I just finished playing in the Las Vegas Hilton $100,000 invitational craps tournament.
Top prize was $50,000, second place was $10,000 and the money went all the down to 24th place at $1000. Playing in a tournament is a little different from playing in a normal situation. In a tournament, you play against the other players at the table and to win you must keep an eye on what everyone else is wagering.
This particular tournament has almost 350 players competing in 4 rounds over two days. The first round had six sessions with 4 tables of 14 players each. Each session is 30 minutes of play. A shooter is selected at random and the dice progress normally throughout the session. At the end of 30 minutes each player’s chips are totaled and there is one last bet and roll of the dice. Each player starts with $5000 in tournament chips at the beginning of each session and the 4 players at each table with the highest amount of chips at the end of the session advance to the next round. Each round also had a certain number of “wild card” spots that were drawn at random from all players eliminated from previous rounds. This means that you could get back into the tournament at any stage if you were lucky enough to have your name chosen. Ironically, the winner of the tournament was a wild card pick that was given a seat directly at the final table after having been eliminated in the first round.
One unique thing about this tournament was that each player was given the opportunity to buy a “double up” chip. This chip could be used to double the payout of any win. The best part of this wrinkle was that you didn’t have to risk the “double up” chip until the bet was won - as the dealer was paying out your wager you could give him the “double up” chip and double your payout.
I had been watching previous sessions and I knew that the winning players were averaging about $8500 in chips at the end of their sessions. I also noticed many players going bust mid way through their sessions by wagering too aggressively. I decided to pace myself and make place bets of a couple of hundred each so that if I hit a roll, I could press them up but if the table was cold, I wouldn’t lose much.
Getting near the end of my session I realized that I needed to make up a little ground to make it into the top 4. At the end of the session the top player had roughly $7000 in chips – he had been near the bottom until he bet $1000 in the field when a 12 was rolled. He then used his “double up” chip to double the $3000 payout and had gone from worst to first on one roll. On the final roll, most players that were behind at the table loaded up on the field hoping to double their chips. The top players played it safe hedging against the challengers. Seeing this I divided my nearly $4000 on placing the 5,6, and 8 figuring that even if I went all out on the field and won, I wouldn’t have been able to pass up the others that were already a bit ahead of me and betting there as well. If a 5,6 or 8 was rolled, they would lose, and I would win putting me ahead of almost everyone else at the table. The truly desperate players who had $2000 and less made “Hail Mary” bets… they bet everything they had on hardways, C and E, etc.
The last roll left the shooters hands and landed…. 11. Everyone in the field won even money, but I don’t think any one of them made it into the top 4. The winning players were 4 players who had put $1000 or more on eleven. - paying 15 to 1. Having lost many of their wagers throughout the session, they all still had their double up chip and were now at $30,000 or more.
I hung around for the wild card draws into the next rounds, but wasn’t lucky enough that day to get picked up for those either. Like any day at the craps table two ingredients are required to win big – Luck AND Knowledge. I had the knowledge… I just missed the luck. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up in the money, but sometimes that’s just how the dice roll.
Top prize was $50,000, second place was $10,000 and the money went all the down to 24th place at $1000. Playing in a tournament is a little different from playing in a normal situation. In a tournament, you play against the other players at the table and to win you must keep an eye on what everyone else is wagering.
This particular tournament has almost 350 players competing in 4 rounds over two days. The first round had six sessions with 4 tables of 14 players each. Each session is 30 minutes of play. A shooter is selected at random and the dice progress normally throughout the session. At the end of 30 minutes each player’s chips are totaled and there is one last bet and roll of the dice. Each player starts with $5000 in tournament chips at the beginning of each session and the 4 players at each table with the highest amount of chips at the end of the session advance to the next round. Each round also had a certain number of “wild card” spots that were drawn at random from all players eliminated from previous rounds. This means that you could get back into the tournament at any stage if you were lucky enough to have your name chosen. Ironically, the winner of the tournament was a wild card pick that was given a seat directly at the final table after having been eliminated in the first round.
One unique thing about this tournament was that each player was given the opportunity to buy a “double up” chip. This chip could be used to double the payout of any win. The best part of this wrinkle was that you didn’t have to risk the “double up” chip until the bet was won - as the dealer was paying out your wager you could give him the “double up” chip and double your payout.
I had been watching previous sessions and I knew that the winning players were averaging about $8500 in chips at the end of their sessions. I also noticed many players going bust mid way through their sessions by wagering too aggressively. I decided to pace myself and make place bets of a couple of hundred each so that if I hit a roll, I could press them up but if the table was cold, I wouldn’t lose much.
Getting near the end of my session I realized that I needed to make up a little ground to make it into the top 4. At the end of the session the top player had roughly $7000 in chips – he had been near the bottom until he bet $1000 in the field when a 12 was rolled. He then used his “double up” chip to double the $3000 payout and had gone from worst to first on one roll. On the final roll, most players that were behind at the table loaded up on the field hoping to double their chips. The top players played it safe hedging against the challengers. Seeing this I divided my nearly $4000 on placing the 5,6, and 8 figuring that even if I went all out on the field and won, I wouldn’t have been able to pass up the others that were already a bit ahead of me and betting there as well. If a 5,6 or 8 was rolled, they would lose, and I would win putting me ahead of almost everyone else at the table. The truly desperate players who had $2000 and less made “Hail Mary” bets… they bet everything they had on hardways, C and E, etc.
The last roll left the shooters hands and landed…. 11. Everyone in the field won even money, but I don’t think any one of them made it into the top 4. The winning players were 4 players who had put $1000 or more on eleven. - paying 15 to 1. Having lost many of their wagers throughout the session, they all still had their double up chip and were now at $30,000 or more.
I hung around for the wild card draws into the next rounds, but wasn’t lucky enough that day to get picked up for those either. Like any day at the craps table two ingredients are required to win big – Luck AND Knowledge. I had the knowledge… I just missed the luck. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up in the money, but sometimes that’s just how the dice roll.
Richie - The Craps Authority - Ambrose
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