Craps is a high-energy casino game which is featured in casinos around the world but many gamers walk past the craps table without even trying it. Some say that the pace is too fast while others are confused by the betting table. Actually, craps offers a fun-filled gaming adventure with multiple opportunities to win real money prizes through responsible online gambling
practices. Over the years, legends have grown around famous craps players and incidents. These legends are now part of casino lore which craps aficionados can enjoy while they engage in their own craps adventure.
What are Craps?
When you play craps, you wager on the outcome of dice rolls. Before the dice are rolled, players bet on their predictions of what the outcome will be of the dice roll.
The game revolves around players betting on the outcome of rolls of a pair of dice.
The game starts when the players place their bets on the outcome of the roll. Then the “shooter” rolls the dice. The shooter continues to roll the dice until he decides to stop shooting or until he rolls a seven (“seven out”).
Bets include:
- Pass Line Bet -- a wager that predicts that the shooter will win.
- Come Bet – a wager that’s placed after the point is established, similar to the Pass Line Bet.
- Don’t Pass Line Bet – a wager that predicts that the shooter will lose.
- Don’t Come Bet – a wager that’s placed after the point is established, similar to the Don’t Pass Line Bet.
- Field Bet – ש 'ager on specific numbers to be rolled on the next roll (2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12).
- Place Bet – a wager on specific numbers that will be rolled before the seven is rolled.
- Proposition Bets – a wager on specific outcomes, to be rolled once.
The Come-Out Roll is the first roll in a betting round. The outcome can vary, depending on the total of the dice.
- If a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 is rolled, that’s the "point." If the come-out roll establishes a point, the shooter continues to roll until he rolls a seven (a win for Don’t Pass Bets and a loss for Pass Line Bets) or until they roll the point number again (a loss for Don't Pass Bets and a win for Pass Line Bets).
- If the total is 7 or 11, Don't Pass Bets lose and Pass Line Bets win.
- If the total is “craps” (2, 3, or 12), Pass Line Bets lose and Don't Pass Bets win.
If the shooter rolls a seven before he rolls the point number again, he "sevens out," and the dice passes to the next player.
Craps Stories
Since it was introduced into casinos, craps has been a magnet for drama, excitement and legendary stories. Some of the most famous craps stories include:
Grandma Pat
Pat Demauro, a grandmother from Denville New Jersey, set a record for the longest ‘Golden Arm’ – when craps players roll the dice for over an hour without losing -- when she rolled a massive 154 times for 25 point numbers, Demauro was a novice craps player but over the course of four hours and 18 minutes she won hundreds of thousands of dollars while casino security watched intently.
Demauro started her gaming session with a mere $100 in 2009 when she arrived at the Atlantic City Borgata. After 4 hours she had broken the previous record for consecutive rolls, set 20 years before and cemented her membership in the “Platinum Arm Club” which honors players who roll for 90 minutes without ‘sevening out’.
Stanley Fujitake
Stanley Funitake played at the California Casino in downtown Las Vegas in 1989 where he was a regular dice player. He strolled up to the dice table and placed $5 on the pass line. He started shooting and didn’t stop for 3 hours as the chips flew. The crowd grew as other players tried to place bets at Funitake’s table – dealers started to issue casino script (credit) when they saw that they couldn't get fills to the table fast enough because people were holding onto their chips rather than cash them out.
By the end of his hot roll, Fujitake had rolled the dice 118 times, resulting in 18 pass line winners. His take for the evening was $30,000 but others scored even bigger. Until Pat Demauro’s run at the Borgata in 2009, Fujitake held the record for the longest shoot and the casino has memorialized his amazing roll in a glass trophy case with a bronze hand shown holding the winning dice.
Archie Karas
Vegas won’t soon forget Archie Karas who had a well-deserved reputation for “giving it all he got” as a poker player when he headed to Las Vegas with his last $50 in 1992. As a poker player Karas alternated between winning millions and losing millions. On his 1992 trip, after a losing streak in Los Angeles, he parlayed his last $50 into a $10,000 loan and then managed to turn that into $17 million at the poker and billiards tables.
He moved to Binions Horseshoe where he played craps at $300,000 on the Come Bar and $100,000 a roll on the Pass Line. By the end of his winning streak, Karas was $40 million up.
The happy story, however, had a not-so-happy end. In 1995 as he lost all of his winnings playing poker, craps and baccarat. But he took it philosophically, telling Cigar Aficionado magazine, “You've got to understand something. Money means nothing to me. I don't value it. I've had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want, money can't buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don't care about money, so I have no fear. I don't care if I lose it.”
Try your luck at the craps table and see how you match up to these stories!
