CRAPS PLAYERS WILL ALMOST universally say that craps is the most exciting game in the casinos. Even devotees of other games will probably grudgingly admit this too. Blackjack players, for example, can find it to be a real misery at tables because there are so many self-styled experts happy to regale them with their playing strategies. Roulette players donâ??t like it when their hands are pushed aside by other people placing chips on the same numbers.
Our game isnâ??t without its P.I.T.A. (pain-in-the [email protected]@) types, but we tend to overlook them. Perhaps it is the excitement that makes us forget the ploppies we run into while rolling the bones. But after a quarter century of play, I have them burned into my mindâ??s eye.
Take the whiner and complainer. Nothing can go right for this guy. If the shooter sevens-out right after establishing his point, the whiner and complainer whines and complains that the shooter stinks. If the shooter should roll a lot of numbers, the whiner and complainer will often parley his bets so that when the shooter finally sevens-out the whiner and complainer is the only one who has lost money on a good roll. Heâ??ll berate the shooter for not continuing his streak, as if the shooter has anything to do with anything at all in a random game of craps.
Take the drunk. Loud, obnoxious, smelly, often spilling his chips on the layout or vomiting on the player next to him or, worse, splashing his glop on the layout and playersâ?? chips. A dealer told me about one drunk who peed on her leg because he refused to leave a â??hotâ? table. Other drunks will throw the dice so hard they knock over the dealerâ??s chips or flies them off the table.
Take the darkside player who roots loudly for the 7. Certainly, he has the right to bet anyway he wants but his cheering really (really!) gets the goat of right bettersâ??which account for about 95 percent of the players. You wonâ??t find this type of P.I.T.A. often at the table as darkside players tend to be quiet and unobtrusive, but when such a one does start shouting for the 7, hate reigns at the table.
Check out the critic, who feels the need to tell people how to shoot the dice. â??Youâ??re taking too long!â? â??Wing them!â? â??You should set the dice.â? â??Loft them high into the air.â? â??Shooting that way wonâ??t help you win.â? People can shoot the dice anyway they want. If the dealers believe they are taking too much time or winging the dice too hard it is their responsibility to tell the player whatâ??s wrong.
And there are also dealers who can be bad boys (and girls) at the games. The ones who hold cross-talking conversations with each other as the game progresses are true irritants to many craps players who want the dealers to be concentrating on the games. Players believe (rightly) that the game is about the players, not about what parties the dealers went to or what games are being played that evening. The dealers who engage the players in fun conversations are the dealers who are beloved of craps players.
Then thereâ??s the comicâ??the dealers who make fun of players for whatever reason. These dealers have not yet learned that they have to act as if they like the public who are responsible (when all is said and done) for the dealersâ?? salaries. Making fun of players should be the ultimate â??no-noâ? taught the first day in dealer school.
The obnoxious player. You have to feel sorry for the dealers too. Iâ??ve seen players who have been so obnoxious to the dealers that it is a mystery as to why the dealers donâ??t just leap across the table and slug these folks. (Okay, theyâ??ll lose their jobs, thatâ??s why.)
The clueless. Probably the biggest P.I.T.A. are those craps playersâ??especially the ones who have been playing a long timeâ??who have no idea of the procedures of the game. They donâ??t understand when they can buy in. They have no clue as to the sequence of payouts for the winning bets. Some donâ??t even know what the payouts of the bets are.
Of course, the majority of the craps players and the dealers are no problem whatsoever. Still, it only takes one P.I.T.A. at a table to make the game far less pleasant than exciting.
BY FRANK SCOBLETE
