least
a complimentary refreshment area with finger foods, and a final Grand Awards Banquet where
the prizes are handed out. Comped
Entry There
are a number of ways to get a comped entry into those high entry-fee tournaments, but it
really comes down to how much that particular casino values you as a customer or how badly
their Player Development department WANTS you as a customer.
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If
you are already a rated-player with the target casino, then a simple call to your casino
host will determine whether or not your play-history warrants them comping you into their
high-buck event.
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If
you dont have a host there, but you DO have one at any of the other houses in the
same casino-corporation family (even if it is in another city, state, gaming jurisdiction
or country); a call or two will indicate whether they will waive the entry-fee
entirely
and throw in a couple of room-nights and comped meals too. The
better your relationship is with your host, the more likely you are to get a free-ride
entry into their high-buck event. Bet-to-Win
Free Entry Though
this isnt as good as a fully comped entry, it is still a low cost way for a skilled
dice-influencer to gain access to the big-buck prize payouts without having to dig into
his own kick to come up with the entry-fee. The
two most common bet-to-win-a-free-entry-into-our-craps-tournament enticements is
the Long Roll of the Day method or the Bet-and-Roll
method. The
first obviously employs a longest-roll list or chart where the longest hand of the day
wins free entry into a future tournament. The
second involves having to make a specific bet on a certain number, lets say the
Yo-11. If the shooter (it doesnt
necessarily have to be you
as long as you have a wager on that specific bet) rolls
that number while your bet is active; then you win a free entry. Well
discuss how much or how little skill it actually takes for dice-influencers to hit those
specific bet-to-win-free-entry propositions in a moment. The
bet-to-win prop, in and of itself, often fuels enough casino-revenue so that the house can
offer a value-added positive-equity pay-schedule for the tournament. Positive-Equity
Overlays
Positive-equity
is a situation where the total value of the prize-structure exceeds the total value of
entry-fees paid directly by the players themselves.
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Lets
say that you have 200 entrants each paying a $500 entry-fee.
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Their
total contribution therefore is $100,000, but the casino decides to add another $50,000 to
the prize-structure to make it a grand total of $150,000.
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So
instead of paying $500 for an even-money (1:1) 1/200 chance at $100,000; you now have a
50% positive-equity chance to get your hands on part of $150,000 even though you still
have a 1/200 chance of doing so.
Ø
In
other words, even though you only paid an entry-fee of $500, the sweetened prize-structure
makes your 1/200 shot worth $750. Though that
is of little consolation if you finish out of the money, the fact remains that the
prize-funds exceeded your proportionate cost of being involved. Invitation-Only
Tournaments
These
events are fully comped and include a glitzier Welcome Cocktail Party (often with a few
celebrities from the Stone Age and a bevy of full-regalia showgirls or rent-a-models
thrown in for good measure), an always-open premium-booze/passable-food Hospitality Suite,
and a sumptuous over-the-top Grand Awards Banquet (usually hosted by a barely-employed
comedian or a long-forgotten star from a 70s era sit-com) to hand out the prize
money. These events almost always include
super-luxury accommodation and several pre-comped gourmet meals (or a generous food
allowance) for your entire stay. In
addition, invited guests usually receive a welcome gift which comprises stuff like a
leather or suede jacket with matching travel bags and a bunch of other logo-stuff that
usually gets re-gifted to the landscaper or the pool guy. There
are no entry fees for this type of high prize-value tournament. The invitations are extended as an inducement to
bring back highly-rated but infrequent mid to high-rolling customers. The central idea of course is to use the lure of
the big cash-payout tournament to encourage renewed loyalty to the brand as well as
generating a ton of non-tournament betting action from the participants. These events are usually held in secluded,
garishly decorated ballrooms, and are never advertised.
Frankly, most non-participating players never even know that the event is
taking place.
