It looks like your model assumes there is only one shuffler – is this correct? At Morongo there are two independent shufflers – I’ll play around with the spreadsheet for a bit and see how that affects things.

The PlayCraps format is kind of weird, and I’m one of the few people who like it. On the plus side, you get to sit down, count cards, and play very quickly. On the minus side, the game kills the players taking odds on the pass line. As the analysis shows, the pass odds are often at a 2-3% disadvantage, when they should have 0% house edge. I’m pretty sure that people can “feel” this drag on their action.

The house likes the game because the hold is huge. There’s more prop bet action than normal in this game, because its featured prominently in the layout. Some people only play the Field and the Horn at Viejas. Also, it only takes one dealer to man the table (up to 4 or 5 players), which is significantly cheaper than paying for a whole crew on a craps tub (stickman, boxman, etc.).

I’m working on a Flash-based game that will show the count, the cards, the layout, and will be much more fun to play. It’s my first time doing all this visual effects stuff, so it’ll take a few days, but it’ll be worth the wait.

I met the guy who invented PlayCraps at an event in CT about four or five years back. He ran a casino event for my former employer and we had a long discussion about his brainchild. I remember thinking that card-craps would never catch on because the allure of craps is the illusion of control the shooter has. Without that, craps would blend in with every other table-game. I’ve since moved to California where dice are essentially illegal, so I suppose it makes sense here.

At Viejas, “10x odds” means they let the player lay enough to *win* 10x the flat bet. That means against the 5/9 points, you can lay (15)(flat bet) to win 10x on your odds. So you’re risking 16 (1 DP @ even money + 15 odds @ nominal 3:2) to win 11 (1+10).

On the 4/10 points, you’re risking 21 (1 DP @ even money + 20 odds @ nominal 2:1) to win 11 (1+10).

On the 6/8 points, you’re risking 13 (1 DP @ even money + 12 odds @ nominal 6:5) to win 11 (1+10).

The beauty of the game is that for a $5 DP bet, you can lay $100 on the 4/10 points when the count is good. Often, you’ll have a 2-3% “advantage” on this odds bet. Of course, the problem is that it probably won’t resolve on the next roll, and the count may get worse, and you may have to take down your odds bet. Usually though, the 4/10 points have good counts. The 5/9 count tends to bounce around a lot, and it’s hard to track. So you’re often laying $75 to win $50, but you’re also often picking up the odds until the count gets good again. The 6/8 points are easy to count, and are often good. You can lay $60 to win $50 on a $5 DP bet on the 6/8 point.

Steve

When you lay 10x odds on a 5 (for example) and win it tells you that you’ve netted 11 units. (Presumably 1 unit for the don’t pass win and 10 units for the odds.)

Isn’t it true that you would only net 9 units? You would win even money for the don’t pass line bet, and then your (true) odds pay out at 5 to 6.

If you win betting against a 4 laying 10x odds you would only net 5 units should you win.

If you’re not counting, it’s fine to lay 10x odds on your DP bet. But, it’s so easy to count, that I wouldn’t recommend betting blind like that. When the count is bad against the lay, you really should pick up the odds. (Imagine you’re on the 5 point. Then it rolls Yo, Yo, Boxcars. That’s a -12 count on your lay. The 5 and 9 are fair to begin with, so you’re really at a disadvantage on your odds bet at this point.)

Also, for the don’t pass, does it make sense to back it up all the way no matter what the point is, if you’re not counting, as you always have an advantage with the 7 showing up most probably?