Why do some craps players "chart" the table?
I never understood this -- charting the table at craps. I don't really understand it either. It seems that there are players who will keep track of rolls and numbers as if to forecast how the table or the player will do in the future.
I'm all for technical analysis (following charts) in the stock market where the "the trend is your friend." But I don't understand how one player with a long roll, or several players with short or long rolls, can have any impact on the next shooter?
Yet, there are players who will take notes of the results of the dice looking for a trend or a point to start betting -- or to stop betting.
Here are some of the "charting strategies" I've heard about which make no sense to me, and why:
1. "The Five Count" This is when you wait for a shooter to throw five numbers before you make a bet on him. The theory is since most shooters never get past five or six numbers you avoid wasting chips on a shooter who will seven out quickly.
My response to the "Five Count" -- bet on the shooter's first few rolls and that call your bets "off" or take them down since the 7-out is inevitable with everybody.
2. Waiting for a shooter to "prove himself" or "validate himself" or you "validate the shooter." This is when you wait for a shooter to make a pass or maybe two passes before you start betting on him.
My response to the "prove himself" strategy -- wow, what makes you think after making two passes that the shooter will make a third pass? And the payoffs on the first two passes weren't good enough for you?
3. Waiting for the shooter to "make a pass." This is when you wait for a shooter to make just one pass before you start betting on him.
My response to the "make a pass" strategy -- and this is a true story. There was a player who came to a $10 craps table and bought in for $200. He was given two stacks of red ($5) chips. He was there when a new shooter got the dice. The new player was asked if he was going to make a bet on the new shooter and said "no, I'm okay."
The shooter on the come out roll threw a point of 6. Other players at the table made their bets. The dealer asked the new player, "care to make a bet?" And the new player with the $200 of red chips said "no, I'm okay."
To make a long story short, the shooter went on to throw the dice for the next 25-minutes or so pounding away the numbers -- 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 but never hit the 6! He never hit the point. Yet, the other players betting saw their initial bets of red chips on "the numbers" turn to green ($25) and then to black ($100) as the numbers were thrown again and again.
And with just about every number thrown, the dealer would ask the player with the two red stacks "care to make a bet?" And each time the player said, "no, I'm okay. Waiting for a pass."
Well, the pass never came but the other players made hundreds off of this shooter's "no pass roll."
4. This is a "cold table" so I won't play strategy. This is very familiar. Players will see shooter after shooter throw a point and then seven out and deem the table "cold" so they don't bother betting.
My response to the "cold table" strategy: so you think this "cold" is a virus that gets passed from one player to the next? I love being the shooter at a "cold table" because it means I won't embarrass myself when my turn with the dice is no worse than what the last couple of shooters did. And if I get lucky and throw some passes or just a lot of numbers, I can be the hero!
5. This is a "hard way" table strategy. This is where players will start betting the hard ways (2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5) because they've been hitting.
My response to the "hard way" table strategy: How often are we reminded that the dice have no memory yet if the dice are showing hard ways we are supposed to think that the dice will know to keep showing hard ways? There is a reason the paired dice are called "hard ways" -- it's hard to get those results.
