Article Archive

  • Recognizing Craps Shooters, Streaks and Trends

    Craps is a game of streaks. Streaks of Point – Seven Out. Streaks of Point – Pass, and most often, choppy streaks where there is no dominant trend.  Recreational gamblers tend to believe strongly in streaks and trends, probably because in hindsight, this is when they’ve won most of...

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  • Gambling and the Law of Unintended Consequences

    It was Monday morning, right after breakfast.  We’d just opened a table and played once around the tub with no one catching anything more than a mid-teen level hand.  Then I got the dice and embarked on a 45 minute – 40 rolls mini-monster. As the hand progressed, and...

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  • The Thin Line Between Loving and Hating Craps

    Remember the Persuaders?  I sure do.  The Persuaders had half a dozen R&B “hits” back in the funk-a-delic era of the early seventies.  But one song crossed over to the pop charts – 1971’s Thin Line Between Love and Hate.  The song starts out with the singer arriving home...

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  • Seven Things To Do While Waiting for the Dice

    Over the last few years I’ve talked a lot on the Axis Power Craps Forum about the fact that the best bet to make on a random roller is “no bet.” Unfortunately, for most of us standing at the table and not betting is about as exciting as watching...

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  • Saving Bullets

    Okay, I’ll admit it. I have a few guns around the house. What the hell? I grew up in the woods in Arkansas, had my first BB gun at five and my first .22 at nine. By the time I was twelve I had a 30.06 rifle and a...

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  • Fifty-Three and the Deep Blue Sea

    A few years back an Italian woman from Tuscany leaped into the ocean and drowned herself after betting and losing her family’s life savings on the number fifty-three in the Italian lottery. The Italian lottery offers bets on numbers between 1 and 90 in its twice-weekly drawings. Fifty numbers...

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  • I Feel Good – The James Brown Approach to Casino Craps

    Humor me for a few minutes. One of those singular moments that is freeze-framed perfectly in my mind was the first time I saw James Brown in concert. The year was 1964. The event was the T.A.M.I. show, a historical concert filmed in Santa Monica, California. The film also...

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  • It’s Not What You Win That Counts – It’s What You Keep

    Ashile back a high profile player and gambling author was heard bragging about winning hundreds of thousands of dollars at craps during a prolonged streak. Is it possible? Certainly – if you bet big enough. I’ve seen students win over $100,000 at single sessions we’ve played over the years...

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  • The Right Stuff

    Like a lot of dice influencers, when I first decided to buy some dice and cobble together a practice rig, the end result wasn’t anything to write home about it. In the early days I had what I referred to as my “junk drawer practice rig.” It consisted of...

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  • Rules for Running a Pro Craps Team

    In developing the Craps Boot Camp Team Play seminars I do from time to time, I spent a lot of time considering what a professional craps team should look like. Having played a few team sessions in my life I have some insight into the situation. And the answer,...

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  • Finger Alignment Adjustments that Don’t Require Tin-Snips

    There’s one in just about every class – the student whose thumb or fingers just don’t quite work right when gripping the dice. Sometimes it’s just a result of the natural shape of the player’s hand. Other times it’s something else. Take my pal G.H. down in Houston. G.H....

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  • Three Precision Shooter Don’t Plays

    From time to time a player will ask me if playing the Don’ts is compatible with precision shooting. My answer – absolutely. Think about it. The seven is already the most powerful number on the dice. If you can throw MORE sevens than the law of averages says you...

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  • Tight Money and Loose Cannons

    A few years back the casinos were blaming the economy and tight money for their financial losses.  But was that really the problem.  Or should much of the blame for casino industry’s  fiscal crisis rest firmly in the laps of a few over-paid chief executives who thought the bubble...

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  • Using Psi Power to Increase Your Wins

    The term psi comes from the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet and is used as an informal abbreviation for “psychic phenomena”. As such it covers all uses of the mind beyond the reach of accepted science. Psi-power should not be confused with ESP, which stands for “Extra Sensory...

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  • Grand Slam Craps

    How many times have you had a decent roll of ten to twelve numbers, only to seven out and leave all your profit on the table? Sometimes good hands even turn out to be losing hands. How does that happen? Where’d all the money go? Well, the simple fact...

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  • You Can’t Teach Discipline – But You CAN Lean It

    I’m already questioning decision to do this article, since the premise is that no one can teach discipline but a motivated individual can learn it. No, I can’t teach you how to become a disciplined player. I can give you some suggestions on how to learn to discipline yourself,...

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  • Hybrid Craps Strategies – Do You or Don’t You

    Every month I receive newsletters from other gaming education outfits, and it’s always interesting to read their take on the game – just as it is no doubt interesting to them to read what we have to say here on the CrapsFest website. To say we have different philosophies...

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  • Fishing for a Hot Hand

    Summertime. The kids are out of school and those of us who still work for a living start taking time off to spend time with our families, getting away from it all for a few days. For many, that includes a trip to a lake or stream for a...

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  • How to Handle the $15 Game

    If you play the Strip casinos on weekends you’ll eventually come face-to-face with one of my least favorite animals – the $15 minimum craps game. And if you’re like a lot of players, myself included, you’ll do your best to avoid this anomaly. Oh, it’s not a question of...

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  • Putting New Spins on Old Systems

    Someone is always coming up with exotic plays based on “due numbers,” the “law of averages,” or the “law of large numbers.” Often these plays involve placing all of the box numbers on the layout – leaving that action up for a specific number of rolls, then taking it...

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