Article Archives

Let’s face it. Casino dealers are some of the most overworked and under appreciated people you will ever meet. They put in long hours bent over a table servicing people who are generally at their worst – drunk and losing. Sure, you’ll run across the occasional rude or inept...

According to the good folks at Wikipedia, “Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.”

What that means is this. Let’s say you believe that a…

Hop bets, prop bets, and the many side bets available are the crack cocaine of craps. Savvy players know when to avoid them except for their entertainment value. But when they win the payoffs are fantastic.

No, I’m not talking about making a trip to Gambler’s General Store and investing in a table for your home.  I’m talking about taking ownership of the table whenever you have the dice – which, by the way, you ALSO take ownership of.  One of the best ways to...

Why do you play craps?  If you’re like me you play for two reasons.  First, you want to win some of that money the casino keeps in the cage.  Second, you enjoy the action.  It’s just a fun game, and playing with a partner is a great way to...

For many of us a $12 Six and Eight or $22 Inside was our first venture into Place Betting.  We’d read all of the books recommending Pass Line with Odds and two or three Come Bets with Odds as the best way to play.  We’d had some success, but...

One of the topics we frequently touch on on the Axis Power Craps Forum is whether or not a DI should work his bets on the Come Out. My late Uncle Hubert – the original “Heavy” – would have told you that if you turn that “ON” button upside...

If you’re new to craps or don’t have a lot of experience playing the Don’ts it can be easy to get confused at first. To help you over the hump here’s a quick primer on how the dark side is played. The Don’t Pass bet is exactly the opposite...

In recent years we’ve seen a spate of what I refer to as “carnival bets” at craps and other casino games. Carnival bets are essentially high vig side bets designed to separate the player from his money in what we used to call the old “suck and pull.” They...

Okay, there’s an article title you won’t see every day.  Unfortunately, if you play craps regularly it’s an issue you’ll often face and need to know how to handle.  And the first step in addressing this question is to define what the hell a dickwad is. I think most...

The Hydra is a monster from Greek Mythology. You may recall it. If you cut off one of its heads two more grow back in its place. So the two-headed monster becomes a four headed monster, etc. It’s also my name for any “hybrid” system that consists of bets...

From time to time a player will ask me if I’ve ever noticed that every craps book ever written seems to start out with sixty or seventy pages of the same old stuff on how to play the game. They tell the history of the game, describe the modern...

You may have seen the article awhile back about the restaurant worker who protested for a $15 an hour minimum wage in his Pacific Northwest city. The city passed an ordinance that required restaurants to pay a $15 minimum wage and over the next few months over 400 restaurant...

Through the years I’ve often been at odds with “the math guys” over the correct way to play craps.  Wait a minute. Let me grab a book by a random math guy and see what he recommends as the correct way to play craps. Here’s one. Avery Cardoza’s Casino...

The Craps Mini Field-Place System Tested by Steve “Heavy” Haltom Regardless of the fact that no system out there will beat a negative expectation game over the long run, articles about betting systems and strategies seem to get far more positive comments from readers than any other articles we...

One of the problems old-timers like myself have with craps revolves around the fact that it’s a stand-up game.  As players age and develop some of the diseases that go along with aging – diabetes and arthritis just to name two – standing at the table for long periods...

From time to time I like to go to the tables for what I’ll kindly refer to as a “dead head” session. One where I don’t have to think excessively about betting strategies. Something simple, like flat betting the Don’t Pass. There are many different betting progressions out there...

Through the years I’ve talked a lot about Left Brain versus Right Brain theory. The brain has two separate hemispheres, and each is responsible for different areas of activity. As the theory goes, your Left Brain is better at doing some things and your Right Brain is better at...

Awhile back I wrote an article titled “Your Left Brain is a Lousy Crapshooster.” In it I addressed the fact that the brain is divided into two distinct hemispheres – each with its own well defined function. The right brain is the center of creativity. It’s in charge of...

After about 15 years of teaching other players the Do’s and Don’ts of craps it’s become apparent to me that we all live our lives more or less like actors in a play. There are good guys and bad buys, winners and losers, supporting characters and character actors. Depending...