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Creating More
Shooting Opportunities The
Idea If
Precision-Shooting reduces the house-edge or eliminates it altogether; then the idea that
a Precision-Shooter would want to throw the dice as often as possible makes a lot of
sense. With
that in mind, I thought that a list of suggestions that will increase the number of times
that you get your hands on the dice, might be a good idea. Suggestion #1 Play During
Off Hours Prime time for most
casinos is from 7 pm to 2 am. The range of
those hours may vary somewhat from city to city, and casino to casino. However, we can generally agree that the tables
are busiest at night, and emptiest in the very early morning from 5 am to 10 am. The other hours connecting those empty and busy
periods are somewhere between the two extremes. Suggestion #2 Play During
Off Days Tuesday and
Wednesday are traditionally the lightest days for in-house traffic, while Friday, Saturday
and Sunday are customarily the busiest. Of
course if a casino is offering 5x-Points on all of their Tuesday and Wednesday slot
action, then the casino may be crowded, but the craps tables may still be barely attended,
especially in the morning. During busy
convention periods, major sporting events, and of course long weekends and holidays you
can expect the biggest crowds. However, the
two days BEFORE a long weekend, and the day AFTER a long weekend is traditionally the
LIGHTEST. Suggestion #3 Play during
Off Season When the weather is
a searing 132-degrees in the shade, Las Vegas, Laughlin and Mesquite offers some of the
best travel bargains as well as some of the emptiest craps tables. During the late fall, winter and early spring, Las
Vegas is crushed by conventioneers, snowbird refugees from colder gaming environs, plus
California and Arizona daytrippers. Conversely, when the
frigid winter storms of the East Coast blow into Atlantic City, only the heartiest of
craps players will trudge through 37 of snow and 50mph icy winds for a chance to
roll the bones. In essence, if you
play when most other people DONT want to, youll find that the dice cycle
around to your spot with a much quicker tempo. If
you avoid the crowds, you increase the number of times that the dice will be in your
hands. Not
Anti-Social, Just Pro-Profit I
dont want you to get the idea that Im anti-social, or that I dont like
playing craps with other people. Its
fun to be at a full table when the dice are sizzling hot and the black, purple, orange and
gray (or brown) chips are tumbling in like an avalanche. The
truth is that I love people, and I especially enjoy helping them through articles such as
this. However, Ive also learned that I
can make much, much more money when I get to shoot the dice as often as possible. Thats not bragging; its just a matter
of fact. Im
not anti-social. Its just that I happen
to be very PRO-profit, and the best way that I know how to make a profit in a casino is to
shoot as often as possible. The
more I throw, the better able I am to groove-in my Precision-Shooting efforts and to
maximize my betting patterns. If other people
are at my table, and taking advantage of my skill; then its all the better for them. Likewise, if a lucky shooter comes along,
Ill be riding his fortunate coattails all the way to the bank. On
the other hand, once the ride is over, dont be surprised if I dont stick
around for very long after I shoot. Ill
be on my way in search of more shooting opportunities.
Again, its nothing personal, its just good business. Suggestion
#4 - Change of Shift Find
out when the casino normally changes their dealer-shifts, and ask when they usually open
additional tables. Traditionally Swing-shift
will have the most open tables, while the graveyard-shift will have the least. Casinos
generally split up their crews into three shifts. Day-shift
is normally from 10 am to 6 pm, or 11 am to 7 pm. Swing-shift
is usually from 6 or 7 pm until 2 or 3 am. Graveyard
or Sunrise-shift starts at 2, 3 or 4 am and ends at 10, 11 am or noon. To deal with crowds,
they will sometimes schedule staggered starts that will see additional tables opened in
the mid-afternoon or late evening to correspond with the growing multitude of players. One way to take
advantage of these shift changes is to find out if they usually open additional tables
when they change shifts. That way you can
schedule your play for when new table(s) are first opening.
Since you know that very few people like to open an empty table,
you can usually be the first player to get the dice.
