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Mad Professor's Mini-Table Craps Tour with the Vegas Ghost- Part III In
Part II
of
this series, we visited the shrine of Las Vegas mini-table Precision-Shooting: Casino
Royale.
We
continue our trip of mini-tubs and Crapshoot tables with Mel, the Vegas Ghost. He is a senior casino executive in his regular
job, and a serious gambler in what he calls his real job.
Our next
target for this leg of the Mini-Tub Tour is the: Holiday Inn Boardwalk
Yep, thar
she be, in all her Coney Island-esque splendor.
The
Cyclone roller-coaster isnt real, the Ferris-wheel isnt real, the
Parachute-Drop isnt real, the salt-water taffy is barely real, and the twenty-foot
high clown face is real
scary.
However,
we are here for some REAL mini-tub crap-shooting profit, and Im pretty confident
that well be able to grab at least some of it from this casino.
The
Boardwalk Casino is located on Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip), between NewYork-NewYork
and the Monte Carlo Resort-Casino. That puts
it directly across the street from the MGM Grand, Polo Towers and close to The Aladdin
Hotel, Bellagio, Excalibur and Tropicana.
At 33,000
square foot, this casino is on par with Fitzgeralds, Lady Luck and Casino Royale in size. Its not too big, and it makes finding
family, friends, or playing partners quite easy. It
rarely feels crowded, although there is quite a bit of impulse walk-in traffic that the
more than 30,000 guest-rooms from the nearby mega-resorts generate.
Mel and I
drove here from Casino Royale. The distance
is about one-mile, but driving time can very from 5 or 6 minutes during a mid-week early
morning, to 45 or 50 minutes on a weekend evening. Traffic in the heart of the Strip is
generally heavy now about eighteen hours a day.
Like
Casino Royale, they too have surface parking out back, however the walk from your car to
the craps table is a good five-minute jaunt.
Dont
expect to be impressed with the amenities or dramatic opulence here
there simply
isnt any. Buddy, this is a Holiday Inn. Even though it is owned by MGM-Mirage, you
wont find any lions, tigers, or bears here unless you telephone one of those
specialty outcall (escort/hooker) agencies for some of their unique services. In which case, youll probably end up wearing
a heavily-stained sheep costume while disciplinarian Little Bo Peep wields a
bull-hide whip, as she herds you into your leather branding-restraints. Boardwalks Tub Tables One
of the great things about the Boardwalk gaming-house is their mini-tub tables. I dont normally concentrate much play on
them. Rather, Ill get in about one
session every week or so. As well, I try to
spread my mini-table action around town. There
are ten official small-table locations in and around Las Vegas, plus a couple
more places that install the mid-table bumper-boards to reduce regular-sized
tables into one or two dealer operations during the slower off-hours. Here
is what the Boardwalk table looks like.
As you can see, the table is made to
accommodate 10 players, but realistically, only 8-players can comfortably engage in the
game without undue discomfort.
Dice-Size and Adapting Your Throw
The
Holiday Inn-Boardwalk is home to two of these tub-style craps tables. They use a mini-stick and mini-dice. The dice are of the 5/8th inch size. That means they are 1/8th inch smaller
than conventional 3/4 inch dice, and 1/16th inch smaller than the medium-sized
11/16th inch dice that are found in most of Harrahs nationwide casinos.
Does 1/8th
inch less on each side of the dice-cube affect their outcome or your Precision-Shooting
efforts?
For me,
yes, I can definitely feel the difference in size. Others
claim that they cant. Dice size is just
one more thing that a Precision-Shooter has to adapt to.
Perhaps
it all depends on how sensitive your fingers are. If
you are involved in heavy labor or if you are a smoker, then your fingertips may not be
quite as sensitive. In addition, the
size of your own hand or the thickness of your fingers may come into play in being able to
differentiate various dice sizes.
