The Craps Dream Team

The crowd around the craps table was 2 – 3 people deep and a loud roar went up as Tim hit another nine! At this point literally no one else could manage to squeeze into the table.

A little old lady had managed to squeeze in next to the guy on my left a short time ago and had been a frustration for both of us. She kept trying to stick her hand down to push her money back onto the pass line whenever the dealer would make her bet a place bet instead of a pass line bet. You see, she never bet on the first toss of the dice (the come-out roll), and would always wait and see what the number was first, then put her money on the pass line. She was getting a little upset with me because I kept blocking her from sticking her hand down on the table after the dice had been passed to Tim. She finally got the point and quit sticking her hand down except to pick up her winnings!

Tim was at the far end of the table, stick-left-end, and had been the shooter for some time now. He was well into a nice roll and had already hit 3 of the 6 Fire Bet points. Beau mentioned that it would be nice if he could hit all six points. A $5 fire Bet would turn into $5000! There is nothing quite like a hot craps table! Being there is quite an experience, and the only thing better than being there, is being there, and being the shooter!

It had all started on Thursday evening when the phone rang. I was at home alone as PC had joined one of our daughters, out here from Denver, and they, she and PC, were staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club here in Las Vegas. She periodically gets together with a few of them (daughters) and they all spend a few days hanging around the pool, having a few drinks, and engage in some mother-daughter bonding.

Beau let me know that he was meeting Tim, Pam and Joe the following morning downtown at Starbucks, and I was welcome to join them. I explained to him that I had already set up a meeting with a friend the following morning to go get some wood for my next project. He said that was fine but if I wanted to join them a little later in the morning to just give him a call.

After I hung up I thought about it some more and before I went to bed I had decided to go ahead and join the group in the morning. A web project I had been working had just abruptly ended, I was in good shape with the Coaches practice units, and my project could just wait.

The next morning I gave Beau a call and let him know that I would meet them at 9:00am at the Starbucks in the Golden Nugget.

When I got there they were all waiting for me. Tim and Pam are a very nice couple from back East who work hard on their day jobs and enjoy life to the fullest, which included trips to Las Vegas whenever possible.

Joe is from Florida, and as I was to learn over the next 2 days, a “closet comedian.” Joe kept all of us on our toes, and between Tim and Joe we were laughing all of the time! Both the joke about “Fred” (which I can’t tell you), and the one about “What do you get when you turn an elephant into a cat?”, ended up as our 2 favorites, and we never failed telling the “cat” joke to dealers and box people over the next two days! By the way, the answer to the elephant question is, “A cat, Stupid!”.

After getting properly acquainted and determining craps table positions, it was decided to start at the Plaza, one of my favorites and one of Tim’s also.

Beau was to be at stick-right, Joe at stick-left, Tim at stick-left-end and I was at stick-right-end. This was to be our positioning for the next couple of days. Pam joined us at the table on Saturday morning and was positioned to the right of Tim at stick-left-hook.

At the Plaza Beau got the dice first and neither he, Joe or Tim could get anything going. When I got the dice I posted a nice 26 roll hand. The dice went around the table again and none of us could get anything going so we colored up and left.

Winnings were meager but a win is a win! I became the designated “roll counter” for the team and used a combination of counts, using The Professors (MV) method on other shooters and Roadrunners method on myself.

The next stop was the California. They had two tables open, one was completely full but only a couple of players were at the other table. There was an individual in my position at stick-right-end so I just moved in next to him on his left. He was the shooter and was having a fairly good role and I gave him plenty of room. When he sevened out I got the dice and neither myself, Beau nor Joe could get anything going. Tim posted a nice 22 roll hand which brought everyone back. The guy next to me got the dice and we all started encouraging him and he had a nice hand. At one point during his roll he had a 4 as his point and I kept telling him to toss the hard four. When he finally hit the 4, hard, he turned to me and said, “You must have been an officer in the military!”

By the time I got the dice he was calling me “Colonel”, and by the time I finished, a nice 30 roll hand, he was calling me “General.” When I got the dice he had around $300- $400 in his rack, and when I finished he had something close to $2000! He patted me on the back, shook my hand and told me “You need on of these”, and handed me a black chip!

We all decided it was time for a break. Joe invited us all to join him for dinner that night at the steak house at the Sahara. Beau’s wife Beth would join us and it was agreed that we would meet there at 5:00pm. Joe, told me I could come as “his date.”

Dinner was a “hoot” and the jokes just kept coming! Mention a subject and Joe had a joke. What a group we made! Fun loving, positive and enjoying life. Joe kept saying “I’d pay to have this much fun!”

After dinner we checked the tables and since they were both full we decided to go down town to the Golden Nugget.

