low-roller craps questions

First of all, thank you to all the craps experts on this forum. This site is an amazing source of knowledge and intersting, friendly discussion.

1) I know it depends on the day/time... but where are the most likely options for $3 (or even $1) craps on The Strip? How about downtown?

2) Once I find a $3 table... how do they handle the "x-to-5" or "y-to-6" payouts? Do they have 50cent cheques? 25cent cheques? Or is it like a $5 table, where if you want the full "y" on the "y-to-6" payout, you need to bet the $6?

On our last trip (Jan-Feb), they had $3 craps w/ 5x odds at the Sahara. They only had $1 chips on the low end. Wins were rounded down if it was less than a full dollar. The dealers made sure people knew when they bet an amount that would not result in a full payout.

This table was great for my style of play...3 pass/come bets with full odds and I only have $54 on the board.

The table was $3 in the afternoon and early evening, but they were quick to flip the card and change it to $5 when the table had more than about five people on it in the evening.

I enjoy playing at the Sahara. The dealers are good and the drinks are pretty quick. Drinks at slots were not as good as at the tables.

2 - Joker's Wild, Boulder Highway & Warm Springs Road, Henderson

It's about 13 miles from the strip. A cabbie at Sahara gave me an estimate of $30.

I've never been there, but the word is that they use quarters, so you can press those place bets by $1.25/$1.50.

Thier website advertises $1 craps, $2 on weekends.
http://www.jokerswildcasino.com/casino-gaming/table-games

I'm definately heading there on my next trip.

Joker's Wild is the quintessential locals casino, along with the Eldorado in the mid 1960's, the tiny foundation of the Boyd empire today. There is no hotel at either location.

Usually you round your odds to $6 in most places to keep payment in even dollars. Most places don't want to deal in change anymore.

Quote: minnevegas

First of all, thank you to all the craps experts on this forum. This site is an amazing source of knowledge and intersting, friendly discussion.

1) I know it depends on the day/time... but where are the most likely options for $3 (or even $1) craps on The Strip? How about downtown?

2) Once I find a $3 table... how do they handle the "x-to-5" or "y-to-6" payouts? Do they have 50cent cheques? 25cent cheques? Or is it like a $5 table, where if you want the full "y" on the "y-to-6" payout, you need to bet the $6?

As far as I know, Slots of Fun in front of Circus Circus has $3 craps all the time on their 1 table thats nearly on the sidewalk. Not sure what the max odds are there.

Yeah, your best option for the strip is the north strip places, like Circus, Slots a fun, or Riveria/Stratopshere. You will certainly find $3 craps downtown if you look around a bit. Minimums change so often it's hard to be sure, but a good bet would be El Cortez, Golden Gate or Binion's. Don't play at Plaza/Vegas Club, unless you want to be mispaid every other roll.

Check out the Wizard's craps survey and nextshooter.com.

Quote: minnevegas

First of all, thank you to all the craps experts on this forum. This site is an amazing source of knowledge and intersting, friendly discussion.

1) I know it depends on the day/time... but where are the most likely options for $3 (or even $1) craps on The Strip? How about downtown?

2) Once I find a $3 table... how do they handle the "x-to-5" or "y-to-6" payouts? Do they have 50cent cheques? 25cent cheques? Or is it like a $5 table, where if you want the full "y" on the "y-to-6" payout, you need to bet the $6?

The Fremont downtown advertises $3 craps 24-7, and they have 50 cent chips.

Most, if not all, of the downtown joints are capable of having a $3 game during the early mornings. I even partook in a $1 minimum game at Binion's.

Slots-A-Fun has 3,4,5X odds. The casino has given up it's separate license and is now part of Circus Circus. O'Sheas was never a separate casino, it was always a marketing arm of Flamingo.

The minimum bets in the small places like Joker's Wild on Boulder strip are even better than downtown. Keep in mind that they have only one craps table.

Every place that doesn't have 50 cent chips will let you go up from the specified max free odds for the 5/9 bet so that the pay is in even dollars.

While $1 is standard at Joker's Wild, it usually only happens after 3AM at Binion's, and even that is on a night by night basis. If you are betting that low, they expect you to take full odds, and bet all or most of the come bets. That is actually kind of fun.

