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More Gain &
Less Pain
I want to give you
some tips that will decrease the pain, and increase the pleasure of your Practice
Sessions. In actual fact, the
additional pleasure and reduced pain will come when your practice sessions pay dividends
in the casino. The objective of all of these practice-focused articles is to make the
home-to-casino transition easier, and to make your at-home practices yield more benefit
from your actual in-casino sessions. Ive developed
some of these tips myself, while the rest have been gleaned from other like-minded
Precision-Shooters over the past number of years. Tip #1- Build or
Buy a Practice Rig
I have to admit
that I was a late-bloomer as far as this idea was concerned. I had somehow convinced myself that there were so
many various table-surfaces out there in the real world, that there was no way that I
could reasonably replicate all of them, or even more than a few of them at home. I WAS WRONG! See how easy it was
for me to say that? The reason its so
easy, is because the huge benefit of changing my mind, has been the overwhelming financial
rewards that steady at-home practice has given me. I used to think
that my game had reached it pinnacle, in terms of my own dicesetting skills. My SRR had reached a plateau, and I didnt
think it could get any better than that. Having
a practice table to perfect my craft has actually raised that performance level by nearly
28%. Before Ms. MP gave
me a regulation craps table as an early Christmas present, I usually only took a few
practice tosses on our hotel-room bed or carpeted floor before challenging the various
craps tables throughout North America. This
practice was aimed at grooving-in my throwing motion more than it was to
measure on-axis accuracy, determine Signature Numbers, to try out new grips or to improve
flight trajectories, landing targets, or stuff like that. To me, the other
major benefit is that I have saved untold amounts of money by not having to do that
perfecting on any real-money games. In addition, the practice table allows me
to tweak my throwing motion and lets me experiment with a variety of grip permutations
that I would not have tested in the casino because of the high inherent risk. I can now say,
without reservation, that the Number One way to perfect your Precision-Shooting is to have
an at-home Practice Rig. You can intersperse
your LONG practice hours with VERY SHORT, low-risk, low-cost real-world casino-sessions to
try out what you have learned at home. This
will either validate your skills, or it will point out a need for further fine-tuning and
additional tightly-focused practicing. Tip #2
Define Your Success
Precision-Shooting
is more of a journey than an actual destination. I define success as
the point where you start to make predictable amounts of money off of your own
crap-shooting skills. When you look at the
steps that you go through as your skill progresses, it becomes clear that in a lot of
cases, you will see achievement and accomplishment BEFORE you start to see steady profit. That is part of the
process that you have to endure on your way to profitable consistency. Most players are so anxious to progress, that they
try to skip over some critically vital steps due to impatience, eagerness and a lack of
discipline. Sooner or later, they crash and
burn because they lacked the proper solid foundation on which to build reliable and
SUSTAINABLE success. They become
disillusioned by what seems to be undependable Precision-Shooting results. In fact, what was actually undependable and
unreliable is their lack of commitment in following a relatively safe and logical path. In opting for the quick fix, they abandon hard
work and commitment, and place all of their trust and faith (and bankroll) in an
I-had-a-few-good-practice-sessions-so-Im-going-to-the-casino-this-weekend-and-Im-betting-the-whole-farm-and-my-prize-cow-too
sort of kamikaze raids. The flaming embers
of burned-out bankrolls from players who lacked the commitment, maturity, patience and
discipline are enough to light the night sky over every gaming jurisdiction in the world. What would make someone think that they are the
only exception to the rule? If you are
interested in seeing what phase your Precision-Shooting skills are currently in, and what
each critical step along the path to sustainable success is; then I would kindly invite
you to take a look at my How Good Is Your Precision Shooting? series of
articles. I realize that most
people will never play craps professionally, and most people would never even want to. In most cases, its not an appropriate
lifestyle for most players for any number of reasons.
