Golden Arm Craps Tournament 2020
Ever since the introduction of legalized gambling there in 1931, Las Vegas has lived up to its reputation as “Sin City” by offering everything a casino enthusiast could want. So it’s no surprise to learn that many of the greatest achievements to ever grace the world of gambling have gone down right here in America’s casino capital.
In this “Remembering When” series, we’ll look back on a few of the most legendary records set by Las Vegas gamblers.
And to kick things off, look no further than Stanley Fujitake’s epic world record run at the craps table 31 years ago.
Tourist from Hawaii Takes the Town by Storm
The year was 1989 and Stanley Fujitake was enjoying one of his regular Las Vegas vacations alongside his wife.
And if you’re a craps enthusiast, you can try your luck on the same tables where Stanley Fujitake once held the dice for a world-record 3 hours, six minutes – and launched the Cal’s world-famous “Golden Arm” club. Henry Lee doesn't cast an imposing figure. In fact, perhaps the most striking feature of the 72-year-old is his smile. A tall, thin man with a roof of white-gray hair, he's cordial, a bit shy.
The happy couple from Honolulu, Hawaii set up camp at the California Hotel & Casino – located in the Downtown district along Fremont Street – where Mr. Fujitake quickly found himself a spot at the craps table. Just before midnight, with a humble $5 bet placed on the Pass Line, Fujitake cradled the dice in his hands and let them fly.
As anybody familiar with the game of craps knows well, serving as the table shooter can take a gambler on any number of vastly different paths. You might roll a 2, 3, or 12 to produce an instant loss for Pass Line bettors by “crapping” out. Or, maybe you roll a 7 or 11 to send Pass Line players a quick even money winner on their wager.
More often than not, however, that initial roll – better known as the “come out roll” in craps lingo – lands on a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 to establish a new point number. From there, the shooter’s job is to roll the point number again before the dreaded 7 hits the green baize. That outcome – most commonly called “sevening” out in craps – causes Pass Line bettors to lose while ending the shooter’s session in a flash.
Sevening out is never fun for the shooter, but because 7 is the most likely number to appear on any given roll, it happens quite often. So often, in fact, that the average craps shooter manages only 8.5 rolls before passing the dice to another player.
On the other hand, when Lady Luck makes an appearance and smiles your way, the 7 seems to disappear from the dice altogether. Point numbers come in like clockwork to pay out Pass Line wagers, while non-point rolls can generate winners for players who prefer the exotic bets.
A hot shooter might last 30 minutes or so before sevening out, steadily accumulating chips and spreading the wealth with fellow craps fans all the while.
But on that fateful evening in the summer of 1989, Fujitake went three hours and six minutes without sevening out a single time. In doing so, the diminutive Hawaiian who called “The Cal” his home away from home established a new world record for longest consecutive craps roll ever.
Witnesses Still in Awe When Remembering Fujitake’s Record
John Repetti, who served as casino manager for the California at the time, later explained exactly how rare a roll like Fujitake’s really was in an interview with in-house publication News at the Cal:
“Half an hour is average, over an hour is amazing, but more than three hours is totally astounding.”
Fujitake’s wife Satsuko knew her beau had a knack for rolling the “bones,” as he routinely clocked extended shooting sessions of over an hour while playing at the California. But as she told Hawaii News Now, what Stanley Fujitake – who passed away in 2000 at the age of 77 – did that night in Las Vegas was much more than simply an “astounding” feat:
“It was a miracle, because it’s impossible to hold the dice.
It doesn’t happen all the time, maybe it’s only once in a lifetime deal.”
When it was all said and done, Fujitake had rolled the dice 118 straight times without sevening out. Over that marathon 186-minute span, he managed to hit the point number for a Pass Line winner on 18 occasions – attracting the attention of fellow gamblers and casino staff alike.
With the table now packed and players pressing their Pass Line bets after every roll, Guido Metzger – a dealer who worked his way up to a management position at the California – watched an unforgettable scene play out. As he recounted to the casino industry newsletter Boyd’s Buzz, Metzger saw money changing hands at an almost unbelievable pace:
“They had trouble keeping up with the chip payouts that night.
