jc

I am just curious on how some of your precision shooters throw. I am just a novice so I just want to see how you "pros" do it.

Do you throw underhand or overhand?

Do you throw forehand or backhand?

do you grip the dice as tight as you can or as lightly as you can?

do you grip it with the very tip of your fingertips, your fingernails, or do you try to cover a lot of surface area of the dice?

do you just use one joint of your arm to throw? For instance, do you keep your entire arm stiff and just use your shoulder to throw? Or do you use every joint in your arm to make a whip like effect on your arm to throw?

do you just use your arm or do you use whole body as well?

Well, thanks in advance for answering.

The Man In Black

Stance, grip, arm motion, and all other aspects of throwing are, to me anyway, a personal choice. Whatever is most ocmfortable for you is the best way to go in my opinion.

However, there is the main important variable that must remain constant - the dice must stay on axis. Using certain sets will minimize the 7's appearance, but won't be worth a 2 cent whore if you can't keep the dice on axis. It is difficult, but constant practice will get you proficient, and how long it takes will depend on you. If you are willing and serious enough to devote time to this, build a practice table and get started as soon as possible.

May the dice be with you, always...

Ray

I'm practicing and have never set dice at a live table before, so it is very new to me except for the instruction I've received from posters at this site and, most importantly, from the book you can purchase from the books section at this site: Dice Control for Casino Craps: Gambling Disciples of God, by Yuri. In my last two practice sessions I've started using an unorthodox grip that is giving me better control over the dice even though it should not. So, the moral of the story is get Yuri's book, go through the pain of figuring out what you are doing right and wrong and why, and practice. I've about half decided to jump into that Vegas class since it's only two more days more than I have already booked for a trip to Vegas that week. If you're serious about learning this stuff, it's probably worth its weight if chips.

jc

Well, I was actually curious about the playing styles, not really trying to copy someone's throwing. I too have been practicing for a couple of months now. Before all this, my friend and I have gained a little knowledge about precision shooting from Jerry Patterson's book. With that little knowledge, we set the dice on a live table a few months back. Even though we weren't precision shooting, we did do rather well going into 30+ minute rolls a couple of times. That was the time before we started seriously practicing. And we thought, at that time (at least I did), precision shooting was rather easy. Of course, after a month or so on the practice tables, our SRRs sucked. But we're still wondering how we did so well on the live tables. Maybe we were just throwing rhythmically or were just lucky. Anyway, we're still practicing trying to keep our dice on axis and bring our SRRs up. And as I mentioned before, I was just curious on other people's playing styles. And from those, I was hoping if I could pick something useful from those.

Ray

JC: Wow, I think probably everyone that gives dicesetting any credit can tell the same story you told about phenomenal first results followed inexplicable failures. I just got my mind opened up to a possible explanation tonight after reading through part of a book titled THE INNER GAME OF TENNIS, by W. Timothy Gallwey. Although the book is directed at tennis, the inner game it teaches is applicable to any game, and it shows that whenever we judge our throws as good or bad, we involve ourselves in rationalizing our game to death instead of just seeing it as it is and naturally improving it without clouding our minds. I read the book's stories demonstrating how we screw up mentally and it shocked me that I had been using my mind without a driver's license, so to speak, but even that is a useless rationalization. I practiced card counting tonight after becoming aware of the self-debilitating problem, and my ability to just know the count without subvocalizing it improved immediately, and I refuse to pat my back because that is just as cloudy as negative self-talk. Your previous 30+ minute sessions show that you naturally know how to handle the dice, and you may want to buy the above book or its sister book about golf so that you can learn how to reliably stay in touch with your natural ability to learn and throw. I had already booked a trip for Vegas on March 25th through the 29th, but I'm going to stretch it out a few days earlier so that I can catch that dice setting class. You might consider getting into the class if you can swing it.

Click Here to Go Back to the Message Board Archive Table of Contents