Hello from a craps player in North Carolina (1 Viewer)

[Matt Carden]

Hi everyone! I'm technically a craps player, but I'll host an occasional poker game every now and then.

I currently stock the craps table in my basement with PCA Primary $1s and Empresses for the rest. But I took advantage of Jim's recent sale so I can replace the PCAs with $1s from the Horseshoe. (Now all the molds match, and my OCD will be at ease!)

I have another set of Empress primaries as a tournament set for poker games.

I look forward to meeting you all in the forums.

 

[Tommy]

Welcome to PCF!

 

[PAZ]

Welcome aboard!!

 

[Psypher1000]

Ah, so *you're* who has those Empress chips on sale via eBay right now. I was wondering if you'd turn up here.

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on replacing those $1's!

 

[DrStrange]

Some pictures would be wonderful! I always wanted a craps table, but there isn't a chance that is happening. I can enjoy pictures of someone else's dice table and chips.

DrStrange

 

[David O]

Welcome

 

[Matt Carden]

Some pictures would be wonderful! I always wanted a craps table, but there isn't a chance that is happening. I can enjoy pictures of someone else's dice table and chips.

DrStrange

Here are a couple pics. I built it a while back over the course of a couple weekends.

 

[dew4au]

View attachment 57238 View attachment 57239



Here are a couple pics. I built it a while back over the course of a couple weekends.

That is so awesome! I have a home made craps table that I stock with Bahamias, but I only get it out for Monte Carlo nights and the occasional craps tourney. I would love, love, love to have a table like that at my house. Very nice, sir, and welcome aboard.

 

[Matt Carden]

Ah, so *you're* who has those Empress chips on sale via eBay right now. I was wondering if you'd turn up here.

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on replacing those $1's!

Yup, that's me

I had extras that weren't part of my craps or tournament set that just sat in the closet That's no way to treat a chip!

 

[Matt Carden]

That is so awesome! I have a home made craps table that I stock with Bahamias, but I only get it out for Monte Carlo nights and the occasional craps tourney. I would love, love, love to have a table like that at my house. Very nice, sir, and welcome aboard.

Thanks for the kind words! The table really is a lot of fun.

 

[Max D]

Welcome, and nice table and setup

 

[DJ Mack]

Indeed, nice setup! I'm in the process (read: thinking about) building a craps setup in my basement. I've got a billiards table that sees very light use so I'm kicking around the idea of building a box on top of it to be able to convert to craps. @dennis63 has a decent layout that will almost exactly fit the dimensions of my table so it's just a matter of what I want to build, and of course, how many chips I need on the table and in what quantity.

Any advice? Probably looking at 6-8 players playing casino nights where the card tables have $5/$100 min/max.

Oh! And welcome to PCF!

 

[links_slayer]

welcome, welcome. nice set up you have there!

 

[Matt Carden]

Indeed, nice setup! I'm in the process (read: thinking about) building a craps setup in my basement. I've got a billiards table that sees very light use so I'm kicking around the idea of building a box on top of it to be able to convert to craps. @dennis63 has a decent layout that will almost exactly fit the dimensions of my table so it's just a matter of what I want to build, and of course, how many chips I need on the table and in what quantity.

Any advice? Probably looking at 6-8 players playing casino nights where the card tables have $5/$100 min/max.

Oh! And welcome to PCF!

As far as the table goes, I have 2 recommendations: First, add a thin layer of cork under the layout. It helps with the sound and gives the dice the right amount of bounce. Second, make sure you have a comfortable rail. All the players will be leaning on it, so it's good to keep everyone comfortable

For chips, I have my table stocked with 360 $1s, 600 $5s, 500 $25s, 100 $100s, and a barrel of $500s. To tell the truth, it is complete overkill. I can have 12 players (6 on each side) playing with $200 - $400 buy-ins and never have a problem. However, it's just enough chips to make the table look nice After all, if you find yourself running low on certain denominations, you can always buy the chips back from the players' rails.

 

[Kyle]

Welcome

 

[Jackstraw]

Welcome!

 

[dew4au]

As far as the table goes, I have 2 recommendations: First, add a thin layer of cork under the layout. It helps with the sound and gives the dice the right amount of bounce. Second, make sure you have a comfortable rail. All the players will be leaning on it, so it's good to keep everyone comfortable

For chips, I have my table stocked with 360 $1s, 600 $5s, 500 $25s, 100 $100s, and a barrel of $500s. To tell the truth, it is complete overkill. I can have 12 players (6 on each side) playing with $200 - $400 buy-ins and never have a problem. However, it's just enough chips to make the table look nice After all, if you find yourself running low on certain denominations, you can always buy the chips back from the players' rails.

