Soft Touch Say’s

Hello everyone,

This edition of our newsletter shares with you the views of those individuals known to us in our community who play this game and explore the endless possibilities of how to approach and plan for a winning craps session.  I hope you enjoy what we each have to share in this month.

And by the way…we believe and play differently.

As our last workshop of the year fast approaches, it is time to begin reflecting on exploring the dice game beyond our five senses and continue to expand our students’ ability to prosper from the game in more ways than they ever knew.  What you perceive with your five senses is not all there is to the game of craps.

While the Dicecoach, The Professor and I work with players individually to help improve their game, collectively, we have chosen to come together to talk about the “nuts and bolts” of how to apply what we know to your advantage during our October workshop.  What goes on behind the game, the part you cannot see and determines whether you win or lose during a session is what we focus on. So come join us.

Monster hands…we’re going to have them. 

Trick or Treating with My Friends- To the casinos we go!

Happy Halloween,

Soft Touch

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

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.

How Do You Know When To Leave The Table?

By the Dice Coach

This is a very good question, and one you have to think about with each session you play. Here are some of the guidelines that I have for my own play:

• First, when you go to the casino to play table games, go well rested. Go with a good and positive attitude, knowing exactly what your game plan will be. Know what your buy-in will be for the day, what betting strategies you will use, and what your stop-loss will be. 
  
• Once in the casino, don’t get too comfortable. Rather than looking for a reason to stay, look for a reason to leave.
  
• After an hour to an hour and a half, take a break, you will need it. After that much time, you will be physically and mentally tired. And if you push yourself, you will lose. Look for signs to leave. Ask yourself, have there been any significant changes in the game? Are the same people there? And if so, are they making any money? Are you making any money? If not, then it is time to leave.
  
• Another good indication is your bankroll. If you are down 1/3 to 1/2 of your buy-in on this session, it is time to pull out of the game. Again, take a break and try another table, or even another casino. 
  
• Watch the overall development of the game. If, after an hour or so, you are about even, or up/down a unit or two, then consider moving on to another game. Don’t waste your time on a game that is not producing.
  
• Look for subtle changes in the game. If you are winning and the crew is beginning to give you heat, leave while you are ahead. Don’t fight the trends; you will just end up giving some, or all, of your hard earned money back. Don’t be stubborn, and definitely don’t play with your ego. Playing with ego will get you broke real fast!
  
• Use a betting strategy that will work for you and your bankroll. Be patient, you cannot force a win. You have to command the game to become a winner. 
  
• As you are winning, start locking up profits after a 20% win. If the game is still going strong, lock up your buy-in and some additional profit. Play with the balance and do not touch the money you have locked up. As the money you are now playing with continues to grow, keep locking up more of the profits. 
  
• Watch for the “turn in the game,” and color up immediately. Always leave a winner, don’t chase those losses. If you are close to your win goal, leave the game. Staying too long and pushing the envelope, will only lose your hard earned money.

All of this takes discipline, and without discipline you will be a loser! Follow the game. Learn how to read the table and the players at the table. Ask yourself – “what is this table’s energy? Is it positive or negative?” 

As precision shooters, we can have a positive, or a negative, impact on the game. If you are not the shooter, pay attention to the person with the dice. Even random shooters can have “hot” rolls, and you must be prepared to make your move when that happens. This is where your patience and sense of the table flow is so very important.

Do I ever lose my patience or discipline? Yes, unfortunately I do sometimes. And any time I do, it has always cost me money. Then having to go home and explain to your spouse why you have lost is not fun at all. It is always a lot more exciting to recount your triumphs. 

The best advice I can give you is; – be patient, use good discipline, and if anything feels uncomfortable to you at the table, it is time for you to leave that game.

And always look for a reason to leave, not a reason to stay.

Queeen Bee’s Buz: Practice Profitability?

For quite a few years, I have worked with some very motivated students interested in adding precision shooting to their craps game. These players come to me already holding the belief that we can influence the dice in a consistent mechanical fashion and just wish to capitalize on the potential profitability of adding this element into their game.

