Dice Setter Precision Shooter’s Newsletter: July 2003

Can you believe we’re already on the downhill slide toward Christmas?  Unbelievable.  As most of you know, I recently made some changes to the message board.  You are now required be registered to even view the posted threads.  This in part is to limit the number of look-ee-loos, spammers and flamers.  I’m still working on a plan to make some minor changes to the Dice Setter site itself as well.  This is part of an overall plan to be lower on the radar.  As part of that plan, I’ll be going on a semi-sabbatical.  I’ll still be posting, only not as often, and I’ll still publish the newsletter every month.  Frankly for the remainder of the summer and for the fall and early winter, I’d like to spend less time talking about dice influencing, and more time actually getting to the tables.  I’ve enlisted a pal (deucifer) who will lend a hand moderating the message board and also take some of the day-to-day tasks off my plate.  I’m not disappearing, just going stealth a bit.

Heavy’s Axis Power Craps Pyramid Place Betting Strategy
by Heavy Haltom

It just makes sense that we should risk more money on the bets we have the greatest opportunity to win.   But what are those bets?  To determine that let’s look at the roll’s distribution table with a representative 36 rolls of the dice.

Distribution of Numbers based on 36 Random Rolls

Clearly the seven is the most powerful number on the dice.  It is the bane of wrong way players trying to establish a Don’t Pass bet, and it is the bane of right way players trying to win on a Pass bet.  For this reason the appearance of the seven is a factor in the majority of hedge strategies. 

Next to the seven, the six and eight are the most powerful numbers on the layout.  There are five combinations of the dice that add up to six, and five that add up to eight.  The six and eight are the foundation of the Pyramid Place Betting Strategy, and should be the object of the majority of the player’ s Place action. 

Moving outside from the six and eight, the five and nine are the next strongest numbers in the pyramid.   However, since there are fewer ways to win with these numbers they should receive less action. 

Last of all are the outside numbers, the four and ten.  These are at the periphery of the Pyramid Place Betting Strategy and come into play in particularly long hands.  By and large, though, action on these numbers should be minimal. 

Here is what a Pyramid Place Bet across the board might look like: 

$10/4	$15/5	$30/6	$30/8	$15/9	$10/10

Betting all of the box numbers is sometimes referred to as a Shotgun Strategy.  This is a powerful strategy when the tables are hot and the numbers are rolling.  However, it leaves much to be desired when the table is choppy or cold.  For that reason many players minimize the potential loss due to an early seven-out by playing an Up and Out Strategy. 

The Up and Out Strategy begins with place bets on the six and eight.  For the sake of this example let’s assume the player has $18 each on the six and eight.  On the first hit on either number the dealer will pay the player $21.  At this point the player locks up $9 and presses the six and eight to $24 each.  

On the second hit on the six or eight the player is paid $28.  At this time the player locks up an additional $8 and places the five and nine for $10 each.  

At this point the player must score one more hit on the six or eight, or two more hits on the five or nine, before placing any more money in action.  At that  point all of the players bets will be “paid for” and a small profit locked up.  The player may then continue the  upward and outward progression, adding a $5 four and ten. 

Of course, this is just one simple variation.  There are endless permutations available to the savvy player.  All in all, it is not a bad way to play.

 
Mad Professor’s Mini-Table Craps Tour with the Vegas Ghost- Part X

(Read Part I , Part II, Part III or Part IV or Part V or Part VI or Part VII or Part VIII or Part IX)  

Okay, I’ve taken you to some of my favorite mini-table haunts both on and off the Las Vegas Boulevard Strip.  Today I’m taking you to one that is close to everything, but doesn’t usually register on the gaming radar.  In fact, it barely even shows up on the pro-players sonar screen.  That’s all the better for those who like to make their money out of the limelight, and in the casinos at the actual tables.

So strap your ass into the backseat, ‘cause Mel, the Vegas Ghost and I are taking you for a craps shooting ride to:

Ellis Island Casino & Brewery

Where Is It?

It is located behind Bally’s and Paris Hotel-Casino, on Koval Lane.  Koval is a popular short-cut for taxi-drivers, road-savvy tourists, and locals.  It runs parallel with the Strip, and allows rear access into a good number of the mega-resort properties (from MGM Grand in the south to the Venetian in the north), while avoiding most of the grid locked tourist traffic.

From Bally’s backdoor to Ellis Island’s front door, a pedestrian would need about 12 minutes and one bottle of water to make the 108-degree walk.

The Casino

Ellis Island Casino is the gaming and restaurant portion of the world’s largest Super 8 Motel.  While I’ve never actually stayed in one of their rooms, I understand that they are of Super 8 quality, which is to say, better than a Motel 6, and not quite as nice as your local Ramada.

While the motel has been around for more than 34 years, the casino is about one-third that age.  At ~36,000 square feet, the EI has enough room to hold a large number of relatively new slot machines, but only about seven or eight gaming tables.  Thankfully, one of them is now a craps table.

Ellis Island’s Mini-Craps Table

There hasn’t always been a craps table here, and I can’t guarantee that there always will be one in the future, but it’s here now, and I like to play it on a semi-regular basis.  In fact, the one full-size table that they used to have here in the early 90‘s went missing in action for more than a decade.  Fortunately, increasing motel, restaurant and casino traffic has meant that their gaming-business warranted a new, albeit much smaller craps table.

Bet minimums are usually $3, and they RARELY raise it to the $5 mark.  Once in a while they MAY lower the limit to $2, but I haven’t seen it that way in several months.  In any event, they offer 3x, 4x, and 5x Odds.

The 9-foot table sports a good layout that has a few miles on it, but the felt is relatively new, and they do change out the dice every day.  They chemically steam-clean the felt once a month, which tends to subsequently slow the dice-energy down quite a bit.  The more recent the cleaning, the slower the dice go.  You can gauge how recent the cleaning has been by the remaining odor of the residual solvent that smells like a combination of stinky feet and LysolÔ.   As the residue fades and gets replaced by dirt and natural skin oils, the dice speed up.

You will notice that despite the short 9-foot length of the table, you still need to throw with enough force so that the dice have enough speed AFTER their first bounce to make it to the other end of the table.  Most short tables require a minimum of throwing effort, while this table requires about 30% more.  To put that into perspective, you have to throw the dice as if you are on a 12-foot table.

– mini table tour continued here

If you have any comments or ideas for future issues, feel free to email me at ed@dicesetter.com  And as always, I’m looking for contributors with a fresh perspective.

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Good Luck!