Sometimes, my wife's penchant for garage sales gets me into trouble. There was the time she went to one with Bonnie, a friend of hers from work. Apparently Bonnie had found an old coupon which read BIG 6 or 8 FREE BET HILTON. They showed it to me, and I thought nothing of it at the time.

Then last month Bonnie and her husband Don went to Las Vegas with us, and she produced the aforementioned FREE BET coupon while we were having lunch. We were not at the Hilton, and I didn't see much sense in driving there, especially to take advantage of a dubious coupon that had no address, date or denomination printed on it. I whispered to my wife that someone probably printed it up as a joke and that Bonnie should just forget about it.

When Bonnie picked up the menu, my wife glared at me. "Look. She's never played craps before. This will be a good introduction for her."

I sighed. "What if I just bought it for $1? Then we can play here."

I thought the idea was totally pointless - there was a perfectly good craps table right here in the casino we were staying at, but we both knew who the leader of this group was. So we finished eating and, of course, we drove to the Hilton.

Locating the craps tables was easy - there were lots of them, but the Big 6 and 8 areas on the layouts were gone! In the space normally reserved for them was an imprint that read "No Field Bet."

I asked one of the dealers what had happened and he smiled. "We took it out. It was a bad bet anyway. The no-field bet is much better. It pays on three numbers, the 5, 6 or 8, instead of just the 6 or 8."

I frowned. "Oh, so you mean that if we bet the No-Field, the bet stays up until the 5, 6 or 8 rolls, or the shooter sevens out?"

Now the dealer frowned. "No, it's a one roll bet, just like the field bet."

"But with the Big 6 or 8, the bets stay up until they win or lose."

"Well, the No-Field Bet is one roll bet. Still a good bet." the friendly dealer advised.

Now Bonnie piped up "Is this coupon good for it?"

The dealer looked at the small piece of paper. "No. I don't know where you got this, but it isn't good here. No date and no address."

He gave it back. To me. I stared at the small coupon. "Tell you what Bonnie, I'll buy it from you for $1," and handed her a dollar bill.

"But why, if it's not any good?"

"Oh, eh, I collect valuable old casino coupons."

I sighed. "Actually that's not a good bet - it's only good for one roll, and the combination of the numbers 5, 6 and 8 mean that you only have 14 chances of winning, compared to the regular field bet which gives you 16 chances of winning. If you add $5 to your $1 you can bet on the six or eight, since it hasn't rolled yet. Or if you add $4 to your $1 bet you can wait for the next come-out and bet on the pass line."

"Huh?" she said, signifying that she understood everything that I said just perfectly.

My wife came to the rescue. "He means that you should just bet on

the field."

"But." I started, and got another wifely glare.

Bonnie bought a $1 chip with my dollar and put it on the field.

The very next roll, of course, was a twelve, which paid $2!

She yelled "WOW! I WON!" and collected her small fortune.

I tried to explain how craps worked but it was no good. She didn't want to make any more bets - she wanted to go home a winner. I even explained to her what the "old" Big Six and Big Eight was, and the reason why the new No-Field bet was not an especially good bet, and why the field wasn't a good bet either, even though there were "all those numbers." But she was happy and didn't care - she was a winner!

When we got home, she told everyone that she actually won some money in Las Vegas, all because of a new craps bet at the Hilton called a "No-Field" bet.

Which was true, sort of.

I just have one thing to say about the No-Field bet - Anyone want to buy a valuable old casino coupon???

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