|
The No Seven Shooter
Dear Mark,
In a your May 15, 2001 column in Casino Guide online,
you wrote the longest
roll without a seven being rolled was 3 hours, 6
minutes. I was at the
Golden Phoenix in Reno, NV this weekend, and the roll
lasted 3 hours, 10
minutes without a seven.
Since I watched the first hour of the roll, I only
scored $2200 off a $100
buy-in, playing only place and come bets with max odds.
However, those who
were betting the table max ($500 plus 3-4-5 odds) by the
end of the third
hour scored $3500 on a couple points, totaling about
$15,000 for the roll.
It was funny to watch the casino reload the table with
chips four times, as
they didnšt have enough originally on the table to keep
paying everyone.
Perhaps the best part was this was not a "high-roller"
table. Everyone there
started betting the table $5 minimums. Nice to see the
little guy get a
break. Chris C.
Craps offers players gambling immortality if ever a
"long roll" should
happen when they are bellied up to a crap table. Your
roll, Chris, might
even get you a mention in the figurative Craps Hall of
Fame, and it
certainly is worthy of mention in this column,
especially since you made
some Ka-ching.
Breaking the bank, where jittery pit bosses keep calling
for chip refills,
does not necessarily drape everyone with gaming glory.
Your good fortune
leads me to this important point: A long, extended roll
doesnšt necessarily
boost you from nada to nirvana. It is the "quality" of
the roll that
dictates whether you will have a celestial moment. If
your numbers are
rolling, your game is spread out on the layout (example:
additional come
bets with odds), and you are progressively betting more,
you are looking at
the potential for the roll of a lifetime. Otherwise, the
experience is
nothing more than a tantalizing also-ran, that
first-class stimulant for the
imagination.
The longest roll I was ever involved with was 73
no-seven throws, but it was
simulated on a home computer while I was watching an
episode of Seinfeld.
Though I have participated in many 30-minute rolls, I
have once witnessed a
run of the dice that lasted just under an hour and a
half.
For those wanting to know, before your undocumented
score (no disrespect; I
just hadnšt heard about it until you wrote me), the
hottest hand of all time
belonged to Stanley Fujitake of Honolulu. Stanley held
the dice for three
hours and six minutes at the California Hotel and Casino
before cinco dos,
adios (the 7) appeared.
If anyone of you was ever involved in a killer hand, or,
if you have met
unusual characters or witnessed strange occurrences,
preferably in a casino,
I would love to hear from you.
Dear Mark,
How does a casino decide where to put the different slot
machines on the
casino floor? Danny B.
Finding a home for each one-armed bandit is called "slot
mix". Slot mix is
casino nomenclature describing the physical placement of
machines on the
casino floor. Slot management places its machines
strategically to maximize
customer appeal and potential casino earnings.
Slot mix is composed of five basic variables: floor
location, coin
denominations, payoff schedules, casino advantage and
payoff frequency.
These variables can be blended into the casino floor in
infinite variations,
with no two casinos doing it exactly the same, but all
striving to separate
you from your hard-earned money.
Online Gambling quote of the week: "Gamblers come in all shapes
and sizes. Youšve
got your master strategist, your aggressive pot chaser,
your pensive
contemplator, and every casinošs favorite, the impulsive
idiot, to name a
few."Mark Balestra, The Complete Idiotšs Guide To
Gambling
-------------------------
|
