Ø       The last three to five rolls is when EVERYONE else is going to do their desperation moves too. 

The only way that angle works is if your desperation move is unmatched by anyone else’s desperation move AND the subsequent roll produces the exact results you need, AND that result then pushes you into the lead.  That’s a lot of things that have to go right for you to pull a win out of the fire.  It’s not as easy as pulling a rabbit out of a hat.  It’s more akin to pulling a hat out of a rabbit. 

Ø       If you wait until the last couple of rolls to make your BIG MOVE, just like everyone else, then there’s an excellent chance that you’ll LOSE just like everyone else too. 

Ø       The savviest tournament players often build a quick and commanding lead early in the hand so they can then match whatever any close-following chasers are doing.  That way they maintain a lock-step lead over their pursuers.

The best way to get around that is to start your ascent EARLY, and not wait for someone else to become the dominant leader like almost everyone else does. 

You’d be surprised at how often most players will hang back with ultra-conservative betting UNTIL someone else gets a huge lead and then they (and everyone else) starts betting like crazy. 

Herd-mentality is what keeps the sheep as sheep.  Skilled tournament players don’t wait for a leader to emerge…they take the lead for themselves…and rarely have to relinquish it.

I suppose most player like being part the “hunting pack” as opposed to being “the hunted”, but often times the chasing hounds get so far behind, that they lose sight of, or even the scent of their lead-prey.

I think that it's critically important to be able to do chip-rail value-estimating like a Table-game Supervisor does, so you can keep track of how everyone else is doing chip-wise at every roll along the way.

Therefore, it's important to be able to look at your rivals chip-rail and be able to estimate just how much further ahead or behind they are to you.

Ø       Almost right from the first roll, it is important to observe how various players are betting.

Ø       As each roll progresses, you'll see certain players break away from the pack and take a chip-lead position.

Ø       You have to gauge how far their bets are taking them, and how much it is going to take to catch up and surpass them based on your current bets versus theirs.

Ø       Keep in mind that calculators or writing materials are NOT usually allowed.  Additionally, talking to spectators or “spectator-coaching” is strictly prohibited in most events. 

Ø       That means that your spouse or friends can’t help you keep track of how everyone else is doing in their chip-count, nor can they provide any tactical betting advice.  You have to do it on your own.

Ø       Any chips that aren’t on the layout have to remain in a players rack in full view and are usually required to be arranged by denomination; so that makes your job of chip-estimating much easier.

Ø       You should learn how to estimate what a sideways-laying stack of 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 and 100 chips of the same denomination looks like.

Ø       You should be able to roughly add up and estimate what an opponent has in his chip-rail in less than five seconds.  Remember you want to keep tabs on ALL of your competitors. 

Ø       A good way to practice that in the casino during real-world play, is to look at your own stacks and accurately estimate how much is there.  You could also practice by looking at a fellow players chip-rail and estimating what they have too.  Just make sure you do it nonchalantly so they don’t think you are looking to pilfer their cheques or anything like that.

Ø       Equally, you want to observe and estimate how much each fellow contestant has on the layout.  By knowing which wager-position within each box–number corresponds with its correct table-position; you can keep an eye on what your nearest rivals are betting on and then properly gauge where the majority of your wagering-weight should be bet.

Ø       As each winning payoff is made, you should also be observing what each player does with his winnings.  Is he racking it, pressing it or parlaying it?  Is he spreading it across other box-numbers or is he putting up some Prop-bets in the center of the table?  Is he maxing-out his PL and Come-bet Odds or is he reducing any of his action? 

Ø       You have to observe what every player is doing, and then decipher how their moves are going to affect your position in the chip-count. 

Ø       When you get lazy and wait for the last two or three rolls because this all of sounds like too much work to go after $50,000 or $100,000 or $250,000; then at least you’ll have the Awards Banquet to fill your tummy as consolation, because your pocket certainly isn’t going to be filled with much, if any, tournament gold.

Team Play…Legal and Ethical, or Banned and Immoral?

Prior to a tournament, a group of like-minded entrants often decide to pool their chances of winning by agreeing to split the winning proceeds amongst themselves, if any participants in the team advances to the final round. That means, if any member of the team finishes “in the money”; then the prize-money is divided equally among them.

In and of itself, that is not a bad way to increase your chances of getting a piece of the pie. Though the eventual winner, if he is part of a team, has to split his top-prize with fellow teammates; it also means that he would have enjoyed just as big of a slice if someone else on his team had won and he finished in last place.

It's a "Share the wealth...share the pain" approach of increasing your chances of getting a slice of the prize-pie.

Did I mention that it isn’t a bad way to play IF THE RULES DON’T PROHIBIT team play? Ah yes, there’s always those darn tournament Rules and Regulations that we have to contend with.

Now why on earth would a casino put a “No Team Play” rule in place?

Well for one reason and one reason only. FAIR PLAY!

When you allow team play, you open up a whole can of worms that I only want to briefly touch upon here. The reason I don’t want to explore it in depth (despite my vast knowledge base on this subject) is because I know how pernicious and self-defeating the whole process can become.

As I mentioned in a previous chapter of this series, craps tournaments used to be quite popular and well attended back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s; however there was an air of collusion that pervaded many of the big-money tourneys from about ’96 through to late 2001. By the end of 2002, enrollment had dropped off to where ONLY teams were involved and the casino marketing departments knew that the whole idea of using tournaments to draw in fresh players and reward loyal ones had been supplanted by well-financed and highly-organized teams who were winning almost every big-money event from Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe/Reno to St. Maarten and Puerto Rico.

Collusion between team-members or at least the appearance of collusion between team-members or the temptation of collusion between team members where prize money sometimes tops hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially when teammates are at the same table in the same session and using betting methods that will vault one or the other far ahead of everyone else, is one of the principle reasons that Team Play is now strictly banned in most tournaments and also chief among the reasons that most casinos got out of the craps tournament business in the first place.

For example, if you have one team member go all out on the Rightside, while a fellow member at the same table goes all out on the Darkside; then you have a situation where one or the other can easily vault past everyone else.

When you stage two or more team members at the same table for each session, then you can almost guarantee that you'll populate subsequent-round tables with various members of your team too. Therefore, the likelihood of advancing one or more of your team into the Championship Round and into the much sought after prize-pool, is virtually assured...and almost always prohibited by today’s craps tournament rules.

 However, that isn’t always the case.

There’s been a fair bit of off-the-Message-Board discussions about the recent the Las Vegas Hilton’s $100,000 Craps Tournament.  As most of you know it was won by Randman who was part of a team made up of Axis and GTC alumni, Dice Coach students and others.  Prior to the tournament, they decided to pool their chances of winning and agreed to split the prize-money proceeds.  That meant that if any member of the team finished “in the money” then the prize-money would be divided equally among them.

As it happened, one of the team members did win the entire event, and good to the intent of the team, everyone shared in the prize money.  Since the tournament organizers didn’t object to team-play in that event, everything worked out exactly as planned.

Making A Side-Deal Before or During the Final Round

You’ll also see a different kind of ad hoc prize-splitting arrangement in nearly every kind of tournament when it comes down to just a handful of remaining participants. 

Often, the last five players will agree to split the entire Top Five prize-pool amongst themselves regardless of which of the five of them finish with the most tournament chips at the end of it all.  This isn’t a bad idea, nor have I ever seen it prohibited or discouraged by the rules.

We have more winning strategies and inside tips to cover in Part Four of this series; I hope you’ll join me for that.

Until then,

Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tournament Tables…and in Life.

Sincerely,

The Mad Professor

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