For the savvy advantage-player, creating more shooting opportunities is almost as important as maximizing each profit opportunity every time you pick up the dice.

The two go hand in hand. 

The better you get at this dice-influencing craft, the more often you’ll want to shoot the dice, and with each new turn, you’ll want to squeeze out maximum profitability.

As we discussed in Parts Two and Three of this series, playing at a higher-denomination table can hold quite a bit of merit if you are mentally and financially prepared. 

If You’re Good Enough…Then Invest In YOURSELF

Sooner or later, a skilled shooter asks himself:

If my shooting is good enough to make money during my own hands on a five-buck table, yet I lose back all or most of it on random-rollers while waiting for the dice to circulate around; then wouldn’t that same money be better spent strictly betting on MY OWN shooting at the fifteen-buck table?

If your dice-influencing is good enough to make sustainable money off of your own shooting; then it makes sense to invest more in yourself while concurrently avoiding as many non-advantage wagers as possible. 

If that means moving up to the higher-denomination tables in order to force yourself to give up as much random-roller betting as possible; then for the adequately bankrolled player it can make enormous sense…as well as enormous profit.

Your validated skills, your disciplined judgment and your tailored-to-bankroll bet-levels are the tools that let you earn what your talents deserve, WITHOUT putting you and your money at undue risk.

If your validated skills justify it, then it is your obligation and your responsibility to invest in yourself.  Equally, one of your primary tasks as a Precision-Shooter, is to reduce all of your NON-advantage wagering down to an absolute minimum.

Put Your Money Where Your Advantage Is

Here’s why frequent shooting for the talented dice-influencer makes so much sense:

Ø       Avoiding tables that are full of random-rollers, means that the skilled player will get to throw the dice more often.

Ø       The more a skilled player avoids betting on random-rollers, the less exposure he has to the house-edge and bankroll-shredding volatility of the random game. 

Ø       Since his bankroll is still intact from RR-avoidance, the talented dicesetter remains in a better position to take advantage of and to bet assertively into his own good rolls.

Ø       It also means that the Precision-Shooter is more than likely to be the one who generates the medium-to-HOT rolls in the first place, and because he knows his shooting-skills most intimately; he is more likely to clue into a superior betting-opportunity when it does come along. 

Ø       Equally, because he is shooting more often, he’s likely to realize much sooner whether or not his current shooting is zoned in and whether it is good enough to even warrant being at the higher-priced table in the first place.

Ø       Since he hasn’t wasted his money on random-losing bets, he is almost always in better financial shape to take advantage of his own sharp shooting.

Dealing With High-Ticket Anxiety

Many skilled players have the ability, aptitude and capability to unleash their considerable Precision-Shooting talents on pretty much any table they walk up to.  Now that doesn’t mean that they’ll win every time they pick up the dice, but it does mean that they’ll win more than they lose at most sessions and they have the good sense to retain the lion’s share of their self-made profit instead of pissing it away on non-qualified rollers. 

However, just because they have the ability, aptitude and capability to unleash their considerable Precision-Shooting talents on pretty much any table they walk up to; it doesn’t mean that they have the courage or nerve to actually do it at high-priced ones.

Many players start to feel nervous, uneasy and overly anxious when they encounter a higher-priced table.  They are in their comfort-zone at the $5 table, and though they might sometimes play at a $10 one if the joint is full and it’s the only game in town; their blood-pressure and stress-pressure rises to a level where it definitely starts to affect their shooting skill.

If they try to play at an even higher-ticket $15 or $25 table; then it puts so much apprehensive tension on their bankroll and hesitant anxiety on their shooting, that any possible benefits that they could or should have derived from shooting the dice more often or eliminating most of the random-roller betting that they’d normally do at a lower-priced table; unfortunately is more than offset by their nervous uneasiness and dreadful fear due to being at the big dogs table. 

For that player, a higher-priced table is not the answer until they get the mental and financial aspects of their game under as much control as their low-cost shooting.   They understand that their shooting-skill is one thing, but their tolerance for risk is something completely different.  That is perfectly understandable, and of course it is perfectly acceptable for them to continue playing at lower-priced tables until they are better prepared to step it up a notch or two.

If playing at a $15, $25, $50, $100 or $500 table makes you more uncomfortable than you can reasonably deal with, or it disturbs your shooting consistency more than you can reasonably control, then DO NOT do it.

I have absolutely no problem telling you that I do not feel comfortable playing at the $500 tables that I occasionally run into during some holiday weekends in Atlantic City…so I simply do not play at them.  If my shooting isn’t already zoned in (as verified on a cheaper table); then you are NOT going to be seeing me at a $50 or $100 table either.

My ego doesn’t feel humiliated because I won’t play at the Five-C level…my manhood isn’t called in to jeopardy…nor do I feel inferior just because I’m not relaxed enough to make “half-a-G-rock” bets (see MP’s Dictionary for other non-traditional casino jargon) at expensive layouts like that.  I only bet where I am comfortable and only at levels I am comfortable with.   I would strongly urge you to do the same.

Bankroll Limitations

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it again anyway…

An adequately-financed bankroll is crucial to your dice-influencing longevity and success.

If your casino-bankroll is under-funded, then there is no way you should be considering playing at the more expensive layouts.  In fact, just the opposite…you should stay away from the casinos entirely until you have accumulated enough money to comfortably fund your wagering activities regardless of what level you normally play at. 

That also means that you have to play with money that is yours and is discretionary.  You can’t be playing with mortgage money or car-payment money, or money that you’ve borrowed on your credit cards or any other nonsense like that.  It means that you have to play well WITHIN your financial means and NOT against future hoped-for earnings.  

The only thing scared money makes, is lost money.

