Craps Players
Some will scoff at the idea of a “professional craps player,” thinking that a game of chance with such strong house odds could never be ripe for those who make a living at this casino favorite. However, there are strategies that regular craps players employ that at least turn them into those who are more than occasionally successful, while playing the exciting and risky game of craps. While the wisest advice that any professional gambler will give to a new player includes maintaining discipline and knowing when to quit while you still have money, there are at least some strategies to becoming a successful craps player, if not a professional one.
Are Professionals Out There?
To date, Internet searches for “professional craps players” turn up a wealth of discussions, forums and opinions—usually that it’s impossible to find one. While that may be a fair assertion, there are players enjoying the game of craps in brick and mortar casinos as well as online every day. Even if the smallest percentage of them, such as only 5 to 10% earn consistent winnings playing craps, that is enough to recognize in the areas of skill and mastery of the game.
Craps players don’t currently enjoy the same wealth of popularity and expansive coverage as professional poker or blackjack players. However, a number of players regularly visit the online craps tables, working hard to spend money wisely while betting smart odds bets in order to maximize a pass line bet. Undermining these players’ skill is unnecessary; clearly they have learned there are elements to watch for in successful craps strategy.
Knowing What To Watch To Successfully Play Craps
Like any game of chance, craps rests on probabilities, in this case of dice rolls. Statistically, a seven is the most commonly rolled number with two dice. The hierarchy works from there: 6 and 8 are the next most common, 5 and 9 follow, then 4 and 10, followed by 3 and 11, with 2 and 12 bringing up the tail as the least rolled. After hundreds of dice rolls, you can statistically count these odds. Therefore, watching dice patterns, numerical sequences and the approximate frequency of high probability numbers is one helpful guide to playing craps successfully.
Once you watch the ebb and flow of the dice, you learn that over a certain number of minutes or hours the table can become “hot or cold” depending on the quantity of play at that table. When these table trends start becoming noticeable, the wisest craps players continue to do what they know best: bet smart, adding odds bets to the pass line bets and sometimes waiting without betting on a particular roll, or series of rolls.
Discipline Is The Key
For any variety of professional gambler, discipline is the highest value he must maintain. Self-management is actually more crucial than bankroll management. Within the wider scope of life, a professional bettor holds the value of his game in proper balance with the value of other relationships, personal financial responsibility and effective use of skills and resources. No professional, regardless of her career field, would be considered a success if she simultaneously ruined every relationship she encountered, spent every penny and found herself literally “living at her job” in an addictive way.
Professional gambling, whether as an established professional poker player or rising professional craps player, requires a player to understand that even as a “job” or livelihood, the game is not everything. Winning odds and losing odds are still in a mathematical balance. Luck is not a guarantor of hitting a jackpot. The discipline of knowing when to leave the craps table, and doing it, especially while you still have money in your pocket, is perhaps the most fundamental skill any level of player would do well to employ.