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If
you hear of one of these tournaments but you dont have a host at that casino, nor do
you have any rated play-history within their corporate-family, all is not lost. Simply contact their Player Development office and
tell them where you DO have a play-history and honestly state what your normal
level of action is. Often times, after
verifying your level of action, that information is sufficient to garner a tournament
invitation, or at least good enough to get a few comped-upfront room-nights even if they
dont have space for you in the actual contest. Planning
Your Tournament Betting-Strategy Ahead of Time
In
Part Two of this series, were going to take an in-depth look at some
battle-proven betting methods and tournament strategies, but the foremost thing to keep in
mind when you are playing in one of these events, is that you have to approach it with a
mindset that is diametrically opposed to pretty much everything that youve learned
about dice-influencing advantage-play. A
craps tournament is all about you beating your fellow contestants and it has nothing to do
with eeking out an edge against the house. It
only matters that you advance in the tournament by beating your next nearest competitor by
at least one-dollar. You cant treat
your tournament chips as though youll get to go home with them at the end of a
round. If you start out with $5,000 in
tournament chips and you end up with $50
but everyone else finishes with less than
you; then YOU are the winner. Likewise,
if you turn that $5,000 into $50,000 but someone else makes $50,001; then you still lose. Tournament
play is all about finishing ahead of everyone else. The
casino merely acts as the bet-broker and game-manager.
It is you against your fellow competitors, so you have to give some serious
thought as to how you are going to make that happen.
Again, in Part Two of this series, well look at a number
of compelling ways for you to finish in the money more often. Running
Mock Practice-Tournaments I
know of a couple of savvy players who run mock tournaments in preparation for upcoming
events. It lets them compare notes and
sharpen their betting-strategy with a few other like-minded players. You
can run a mock tournament in two ways.
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You
could use your practice-rig at home to stage some mock bets and dice-rolls to try out
various betting-methods. The more people that
participate in something like that; the more realistic it becomes. It is critical for you to take notice of the
group-dynamic and competitiveness that kicks in when everyone realizes that it is each
player against the other, instead of the traditional everyone-against-the-casino
scenario.
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You
could also run some betting simulations on WinCraps.
That will tell you a lot about how your approach might fair over the long
run in a you-against-the-casino battle, but it doesnt really tell the whole
story about how you would fare against other players at your table in a time-restricted or
roll-restricted contest. Remember, it is you
against THEM and not you against the casino.
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A
more realistic way to do it with WinCraps, is to try out various betting-strategies while
using several different chip-stacks. You can
do this by inputting each different players bets before each dice-roll, or you can do it
for real on your Practice-Rig. In any event,
each chip-stack will represent a different betting-method and game approach.
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Clearly
youll get a lot of variance from mock-session to mock-session due to the random
occurrence of outcomes, but it will give you a good idea of what types of
wagering-approaches will work best in various situations.
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These
mock tournaments are as much about increasing your awareness of what to do and how to do
it during the real thing, as they are about coming up with ideal tactics and
strategies. Remember
also that most players stick with betting-methods that are near and dear to their hearts,
and they only usually vary from them in tournament-play when they realize how far behind
they are from the current chip-leader. Thats
when things get interesting, and well cover how best to handle several of those
scenarios (no matter which end of the chip-count you are on) in Part Two of
this series. Welcome
Cocktail Party I
just want to quickly add that the pre-tournament Cocktail Party is more than just a good
place to gorge your face. Besides restricting
the amount of alcohol you consume, it is also a good place to engage other contestants in
small talk.
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Beyond
the usual, Where are you from? patter, you might gain some insight into
how other players plan to bet in the tournament.
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You
may be surprised to find that many of the entrants havent even given their
tournament betting-strategy more than a few passing thoughts.
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Again,
many players stick to what they usually do in regular live-money play, except that in a
tournament theyll do it a little more aggressively with substantially higher bets.
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Even
if they dont want to talk about how they plan to bet in the tournament, most of them
will candidly discuss their favorite real world plays. This little bit of insight should not be
overlooked. You may be surprised to see them
as your chief competitors during one of the subsequent tournament sessions. Knowing their usual play in the
real-world may give you an inside track into how theyll bet in the tournament. Like I said, many contestants dont stray too
far from the bets that they are most comfortable in making.
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Obviously
that doesnt always hold true, and I would be remiss if I didnt remind you
again that the guys who win the most tournaments, most frequently; are the ones who
make HUGE departures from their usual live-money play.