As I initially began my involvement with workshops, I worked with players on how to practice the mechanical elements of dice influencing, assisting them with the understanding that this dimension of the game does require some practice in order to acquire enough skill to perform consistently at the tables. All good precision shooters will admit it takes a lot of practice to understand the kind of influence we can potentially exert on the dice.

So, with a working knowledge of how to practice precision shooting, my students have been able to apply their newly acquired skills with tremendous success, creating long, out of probability dice rolls. I have received wonderful feedback on how many of my students have “monster rolls” and how they made a bit of profit.

Still, there are some students who are tremendous shooters and sadly report back to me that they could not capitalize on the profitability of their roll. They were too focused on their shooting and were unable to incorporate proper betting strategy. Their “trip report” of having held the dice through numerous stick changes ends with the statement “but I didn’t make any money.” In my view, the shooter had achieved his comfort zone with shooting but had not allowed his betting to enter into his/her comfort zone.

I began to recognize that long rolls were of no benefit to me, either personally or financially, if I was not going to capitalize on them. That is when I started to realize that it was just as important for me to study and practice what I would be doing with my chips in between my rolls.

Realistically, in a live game, we do pause in between our throws to manage our chips for placement of bets and retrieving our payouts from the dealers. And we should be doing this in between our practice throws as well.

Whatever your strategy, be it an “up and pull” betting strategy or applying a pass line progression system, it should always be practiced in the same fashion as you practice your shooting skills. As a player, this part of your game should be committed to memory and in time you will play the game with a sense of detachment from the money.

Serious players should invest in practice chips. I have always believed that focusing on practicing what you do with your chips is equally, if not more important, as focusing on how you throw your dice. Visiting Vegas’ Gambler’s General store is a must when it comes to purchasing practice chips. Invest your money on chips in denominations you actually play with in a live game.

Because I am big on visualization, when I first started my serious practice, I bought green and black chips. I did invest in white and red but I found myself always practicing with the green and black ones. It did not take me too long to feel the pull toward those quarter tables. For me, buying these chips was money well spent.

If you are truly serious about your game, an investment in chips is an investment in yourself. Please buy some chips, get familiar with them and practice making money. You are worth it.

Today’s Wisdom:

Trying to win people over…

“Trying to win people over and hoping the world will accept you for your wonderfulness is futile and weak. It destroys your real power; the stress of it can make you ill. Even if you get what you want, it rarely lasts. Today’s success becomes tomorrow’s rejection. Leaning psychologically is a fault’ it undermines what your are. Gradually you become the manifestation of other people’s reality – subject, of course, to all their fickle whims, moods, and power trips. By accommodating the ego in this way, you drift from the real spiritual you that dwells within – which is contained and solid – to a “fake” you that is brittle, self-indulgent, and powerless.

You can tell people how marvelous your are, and a hundred others can sing your praises and pump your worth, but all that is PR and hype. In the end, you are only worth the etheric feeling you exude. That is a spiritual, metaphysical reality; everything else is illusion and dysfunction. If you want to be accepted, accept yourself. If you want to be acknowledged, acknowledge yourself. Simple.“

Stuart Wilde – Silent Power

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I Bet Ya Didn’t Know…

By Michael Vernon

For twelve years I have been teaching life’s spiritual lessons in the classroom of a casino. How you play your casino game is no different to how you live your life. I only suggest that you examine both honestly for the correlations.

It is my intention to demonstrate, by sharing examples, as you evolve, transformation is just ahead of you. How long your evolution can take is a variable. Time is an invention of man, not universal law. The degree to which you will experience change depends mostly on you. The idea that life happens to you or at you is simply a victim’s mode of operating. Once you accept the fact that the reality being experienced is a manifestation of your energy, you can begin the journey toward self-improvement. Sometimes change is as simple as extending your arms, opening your hands, showing the universe that you are ready and willing to receive.

