Customer Reviews

Craps: Take the Money and Run

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While some of the strategies are not complete, i.e., some circumstances are not covered, for the most part, this book gives a quick yet thorough view of what craps is AND how to bet. Many bets in craps are not good investments; he tells why.

I bought this book while I was leaving Las Vegas with a couple friends who were "knowledgable" about the game. I read it non-stop for 4 hours on the flight home. What I found out amazed me, not the least of which was that my friends had a lot to learn.

The book provides an understanding of the basic game, all the bets on the table, and a winning strategy that works. Since reading the book, 3 times cover to cover, and playing on my PC, I've played a couple times in Las Vegas, and both times walked away a winner. I fully realize this was part skill, and part luck. But without the book, I would have not had the knowledge to even begin to play smart.

Buy the book - you won't regret it. It provides a strategy for the long haul, not just one lucky experience. It explains everything. And the next time you are at the tables, you'll find out just how silly everyone else is.

This book will be your foundation for developing your method of play and money management. It has descriptions for playing simple and advanced methods. You should still buy another book or two to really see other view points. This should be the first book you buy to learn craps.

I purchased this bookd a while back, and read only the first few pages about the rules of the game, before going to Atlantic City (the first few chapters take about twenty minutes to read and absorb). With it, I knew enough to enjoy the game with my $50. About a year later I went back to Atlantic City, and once again read a few more pages of the book (it is really a quick read, but I spent most of my two hour drive talking and hanging out with my friends), using what it taught me, I more than doubled what I was gambiling within an hour before I had to meet up with my wife and our friends(and considering it was only $50 dollars at a $10 table, that is pretty da** good)! My friends and I are planning on going again in a few months, and this time, I plan on finishing the book (which, even at a slow pace, should only take an hour or two to read from cover to cover) and I'm sure even if I don't walk away with a signigicant amount of winnings, that if I follow the book, I will DEFINITELY have fun, be able to stay and enjoy gambiling at the craps table for awhile, and even in the worse case scenerio, walk away from the table feelign good and satisfied.
This book is a MUST for those who want to learn to play craps and how to best succeed and enjoy it. However, if you don't know anything about craps, trying to read the entire book may be to much to swallow all at once, so I would suggest reading the first few chapter,and then either going to a casino and watching for a little bit, or go online and try a free website where they don't use real money, but you can play "mock" crap games like one would play a computer checkers game verus the computer.
I don't know how much this book will help advance players, but like I said, if you never played, and just want to learn enough to enjoy the game and have the best shot of walking away with some money, BUY THIS BOOK!!!

Take The Money and Run is a great introduction to craps. The book explains the basic game play as well as each of the bets commonly available on the layout.

The book is a little less than coherent, however. It is divided into separate chapters, each covering some aspect of the game. But the chapters don't bind their content well enough to let the reader quickly learn the game (or that particular aspect of the game) in a single read.

I frequently find myself wishing I could remember a particular bit of advice, only to have to search the book for the tidbit by reading cover to cover.

The author points out which bets are good and which are bad, and does so for almost all the bets on the table. Further, he presents a few schemes for playing -- simple methods you can use to play along at the table instead of relying on hunches and guesses. This is invaluable inforamtion, as many of the most popular bets on the table are some of the worst!

In both cases -- but particularly for the discussion of schemes -- the author doesn't discuss the math involved in figuring the house advantage. Instead, he simply presents a number. I think that stepping through the computations would help readers develop better insight to the game and the different systems.

Despite these shortcomings, this book is still highly recommendable and helped me become a competant intermediate craps player after years of "hiding" at the blackjack tables.

Good book for a beginner wanting to learn the basics of Craps and easy stratagies to win. I read the book in a few hours and was able to apply his strategy and money management techniques very quickly. I applied what I learned by playing craps online and was able to "win" $1,700 in one session. Looking to go to Vegas soon to apply what I've learned at a real craps table! I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn all about the game. It's not as scary as it looks.

For those of you interested in a bit more depth in a review, here you go. If you just want to know about this book and not necessarily some of the reasoning behind my purchase of it, just skip down to "AS FOR THIS BOOK ITSELF".

I spent a good deal of time looking into getting a good solid book on Craps. A book that would take things from the beginning levels to the more advanced. Yet I also wanted a book that didn't fall prey to some of the gambling myths or superstitions out there. There are some real weird superstitions in the gambling world in general, and some Craps players are no different than others when it comes to believing and teaching these things.

Where to start? What to avoid?

First things first. Lets look at what can be avoided.

