Craps is my favorite casino game.  Everyone’s playing together, rooting for the same thing (except that a-hole betting the Don’t Pass — he can suck it), the dealers are the friendliest in gaming, and the house edge is small enough that even with a small bankroll, you can usually play for a long time.  The rules are complicated, but the basics are simple and the dealers and other players are always helpful.

Last night, I was on a pretty hot streak at the Sahara.  I was having a lot of fun and I had a lot of money on the table.  I usually only play the pass line, one come bet, and odds on each number, but every few rolls, I try to tip the dealers with a two-way hardway bet.  (Two-way bets are one bet for me and one bet for the dealers on the same roll.)  On one roll, I had a dollar chip on the hard eight.  When the guy next to me rolled a pair of fours, I was feeling frisky, so I called out “Parlay!”  I’ve never done that before — usually when a bet wins, I take my money and run, but by parlaying, I was letting my winnings ride, hoping for the 10-to-1 payoff to turn my original $1 bet into a black chip.

My neighbor rolled forever.  I am good at math.  I knew it was very unlikely to see that hard eight again, but I was watching for it eagerly, getting excited over the possibility of my big payout.  With every roll of the dice, my heart beat faster.  And I mean it, this guy rolled for ages.  He rolled about a dozen 3′s, 11′s, and 12′s, but didn’t hit his point or any 8′s.  After about five minutes of this, my heart was pounding like I’d just run a marathon, and I wasn’t even moving!

I could tell that the rest of the table was feeling the same way.  This guy wasn’t rolling 7′s, but he wasn’t hitting any numbers, either.  We were all on edge, and every time the dice went out, we’d all lean forward and look — then I saw a 4… My eyes darted around for the other die — ALSO A 4!  Before the dealers could call out “HARD EIGHT!” I was screaming like a teenager at a Justin Timberlake concert, jumping up and down and hugging the shooter.  I collected my black chip and took down my hard eight bet.  The next roll?  Seven out.

I think that roll is why my muscles are sore today.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 10:06 am and is filed under Vacation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.