On the other hand, if you want to augment your current income, or use
Precision-Shooting as a second-income; then there certainly isnt anything wrong with
setting achievable goals and defining your own personally tailored definition of success. If you want to read
more about this subject, I would invite you to take a look at my The
Toughest Way to Make An Easy Living article, along
with my four-part series entitled,
Can't Win For Losing. In the meantime, no
matter how rigidly or loosely you define your own success at Precision-Shooting, we are
all looking for ways to reduce the pain of losses, and increase the pleasure of profits. So lets move on to the next tip. Tip #3 - DiceDocs Dice-Barrel
This idea WILL help your game if you
currently experience any MID-AIR WOBBLE when you throw the dice. Simply take two matched dice; make sure that
they are square with each other and then super-glue (Crazy Glue) them
together. This creates a dice-stick or a
dice-barrel. The idea is to use your normal dice grip, and
then loft them as you usually do. Watch as
the dice-barrel streams through the air. If
it consistently tumbles smoothly and effortlessly, without any discernable wobble, then
your dice release is good. However, if the
dice-barrel does wobble, then it means that your release could use some improvement. Likewise, if the dice-barrel lands and then
veers off to one side or the other (instead of rolling straight or stopping dead), then
they are landing off-square, and you need to straighten your toss so that they land evenly
and squarely with the backwall. Think of it this way. If your release and landing isnt
correct; then the outcome wont likely be correct either. The idea behind Precision-Shooting is to have
consistently REPEATABLE throws that stay on-axis. The dice-barrel permits us to experiment
with:
Ø
Various Grips and grip variations.
Ø
Back-swing and From-the-Table releases.
Ø
Release angles and arm-extensions.
Ø
Different amounts of backspin.
Ø
Varying degrees of release and descent
trajectory. As we tweak each element of our toss, we need
to ensure that the dice are moving through the air without undue shake, vibration, tremble
or wobble. The important thing that you have
to remember about a smooth, even release is that if you eliminate mid-air wobble; then the
down-stream results (trajectory, target area, roll-out, etc.) will have a better chance of
completing a successful and more consistent (less random) outcome. Likewise, if the dice land squarely to the
backwall, then both dice are traveling an equal distance.
When dice veer off in one direction or the other, then one dice is traveling
much further than the other. This often
results in the much-dreaded DOUBLE-PITCH. The
dice-barrel is one of the tools that allow us to quickly correct those shortcomings BEFORE
our money is on the line. Tip #4
Alternating Dice Pairs
This is a follow-on to using the
DiceDocs Dice-Barrel. Have two or more
sets of dice at your Throwing Station. First
toss the DiceDocs dice-barrel, then immediately follow it up by throwing two
non-glued dice with exactly the same grip, release, trajectory and target. If you use this alternating pairs
method (one glued set, and one unglued set), your muscle-memory locks in much quicker
because you are immediately following one good throwing motion with another. When you throw the dice-barrel correctly, then
throw two conventional dice, and you do it often enough, you will quickly lock in the
correct motion. This leads to REPEATABILITY. Tip #5
Re-Read the Articles
There are currently more than 300
well-written articles on this site. From
Aparadim and PerryB, to Irishsetter, Heavy and the late MickeyD, you will find some of the
most informative, well-written pieces anywhere. These
articles are where you can get free information to put it all together. I know that youll agree that reading
them, digesting them, and then putting all of the information into an actionable plan
takes a tremendous amount of hard-work, organization, dedication, perseverance and
commitment. There is no easy path, or as our friend
Irishsetter is fond of saying, If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. You have to be willing to put in the time to
improve your game and focus on continual development and progress. Consistent profitability comes to those who work
at it. Minimal efforts get minimal
results. We cover that aspect of the game in my
How Much Commitment Are You Willing To Spend? article.
The amount of effort that you put into practically anything that you pursue in life
is usually reflected in the results. If you
make a half-assed effort, youll get a half-assed result. The decision and the commitment, is completely up
to you. If you try to skip a step or two, dont
be surprised when you slip and fall over your own impatience. Your ego wont be the only thing that gets
bruised, so re-read ALL of the articles on this great site.
Theres a ton of hidden nuggets in virtually every piece. Your bankroll will certainly thank you. Tip #6 - A Tiger of a Different Stripe Ive recommended my favorite
troubleshooting tip ever since I started posting on the long-extinct casino.com
message-board a number of years ago. This tip
works so well because it helps you visualize what is happening to the dice as they fly
through the air.
Ø
Simply take two dice and arrange them in your
main Point-cycle set. For argument sake,
lets say that you favor the 3-V set.
Ø
Use a black magic-marker (Sharpie) to
draw a THIN straight striped line around the forward tumbling axis on each die.
Ø
When you throw them, you should see two
straight thin rings of black as they fly through the air.
Ø
If there is any undue wobble, then you have to
straighten out your toss, because your release-mechanics are at fault. You should concentrate on correcting this problem
before tackling other aspects of your toss.
Ø
Striped-dice also help to quickly determination
whether the final outcome is off-axis.