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If
youve ever wondered why there are so many repeat winners in these types of events,
its because most winners understand the competitive nature of their opponents as
well as the best ways to leap far ahead of their competitors during some of the crucial
stages of each session
and NO that stage isnt always the last four or
five rolls of the dice.
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In
many of the early rounds, the best players are so far ahead by the end of the FIRST ten
rolls, that it is almost impossible to catch them in the subsequent going. Like
I said, the pre-tournament Cocktail Party is more than just an excuse to strap on the
feed-bag and guzzle some free booze; it is also a prime spot to size-up your competition. On-Site
Registration
The
registration process on the day of the event is a straight-forward affair. You simply show up at the on-site Tournament
Registration area. After they confirm your
reserved spot in the contest, you simply sign that you have received the Rules &
Regulations sheet and that you agree to be bound by them. Since
there will usually be a lag between the time you sign-up and the time your first session
begins; this is when you should sit down to review the Event Rules and Regulations so you
truly understand them. You definitely
dont want to find out in mid-throw that your planned strategy is not permissible
within the Tourney rules. The
registration process is not only where you find out the time your first session begins; it
is also where you draw for or are assigned your table-position for the first round. Start
Time You
have to show up at least 10 or 15 minutes before the commencement of play. That lets them take care of any last minute
glitches, technical delays, and answer any questions you may have after they explain the
general rules of play. If you show up late,
you are usually excluded from the tournament
and you DO NOT receive a refund of your
entry-fee. You
and Your Bowels In
most tournaments, if any player leaves the table prior to the end of a round for any
circumstance other than a "bust out" (where they lose all their chips); they get
disqualified
so go to the washroom well before you are scheduled to be at your table. I
was in one tournament at NewYork, New York just after it opened (when Primmadonna Resorts
were operating it). On the second day, one of
the players had unwittingly eaten lunch at the Boardwalk Casinos Surf Buffet. He was a vibrant shade of green by the time our
fourth session was ready to begin. We
were into the final round, so there was some pretty decent money at stake even for the 14th-place
finisher. He wanted to substitute his
brother-in-law in his place but the officials wouldnt have any part of it. By the time we were just past the tenth or
eleventh roll, this guy was doing all he could to keep his lunch from doing an indecorous
projectile exit from either his northerly or southerly bodily outlets. I genuinely felt sorry for the guy until he put
all of his money out on the layout in what looked like an intentional attempt to lose
every chip and be eliminated. Instead, his
bets kept winning and winning, but due to
the grimace-inspiring show that he was putting on, I didnt notice for a roll or
three just how far behind I was falling in the chip-count. Officials
finally allowed him to step away from the table to vomit into a trashcan after all the
nearby contestants were forced to move away because of the stench that was emanating from another
region of his body. Id love to tell
you that I went on to win that tourney or that he did; but neither of us finished in the
top three. The point is
take care of ALL
your needs BEFORE you step up to the table
oh, and dont forget that the
hand-soap is free in most casino washrooms. Getting
Situated At The Table When
they dole out the tournament chips, you can organize them in your rack by denomination as
most people do, or you can do it by breaking them into betting-unit configurations. For
example, if you are planning to bet $660-Inside, then it makes sense to break out that
amount from your rail-bank and segregate it with a white $1 chip. Along those lines, you could split your chip-stake
into easy to use $100 or $500 increments. This
enables you to have your focus on what the other contestants are doing and how your
strategy fits in with or runs counter to what the current top three or four players are
betting. Some
tournaments do not allow that sort of chip-segregation, opting instead to have all the
players keep their chips organized in easier-to-monetarily-estimate red, green and
black demarcations. Maintaining
Decorum When
you look at the rules at most tournaments, you may come away with the feeling that it is
too regulated. After having played in
countless events, I can tell you that most of those rules are there for a good reason. Even
though there is major prize-money involved in these things, the casino wants to maintain
the fun element too. That means that they
have to maintain decorum and good behavior at the table. To
that end
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There
is usually no beverage service available during play, which means you cant leave the
table to get a drink. It also means that you
cant converse with your spouse and tell them to go get you one. Ive even seen a chip-leader (the guy who was
leading at the time) eliminated specifically for that reason.
