Recently we played with a client at Bally's in the morning, and noticed a guy in a western-style suit and a black cowboy hat. After a while, we saw him walk away, clearly beaten. In the evening, we had another appointment, and while we were checking out the tables, I went up to the guy and asked him how the table was going. He said, "It's been okay." I told him that I had noticed him earlier in the day—cowboy hat and all making him pretty recognizable—to which he replied, "Yeah, I've taken a beating today."

We ended up playing at that table for awhile, which led us to understand why he wasn't doing so well. He played the "yo" and a lot of hardways. To state the pure simple truth: they're all sucker bets. Why do you think the stickman yells at the people asking them if they want to bet on them? Urging you to bet these bets? Surely there's a reason why they tout some bets highly, while others not at all. There is. They're trying to take your money!

Out there in the middle-their chances of doing that are excellent. For the most part everything out there is basically a sense of stupidity, unless you have some money that you don't mind just throwing away. If you do play out there though, exhibit the intelligence of pressing the winnings. That could parlay into some serious cash. Let me tell you what I did one time...

I was playing and didn't start out with a lot that I was willing to lose--$200. Well, over time it dwindled away until I was left standing there with $8 in my hand. Knowing there wasn't much I could do with that, I tossed it to the stickman, and told him to put in on boxcars. To my, and the dealer's, disbelief the guy rolled a 12! I won $240. I quit because I wanted to be able to savor such an unusual win.

Now let me tell you about pressing the winnings in order to parlay it into some pretty serious winnings. If you take only $1 and bet it on the 2 or the 12, and you hit that bet and win, then leave your entire winnings up there as the next bet-if you hit that bet three times in a row, do you know how much money you win? $27,000! Do the math.

I'll even do it for you. If you bet $1 and win on the 12, you get paid $30-they keep the $1. If you bet that $30 and win on the 12 again, you get paid $900-they keep the $30. If you bet that $900 again, and win on that 12 for the third time in a row, you get paid $27,000-they keep the $900. I imagine you wouldn't mind if they kept the $900 at that point! One year some of the casinos came up with this new game. It was called "Climb The Mountain." It was all about proposition bets-if you do this or that you win so much. One of the bets was you bet $1 on the twelve-if you rolled it three times in a row, you won $500. This new game wasn't ten feet from the craps tables either! At one table you bet a buck, roll three 12s in a row, and you win $500. At another table right next to it you bet a buck, roll three 12s in a row, and you win $27,000! These casinos are hard to guard, man! You've got to keep an eye on them. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes I have seen three 12s rolled in a row at a craps table. And of course, not a soul had a bet on it. The boxman and I both laughed about it.