Roll With It

Learn to play (and win big at) the game of craps with this easy how-to

You could win big at the table if you know what you're doing.

Photo courtesy of Choctaw Casino & Resort–Durant

Craps is a fast-paced table game with the potential for a huge payday — provided you strategically choose and size your bets. But for any novice, approaching the table can feel intimidating.

Want to play after learning the ropes? Head to Choctaw Casino & Resort–Durant. The AAA Four Diamond entertainment destination is just over the Oklahoma border, in Durant. With these insider tips, soon you’ll be running the table.

The basics
Craps involves players making wagers on the outcome of the roll of a pair of dice. At Choctaw, the flop of the cards establishes the roll. The odds of rolling a certain number on one die is 1-in-6. Same holds true for cards — ace through 6 — which mimic the roll of the dice. Multiply that by two die (or card stacks), and there are 36 different rolls that can turn up.

How to bet
To place a bet, put your chips on the table within reach, or toss your chips to the center of the table and call your bet to the dealer. Get familiar with bets terminology, particularly the pass line and don’t pass line, here.

Bets must meet Choctaw’s $5 minimum and not exceed the table maximum of $1,000. The typical buy-in at a $5 craps table is $200. That said, it’s possible to wager $1 on proposition bets (certain numbers to win). Prop bets can be made at any time during the game (except during the roll).

The craps table offers the only wager on Choctaw’s casino floor with no house advantage on odds or lay odds. Choctaw is also unique in that it offers hop bets, which is a proposition bet based on a single roll, made on a certain combination of the dice. Similarly, Choctaw allows put bets: a pass line bet after the initial roll.

While you’re learning, don’t hesitate to ask your dealer or the floor supervisor for clarification or assistance. Craps is a high-speed game, but the dealer will call out rolls and bets and guide you through the process.

Calculate your odds
Resist the temptation to spread your money thinly across the table. Certain bets increase your odds and payout. When wagering, keep the following tips in mind:

Seven appears the most frequently in craps. Why? Because your odds stay steady at 1-in-6. (Whatever you roll on the first die, you have a 1-in-6 chance of getting the number needed on die two.) Naturally, lucky seven bets give the house the highest advantage.
Risk-takers like to bet lower odds, like 2, known as “snake eyes.” It pays 30-to-1.
Statistically, “inside” bets — boxes 5, 6, 8, and 9 — show up more often than the outside numbers.
The best strategy is to play the pass line or don’t pass line and take the max odds or lay odds and play come bets with max odds.
Consider betting "two ways": playing for the dealer too. It’s a fun way for all parties to have a stake in the game, and the dealer is more likely to cheer you on and offer helpful advice.

Choctaw’s biggest single payout is $3,000, and the greatest total won by players is $30,000. Plan a quick trip to Durant to take a shot at winning it big.

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Movie Review

New biopic 'Jimmy' salutes Jimmy Stewart's service in World War II

Photo courtesy of Papaian Studios

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Actor Jimmy Stewart, thanks to movies such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Philadelphia Story, had the reputation early in his career as the everyman in Hollywood, someone to whom most audiences could relate. That became even more true when Stewart entered the military during World War II, a period that is explored in the new biopic, Jimmy.

Stewart (KJ Apa) was riding high in 1941, coming off his first (and only) Oscar win for The Philadelphia Story. As depicted in the film, his life is upended when he receives a military draft notice as the U.S. prepares for war. He’s determined to serve, but people like studio head Louis B. Mayer (Jason Alexander) try to talk him out of it. Already an experienced pilot, he eventually joins the war in Europe, flying the B-24 bomber.

Despite his celebrity status, Stewart requests to be treated the same as any other soldier, which means flying multiple missions over enemy territory. He moves up the ranks, becoming a leader tasked with, among other things, reporting the deaths of service members to their families. He also starts a friendship that develops into a romance with Lady Julia (Kara Killmer), giving him a distraction from the horrors of war.

Directed by Aaron Burns and written by Justin Strawhand, the film has the clear goal of being a hagiography for Stewart, showing all of his good qualities and few of his bad ones. In fact, the character of Stewart is harder on himself than the actual movie is, chastising himself over the deaths of fellow soldiers that he likely could not have prevented. The filmmakers go to great lengths to show how good and well-respected Stewart was, something that may well be true, but doesn’t make for great drama.

The bulk of the film features Stewart at war, following him and others as they fly multiple missions and commiserate over the price of combat. The sequences are fine, but the film’s budget does not appear to be high, and so the CGI needed to recreate the scenes is noticeably subpar. Because Burns and Strawhand usually keep to surface-level storytelling and don’t go deep on any character besides Stewart, his time at war is engaging but slight.

The film is bookended by Stewart and Frank Capra (Max Casella) making It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart’s first film after coming back from war. It’s here where the movie becomes most interesting as Stewart, still affected by his war experience, struggles to bring the character of George Bailey to life. The behind-the-scenes look at the film-within-the-film and the recreations of its iconic scenes are catnip for anyone who knows/loves the Christmas classic.

Apa, best known for starring as Archie on the TV show Riverdale, does extremely well as Stewart. He nails Stewart’s quavering voice and the way he ambles about plays right into the actor’s established persona. Casella and Killmer get the most play in supporting roles, and each does solid work as characters trying to understand Stewart. Alexander, Sarah Drew as Hedda Hopper, and Rob Riggle as a colonel each go a little too big in their respective parts.

Jimmy is probably best watched as an approximation of the man Stewart was in the 1940s, not as something that’s completely true to life. The film elides or stretches the truth on multiple occasions, which is par for the course in biopics. It could have used some stronger storytelling to make Stewart feel like a real person, not merely a replica of the famous actor.

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Jimmy is now playing in theaters.

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