I’m a fairly new craps player….I’ve watched several videos, read some books and have researched the forums on the game. I was in Tunica for a couple of days and really learned a lot about the game and most importantly, the volatility of the game. This was about the 5th or 6th time I’ve played…but I definitely played longer and more intense than any other time in my past.

The tables were choppy most of the weekend. I’m guessing that this is pretty normal to have the point hit once and then not with the next shooter, and back and forth. I used the 7 set, and then the hardway set for rolling after the point. I tried to imitate the controlled dice shooter motion. I rolled 5 points the first time at the table…almost all in a row without many other numbers in between. My 2nd roll I hit 4 points. Unfortunately, I didn’t press very much during the runs because it was just so quick and surprising (and I’m a conservative player just getting into the swing of things). The tables were so cold most of the time thereafter. It was just 7 out, 7 out 7 out with rarely any points in between. My strategy was the play the pass line $5 with single odds and occasional placing the 6 or 8. I usually had about $10 to $20 on the table…usually just the pass line and single odds.

After those couple of good rolls, it was pretty much brutal. Every roll for the next 2 days was me setting the point and then a seven out shortly after. Amazing. Very few good runs by others and and a lot of losses. One of the nights, I finally bailed to blackjack. As I was at the blackjack table, I heard the craps table erupt. I went to see what was going on a lady just finished with a monster roll. I missed it. I bought in and fortunately one of the next guys when on a huge roll. He hit at least 6 points…I had doubled my odds bet…pressed the 6 to $12, had $5 on two other numbers and was getting paid sometime with $25 chips. The house was getting it handed to them…even reduced down to a single stack of $5 chips until new boxes of chips arrived at the table. Wow! That was great stuff! Because of your tips on pressing, etc, I actually made about $175 on that run. It was amazing! If I was less tentative because of all of the losses, I could have been more aggressive and make more…but I would rather take most of the hits instead of pressing and getting nothing.

After that, about 8-9 straight 7 outs. I lost about all my winnings except around $50…just like that….a loss of my pass line and odds and a few place bets, every time. The game is so volatile and I got a good taste of it unfortunately. I watched the full craps table on a Saturday night completely empty at least 4 times. Like I said, it was brutal. I tried another table…waited then tried the table again…7 out, 7 out., 7 out….. Amazing. I now understand why the "5 count " would be important….to not spend any money on the random 7 rollers.

I did much better at blackjack over the weekend than I did at craps. Usually I do so well that I can overcome my craps losses, but not this weekend. I’m trying to decide how people scratch a profit together in the game of craps….the tables were so bad for so long, I just wonder how anyone makes money at the craps table?!?! Maybe I need to explore this 5 count a little more….although it seems like at my $5 level, that I would be standing there skipping about every person that shot. I know that’s the point but that would be awful boring when I could be playing blackjack or something like that. Or maybe the 5 count works enough that waiting and making a profit on the long rolls far exceeds the time it takes to wait for a good shooter. That would have been a ton of dead time though.

Any tips, comments, or advice?

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