|
Maddog's
Journey -
Part VII
To subscribe (it's free), send an email to
dicesetter@aweber.com with
"subscribe" as the subject.) Part 7: Not a Puppy Anymore, the Hunt Gets Serious
Yeah,
I shouldnt have been surprised, but I was still taken off guard by the new layouts. The last time Id been here the table had
been a tame light blue color and was still easy enough to look at. Although not quite as pleasing to my old fashioned
preference for traditional-green-felt, the light blue field still showed up the results of
a pair of bright red dice clearly enough. This
new stuff was really making my eyes bleed. Wed
planned this hit-n-run trip to get us to the casino early in the morning. All the boards have posts that recommend trying to
hit the tables when there are the fewest number of players and therefore the greatest
number of shooting opportunities. It seemed a
logical course of action to follow all this experienced advice, at least until I thought
that I had a better plan. So my buddy and I
had gotten up early this Tuesday morning to make the two and half hour drive to our
favorite little border town. Oh
now, my buddy, he isnt a Dice Influencer. He
doesnt even believe in this stuff. Thinks
its a bunch of hooey. But he does love
to play craps and was ready and willing to head out across the desert for an early morning
session. You might wonder why a non-DI guy
would be willing to get up early on a weekday, play hooky from work, and head out to the
casino. Particularly if he isnt worried
about how casino conditions will affect his dice influencing activities. Thing is, he does care about the table conditions,
just for a slightly different reason. He is
one of those guys that believe the dice get into a rhythm.
The way to develop a rhythm is to get the dice quickly and toss them
quickly. Keep everything moving. Thats the way to develop a winning trend in
his book. Not a bad approach for someone who
doesnt believe in this DI stuff and not far off from our concept of getting into the
zone and trying to stay there by getting the dice back quickly. So,
although we had different reasons for wanting to be there early, we were on the same page
as to the plan of action. On this particular
morning our plan actually worked out too well. Since
it was the middle of the slow season and a week-day to boot, the first two casinos we
stopped at didnt even have their tables open yet.
The TGS told us they would open up in about an hour. OK, instead of checking
the last two casinos we decided it was .99 cent breakfast time. So
about an hour later, here we were, squinting over this garish new table layout, ready for
our first rounds with the dice. When we
arrived the table was already open and two other gents were set up and playing. Not the empty table we were hoping for, but just
about the next best thing. One guy was setup
near the hook off SR and the other was next to him at the Straight Out position. I slipped into my favorite spot at SL and my buddy
went into the straight out on the SL side of the table. After
getting my chips aligned into the rack according to my liking, greens in the back rack
left side, reds in the front rack left side, whites in the front rack right side, I
started watching the dice. Thats when I
noticed they had switched out the nice red dice to some ugly purple ones. I guess they
figured these went with the rest of the disgusting table color scheme. In fact something about these dice looked kinda
funny. It wasnt just that they were
purple, they just didnt look right. You
wouldnt think that 1/16 of an inch would be all that big of a difference but when
they subtract a 1/16 from each side of the die, you end up with a cube that looks and
feels like it would fit in much better on a monopoly board then on a regulation craps
table. The dice were too small. That is what was bugging me about them and why I
thought they looked a bit queer. In
the past I had never even considered the color or size of the dice on the table. Just pick em up and toss em, no big
deal. Today I was acutely conscious of those
little blocks. After spending the past several months practicing and carefully tracking
the effect of various grip adjustments, toss heights and dice rotation, such a little
things as dice size was now a feature of the battle field to be evaluated and incorporated
into the plan of attack. My
first thought was to wonder how these smaller dice would affect the grip and delivery. Would they be more difficult to pick up? Perhaps stick to the fingers more or the opposite,
and slip out of the fingers easier? Should
they be gripped deeper? Should I plan more
backspin? Ugg, I hadnt practiced for
this situation. Perhaps I should have tried
to move on to the next casino. But, this was
one of my buddys favorite places to play, we were bought in, and the dice were
coming to me next. Come on guy,
I thought, Take a deep breath, relax, focus and go with the flow. I
was ready to suck it up and get into this next serious attempt at DI. The last few attempts had been encouraging in
that I had had a winning session and the losing sessions had been small,
controlled losses. I knew that
part of becoming a DI was learning to deal with these slight table variations. Dont panic, all the practice I had put in
meant that the toss was under control and it was just a matter of fine adjustments to get
in tune with this table. And
apparently all the hours of practice that I was putting in was paying off. Compared to that first attempt at the dice
influencing, this session was going much smoother. I
was feeling less conspicuous in what I was doing. You
know that feeling that everyone is looking at you. Like,
maybe youre doing something just a little bit naughty and youre going to get
caught or something. Well I was past those early session jitters. No sweaty palms this time. Setting the dice was
getting easier and more natural, which meant it was happening faster, which meant I felt
