|
|
 |
| by Larry Edell, published on Wednesday,
October 3 2001 |
| |
| Then last month Bonnie and her husband Don went on a
mini-vacation with us, and she produced the aforementioned FREE BET
coupon while we were having lunch. We were not at the Hilton, and I
didn’t see much sense in driving there, especially to take advantage of
a dubious coupon that had no address, date or denomination printed on
it. I whispered to my wife that someone probably printed it up as a joke
and that Bonnie should just forget about it. When Bonnie picked up the
menu, my wife glared at me. “Look. She’s never played craps before. This
will be a good introduction for her.” I sighed. “What if I just bought
it for $1? Then we can play here.” “She wants to use it. Let’s humor
her,” my better half whispered back. I thought the idea was totally
pointless - there was a perfectly good craps table right here in the
casino we were staying at, but we both knew who the leader of this group
was. So we finished eating and, of course, we drove to the Hilton.
Locating the craps tables was easy - there were lots of them, but the
Big 6 and 8 areas on the layouts were gone! In the space normally
reserved for them was an imprint that read “No Field Bet.” asked one of
the dealers what had happened and he smiled. “We took it out. It was a
bad bet anyway. The no-field bet is much better. It stays on three
numbers, the 5, 6 or 8, instead of just the 6 or 8.” I frowned. “Oh, so
you mean that if we bet the No-Field, the bet stays up until the 5, 6 or
8 rolls, or the shooter sevens out?” Now the dealer frowned. “No, it’s a
one roll bet, just like the field bet.” “But with the Big 6 or 8, the
bets stay up until they win or lose.” “Well, the No-Field Bet is one
roll bet. “Still a good bet.” The friendly dealer advised. Now Bonnie
piped up “Is this coupon good for it?” The dealer looked at the small
piece of paper. “No. I don’t know where you got this, but it isn’t good
here. No date and no address.” He gave it back. To me. I stared at the
small coupon. “Tell you what Bonnie, I’ll buy it from you for $1,” and
handed her a dollar bill. “But why, if it’s not any good?” “Oh, eh, I
collect valuable old casino coupons.” She looked at my dollar bill, and
then the table. “Well, now what, should I bet $1 on the No-Field?” I
sighed. “Actually that’s not a good bet - it’s only good for one roll,
and the combination of the numbers 5, 6 and 8 mean that you only have 14
chances of winning, compared to the regular field bet which gives you 16
chances of winning. If you add $5 to your $1 you can bet on the six or
eight, since it hasn’t rolled yet. Or if you add $4 to your $1 bet you
can wait for the next come-out and bet on the pass line.” “Huh?” she
said, signifying that she understood everything that I said just
perfectly. My wife came to the rescue. “He means that you should just
bet on the field.” “But.” I started, and got another wifely glare.
Bonnie bought a $1 chip with my dollar and put it on the field. The very
next roll, of course, was a twelve, which paid $2! She yelled “WOW! I
WON!” and collected her small fortune. I tried to explain how craps
worked but it was no good. She didn’t want to make any more bets - she
wanted to go home a winner. I even explained to her what the “old” Big
Six and Big Eight was, and the reason why the new No-Field bet was not
an especially good bet, and why the field wasn’t a good bet either, even
though there were “all those numbers.” But she was happy and didn’t care
- she was a winner! When we got home, she told everyone that she
actually won some money in Las Vegas, all because of a new craps bet at
the Hilton called a “No-Field” bet. Which was true, sort of. I just have
one thing to say about the No-Field bet - Anyone want to buy a valuable
old casino coupon?? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