For the
general public, most people are not attuned to look for a difference, and therefore cannot
feel or sense that tiny size disparity. They
just pick and flick or throw and sow the dice without any
meaningful precision or forethought.
The Mad Professors Tub-Table
Grip & Throw
To adapt
to the dice size difference, I keep my grip a fair bit looser, and ensure that the force
of my toss is a lot lighter. After all, the
far wall is less than five feet away. If you
are standing next to the stick-man, the far wall is about 42-inches away from your dice
release-point on these tables.
I use
virtually no backspin upon release, and the height of my arm at the release-point insures
that the dice drop into their initial touch-down point at a 60-to-75 degree angle, and
land about 2-to-3-inches from the backwall. Roll-out
of the dice is virtually non-existent as they just gently slide into and nudge the
bumper-rubber and stop dead.
However,
instead of using a mortar-like trajectory, I use a sort of shot-put throw so that I
push the dice through the air and release them as though it was a
carnival-type game where you are trying to throw a pebble (or a clothes-pin) into an
old-style milk bottle. With this approach, I
achieve a dead-cat bounce about 60% to 70% of the time.
Normally
a 40-to-45 degree landing angle would produce satisfactory results on quite a few
normal-length tables, but on the ultra short ones, that usually isnt
good enough. Therefore, on the Boardwalk
tables, I use that 60-to-75 degree angle on the initial touch down. It makes a HUGE difference in achieving the
dead-cat bounce with a very high frequency of occurrence. Of course, the short length of the throw definitely
aids in that accomplishment as well. Dice-Setting Policy A lot has been written about
dice-setting on these particular tables. The
question is whether or not they allow dice-setting AT ALL.
Im going to give you my take on that subject based on my experience. Your own experiences, just like your own cars fuel
economy, may vary. If it does, Ill show
you how to bring your dice-setting opportunities at the Boardwalk Casino more in line with
mine. Generally, you are NOT supposed to arrange or set the dice in this casino. However, depending on the crew, and who is working the pit, and if you are an early and consistent tipper, the stickman MAY deliver the dice in a requested set to the shooter. Again this is toke and pit dependant. A number of Boardwalk dealers have made obscene amounts of tokes off of me and other like-minded professional Precision-Shooting players when the situation is right. You have to understand that the dealers WILL NOT jeopardize their jobs just to accommodate your wishes. Instead, if the coast is clear they will permit you to covertly set the dice, but it is up to you to do it quickly, efficiently and virtually unnoticeably. Otherwise, expect them to say, Hey guy, just pick em, and flick em. In our next installment of the Mini-Table Tour, Ill share my secrets for setting the dice so that your dice-arranging goes completely unnoticed.
Table Action The two tub-tables here are almost ALWAYS of the $3 or $5 variety. They NEVER drop below the $3 level, and RARELY rise above the $5 level. Their
bet-action tolerance is pretty low. The
concept of being a successful and consistent Precision-Shooter, is not to
draw any undue attention from the Floor-Supervisor, and especially NONE from the Pit Boss. That means that you have to keep your bets quite
low, and you have to shield your profit by bleeding-off any excess green ($25) chips from
your rail. That also
means that they do not like to see green Pass Line action, especially from a
lucky player. A flat Pass Line
bet from $3 to $15 is okay
and $20 would be pushing it. They
allow 5x-Odds, so that means you could have close to $100 in Odds action
on your PL bet, but that too generally raises undue attention. Im not saying that you shouldnt
usually take max-Odds on your bets, but if you do it at the Boardwalk; then be prepared
for closer scrutiny from the Pit. Over the
past couple of years, they have become more risk-averse, and seeing full 5x
odds, makes them a little nervous, especially if you are winning.
