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Maddog's
Journey -
Part IV
To subscribe (it's free), send an email to
dicesetter@aweber.com with
"subscribe" as the subject.) Part 4: The Puppys First Hunt
Have
you ever seen that show COPS. You
know how it starts out with This program contains graphic contents. Viewer discretion advised. Then it goes into that well known theme song;
Bad boys, Bad boys, whatcha gonna do
Well,
thats your warning for this issue of the Maddogs Journey. The contents are not pretty, so viewer discretion
is advised. If you have a weak stomach you
may wish to skip this report and go onto the next article.
On the other hand, if you are one of those folks who cant seem to look
away from a train wreak
well, read on.
Here
I was with my nice cardboard box practice rig. Id
gotten the felt wrapped board into the bottom to keep the used casino dice from tearing up
the box bottom. I was practicing when I
could. Id guess I was practicing one or
twice a week. Id practice whenever I
didnt have anything else going on. Id
say I was into the practicing for about 2 months then and I was recording enough
difference in the occurrence of the 7 that I felt comfortable with continuing. Enough difference to say Hey, maybe this can
work. (I wasnt practicing enough, but well come to that.)
It
seemed like I was tossing consistently. The
four fingered top grip (BTW, why isnt this just called the 3 fingered grip and
assume the thumb?) felt pretty comfortable and it seemed like I was getting pretty good at
gripping the dice consistently each time. (I really wasnt, but well come to
that.)
Oh,
sure, the toss results were still a bit sporadic. I
still had dice dancing all around my practice box. Sometimes
the dice would hit the back of the box hard enough to roll back out the front. There were quite a few occurrences of the dice
kicking left or right and hitting against the side walls of the box. Sometimes the dice would get stuck in one of the
box corners. I guess thats one of the
idiosyncrasies of a square cornered practice box. But,
still, I was getting used to tossing into the box and building up some muscle
memory. From the simple check-mark
tracking I was doing I was gaining confidence. The results were showing that I was getting
a slightly different result from the expectations tables. I felt like it was all good.
Yeah, making progress. (I actually had a long way to go, but well come to that.)
The
things that I was reading on dicesetter.com
were making sense to me. Based on the many
posts and articles it looked like I was heading in the right direction with my practice
and results. Id read somewhere that I
needed to read the material till I puked and then read it some more. (Famous
words from Grits or Golfer?) Id read several articles and I guess I felt like
puking. Least wise everything was starting to sound the same so I figured Id gotten
the gist of what there was to read. (I might have gotten the general picture, but I
hadnt really pulled out the gold nuggets of info yet
oh yea, but well
come to that.)
I
had moved from the hardways set that I had been practicing with based on
SSs book, and had switched to using the 3V (Hard-six Flying V) pre-set. When you study the available craps bets,
youll find that the 6 and 8 offer low vig, very similar to a straight Pass Line bet. And when bet as a pair, they offer 10 ways of
hitting (5 ways each for the 6 & 8) vs the 6 ways of hitting the 7, so that seems like
a smart bet. The 3V is supposed to be the
best pre-set for hitting sixes and eights and so everything seemed to come together as a
sweet little strategy. The next chance I had
to head to the casino; I had a Plan. That
plan was to use the 3V and to bet $12 each on six and eight, take one hit and regress,
then press every other hit from there. One
hit would pay $14, Id regress to $6 each on the six and eight for $12 on the table. One hit and an automatic $2 win, with more to
come. The plan was so perfect in its simplicity. How
could I lose? (There are a lot of assumptions
in that paragraph! Right, well come to that in a few seconds.)
Well
I finally got a opportunity for a day trip to the casino.
An chance to give this whole Dice Influencing thing a try. This puppy was pretty excited about the
hunt and to be honest I was also a bit nervous. But all in all I was looking forward to a chance to
give it a shot.
Took
a bankroll of about 600 bucks and figured Id split it into two sessions.
Well,
I said this was going to be an ugly story, but now that Im here, I dont really
want to relive the horrid details of that outing. Instead
of a blow-by-blow account, how about if I give ya just a couple of highlights (err,
lowlights). See if youve experienced
any of these
~
Get to the table and hands a bit shaky. Cant
seem to get the dice into the sets as fast as I thought I could. Seems to take forever to fumble the dice into
position and it feels like youre on trial for some crime with the judge and jury
staring at your every move. A couple of times
it seemed like the dice had some pips missing, cuz I couldnt ever find the numbers I
was after. A few times Id get so
frustrated trying to find the set that Id just picked em up and huck em, too nervous
to even toss them correctly. Every toss was
rushed and either tossed so hard the dice come banging off the back wall or over
compensating and tossing so soft as to not get the dice to roll out past the pass line.
~
How can you lose with the simple 6&8 strategy? Easy,
never hit the six or the eight. Roll a 5 and
a 4 and a 5 and a 3 and a 9 and a 7-out.