Personally, I don't understand why you would play baccarat instead of free odds on craps. The percentages are so much better on craps (even if you only do 3,4,5x).

Quote: pacomartin

If you are betting that low, they expect you to take full odds, and bet all or most of the come bets. That is actually kind of fun.

I imagine it might be fun. I usually do a LineBet and then at least two ComeBets.

So the considerations would be:
Guaranteed or likely.
One or multiple craps tables.
Nearby or Distant. (That 30 dollar cab ride only makes sense if there is some other reason for your wanting to go there)
Alternative activities at that casino.

I wouldn't pay $30 each way to take a taxi from the strip to Joker's Wild. You could plan a Boyd gaming trip with a car, and stay in one of their decent hotels like Orleans or Suncoast. Use your car to venture to their minor properties to look for some hard core gambling, and collect Boyd loyalty club points.


Suncoast has better golf, while Orleans has a lot of dining options, bowling and movies and is close to the strip.

Boyd has 9 properties in urban Vegas. Joker's Wild and Eldorado are the oldest ones and are the only two without hotel rooms.

How about some advice for a newbie craps player?
Harrahs Cherokee is the place I am going to play. It is $2 minimum and only 2X odds. Not good, but the next closest place with better odds is a 6.5 hour drive versus a 2 hour drive. The game is electronic, no real dice, but they are giving us free rooms, food, and golf, so I thought I would try it out. My bankroll for craps will be $300.
I am looking for some advice on betting. I am open to playing the Pass or Don't Pass. How should I start and how should I press and when should I pull out my profits if I find myself on a good role?
Thanks in advance for any direction you can give me. I am going May 10-11 and I will report back here on the game that I find there.

Quote: timberjim

How about some advice for a newbie craps player?
Harrahs Cherokee is the place I am going to play. It is $2 minimum and only 2X odds. Not good, but the next closest place with better odds is a 6.5 hour drive versus a 2 hour drive. The game is electronic, no real dice, but they are giving us free rooms, food, and golf, so I thought I would try it out. My bankroll for craps will be $300.
I am looking for some advice on betting. I am open to playing the Pass or Don't Pass. How should I start and how should I press and when should I pull out my profits if I find myself on a good role?
Thanks in advance for any direction you can give me. I am going May 10-11 and I will report back here on the game that I find there.

I would recommend betting pass + 2x odds, then come + odds on each roll. Someone who knows this better can do the math, but I think unless you have a ridiculous bad streak then you should be able to last awhile at $2 on the pass/come.

Honestly though, I would stay away from these electronic games for a game like craps. You can learn all you want playing the Wizard's game and reading up on it, but in the end you'll figure out your way to play by watching other people throw down bets. When you start out, you usually only know about pass + odds... then you learn place bets... then you learn the middle of the table... then you realize what the come bet actually is. You'll miss out on everything else, unless you're just being modest about being a "newbie". Also, aside from the Wizard telling people to not interact with people at a craps tables, the best "friends" I have made in casinos have been with my fellow players at craps tables during good runs.

So in the end, for both educational and fun reasons, it is my opinion that you play at a real table even if you have a higher minimum. I would assume that you can't, one of those weird state laws, so by that you should play pass + 2x odds then either/or: place the 6/8 for 3.50 assuming you can get paid in quarters or come/odds. I believe the variance and fun-action of placing 3.50 is more tolerable.

Quote: timberjim

How about some advice for a newbie craps player?
Harrahs Cherokee is the place I am going to play. It is $2 minimum and only 2X odds. Not good, but the next closest place with better odds is a 6.5 hour drive versus a 2 hour drive. The game is electronic, no real dice, but they are giving us free rooms, food, and golf, so I thought I would try it out. My bankroll for craps will be $300.

You are getting free rooms, food, and golf and you have a $300 bankroll and you are making $2 bets at low house advantage? You can't complain about only having 2X odds if you are getting all that.

Play the pass line, place the 6 or the 8, play the come line, and maximize your odds. These are the five bets in craps with the lowest HA. If you get bored switch to the don't pass and the don't come. Many people dislike the idea of putting more money down than they win.

I don't know how you place the 6 or the 8 with only $2. I would suggest you place $6 on these bets. You will then be paid $7.