We found an empty table and Joe got the dice first. He posted a nice 13 roll hand and Tim followed with a 17 and I had a nice 21 roll hand. Beau couldn’t catch a hand and when Joe got the dice back he posted a very nice 20 roll hand. Tim couldn’t get anything going and the dice passed to me. I posted another 21 roll hand and after my hand we all decide it had indeed been a good and colored up. It was only Friday!

Beau called me early on Saturday morning to let me know we were picking up Tim and Pam downtown, before heading to Treasure Island to meet Joe at 9:00 am.

When we got to TI there was only one table open and it was packed. Joe was already at the table and when he saw us he colored up and joined us. We all decided to go over to the Venetian and check out their tables.

We found the same situation at the Venetian. So, we headed down the strip to Harrah’s.

At Harrah’s we found an open table and took up our positions as normal. I had a miserable start and although Beau had a good start half his tosses were Horn numbers. Joe followed with a very nice 23 roll hand and a random roller hit 24 rolls. Things were looking up! Tim couldn’t get anything going and the best I could do was a 12. Beau colored up and we all followed suit. Again, my conservative play had earned me a modest 17 unit win. We headed for the cashiers cage and decided to take a short break.

A short while later we spotted another open table and bought in.

I started with a mediocre 14, Beau hit a nice 25 roll hand but again half of them were Horn numbers. Joe didn’t get anything going but Pam had joined us and rolled a nice 16 roll hand. Then Tim got the dice.

And here we were in the middle of his monster roll!

A few rolls earlier I had noticed that Beau had started the 6 & 8 progression, a progression that returns you $409 after only six hits of the 6 or 8 combined. And, you still have a $30 6 and 8 working after you have racked up $409 in winnings. On the next hit (6 or 8) I started my own 6-8 progression. Tim had hit a lot of 8’s but few 6’s. When Tim’s count was around 22 or 23, Beaus original come bet on 6 was still up!

Tim just kept pounding the 9, and since I am a conservative bettor, I had gone up slowly, something which I would later regret. Tim had started with a $10 nine and when he finally sevened out, he had $3000 on the 9!

There had already been one chip fill and a number of stick changes. Nothing phased Tim. He just kept pounding out the numbers, 5, 9, 4, 8, 9,10,9,6, … on and on and on!

Beau hit his 6-8 progression and on the very next hit on the 6 or 8, I don’t recall, I made my 6-8 progression and went down to $30 on both the 6 and 8. A few rolls later this monster roll came to an end.

I counted up the chips I had used to count the roll, a whopping 57 rolls, spanning more than and hour! Tim’s nine had been at $1500 when he hit it and took the first $2100. On the next hit he pressed it to $3000. Talk about pressing your bet! We figured that Tim had to have hit 14 or 15 9’s during his monster roll. Beau and I had both hit the 6/8 progression and probably could have hit it twice during Tim’s roll had we started it earlier. Everyone was a big winner, even the little old lady who had squeezed into the table!

The applause was deafening, yahoos and whistling, high five’s all over the place, and huge stacks of chips all over the layout from the players coloring up. What a beautiful sight!

After cashing in we headed back to the TI to get our cars and take a break before dinner that night, same as Friday night, Sahara steak house, Joe’s treat.

On the way back Beau commented that if there was an open table at the TI we should stop and try their tables. He also said that we should be very cautious, don’t lose what we had already won and spoil it a fantastic win.

As we rounded the corner in the casino I said “Table for five ready and waiting.”

We took our positions, bought in, and the stickman passed the dice to Beau. He waved them over to me and soon we were all hollering and high-fiven again! I think all caution was “tossed to the wind” very quickly. When the seven showed, on the 37th roll, we all colored up! Six (6) winning sessions in a row ! And Joe keeps telling us “I’d pay to have this much fun!”

We all met back at the Sahara for dinner that night. PC had decided to join us for dinner that night and it was good to have her with us. We put Joe between the 3 guys and the 3 ladies and he entertained us all. What a great group we had and what a great time was had by all!

After dinner that night we tried the tables at the Sahara. Beau was the only one who had a good hand, a very respectable 22 roll hand (no horn numbers), and the one that kept me on the plus side.

We headed downtown to the Golden Nugget and found another open table. After the dice passed around the table once the team sort of broke up. I guess most of us had spent all of our energy earlier that day and it was time to call it a day. Before Beau and I cashed in he spotted his favorite table open we wandered over to it. Beau got the dice first and he posted back-to-back 19 roll hands. I got things on track and slipped in a 20 roll hand between Beau’s nice 19’s. Just another win for both of us, now eight (8) winning sessions in a row.

Call it a day! Call it a weekend! Call it whatever you want, it was our “craps dream team!”

Joe’s words keep echoing in my mind, “Id pay to have this much fun!” Perhaps Joe, but I like it when the casinos pay … and this time they did!

Pablo
August 2007