Avoiding HEAT If you
are the type of person who says, To hell with them, Im going to bet as large
as I want, especially if they are offering 5x-Odds, or you are the type of person
who LIKES to see a Pit Boss get that concerned look on his face as he starts to sweat the
money
then your joy, happiness and smugness at the Holiday Inn-Boardwalk will
DEFINITELY be short-lived, and you can expect your Precision-Shooting rolls to be STOPPED! Once
youve burned your bridge because of greed, avarice, irresponsibility or immaturity;
then you can be sure that every one of your rolls from there on out MUST be random, or
theyll simply no roll you, and pass the dice to the next shooter. You can be certain that the dealers are no longer
on YOUR side. Oh, and
by the way, when that happens, you cant have your Pass Line bet back until either it
wins or loses at the hands of the next (RANDOM) shooter in line. Cockiness has a price, and at the Boardwalk, the
cost is paid by being cast into the burning hell-fire of random-rolling. So even
though they offer 5x-Odds, if your Pass Line flat bet gets much beyond $10 or $15, I would
recommend no more than 3x-Odds to back up your Pass Line or Come-bet action. Listen,
you dont have to agree with me. I only
do this Precision-Shooting thing for a living, and I know what they will tolerate and what
they wont tolerate at the Boardwalk, and I especially know what will bring the
heat. Remember the pig who over-eats at the trough and gets fattened the quickest, is usually the one who gets led to the slaughterhouse FIRST! More HEAT Avoidance Please remember that this is a low-rent tourist
joint. It aint Bellagio, brother. Keep your bets low so that
your winning opportunities will remain high.
If you
cant follow that simple advice, expect them to bring in the no-setting
heat, and expect it to be a non-stop high-intensity flame aimed directly at YOU! Oh, and dont say that I didnt warn
you! For
Place-bet action, its the same story. Try
not to go beyond the $20 or $30 mark. For
Come-bet amounts, you would follow the same parameters as the Pass Line. Again, we are trying to stay BELOW the radar of
the Floor-Supervisor, and not show ourselves as a player who has to be carefully watched.
How Much is
TOO Much? I have
eaten well (profit wise) from the Holiday Inn-Boardwalk trough in the past. However, I too want to safeguard the continued
good shooting opportunities that these tables represent.
The most
recent major score that I made out of this gaming-house was on my second last
visit with the Vegas Ghost. I chronicled that
odyssey in the Walking With A Vegas Ghost-Part IV
article. Following that big win, I realized that if I continued to hit them for such large amounts of money, it could spell the end of my good fortune at their tables. In fact, I realized that it was sheer stupidity to clobber them for such large amounts of money. That was more than a year ago, and Ive matured a tiny bit since then. I still play at these tables about once a week when I am in Vegas, but I now try to limit my take in the range of $200 to $400 in profit from them on any given visit. NO, I do
not win every time that I play there, but strict and LOW loss-limits keep the pain and
cost of infrequent failure to an absolute minimum.
