Dice Setter Precision Shooter's Newsletter

For those of you who spend a good deal of time on the web surfing the various craps web sites and forums, you've  probably noticed the ebb and flow of traffic.  Some days and weeks it seems very busy and at other times it seems as if no one is on the web.  This is especially true during the summer.  Even for the hard core player, warm weather and longer days provide an opportunity to participate in other non-gambling interests.  So, if it seems to you that the forums have been "slow" for the past few weeks, don't worry, as soon as Labor Day has come and gone, you should see a huge upswing in activity on all the message boards.

Despite a lull in web traffic in July (if you can call 10,000 visitors, a lull), this past month saw a HUGE jump in the number of subscribers to the Precision Shooter Newsletter.  So, a special thanks for those of you who are spreading the word about dicesetter.com and the newsletter.

Get Shorty!

I had heard rumors, but until I saw it for myself, I couldn't believe it.  

There I was at the Sundowner casino in Reno, late at night.   It's 1:00 am and the stick person announces, "There will be a short delay in the game, so that we can set up the table for a single dealer."     What happened next is a dice influencers dream.  The dealer inserted a piece of plywood with pyramid rubber glued to it across the table, turning an ordinary 12 foot table into an eight foot table.   The dealer/stickman took up position directly across from me.   Standing at what was formerly first position left of stick, I now have a throwing distance of about four feet!

In all honesty, I could not convert that short throwing distance into a monster hand.  BUT, believe me, the next time I'm in Reno, I'll be back at the Sundowner at 1:00 am, and I'll have PRACTICED from four feet away!

Your Practice Routine
A roundtable with roadrunner, Heavy, Pablo, Just Mike F and Dylanfreak

So what is YOUR routine? How often do you practice? For how long? Any "special" preparations?

Roadrunner

Since I play almost daily I do not have a daily practice routine. I do warm up usually before going to the casino. When I do go to the practice table I make sure I have a green die and a red die in hand.

I generally start by doing a few warm up tosses and see where things are. After about 20 + tosses using a hardways or straight 6's I will go into a 120 toss routine.

I make sure the radio is on, the compressor is on to start up at random and the door is open for dogs or folks to walk in at random. I record each roll and the pips on each die (green and red). I always place the green die on the inside, closest to the rail. After I have completed the 120 toss exercise I go to the computer and enter the results for each toss on a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet totals what the outcomes are for each die as well as the combinations. By analyzing the outcome I can get a feel as to how progress is doing.

I do not play a simulated game. I toss the same set for 120 tosses and analyze the result for that set.

Heavy

My routine is a lot like Roadrunners. I have a 6' practice table - and have a table top "shooting station" that I can move out to various distances. Typically I shoot from around 8 feet - closely approximating a next to stick position.

When I'm on a tight schedule I do 108 tosses a day. That's 3 sets of 36 tosses. I typically practice with three different pre-sets: The Crossed Sixes, The V-3's, and the V-2's. With the X6's I'm tracking for fives, nines, and horn numbers. With the V-3's I'm tracking for sixes and eights. With the V-2's I'm tracking for fours and tens. Occasionally I'll add a fourth set of 36 tosses - pre-setting FOR the seven - usually with the All Sevens set with the 6-1 6-1 on the sides.

I'll step up my practice routine a few days before a trip - increasing it to 120 tosses per pre-set, much the same as Roadrunner's regular routine.

Before heading down to the casino to play I'll usually pull the drawer out of the night stand in the room, set it up on the dresser, move over to the in-room table and use it as a launch pad to toss a few into the drawer. I'll line the drawer with a towel to keep the dice from bouncing out. This is not really to track numbers - it's done to get the swing "grooved" in a bit - and to burn off a little of that excess energy we have to deal with when approaching the tables for the first session of a trip.

I don't use red/green mixed dice UNLESS I have a specific problem I'm trying to diagnose. I do not suffer from the opinion that dice behave that differently simply because of color - although I believe there IS some difference. But I prefer to toss with a matched pair of dice cut from the same slab of acrylic. I want dice form the same lot, and with the same serial number if possible. I DO believe that dice from different LOTS are different - REGARDLESS of their color.

Anyway, that's about it for me. My max practice session is around 360 tosses. Any more than that and I just don't feel sharp - and I'm a believer in that old saying about practice making perfect. Actually, they say Perfect practice makes perfect. Practice it WRONG and all you've got is a bad habit.

Pablo

I believe that practice, both the physical and mental, are necessary to progress down the path to becoming a great precision shooter.

I practice every day, for at least 20-30 minutes. I track ALL of my throws. I do not do any warm up tosses since they don't allow me to warm up in the casino.

I have a set pattern for setting the dice, griping them, mental picture, etc. Just like the golfer and bowler go through a pre-set routine, I believe that it is important for me to do the same.

I use a green die and a red die, and depending on the results will attempt to determine why such and such happens, and make slight adjustments What is really bothersome to me is when you toss the dice and EVERYTHING felt just perfect, they land perfect and you just know you’ve made the perfect toss … and you check the dice and find a 3 and a 4 staring at you!

I attempt to make corrections but try to make my practice session as close to a casino session as possible. If things are going bad I quit and try later, just like I would in a casino environment.

JustMikeF

I don't get to practice as much as the rest of you . I'm out of town a lot. When I do, I'm mainly concerned with what went right at my last casino sessions. I add this to what went right at previous casino ventures. I then attempt, in practice, to duplicate the experience. If I can, I have another bullet in my arsenal. For instance, if I were throwing a set that resulted in nothing but twelves, aces, and threes with an occasional eleven for about twenty rolls of the dice, I would surely want to know if I could do this at will or whether it was just a fluke.

If I was having a particularly long roll of numbers in the casino, I mentally record it at the time. The stance, the set, the type of dice, position at the table, humidity, hot or cold temp., where the landing zone was, etc. I surely would want to duplicate that at will.

I remember a session that everybody was throwing fours or tens on the comeout, including me. Two or three tosses later they would seven out. It surely was suspicious. I set sixes on top w/twos facing me. A string of six eights broke the ice and the table warmed up rapidly.  I did the same set in practice and sure enough I tossed a lot of sixes and eights. Another bullet I could use.

Dylanfreak

I practice about five times a week. Since I have been using two grips when shooting in the casinos , I try to toss the dice in practice 36 times each day using each of the two grips (72 tosses) using the same set. I toss them from 8 ft using the two finger pincher grip which I use in casinos from SR1 or SR2. I toss them from 12 ft using the diagonal grip which I use when I toss from the end of the table. I don't have a practice table but toss them into an open-end box. I know this won`t be exactly how the dice will react when they land on a real casino table, but I work on grip ,trajectory, attitude and focus. After I log 540 tosses , I total up the numbers thrown and the number of times the dice were off axis and record them and compare with other sets and grips that I have used in the past. It may not be the perfect way but it keeps me mentally and physically aware of the mission when going to the casino---to win money

A November To Remember