CJ 052 | How did you get hooked on playing Craps?

This question was asked over at Heavy’s Power Axis Craps forum recently. So I thought I would participate with my own. Feel free to share your story with me, and post a comment below.

My story is not as elaborate as how others found their way to become craps fans.

It was 1992 in Brisbane Australia and I’d just finished high school and turned 18. My family had no history or interest in gambling at all. They never went Casino or played pokies. Just lotto occasionally. However I was always keen to give it a go. I was a geek and a nerd, so enjoyed the maths of gambling.

At that time, we only had one casino available to me which was 1 hour drive away at Gold Coast called Jupiters Casino.

In Australia, 18 is the legal age to go to night clubs, pubs, etc and I remember driving down to Jupiters casino with 3 of my friends to try out the casino and night clubs on the Gold Coast strip.

We were all very green and it was an eye opening experience. There was also a night club that we enjoyed going to at the top level of the casino so we would gamble a bit and then hit the club for drinks and attempts to get with the ladies. I look back on those days fondly and can laugh at it now.

Over many Saturday night trips we played most games in the casino. None of them grabbed me at all, except for Craps.

In fact I liked it so much I can remember spending hours playing with just $50, no other game allowed me to do that.

Until recently I hadn’t played another casino game, that’s how much I enjoyed it.

After I grew out of the night club scene, I would visit the casino every couple of years and always come away even or with a small profit just from dark side don’t pass (DP) line bets. Never would I bet anything else.

In all those years not one other type of bet. How’s that for discipline (or stupidity)? 20 years of the same bet. I didn’t know it at the time but I was a dark side player. I just knew it was better to back the 7 based on the math and my limited in-game experience.

Finally one night in 2015, my wife and I took our close friends to the Brisbane Treasury Casino for a night out. My friend had never played craps before and after a short intro from me, was betting all over the prop bets and winning like crazy. I stuck with my base bet DP. End of the night he’s up over $500 and I’m up $20.

I was pissed off. After 20 years playing the game, and I get my ass whipped by my friend who’s never played before.

So after that fateful night, that’s when I started looking online for how to properly play and understand craps.

I am amazed and thankful that there is such a niche of knowledge around just this one game of dice.

Of course in no time, I found dicesetter.com and read through every article on there. What an awesome resource.

Which of course lead me to the various names in the Craps scene, including Heavy and all the others.

Since I’m in the web business I thought I’d track my progress with my new found hobby and I created a website/blog and podcast and my craps journey began.

I’m pleased to say this is the first hobby in my life that pays me to do it. And so far just 2 years in, and I’m only still just getting started with so much more to accomplish.