Stop loss for advantage craps players is a fool's errand

26 September 2012

By Frank Scoblete

What about "stop losses," a favorite idea in gambling circles? Is this concept nonsense for dice controllers?

No, it isn't when you truly understand the concept as it relates to controlled shooters.

There are only three reasons to leave a craps table when you are an advantage player:

1. Fatigue

2. You've shot three or four times and you need a break

3. Something has gotten to you to affect your throw

Number two is the key to understanding why there is a natural loss limit on a Golden Touch shooter. If you take the dice four times and your spread is $60 each on the 6 and 8 and a Pass Line bet of $10, then your risk is $130 when you shoot. Lose on a point-seven out four times and you have lost $520.

Rather than wait between a half hour and one hour for the dice to return to you, you take a break. You have shot four times, bombed out, and left the table with your tail between your legs, having lost $520.

That $520 is most of your "loss limit" for that session.

If you only bet one come or pass line bet of $10 on the random rollers, say there are 10 of them, you will bet on 43 percent of the random rolls, which means a house edge of 1.41 percent against $40 which comes to a loss of $1.64 - give or take on any given session. The worst that can happen is you lose all $40 and now your "stop loss" escalates to $560.

So you see there is a natural "stop loss" for a Golden Touch controlled shooter if he follows our advice. You can actually calculate what it is before you play.

But this stop loss is based on controlled shooting, not some artificial stop loss as in normal gambling thinking.

There is a big difference between advantage craps play and gambling. Often players just don't see it.