Hands High!  That phrase is music to my ears.  I consider myself a "betting man" only because I know more about gambling than the average Joe.  I am a conservative better.  I don't risk the kind of money where if I lose I'll be eating Wendy's go-wraps for dinner every day.  (Note: I eat go-wraps for dinner everyday now because I want too, not because I HAVE too.)  I play poker, Caribbean stud, five and seven card stud, blackjack, roulette, I bet on sports.   However, the game I love the most is Craps.  

I don't know all the rules of craps.  I still consider myself a novice but I know enough to play at a table and look like I know more than I do.  I play the pass line and I always back up my bet and I always place six and eight.  If I'm on a roll (pun intended) I'll throw a couple more bucks on the six or the eight, sometimes even backing up my bet a little more.  I have a certain way of rolling the dice that seems to have worked for me thus far.  Unfortunately for me the closest place to play craps is a plane trip away.  I don't consider online gambling fair because I am convinced it is rigged, but that's another article for another day. 

I've been to the Bahamas a bunch of times and the most recent time I crapped way too much.  I used to be a huge blackjack guy until I found out how insanely fun craps is.  Not only do you interact with a bunch of fun people but also it's the only game where it seems that the environment and attitude of the players seems to dictate what happens in the game.  It's also the only game where you can be belligerent drunk yelling the whole time and people think you are just having a good time. 

Let's compare- in the game of craps you are betting on the OTHER players as well, so if you want an eight to come out and the dude rolls an eight, you can scream and yell and jump and cheer and high five everyone.  The louder you are the more popular you are with the other players.  Everyone wants to be friends with the really loud guy at the craps table (i.e. Uncle Sid). 

Switch to blackjack- for those of us who didn't go to MIT and can't count cards, we pretty much don't give a rats ass what the guy next to us does.  You can have a strategy that you would like him to follow but the guy after you doesn't affect your specific card total in the least bit.  If you have an eighteen and the guy next to you hits a blackjack you're actually pissed at him and wonder why you didn't sit in his seat.  If you hit blackjack and he gets an eighteen, it really doesn't matter one way or the other.  There is no cheering for the other players in blackjack, you would look drunk and sloppy.   The loud player at the blackjack table looks like an ass and the pit boss warns them before he has to politely "remove" them from the table. 

Haven't you ever seen Vegas Vacation?  Clark plays blackjack and loses all his money and is miserable.  Nick Papagiorgio plays craps with hot prostitutes and gets comped the penthouse suite.  I rest my case.   

Another thing I like about craps is that when you make a bet the pit boss and the crew takes care of everything.  You don't ever have to remember how much money you are putting down because they do it all for you.  You can knock over a bunch of chips on the table and they somehow remember where everything is supposed to be and they fix it for you.  You are in fact told NOT to touch anything!  You can literally throw your chips onto the table anywhere and scream out random things like "six" or "eight" or even fun phrases like "BOXCAR!".

The pit crew also makes the game more fun.  They say funny things like "Hot shootahh heyahhh, hot shootahhh!"  and it makes you feel like you are the man.  If you lean over the table they scream out "HANDS HIGH!   HANDS HIGH!"  I love it.  

Who knows when I'll play craps next.  Maybe when I go skiing in Montreal this winter.  Until then, I'll be like my hands and stay high.*

*Just kidding, but it sounded really cool.