As many of you know, I go for the long shots on the craps table…my aggressive pressing of the horns and hardways is what earned me the nickname Hardway Jack. I’m all about going for the gusto. I win sometimes, more often I lose, but I always have a blast. Yesterday at Paris on the Strip—my last day of a fantastic week with great friends—I went after a personal goal: hitting the hard way after pressing to the maximum, which you can do on the third roll here. Vegas, I’ll note, allows twice the max bet you’ll find in Atlantic City. Out here, the major houses let you bet up to $3000 on a hard 6 or 8 and up to $4000 on a hard 4 or 10.
I shared this in another group, but I’m posting it here too because it was quite the experience. I bought in for $500. I placed the 6 for $150 and put $100 on the Hard 6.
I’m rolling number after number. I hit the 6 easy a couple of times and replaced the hard 6 with another $100 each time. No issues. I built the place 6 up to $300 and then—bang—hard 6! I pressed the hard 6 to $500 and the place 6 to $660.
A few rolls later, bang, another hard 6! I went right to the table max of $3000 on the hard 6 and pushed the place 6 up to $2880. A few more rolls go by and an easy 6 hits…it paid $3360. I replaced the $3000 hard 6 bet. I roll a few more numbers. At this point, I’ve got five sixes on the repeater. I see that one last empty spot for the sixth six and I’m praying it’ll be the hard way.
The whole table is watching, holding their breath. In my head, I’m thinking I’m one hard 6 away from a $27,000 payday, plus the place 6 for $3360—a total of $30,660. I’m already planning to give the dealers a $660 tip on top of what I’d already placed for them from the earlier hard ways.
And then, I roll..I see the first die land on a 3…I look at the second die…a 4…seven out. The agony of defeat. Ironically, I rolled two repeaters during that hand and, to salt the wound, three hard 10’s—any one of which could have given me the same payoff if I’d had money on it.
It was an exciting roll, to say the least. I still walked away about $2000 ahead from that session, but that tease of a potential windfall? That’s exactly why I love this game.
