Odd Things

9 October 2022

By John Grochowski

Odd things happen at the gaming tables every day. Less often, the players involved are readers who take the time to relay their tales.

But in recent weeks a few oddities have accumulated in my in-box. Let's let a couple of readers have their say.

• COLIN: Craps player here. I have a pretty good gambling budget, so what I like to do when I join a table that already has a 6 or 8 working as a point is to make a put bet with odds, if you can bet enough odds.

I play a lot at a joint with 10x odds and $10 minimums. So I put $10 on a point 6 and backed it with $100 in odds.

The other thing I like to do is follow it with two come bets until I have three numbers working. Then I back those with odds, too.

The shooter rolled a 4, so that was my point on the first come bet. Next was an 8, so I had 6, 4 and 8 working.

So far so good.

Here are the weird bits. A couple of guys immediately started mouthing off about my put bet. One guy said, "Who even makes a bet like that?" The other called me a "boob" and said, "You don't want to bet pass without getting the comeout. That's insane."

I shrugged it off. Putting 6 or 8 with 5x odds as the same house edge as place bets. With 10x odds the edge is lower.

The other weird bit is that after I had my three numbers, the shooter went on a streak that didn't matter to my bets. He rolled, 9, 3, 11, 5, 10, 2, 12, 9, 9, 5 ...10 numbers in a row with no loser 7s but didn't win on my 6, 4 or 8, either.

Finally, he rolled a 6 and I had a winner on my put bet and 10x odds. I kind of gave a smirk to the two naysayers, but nobody really said anything. We were all too busy cheering the shooter.
The next roll was a comeout, so my odds were off on the come bets. I bet $10 on pass. The shooter rolled a 7, so I won $10 on pass, lost the two $10 come bets and got to keep my odds. It was a long way to a small profit, but the odds on that put bet had me in the black.

CAL: I see most of the strange but true stories you get are from blackjack players. Mine is at Mississippi Stud.

There were three other players, and three of us took turns at getting four of a kind. I felt bad for the one who missed.

I was first. I was dealt a pair of Queens, so I knew I couldn't do any worse than an even-money payoff. I made all three 3x raises, so I had a $10 base bet and three $30 raises.

The first community card was my third Queen. Then came a 9, which was no help, but the last card was the fourth Queen. My bets were paid at 40-1. I even had to sign a tax form.

Next, another player made the maximum raises from the start. She finished with four 6s, so that was a big winner, too. Then a young man, still in his 20s I'd say, got four 10s. Another big payoff.

We were all rooting for the fourth player on the next hand, but no soap. We each tossed him a couple of chips, though. A miracle run like that was worth celebrating.