starting up a dice game at a party...

im thinking of trying to start up a game at a party my friend is having. i have never done such a thing before so im trying to think how to make it run smoothly.

some concerns are:
what to play with. cash or chips. chips sound easier for making bets but then i would have to guard the chip case all night and i wanna be able to walk around and do other things so that makes me wanna use cash.

what bets to accept. even money. try an accept all bets. not really sure.

alternate banker or always be bank.

i could make a lot more questions. anyone have comments or advice to give me.


it will be a really friendly crowd so im not worried abotu fights or anything like that. but i do wanna keep it smooth and no arguments.

One idea would be to have a Craps Tournament, run similarly to a Texas Hold'em Tournament.

Everyone buys in for the same amount, say $10, and receives $1,000 in chips. Play the game as you normally would, with the bank paying players and taking losing bets. The game is over when a predetermined number of orbits have been played; That is, each player has been the shooter the same number of times.

Winner are determined by player final chip count. Payouts can be determined by where each player placed, or by final percentage holdings.

You can make the game as tight or wild as you want. Single odds only? No hops bets? 10,000x fire bet? Crapless craps? It's all play money, so you don't have to worry about breaking the bank.

No matter how you run the game, let us know how it turns out.

You have already checked for local legality? the law in VA where I live is "legal if no rake", with some hedging on that to be able to shut down "operators". I would assume this means no "house advantage" as well as no rake.

I believe "street craps" handles this by passing the dice after a 7-out, thus no house advantage. Betting depends on others offering action.

If you wanted the casino atmosphere/rules and bought a felt layout to use, you'd have to think about how to handle that unless the local laws are different than I can imagine. If you just wanted the house to rotate, everyone would need to be able to make payouts; seems complicated.

I set up a game where we had a standard buy-in ($20 for $200 in chips). Then we played for a fixed period of time. We allowed $10 re-buys for $100 in chips up until the last half hour. At the end we gave the top player 60% of the bank, the 2nd player 30%, and 3rd player 10%.

Quote: delrayva

I set up a game ....

you live in the Del Ray section of Alexandria VA?

Quote: jpprovance

im thinking of trying to start up a game at a party my friend is having. i have never done such a thing before so im trying to think how to make it run smoothly.

I recommend just playing old fashioned 'private' craps game as in "Guys and Dolls". The real fun is in all the side betting between players. Keep a sheet listing the proper odds for these bets in case everyone doesn't know them. Use true odds of course! (e.g. Hard Eight is properly 10 to 1).
Search for "Private Craps" and you should find some more info..