My table was empty. But there were at least 30 to 40 people trying to place bets at his table.
They couldn’t get fills to the table fast enough and had to start issuing scrip [casino credit] because not enough people were going to the cage and cashing in their chips.”
Overall, the absurd run of Pass Line payouts even caused the California’s cashier cage to run out of casino chips. Speaking with News at the Cal, Repetti recalled the frantic early morning phone call that alerted him to the unprecedented situation Fujitake’s record-setting roll had created:
“The first call came and he’d been shooting for an hour, and we were losing a couple hundred thousand dollars at the time. I said if he continued, to call me at every $100,000 loss interval.
Well, the calls kept coming every 15 minutes. Another $100,000. And another $100,000.
After the fourth call and fifth call, I decided I’d better get some clothes on and get downtown.”
He wasn’t the only winner, however, as fellow Pass Line bettors beat the California out of a cool $750,000 combined.
According to David Strow – who serves vice president of corporate communications for California casino parent company Boyd Gaming – the glaring discrepancy between Fujitake’s haul and that of his tablemates speaks to the different betting styles employed by craps regulars:
“That was one of the ironic things about his roll – the other players at the table ended up winning a lot more money than Stanley did!”
Fujitake Leaves a Legacy as the Original “Golden Arm”
In the years to come, the California sought to capitalize on its newfound reputation as the home of the craps world record.
Fujitake gladly allowed his hands, still holding those sizzling hot dice, to be immortalized by a bronze bust titled “Longest Dice Roll in History: The Man with the Golden Arm.” The tribute to Fujitake’s roll can still be found at the California to this day, as the casino has warmly embraced Fujitake and his fellow “Golden Arms.”
Beginning in 1992, anybody who manages to roll the dice for an hour or more without sevening out is enshrined in the “Golden Arm Club.” This honor comes complete with a personalized plaque on the Wall of Fame commemorating the shooter’s name, the date of their Golden Arm roll, and exactly how long they survived without seeing a 7 show up.
Many of the more than 300 members of the Golden Arm Club converge on the California’s craps tables every year for a special tournament in Fujitake’s honor.
Before he passed away, Fujitake found his name added to the Golden Arm Club four more times, proving that his record-setting roll in 1989 was far from a fluke.
In an odd twist of fate, Fujitake’s record was eventually surpassed by a novice gambler in Atlantic City, New Jersey almost 20 years to the day later. You can catch up on Patricia Demauro and her 154-roll session lasting more than four hours here, but sufficed to say, beating Fujitake’s mark involved overcoming truly unfathomable odds of 1 in 1.56 trillion.
In her memorial published by Hawaii News Now shortly after his record fell, Fujitake’s wife Satsuko made it clear that she still considers Stanley to be the king of craps:
“As my husband of 54 years, in my heart, he is still the champ to me and will be forever.”
Conclusion
Every gambler envisions themselves enjoying the run of their lifetime at some point or another, but these dreams seldom come true when playing craps. After all, the odds of rolling a 7 stand at 16.67 percent, making it the most likely number to arrive when the dice reveal their result.
That cold, hard calculus helps to put Fujitake’s accomplishment in the proper perspective. In 28 years since the Golden Arm Club was founded, many shooters have eclipsed the magical one-hour plateau to secure their entrance – but none have ever come close to topping three hours like Fujitake did.
