Talk:Nick the Greek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject Poker, an attempt at building a useful poker resource. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
	This article is supported by the Sports and games work group.

[edit] Craps section

I've moved the Craps piece to the discussion page because it flows awkardly and is not sourced. Actually most of this article is not sourced. If anyone wants to rearrange this and source it, go for it:

In addition to marathon card games, Nick also played long distance craps; tenatiously hanging in there at the table, hours and sometimes days until the game went his way, as he knew it must and he played himself out of his losses. Because Nick (unlike the vast majority of craps shooters) believed in the frequency of the '7' showing.

Digressing briefly into the game of craps helps us understand not only just how much of an individualist and truly knowleagable gambler Nick was, but also a man who was prepared to go against popular culture and habits (in craps) because of what he believed was 'right' and the most sensible logical thing to do. In this case, if the house lets you play their game, for the lowest vigorish going, you'd be crazy not to take up their offer, even if it meant initially laying out more of your own money on the table.

Nick played this way for a very simple reason - '7' is the easiest number to make for a pair of dice. It is the number around which the entire game of casino craps revolves, and Nick bet continually for this event to occur - playing the 'wrong' (or Don't Pass/Don't Come) side of the table ie. betting 'with' the casino, 'against' the shooter trying to make his Point.

Except for his reputation, this strategy certainly made Nick no friends around the table, as most players believed this kind of game jinxed the dice and brought bad luck. For them certainly. Not for Nick, whose game was one of the smartest going, with not only the lowest house percentage against the player in the casino, but the fastest action. Which was what Nick lived for. But it's a strategy which requires both the courage, and the bankroll to lay the long end of the odds - both of which Nick had in abundance until luck and the house percentage broke even him.SmartGuy 15:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Wow, this looks fine to me. Some mention of the "free odds" bet should be added. Nick always advised this as the "best action in the casino." Since there was no poker in a typical casino at that time and card-counting in blackjack was in its infancy, he was surely correct. Will in New Haven —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.234.37.144 (talk) 02:14, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article name change

Should this be moved to "Nick Dandalos" or should there be a redirect page from there to here? Clarityfiend 23:17, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Done. SmartGuy 15:45, 9 April 2007 (UTC)