Many new craps players don’t realize that winning is a process. Below are the 7 biggest mistakes made by new craps players.
The first mistake a new craps player makes is not setting a goal for how they want to win. Most people who go to Vegas (and to the craps table) have the attitude that they’ll take that much money and when they lose, they’ll stop. This is a defeatist attitude. The attitude we have is that we will make a lot of money and then we will stop. Depending on the size of our bankroll, we will typically set a goal to earn $200 per hour. This is discussed by John Patrick in his book Advanced Craps.
The second mistake a new craps player makes is not understanding the game, that is, the odds of each number rolled. Just because you know how to place a bet doesn’t mean you know how to win. Often a new player will start out winning and think it’s a simple game. They increase their bet size only for the table to cool down and they lose everything. New craps players should be aware that the game of craps is based on streaks. Sam Graftstein discusses this in detail in his book The Dice Doctor Revised and Expanded.
The third mistake is not having an adequate bankroll. Craps is a streak based game. As such, you cannot and will not win on all bets, you will have losses. Too often, a player does not have an adequate budget for the size of the bets he is making or sets an unrealistic goal of how much to win. If you have a $500 bankroll, it’s hard to set a goal to win $1,000. It happens, but only when people are lucky. When losses occur, you may not have enough money to place bets and miss out on a good shooter. Author Frank Scoblette discusses this in his book Beat the Craps out of the Casinos.
The fourth mistake is drinking while gambling. If you are going to play craps, you can either play for fun or play to win. It is difficult to do both. New craps players sometimes get intrigued by the free drink and drink too much to focus on what they’re doing. I have friends who travel to Vegas with great ideas to win big. I have heard them argue that one or more of them were fine until they started drinking. If you’re going to drink and party, wait until you’ve left the craps table, not during it.
The fifth mistake many new players make is lack of discipline. Many new players will push their bets when they are winning. While this can sometimes work, all too often the new player will have a lot of money on the table when the dreaded 7 comes up. You have to withdraw some of your winnings from the table. Sam Graftstein discusses this in detail in his book The Dice Doctor Revised and Expanded.
I was handing out dice for an entertainment company at a private residence for someone’s surprise birthday party. One of the players was placing the dice. He apparently took lessons on how to be a sharpshooter from Beau Parker, a/k/a Dice Coach. Early on he was having long rolls and doing extremely well (Beau is an excellent teacher of how to place and influence the dice). This person, however, kept pressing the bets on him. He seldom took profit from him. I asked him why he left his winnings on the table because I personally know that Dice Coach doesn’t follow that betting strategy. His explanation was that he kept his bets until he had a gut feeling. In a short time he lost all his “bankroll”. Good thing he was playing with play money instead of real money. If he had had anything like a betting strategy, he would have done quite well.
The sixth mistake new players make is not paying attention. New players tend to forget what bets they make, where the dealer placed their bets and also to collect their winnings from him. If he forgets to collect his winnings, it is considered a gamble. The policy of the casinos is “if you put, you play”. At a table full of people, the game of craps moves quickly.
The seventh mistake new craps players make is believing that a craps system will work. While all systems work some of the time, none of them work all the time. So be careful at the tables. You never know if the system will work for hours, days, or even longer.
By: David Udjat, Walk Away Craps