Ask any group of craps players what constitutes a
hot or cold table and you are likely to get a variety of answers. Most veteran players can recognize a sizzling hot
or ice-cold table. Oh the other hand, the
majority of the players in the game misread choppy tables.
Too bad, since the tables are choppy the majority of the time.
Right
way players generally define a hot table as one that is producing a
significant number of box numbers and passes relative to the
number of sevens being rolled. A
cold table is one that is producing many seven outs relative to the number box
numbers rolled. A savvy bettor can easily
exploit either of these types of tables. However,
a choppy table - one that is kicking off a mixed set of results without any
obvious pattern is almost impossible to play profitably.
Weve
all heard that craps is a game of independent trials, and that past observations do not
necessarily indicate future results. And
its true that tables have a way of changing directions suddenly and for no apparent
reason. But there is a certain rhythm to the
game. Tables run hot, then cold, with a lot
of other stuff happening in between. I
sometimes compare this shifting temperature/cycle of the table with the swinging of a
pendulum. Imagine that at one end of the
swing you have a very hot table and at the other end of the swing
the table is ice cold. The pendulum
continually swings back and forth from hot to cold and back again. The vast majority of the time the pendulum is
swinging toward hot or cold, or away from cold or hot.
But most of the time its somewhere in the middle where there is no
exploitable trend.
With
that in mind its possible to sort the tables into five different categories. They are:
1. Cold Table
2. Cool Choppy Table
3. Choppy Table
4. Warm Choppy Table
5. Hot Table |
It
should come as no surprise that three of the five table categories are choppy. Thats the way it is in the Real World
Casinos. So how do you identify if a table
has an exploitable hot or cold trend? Here
are a two down and dirty charting techniques that might help.
Begin
by quickly scanning the tables before starting play.
Look for a table that producing results that fit your planned playing
strategy for the day. Then rate that table
based on the five categories listed above. Right
way players should look for a table in categories four or five. Dont players should look for a table in
categories one or two. Either the Do players
will be winning or the Dont players will be winning.
If everyone is losing then youre looking at chop.
Next,
you might take a look at Cycle
Length". Most of you have heard me talk
about Come Out Cycle plays and Point Cycle Plays. By
Cycle Length Im referring to the number of rolls between 7-outs. Craps statisticians
tell us there are an average of 3.5 rolls between a point being made or a seven-out
occurring. The average players hand is just a bit over eight rolls. Armed with that information, simply by counting
rolls you can determine if the table is showing long or short cycles. Generally right way players are looking for
long cycles, while Dont players are looking for short cycles.
Cycle length and table temperature are simply tools to use in table selection. Its true that the dice have no
memory. But they do have a history
and history has a way of repeating itself.
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