Craps To Play

While most are said in a semi-kidding "Hey, if you ever want a backer, let me know" sort of way, some are dead serious to the point of offering up-front payments in anticipation of future earnings.

As flattering as that may be, the hassle of earning money for someone else instead of yourself, comes with all sorts of other considerations.

However if there are multiple shooters and some do generally better than the others; then the inevitable struggle between strong performance and seemingly inadequate compensation will rear its head.

I mean, if two players are consistently shooting the lights out, while one or two others are not only dragging down the overall group-earnings; but they are getting the same recompense as the two stellar shooters; then friction and resentment are usually not far behind.

It's important to be mindful that the biggest egos are often the most fragile and easily offended. With that being said, you should fully expect the sub-par-performance players to reiterate the fact that controlling individual loss-volatility is the reason that people join teams, and that the collective results of the team are what is relevant, not each player's individual results.

Many semi-permanent teams divide their wins every time the group's bankroll doubles; but to a certain degree, a lot of those decisions depend on how much you and your fellow players trust the investor/banker.

After all, they are all adults and they all share a common vision of making more money than they are making now...right?!

What's not at first obvious though is the fact that there are all sorts of policies and decisions that are probably best determined by a team manager, instead of by individual players or by the team collectively, such as:

-What casino to play at.

 -What bet-minimum tables to play at.

 -What role each player will have (ie. shooter, blocker, and table-position, etc.)

 -Who will hold the bankroll in between sessions.

-How to deal with real or perceived heat.

-Whether or not team-members should be allowed to play craps outside of or away from the group (ie. do you want two of your best shooters to be coming off of an 18-hour shooting marathon where their winnings are not contributed to the group's overall profit figure?).

-To what extent are travel, hotel, and food expenses reimbursable from team profits or bankrolls, and who is empowered to make those decisions (ie. if I stay in a deluxe suite at Bellagio and you stay in a Garden Room at the Trop, should we both get fully reimbursed, or should I only get refunded to the amount that your room costs).

 -How are comps split, and are any of them counted as team wins if one or more player 'contributes' his comps to the group.

-What is the team's tipping policy.

-What are the grounds for penalizing or terminating a team member.

You'll also want to know that most D-I teams fail for reasons that are NOT related to shooting skill; and I’ll be discussing that much further in Part Three of this series.

Until then,