Ah Craps, what a lovely game. Walk into any Las Vegas casino and listen. The Craps area will be the loudest-unless the game has taken a turn for the worst.

A great Craps game will be full of shouting, high fives, and unbridled enthusiasm. But, it’s not all roses. There are some action spots on the Craps layout that are sucker bets. Sure, they can be fun to play now and then, but make a habit of it and you’ll lose a serious chunk of your bankroll over time.

Today, I’ll quickly dish out three Craps bets that you want to either stay away from completely or play in rare instances.

Big 6 and Big 8

These two wagers are to be avoided at all costs 100% of the time. Never, and I mean never, play these bets.

The Big 6 and Big 8 only pay even money-read that again. So, if you put $6 on the Big 6 and/or Big 8 and win, you’re paid $6. I call this the lazy man’s bet. Had you simply placed the 6 or 8 instead, you’d be paid $7 for a $6 bet.

By betting the Big 6 or Big 8, you’re losing 16.6% of your money each time you win! That’s a sucker’s bet for sure.

Boxcars

In the center of the Craps layout, there’s the 12 bet-aka boxcars, midnight, etc-and it pays 30 for 1. Sounds great right?

Here’s the problem. First, it’s a one-roll bet. You either win or lose on the next roll. Second, it pays 30 for 1, but there’s only one way in 36 combinations to roll a 12. You’re losing 16% on your action before anything happens.

In other words, if you made the wager 36 times-assuming perfect math play-you’d have $31 in your pocket. You would have lost $5. That’s each and every cycle.

I never make this bet, but it’s okay once in a blue moon if you just want to spice things up. Just realize that there’s a serious house advantage with this wager.

Aces

Just like with the 12, you can also make a one-roll wager on the Aces (2). It pays 30 for one as well and it’s the same deal-a bad wager.

Did you know that not all Roulette games in the casino are created equal? How about that the game’s mechanics can change as you are playing? Yes, it’s true. If you’re going to play Roulette in the real world, there are some facts you need to know.

Walk around any Las Vegas casino and take a look at the Roulette tables. What’s the one thing that immediately stands out? Think for a minute. Got it? A different person is operating each Roulette game. So why does this matter?

It’s the dealer who spins the ball around the wheel. In the old days-and today in some lower-end casinos-the dealer would also spin the wheel. Today, it’s usually a machine that keeps the wheel going at a certain speed.

However, there isn’t a machine that spins the ball. This means that the ball is speeding along at a different pace for each dealer. If you play more than 40 minutes to an hour, you’ll also experience a dealer change and thus a change in the ball speed and outcome.

I have seen some people who can get to know a dealer’s pattern-since most dealer’s spin the same way all the time-and figure out what section of the wheel the ball is about to drop into by look at where the wheel was when the dealer started the spin.

Here’s another factor you need to think about. Unlike online casinos, the real world casinos use physical items. That wheel is a physical item that was manufactured. While they all have the same specifications, they are all a little different. Also as they are used, they tend to shift slightly-we’re talking physics here.

There was a famous Roulette team in Las Vegas that once made a living by charting the wheels. They’d watch lots of games and figure out if the wheel had any tilt, warping, etc. They’d also pay attention to the dealers-spin rate, etc. By putting those combinations together with a solid playing style and a little luck, they were able to rock n roll at the Roulette tables in Vegas.

Will knowing all of this make you a guaranteed winner in Vegas? No. But, it can help you score more wins and that just might make your playing time more enjoyable. And who knows. You may walk out of the casino a big winner. It’s a war zone out there. You have to utilize every piece of information that might give you an edge as you can.

Las Vegas casinos are full of “crazy” video poker players. These players love the game-and why wouldn’t they-but somewhere along the way they came up with some thought on how to win that’s just plain false.

Today, we’ll look at a few myths and see if there’s any truth to them. If you’re a sociologist in the making, spending hours in a Vegas casino might turn out to be an interesting study.

Myth: If I slam the buttons hard, the machine will respond.

Yes, you’ll see this often-sometimes from frustrated players. It’s just a machine and it has no sensors built in that tell it how hard something was pressed. The button was either pressed or it wasn’t-that’s it.

You might even see people who will only slam a button when they’re about to receive cards. Others slam them when holding a card. Either way, it makes no difference. Of course, if you beat up the machine too much, security might come over to talk to you.

Myth: Cold Currency Works

I don’t know where this started, but for decades many video poker players have put quarters, nickels and whatever in the freezer prior to coming to the casino-or they feel the change before accepting it from the change person.

The myth says that cold currency somehow tricks the machine into paying out. What?

This doesn’t even make sense. The machine simply counts your currency and gives you the appropriate credits. It doesn’t measure the temperature of your change. You could put hot or cold coins in the machine and your result will be the same.

Myth: Don’t play credits or currency

This myth goes hand in hand with the previous one. There’s a group of video poker players that believes you should only play credits-another group says only currency.

The thought is that the machine plays differently based on whether you’re using credits or currency. As a player, you’re always using credits. Even if you put money in, it’s transferred to credits.

The machine doesn’t care what you do and the casino has no preference. It’s all money to them. Machines aren’t set up to give “preference” to certain types of players.

In future articles, we’ll tackle more Video Poker myths. Some of these myths are fun, but others can be detrimental to your bankroll. As a Video Poker player, you’re first goal should be to have fun.

Educating yourself about how Video Poker machines work is a great first-step. Most, and I mean most, Video Poker players haven’t a clue about the how the game works internally. They simply get all of these myths in their head and assume them to be accurate.

Once you get these out of the way, you can have a blast playing Video Poker and you can attack the game and seize your winnings.