Craps Tough Craps

This is NOT my brainchild; a guy "tom p" aka "tom home runs are boring" came up with it years ago.

It is very aggressive.

I quote:

"
i say next time try tough craps.

with $2,000 you have 2 bankrolls. put $1000 in your room safe. unless
you play more than 25-30 hours, you "probably" wont need to touch the
2nd g playing tough. (my bust rate is 10-11% with approx that many
rolls average).

the tough craps object is to win large, $50 grand or more. there
really is no win limit. an important secondary objective is to
conserve bankroll, to stretch your $thousand to last for all the time
you care to play. a third goal, often sacrificed on the altar of the
second, is to get plenty of action.

initially (try to) come out on 4 numbers: the pass line & 3 come bets.
the line bet should ALWAYS be the minimum required to get your odds
bet. TOUGH CRAPS IS CONCERNED ONLY WITH THE NUMBERS, the free odds
bet. the line bet is ignored for any strategic purpose & is
restored/dragged to its original amount whenever craps/naturals are
rolled.

YOU ALWAYS, WITHOUT EXCEPTION (ok 2 exceptions),EVERY F*****G TIME
PROGRESS YOUR (ODDS) BET ON A WIN!! (the first exception-"the tough
craps fantasy"-is not really an exception because it is INVOLUNTARY:
you have reached the table limit of every house in town and no one
will book your bet [benny binion being dead, this could now possibly
even happen in vegas]. the other exception is 'semi-voluntary': you
just flat run out of time & have to catch a flight or etc)

any previous attempt to explain tough craps has resulted in logorrhea
so i will try to be brief. i do have an e-mailing list where from time
to time i demonstrate how tough craps is bet by showing real,
contemporaneous rolls (a tough craps bet file or preprogram is
problematical if not impossible) and how the tough craps player would
actually bet with a $1,000 bankroll and a set time limit. if you would
like to be on that list, drop me an email or etc. i believe i have
mailed out 8 or 9 examples of "trips" ranging from about 1000 to 7or
8000 rolls or so...

your initial bet(from now on when we say "bet" we mean the odds bet)
is $10. the tough craps bet progression is $10 -> 30 -> 30 -> 50 ->
75/80 -> 100 -> 150 -> 250 -> 400 -> 500 -> 750 -> 1000 -> 1500 ->
2500 -> 4000 -> 5000 & so on.

when playing tough, what to bet ON is NEVER <sic> in question: pass or
come with maximum affordable odds; HOW MUCH to bet depends upon the
answers to 2 questions: did i win the last bet? (see answer above) and
'what is the status of my bankroll?'

when losing, which is most of the time, the tough craps bet amount is
fairly cut-and-dried: when you are $1 to $99 behind (-$1 to -$99)-in
other words usually after the first hand! - your bet is CUT IN HALF
immediately: $5 -> 15/16 -> 15/16 -> 25/26 -> 40 -> 50 -> 75/76 -> 100
-> 150 & so on as above. you are still (trying to) come out on 4
numbers. when you are -$100 to -$299 your bet is the same but you
(try to) come out on only 3 points. when -$300 to -$499 try to
come out on 2 points. and at -$500 to -$1000 bet pass line only
(additionally if in vegas or elsewhere & you reach -$850->-$900 or so
& it is still early in your trip you might try to find a quarter of 50
cent table and further reduce your bet amount in an effort to
conserve bankroll even more. do not despair! at this point you could
still win $10,000, $15,000 or more-there is no win limit in tough
craps).

the tough craps "bankroll" is JUST THAT: the amount you would PUT OUT
THERE, the amount you can afford to lose. if you cannot afford to lose
it, you are not playing tough, you are playing stupid. when you lose
your limit you walk.
get out of town...

...unless you are our fortunate friend QuiGon: then you go to your
room safe, grab your thou and START OVER: that's right! your next bet
is $10 and you (try to) come out on 4 points...


ironically it is when you are winning that the tough craps bet amount
becomes, well, "problematical" is not the right word , but it becomes
more serendipitous, more context dependent,more thoughtful, more
idiosyncratic, less cut and dried. it is certainly more pleasant. the
bet progression RULE--every time, no exceptions--applies to the "hand"
as well. that is, if your bankroll is larger at the end of a hand than
at the beginning, then you MUST progress your bet per the tough craps
bet progression chart (see below). the object is to win huge!

if you get (ONLY)$100 ahead, your bet DOUBLES: $20 -> 60 -> 60 -> 100
->150 then so on as above.

get only $300 ahead and the tough craps bet goes to the extremely
agressive $30 -> 100 -> 100 -> 150 -> 250 and so on. one hand can
easily put you back down to the $10 bet level...you immediately
retreat...or...

get $1000 ahead. you have now doubled your bankroll. this is a
traditional & imho a very rational MINIMUM win goal. if you can afford
to lose x amount , where x is your bankroll that you are really,
really willing to put out there, then, really have you changed your
life much, had all that much fun by winning LESS than that?? well, i
know. maybe. sure. yes. that's fine. near the end of the trip you
would want to conserve & perhaps drag back for less; you've come too
far to walk away a loser now etc. but still...

if your hand ends and you are +$1000, your next bet is $50 -> 150 ->
150 -> 250 -> 400 & so on as above. Get (only) +$1500 and your
bet goes to $100 -> 300 -> 300 -> 500 -> 750 -> 1000 -> 1500 etc.
At +$2500 go to $150 -> 500 -> 500 -> 750 etc. Get $6000 up: $250
-> 750 -> 750 -> 1250 -> 2000 -> 2500 -> 4000 etc.

THE TOUGH CRAPS BET PROGRESSION CHART goes up to +$1,181,000
(hyperbole anyone?) and is available upon request.

if you just continued progressing,or even just slavishly followed the
chart you would always lose, of course. so at some point-again usually
not until winnings equal at least the initial bankroll-you need to
"drag" winnings. this is the tough craps equivalent of "quitting while
you are ahead".

or course you dont really quit until the trip is over. you dont really
quit until you die.

this can be a sophisticated and nuanced process so we cant go into too
much detail but one example: say at the end of any hand you have not
yet reached your win goal of $1000(you might have been there in the
"middle" of a hand but that is irrelevent) but now you end a winning
hand at, let's say, +$1217. your next bet MUST BE $50-150 etc per the
tough craps bet progression. but say you lose that hand now and end at
$1066. NOW you have choices. you can drag and "pretend" 1000 = zero,
say. you're thus at +$66 and bet 10-30 etc. maybe you reach $1100
again so you go to $20-60 etc. more likely you drop below $1000 and
your bet is $5-15 just as if you are really losing; drop below $900 &
now you're out on only 3 etc.

IOW just like our pal QuiGon STARTING OVER after losing $1000, on the
winning side we might START OVER also. thus is tough craps "organized"
around $1000 increments. it is a very dynamic decision making process
very much influenced by how much time you have left and playing time
available. if i had a half hour a day to play i would adapt to that
and still play tough AT ALL TIMES.

tough craps results:
275 trips, 818,128 rolls; won 90 lost 169 tied 16 (simulated)
TOTAL WINNINGS <sic> +, that's right plus $26,782
real trips (since finally starting to keep honest track)
11 trips , approx 25,000 rolls won 6 lost 5 tied 1
TOTAL WINNINGS +$6100


tom "home runs are often boring" p "

 

Anyone have a link to or care to describe "tough craps," by which I mean a super aggressive style of craps play that a guy at the now moribund alt.rec.craps board used to discuss?