| Volume VIII: Issue #10 | |
In This Edition:  | A Word From Soft Touch From the Editor… Playing for the Big Win… Queen Bee’s Buzz… Who Ya Gonna Call… Today’s Wisdoms… A Labor of Love… Newsletter Archive Links |
Soft Touch Says,
Hello everyone.
Fall season is upon us and I am reminded how this game I enjoy holds so much metaphorical meaning for me.
As in the game, many things in our life happen in cycles. The seasons changing are a good example. Spring turns into summer and fall into winter. With it, we find our selves preparing for the changing climate. and, so it is with the game of craps where a player will find number patterns naturally changing and it is up to us to prepare for them.
There is a rhythm to our life just as there is in the game.
In the game, should a player experience a loss, they need to learn to understand it as part of a larger process of winning.
Through the game, as in life, we learn patience and find out what part intuition plays in our decision making process.
And, with another great Dice Busters weekend behind us, I would like to thank all those that attended our program held on September 27th. It was great to meet a group of open minded players eager to expand their knowledge base to greater and deeper dimensions.
A question asked by one of the participants brought to mind an article I wrote a few years ago regarding the statement: “Plan your play and play your plan.” This student reminded me that, as in life, our gaming approach is a dynamic process. And, as each student evolves with their game, so do I.
During our get together, we learned lessons regarding taking conscious control of our game, developing a winning strategy and consistently repeating it.
When a player does not have a valuable reason and motivation for gaining prosperity through a casino game and when they don’t have a reason to believe they can win, they are just setting themselves up to be influenced by outside forces that will determine their outcome.
And when most players do not understand their purpose for playing yet believe that risking their money has real merit, the casino energetic forces influence them to contribute their money to them. They are the casino’s favorite patron.
So, I thought I would share part of what I had to say in an article titled: “Planning Your Play and Playing Your Plan” published back in 2003 at dicecoach.com/ and it still holds some value for me today:
Communicate -Communicate -Communicate before starting your play. With whom you might ask? Start with yourself and your play companions. Then talk to the table crew. Get a sense of the energy and feelings you get from that particular table.
I know that my best sessions begin when I go through the mental mechanics of establishing my buy-in, betting strategy and win goals. Sometimes I am trying a new set, so my buy-in will be adjusted accordingly. Sometimes I am trying a new betting strategy talked about on one of the message boards. I actually have a different bankroll for that play. Plan your bankroll and have it ready for the play you want to try.
I also ask myself “How am I feeling?” A mentor from way back, John V., was kind enough to share his advice about the H.A.L.T. strategy. Never play Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. I do my best to try to remain mindful of this acronym and it is something a serious craps enthusiast should always assess before play. Doing this has served me well over the years.
When I play with friends and acquaintances, I try to communicate with them before approaching the table. What are their goals for this session’s play? If they are setters, what set do they come out with? Knowing this will save the heartache of parting with your hard earned bankroll. And I try to remember that winning is not just about the dice setting. There are other factors I have to consider if I expect a winning session.
Will a larger bankroll, either by me or some one at the table, cause me to lose focus and diminished my shooting capacity? I have already planned for my bankroll and buy-in, but I have to admit that I personally get a bit nervous when I see other “high rollers” place thousands, and I do mean thousands, on each of my rolls. This forces me to take my shooting focus up a big notch, and I have to adjust accordingly. I have found that talking to one another about how we plan to wager, helps us all maximize our earning potential.
I also try to build a connection with the table crew, and even the table itself. Our potential for playing compatibility should be established early on. Does the crew seem grumpy? Does the crew’s personality invite me to the table? Look at the existing players. Do they feel neutral? Look at the money racks. Are they full? I keep myself connected to the positive energy of the table and it’s crew when it exists.
While passing each craps table in the casino, I try silently, asking myself this question, “Will this table support my play”? I pay close attention to what I feel, and look for “signs” that will give me a sense of what might happen at that table. These “signs” come from anywhere and everywhere, and vary with each session. Some examples of “signs” that I have experienced are, a light shining brighter over one table, more so than on the others. Or, a fire alarm that sounds off in the middle of play. Perhaps it is a table that has more ladies playing than men. The list can go on and on. My point is that table selection is all about feeling. Reading the “energy” in the casino, from the moment I pass through the front door, all the way to the craps pit and down to the box man and dealers.
And while shooting, communicate with the dice. Even these little cubes have their own language. They tell me if I am on or off axis, rolling the wrong way, or pitching unacceptably. They tell me to change my grip or soften my throw. Or even change my position. While shooting, I carry on my own dialogue with the dice. Sometimes I catch Dice Coach doing the same.
