I have been an active craps player for some 15 years, and after 15 years I've decided that it's a game that while a lot of fun it is also impossible to win.

Yes, I've whooped it up and yelled "hot dog" during hot rolls over what feels like thousands of times -- but despite the hot rolls, the long runs that a shooter has, the magic rolling of the bones, it seems that every casino visit ends the same way -- with losses at the craps table.

And I'm not alone. Don't believe me? You always see the smiles and hear the cheers coming from craps tables. But did you ever stop to see the players when they leave the craps tables? I'm sure that most if not all players leave unhappy and poorer.

Part of the problem is that craps is a "negative expectation game" and the players are expected to lose -- whether they are playing the right side or the don't side. I've seen darkside players get wiped out as frequently as the rest of us rightway players.

And I know there are players out there -- rightway and wrongway players -- who claim to be winners. Well, good for them and if you're one of them this does not apply to you.

This is what I'm going to do from now on when I play craps so that I can enjoy the whoopin' and hollerin' and the magical great rolls and the big wins but at the same time I am going to dramatically reduce my "exposure" to the constant run of daily losses.

From now on, I am going to play craps making only the passline bet at the table minimum and the "Fire Bet" which pays the jackpots if a shooter makes 4 or 5 or all 6 different points. This bet pays as much as $10,000 for a $10 bet.

Until now, I bet the passline with full odds, and placed all of the numbers across. I pressed my bets after my original bets were paid off. This is actually a conservative way to play because I avoid some of the most expensive and costly bets including the field, hop bets, hardway bets, horn bets and the other "middle of table" bets.

But even my "conservative" pass line bet with odds and placing the numbers was expensive and had a high cost and put me at a big risk to reward ratio.

For example, at a table with $10 minimum bets and the point is 6 with a maximum of 5X odds, your "investment" would look like this:

Passline $10 plus $50 odds

Place 4 $10
Place 5 $10
Place 6 It's the point, so we don't place it.
Place 8 $12 (the 6 and 8 are bet in units of $6 for the correct payoffs)
Place 9 $10
Place 10 $10

total cost of place bets: $52
total cost of passline with odds: $60
total exposure: $112

Now, consider this for a moment. When the point of 6 is established and I bet $52 across, plus bet full odds on the 6 for $50 I was actually exposing myself to a simultaneous loss of $112 if the next roll was a 7-out, but I could only win one bet at a time.

Here's what I could win with one bet at a time:

Place 4 $18
Place 5 $14
Place 8 $14
Place 9 $14
Place 10 $18

If the point of 6 is rolled before a 7 I would win as follows:

For the $10 on the passline, I would win even money $10
For the $50 odds money, I would win 6 to 5 which is $60
So the total win for the passline with odds would be $70

So putting that into perspective with the potential of a total loss if a 7 is thrown:

The $70 win for the passline with odds is 62% of my total exposure. That is actually a favorable risk/reward.

But for the place numbers, the bets represent a much smaller reward for the risk of losing the full $112.

For the place 4 and place 10 the $18 win is 16% of the money at risk.
For the place 5 and place 9 the $14 win is 12.5% of the money at risk.
For the place 8 (or place 6) the $14 win is 12.5% of the money at risk.

The reality is that most "shooters" will seven-out after throwing the dice 5 times including the come out roll and the last roll which is the 7-out. This means that I am likely to see only three payoffs which might mean a total of $42 collected on the $112 disbursement.

So what's my solution? I'm going to cut back on my bets. Some players only bet the 6 and/or the 8 and the passline because these bets have the lowest house advantage or edge.

I have an even more conservative plan: betting just the passline and the Fire Bet. I want the fire bet because if the shooter is on fire and has the monster roll of a lifetime, I want to be there to collect the $10,000 on a risky, high edge $10 Fire Bet. Gambling that $10 on the Fire Bet will keep a purpose for my whoopin' and hollerin'.