Dice Setter Precision Shooter's Newsletter

Volume VI : Issue I

Jan. 2006

In This Edition:

A Note From Soft Touch

Newsletter Upgrades

Mindful Living Part V

Shooting From the Don’t Part 11

Brief Summary of non-Detroit Michigan Casinos

Long - Table to Short-Table to Long-Table Shooting Adjustments

A Labor of Love...

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 Mindful Living, Mindful Shooting ─ Part V

By Jeffrey47

Each of us plays the mental game by our own rules, depending on deep-seated ways of thinking and living.  Accordingly, some will be more drawn to exploring the mental side of DI than others.

Whether we change our mind in any particular way while perfecting our DI skills, how we might go about it,

and what it means, are personal things we discover for ourselves.

Toward an Ecology of the DI Mindset

Developing an appropriate, practically oriented DI mindset requires effective stewardship not only figuratively “between our ears,” but quite literally beneath our skin.  In Parts III and IV we’ve seen how proprioceptive awareness plays a critical role in our DI skills because it bears on what we know about how we move, feel,

and think.  We simply can’t escape always being under the influence of our own awareness, or any lack thereof.  Our self-image making mind is sometimes referred to as the motoric ego―mind and body

combined to make us who we are. 

The mental and physical demands of advantage craps vary substantially from one moment to the next.  Most notably, we’re “within” delivering the toss one second, and then we’re back “out” implementing our game strategy the next.  In a future installment, I’ll be talking more about how our physical skill actually benefits

from this continual process of repetitively modulating the focus of our attention.  But for now, let’s just bear

in mind that the ease with which we shift gears among these different mental behaviors affects the quality with which we accomplish each of them, and vice versa.

Motoric Understanding:  A Brief Moment of Truth

Our sense of our mechanics and our observation of the dice remain paramount, of course.  The feedback

from each shot is critical and it is most vivid only for a very brief instant while it’s fresh in our mind.

The clarity we’ve talked about achieving is secured incrementally―one shot at a time―through intermittent short bursts of “motoric understanding.”  We not only come to know how we toss, but we begin to sense it, too, without thinking about it as much.

In the face of an iron-clad guarantee that each of our turns with the dice always hastens its own eventual demise, that recurring brief moment of understanding derived from our toss fortifies our skill with the information and the inspiration to survive for one more roll. But our attention on tossing is inevitably interrupted with other concerns.  There may be commotion and noise distracting us.  And even in the best

of circumstances we have to attend to our wagers.  Through it all, we have to stay in touch with what we’re learning in the course of our turn with the dice and we always have to navigate our emotions.

It’s That Balanced Attitude Thing Again

Thus, we’ve got to have a relaxed enough overall attitude to keep from getting uptight about the resistance

we inevitably run into.  We’ve got to keep our cool.  But we’ve got to keep the fires burning at the same time―we want easy access to that molten intensity we rely on for executing each toss.

Thus, for a relaxed attitude to support precision performance, it must remain informed by the intensity of our engagement.  Without intensity to draw on, relaxation too easily degrades into a mere failure of full attention.

By the same token, intensity without that feeling of effortlessness can quickly become rigid and exhausting; we can find ourselves trying too hard.

Like a biological eco-system sustained by the organisms competing for survival within it, the DI mindset doesn’t long survive if any of its constituent parts is allowed to commandeer an upper hand over the rest.

Spurious Thoughts When Shooting the Dice

Among the obstacles we encounter, self-imposed distraction is one of the biggest, of course.  In Maddog’s excellent nine-part DI chronicles, Maddog’s Journey, the problem was succinctly noted.  Maddog wrote:  “I’m convinced that the quickest way for a DI to lose control of his toss mechanics is to start thinking about his bets.”  And then he concluded, “These spurious thoughts are extremely disruptive.”

Maddog has identified something we need to be intimately familiar with: Those disruptive thoughts of ours.

But the solution is not as easy as shrugging and trying to look the other way.  There’s always another distracting thought lurking in the other direction.  If we want to manage our distracting thoughts, we’ve first got to know the beasts we’re trying to appease.  You’ve heard the sage advice about facing our own demons.  While I wouldn’t go so far as to characterize my thoughts as demonic, they sure seem to have a helluva lot to do with “the devil” popping up sometimes.

So let’s examine a little further the problem of disruptive thoughts.  Let’s see what other kinds of thoughts and emotions―in addition to worrying about our wagers―might be messing with our concentration, maybe

without our even knowing it.

Smile!  It’s a Wonderfully Complex Undersea World of Barely Conscious

Thought Creatures

Sometimes as I’m preparing to shoot, I’ll realize that my mind has wandered and grabbed hold of some pretty ridiculous “ideas.”  I usually kind of smile inside because upon realizing I’m distracting myself it’s fairly easy to just gently regain focus.  Realizing what’s going on serves as a kind of anchoring point―a perfect reminder

to relax and get down to business.