less conspicuous. Yeah its all a cycle. One thing leads to the next and it all starts with
practice, practice, practice. Still,
its funny how a little worry can focus ones attention and those little dice were
giving me some worry. The first time I got
the dice I bet a minimum pass line bet and a buck for the dealers and nothing else. I focused completely on the mechanics of tossing
the dice. All the things we work on in
practice such as the grip, the starting position of my hand on the table, a smooth toss
with a clean follow through, keeping the wrist flat and square to the table, picking a
landing spot and hitting it. Forget about
betting for now and focus on what these little dice were going to do and what I had to do
to adjust to them. The
first hand wasnt so good. The dice were
splaying out on touch down. One die bouncing
out left and the other veering to the right. It
only took about four tosses before the old seven showed and I lost my PL bet. But the good news was that the grip felt fine and
the toss distance was good and hitting the landing zone wasnt a problem. I just needed to control that thumb and wrist and
maybe reduce the height of the throw. The
next time the dice came around to me I was feeling more confidence. I set up a minimum PL bet and a buck for the
dealers again and again focused on toss mechanics and tried to lower the overall toss
height. All this focusing and concentrating
was working. The dice were beginning to land
much smoother with less right or left bounce out. Not
perfect, no not by a long shot. There
wasnt any of this land in unison, one hop to the back wall and gently roll
back stuff. But they were landing
together and coming to a stop within a hand-span of each other (about half the time
anyway, heh heh heh) and that was a good indicator. I
had found a groove and this hand came along much better then the first. When the seven finally showed, I had made my
point 5 times. My buddy was ecstatic. He likes to bet the outside and by his nature he
bets pretty aggressively. My primary set is
the mini-v so it worked well with his betting style.
He had pressed and pulled his bets into a big win. I, on the other hand, had focused on the tossing
and didnt bet anything but the PL until the second point, and even then I did a lot
of same-bet type betting. I had a win sure
enough, but it wasnt as big as it should have been, and I have to admit to being a
bit envious of how my friend had profited off my hand.
Oh well, he went for it and I didnt, good for him. That
turned out to be the best hand of the day for me. Aye,
there is nothing like a great hand to make a guy feel a little invincible. On subsequent hands I felt like I had this table
licked and began to let go of the concentration a bit.
Started thinking more about how I should bet to make some money. What should my next press move be, should I do a
regression move, etc. Some old bad habits
started creeping back into my game. Im
convinced that the quickest way for a DI to lose control of his toss mechanics is to start
thinking about his bets. I dont know if
its a left-brain, right-brain thing or what, but if your about to toss the dice and
you are thinking about whether you are going to parley that hit on the Hard eight, or
power press the six, you are not going to have a very successful toss. Pre-toss
preparation is very important. Ive seen
it with Irishsetter. Ive seen it with
Heavy. Ive seen it with the Dice Coach. Ive seen it with every successful DI that
Ive ever watched. Youll see it
also if you watch them while they are shooting. After
their roll, they get their bets taken care of immediately and quickly, and then settle
into a quiet zone while they wait for the rest of the table to be paid and the
dice to come back. (well, Heavy isnt always that quiet, but he is much more quiet
then when others have the dice, hehehe). It
is paramount to have your betting strategies planned and prepared long before you hit the
table. When you are tossing, your mind must
be clear and focused and not cluttered with stray thoughts of
damn-should-I-have-regressed-before-this-toss or
should-I-press-in-pairs-on-the-next-hit-or-just-the-number-that-hits. These spurious thoughts are extremely disruptive. They take you away from the trance-like state that
is so conducive for physical excellence and move you toward the analytical thought
processes that seem to sap the carefully prepared muscle memory. Isnt it ironic, that the main goal of what
we do as a DI, the money, is also a major hindrance to our achieving that goal? Well,
overall the day went up and down. No more
hands as nice as that early morning hand, but fortunately not to many point-seven hands
either. Overall the day ended in the red by a
few dollars. Another controlled
loss. Even
with this loss, I knew I was getting better. I
was convinced that I was betting smarter then ever before (not perfect, but
smarter then the hunch and chase betting that I used to do). I felt strongly that there had to be something to
this Dice Influencing thing. My practice data
showed it. My in casino experiences were
mirroring the effect. But, dang-it, it
wasnt automatic and my skills were still evolving too slowly. I seemed to be stuck
at a plateau. What more could I do? I
think that now, maybe, I was ready for a class. I
probably had some flaws in my toss techniques. After
all, Id never seen a DI before and only got to where I was by reading and practice. If I could watch a couple of other folks actually
doing this, then perhaps I could figure out what the short-coming was. It just might provide the break through I needed. Besides, I had a burning curiosity to meet these
folks Id been corresponding with on the chat boards. Yeah, a chance to meet these
guys and have a pro take a look at what I might be doing wrong, thats
the ticket. Next
stop, well take an inside look at a Dice Influencing class. Until
next time, keep your toss straight and your rack full. Maddog |
|