We just had our annual Halloween party. And this year I was able to use the full table that I’ve talked about in previous podcasts and posts. Photo is below. Last year was just a makeshift half table. See episode 53 for all about that one and some photos.
With space for up to 10 players I was gearing up for a big craps session. We had quite a few new players from last year. And those that played last year were very keen but needed a refresher course.
I am still trying to work out the best way to get new players quickly into the game without completely confusing them with the myriad of bets that they see in front of them. Thinking back 25 years ago to when I first started playing craps I watched others and slowly picked it up that way. But I’m talking about quick ABCs to get started with little pressure. Perhaps you’ve got some ideas for me. If so let me know.
I’m going to instigate a standing Halloween party craps award. There will be 2. Craps champ with highest bankroll and golden arm with longest roll. I’ll get a little wall mounted award board where I can put up the names and show it off each year.
Another very interesting session followed where there were dark siders and passline players. Trying their luck with both sides trying to beat the game.
Each player had $150 of chips which I purposefully set low. I wanted to see if it would naturally end up with a more conservative betting approach than last year, where I gave them $300 each. It was a very different game to last year.
I was once again humbled that my party goers embraced dark side play on their first craps outing. You just don’t see many dark side players in Brisbane.
I explained the higher probability for rolling a seven over the other numbers each roll, and they just worked it out that dark siding would be a good idea.
That is until one of the players got on a monster roll. Over an hour. Banging out the place numbers. They couldn’t seven out. The prop bet players were left scratching their heads, wondering what was going on. Having lost a fair bit of money. Last year it was a horn number fest and they must have thought that’s a common affair and tried to do it again.
I had to call a time out for a drinks and desert break. Of course none of them know about energy draining events (EDE) and not to break the rhythm of the shooter. But I needed food and another couple of beers.
After the break they continued for a few more rolls and then 7 out. It was at that point I knew we had our golden arm winner for the night. They were very happy with themselves.
Someone asked me how I would have bet that hand. I felt a bit bad because I would have made quite a lot. Compared to what everyone else did. Even with a conservative press schedule, it would have left hundreds on the table.
It was then I realised that what they were missing was the benefit of watching what other more seasoned players do at the table. And picking up ideas of different bets to try and what the outcome of those bets are.
So in future even though I’m not going to shoot while I deal, I think it’s best if I deal and play as well. I can then explain the plays as I make them and the others can then play whatever bets they like.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable night. And I can’t wait to get last years and this years winners up on the wall. Then we’ll do it all again next Halloween.
PS For my fancy dress I called myself the dice doctor (if only) and had my eighties hair style back and dressed in scrubs. Definitely you would not want me operating on you. I looked thoroughly dodgey.
Well once again I have to start off by saying that I’ve been stopped from getting to the Casino over the last few weeks by my daily grind of family and work commitments.
They come first. And I come last. Such is life. I know I’m not the only one. I’ve been told it happens to all of us.
However I have not been idle by any means with my Craps Journey.
I have a few photos to share (see below), as I have spent considerable time to put together my Craps Table which was stuck in storage for nearly a year. So now is as good as any to dedicate a podcast episode for how my table came to be.
I’d been looking for a Craps Table for 2 years as soon as I started my Craps Journey, but being in Australia they are rare – in very short supply, and no one is selling them.
I had been talking with Big Jeff from Big Jeff’s Craps Tables in USA and he was going to help me build a table.
The only downside to that is that I don’t have the space, tools, skills or time to build a great table.
Getting one of Big Jeff’s or any other timber masterpiece sent from America to Australia was going to cost me a fortune (or so I thought)
So I found a vendor in China by using the Alibaba network of manufacturers.
Of course this is a risky venture since you are buying a table from a manufacturer in another country that you only can see photos of what they produce (or supposedly produce).
With a lot of trepidation I was chatting with 2 vendors for over 1 month to pick the one that I thought would do the best job and most importantly deliver the table to me in Australia.
I’m not going to reveal the vendor that I ultimately chose, because as you will see they didn’t meet my expectations.
The table I wanted was an 8ft 2.4m table which was 4ft 1.2m wide. All of the tables they had previously built were only 1m wide, but I wanted it to be as wide as possible. I wanted the table to be portable. And by portable I mean, be able to be broken down and moved from room to room or place to place and put back together again. I have many videos on my how to build a craps table page of people building tables that can break down as needed. So I took ideas from them and put in some of my own and gave the vendor my instructions of what I wanted.
The table cost $950USD which I had to electronic money transfer to China. Now that was a 2 hour visit to the bank to make that happen. Which was like pulling teeth. You’d think I was the first person to try to send money to a bank in China from Australia, I was amazed and frustrated at the same time.
One month ticked away and I was eagerly waiting for some photos of my craps table (aka furniture art) from the vendor.
Finally I was rewarded with photos, and it looked impressive. Very clean job and well constructed. Of course what can you really see from a photo. In this case, it turned out, not the stuff I wanted to see.
I should have asked to see the table disassembled and with a clear showing of how to the table bolts back together again. But I didn’t. I was so caught up in getting the table to me.
The next stage after the build was harder than the actual build itself. The shipping.
What a nightmare doing shipping from another country into Australia. They don’t make it easy at all. And if you have anything that is out of the ordinary / large / made of timber, it’s even harder. For never having any prior shipping import / export experience, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
First I had to engage an import broker to help me, since I could see I wasn’t going to be able to get this table into the country on my own. The broker provided me with all the forms, and more money was transferred to the broker to get things started. Lots of paper work then ensued to get the broker what they needed.
The craps table was packed from China in a shipping container with 8 other tables en-route to Sydney, which I thought was ok as it was more likely to get here rather than just on it’s own. But ended up being an issue as they weren’t going to Brisbane, they were bound for Sydney, only my table was coming to Brisbane.
What I’ve come to know is the extortion racket that goes on with importing goods into a country. The whole process is geared towards extracting the maximum amount of money from you at every step. And they know that if you don’t pay it, you don’t get your goods. So you have to pay.
I have mentioned to everyone since having done this import, that I have no idea how any company in Australia can afford to import goods into this country and make a profit. What an absolute joke.
Now for the good part. The container ship went to Sydney first to offload the other tables in the container, and I was extorted further money for that delay. The table then had to be reloaded and sent to Brisbane. However while all this was going on I got a call from Australian Border Force questioning the import of a Casino table. There is actually a TV show in Australia called Border Force where they film the real busts of people importing illegal stuff into the country. I was being questioned as I guess they thought I was going to start up my own Casino.
But it gets even better.
Once the table had made it to Brisbane and been put into quarantine for fumigation (because it’s a timber product) for a few days, it was released and I had 24 hours to get it out of the quarantine facility and to my home. The broker organised for me a delivery truck with a hydrolic lift on the back because of the large size and weight of the table.
The delivery driver shows up at my residential home (not an industrial setting) and says to me where’s my fork lift? He’s on his own and can’t lift the table off the truck. You’ve got to be kidding me. So I helped him drag the table onto the lift and got it down onto grass beside the footpath (sidewalk) outside my house. The table wrapped in a make shift crate of strips of ply wood that the manufacturer in China put together. By the time it was coming off the truck the low quality crate wrapping was falling apart. I should have taken a photo of it coming off the truck.
The truck driver says good luck and packed up and left. So I’m left all alone with a 140kg very large half falling apart crate and a second crate box that has the table legs in it, on my front grass outside of my property. I look up at the sky in defeat and what do I see storm clouds. My heart sinks again because it’s about to rain.
After all this effort, my table will be ruined before I even get it into the house. I had no one to help, no one to call, everyone I knew was at work, and my kids (late teens) and wife were not at home. With no time to spare, I got my large crowbar out, and started inching the crate into the property, like they would have done in the days of no machinery. It wasn’t even inching it was more like centermetering which is even less than inching. I dragged that bloody thing all the way to the side of the house about 20 meters, I needed to get it to my storage shed in the back yard which was about 35 meters away, but I just couldn’t move it any more. I was spent.
The rain was about to drop, in a last ditch effort I got a couple of wooden planks we had lying around and lifted the crate on it’s side and leaned it up against the house, and threw a tarp over it and wedged it upright with the wooden planks as struts. The rain really came down by my table was safe. I was a wreck.
The next day I was fortunate enough to be having some building work happening at the house, and I asked the builders before they started for the day if they would help me move the table into the storage shed. I stripped off the outer crate to reveal the table inside. It wasn’t in pieces as I’d expected. It was one big table all put together with no ability to break it down. What a slap in the face. I was very dissapointed as it wasn’t what I asked for and I knew it going to an effort to make it portable and how little time I have to do that work.
The builders were very impressed with it. Until they tried to lift it! It took 4 of us with great struggle to get it into the storage shed and safely leaning up against the wall. I covered the table again for protection, and that is were it stayed for 10 months until I got the time to cut it up into pieces so I could move it.
All in all, the table took about a month to make it’s way from China to Brisbane and then to my front door.
That is a lot more cost than I thought it would be, when I first put the order in for the table. But once you start you have to keep going. I knew shipping was going to hurt and it did. It’s the unknown costs that got me with this purchase. If I had of purchased a table from the USA it would have cost about the same in the end.
Could I have built this table from scratch and cheaper. Yes. Would it have been as nice. No.
One more little twist to this story is that the Chinese manufacturer that build my table, has since sent me photos of tables they are now building for other people that are exactly what I asked for and designed to be portable. I couldn’t believe it. It’s been months and I still haven’t calmed down yet to respond. There really is nothing I can say that will change anything. So I haven’t replied.
I have grand visions of making Craps great in Australia, one of the ways to do that, is to get more Craps tables in Australia, which exposes more people to the game. I have a placeholder website www.crapstables.com.au ready to go, just need to work out the rest.
And now we are back at the start of this post / podcast and time to share some photos of the rebuild of the table and it’s first use in my soccer break up ‘Mad Saturday’ event. Which is a topic for another post / podcast.
Forgive me box man, for I have sinned. It’s been over 5 weeks since my last craps session at the casino. 😉
I only get such a small window of opportunity and when work and family get in the way then my hobby takes a back seat. I must admit I’m missing it.
I haven’t been idle though. I built a better practice rig including some rubber diamonds for the back wall and with a small add on piece, it can take a proper 8ft single dealer layout. I will add some pics of it soon.
This was very much needed to finally graduate from my cardboard box receiving station which I’ve been using for over a year.
I was going to build a full table with the help from Big Jeff who builds custom craps tables in the USA. He does make truly beautiful craps tables. He sent me 4 diamond rubber back pieces, and some routed chip rails to get me started.
Unfortunately even though I’m capable of the task. I don’t have…
A) space to build
B) the tools needed
C) a trailer or Ute or truck to get the materials back to my place
D) the time
So that left me with no choice but to order a cheap custom table from overseas (China) and get it shipped to me in Australia. That was 3 months ago and I still don’t have the table. That’s a whole topic for another day, which I won’t go into today.
My new practice receiving station which is 1.2m wide sits on a portable table and I still use my throwing station to get the right distance away from the back wall. I can then practice stick left or right or straight out.
The best part of the design is that I can add an extension onto it and use it as a half table with 8ft layout and use it with others to play some craps socially.
I have yet to introduce my friends to craps and was waiting for the full table to do so. However I could wait no more. We have a standing calendar booking for a Halloween Party each year where we invite neighbours and family friends. So I took advantage of that, and I got the half table setup on the deck and after dinner and a couple of drinks I opened my first ever floating craps game.
See a few photos below.
I explained the game quickly and gave each player $300. It was total chaos, but after 10 mins they were getting the hang of it. I struggled to keep track of everyone’s bets. And they were all farming the field and hitting the prop area. Of course just my luck as first time dealer and it was a horn dream run for 30 mins. So I was stumbling over horn and hardways payouts.
I explained the dark side being opposite of the right side. And the probability of 7s showing more than any other.
And you wouldn’t believe it, but I had 2 out of 6 players playing dark side. I was humbled by that, and I never even pushed them one way or another. They just worked it out on their own.
I even let the players place their own place bets and I was just making sure the bets were correct amounts and put them in the right position in the boxes so I could track players bets correctly.
It was a huge success and everyone was calling out numbers to hit and having a great time. The other neighbours around must have wondered what was going on.
Initially I didn’t bother getting out the $100 and $500 chips since I just figured everyone would crash and burn and that would be that.
But they were all doing great. And I had to break out the $100 and $500 chip stacks to keep the bank afloat.
The game would have kept going for hours. But after 1 1/2 hours I had to call it, since I needed a break.
I got them to colour up and was pleasantly surprised that 5 out of 6 had profit. Some had a lot. One had $25 left. He was not happy. The winner was around $1200 with second $1100. So it was a close race.
The winner was one of the dark side players. Which I was the most proud of. Who was also the only one really betting the place bets and using it like a cash register.
One thing I noticed being a dealer is not easy by a long shot. Especially a green solo dealer with no backup.
I can’t wait to get my full table. Then we’ll really get some social craps play happening.
This little gathering and the way they approached the table for the first time, and how each set their game plan, once they knew the basic rules, could easily make for a study in human behaviour. Being that I knew the players, watching them interact with each other and play gave me great insight into how parallel their play was with their personalities. I don’t see that sort of thing happening with other games at the casino. Just underlines what a great game craps is.
This question was asked over at Heavy’s Power Axis Craps forum recently. So I thought I would participate with my own. Feel free to share your story with me, and post a comment below.
My story is not as elaborate as how others found their way to become craps fans.
It was 1992 in Brisbane Australia and I’d just finished high school and turned 18. My family had no history or interest in gambling at all. They never went Casino or played pokies. Just lotto occasionally. However I was always keen to give it a go. I was a geek and a nerd, so enjoyed the maths of gambling.
At that time, we only had one casino available to me which was 1 hour drive away at Gold Coast called Jupiters Casino.
In Australia, 18 is the legal age to go to night clubs, pubs, etc and I remember driving down to Jupiters casino with 3 of my friends to try out the casino and night clubs on the Gold Coast strip.
We were all very green and it was an eye opening experience. There was also a night club that we enjoyed going to at the top level of the casino so we would gamble a bit and then hit the club for drinks and attempts to get with the ladies. I look back on those days fondly and can laugh at it now.
Over many Saturday night trips we played most games in the casino. None of them grabbed me at all, except for Craps.
In fact I liked it so much I can remember spending hours playing with just $50, no other game allowed me to do that.
Until recently I hadn’t played another casino game, that’s how much I enjoyed it.
After I grew out of the night club scene, I would visit the casino every couple of years and always come away even or with a small profit just from dark side don’t pass (DP) line bets. Never would I bet anything else.
In all those years not one other type of bet. How’s that for discipline (or stupidity)? 20 years of the same bet. I didn’t know it at the time but I was a dark side player. I just knew it was better to back the 7 based on the math and my limited in-game experience.
Finally one night in 2015, my wife and I took our close friends to the Brisbane Treasury Casino for a night out. My friend had never played craps before and after a short intro from me, was betting all over the prop bets and winning like crazy. I stuck with my base bet DP. End of the night he’s up over $500 and I’m up $20.
I was pissed off. After 20 years playing the game, and I get my ass whipped by my friend who’s never played before.
So after that fateful night, that’s when I started looking online for how to properly play and understand craps.
I am amazed and thankful that there is such a niche of knowledge around just this one game of dice.
Of course in no time, I found dicesetter.com and read through every article on there. What an awesome resource.
Which of course lead me to the various names in the Craps scene, including Heavy and all the others.
Since I’m in the web business I thought I’d track my progress with my new found hobby and I created a website/blog and podcast and my craps journey began.
I’m pleased to say this is the first hobby in my life that pays me to do it. And so far just 2 years in, and I’m only still just getting started with so much more to accomplish.
This interview (recorded in Jan 2011) by Howard Schwartz of Gamblers Book Club podcast is with author Richard Stein about his book Winning Craps – Not the Hard Way. If you like podcasts then make sure to check the Gamblers Book Club podcast on iTunes, Howard has a lot of material there. If you want to listen to the interview right now just click the play button on the audio player below.
