Cache Creek raises craps minimum
Alan Shank
we drove out to Cache Creek Casino. I had not been out there for over
a year, I guess. The last time I was there, the minimum was $5, 3,4,5X
odds. Saturday night the minimum was $10, and when I mentioned that
they had raised the minimum, somebody said they had LOWERED it, so it
must have been all the way up to $15 at some point. The table was
crowded anyway. Since my wife and I are both retired and living on
pension, SSA and a small annuity, I have not been playing, but I
wanted these friends to get some reinforcement. I bought in for my
usual $200, and so did Adolfo, while the wives went straight to the
bar. They still use the same system of two 36-card decks, one dealt to
a blue box, one to a red one; the "shooter" throws a red die and a
blue die, one of which has just 4s and 1s, the other 3s and 2s.
Whichever color die has the higher number, that card is turned over
and gives the result. The second deck, meanwhile, is being shuffled in
the machine, so there is a fresh deck each "roll", no issue of
non-replacement.
I got the dice right away - point, took $10 odds, seven out. Down $20.
The next shooter made a 9 (won $25), a 5 (ditto), another 5 and
another 9 before sevening out. The next shooter had three comeout
sevens and a craps before sevening out. Adolfo tried a $5 horn high
eleven and hit a three. After a while, the dice turned away from the
"right side". I made about five two-way hardways on even-numbered
points, but not a one of them hit.
After about an hour, we left the table, down about $70 (Adolfo $45),
to go seek our wives in the bar and have a drink. Adolfo's wife was
toasted, so we left pretty soon after.
I wonder whether on slower weeknights the minimum might be back down
to $5. I would much rather play $5 on the line and take more odds,
cutting the expected loss in half.
I understand the Red Hawk casino, one of the newer ones in this area,
is hurting pretty bad. They don't have craps, nor does Thunder Valley.
I haven't been up to Colusa for several years, so I don't know whether
they still have their card-craps game.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Sancho Panza
"Alan Shank" <goat...@notoriousshankbrothers.com> wrote in message
news:864mg5p917mi91lp7...@4ax.com...
Tell California that Colorado has started craps, presumably not with the
cards, although IIRC Colorado does enforce low maximums. I'll probably be
up near Colusa in a couple of weeks, but that last experience with piss poor
dealing for the don'ts was really a turnoff.
Alan Shank
<otter...@xhotmail.com> wrote:
>Tell California that Colorado has started craps, presumably not with the
>cards, although IIRC Colorado does enforce low maximums. I'll probably be
>up near Colusa in a couple of weeks, but that last experience with piss poor
>dealing for the don'ts was really a turnoff.
I haven't been to Colusa in ages; not even sure they still run the
craps game there. Let me know if you go there, huh? And what's the
minimum.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Sancho Panza
Any relevant details from northern California to match this news from the
southern part of the state:
Card Craps
Last update: Nov. 3, 2009
According to the constitution of the state of California, dice alone may not
determine the outcome in craps. So what the casinos usually do is use some
combination of dice and playing cards, or playing cards alone, to simulate
the roll of two dice. My craps appendix 5 goes into detail about how several
different casinos do it.
Every six months, I make a trip to the San Diego area casinos. On October
25, 2009, I noticed a new game at the Viejas Casino called Card Craps.
Normally, when the California casinos offer craps, they are careful to keep
the odds the same as the conventional game. However, this is not the case
with Card Craps. It is my understanding that they use a 264-card shoe,
consisting of 44 cards each numbered 1 to 6. They take two cards out of a
shuffling machine to represent a roll of the dice. What makes the odds
different from a game with dice is the effect of removal. Whatever the first
card removed is, there will be 43 out of 263 of that card left in the shoe.
So, the probability of getting a pair is 43/263 = 16.35%, a little less than
the 16.67% you would have in a game with dice.
The following table shows the probability of each total from 2 to 12 under
the 264-card shoe rules at Viejas and a standard game using dice.
Probabilities in Card Craps
Dice Total 264 Cards Dice
2 2.7250% 2.7778%
3 5.5767% 5.5556%
4 8.3016% 8.3333%
5 11.1534% 11.1111%
6 13.8783% 13.8889%
7 16.7300% 16.6667%
8 13.8783% 13.8889%
9 11.1534% 11.1111%
10 8.3016% 8.3333%
11 5.5767% 5.5556%
12 2.7250% 2.7778%
Total 100.0000% 100.0000%
The next table shows the house edge for most bets under both the Viejas
rules and a standard game with dice.
Probabilities in Card Craps
Bet Pays 264 Cards Dice
Pass 1 to 1 1.3577% 1.4141%
Don't pass 1 to 1 1.3672% 1.3636%
Taking odds 4, 10 2 to 1 0.5063% 0.0000%
Taking odds 5, 9 3 to 2 0.0000% 0.0000%
Taking odds 6, 8 6 to 5 0.2484% 0.0000%
Laying odds 4, 10 1 to 2 -0.2532% 0.0000%
Laying odds 5, 9 2 to 3 0.0000% 0.0000%
Laying odds 6, 8 5 to 6 -0.2070% 0.0000%
Place 4, 10 9 to 5 7.1392% 6.6667%
Place 5, 9 7 to 5 4.0000% 4.0000%
Place 6, 8 7 to 6 1.7598% 1.5152%
Buy 4, 10 39 to 21 5.2441% 4.7619%
Buy 5, 9 29 to 21 4.7619% 4.7619%
Buy 6, 8 23 to 21 4.9985% 4.7619%
Lay 4, 10 19 to 41 2.1920% 2.439%
Lay 5, 9 19 to 31 3.2258% 3.2258%
Lay 6, 8 19 to 23 3.8012% 4.0000%
Field (12 pays 3 to 1)
3.1052% 2.7778%
Easy hops 15 to 1 10.7731% 11.1111%
Hard hops 30 to 1 15.5260% 13.8889%
What stands out in the table above is that laying odds on points of 4, 6, 8,
and 10 show the house edge in negative. In other words, the player has an
advantage! Of course, you have to make a negative expectation don't pass bet
first. However, the Viejas generously allows the player to lay up to 10X
odds, up to a maximum win of $1,000. That turns out to be enough to overcome
the loss on the don't pass bet. To be specific, if the player lays the full
odds on all points except 5 and 9, he can expect to win 0.001631 units per
come out roll. The average wager per come out roll is 7.6515 units. So, the
overall player advantage is 0.001631/7.6515 = 0.000213. It is pretty small,
but how often does the player have a chance to have the odds in his favor at
all?
The 0.16% profit per don't pass bet may actually be understated. That is
based on every "throw" coming from two random cards out of the 264-card
shoe. However, the game uses a continuous shuffler. The way these shufflers
work is with shelves. Any new cards coming in cannot be put into the top
shelf, where new cards are dealt from. So, unless a new shelf is reached,
there is a deeper penetration than just two cards. It is fairly obvious that
even a slight penetration will work in the favor of the don't pass bet. The
same cards used to get a point on the come out roll may not be available to
be drawn again until a new shelf is hit, making it disproportionately likely
to throw a seven instead, resulting in a win.
The brilliant new site discountgambling.net analyzes the effect of the
shuffler and calculates a player advantage of 1.8% per don't pass line bet
made. He goes on to introduce a card counting strategy to increase the
advantage even more. Even if you don't live anywhere near San Diego, this
site merits a visit. He has great material on Mississippi Stud and Ultimate
Texas Hold 'Em too.---wizardofodds.com