Other times, however, getting focused can be more of a struggle.  Thoughts sometimes seem to be swimming along without particular form.  I can’t dispense with these thoughts as easily, because I’m not fully aware of them.  Instead, I can just sense that I’m not completely settled in.  And then, once I realize I’ve been half-following a barely conscious, but definitely distracting thought constellation, it seizes the opportunity to suddenly come into full relief and spin itself out of control, taking me along for the ride.  Of course I don’t make quality tosses with such a diffused, distracted, and tentative non-presence of mind.

What is it that is so different about the thoughts we can just smile about and forget, compared with the thoughts that succeed in unsettling our concentration?

To me, thoughts of every kind seem to be routinely running a very slick under-cover distraction-importing operation.  They want to hijack our concentration but  avoid detection in order to ensure their own survival in spite of our intentions to clear our mind.  And when we resist paying them the attention they seek, they’ll fight for it harder, cloaking themselves with a ferocious quality of absolute urgency and importance.  Naturally, we either accord them our attention at that point, rather than staying focused solely on our toss,

as we’d hoped to do, or else we just feel frustrated knowing we’re subtly distracted.  The nerve of these guys!

Our clever minds manufacture all kinds of machinations perfectly suited to calling attention away from what we’re trying to do―which is just toss the dice with an uncluttered mind.  Concentration and intensity tend to “turn up the volume” of everything in the mental landscape.  Learning to navigate a smooth course through the variegated mental substrate that emerges is a challenge unto itself.  As I learned to embrace this mental dynamic more objectively rather than fight it, I began to see and invariably enjoy the irony involved.  So acknowledging pesky thoughts without getting rattled about the momentary distraction they can cause is a key step to reducing their grip, and easing ourselves back on track.  

I Told You There Was a Party, But Did I Mention It Was a Masquerade?

Here are some of the thought-creatures that emerged in surprisingly vivid and sometimes amusing contours

as I first began focusing with more intensity on every toss.  Maybe some of them will seem familiar to you.

• First, there’s the Meticulous Instructor, the quintessential distracter because of the utter relevance of what he’s always talking about.  He’s got plenty of experience and lots of good ideas.  I trust his advice.  “Not too much backspin.  Don’t over correct.  Square it up.  Remember your follow through.  Lock on the target.  Visualize your trajectory.”  The problem is that while my Instructor is busy reviewing shot-making perfection, I can’t just toss.

• There’s the over-eager kid, full of vim and vigor―and performance anxiety.  “I hope my shot is on. 

          Okay, think positive, I just won’t mess up.  Here goes.”   With this attitude, no wonder the Kid strikes

          out swinging on three pitches to end the inning with the bases loaded, every time.

• Then there’s the Showoff, exhorting anyone within earshot to “get a load of this.”  He’s talented, and he knows it.  He’ll show us how it’s done.  “You want a hard eight, pal?  I’ll roll you a hard eight.”  How his head swells when I hit one of “his” shots.  Bravado may feel like it’s helping, but it’s a monumental distraction from where our focus needs to be.

• And there’s the Banker that Maddog mentioned.  He’s all business, and has only our best interests in mind.  “What about all that dough on the outside?  Maybe we should’ve pulled back before this shot.  But then, we could really use a nice win here―to make up for last night.”  As we all know, thinking about our wagering, or bankroll, or earlier sessions can be among the most difficult of distractions to overcome.

• Oops, let’s not forget mom and dad―or is it our spouse, or a teacher or some other “role model.”  Especially if we’re falling a little behind―there they are, arms folded, “Tsk, tsk!  Why do we waste our time like this?  Consorting with ne’er-do-wells, pursuing such nebulous dreams.  Surely, ruin is lying

          in wait.”

• Here’s a tricky one.  It’s taken a real effort to realize that even my thoughts about the mental game―and about expressing my thoughts about the mental game―are all just another clever gambit

          of my thinking mind, trying desperately to gain sway as I try instead to focus solely on shooting.  If

          you’ve ever thought about a trip or practice report while tossing, you know exactly what I mean.

• And the Obsessive Narcissist.  This chump seems to think the world revolves only around him; every little thing gets him totally bent.  From grim-faced dealers to the antics of other players, from the color and finish of the dice to the style of the music in the lounge; he’s so focused on finding something to make excuses about, he’s never comfortable.  Just try shooting with this guy hanging around your neck.

Uninvited thoughts.  The ”crap” between our ears.  It’s a bit of a paradox, but I found that my initial efforts to increase my focus just on shooting ended up increasing my awareness of the very kinds of thoughts and emotions I wanted to keep from intruding on my game.  It was that increased awareness, however, that seemed to eventually open the door to more relaxed and consistent shooting.  As I became more familiar

with my own resistance, it became manageable, and my shooting improved in ways I’d earlier only hoped for.