I believe it was Einstein that stated: “The more I come to know, the more I realize how little I actually know and so I continue my search…”
And, so it was with what I felt ending our latest Dice Busters instructing experience. Thanks again guys and don’t forget the value of that balloon and blindfold exercise! You are not the same player you were before and accept that your game will be in perpetual change for the better.
Until next time, remember: “The person you are in life is the player you take to the casino.”
Soft Touch
From the Editor:
Ed, What should I do about my Dad? He’s 82 and still wants to gamble. Am I being an enabler? He asks me if I want to go gambling and I say no. He says I’ll drive my own self…so here we go again. Although you don’t have to twist my arm. Serious reply appreciated. Thanks, Ted
Hi Ted,
Life is short. The older you get the more this saying is realized.
In the end it is the little things in life that makes a life, a life…. Some of these things are children, family, friends and the accomplishments of knowing that with every attempt, there was a positive reason behind doing it. Success and failure are not the measurements of ones life as much as how we lived our life.
My mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer at 79. Just before the diagnosis she appeared quit well and was able to everything that she enjoyed. A year and a half later she was dead. That last 18 months was sad. Not just because of the disease, but mostly because she was restricted to staying home. She did not have the energy to do the things she enjoyed. You can imagine how it feels to want to do things and not be able to.
If going to the casino is something that you have time for and enjoy, I do not see it as enabling.
If going to the casino is something that you resent then perhaps figure out a compromise with your Dad for the times when it works for you.
There is a fine line between your life’s needs and your Dad’s. Sometimes we are called to make sacrifices that we do not want or understand. Sometimes the understanding comes later. Sometimes it’s never. You are not alone in you situation as so many of us Baby Boomers come face to face with having to deal with the end of our parents lives.
I still remember the last time I took my mom to play slots. She won. I never did get to shoot craps with my dad.
Ted, going to the casino and having to play every time you go is not a rule. I just mention this in passing. Sometimes just being company and knowing that you shared time with your Dad is the important part of the experience.
Ed Jones
Planning for the Big Win
By Mike in Hawaii
I was recently told a true story. A friend had returned from a trip to the Ninth Island as we call Vegas here in Hawaii. A friend who was with them hit it really big on the craps table soon after they arrived, several thousand dollars ahead. Unfortunately the story did not end there. He could not wait to get back to the tables and toss around some purples, $500 chips. You can imagine the ending.
This is what I call “Outside the Rail” stuff. The game of craps is not a single, simple game. For one thing it is played in two phases, the come out roll phase and the chasing points phase. It is also played in two places, inside the rail and outside the rail. The rail being that nice chip tray that surrounds the sunken playing area sometimes called the tub where the felt is located.
Inside the rail is the domain of the casino. They make all the rules, conduct the game and control how everything is done. However, the game does not stop there. The players stand outside the rail. Outside the rail they have a chance to make up their own rules and control their own behavior. What you do outside the rail is of tremendous importance in determining if you win or lose at craps.
There is only one known, short term, guaranteed winning, 100% sure fire, money making craps system. Just one!
First you have to be lucky enough to get ahead. Then you have to have the discipline and the prior planning to quit while you are still ahead!
The first part is not really that hard. It is estimated that 70% of everyone who walks into a casino is ahead at some point in their gaming on a given day.
The second part of the guaranteed winning system above is virtually impossible to implement. Every day that 70% who get ahead prove it when they walk out broke.
Everything about how a casino works, the free drinks, the excitement (especially at a hot craps table), the floor plan, the Feng Shui (yes they do hire experts in Feng Shui); everything is designed to keep you playing until your pockets are empty.
In real estate they say the three most important factors are location, location, location. Well in craps the three most important factors are discipline, discipline, discipline.
I assume you all want to win, intend to win, and enter the casino with a positive powerful mindset focused on winning. But how many of you have made a detailed plan for what you are going to do when you start winning? Especially winning big?
If you don’t have a detailed plan on how to hold onto that money, you will give it all back. If you have not worked it out in advance, ground it into yourself, conditioned yourself and gotten your mind right before hand, you will never be able to leave that table with all those new chips.
Here are some suggestions:
First, never think in terms of “Playing with the Casino’s Money”. Too many people think, “Oh Boy! I am ahead, now I am gambling with the Casino’s money, I can go wild!”
NO! Bad Gambler!
It is your money. You have won it. That is the entire idea. Think of all the times that you have lost money. Did the casino consider that to be “your money?” Of course not! They immediately considered it to be their money. Outside the rail you have to implement the same rule. You win it. It is now your money. Handle it with the respect all your other money deserves.
Second, do not forget who and what you are. If you are a nickel gambler, do not start throwing around greens just because you lucked out and got way ahead. Big wins are few and far between. They need to pay off lots of small loses (we assume you are using methods of controlling your downside as well, but that is a different topic).
