Soft Touch Say’s

Happy New Year craps players. Another year is behind us.

As is customary for many players I know, a year in review seems to occur around this time. Most of us go through a reflection of what went right and what went wrong with our gaming experiences and we tally up our wins versus our losses and prepare ourselves for a new beginning of play time at the tables.

As many of you know, I often contribute a written piece to the Dice Coach website. There is a short piece I wrote for my small corner of his site quite a few years ago that amazingly still holds true about how I feel about the game at the end of this year.  I thought I would share it again here as the words are timeless and appropriate.  Here it is:

Ending the Year on a Positive Note!

As we approach the end of the year, it’s a great time to reflect on our blessings and renew our faith in the human spirit. We focus on our loved ones, our friends and acquaintances, rekindling old relationships with some and forging stronger bonds with others. It is a time of rebirth, a time for knowing that if we believe the best in people, surely the best will come out in us as well. 

This is also a good time to re-evaluate our goals for our dice play. Taking a moment to examine our accomplishments, to scrutinize our play and how well we have connected with this game. What went right, and what went wrong should be the question we ask ourselves. What did we gain, or rather, what did we do with what we lost or gained. 

With all this in mind, here are my thoughts about my year of dice play.

Play with heart. Play like you really love the game, even when you experience a loss. I learn more about a player’s character by how he or she behaves when they lose. Honor the experience; win or lose.

Care for your fellow players. A good player remembers what it was like to be a novice player. I believe if we are to keep this game alive, we have a responsibility to help the players who come after us. Let’s not forget our beginnings. We should encourage each other rather than criticize.

Risk gaining, even when it might be scary. Do what scares you the most. Then push your capabilities, always striving for the next level. Go from the known – toward the unknown for the betterment of your game.

Dream of other ways to win at this game. Even when others find your approach impractical or uncomfortable, always look forward to benefit yourself. Too often we underestimate our power to dream and our ability to accomplish what we dream.

Expect to win. Know, love and believe in what you do and everything will fall into place. Expect the best for yourself! It’s a positive thing!

Sadly, our community is full of players who want to blame their playmates, their coach, the book they read, the casino environment, the dice, the chips, the noise,  their spouse their experiences or past issues for their present state of affairs in their gaming world. 

To those I say, “stop.” You are cheating yourself of your power to be a winning player. This illusion is the greatest thief of a player’s power. When a player buys into their excuses it is a grave error should they truly wish to win big in the casino. 

This is the time when many reflect back and review what kind of year they experienced.  My wish for you is that you step up and claim your results without telling yourself stories or excuses.  The greatest players I know never explain or complain about their results.  Instead, when I have seen them experience less than stellar results at the tables, they say, “I created that,” nothing more and nothing less.  They learn and go on.

If you found yourself with a less than expected result for the year, please do claim it, learn from it, be grateful for it and move on.  Do not beat yourself up, harbor guilt, regret your decisions because it is simply wasted energy.  Let this go. Maintain the idea that everything that occurred is as it should have occurred.  After all, you created it!

A few things to remember in 2008:

Dice influencing means exerting conscious control over the course of your dice roll.  Dice influence does not work in isolation. It is part of your whole game. It works in synergy with all the other aspects of your game.

The power to influence the dice is meaningless until a player realizes that discipline and practical application is required. Take action and take responsibility.

Recognize that the true battle in your pursuit to gain prosperity through the game of craps has nothing to do with exterior forces or anything outside of you. Your most formidable opponent in the game of craps is not the casino with its personnel, environment and distractions.  The battle lies within you not outside of you.  Focus on the internal influences of your game not the external ones.

With that stated, may the game help you learn who you truly are. Make what matters this year YOU. This year is all about who you are and how you experience your game. I know it is for me.

Peace and Prosperity to All!!

From the Editor

Subscribers are on the rise from our last request, we are still asking for your help. Would you share the Dice Setter newsletter with one other person you know? It is our goal to double our readership of the free newsletter by our second year anniversary, March 1st. All you have to do is tell a dice player or gaming enthusiast, to subscribe .

That’s it. It’s that simple. Your gesture will immensely help support the continuance of the newsletter and the information found on the Dice Setter web site .

Thank you,

Ed Jones

The Three Amigos Return To  Las Vegas – April 3rd Dice Busters

The Cooler…

If you have not seen “The Cooler”, and you would like a visual of applied metaphysics at work, I recommend this movie. “The Cooler” stars William H. Macy, Maria Bello and Academy Award Nominee, Alec Baldwin. In short, it’s a Las Vegas love story. Bernie Lootz, played by Macy, is “The Cooler”.

Bernie Lootz is a loser. Even his name says loser. He lost so much to the Shangri-La Casino that he becomes an indentured employee to cover his marker. Bernie’s job? Well, he’s the guy that goes to a hot table and cools it off for the casino. In the movie, the early scenes clearly depict many examples of how metaphysics can express an influence in a game.

Everything about Bernie exudes a losing energy from his low life self-esteem, to the thin walled dump he calls home, and even to never having cream for his coffee. Every time Bernie gets the call to cool a game, after he shows up, the game breaks down like magic. The winning streak comes to an abrupt end. The winner continues to play until becoming a loser. Bernie calmly walks back to the bar to finish his cold coffee less the cream. And so it goes for Bernie, his role in life is cooling off hot games for the Shangri-La casino until his debt is paid .

