Archive for February 4th, 2010

Learn to Gamble on Craps – Hints and Tactics: Casino Chips or Casino Cheques?

Casino personnel usually refer to chips as "cheques," which is of French origin. Technically, there’s a difference between a chip and a cheque. A cheque is a chip with a amount printed on its face and is constantly worth the amount of the imprinted denomination. Chips, however, don’t have values printed on them and any color can be worth any cash amount as defined by the table. e.g., in a poker tournament, the house might value white chips as $1 and blue chips as 10 dollars; at the same time, in a roulette game, the house may state that white chips as twenty-five cents and blue chips as 2 dollars. Another example, the inexpensive red, white, and blue plastic chips you can get at Target for your weekend poker get together are called "chips" owing to the fact that they don’t have values written on them.

When you put your $$$$$ down on the table and hear the dealer say, "Cheque change only," he’s basically informing the boxman that a new individual would like to change money for chips (cheques), and that the $$$$$$ on the craps table is not in play. Cash plays in a majority of casinos, so if you place a five dollar bill on the Pass Line just prior to the tosser tossing the dice and the dealer does not trade your cash for chips, your $$$$$$ is "live" and "in play." When the dealer says, "Cheque change only," the boxman understands that your $$$$$ isn’t in play.

In reality, in in real life craps games, we bet with cheques, not chips. Ever so often, a player will approach the craps table, drop a one hundred dollar cheque, and inform the dealer, "Cheque change." It’s fun to act like a beginner and say to the croupier, "Hey, I am new to this game, what’s a cheque?" Generally, their crazy answers will amuse you.