Transformation is usually not an overnight experience. The process of self-improvement rides with the discipline of patience. Others around you may not be as prepared or ready to accept the “winds of change” and may try to pull you down. Thus, it is probably a path that you walk alone. My ol’ teacher, Stuart Wilde used a woodpecker metaphor. He said, that spiritual evolution comes with patience and discipline, like a single woodpecker. The woodpecker pecks away, peck, peck, peck, until, “the whole bloody tree comes down”. I think Stuart has beavers and birds mixed up, but the metaphor is great because it is odd. We remember the odd things in life and that is why it was Stuart’s method of teaching spirituality and self-empowerment.

Life is moving quickly as technology advances. About 1988, or so, Stuart wrote the book, “The Quickening”. It was somewhat ahead of its time for the spiritual movement. “The Quickening” was not so much about how our life’s pace was increasing, it had to do with metaphysical concepts. Its focus was on esoteric concepts of mind over matter, what Stuart called “Turbo Thought”. It was, in fact, during this time in Stuart’s life, that he began playing blackjack using “Turbo Thought” to bolster his winning. This led him to the “Easy Money Blackjack seminar”, which he only presented for a few years. There after, Stuart gave me the okay to continue with my version of the seminar, “Blackjack for Winners”™.

How much wealth or abundance a person is able to handle, is directly proportional to the size of their “vessel”. This would be their ability to hold energy and handle the energy coming to them. This concept is common to a number of ancient wisdoms. Recently, while in Las Vegas, one of the students in my dice program reminded me of this concept and how it worked for him. He explained the vessel as a bowl. Everyone has a bowl. Bowls are of different sizes and proportionate to a person’s abundance and energy. In order to have “more”, he said a person must clear out “negative karma”. Doing so can then increase the size of their bowl and thus they are able to take on more. He went on to say with caution, increasing the size of the bowl also meant an increase in responsibility. If a person was not ready to take on more responsibility, a larger bowl could mean chaos.

When you are holding on to too much “stuff”, the “stuff” that does not support your life, not much else can fit. Ever feel overwhelmed? Either you have to release and let go or you have to make your “vessel” larger in order to hold more. It is like cleaning out the closet in order to make space for the next thing.

If you are holding apples in one hand and oranges in the other hand and life is trying to give you a watermelon, you have to make a transition in order to accept the melon. You do not necessarily have to discard the other fruit, but you do have to empty you hands. Sometimes however, the evolutionary process does require us to get rid of the old before taking in the new as a way to create a bigger energy. An example would be the way some players cling to a method of play that has no basis and pretty much guarantees them to be separated from their money. They have a history with a strategy that does not win. For them to take on a new strategy is often difficult, simply because they are accustomed to their losing ways. It is as though they are committed and cannot abandon the weak play. They cling to a losing system, waiting for that glorious day, when they can take heart that their system finally did come good. The word “stubborn” comes to mind.

A room filled with old and dilapidated furniture cannot receive new furniture until the old stuff is hauled out of the way. The old furniture represents old energy, so the action of moving symbolizes new thought forms and beliefs along with a physical clearing. It all comes down to the individual taking charge, taking action. What are you willing to do to initiate a shift in your energy?

Stuart Wilde used to do a seminar about abundance consciousness. At the time, it was his most popular program. For whatever reason, he stopped presenting it a round 1988. He used to talk about thought forms, emotion, affirmations, money, intention and writing down goals. He also had subliminally programmed audios that would help initiate the change in the subconscious mind. He knew that the biggest battle to win was with the subconscious mind. In order to win, the bottom line was action. Through action, the subconscious mind would get it that the old ways were no long acceptable.

Stuart would say, “You can do all of these things, and if you retire to your easy chair expecting “God” to deliver, don’t be shocked when your wish it is not delivered to your doorstep. You have to get off your “dead ass” and get out of the chair and do something if you really expect something different to occur. The “God Force” recognizes energy. Energy is a magnet. If you do nothing the “God Force” can only deliver to you nothing…. Even if it is only raking twigs and small rocks across the yard at five in the morning, you must take some kind of action. This action will be a dedication to what you want. Life, after all, was never meant to be a struggle. You can draw to you what you want through metaphysics, using discipline, intention and action.”

So, what does this have to do with casino games? Just everything!