If you want to buy the 4 or the 10, they usually require a minimum bet of $20 since there is often a minimum $1 vig. Ask your casino what are the rules.

Since craps is meant to be a group activity, you are losing a lot by switching to an electronic version. I think low limit blackjack on an electronic machine can be fun, but I would hate to play craps on one. It is a very tactile game, and the group win can be very exciting.

I assume that it is one of the Shufflemaster games :

* Rapid Craps™
* Rapid Baccarat™
* Rapid Roulette®
* Rapid Sic Bo™

Cherokee is not a casino. It's a bingo hall dressed up to look like a casino.

I.E. All of the machines are Class II - They are actually playing bingo, but displaying the results as the type of game you think you are playing.

There are no real craps tables. Or Roulette. Or Bacarat. Or BlackJack.

Or 'Rapid' versions of those games.

There ARE (or at least used to be) BlackJack tables with live dealers and using chips to bet, but the 'cards' are video.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

They are actually playing bingo, but displaying the results as the type of game you think you are playing.

how do they do that?

The main difference is that a Class II machine works on a bingo based mechanism, while a Class III machine works on a random number generator based mechanism (RNG for short).

Class II Games

A Class II slot machine does not generate its own results. They're connected to a "system controller" which basically does a bingo drawing every time a slot player spins the reels and then feeds the results to the slot machine. Obviously it's not a standard bingo game that draws numbered letters like "B1" and "O71". The numbers are set up on a grid though, just like a regular bingo game, and the patterns on the grid correspond to the payout patterns for the slot game.

One thing that's interesting about a Class II slot machine is that a winning pattern will cause the reels to land in a winning combination, but a losing pattern will cause the reels to land randomly in any non-winning combination.

Class III Games

Class III slot machine games are far more common throughout the country, especially in popular gambling destinations like Las Vegas. These slots use a random number generator to determine their results. This RNG (short for random number generator) is a tiny computer that is constantly generating random numbers. When you hit the "spin" button on the slot machine, the random number that is "active" on the exact millisecond that the processor receives your bet determines the outcome of the spin.

These RNG type slot machines can be set to have any type of payout percentages allowed by the applicable gaming commission's regulations.

Differences in Class II and Class III Slot Games

So the difference in the two types of games is pretty much indistinguishable from a player perspective. It's a behind-the-scenes type difference.

The Class II machines were invented as a way to give the slot machine feel to districts where only BINGO was licensed.

I don't understand the details behind how they can make a bingo game look like slots, poker, BJ, roulette, craps, or anything else.

But Wikepedia has a good explaination of the characteristics and rules, and difference between Class II (bingo), and Class III (What a normal person considers a slot machine):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machine#Slot_machine_classes

Note that even Craps on a Class III machine, where a random number generator 'throws' two dice, it's still lumped into the general category of a slot machine.

Quote: pacomartin

So the difference in the two types of games is pretty much indistinguishable from a player perspective. It's a behind-the-scenes type difference.

In slots that may be so. but if they have VP machines, then the difference is huge. For one thing on a Class II VP machine, good or bad strategy would play the same, likewise in any sort of video BJ.

My visit went well. The rooms are very nice. The food is just OK. Golf was great and we will return just to play the course again. The place seemed very busy to me for a Monday afternoon. Good selection of slots, including a newly opened addition. Unfortunately, the ongoing additions have caused them to close the non-smoking area. This is a real problem here because of the incredible number of heavy smokers. As previously discussed, there is only electronic gaming here. No real cards or dice.
The craps game consisted of a large screen with seats for six players to sit in front of. Each player has their own screen which was easy to use and understand. I have always wanted to play craps at casinos but have been intimidated by all the activity going on. I studied play and practised on the Wizards site. The first session was fun because I was finally playing for real money and it was not intimidating at all to sit down at the screen. The suggestions from people on this site were very helpful. I actually made a little money also. The next day, I tried another session. It quickly became very boring even though I won back some of the money I had lost on slots. I completely agree with the posters here that have commented on this aspect of electronic craps game. I will not play it again, but it has given me the nerve to hit the REAL TABLES!!! Biloxi will be my next trip.
Overall, the Harrahs Cherokee is a very nice hotel and casino for slot players, but beware of all the smoke.