It is like the small businessman. He cannot simply open his cash register and pocket a couple of hundred dollars. That is called “till tapping” and is the fast track to ruin for a small business owner. Much of the money in that cash register belongs to all his suppliers who have delivered goods to him for which he has not yet paid.
You need to hang onto your new money to pay off previous losing sessions and keep your gambling money bankroll healthy.
If you get really lucky and win like crazy, you can find a lot more money in your rail than you are used to seeing. That does NOT make you a high roller!
I once got very lucky and rapidly ended up with a nice long stack of greens in my rail. Way above my usual buy in. The temptation to start betting with the greens instead of the reds was very strong. But that is not what I had allotted for that trip. I had allotted several well-funded sessions betting an average of $15 to $20 using reds. A nice stack of greens could not be allowed to change that.
Third, one word, Hoard!
Or, Stash, Rat Hole, Reserve, Set Aside, Squirrel Away, whatever you want to call it. If you get significantly ahead, divide your chips up. Convert them to two different kinds. Those you are still playing with and those you will not touch again until you turn them into color and take them to a cashier.
You can use two sections of rail; one for chips still in play and one for your hoarded chips. Another good method is to hoard chips in the rail and hold in your hand the chips you are still playing with. Whenever your hand gets a bit full, check to see if a few chips need to permanently leave your playing group and move into the hoarded group.
Of course one NEVER moves chips from the hoarded group into the playing group. If the playing group drops to zero, you quit. If your hand becomes empty, you quit.
As one example, you buy in with $100 and get very lucky on a wonderful streak. You now have $270 in chips. What did you start to play with? $100. So you definitely would put $170 into the hoarded amount where it will stay until it is colored up and cashed in. It is no longer in play for this session.
Suppose you have a rule that you will never lose more than half your buy in before you give up on a session and quit. In that case you would leave just $50 in your hand (half your $100 buy in) and put $220 into the hoarded stack in the rail.
Now you have a plan. When lady luck yanks the rug out from under you, you have a limited distance to fall. Just what is in your hand. When she turns trickster and makes a play for your winnings, she finds them no longer in play! Your personal outside the rail rules have protected them.
You can safely continue playing as long as you continue winning. If your hand keeps filling up, you keep moving a few more chips from your playing hand to the safety of your hoarded chip stack and it grows and grows. You keep the amount in your hand equal to your allotted loss limit, in this case $50. The inevitable reversal of fortune will not be able to clean your clock.
In the example above, when you quit, you will still have lost the $50 you allotted as your loss limit for that session, but you can now use your empty hands to pick up the $220 plus that is still hoarded in the rail and happily head for the cashier.
Remember, you win it, it’s yours! If you think in terms of “Playing with the Casino’s Money” when you get nicely ahead, it will soon be back home with the boxman. Make a solid plan for how you are going to leave with your winnings when you do get lucky.
The ultimate secret to winning at Craps is not the part where you get ahead. It is the discipline and planning needed to quit gambling while you are still ahead.
Ó2008 Mike in Hawaii
Queen Bee’s Buzz:
For those of you that missed the article on Feng Shui in our July/August newsletter, click the link to learn a bit more about Feng Shui, energy and how casinos use other subtle methods to keep us off balance, out of control and playing “their game”.
Queen Bee
Dear Queen Bee,
After reading your website articles (I receive the newsletter also, thanks!) I started practicing and employing some of the sets that you have recommended. It took some time of course to find what works best for me, but I wanted to share my experience yesterday at the local casino.
After two terribly unsuccessful attempts with the Crossed Sixes, I decided to switch over to the ‘Flying V set’. 40 minutes, 38 passes, and 9 points later, I sevened out! Needless to say it was a profitable session! Thanks! Bill
Hi Bill,
Different sets will work at different times. It is one reason as a DI player you have to take in the bigger picture. Knowing when to modify sets and then how to modify the set means you really have to be alert to develop the skill. Recently at the Dice Busters class in Las Vegas, I cover this very topic. Students saw for themselves how a simple adjustment in their sets extended their roll.
Glad you discovered something new and remember what worked last time may not work next time. Learn to observe and always be alert to what you are doing and what your dice are doing.
Thanks for you email,
Queen Bee
Hello Debbie and Michael,
“It was such a pleasure to meet you both and spend a day together. You are both such a great person as well as a teacher. We’ve learned so much from both of you and we appreciate what you have taught us.
I did the parlaying the natural and boy, did that work! It is really amazing, thank you Professor! Each time when it was my turn to roll, I can hear your voice, Debbie, asking me “what number are we thinking, Kay?” I say to myself, 5, 9, or whatever. Taking a deep breath, exhale and shoot! Sometimes it didn’t work but the most of the time it worked! Thank you, Debbie!”
From Kay V. in Canada
