Betting The Limit

The Crapshooter
© 2000 by Larry Edell

I'm sure you've seen those little light posts on the tops of slot machines. If you are curious about them and ask a change girl what they signify (besides a blinking one to call the change girl over), you'll discover that they are color-coded to represent the minimum bets. Yellow means quarters, red means nickels and blue means dollars. So, now you can look across a casino floor and easily pick out where the nickel or quarter machines are located.

Craps tables have a similar system, which helps those of us who are visionally challenged (wear glasses). The limit signs posted on the tables are different colors, and correspond to the actual chip colors you use while betting.

• White - $1 or $2
• Red - $5
• Green - $25
• Black - $100

In addition, a $10 table sign is usually brown or gray. So, now you can just glance at a table and tell instantly what its minimum bet is.

But what if it's Saturday night and the table signs are all green, but you're a red chip player? Here's a way to easily lower the table limits.

Just bet pass and don't pass at the same time. Let's say you are a pass line player and wager only one red chip as your unit bet. You can place six red chips on the pass line, and five on the don't pass, so your net bet is only $5.

If you're a don't pass player, you can wager $30 on don't pass and $25 on pass, so again, all you are really betting is a total of $5.

Either way, however, you are vulnerable to the twelve, which rolls once every 36 rolls, but pays 30 to 1. So you can either take a chance and hope that the twelve doesn't roll while you are betting, or just bet $1 as insurance every time on the twelve -- a small price to pay to enable you to bet on a table with higher than your usual limits.

So the next time you see those light posts on slot machines, just think of craps -- and how to bet the limit.

And, as always, good luck at the tables!

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