Pass Line 101

Dear Mark:
Although admittedly I am newcomer to craps, I still don¹t quite understand the basics of the "Pass line" bet. In a past column of yours, Craps with Confidence, you briefly mentioned the mechanics of the Pass line wager. Could you please further explain the bet? Marion M.

Leaning over a crap table and gamboling through a craps session need not be intimidating, even for a newbie, especially when you restrict your wagers to the Pass line bet. Truly, Marion, it¹s pretty simple stuff. In craps, preceding the come-out roll, most players make either one of two bets, placing chips on the "Pass line" or on the "Don¹t pass bar." Though you are not obligated to make either of these wagers, almost all players do. The Pass line bettor is betting with the dice, and is often called the "right bettor." Opposite that, the Don¹t pass bettor is betting against the dice, and is called the "wrong bettor."

The more popular of the two wagers is the "Pass line" bet, though the "Don¹t pass" bet gives slightly better odds, the house edge being 1.4% for the "Don¹t pass" bet and the microscopically higher edge of 1.4% for the "Pass line" bet.

When you bet on the Pass line, Marion, one of the following three things will occur: a.) The next roll will be a 7 or 11, in which case you immediately win even money (1 for 1), orS b.) The next roll will be a 2, 3, or 12, in which case you immediately lose money, or... c.) The 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 will roll, becoming YOUR and the roller¹s point. If the shooter repeats the point on an ensuing roll, you win and are paid even money (1 for 1). If the "ugly 7" wields its ugly face before the point repeats itself, you lose your Pass line wager.

All you folks, who avoid that "too complicated" old crap table, are overlooking one of the best bets in the casino. Oh, really? How come? The simple pass line bet has a house advantage of less than 1.5%; that¹s how come.

Here¹s cheers and mud in your eye from Yours Truly in anticipation of your good fortune at the crap table.

Dear Mark:
Often in Baccarat, you see players tracking past hands and betting accordingly. Is there any rhyme or reason to the system of keeping track of past hands dealt in Baccarat? Kaye R.

Walk into any local casino that offers baccarat and you will see plenty of players with scorecards and pencil in hand. What they are doing is keeping track of the outcome of each hand. These players are trying to spot patterns to guide their own betting style so as to take advantage of streaks. Chasing patterns in baccarat is as pointless as it is in roulette, as one hand has no bearing on the next, and is never influenced by the preceding hands. Using roulette as an example, because possessed wheel players also track past spin results, if red landed seven times in a row, something in the tracker¹s psyche tells him that black is "due", and it¹s therefore more likely on the 8th spin that the little ball will land on black instead of red.

This chump reasoning sells lots of pencils and scorecards but is counterfeit. The chance of the ball landing on black on the eighth spin is exactly 50% (excluding the 0, 00), just as it was the first seven times. Like roulette, any baccarat strategy or system that has you basing your bets on the outcome of previous hands is ungrounded and sounds dangerously like data mining, in which a researcher selects among historical information so as to support his theory rather than formulating a theory based on unmassaged data.

Gambling quote of the week: "You¹re better off betting on a horse than betting on a man. A horse may not be able to hold you tight, but he doesn¹t wanna wander from the stable at night." Betty Grable Betting On A Man