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Many
tournaments are now non-smoking events; but if they arent, cigar or pipe smoking is
usually prohibited.
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Conversing
with spectators will be cause for disqualification. Even
hand-signaling between players themselves may result in disqualification and forfeiture of
any prize money. This is to prevent any hint
of collusion between players. The rule is also in place to prevent one
player from becoming
offensive to another. Rules
and Regulations The
rules for tournament play are fairly universal.
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You
have to keep ALL of your chips in plain sight at all times. No squirreling them away or
holding them in your hand unless you are putting them directly on the layout without
delay.
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You
generally have to keep the denominations separate. No "barber pole"
alternating stripes or anything like that. However,
if that rule isnt in place, then as I just mentioned; you can break your
chips into the anticipated betting-units that you are planning to wager.
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You
cannot give your chips to another player at any time, nor can you take Odds behind someone
else's bet even if they aren't laying Odds or even if they have excess "head
room" on their Odds-bets or any other bet, and all
chips must be accounted for before results become official.
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If
you reach the tables maximum-bet limit (and I can tell you that some players hit the max very
quickly and very often in some tourneys); you cannot have another player make bets
for you with your chips, and obviously you aren't allowed to take chips from another
player even if they offer them, or even if they try to make a "toke bet" for
you.
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In
some tournaments, if you pick up chips from your rail-space, you are obligated to BET
those chips. You'll find this rule in a lot of BJ tournaments, but some craps tourneys
have started to employ it so that you don't try to "fake out" another
player by making them think that your going to make a $500 bet when in fact you end up
only wagering $25.
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In
a lot of tourneys, once you make a specific bet after the roll has been made...let's say a
new $30 Place-bet on the 6...you CANNOT add to that particular bet until the next roll has
been thrown. That is, if you make that $30 Place-bet 6, but someone else makes a $300
Place-bet 6, you cannot ADD to your bet until the completion of the next toss.
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Most
casinos do not allow late "Off" bets. That is, you cannot call your bets off at
the last minute. In fact, some casinos make the bet come all the way down (off the table
completely).
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If
they do allow "Off" decisions to be made (as marked by the plastic
lammer); then it is usually restricted to your betting-turn. Once the boxman calls No more bets,
then even calling your bets Off, On or Down is not
permitted. Typical
Table-Limits
In
most tournaments, the minimum bet is $10 (but it can range up to a $100 minimum). At
the start of play, all players have to have either a Pass or Dont Pass bet on the
line. After that, it is as wide open as a wild west town without a sheriff. One
of the most important things you need to know upfront is the MAXIMUM allowable-bets for
that tourney. You may be surprised at how
quickly some players reach that limit
sometimes right from the first roll. For
example:
No Hop Bets Allowed Handling
Disputes Keep
a copy of the Tournament Rules in your pocket. You
would be surprised at how often a dispute arises, and youd be further surprised at
how often the dealers or box-person or TGS MIS-interprets the rules. Since
the Tournament Supervisor is almost always in the pit while the tourney is in play, they
have the final say.
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If
for example, the wrong player in succession accidentally rolls the dice, the roll is
called a "No Roll. If for
any reason, there is a "No Roll," bets may be taken down; otherwise, all bets
must play as they lay.
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All
bets must be made while the dice are in the center of the table, and dealers cannot assist
or remind a player to make a bet. Further, to that, no call bets will be
allowed even if you have the chips in your hand and are ready to put them on the table. In many tournaments, late-bets are treated as an
attempt to past post and may result in your exclusion from play.
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Doey-Dont
betting is almost always strictly prohibited.
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It
is your responsibility to keep track of what and where your bets are on the layout at all
times. Equally, it is your responsibility to
pick up your winning bets and to ensure that any new bets that you put on the layout are
properly placed on the appropriate wagering spot.