Inconsistent physical skill is the result we should expect if spurious thoughts and their emotional charge are allowed to steal the upper hand and muddy up the ecology of our DI mindset.  It’s especially true if we’re just so laissez-faire that we don’t even realize how they’re affecting our shooting.

Next time around, we’ll look at a number of things some shooters have reported helping them to achieve a quiet, shooter’s mind.  I’ll describe a method or two I’ve found helpful for jump-starting the process right at

the practice rig.  We’ll further consider how mental convergence leads to skill emergence.

In the meantime, if your dice game already has you hearing voices, don’t worry.  You might not really be losing your mind.  It may just be the storm before the calm.

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 Shooting From The Don’ts…A Journey of Opportunity - Part 11
by the Mad Professor

I made an informal pact with a group of players who frequent the small tribal casinos of Northern Michigan

and Wisconsin.  We agreed not to openly trumpet just how incredibly good the tables are in these known-only-to-a-few gaming-houses, if everyone in the group agrees to strictly keep their betting-levels within the

tight win-tolerance comfort-level confines that these Indian casinos operate under.

As such, I’ll keep the details about the outstanding playing-conditions in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin

to an absolute minimum, and instead focus on the technical aspects of how and why Darkside-shooting

can be incredibly lucrative with less effort and less actual “influence” to accomplish the same or better

profit-objectives than Rightside-shooting requires.

Your Source of Influence Is Also Your Source of Profit

At its most elemental source, dice-influencing is all about affecting the number of 7’s versus the number

of other non-7 outcomes that you produce. 

      Ø    The Rightside-shooter wants to produce less 7’s and more non-7 outcomes during his point-cycle;

             thereby putting his Do-side bets into positive-expectation territory.

Ø    On the flip-side, the Darkside-shooter wants to produce more 7’s and less of the other numbers

       during his point-cycle; thereby putting his Don’t-side wagers into positive-expectation territory.

The Darksider’s contrarian perspective actually has a pretty strong advantage-play rationale:

Ø     If you can influence the dice at all; then why not influence the one number that is already

       dominant over all the other possible outcomes?

Ø     The 7 is the only number that fits that requirement.

Ø     The 7 requires the least amount of influence to increase its appearance-rate the most. 

Ø     Again, no other single number fits that requirement better; so why not put it to work for you

       instead of continually fighting against it?

Darkside-shooting can be the quickest and most efficient route to consistent advantage-play profit.

Ø     It is far easier and much quicker to become proficient and profitable as a Darkside-shooter than

       it is to get everything right and steadily advantageous as a Rightsider.

Shooting FOR The Seven

As an advantage-player, you always have to be asking yourself, "Where will my betting-dollars do the most

good and provide the best return-on-investment?"

In many cases, especially for the modestly skilled dice-influencer, the answer invariably comes back to

Darkside-shooting. 

Ø     As a Rightsider, we try to broaden and increase our Sevens-to-Rolls Ratio (SRR) when

       we are shooting.

Ø     As a Darksider, we try to narrow and decrease our Sevens-to-Rolls Ratio (SRR).

Ø     As our Darkside SRR decreases, our chances of intentionally rolling a hand-winning 7-Out

       during the point-cycle, increases.

Ø     As a Rightsider, we use certain dice-sets to stave off the 7 during our point-cycle (post

       Come-Out) shooting.

Ø     Meanwhile, the Darksider usually uses a different dice-set that assists his effort to hasten

        the appearance of a 7-Out winner.

A dice-influencer who has already validated his level of Precision-Shooting skill as a Rightsider, can easily

transpose and convert that skill into Darkside shooting.

This equivalency chart shows how easily 7-avoidance is convertible into a 7-supportive scenario:

The skill that it takes to produce a Do-side SRR of 1:8 is exactly the same skill that it takes to produce a Don’t-side SRR of 1:4.

Let me express this another way:

Ø     If you have a Rightside point-cycle SRR of 1:8 and you still find it difficult to avoid the 7; imagine

       what it would be like if you took that exact same toss-dynamics influencing skill to intentionally

       produce more 7’s…to the tune of an average of nine 7’s per thirty-six outcomes. 

The upside is that the Don’t-sider only has to influence ONE number (the 7) to get to the honey-pot of profit, while the Do-sider with multiple bets on the layout usually has to influence several numbers and often has

to hit them multiple times just to break-even.

Take a look at how the number of 7’s increases as we use our dice-influencing skills to intentionally lower

our Sevens-to-Rolls Ratio:

While Rightsiders fear the point-cycle 7; Darksiders embrace it.  If you think the 7 has a dominance against

a random-roller at a per-roll expectancy of 16.67%; imagine the impact it would have if you converted your

Rightside SRR-8 shooting into a one-7-in-every-four-rolls (25%) SRR-4 Dark-betting juggernaut.

