Craps Bankroll Management
There are many different types of gamblers, but the ones who have success year-in and year-out are those who carefully manage their money. If you want to make the game of craps a serious part of your life, carefully managing your bankroll may be the single best thing you can do to stay afloat. Here are some tips to help you get started.
Building A Budget
A budget is the most important part of craps money management. Without carefully deciding what you can afford to lose, you may go beyond your limits without even realizing it.
When playing craps on vacation, you should keep your gambling money separate from the funds you plan on using for food, tourist attractions, or anything else on your itinerary. This makes it so much easier to prevent gambling losses from putting a damper on your vacation.
Once you know how much you can afford to lose, you need to set up a schedule. If you're willing to lose up to $2000 during your five day vacation, then you can budget up to $400 per day. If you want to play two, two-hour sessions per day, it would be best if you could limit yourself to $200 per session.
The schedule might not seem important, but it is the only way to really put your budget to work. By writing out a schedule (and sticking to it) you can guarantee that you'll be able to keep playing without dipping into "reserve" money or going bust.
Making The Most Of Your Hot Streaks
So far we've only talked about losing money, but even when a hot streak rolls around you still need to keep an eye on your bankroll. Depending on your tolerance for risk, there are two ways to account for your winnings.
One the one hand, you can play it safe. Risk-averse players generally take their winnings off of the table every round. When a hot streak rolls around, they can often pocket enough cash to offset the losses of an upcoming cold streak. In the end, this strategy can help you break even.
The other way to account for your craps winnings is to get them back on the table as working capital. Since this money was won at the table, it could be considered a surplus to your budget.
By using this extra money to make bigger, or even riskier bets, you can really increase your earning potential and walk away with an even bigger prize. After all, you need to spend money to make money.
Protecting Your Bankroll
We've already discussed the best ways to conserve your bankroll when playing craps, but there is one more factor to consider: theft. Even though casino security is world renowned for its thorough surveillance, their number-one concern is stopping crooks from cheating the house.
When you are leaning over the table, drowning in the action while the luckiest shooter alive takes you on a wild hot streak, you probably aren't keeping a good eye on your chips. This is when you are most vulnerable to theft, but it doesn't have to be like this.
Organization is one of the best ways to prevent chip theft. Stack your chips in even money denominations, and keep equal-height stacks directly next to each other. Make change for ten $1 chips when you arrive at the table and then put these low-value chips on the tops of each stack.
To get the best effect, keep your chip stacks as tight as possible so the valuable chips in the middle are not sticking out. Remember, these thieves are extremely skilled in slight of hand, but they are still opportunistic. Don't give them a reason to prey on your hard earned money!