Our Playing
Session When we
got to the Boardwalk Casino it was early afternoon. We
had enjoyed our lunch of Fettuccine Primavera, Foccaccia basil/sun-dried tomatoes and
black olives flatbread, and tiramisu for dessert at Casino Royales Café Trilussa. We were prepared for what we thought would be a
fairly crowded mini-tub at the Holiday Inn. Instead,
we were pleasantly surprised that the two dealers stood alone at the one open but
dead table. As we were walking
up to it, Mel said, Check your watch for the time, and then lets see how long
it takes to fill up with players. I knew
exactly what Mel was talking about. Superstitious
or socially-reserved players are reluctant to open or start a dead game. I love empty tables, but it is phenomenal
how quickly it will fill in as soon as other players see another person shooting the dice. Their reluctance and shyness seems to melt away as
soon as someone else breaks the cherry, so to speak. I
consider the Boardwalk tables to be like a steady girlfriend, as opposed to a one-night
stand. If you treat her with kindness and
respect; then the fun and pleasurable enjoyment can continue for the foreseeable future. Mel and I
both followed all of the advice that I set out earlier in this article. However, my first set of rolls didnt
generate anything resembling greatness. I
covered the cost of my bets and made a couple of bucks profit, but that was it. In fact,
Mel and I both had short and unremarkable hands for our first two turns. While we never lost money on any roll, the most I
made on one complete hand never exceeded $20, and even that was a struggle. On my
third opportunity with the dice, I finally got into a groove and shot well beyond forty
rolls. All of the Place numbers were
covered, but I never pressed any of them beyond the $30 mark, and I never allowed my
PL-Odds and Come-bet Odds to climb beyond a quarter ($25) either. While I
know that I could have made additional money in a more bet-tolerant casino, I
didnt want to over-do the money-extraction thing at a gaming-house that doesnt
want to give up the dough without a bloody fight. As if
right on cue, three guys came up to the table just as I had started my third hand. Midway through that roll, I managed to
squirrel-away quite a few $25 chips, especially after a whole table of blackjack players
came over and tried to squeeze too many bodies into an already half-full game. It seems that the only time that BJ players even consider playing craps is if they are doing lousy with the cards, and they hear a boisterous furor being raised at a hot craps table. Otherwise, they look down upon the game as being unbeatable. Funny, thats pretty much how the new Twenty-One (BJ) rules at a growing-majority of LV mega-resorts that pay 6-to-5 instead of the old 3-to-2 for a blackjack should probably be viewed. Keep telling yourself that player-greed and casino-fear wont affect the game of craps the way it has affected blackjack. I know that you have to get ready for the big cotillion tonight, so dont look now Scarlett but the Atlanta of Precision-Shooting can DEFINITELY be burned to the ground. Anyway,
my shooting-space shrank from normal-size down to cattle-car tightness, and I told Mel to
reduce his bets at the same time as I was reducing mine.
I knew that there was no way that I could even come close to continuing my
good rolling in such tight quarters. With new
players trying to reach in to place bets around the small perimeter of the table, it
seemed too disturbingly similar to slow- dancing with new cellmates named Bubba, Luther
and Jethro, and I had no intention of boogieing to that particular tune. I wasnt surprised when the 7-Out appeared
two rolls later, and I knew it was time to beat a retreat.
Reflections on
a Winning Session We had
been at the table for just over one hour. Neither
Mel nor I had colored-out before slipping away. The
Johnny-come-lately BJ-players had left a ton of their money on the table when my hand
ended. Part way
through my final hand, I noticed that the cocktail waitress hadnt even come around
once during our session. We both cashed out
our chips at the cage, and I told Mel I needed a drink before we moved on. He nodded his assent, as I headed for the
Boardwalk Deli. We both sat down, but neither
of us said a word for the first couple of minutes. I
reflected upon the fact that I had stuck to my game plan and didnt let greed
overrule my common-sense. Ill admit
that I was pleased with my efforts. Even
though the first couple of hands didnt go well, I minutely adjusted my
dice-targeting and didnt lose faith in my Precision-Shooting abilities. The desired results came without over-stressing or
over-thinking my throws. I also
knew that leaving the table without coloring-out, and while it was still full of
players, was another survival essential that I will keep in my Precision-Shooters
mini-table toolbox for the future. Mel
finally broke the reflective silence, and asked how much toke-money the dealers made off
of my last hand. I counted the quantity of
Pass-Line winners that I threw, and the Place-number frequent-hitters that I eventually
piggy-backed them on. We roughly figured that
the crew pulled in about $80 or $90 from my PL and Place action, and another $70 or $80
from Mels low-rent Hardway action. We
both gave a nodding shrug to what I said was a fair cost of doing business on the
mini-table tubs of the Boardwalk Casino.
We headed
to my car on the way to our next casino target. Join Mel
and I next time as we continue our Mini-Tub Tour of Las Vegas. Until then, Good Luck
& Good Skill at those Mini-Tables
and in Life. Sincerely, The Mad Professor |
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