Ø     The Darkside possibilities of taking the random appearance-rate from six 7’s and increasing it

        by 50% to nine 7’s looks downright mouth-watering from an advantage-players perspective.

Ø     When a Precision-Shooter uses his dice-influencing skills to encourage and increase the

        occurrence-rate of the 7; he is taking an already dominant number and making it even better. 

To my mind, if you take the single strongest number on a pair of dice and add just a little bit of positive

influence to it; then you are working with the strongest bet on the table, bar none.

Roll-Duration Accretion-Rate

On the Rightside, our SRR-rate determines our per-roll probability of rolling a 7-out.  Even though our

roll-to-roll skill remains fairly constant, the ever-present 7 has a direct and over-riding effect on our

actual roll-duration. 

Ø     We measure the cumulative effect of the 7 as the roll-duration “decay-rate”. 

Ø     As Rightsiders, we can use that decay-rate to determine the optimal bet-reduction trigger point

       for regression-style wagering where we reduce our large initial bet down to a smaller one, thereby

       locking up a profit. 

Ø     Likewise as Darkside-shooters, our chances of throwing a 7-Out also INCREASES as our

        point-cycle roll progresses…and for us, that’s a good thing.  In this case, the decay-rate

        actually works in our favor, so the more we can help it along, the better.

Ø     As much as Rightsiders want to avoid the 7 during the point-cycle portion of their hand;

       Darksiders want to hasten and encourage it’s appearance. 

When viewed on a per-roll basis, the random-rolling SRR-6 shooter has a 16.67% chance of a 7 showing

up during any given single roll.  However, we also know that the domination of the 7 is such that long hands

are the exception rather than the rule.  That’s why long rolls are so darn memorable.

On a per-roll basis, the chance of a random 7 showing up remains locked in at exactly 16.67% on each

and every roll; however the CUMULATIVE roll-ending effect of such a dominant number means that for

each subsequent roll when it doesn’t show up…the chances of it showing up increases with each and

every subsequent toss after that during a given hand. 

This approach has nothing to do with due-number theory and everything to do with the math of the game,

the law of large-numbers, the cumulative probability of occurrence and the sheer power of one dominant

number over all of the other possible outcomes.

It takes very little influence to intentionally tip the 7 more in your favor…and in doing so we can derive all

kinds of profit from it.

Whether you like it or not, and regardless of your SRR-rate, your chances

of hitting a 7-Out increases with every subsequent point-cycle roll. 

Again, your per-roll chances of throwing a 7 is dictated by your Sevens-to-Rolls Ratio and that per-roll

number remains perfectly static; however the cumulative effect of a string of non-7 outcomes, means

that the accretive (accumulating) rate of a 7 occurring, significantly increases with every subsequent

non-7 outcome.

For example, if you graphed your point-cycle roll duration, you would see that the number of your hands

that last 3-rolls outnumber the ones that last 10-rolls, but the 10-roll hands far outpace the ones that last

30-rolls, however the 30-roll hands far outpace your point-cycle hands that last for 100-rolls.  That in a nutshell, is HOW the cumulative power of the over-riding 7 affects roll-duration regardless of your SRR-rate.

As a result, the Rightsiders who recognize how certain betting-methods can profitably harness the power of even the most modest dice-influencing skills despite the SRR-indicative roll-duration decay-rate (as

chronicled in the ongoing 18-part Regression Avoids Depression series) learn to profitably live with it;

while Do-siders who don’t recognize or harness it, continually moan about the disconnect between their

shooting-skill and their retained profit.

In that same vein, Darksiders who recognize and properly harness their dice-influencing proficiency love

how the cumulative accretion of expected 7’s turns the SRR-indicative roll-duration decay-rate into an

undisputable money-maker.

A Darkside dice-influencer simply forces that already-dominant number to become

EVEN MORE DOMINANT; and as a consequence, profitably exploitable 7-Out

results follow.

So instead of negatively looking at this as a roll-duration “decay-rate” as is done on the Rightside; we as Darksiders, more appropriately look at our intentional sub-random performance as an “accretion-rate”

where our chances of rolling a 7-Out during the point-cycle mathematically accumulates on each

subsequent non-7 outcome.

Again, the per-roll chances of rolling a 7 is indicated by our SRR-rate, and that percentage-of-occurrence stays steady

on any given roll that you make.  However, the totality of a 7-Out is measurable over the entire expected duration of a dice-influenced hand and as you’ll see in a moment, that number is FAR from static.

Take a look at the already validated accumulative effect that the 7 has on a random shooters roll-duration

and compare it to how the 7’s appearance rate is incrementally accelerated by even the most modest of positive dice-influencing inducement: