Table Games Trifecta of Craps Table Mutants

Heard a story about a guy who kept throwing the dice too high and was repeatedly warned to stop. Threw them high again and the dealer at the other end grabbed them in mid-air and said, "Sir, your roll is OVER." Thought that was pretty funny.

Only guy I ever saw chased away was at the Tropicana in Evansville, IN. Indian guy kept taking forever to make his bets between rolls. He'd throw out some chips for some crazy bunch of bets, then throw out some more for more bets before they'd set up the first batch. Kept on doing it. Dealers finally started calling "dice out, no action" to speed things along and it worked until it was his turn to shoot. He'd get the dice and cup his hand over them until he'd finished making his bets. After a couple of rolls they told him he was finished with craps for the night.

 

Never saw the dice actually taken from a shooter.
I've seen plenty of warnings but never saw them taken.

 

My buddy was to the right of me and the dice get to him. He likes to pick them up and drop them in a Monopoly roll kind of way until they land on something he likes...usually no more than 2-3 times, so it's not like he holds up the game. The dice are gone within 5 seconds every time.

He gets the dice and does it a couple times before his first roll. Once he let the dice go, the dealers told him he couldn't do that. Any action that makes it appear you are "rolling the dice" can count as a roll. He didn't think much of it, and would just sling the dice after that. Once he 7's out, the dice get to me. I roll the dice right in front of me like a Monopoly roll....."7!!!!" I started clapping and was asking the dealers to pay me. "You said that would could as a roll. Pay the line!"

I then got into a 15-second argument about which was it...does that roll count, or not count? If it doesn't count, why did you tell my buddy he couldn't do it? We had a good laugh....what a ridiculous group of dealers.

 

Many years ago, a pit-critter single-handedly cleared out a crowded, fun table... hot shooter...had made several points already...point is 6 & he tosses out a funky roll, with one hitting the back wall (4) and the other ending up in the dealer's stacks. The thing is sitting catawampus, between the 3 & the 2...
Everyone at the table is calling out "SIX!".
Stick calls the pit-critter over...he takes a quick look and declares "7-out".
Table is pissed!
Shouts of "No roll!" & "That's a six!" are being shouted by many... pit walks away, ignoring all of us... everyone colors up and leaves.

 

I'd have been hot, too. In the dough usually means no roll. I can't think of a time I've seen such a roll called anything else...

 

I can't believe they called that a valid roll, I'm with @waltomeal on this one. Was it actually on the chips?

 

It's a valid roll if a die lands on top of a stack of chips. I think he's saying one of the die landed suspended between two stacks (or with a point stuck in the hole between a cluster), with the edge pointing up:


I had that happen once too, box called a seven. The edge was perfectly straight up and down. Shoulda been a no-roll, not because it was suspended, but because it was perfectly 50-50. The asshole.

 

on the bank, no roll

 

Chuck is correct... and, yeah - it should've been called a 'no roll'.

 

At the Woods out in CT for my 21st, at one of the craps out in the Foxtower a whale comes to the same table. Takes about 10 to 15 minutes of paperwork chip exchange ect..but starts playing. The tables pretty cold and the dice make it back to my sibling, I ended up crapping out and was kinda drunk so didnt stay to notice what could happen at this table. A heater comes out and he starts betting about 15 to 20k a roll while pressing his bets and then he starts betting for my sibling whose hitting him numbers, points ect... After about 25 mins I think he cashed out 200 to 300k, and my sibling made over 5k from tips just from the whale betting for him. The whale put a bet that if a 7 were to be rolled he wouldve made another 10 to 15k I think it was. He couldnt roll the 7 on that exact roll, but soon crapped out after. Before you know it the Whale was gone. Table was going nuts !

 

Here's a real classic that I ran into:

Many years ago I was shooting craps downtown at the Fremont Hotel and ended up standing next to a short, elderly man in a tweed jacket and snap-brim hat. I had seen him around downtown on every trip for a number of years where he would always shoot low-limit craps. I once asked a dice crew about this guy (whose picture would be in the dictionary entry for "degenerate gambler") and they informed me that they had nicknamed him “Howard Hughes,” for a sparse resemblance to the former billionaire. "Yeah," one of the dealers said. "He's probably somewhere right now - betting the "don't" and shooting a monster."

On every roll of the dice, “H.H.” would holler, “There they go!” or “Look at that! They’re doing it again!” or some other exclamation. He kept up the constant complaints and exhortations until I finally asked, “What is it, exactly, that they're doing?”

He replied, “You can’t win in this place. It’s the worst juice joint in town! They have an electro-magnet under the table and they can make the dice seven-out any time they want. You can never win a nickel in this place!”

I just couldn’t help myself. I had to ask, “So why don't you leave?”

“I can’t,” he said. “I have to shoot the dice.”

I asked, “Why would you do that in a joint that you know is crooked?”

He replied, “I have to shoot dice. They have $50,000.00 of my money and I have to win it back!”

 

If the die caught between chips on the table the dealers were notdoing their job. They are suppose to have 2 fingers between stacks of chips so that they will only rest on one. The chips holding up the dice are to be removed and call will be the number showing. If it was on the casino's chips it should have been no roll. Any experience dealer I have seen will make sure the stacks of chips are touching or separated by 2 fingers.

 

No offense to Makki, but the Hawaiians are usually a hoot. You can go several minutes between rolls with all of the exotic bets being placed.

Only bad thing is the "Uncles", who take forever to roll. You can feel your hair growing while these guys have the dice.

All in all, a fun group and usually generous to shooters throwing heaters. Orleans, Cal, Fremont are usual hangouts.

Some tables are really bouncy. One at TI would cause a die to bounce out about every 3 or 4 rolls.

I think Harrah's has more crazy players than anywhere. I always have a great time there.

 

At Binions a couple years ago. Friend has dice and continues to short roll. Box warned him several times, and finally says "you're done", and had the dice passed to me

 

I've had some issues with craps dealers in the past. A couple stories that my buddy and I still laugh about.

A long time ago when we were in college we were playing craps at the local casino on a $5 table. Come out roll is a 7 winner. Dealer grabs a stack of reds and starts paying the line. He gets to the stack before mine, runs out of chips, reaches back to grab a new stack, then skips me and starts at my buddies stack. I tell the guy, "Hey you skipped my PL". Dealer argues that he paid it, and I picked it up. My buddy (who watched the whole thing) is laughing because the dealer is being an asshole and won't pay me, which my buddy thinks is hilarious. I finally tell the guy "It's only $5, but for the record you didn't pay me", then he says some smart ass thing. I let it go (again it was $5) but looking back I wish I had made them go to the tape just to prove the smug SOB wrong (I'm sure they would have just paid me the $5 rather than go to the tape).

The other one is at the Mirage a few years back. $15 table, I'm playing normal PL/Odds and some place bets, and the AT/AS. Table is pretty choppy, so to preserve some bankroll, I decide to wait to place the point after it's set. However I put up my $5 on each of the AT/AS as I had been previously. Box man looks over and sees no PL and says "You can't play the AT/AS without a PL bet" I asked him since when, since I had done it many times in the past with no issue and never heard of this rule? He simply says "That's the rule" so I said okay whatever I'll put a PL down. I go to grab three chips out of my rack and put them on the PL, and before I can get them down, the shooter throws the dice and rolls a 7 winner on the come out. Boxman immediately says "Well doesn't matter now" and takes down my AT/AS bets. I immediately say "Whoa, Whoa Whoa... are you going to pay me on my PL bet that I couldn't put down in time?" He says "No you didn't have it down". This time I was irate. I said look, either you're paying me on the PL, or you're leaving those AT/AS bets up. You can't call no bet then when the bet resolves in your favor decide that there was action. We went back and forth for a while and eventually he gave me my $15, but I was pissed. I colored up and left the table immediately after.

Keep in mind in both instances, the game continued along, so I wasn't that guy holding anything up. In the first scenario, I wasn't all that mad, just miffed that the guy really thought I was trying to scam $5 out of him. The second one the guy was outright trying to screw me, and then was a total prick about it after the fact. That doesn't sit well with me...

 

To add to the craps characters:

I played with a guy about a year ago, who didn't put his chips into the rack, but rather just piled them in a big ass heap on the rack. While a bit funny to see, the guy must have spilled a chip on the table at least once every 3 rolls.

The savant - Playing at Mirage last year, a young kid walks up to the pretty open table. It's about 2:00 in the afternoon, and the kid has on a blazer, but it's the classic young guy in a jacket that doesn't fit type, so he's trying to look sharp but actually looks a little sloppy. Anyways, he's got a $50 (insert superstition here), and asks the dealer "What do I need to do to bet on a 10?". Dealer says "You want the whole $50?" Kid says Yes. So he puts the $50 on the felt, and dealer puts in on a 10. First roll is a 10 so the kid wins. Then he throws $25 on the hard 10. Next roll is Hard 10. Then the kid takes the 10 down and bets a $50 Yo. Next roll it hits. Moves the yo to a 12, which immediately hits. At this point, I'm just watching this kid rainman the craps table since A) He's literally winning every bet on the first roll and B) I don't have any of these bets so I'm not winning shit on my own bets. Kid moves the $50 back to a Yo which hits again, and the kid immediately colors up and leaves. We talked about that for the next hour. Dealer said he's never seen anything like it. Kid went from $50 to cashing out like $3600 in like 5 rolls.

 

My first ever visit to a craps table was at the Las Vegas Hilton. Yes, this was many years ago. I had no clue, put $5 on the pass line which won somehow, dealer refused to pay me saying that I had put the bet down late. Being clueless, I protested mildly and walked to the next table and was almost immediately paid off on a bet that I did not make. I don't now if someone recognized the error and made good on their mistake, or, karma stepped in.

 

I met some asshole pit crew before and if one of them did any of the above things I would never play with that guy handling my bets ever again. I think that happened once at the flamingo and every time I went back I would tell the pit bosses and move to another table if that guy every stood near me again.

Even for a $5 bet I would have them call in to check the cameras, I won't be ripped off by an asshole dealer.

But I have had some instances where I thought I made a bet someplace but didn't get paid but I put that down to possibly me not remembering that I had made the bet or that I lost that bet previously.

Hey hey hey!!!.


Nah, just kidding, I also agree with you, it's sometimes fun to watch the new dealers handle all the funky bets being made, esp the hops. I sometimes feel sorry for the newer dealers because sometimes I can handle the payouts better than some of them.

And I also agree, some of them are slow to roll that I end up looking bored waiting for the roll. But as long as I'm winning and it helps my with my comps I don't mind.

 

Love to read the craps stories.

1. I was playing in the middle of the night at the El Cortez many years ago. We held up a guy so drunk he could not stand up on his own. He lobbed the dice well over head high once he could throw from the hook. The crew kept warning him but he kept at it. He was winning so we continued to hold him up until the roll finished.

2. Again, middle of the night at the El Co during Super Bowl weekend (Giants/Pats). A homeless looking dude name Cyrus, myself, and another chatty dude were in the hook (among others). The chatty dude kept talking nonsense and disrupting the silent rhythm of the table. Finally, Cyrus told him "I see why you lost your business now."

3. Binions. A local with a trick shoulder (a tick) was shooting from the don't. He was trying everything in the book to get the 7 to show. Changing dice, talking about the 7, setting the dice on a 7, nothing worked. He was on an accidental heater. It was comical.

4. Four Queens. A guy in one hook was developing a heater. A guy in the opposite hook was resting his arms on the wood, but not overhanging. The shooter stopped and asked him to move back. The patron objected and didn't budge. The shooting detonated and yelled "WELL, *UCK YOU!!", grabbed the dice and hurled them to the opposite end. They bounced off the back wall, went airborne, caught the other end of the table in midair, and rolled near the box...on the point.

 

with all these bad dealer stories being posted, i gotta try to tip the scales back with a good dealer story.

was a couple years back at the Cosmo. It was Sunday morning and I was killing some time before I had to leave for the airport. I walk up to an empty $15 craps table and start playing by myself. I'm at break even after a good 15 minutes or so, win some, lose some. In the mean time I'm making small talk with the nearest dealer about football (ESPN was on one of the nearby TV's and it's football season). Dealer asks who my team is (SD now LA Chargers) and he says he's a die hard Steelers fan. We are good naturedly talking smack about each others teams when another player finally joins at the opposite end of the table. I 7-out so its his turn to shoot.

I usually play max odds, but I have a weird betting pattern where I will never put the odds bet on the first roll after the point is established for a new shooter (I'm superstitious about a point-7 quick roll). In lieu of the odds bet, I will usually put a come bet down and then fill up the odds for both the PL and come bet after that roll. So I'm going through my normal betting pattern and put my come bet down with no odds. I do it virtually on auto pilot since I play the same pattern every time. All the while I am keeping up my banter with the dealer and giving him the business about why his team sucks (6 super bowls notwithstanding). Next thing I know I hear someone call "SIX, WINNER!". The dealer looks down and sees that I didnt have an odds bet down and is like oh man, no odds bet. I'm thinking no big deal, but then the dealer puts it on himself to call over the pit boss. Boss comes over and dealer tells the boss "hey boss, this guys been betting max odds the whole time but he missed his odds bet on this roll because he was too busy listening to me talk about how terrible his Chargers are." Boss takes a second then says, go ahead and pay him.

Unbelievable.