Dice Setter Precision Shooter’s Newsletter: February 2007

Soft Touch Say’s

Hello everyone.

As we all know, if a player chooses to study and practice setting the dice, they should endeavor to not hold up the game by twisting and turning the dice every which way. Please take the time to study a pair of dice and know how to adjust the faces quickly.

So, with the above being stated, this month’s installment of our newsletter brings you an article from Mike from Hawaii, on staff at the University of Hawaii. He shares his continued exploration of the game and his thoughts on the subject of dice control and this month he focuses on finding the dice axis in a quick manner. Take note everyone, we need a little less “flicking” of the dice at the tables. Read his article and all of you will understand what I mean.

Also, I would like to welcome my old friend Sharpshooter to our membership.  After taking a short hiatus from the dice community, he is back and in fine form. He is still the same Sharpshooter I have enjoyed watching and he brings to the dice community his remarkable knowledge and brand of dice shooting techniques.

As he eases his way back into our community, he will be providing our newsletter his thoughts and new ideas to the way he approaches his methods of dice control as he works on co-authoring his second book.

An engineer by education, Sharpshooter is  very knowledgeable in the area of dice control.  His intelligence is only surpassed by his niceness. If you are into math and Newtonian physics, as it applies to dice control, he is the “go-to” man in my estimation. This month’s article is about launching trajectories and apex dice-strike.  After reading his stuff, it will make you brush the dust off your practice rig and give the dice a few tosses.

That’s it for this month my dear subscribers.  In the mean time, enjoy a great month in and out of the craps pit.  And,

Happy Valentines Day!

Soft Touch

PS If you have any suggestions for the new dicesetter.com website or newsletter please send them to me at Ed@dicesetter.com and I’ll have a look and see how we can incorporate them into our future plans.

Flick Flick

 By Mike In Hawaii

Starting from any initial orientation, it is only necessary to rotate a die one quarter turn around a single axis in order to get it “on axis”. To set it up with a given side-to-side horizontal axis for throwing. For a pair of dice that is just two flicks, two quarter turns at most.

I believe that the side-to-side horizontal axis selected is much more important than exactly which faces are on top or on the front of the dice. It is certainly an essential first step in getting ready to shoot. You should be able to get dice on axis quickly, with very little movement. The key to doing this extremely fast is something most people have heard of, but not really learned, not internalized. It is not the conscious mind that needs to know this, it is actually the fingers.

Casino dice are precision equipment. One of their specifications calls for opposite sides to always total Seven. This locks the faces together into three pairs.

Since these are clear green dice, you can actually see through to the bottom in these pictures. But you should be able to just look at a pair of dice and immediately know where all the faces are. Even if you can only see two adjacent faces, like the top and the front, you should know exactly what is on the bottom and what is on the back. You should also know immediately what pair of faces is on the right and left side.

You should be able to “see” the opposite face as easily as it shows up in these two pictures of a giant red die. The One on the front immediately makes you see the Six on the back. No need to flip it around looking for the Six. Once you assimilate this, not just know it, a glance will tell you what the horizontal side-to-side axis is on any pair of dice.

In the photo above, you should instantly see that the two is on the back of the green die and the three is on its bottom. That green die is on the 1-6 horizontal axis. The red die has the four on the bottom and the five on the back. It also is on the 1-6 horizontal side-to-side axis. It is in fact the All Sevens set. It is harder to know where the sixes are, but personally I am not sure it matters that much, just like I am not convinced it matters a lot what faces are on the top. (duck and cover).

So what above the dice above? To get them on the 1-6 axis clearly you only need to flip each one a quarter turn around its front to back axis. Suppose you wanted a 1-6  2-5 set? Well you turn one die a quarter turn around its front to back axis to put it on the 1-6 axis and then rotate the other one around its top to bottom axis just one quarter turn to put it on the 2-5 axis. See? Only one quarter turn. Here you are even lucky. You can put the One on either side of the 1-6 axis. You can also place the Two on either side of the 2-5 axis.

Recently I heard a boxman rather pointedly grumble “This is a game of chance, not a game of skill” in response to a shooter fiddling with the dice for a clearly excessive amount of time, turning them this way and that, flipping them again and again. Of course that statement is total NONSENSE! Even if you were to completely rule out the existence of dice control, there is still a lot of skill required in all aspects of playing the game of Craps. But that boxman was responding to the one thing a Casino definitely does not like, delay of the game.

