The Greatest Craps Player of All Time

I have written about this man in five books, the latest being The Craps Underground: The Inside Story of How Dice Controllers Are Winning Millions from the Casinos! As I write this, he is a healthy octogenarian who still plays craps once a week. His name, while known by plenty of people in the casino world, is not known by the general public. His old crew, composed of 22 of the wealthiest craps players to ever descend on Atlantic City, called him the Captain. He was their leader.

Most of his old crew have passed on to the craps game in the sky. I remember them fondly and the Captain misses them.

In his prime in the 1970s, 80s and the early 1990s, the Captain won more money playing craps than Bill Bennett lost playing slot machines. As you all know, Mr. Bennett is said to have lost close to 10 million dollars at slots. That will give you some idea of the level of play we are talking about in those days.

In those glory days, the Captain played three to five times every week. In short, this man was and is the genius of craps. Everything I know about the game, I learned from him.

So what have I learned from this great man?

Craps is not a game that can be beaten by using betting systems. If the game is random, as the casino desires it to be, you will lose whatever the house edge is on the total amount of money you bet. That is an uncomfortable fact that many craps players and some craps authors just can't seem to assimilate.

Craps is instead a game of shooters. There are good shooters and bad shooters. The good shooters, a small few, the Captain called "rhythmic rollers," and he believed that most of them had perfected the technique of changing the game of craps to a positive game by the nature of their throws. Today we call "rhythmic rolling" something else - controlled shooting.

The Captain is a controlled shooter of the first magnitude but he isn't the best one who ever lived. That title goes to the Arm, a woman who played with the Captain for some 20 years before a crippling case of arthritis retired her. She was the best shooter I have ever seen - and I've seen just about all the good shooters around.

Even with rhythmic rolling, players have to make the best possible bets. Your edge is not immense. It is big enough to overcome, however, the lower house-edge bets at craps. Make these bets and you will take home the money. Make high house-edge bets and the casino will take home the money.

Players who can get an edge when they roll will often have to deal with other, non-controlled shooters at their tables. These shooters are random rollers, sometimes called chicken feeders because the way they shoot resembles how farmers hand-feed the grain to their chickens. You can't continually bet on chicken feeders and expect to bring home the money. Chicken feeders are long-term losers and you will be a long-term loser too if you bet on them.

The Captain developed a method to select which shooters to bet on that eliminates approximately 57 percent of the chicken feeders. It's called the 5-Count. If you use the 5-Count on the random rollers, you will only have to bet on 43 percent of them. If you also keep your bets relatively low on the random rollers who do make it through the 5-Count, you should be able to win money at craps because your own rhythmic roll is enough to overcome the small house edges and small bets on the random rollers.

The Captain has used his philosophy of play for over 30 years and his staggering wins are proof that what he says is the truth. Today we know that controlled shooting is a fact. With Golden Touch shooters such as Dominator, Howard "Rock 'N Roller" Newman, Jerry "Stickman" Stich, Arman "Pit Boss" Pirim, Bill "Street Dog" Robbins, Daryl "No Field Five" Henley, Fred "Chip" Benjamin, Billy the Kid, and Bob "Mr. Finesse" Convertito leading the way, controlled shooting has become the "in" advantage-play method for savvy casino craps players.

So how hard is it to control the dice? It's bubble bursting time, folks, because dice control is not easy. It's hard and it takes practice to refine your skills. Many typical casino gamblers, looking for an easy quick fix, are not able to master it because it takes time, patience, and discipline. Most casino players lack the discipline necessary to learn the technique properly.

It took the Captain several years to perfect his technique in the casinos. Most of today's good controlled shooters practice every day or every other day. This is not a technique that can be mastered in a few days. Like tennis, bowling, golf, or any sport practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, very few casino gamblers would ever want to put in the practice to become good at this skill - which is a good thing for the casinos.

The Captain's take on controlled shooting is simple, "It is much like an athletic skill. You have to make sure that so many things are functioning correctly to get those dice to go where you want them to go and do what you want them to do when they get there. You must be able to concentrate and relax; you must have control over your body and mind. It is not something most people would want to undertake."

To beat craps requires understanding the math of the game, knowing which bets to make and which to avoid, developing a controlled throw, and playing the 5-Count. In short, to beat craps, you must become like the Captain, the greatest craps player of all time.