| Tags: , , , , . Posted on 01 August 2017 by 'T'. | |
On May 29, 1989, Stanley Fujitake, a regular at the California Hotel and Casino located at downtown Las Vegas, became a legendary name after he sat at a craps table, dropped $5 on the pass line, and picked up the dice. Nobody, not even him, had any idea that what happens next will influence the creation of a club acknowledging awesomely-blessed craps players, as Fujitake managed to roll for 3 hours and 6 minutes (a total of 118 rolls) before finally 'crapping out.' With Fujitake and almost all of the other people maxing out their bets during his epic streak, the casino lost over $1 million during that time. The Cal The casino is a favorite place for Hawaiian residents. Founder Sam Boyd made sure the ambience at the Cal gives off a relaxing atmosphere and attracted many players from the islands. In the early days, Hawaii did not have casino gambling, and so Boyd offered cheap vacation packages and included island cuisine to their menu especially for the islanders, which still up to this day they offer at the Cal. At the early days, deals on chartered flights from Hawaii could get as low as $9.90! Now, the Cal's online website carries a tagline 'Aloha Spoken Here' and dealers even don Hawaiian-print attire. The casino has become a natural spot for most island gamblers that the University of Hawaii Press in 2008 published the book California Hotel and Casino: Hawaii's Home Away From Home. The humble downtown casino became a favorite spot for the islander regulars and thus had been made a venue as well for weddings and other special occasions. Craps The basic rule is simple to remember: Roll to establish a point number - other than 2, 3 or 12 (this means it should be 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) and then try to roll that number again before rolling a seven (crapping out). Between that timeframe, there are several bets that can be made on individual numbers, and as long as the shooter does not end the roll, bettors covering their preferred numbers can win money each time their number comes up. Sure is not easy to roll a lot before crapping out. A shooter needs to roll at least 25 times in order to qualify for the Golden Arm tournament. Most never make it close to that. At craps, the probability of throwing a seven is 16.67%, six and eight has a 13.89% chance, while two and twelve have the lowest odds at 2.78% chance each. Despite these mathematical probabilities, the ‘magic' is what sells this game. This mystery keeps players coming back to the edge of the felt, both cheering loudly and praying silently that maybe, just maybe, on that next roll of the dice, the rules of math don't apply. Professor of statistics at MIT Arnold Barnett said that the lure of 'hot hand' or 'hot dice' in reality actually has no foundation at all. The cold, hard facts of math do not lie. He said, 'Luck is defined by the world in different ways. Probability just uses numbers to make clear what events are rare and not so rare.' According to Barnett, each roll is an individual, independent entity and therefore not connected to the last roll. There are still a lot more combinations of seven on the dice than any other number, thereby giving it the biggest odds of coming up soon at any given time. He said that odds are the way luck is measured. This clearly explains why remarkable shooters are held in high respect and awe. The Cal has gone all out to make sure that when such a shooter graces their casino, they will be commemorated on a wall full of plaques meant for every Golden Arm. They also put up a shrine honoring Fujitake on the casino floor which features a cast of his hand. The Fujitake Roll Fujitake rolled for a total of 3 hours and 6 minutes, making 118 rolls, before hitting the dreaded seven and crapping out. A throng of other players flocked on his table throughout the night to take part in his mystical roll, witnessing roll after roll of the red dice bouncing along the green felt and hitting point number after point number. At a table next to Fujitake's that night was Guido Metzger, who worked as a craps dealer that time. Now the director of casino operations for Boyd Gaming's Las Vegas downtown properties, Metzger recalls the incident as something he had never seen before at a casino - dealers struggled to keep up with the wins of the players as more and more players wanted to join in on the action, 'They had trouble keeping up with the chip payouts that night. My table was empty. But there were at least 30 to 40 people trying to place bets at his table. They couldn't get fills to the table fast enough and had to start issuing scrip (casino credit) because not enough people were going to the cage and cashing in their chips.' That momentous night, Fujitake's 118 rolls have made 18 pass line winners as well. After starting with the table minimum, the sharpshooter Fujitake increased his bet to the table max of $1,000 when he finally passed the dice. On his previous trip to the Cal, friends said he rolled the dice for 1 hour 45 minutes. Casino employees were astonished. John Repetti was the casino manager that night and there was a solid rule at the Cal management that if the losses started to rise significantly for the casino, he should be