can tightwads be successful crap players? can you win playing with scared money? i know someone he is not a very successfull gambler, he always buy in with a small amount of money, only sets up on the 6 or 8 but not both or any other number, never takes odds, always bets the table minimum, when he feels it he throws down a field bet. he nevr wins. he strikes me as a bad gambler. i say stuff here and there to him but gambling is a personal thing so i just suggest stuff and dont push my ways. opinions on people like this? i know everyone is different but i am sure everyone has a buddy like this.

Hey Scott, you sound like a good friend to be concerned for your buddy.  As a rule of thumb most would probably say: “no, scared money don’t make money.”

What I would suggest to you is to get your friend a copy of John Patrick’s book: ‘So you wanna be a gambler’. (Craps version) He needs to learn about money management, betting limits, and stop-loss limits.  That book is an excellent primer for a regular gambler and arms him with alot more strategy concepts, as well as the essential bank-roll to betting ratios. It will help take the fear out of the game for him, and set him up with real essentials of how much he should be buying in for in comparison to his strategy of play.

Oh, and if he is a real tightwad then you might introduce him to betting the Don’t side.  It is the stronger (slightly) side of the line and he’ll see more regular wins with a small bankroll.  The only aspect of this is that you want to encourage him to be patient.

And get him to sign up for this forum and learn as much as possible.  The people posting here are very knowlegable and helpful. (Hopefully someday someone will say the same about me, lol)

Lionthrax - 31 March 2012 05:44 PM

What I would suggest to you is to get your friend a copy of John Patrick’s book: ‘So you wanna be a gambler’. (Craps version) The people posting here are very knowlegable and helpful. (Hopefully someday someone will say the same about me, lol)

Suggesting to an already conservative player a book by the King of Voodoo. The two best bets in craps on the pass side are the pass line and the come bet. The King of Voodoo hates them both. Nuff said.

scott22 - 31 March 2012 05:12 PM

can tightwads be successful crap players? can you win playing with scared money?

Of course you can win playing with scared money; the dice, cards, balls, and wheels do not know the emotional state of the players or their money.  What “playing with scared money” typically refers to is a player who is playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win.  Such a scared player therefore bets to minimize risk, even in advantageous situations where betting more increases expected value.  As an extreme example, in 21 scared money never splits a pair or doubles down regardless of the dealer’s up card because doing so risks losing twice as much.  In Let It Ride scared money always pulls bets 1 and 2 without a made hand regardless of the “pot odds”.  IOW scared money needs more luck to be successful.

The problem with gambling with scared money is you never make the proper bet because you afraid you will lose money…...you make the minimum bet. examples: you make the PL bet and don’t take odds…....you never increase your bet and/or spread to numbers other than the 6/8 even if you have a profit on the shooter…....

The reason your friend always loses is he buys in for 100 bucks and wants to leave ( maybe) when he is up 500 ; it is not realistic; do-able but the odds are against him to accomplish this.  If he is ahead 30 dollars, that’s 30%. He is not satisfied with 30%....

When he gets his 100 dollars in chips he is looking at his ‘foe’ which is the house bank in front of the box to the tune of 250,000 dollars. Who is going to win that fight ? There is only one way to come out with your skin.

It’s when we get unrealistic i.e. GREEDY that we greatly increase our chance to lose.

Ultimately, he is just there to play and it will be a rare day when he leaves the table a winner.

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