Can you take the heat or do you make a fast retreat?
First off, what is “HEAT” pertaining to craps? Heat is an aggravation provided by an over zealous pit critter in a suit. It could come from a pit boss with tunnel vision thinking he is preventing the casino from going bankrupt. It most likely will come from a vermin called a floor manager who will spend his time drinking coffee and standing behind the box person making notations on your file card charting your action.
HEAT could come from a bored box person who doesn’t like your looks and is trying to get promoted to drinking coffee. Once in a while a dealer who needs a refresher course in customer relations will get on your case because you had to correct him too many times on payouts. The stick person can be a thorn in your side when he or she starts flashing that sword around and mixing up the dice so you can’t pick out your numbers fast enough when setting. They like to fish with that stick, but the only thing they are catching is your scorn.
That’s quite an army you are up against. You might have three Suits, a couple box persons, a crew of four dealers rotating in and out. It’s you against the house and their house is a big fort. What can you do to even out the odds against you? You can start by being nice and friendly. It may be hard to do when the Suit fires your player’s card back at you and almost takes your finger off when you are picking up you chips. A good Suit will come around the outside of the table and hand you your card by name and wish you good luck. Sometimes even the box or dealer will wish you good luck when you receive your buy-in chips. This is the sign of a friendly table.
When the dealer says, “Oh no, not another dot-com guy,” you know you got trouble. Be ready to RETREAT. He might say, “Let’s see if this guy can hit the back wall.” I love it when they ask me how long it took me to learn to throw the dice that way. I tell them ten years and I still have a long way to go. One guy asked me if I knew FS and said that I shoot just like him. I came back with, am I really that bad? They laughed and the situation was defused.
The minute you throw the dice, they know what you’re up to and will be keeping an eye on you. Get use to it and be friendly. Their best recourse is to harp on hitting the back wall. Some day they will wake up and realize that’s what we are trying to do. Some of the smarter Suits are turning their backs on one die missing the back wall. After all, it’s a random roll.
Most of your random rollers are setting the dice in some form or other. They look for their favorite number to put on top and then just fire them down the table. Some of them are very meticulous on what they are setting and then shake the hell out of the dice before tossing. All these habits of the “randies” only serve to help us blend in.
Some time when you think the Suit is hanging around to see if you are one of those “dot com” guys, try this. When it’s your turn to throw the dice, just pick them up without setting them but make your fine smooth delivery to the back wall with both dice. The suit will think you have a nice toss but you’re not setting the cubes and he might just walk away and go for another cup of coffee. Sometimes it pays to sacrifice that first come-out roll.
Be careful of that first bet you make for the crew. I have a habit of making a PL bet right off the bat on my come-out roll. If you don’t know the crew or suit, it’s a sure tip off to them off that you’re up to something. If I don’t know the Suit I will wait a couple of tosses before putting out a bet for them. When putting out bets for the crew, look at it as buying an insurance policy. I am a firm believer in betting for the crew only when I have the dice.
We are our own worst enemy when it comes to drawing heat. We may be throwing the dice too high or to low or too hard. We may be taking too much time setting the dice. We might be placing our bets too late. Not hitting the back wall is their favorite ploy against us. It is up to us to determine what real heat is and what appears as routine banter. The minute we take up arguing with any of the crew or suits, we will get the worst of it.
Nothing has changed over the years. The same kind of heat was being applied ten years ago. Sometimes for no reason at all. Fifty Roller and I were exposed to the heat, ten years ago, at the Casino Royale. What happened to us is happening all over when you run into an over zealous pit critter. We were at a $2 table, with 100Xodds. We had bought in for $300 each. Nothing much was happening until Fifty Roller got the dice.
We were not into dice setting at that time and were just making the rounds. As soon as Fifty Roller picked up the dice the Suit came over and whispered something into the box guy’s ear. On the next toss the Suit again whispered something to the box guy. Fifty Roller was about to throw again when the box guy says,” let’s hit the back wall with both dice. He had a pained expression on his face like he didn’t want to say anything.
Fifty Roller was ignoring what was going on and throwing some numbers. In the process he made a couple of points and the Suit went nuts. He pulled the box guy out and sat down at the box. Before he could say anything Fifty Roller seven’s out.
I got the dice next and before I could toss them, the ”Suit-in-the-box” says, “make sure you hit the back wall with the dice.” I whispered to Fifty Roller to make his best play and when I seven-out, we retreat to the high ground next door.
The Suit kept baiting me and I was just trying to finish the hand and retreat. When I think back on the session, I tried to think what got the Suit so uptight or worried about us. Was it the $300 buy-in at a $2 table or the $5 bets inside and stacking all the winnings on the pass line odds on the point of six? I made the six and went point seven and out. As soon as I seven-out, the Suit got up and let the box guy sit back down. As we retreated from the table, the box guy said, “sorry about that.”
We proved one point. You don’t have to be a dice setter to attract attention. We were random rollers with stylish tosses and caught enough heat to have to retreat.
Charlie009