I'm assuming you run the game tournament style. What is the structure of your game? (Buyin, playtime, payout, max bet)

 

[Kyle]

Welcome

 

[guinness]

Oh man, I'm loving this craps setup. @H|Q we found your kindred spirit!!

 

[Matt Carden]

I'm assuming you run the game tournament style. What is the structure of your game? (Buyin, playtime, payout, max bet)

When we play for cash, we have a person (or group of people) who are the 'bank', and they cover the house money. All the players are playing against the house. When we buy in, all of the chips cost 1/10th of their face value. $1 is a dime, $5 is 50 cents, etc. So, for $20 you get $200 in chips.

However, we seem to have more fun when no cash is on the line, and we have 4 or 5 people each using different betting strategies and betting progressions. That way, we can pause the game at any time and evaluate how everyone is doing. We can count the chips on the table and on the rail, and see which strategies work better under which conditions.

 

[slisk250]

Nice table. I presume that you purchased the milled wood rails prefab. Where?

 

[Matt Carden]

Nice table. I presume that you purchased the milled wood rails prefab. Where?

Actually, I milled them myself routed them out of Poplar with a Core Box router bit. I had to build a jig to do the corners.

 

[H|Q]

When we play for cash, we have a person (or group of people) who are the 'bank', and they cover the house money. All the players are playing against the house. When we buy in, all of the chips cost 1/10th of their face value. $1 is a dime, $5 is 50 cents, etc. So, for $20 you get $200 in chips.

However, we seem to have more fun when no cash is on the line, and we have 4 or 5 people each using different betting strategies and betting progressions. That way, we can pause the game at any time and evaluate how everyone is doing. We can count the chips on the table and on the rail, and see which strategies work better under which conditions.

Have you considered a craps tourney.

Set a starting player bank and number of rolls, not games.

 

[Matt Carden]

Have you considered a craps tourney.

Set a starting player bank and number of rolls, not games.

Haven't considered that before... I might give it a try this weekend.

 

[DJ Mack]

For chips, I have my table stocked with 360 $1s, 600 $5s, 500 $25s, 100 $100s, and a barrel of $500s. To tell the truth, it is complete overkill

This is really helpful actually. I'm trying to estimate what else I need to get when the regular Horseshoe chip sale is on. I was planning on another rack of $500s but came to realize that with two card tables and craps I'm already 60 over "worst case" so the money can be better spent on $25s where I'm way low. Thanks!!

 

[dew4au]

Have you considered a craps tourney.

Set a starting player bank and number of rolls, not games.

That's what we do. It's usually a $20 buyin. $500 in chips for about two hours of play. Betting restrictions are enforced for the last 30 mins. Otherwise people who are way behind start dumping all of their money on boxcars to try to steal the win.

 

[slisk250]

I was able to secure a matched number new 6 piece set of Dunes dice today. Damn this is going to be expensive....got the chips, now the dice, you know what's next...

 

[Poker Zombie]

You have mad skillz in table building! Count me in with the "I would love to, but..." crowd. Will live vicariously through your pics.

 

[dew4au]

I was able to secure a matched number new 6 piece set of Dunes dice today. Damn this is going to be expensive....got the chips, now the dice, you know what's next...

Well, I had the same thing happen, but I was able to get my fix without going all out. I needed a craps table for a our first casino night and after considering it I came to the conclusion that I needed to build something temporary. It needed to be something I could tear down and store while not in use since it wasn't going to be a permanent fixture.

I ended up improving this design and it serves it's purpose for what I need. It generally only makes an appearance for casino nights or for when we want to have people over for drinks and craps practice. This picture is circa 2009 when I was getting ready for that casino night. I had Desert Palms CCs on the table since that's what I still use to this day for casino nights where I don't have positive control of the chips. Anyways, here it is!

 

[Matt Carden]

Nice! It's great to see other folks with tables. Let's me know that I'm not the only crazy one... Throw in a 4' sheet of diamond rubber in place of the foam and it'll be perfect!

I built mine so that it breaks down, but have never taken it apart... So much for being portable!