Dear Mark, I have been following your advice and making casino bets that have less than a two percent house advantage. I now consider myself a reformed player. My blockhead brother on the other hand makes bets with no rhyme or reason. Since we both play craps, show me why my pass line bet versus his favorite bet, hardway sixes and eights, will always do better? Susan M.

Susan, by using a simple mathematical formula, I will prove that by playing smart, your play will generally outperform your brother's. Let's first analyze your action, Susan. A pass line bet, with no odds, has a house advantage of 1.4%. With a $5 wager and 50 playing decisions per hour, your theoretical loss (all bets lose over time) is $5 X 50 X 0.014, or $3.50 per hour. Relatively cheap entertainment. In comparison, your brother's bet, the hard six or eight, has a house advantage of 9.1%. The damage to his bankroll would be $5 X 50 X 0.091, or $22.75 in the same amount of time. Multiply that by 15 hours of play and you've got a sniveling, unhappy camper with a long car ride home. Sibling rivalry aside, glad to see you're reforming your play. Now let's convert the blockhead.

Dear Mark, What is a hardway number on a crap game and is it a good bet? Steve. R.

A hardway wager is a 4-6-8-10, but only paired up as a 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 combination. For example; if you have a hard six wager, a pair of 3-3s would have to roll for you to win. Not a 2-4 or 5-1 dice roll. Is it a good bet? No! House advantage on a hardway 6 or 8 is 9.1 percent. A hardway 4 or 10 has an 11.1 percent casino edge. Readers of Deal Me In only make wagers that have a house advantage of two percent or less. Steve, say adios to this wager.

Dear Mark, Is there any difference between the crap tables of Nevada and those in Atlantic City? William B.

Excluding the ability in Nevada to take higher odds on your line bets, the biggest difference on the craps table layout in Atlantic City is there is no big 6 or 8. When the player bets on the big 6 or 8, the payoff is even money, whereas it is 7-to-6 bet when either the 6 or 8 is wagered as a "place bet" in either state. The latter is a much smarter wager.

Dear Mark, What does the term "horn" bet mean in craps? Clayburn P.

A "horn" bet is a one-roll proposition wager which is a combination of any craps (2, 3, 12) and a bet on the 11. It pays off according to the individual payoff for each number, less the three chips that were lost. Do I recommend said wager? NO. Craps offers two kinds of one-roll bets-hopeless and wretched. Although proposition bets have seemingly lofty payoffs, the house edge is way to high too waste your hard-earned money on them.

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Dear Mark, Which is a better wager on a crap game? An "any craps" bet or a "craps-eleven" bet? Gary A.

NEITHER, with one exception. Your dial-a-psychic is accurate 100% of the time. An "any craps" bet is wagering that 2, 3, or 12 will be the result of the next roll. With a payoff of 7 to 1, the house edge is 11.1%. A "craps-eleven," or "horn" bet as it's typically called, is a bet on the next roll that the 2, 3, 11, or 12 will appear. If any other number rolls, you lose. Though the payoff varies from casino to casino, the house edge on a horn bet is always more than 12%. A piratical house advantage if ever there was one.

Dear Mark, What is a hardway number on a crap game and is it a good bet? Steve. R.

A hardway wager is a 4-6-8-10, but only paired up as a 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 combination. For example; if you have a hard six wager, a pair of 3-3s would have to roll for you to win. Not a 2-4 or 5-1 dice roll. Is it a good bet? No! House advantage on a hardway 6 or 8 is 9.1 percent. A hardway 4 or 10 has an 11.1 percent casino edge. Readers of Deal Me In only make wagers that have a house advantage of two percent or less. Steve, say adios to this wager.

Dear Mark, Why is it that every time the dice fly off the table, the next number to roll is the seven? Uncanny isn't it? Should I bet on the seven every time the dice go off the game? Robert N.

You would think, Robert, that every time you hear a dealer call "It's on the ground, look around, it must be found" or "Too tall to call" that the smart thing to do would be to place a wager on the number seven because you believe it's going to roll again. You'd be thinkin' wrong, pardner. By making this wager part of your betting repertoire, you could easily be joining the most pathetic bunch of losers since my ninth grade remedial shop math class. Why? Because the probability of a seven showing on any roll, off the table or not, is only 16.67 percent. Forget what you perceive. Each roll of the dice always remains the same, an independent event. More bad news. The one-roll wager on the seven is the worst bet on the crap table. Casino advantage, 16.7 percent. Sorry, Robert, what you perceive as happening all the time is anecdotal evidence, not reality. Stay away from this wager!