awakened at home. He said, 'The first call came and he'd been shooting for an hour, and we were losing a couple hundred thousand dollars at the time. I said if he continued, to call me at every $100,000 loss interval. Well, the calls kept coming every 15 minutes. Another $100,000. And another $100,000. After the fourth call and fifth call, I decided I'd better get some clothes on and get downtown.' When he arrived at the scene, Repetti saw the chips were stacked so thick on the numbers that they were no longer visible. The table was extremely full and it is hard to watch since many onlookers also flocked to admire the impressive streak. The casino ran out of $1,000 chips and struggled to keep up with the payouts. On that night, the Cal lost over $1 million on the table. After Fujitake's achievement, Repetti said to a local newspaper in July 1989, 'Half an hour is average, over an hour is amazing, but more than three hours is totally astounding.' Birth of the Golden Arm Club Fujitake was given the nickname 'The Golden Arm' and the Cal casino has created and hosted the Golden Arm Club. To become a member of the Golden Arm Club, just roll without getting a seven for an hour. Over 300 players are proud members of the club. Roll for 90 minutes or acquire Golden Arm status more than once and your name will be placed on a more exclusive Platinum Wall situated on the casino's mezzanine level. Fujitake became a platinum member too after reaching the one-hour mark an astounding four times! A bronze cast of Fujitake's hand holding the winning dice from that memorable night can be seen inside a glass trophy case within the Cal. Just beside that trophy case, a display of small golden plaques show the names of all players who have rolled for 1 hour or more who have become members of the club, which averages about one player per month. Fujitake and his Wife Satsuko, who introduced the game to her husband, said, 'It was a miracle, because it's impossible to hold the dice. It doesn't happen all the time, maybe it's only once in a lifetime deal.' According to Satsuko, he brought home around $30,000 on that fateful night, and that the Cal paid out around $750,000 in winnings to the players who took part in her husband's divine streak and bet on the pass line and other bets at the table. Boyd Gaming vice president of corporate communications David Strow said, 'That was one of the ironic things about his roll - the other players at the table ended up winning a lot more money than Stanley did!' Even with her husband gone, she still visits Las Vegas every other month. Satsuko said, 'As my husband of 54 years, in my heart, he is still the champ to me and will be forever.' Source: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2017/07/a-gambling-tale-stanley-fujitake-and-one-amazing-roll-28493.htm |
Related Articles:
8 comments on 'That Magical Moment at a Craps table when you have a Golden Arm'
| doubletop777 | 01/08/2017 07:35:04 GMT |
| This is quite an incredible story and the atmosphere must have been electric on the casino floor. To roll for over three hours without losing is something out of a bad hollywood movie | |
| CALICUL | 01/08/2017 16:27:39 GMT |
| WOW. To make a casino to lose over one million dollars is something incredible considering the fact that it was not a single shot. 3 hours, 6 minutes and 118 rolls. Is that why it goes into the book of records? Because that man deserves this in 1989. I'm glad he did the casino managers to smile forcefully | |
| dule-vu | 01/08/2017 16:48:55 GMT |
| yeah its silly when you read something like this and that he played for over 3 hours!just standing and playing rolls for so long is tough,but when you making money,you forget on everything!but this 118 is record for respect! | |
| Gerimantas | 01/08/2017 18:11:26 GMT |
| Yes this is a really interesting story I liked to read it, i know nothing about craps game there is no such game in casinos in my city, o only see thisngame on television in movies anout las vegas, maybe it is a gun game to play, I would try to see hiw it is played and if i can win so e money | |
| pajalnick | 01/08/2017 19:59:52 GMT |
| I had not previously heard about this player and I was very interested to learn about his great win and undeniable luck .... 188 games in a row the total victory ... ... in this case there is something mystical and diabolical | |
| Mober | 01/08/2017 22:21:33 GMT |
| A nice story there. From just five dollars to a million. He certainly had the hand for it Finding a player like that on the tables is luck too. You are just following their bets and you can make some fast easy money. Works in black jack some times | |
| Tony_MON7ANA | 02/08/2017 00:26:41 GMT |
| A golden arm? Is this thread about a major league baseball pitcher? Guess not. I know where the California Hotel and Casino is located. I would often go to the Main Street Station Hotel and Casino across the street to eat their breakfast buffet on weekends. I love the downtown atmosphere. So classic. | |
| pochui | 02/08/2017 18:16:22 GMT |
| That magical moment at a craps table when you have a golden arm usually end in the fact that your hand gets chopped off when you're taking a toilet break and with this action all the magic disappears along with your hand. | |