~
Damn, cant hit the six or eight; lets go back to the old betting strategy of
$20 outside. Oh nice, now I need 2 or 3 hits
to get covered. Pressing? Ok, now you need 5 or 6 hits to get paid. Oh look, here comes the sixes and eights.
~
Damn, getting low on ammo. Lets re-buy
for a couple o Benjamins.
~
Point seven. Point seven. Come on, we can do this! Point seven.
(seems the records stuck). Ok, Im broke, lets take a break.
~
Ready to go for the second session. Cant
buy in on a hundred, where is that ATM machine?
~
More of the same until, Where did all my money go? Gotta give this one more shot and really focus
this time, but first, where is that ATM machine?
Melt-down. Blow-out. Wipe-out.
Bankrupt. Idiot. Call it what you like, all the terms fit, and I
deserved to hear them all.
I
had practiced a bit and I thought I had the thing figured out. But that first session was a disaster. The nerves hit, the conditions werent the
same as Id expected, and certainly the results didnt turn out as planned. I wasnt prepared to fall short of my
daydream and wasnt mature enough to realize it wasnt working and to stop the
train. I kept thinking I would turn it around
on the next hand. The result was Bankroll
blow-out. Never posted that trip report. It was far too embarrassing to write up. Now that Ive put some distance between that
experience and today, Im a bit more comfortable about letting it out. SIDEBAR Heres an idea. Approach your next outing with the intention to write a trip report. It is interesting how feeling responsible to report back, even to a group of complete strangers, enhances your awareness and focus on the game. Even if you dont actually write a trip report when you get back (but, please do cause I love reading them) you will find a heightened attentiveness of your tossing and somewhat increased concentration on your game.
After
that session fiasco, I was at the proverbial Fork in the road. I had to decide that either This
doesnt work or I gotta try harder.
I dont accept failure very easily, so I decided to take the road of trying
harder. I wanted to really give this a shot,
and I was going to really give it a shot. I was going to work harder, study harder and learn
more, and practice harder with the intention of becoming a perfect tosser.
I
said we'd get back to some of those assumptions I was making. Lets take a look at a few of them.
~
Assuming once or twice a week is enough practice. It
might be enough if Id been doing this for several years, but I was just starting
out. It just wasnt enough to really
develop the skills needed to be consistent.
~
Assuming that better then Chicken Feeder consistency was precision shooter
consistency. Seeing an improvement in SRR is
a good sign, but alone, it falls short of indicating how you can perform at the table. I wasnt really tracking my results to know
what numbers I should be throwing and betting. Even
with an SRR of 8,9, or 15, a Dice Influencer can still walk away from the table a loser if
s/he doesnt correctly bet the action.
~
Assuming its natural for the dice to jump about a bit. Dice popping left or right. Dice crossing each other. Dice bouncing out of the box. All these are RED flags. When I first looked at Yuris book and saw
the picture with the pile of dice in a tight group, I figured he must have just put them
there for the picture. No way could he toss
them all into a tight pile like that. Ive
learned I was WRONG. With proper practice and training; we can get tight dice landings and
groupings. In fact, we need to be able to
land the dice, keep them together and have them end up within an inch or so of each other.
~
Assuming most articles, books, and posts contain the same information. Im going to follow up on this topic a bunch
in an upcoming article. There is so much
material provided for us that it can become overwhelming.
Sometimes we might read an article with some really good information. We think yeah that is correct and makes a bunch of
sense. Then, in the heat of battle, forget
all about the good instruction and advice, falling back to old habits. Go back and re-read the article again and realize
oh, yes. That is exactly what happened. Suddenly
the information takes on new life and meaning. As
experience is gained over time, the articles begin to make more and more sense and provide
fresh enlightenment. The information is meant
to be read and re-read, over and over. It is
certainly one thing to read the information and something else altogether to
learn and incorporate the information.
~
Assuming any bet is a sure thing. How many of
you read betting strategies that say after the first hit
on the next hit press
the
the next hit
and subconsciously are reading after the next
TOSS
on the next TOSS
the next TOSS
Oh, sure, intellectually we all know and understand the difference between a
HIT and a TOSS. But I
gotta say it came as something of a shock that I could throw so many tosses with out a
hit. I dont know why I was surprised. Before I began attempting to influence the dice,
Id seen many a bet lose without hitting. I
guess for some reason I thought precision shooting was automatic and I would surely get at
least one hit before a seven. Since
that time Ive matured my perspective and realize that Dice Influencing is just that
Influencing and not Controlling.
Ya still gotta watch out and be prepared for Mr. Pitchfork.
Well,
like a young pup out on its first hunt, the Maddog needed to get his nose thumped a few
times to settle him down and get him focused on business.
Even though that first foray occurred nearly a year ago, I still remember it
like a zap with a cattle prod. I like to
think Ive learned a few things since then and have worked hard to improve. Once I decided that I wanted to really do this,
not just play at doing it, I made some changes to both my approach to Dice Influencing and
to how I approach the good ole game of craps. Well
talk about some of those things in part five of the Maddogs journey.
Until
next time, keep
your toss straight and your rack full.
Maddog |
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