I cannot say that I have ever been in a game with a house cooler. However, I have been in loads of great games, craps and twenty-one, when the casino personal interceded to do whatever they could to break up the game, like changing out the dice or cards, a chip fill or count up in the middle of a hand, or to bring in a house dealer on the twenty-one table that pitched cards with the speed of a train in the night.

So, how did Bernie “The Cooler” do his work? His appearance in the game caused a shift in the energy. With his presence, he interrupted winning energy with his loser’s energy. Bernie held a belief that he was a loser. His poor self image was so strong, it was over whelming. Even other players seemed to notice it. Losing and cooling a game was Bernie’s ill fated talent. His belief in his losing ways was so strong, when he entered a game, there was no way the casino could lose.

Innocently enough, some players are coolers. These individuals may come into your winning game, and end a good thing. How is this possible? It is like viewing a reflection in a still pool. Suddenly someone comes along and rudely splashes a stone into the pool. The reflection is destroyed. The game falls apart with the confusion of ripples distorting the reflection. It is not caused by an intention to wreck the game. It really is more like a disruption in the energy, just like a still pool is “splashed” by a stone. There seems to be a delicate balance to any game. All it takes is the Cooler to come a long to have it all slide away.

This is why you need the awareness to “pick your playmates”. Not everyone playing the game is a knowledgeable and a skilled player. Not everyone playing has a positive attitude for winning. So, some players are like Bernie Lootz, they simply can’t help but lose and bring down a game. They expect to lose. It is their own self image creating their losing reality.

It is not about a person’s luck, good or bad. It has to do with the energy resonating within the belief system of that person. Some people have an expanding energy and consistently succeed in their life. Others live life in energy of contraction and scarcity, and they consistently fail. When you change your energy, you change reality. Changing your energy has to do with how you view life, your beliefs, your dogma or your paradigm for living. See how it works out for Bernie in “The Cooler”. This is just one of the reasons my classroom for teaching spirituality and metaphysics happens in the glitzy atmosphere of a casino. When it comes to learning about energy, emotion and life lessons, it’s all happening in a casino 24/7.

Copyright © 2004 Michael Vernon

Queeen Bee’s Buz:

Dear Queen Bee, recently I saw a show on TV about cheats in Las Vegas. One segment showed how unsuspecting craps players can have the chips ripped off by a cheat playing next to them. Has this ever happened to you? Howard P.

Dear Howard, I do not believe that I have ever been attacked by a “Rail Rat”. I am sure that what you saw on television does occur in most any casino. Here are the things I do when I play craps to protect my chips.

1. I buy in for an exact amount. I watch as the cheques are cut out of the stacks. I watch as the dealer present the cheques in front of me and I recount the cheques once I have them in the front rail.
2. I keep the cheques in the front rail. This keeps them in my peripheral vision. I use the back rail to track the box numbers rolled during any hand.
3. I use separators between different denominations. At a glance, I can look down and see how much money I have in cheques… plus I know what I have in action on the layout.
4. I always keep my hands to either side of my chips except for betting.
5. I am particular about who I play next to and alert when a new player joins the game… next to me or otherwise.
6. I usually play with a partner. If I need to take a break, I let the dealer know and simply ask him to look after my cheques, “I’ll be right back!”, I also let my partner know that I am leaving the game. They know to keep an eye on my cheques. The dealer lets the floor person know that I am leaving the game and the floor person covers the cheques with a cloth or sometimes a plastic hood until I return.
7. When I am playing craps, I am enjoying myself and at no time I am unaware of all that is going on around me and my money.

Thank you Howard for taking time to write to me,

Queen Bee

Chip or Cheque?

By the way my dear readers, chips and cheques although commonly referred to as being the same thing are not, exactly. A cheque is a casino token bearing a specified value, like $25. You play with cheques when you play craps. The tokens used in roulette have different colors without bearing a specified amount printed on the token. The value of the token is declared by the dealer. So, chips have no value until declared by the house.

You say, “tomato”. I say, “Color up my cheques! Please.”

Today’s Wisdom:

“You can have whatever you want.

You only have to make the agreement with yourself

and be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it!”

— Michael Vernon

How Much Money…?

I get this question frequently, how much money do you take to Las Vegas?

My answer is not your answer. There are numerous factors to consider when it comes to gambling and bankroll. Each player must be honest with themselves answering a few basic but important questions.

1.      How much money do I have to risk?

2.      How comfortable I am losing that much money?

3.      What is my minimum bet?

4.      How long (number of days) will I be playing?

5.      How many games, (craps, blackjack, poker) will I play?

6.      How many sessions per day will be played?

Here is a rule of thumb for a weekend trip to Las Vegas, playing three days. Take five times the amount of one buy-in for each game you intend to play. Figure a minimum of 30 times the minimum bet per buy-in.

Example: A blackjack player betting $10 minimum bet would buy-in for $300 and have a total trip bankroll of $1,500.

Example: A craps player betting $10 minimum bet would have $300 for each bet they intend to make in the craps game. Craps is a bit more costly in the front end as each bet should be financed properly with its own money. A player with a pass line bet and placing betting the 6 and 8 should have a buy-in of $900. I would make it $1,000 even. The craps player with a $5,000 trip bankroll could be financially backed for three days of craps making three bets.

I can hear critics saying that this is too much or not enough money. I say it is a conservative amount that will provide a skilled player with enough financial clout to have a fair go at the game. If it works out and you win, there is no problem. If something bad happens, the loss is limited to an amount that was adequate for playing and palatable if losing and you should still have back-up money to continue to play a later session. Following a loss, it is not advised to continue to play without a break and reflection time.