How Does The Time-Interval Between Each Successive Lap Around The Table Affect Your Shooting?
Let’s give some thought to the varying amounts of time we have to wait between each shooting opportunity when we are standing at the craps table in a casino.
Depending on how crowded the table is, and depending on what the dice are doing as they make their way back around to your position; it could take anywhere from as little as two or three minutes if there’s only a couple of other players…all the way to nearly an hour if it’s packed with 12 or 14 players…even if the dice aren’t doing anything remarkable and the table conditions are somewhat choppy.
So what effect does varying shooting-opportunity intervals have on your de-randomized toss when the dice finally do make it back to your table-position, and how do any of the random betting situations that presented themselves during that one lap figure into how you bet on your own hand when the dice are finally back to your spot?
Does the amount of money that you just won or lost on random-bets have any effect on the amount of money that you will now bet on yourself?
Does the amount of money that you won or lost on yourself last time you shot have any effect on the amount of money that you bet on yourself this time?
If you shot well last time, do you start to get impatient if it looks like it’s going to be a while before the dice get back around to you?
If your last hand was a lousy one, are you looking at your next shooting-opportunity as a chance for your D-I talents to redeem themselves; or do your most recent results cause a pang of worry and provide the impetus to cut back on your next set of A-P wagers?
These are the kinds of things that can get into your head and mess with your shooting-focus to the point of total distraction. They can also mess with the efficiency of your advantage-play bets to the point of inefficiency whereby you’ll still end up losing money no matter how good your own shooting is on the next hand.
In the same vein, if you just threw a lousy hand, does your normally restrained random-betting discipline go out the window in hopes that a lucky bet on a negative-expectation R-R will make up for the loss that you just incurred during your turn, or does it steel your loins even more in terms of strengthening your resolve not to waste your gaming bankroll on random bets; preferring instead to use that money on your own positive-expectation toss the next time around?
The next time you are at the table, I want you to think about how each one of those things may unwittingly play into your bet-making decisions, not only on the random rollers that you have to endure as you wait for the dice to cycle back around to you; but also how the bets you made on yourself during your most recent shooting-opportunity affects how you plan to bet on your next turn with the dice.
I want you to look at your bet-making decisions and any changes you make to them along the way and ask yourself WHY you are making them; and whether or not they are being made out of impatience, or greed, or boredom, or need for action, or out of fear.
How you handle your money during both the good times as well as the bad times, will determine your true grit and your ultimate profitability as an advantage-player.
Ask yourself HOW the changes that you make to your bet-strategy fits into the whole idea of advantage-play dice-influencing and whether those decisions are keyed to that or to something totally unrelated to advantage-play wagering and more closely associated with random gambling or thrill-seeking or boredom or impatience.
I also want you to consider how the cool-down period between shooting opportunities affects the physical side of your game too?
That is, do you find that a between-hands interval longer than 10 or 15 minutes takes you out of your finely-honed groove and is it then more difficult to get back into a proper frame of mind and shooting-focus when the dice come back around again?
Do you find it difficult to “recapture the magic” of a good or great hand if it’s been more than 10 or 15 minutes since you last shot the dice.
If you threw a lousy hand, do you need a longer time between shooting-opportunities to refocus your thoughts and re-energize your shooting-confidence?
Have you ever noticed how most players don’t stand quite as tall after 20 or 30 or 40 minutes at the table as they did when they first walked up to the game? Has the game worn them down to the point where even their posture suffers? Is that an indication of settling-in “comfort” or is it a sign that our posture isn’t quite as erect after we’ve been standing for awhile?
What about the angle of your head and neck. Do you notice that your head isn’t quite as erect as it was when you first bought into the game. Is your chin much closer to your chest because you are always looking down at the layout or is the action of the game wearing you down?
Do you find yourself leaning heavily on the rail as though you are deep in prayer? Is that a posture thing or are you really praying?
Do you think any of those things will affect your shooting-posture and your dice-influencing accuracy when the dice come around again?
I think they will.
Why should you even have to think about any of those things?
Well the fact is, ALL of those things can take what would otherwise be an outstanding high-player-edge on-axis primary-face toss and turn it into a ragged and shabby looking display of near-random shooting.
Similarly, the bet-decisions you make along the way, especially the ones that involve anything more than minimal wagers on random-rollers, almost always play into how you make changes to your own advantaged bets, and in most cases those changes have nothing to do with your actual edge over the house, but rather the edge you let the house have over you.
Think about WHY you vary your bets from where they optimally should be, and you’ll likely find the source of most of your losses or at least the lion’s share of your unrealized profit.
At the same time, think about how your shooting-posture can imperceptibly erode as a session wears on and think about how The Time-Interval Between Each Successive Lap Around The Table Affects Your Shooting.
Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables…and in Life.
Sincerely,
The Mad Professor
Copyright © 2006