Among the many systems and books out there dealing with the game of Craps, there is a glut of books that teach "dice setting" or "dice control", which means to "set" the dice in a particular orientation, and then throw them in such a manner that supposedly, they DO NOT TUMBLE RANDOMLY. Can dice thrown at a table, bounced around and off a side table wall, be treated and controlled something like a baseball in a baseball game, yet even more so, so that each dice will land on a particular side? Impossible sounding? Well, it sounds pretty impossible to me. Perhaps there might be some possibility of some minor control under certain perfect circumstances, but is the concept of dice control something that can be performed consistently enough to rely upon it? Even if such control is even remotely possible, it isn't going to be of much help to the beginner or the average player.

Dice control has a lot going against it from the start at Casinos. As mentioned on a Wikipedia page on Craps: "The dice are usually required to hit the back wall of the table, which is normally faced with a angular texture such as diamonds, making controlled spins more difficult. Whether it is possible for human beings to consistently exercise the precise physical control necessitated by the theory is a source of controversy. A small but dedicated community of controlled shooters maintain records and claim proof of dice influencing in casino conditions. Frank Scoblete, Stanford Wong and Jerry L. Patterson, authors of books that feature dice control techniques, believe that it is possible to alter the odds in the player's favor by dice control." Also mentioned at that Wikipedia page: "Chris Pawlicki, a mechanical engineer who (under the pseudonym "Sharpshooter") wrote a book on dice setting called Get The Edge At Craps: How to Control the Dice as a part of the Frank Scoblete "Get the Edge Guides," defined the math and science behind dice control." Frank Scoblete currently seems like the leading name in dice control advocacy. He has a lot of books to purchase about it.

Currently there has been no independent conclusive evidence proven by scientific method that dice control can be successfully applied in a real casino. There is even some dvd/footage out there purporting to show unedited controlled throws. All I have to say, is if things are that precise, and that controlled, then shouldn't these dice control advocates be so wealthy that they would not have to gamble again or sell their many products, market stuff through their web sites, etc.? And if dice control was truly significant, one would think that there would also be a lot of systematized casino heat against them like blackjack card counters face. Get real, think about it. Some people might say "well, it is controlled, but it isn't THAT controlled". Uh huh...

Theories are nice on paper, and one can use all the math in the world to argue a point, but when YOUR money is at stake (or, of more importance to me, MY money), it is important to first learn from people who are going to teach solid strategy and facts, and avoid controversial concepts, time consuming methods, avoid the superstitious, etc.

So, I went in search of solid facts and strategy. I recommend people first build a solid playing foundation. One can always look into the dice control advocates material later. Just because their control idea may have issues and not be all that it is purported to be does not mean that it is something to completely ignore, there may be some minor edge or value by what they are attempting. Plus these control advocates are not without some insights on the game in other areas. However, some dice control advocates seem to have a lack of knowledge on solid strategy and give poor money management ideas.

AS FOR THIS BOOK ITSELF:

Ultimately, I bought "Craps: Take The Money and Run, by Henry J. Tamburin". Though I cannot vouch for any of the other books this author has written and what he might believe or teach elsewhere about other games, this book was a very good choice. Exactly what I was looking for.

"Craps: Take The Money and Run" avoids that whole bit of dice control, avoids gambling superstitions, and simply teaches the game of Craps and all that it factually entails. No wagering system or game technique can consistently beat casino games of pure chance such as craps. No strategy system is going to work 100 percent of the time. Yet some systems are better designed than others. This book is well rounded and gives solid strategies for putting the odds of winning more in your favor than they would be without any studying, strategy, or insight. It is a detailed book. Seems to cover every basic and advanced essential you could want to know about the game itself, as well as other aspects of playing the game in a Casino atmosphere, necessary game etiquette, and so forth. The writing is clear and to the point. No extra fluff here. The odds of various rolls and bets are all covered here in detail and what they mean. Tamburin gives his own particular strategy for playing the game of Craps, but he also includes other well known Craps strategies.

There may be other books on Craps strategies worth looking into at some point to get other viewpoints, but this book is a solid foundation for a beginning player and for a more advanced, seasoned Craps player. It contains both basic and more advanced strategies. It is an all around good book. I recommend this book to anyone just starting out with Craps, as well as the more experienced player looking to increase the odds in his favor with solid strategies.

(Note 1: I was also looking for a good solid book on Blackjack. After a lot of searching I found and bought "Blackjack, Play Like The Pros, by John Bukofsky. I might do a review of that fine book as well at some point).

(Note 2: Another book you might check out at some point is John Patrick's Craps.)

Read the book, play the table, remember there is no system....You can win or you can lose... it all depends on when you walk away

The first 5-chapters were enough to earn me $100 in 10-minutes at a San Juan Casino. It worked like clockwork, almost magic. And I did just what the book said: "I took my money and ran". Looking forward to trying my luck again.