The number of ways to attack the game of craps is unlimited, but some plays attract more attention than others do – particularly from dealers who think they have seen it all. Here is a play I make from time to time that always piques their interest. I call it the Squeeze Box – or Heavy’s Outside-In Power Press Progression.
Let’s assume we’re down at my favorite gambling hall, the Perfect World Casino. It’s called that because – unlike the Real World Casino – these types of plays always seem to work out there.
The strategy is simple. Place all the numbers. Whenever one of your numbers rolls you take down the bet and parlay the bet and winnings to the next inside number. Once all bets have migrated to the six and eight you take one hit and down – or one hit and regress.
In a $10 game, by-pass the come-out roll of a qualified shooter then place $64 across including the point. Now let’s say the shooter tosses the nine next. The $10 wager on the nine pays $14. Tell the dealer to take you down on the nine, then slide the $10 plus the $14 win back to him and instruct him to press the eight to $36.
Suppose the 8 rolls next. The dealer pays you $42 for your $36 wager and you say “same bet.” In this strategy we’ll say “same bet” when the six or eight roll until all of the other wagers have progressed to the six and eight.
Let’s say the four rolls next. The dealer pays you $18 for the $10 place bet on the four. Tell the dealer to take you down on the four, then slide the $10 place bet plus $15 of the $18 payoff back to the dealer and instruct him to press the five to $35. As an option off that – you could drop $2 on the table with the payoff and power press the five to $40. But in this case let’s use $35 as our number.
Next toss the five rolls. The payoff is $49. You tell the dealer to “take me down on the five.” Then you slide the $35 plus the $49 payoff back to the dealer and tell him to “make my six look like $96.
Next toss the eight repeats. You lock up another $42 and say “same bet” again. At this point you’ve taken a total of $87 off the table and have a $23 profit locked up. But look at all the action you have out there. There’s a $96 six, a $36 eight, and a $10 ten on the table – a total of $142 action.
Now, if you’re playing in the “Real World Casino” this is the point where many of us start scratching our heads and counting on our fingers. You could easily regress to $30 each on the six and eight, lock up another $82 and have a guaranteed $105 win. But what the heck – we’re playing in the “Perfect World,” so let’s let the strategy run its course.
A miracle occurs and the shooter tosses the ten. The dealer pays you an additional $18. You take down the wager on the ten, then slide that wager plus $15 of the payoff back to the dealer and instruct him to “place the nine for $25.” Then, as often happens in the Perfect World – the shooter tosses the nine. The dealer cuts out $35. You tell him to “take down the nine and give me $60 pressure on the eight.”
Now you have $96 each on the six and eight – a total of $192 action. Next toss – eight hard. The dealer pays you $112 and you say the magic words, “Bring me down on the six and eight. You rack your chips, tally them, net out the original $64 wager, and discover you have just won $330.
For those of you who want a simpler play without spreading $64 across, the squeeze box strategy can easily be scaled down to play inside numbers only. On a budget? Start with $22 inside instead of $44. If you get a hit on the five or nine you take that number down, add the payoff to the original bet and press the adjacent inside number. That gets you to three units on the six or eight, where you take one hit and down.
A power-press parlay move is a beautiful thing when it works, and I’ve had fair success with several variations of this play on long hands by random rollers. But in the Real World Casino the seven is always lurking out there. If you find yourself out of your comfort zone with the size of the bet, just remember that you never lose when you take money off the table.