Go to your nearest sewing supplies shop, the nearest shop that sells things like cloth from bolts. They will very likely have small squares of felt very cheap. So will lots of crafts stores. I had an old picture frame sitting around without any glass in it. I just mounted the square of felt in the picture frame to make a quick surface to let the fingers fiddle on with dice. The old frame I had laying about had a thin wood backing plate. I used several stripes of double sided tape to secure the felt square to that to help hold the felt in place along with the grip around the edge provided by the frame itself. I ended up with two layers of felt and one layer of thick paper to get just the right thickness to fit firmly in the old frame.

Another great surface for a quick throwing station or to let the fingers practice orienting the dice without appearing to orient dice, is a mouse pad. The photo below shows a nifty “Megapad” and two regular sized mouse pads. The two smaller ones are the cheapest available. The grey one has a surface quite a bit like felt and a rather stiff rubber backing. Placed on any solid surface they have a nice look and feel under the dice. The smaller ones are the rather standard 8 x 10 inch size. Of course none of this is as nice as a real throwing station complete with rail, but it is very portable and compact.

Get any pair of properly sized dice, bonus points for having real casino dice like those shown above, and practice dropping them into any random pattern. Then arrange them ready to shoot with as few movements as possible, slowly and deliberately at first, and then going for speed and fluidity. Practice until it looks like you are not arranging them at all. Do this while watching TV instead of assimilating the stupid commercials. Flick Flick. That is all it should take to get them on axis. This is something the fingers and non-conscious mind have to sort out between them, like touch typing. Eyes glance at dice, fingers automatically fix.

Once the dice are quickly on axis, adjusting them a bit more to get a particular superstitious number on top is something the Casinos have been seeing for probably as long as there has been the game of Craps.

BTW this little photo of the red die showing the Four, Five and Six arranged around that particular vertex, increasing in a counter clockwise direction, is the key to knowing which side of the horizontal side-to-side 1-6 axis the Six is on without peeking. This is left as an exercise for the user. 

© Mike in Hawaii

January 2007

Today’s Wisdom:

“To deprecate others is not honorable, it’s not necessary,

 it demonstrates your hidden anger, and lowers your energy.

By now, you should be past it.”

Stuart Wilde – Silent Power

Queen Bee’s Buzz:

Dear Queen Bee,

I’ve been playing dice for a few years now and peruse the different craps web sites. I subscribe to your newsletter and a few others. Though the game appears to be limited to the possible bets any player can make, the opinions out there for the “how to” seem to cover everything from a complete manipulation of dice control, to complicated betting schemes, sure fire systems, psychic powers, astrology and you get my point. My questions is what I am I to believe is the best way for playing craps?  Paige Musgrave

Dear Paige,

Interesting questions and a topic that I am sensitive to. I have been working on an article similar to my answer for your question. Stay tuned and you will see the detailed article in a future issue of Dice Setter Newsletter. In the meantime, craps is a game. It is a game for both female as well as male players. By the way, welcome to the “club” my friend. Each player has to come to an acceptance of whatever method they settle on for their particular style of play. In short, you must make the choice. You must decide how your play will best suit your entertainment needs. Too much is laid at the door step of the “Holy Grail of craps”… the elusive Golden Goose to take down the house. You probably learn best by doing. Get out there and simply play, enjoy and learn by playing the game. Learn to recognize what works and what does not work. Your way may not necessarily be the way professed by others or anything close. You will however, be playing your own game.

Thanks for your questions,

Queen Bee

Two Keys to Successful Precision Dice Control

By Sharpshooter

Excerpts from his article:

Before he introduces his first key regarding optimal launch angle he writes:

“To secure an edge over the house, your objective is to launch the dice at the optimal angle to accomplish a “soft landing” and minimize the random motion of the dice after they collide with the back wall pyramids and come to a rest…”

On his second key regarding apex dice-strike he writes:

“As the dice ascend towards the apex of their trajectory, something very interesting occurs; the horizontal component of motion stays constant, however the vertical component diminishes (because of gravity) until the dice reach the peak and stop climbing altogether.  At this moment, the vertical forces are zeroed out and only the horizontal component of force is present (See Figure 2 below).  The net force and kinetic energy on the dice is at a minimum at this crucial point because…”