More readers write

17 January 2017

By Frank Scoblete

FROM BERNIE: I just finished reading your article about betting the 4 at craps. What you say is very true, the only right way to bet it is by making a come bet first that goes to the 4 then take your odds.

I see players make all the stupid bets in the middle and then complain about their bad luck. All I do is make a pass line bet and take odds and use the captain's 5-Count [Note: see Frank’s book I Am A Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps!] then make come bets and take odds that I can afford. Most times when I play I am the only one at a full table making come bets. It really is amazing how bad people gamble.

That being said I went on a mini vacation (three days) in Michigan. I'm always talking about how dumb people are when they gamble but this time it was me that was the idiot.

I had bought in for $200 and we were going home in a couple of hours so I didn't want to take a chance with a bigger buy in and get hurt bad just before we were leaving. The game was good early and I was up a $100 or so until the game got ugly. You know the drill — point 7 out!

I was down to $55 and angry at myself for not assuring myself to break even when I was up. The guy next to me got the dice and I decided to control my own fate and not make any bet while he was shooting being that I was next person to shoot.

He kept the dice for a good half hour and made nine — yes nine! — points before finally the seven showed.

I don't remember the last time I saw anyone make nine points. Needless to say I was fuming at my own stupidity and ego problem and promptly lost my last money on my roll in about 45 seconds.

It sure made for a long ride home.

My whole point here is I play craps the right way and criticize others for being stupid but what I did was worse because I should know better. Oh well, live and learn, hopefully.

FROM CHUCK: I am not a dice controller by any stretch of the imagination, but just wanted to let you know that I am learning — thanks to the book you sent me a month ago.

I am practicing each and every day — and am now paying more attention to how I am standing, how my wrists, move, arm movement, etc. when I roll a seven.

It is hard to believe but I can almost feel that I have rolled a seven before it hits the table in practice based on the arm jerk, leg positions, wrists and the like. I use your “3V” formation with the 3's on top and the 5 and 1 facing the area where the dice land.

I also have been experimenting with the Hardway sets and find about two that I like. Looks like one of my likes hits lower numbers (not necessarily hard ways lows) but lower numbers and the other one hits higher numbers.

At my age of 71 and just starting this game, I never ever expect to be like your friends and acquaintances described n your books, but if I can get decent rolls with a goodly number of hits before sevening out it will be great. I have been in the 17 to 27 range before sevening out lately . . . I feel that will be decent to make a few dollars.

Going again at end of the month and will fill you in on what happened after that visit.

Again, thanks a bunch . . .



Frank Scoblete’s new books are Confessions of a Wayward Catholic, I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps! and I am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack. Available on Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.