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In
many tourneys, you are only allowed to make bets after the dealer has finished
serving the player beside you. Thats
just common sense and common courtesy, but Im still amazed at how many veteran
players still have no clue as to why there is so much confusion during real-world
live-money play when they and their tablemates all shout out betting-orders to the
base-dealer or the stickman at the same time
and then they have the audacity to blame
the dealers for slowing the game down. I
would urge every avid craps player to re-read Slaughtering
A Sacred Cow at least once a year. Preparing
for Subsequent Rounds Sit
down and relax so you can put some thought into how you want to play the next round. Carry
a pen and paper if you need to figure out a different strategy.
Ø
As
we discussed under the Welcome Cocktail Party heading; you can use the
between-rounds interval to relax and reformulate your game-plan for subsequent rounds.
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You
can plan your tactical reformation based not only on what you observed other players doing
during your previous round, but this is also an ideal time to discuss what happened at other
tables during other sessions with other players.
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During
your discussion with those players who are also advancing, you can often pick up some
subtle or overt clues regarding strategy and tactics that they employed during their
session and what they plan to do differently in the next round. Again,
the insight you can gain into what other players are planning should not be underestimated
or ignored. Rather, it is an ideal
place to see the difference in mindset between players who were eliminated during the
first round compared to players who have now advanced to the second or subsequent rounds. Still
further, as you advance to subsequent rounds, youll find that many of the players
who won their respective table-sessions, did so with strikingly similar
betting-strategies. Now
obviously, luck does play a part in terms of whether your bets will produce enough profit
as far as each roll-outcome is determined; but most importantly, it is how you
respond to the current chip-leaders bets that will make the ultimate difference
when the chip-count is tallied. Obviously
then, if you wait until the last minute or the last two or three rolls of the session to
make your big move
just like everyone else; then an unmatched desperation move
is your only hope for advancement salvation. Relying
strictly on luck, is hardly a strategy for making money. The
Yo-11 Shoot-to-Win Free Entry Angle
As
I promised earlier, I want to show you the best way to bet on and shoot for the Yo-11. This is not only helpful to win a free entry in
the Las Vegas Hiltons annual craps tournament (by having an active $5 bet on the
11); but it is also a very powerful C-O or stand-alone point-cycle Prop-bet as well. We
start with the Straight-Sixes (S-6) dice-set, but we permutate it (transpose) so that the
top-faces are 6/5 and the near-faces are set as 5/6.
This gives you two primary-face outcomes as 11 and the other two
primary-face results as 3 (2/1 and 1/2). Let
me give you an assumptive example for three different levels of on-axis proficiency:
Now
the first thing that I have to make clear, is that you should expect your Sevens-to-Rolls
Ratio (SRR) to be absurdly low with this approach. In
fact, you shouldnt be surprised (if
your on-axis proficiency mirrors any of the above examples) that your SRR will be in the
4.44 range for a 50% O/A shooter to a high of 4.76 for a 60% O/A player. Much
more important than your actual SRR though, is what you do with the actual rolls
that each of these skill-levels offer. Have
a look and I think youll immediately see what I mean:
Again,
your on-axis efficiency does not even have to come close to the theoretical 100%
efficiency to make a given dice-set work. Even
mediocre axial control delivers up usably bettable and tangibly profitable results. Besides
seeing the obvious reasons that I primarily use the S-6 set when Im shooting from
the Dont, there is still a fairly strong and compelling reason to use this from the
Rightside even if you arent trying to earning a free entry into the Hilton Craps
Tournament.
Ø
For
the 55% O/A shooter with a 20% edge over both the 3 and 11 as well as the 2 and 12; the
S-6 is a Horn-bettors delight
even during the point-cycle.
Ø
On
the Come-Out you could make this into a World-bet instead of the Horn since the 7 is also
expected to show up 21.5% of the time. That
little 4.83% difference-from-random for the 7 actually represents an increased
expectancy-rate of 29% (28.9742% to be exact). So
if you are seeing nearly 30% more 7s (which accounts for why your actual SRR will be
so low); youll probably want to do something about that, wagering-wise. Still
To Come Now
that weve covered the basics of Craps Tournament play, Part Two
Going For
The Gold takes a serious look at a variety of betting-methods and game strategies
that you will probably want to consider when going for the 1st place gold. I
hope youll join me for that. Until
then, Good
Luck & Good Skill at the Tables
and in Life. Sincerely, The
Mad Professor
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