Part
1: On the trail of dice setting success.
Like
most boys, I had a dog when I was younger. He
was a great dog. The kind any young kid would want to have around. He was a spunky, adventurous, and rambunctious ole
golden retriever that loved kids and had a playful but gentle way around them. We called him Tucker. One thing we loved to do was to take ole
Tucker out to the bird ranch to hunt pheasants.
Now,
we never took the time to teach the poor feller how to hunt birds up proper, but he had a
natural instinct. Hed bound around,
sniffing into bush after bush. Hed dash
this way and that and I gotta tell you hed sure spook up the birds. Of course most the time he was a half mile away
and another ridge line over doing it, but heck, wed see some birds come flying over
our way occasionally and knew the good ole boy was out doing his best (or worst from the
birds point of view I suppose).
So
what does ole Tucker have to do with influencing the dice?
Well, I wonder sometimes if my road to dice influencing success is like that
good ole dog out bird hunting. Running about,
sniffing my way around this craps table and that, hoping to scare up a monster hand. Going at the game with spunk and exuberance, but
perhaps a little short on the proper training/approach to getting the job done right.
So,
what got you interested in dice setting? Did
a friend introduce you to the idea? Did you
stumble across a book or advertisement for influencing the dice? Did you see someone doing it at a table and think
hmmm, maybe that person knows something I dont.
How
did I get interested in the idea of dice influencing?
It started out one day playing at a table and watching an older and more
experienced gent at a craps table handle the dice. He
was standing at the table right next to me so it was easy for me to notice that he was
twisting and rolling the dice into an interesting pattern.
Each time he got the dice, hed maneuver the 3s into a
V shaped alignment. I made a
comment something like ah, V for Victory, right? The guy simply grunted a non-committal
uh-huh. Of course he was setting
the classic Hard Six Flying-V, but back then I knew nothing about dice pre-sets and just
figured he had a superstition or something (ahh, yes, those were the good ole days).
Anyway,
I figured what the heck; I could have a superstition too.
So I decided a cool thing to do would be to set the dice with the aces up,
the snake-eyes. Nope, I didnt know jack
about proper axial relationships or any of the other D.I. mumbo-jumbo. I just knew that the snake-eyes looked cool and
thats how I was gonna set up the dice from then on.
Once
youve decided you want to set the dice a certain way, what is the next logical step? Yes, of course, I didnt want to ruin this
nice set up by hucking the dice down the table. It
just seemed to make sense that I should toss em easy and try to keep them from
bouncing around too much down there at the other end of the table. Maybe with less bouncin and rollin
those dice would be kind and less likely to land on a seven-out.
That
was the beginning of my dice setting journey. Oh,
I didnt know it at the time. Nor did I
know that I would shortly discover that there was a whole world of like minded
folks that had already taken the plunge long ago. Heck,
I didnt even entertain the thought that I would soon be spending many late nights in
my basement tossing cubes into a felt and rubber lined box.
But, to paraphrase the immortal Buckaroo Bonsai, "there I was, and
here I am."
However
you became interested in dice influencing, youre on the track now (Why else would
you be subscribing to this newsletter?) Some of you will keep at this and make dice
influencing part of you gaming experience. Some
will even become extremely skilled at the controlled toss.
Some of you will decide this sport is not for you, that
its too much work for the amount of time you spend in a casino. Maybe youre not sure this stuff works. Maybe youre simply still undecided. All of these are O.K. The decision to become a Dice Influencer is
something like converting to a religion. Either
you convert to it or you dont. Neither
choice is good nor bad, it simply is a choice. And
like religion, if you only approach Dice Influencing half-assed, the effort will leave you
feeling a bit empty and unfulfilled.
How
does one go about learning to be a Dice Influencer? Even
now, I dont know if there is a single comprehensive answer to that question. In fact I believe that the answer is unique
to every individual. But there are certainly
some common elements and basic skills/practices that we all start with.
Like
I said, and here I am. My choice
was to give Dice Influencing a try. I thought
Id take stab at writing a few articles over the next little bit that explore some of
the trials and errors Ive had while trying to teach this dog to hunt. Like many of you, I havent been at this
Dice Influencing thing all that long, and I dont have all the answers. Hopefully
Ill be able to share some puppy tips and insights. Maybe well even get to share in a success
story or two along the way.
Until
next time, keep your toss straight and your rack full.
Maddog
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