Not only that, but you can usually be a solo shooter for a number of hands
before other players clue in or drop their social-inhibitions. Suggestion
#5
If You Liked That, Then Let Me Shoot Again Im serious. If your Precision-Shooting is good enough, those
nine little words will return the dice to you often enough to make the effort well
worthwhile. Let me paint a little scenario
for you: Lets say that
your average casino-day totals four sessions of one-hour each. Lets assume
that you get to throw the dice twice during each one-hour session. Well estimate
that in four hours of play, youll get to shoot the dice at total of eight times. Now suppose that out
of those eight shooting opportunities, you manage to have two excellent hands in the range
of 40+ rolls. At the end of
excellent hands like that, youll often see players high-fiving each other, and the
entire crew applauding your success (and theirs too, since you hopefully had them on the
Pass Line with full Odds). Now in that
scenario, how often does someone suggest passing the dice right back to you so that you
can shoot again? The suggestion probably
happens quite often, but there are usually one or two players who want to have their turn
too. So the ratio of someone SUGGESTING that
everyone pass the dice right back to you, and the ACTUAL number of times when everyone
AGREES to do it is usually a 50/50 proposition, at best. However, you can
dramatically increase your success-ratio if you show some bravado, and give the rest of
your table-mates a little encouragement by saying something to the effect of, If
you want to keep on winning, how about letting me shoot again? Its
a little bit showy and perhaps somewhat arrogant, but since you are
attributing your great rolls to your INCREDIBLE LUCK (and NOT your skill), you can
use that common superstition to your advantage. By
saying, Im really lucky today, you better get it while the dice are still
hot, it plays into the common notions of the other players, as well as most
casino personnel. If you talk about
LUCK and avoid all notion of skill it permits you to fly under the
radar, while still taking advantage of increased shooting opportunities. The only caution that I would add, is that you
shouldnt do this too often in the same place with the same Pit Crew. Lets
look at some additional ways that you can get a few more throwing prospects: Suggestion
#6 - And the Survey Says
During
the first week of June, 2003, e-zine publisher Casino.com asked their readers this
poll question: How
do you prefer playing craps?
The results of just over 17,000 respondents were tallied.
You
can use these preferences to your advantage. A
professional Precision-Shooter friend of mine jokes with the Pit Bosses that he is their unpaid
shill, because hell happily start up a newly opened table, or resuscitate a
dead game where the dealers are standing idle. He
loves playing at solo-tables, so hell gladly get the game started. Then as soon as four or five new players drift
over and he completes his own hand, hell seek out the next empty table that requires
his attention. If there are no
empty tables where he is currently playing; then hell check his casino-notes to
determine which places will be opening new tables, or which casinos should be the emptiest
at that particular hour of the day. Hes
extremely well known for his steady toking (when hes shooting), and his uncanny luck
with the dice. Ive often seen where a
dealer, Box-man, Floor Supervisor, Pit Boss or even a Shift Manager will motion him over
to get a game started. They too understand
the reluctance of most players to step up to an empty table, so they tolerate his
relatively modest, but consistent winnings. He
never sticks around long enough to wear out his comp-rich welcome. Now THATS a great way to maximize shooting
opportunities. Why Crowded
Tables Inhibit Your Profit While crowded tables
may add to the excitement of the casino experience, it actually diminishes and inhibits
your profit opportunities. While there are
random occasions where someone will string together a great hand, you never know in
advance where it will be, when it will happen or how long it will last. A skilled
Precision-Shooter takes a lot of the guesswork out of the casino experience. If your shooting is up to the task, then you can
reliably count on having at least a couple of excellent hands per day. In this way, you
can reliably predict where it will be, how often it will happen, and how long your roll
will likely last. Not quite as reliable, is
knowing exactly when it will happen. Of course, while
each of your hands will be variable in length, you should know from your actual in-casino
SESSION-NOTES, how frequently you have good hands, and how long they last. Armed with this information you can alter your
betting patterns to take maximum advantage of the great ones when they come along, yet
still keep your losses to an absolute minimum during your short-lived hands. Once you realize how
much better your shooting is compared to random-rollers, you can see that your major
money-making advantage is in shooting as often as possible. This level of predictability
is what most burgeoning Precision-Shooters aspire to, and is what brings consistency to
your per-hour or at least per-day profit projections. Suggestion
#7 Seek Out Turbo-Dice Turbo-Dice is
not a new video game or even a brand-name of dice. Rather
it is a term used to describe gaming-houses that move the dice as quickly as possible,
thereby generating as many rolls per hour as achievable.
Casino-operators
have long known that more decisions/hour translates into a higher house-win/hour. The cheaper the table-minimum and the more of a
grind-joint the casino is, the better your chances of finding a fast moving Turbo-Dice
game. By way of
comparison, Caesars Palace will average about 70-90 rolls per hour, while a grind-joint
like Barbary Coast will try to stay in the 150-to-180 roll/hour range. With
that in mind, heres a very short list of some of the fastest games in town: Barbary
Coast (see Cheap Craps Guide Part V
for a full report) If
you are comfortable with a fast moving game, then these above-noted casinos are where you
are most likely to find Turbo-Dice. In
Part Two of this series, well look at another dozen or so
suggestions to multiply the number of times you get a shot at the title. Until then, Good Luck & Good
Skill at the Practice Table
and in Life. Sincerely, The Mad Professor
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