Ø
The stripe also assists in finding out whether
the dice are skewing, popping or spinning sideways upon landing. If one of your dies are spinning, popping or
scattering off-axis; then the stripe helps determine how, why and when it is actually
happening. You can use this idea after you have
perfected your toss using the DiceDocs dice-barrel.
People are always surprised at how a little tip like this will have a
dramatic impact on bringing about a consistent wobble-free throw. Tip #7 - A
Horse of a Different Color
Ive seen this tip mentioned by Heavy a
number of times, and it too is a good one. You simply use two dice of different colors
(preferably from the same manufacturer, and ALWAYS of the same size). If you are experiencing undue bounce, pop or
scatter upon touchdown, then the two different colored dice make it easier to watch as
each individual one flies through the air and touches down.
Having two separate colors help you determine which one is the likely
culprit that is causing all of the trouble. Tip #8 -
Practice Till You Puke
Ive mentioned this before, but I
cant over emphasis it. This is where
you push yourself past the point beyond which you dont think that you can go any
further. By pushing your own performance
boundaries, you find that you are capable of new, higher limits. It is at junctures such as this that we find
unbeknownst inner strength, character, wisdom and true insight. Tip #9
Target Practice
This item will help you improve your
targeting accuracy, and will increase your consistency and roll-reliability. A lot of guys use chalk to mark different
target areas on their Practice Rig, and that is an excellent idea. If you mark 2 gradations on your table-felt
like a number of other players recommend, it will help you to bracket your
targeting. By doing so, you can learn how
accurate your target-sighting actually is. The second part of applying this tip is to
start throwing from a distance that is close enough for you to hit it virtually 100% of
the time. Once you achieve that, you can
gradually increase your distance from the target. As your accuracy improves, you keep moving
farther and farther away. This method
improves your Hand-Eye-Target coordination, and gives you continual feedback on your
progress. When your accuracy starts to
diminish, you simply move in a little closer until it improves back to 100%; then you
start the increasing-distance process all over again. As you can see, these tips form part of a
cohesive plan to instill repeatable Precision-Shooting performance. They are actionable pieces of advice that
actually work. They are NOT quick-fixes, but
rather exercises to aid in your process of continual improvement. If you arent hitting the target
accurately in the casino, then your roll-consistency will suffer. Even if a table has one of the sweetest
target-spots in the entire universe, but you arent able to hit it consistently; then
it doesnt really do you any good now does it? Put another way; if you are hitting a
different spot every time that you throw; then how consistent do you think your results
will be? Tip #10 -
Trajectory Practice
This tip takes the Target Practice idea one
step further. Once you can consistently hit
the same target, then you can move on to practicing your Trajectory Targeting. Trajectory-variations help to control the
roll-out of the dice once they hit the felt. I
borrowed this tip from Heavy and a number of other shooters who have adopted it.
Ø
You will need an empty 2lb. coffee-can (or
empty 1-gallon paint can) with a small face-cloth or something similar in the bottom of it
to prevent the dice from chipping.
Ø
Next, we angle the empty can OVER our
dice-target at an angle appropriate to what we are trying to achieve. The best STARTING angle for this exercise is
45-degrees.
Ø
On a lot of tables, a 45-degree landing angle
gives you the most predictable results. Other
tables demand a much shallower Low, Slow, and Easy approach (see my
Mad Professor's Shooting Bible Part III article for full particulars on the L, S &
E method). Still other surfaces react kindly
to the Dead Cat Bounce type of high-trajectory throws (see my
Mad Professor's Shooting Bible Part IV article
for much more detail on the DCB).
Ø
By angling the empty can and throwing into it
at the correct angle, we can improve our throwing exactness AND our trajectory accuracy.
Ø
Again, we are looking for accuracy and
repeatability to bring home the casino-cash. So
the best route to steady profit is through practice methods that instill the right
skill-sets that will to come through, time after time when they are called upon.
Ø
As we learn to adapt to different table
surfaces and underlays (see my two-part series entitled Adapting to Tables),
we can use different trajectories to achieve the desired on-axis primary-face results, no
matter what is on or under the table-surface. As always,
remember that the practice rig is where you fine-tune and align your game; and the casino
is where you make your money. We still have
twenty tips (yes, 20 more!) to come in Part II and III of this series. Until then, Good Luck
& Good Skill at the Practice Table
and in Life. Sincerely, The Mad
Professor
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