There are some excellent articles on this site which discuss bankroll requirements that are tied to the level of betting that you do. I would strongly urge you to study them carefully and consider them in the soberest of deliberations before you even consider stepping up to a higher bet-minimum table.

Further, like I said a moment ago, you have to have a validated and consistent advantage over the house for this approach to reliably work. 

If you aren’t making steady money off of your own shooting at the lower-priced tables …then you certainly aren’t going to be making money at the more expensive ones either. 

Simply throwing money at the problem is not the solution.  Get good at dice-influencing, THEN consider moving up to a higher snack-bracket.   Until then, keep the cost of your mistakes as small as possible.

However, if you ARE making steady money off of your own shooting, yet pissing it away through impatience as you wait for the dice to make another lap around the table; then perhaps you might consider raising the sperm-count on your own bets (while concurrently cutting way back on your random-wagers) and moving over to the higher-priced layouts.

Clearly, if we want to control our random-roller betting, we have to control our patience, anxiety and frustration while waiting for the dice to leisurely wend their way back to us. 

Ø       Lower-population, higher-minimum tables help that along by making the pain of random-roller losses more evident…faster. 

Ø       At a high-buck table, your bankroll cannot sustain very many random-losses and that’s the way it should be. 

Ø       Your money is there to fuel advantage-play bets…NOT to fertilize and supplement the casinos bottom-line.

By moving up to a lower-population, higher-denomination table; your actual money-making capability is substantially boosted by making your advantage-play bets more efficient through more frequent shooting opportunities, while at the same time putting you in a self-imposed situation where you are forced to constrain your bets on pretty well every other random-shooter. 

Putting such severe self-imposed and self-restricted controls on you and your bankroll like that may sound drastic, but when you add up all the money that you’ve been losing to random-rollers and redeploy even a small portion of it onto your own verified advantage-plays; then it makes absolute sense…and for the newly-disciplined Precision-Shooter, it makes absolute PROFIT too.

Do you see that dead horse over there?  Do you see this whip in my hand…

If You Can Afford ANY Random-Bets, Then You Can Afford MORE Advantage-Bets on Yourself

Shooting at high-priced (high minimum-bet) tables is one aspect of dice-influencing that most players have an ongoing concern about.  

In many cases, it dissuades a lot of guys from playing.  They’d rather squeeze into an overcrowded $5 table than to be one of three or four players at the $15 or $25 layout.  

Again, I want to remind you that it is critically important that you are sufficiently bankrolled before you step up to ANY gaming table, and you shouldn’t even be in a casino if you can’t afford to properly bankroll your wagers without undue fear or trepidation.

If you can afford to be in a casino and you can properly finance your wagers; then ask yourself: 

Ø       How much is it costing me in random-roller losses and self-created frustration to camp out at the five-buck layout versus how much I WOULDN’T be spending on ANY random-rollers if I were at the thinly populated $15 table?

Ø       Now compare that to how much you could make on your own good shooting in the same amount of time at the low-population $15 or $25 table instead of waiting for the dice to cycle back around at the cheaper but crowded $5 layout.

Like I said before, you have to have a discernable edge on the bets you are making at ANY table (regardless of the price) in order to generate a sustainable income from this game, but the question becomes one of:

Ø       Can I make more money on my own shooting by getting the dice in my hands more often at the $15 or $25 table than I’ll waste on all the random-bets that I make at the $5 one?

In the upcoming How To GET It and How To KEEP It – Part 12, we look at how the cumulative amount of randomly-bet money that even one lightly wagered lap around the table can cost, versus the comparatively puny amount of money that most players actually bet on their own strictly-adhered-to advantage-bets.

As I mentioned previously, even the most talented of shooters are surprised to discover that they are often betting more cumulative money on random-rollers than they are betting on themselves.  It’s the CUMULATIVE amount of R-R bets that will often outpace your own advantage-play wagers by a wide margin, even though the individual bets that you make on any one random-roller may be considerably less than your average bet on yourself. 

It’s often THE TOTALITY of your random-bets that play havoc with even the best dice-influencers among us.

If you don’t know the total amount of money that you are betting on random-rollers during just one session, then you are doing yourself (and obviously your retainable-profit) a HUGE disservice.

Reducing your overall random-bets reduces your overall risk.

Increasing your advantage-play bets increases overall profit.

If you can afford to make ANY random-roller bets while you are at the table then you can afford to make MORE advantage-bets on yourself.

Does Your Shooting IMPROVE As The Bet-Min Increases?

Let me ask you this: 

v      Are your senses and shooting-skills more highly tuned when you play at a higher-minimum table?

v      Is it easier to GET focused and STAY focused when you have more money on the line?

v      Does your dice-shooting actually improve as you climb the bet-minimum ladder?

For most skilled and accomplished Precision-Shooters, the answer to that question is a resounding, YES!

When you have more money on the table at the beginning of your roll, it does tends to sharpen your focus, increase your mental intensity and awareness, as well as ramping up your physical acuity and dice-handling deftness.

I first experienced this phenomenon when I started using Steep Regressions as a way to lock up an early profit. Having a larger amount of money on the layout brought a greater sense of immediacy to EACH and EVERY roll of the dice that hadn't been there when I used the more traditional "hit-three-or-four-paying-numbers-before-reaching-profitability" approach.

Now, having said all of that, I want to quickly add that stepping up your bets BEFORE you step up your dice-shooting skills is a recipe for disaster!

I still advise everyone to perfect their game and validate their Precision-Shooting skills and their Precision-BETTING methods on the CHEAPEST table possible BEFORE moving up to the next snack-bracket. It will keep your losses to a minimum, and your frustrations to their barest.

It is also essential that your discipline be well enough developed to prevent a major bankroll meltdown from happening.

If you think it's easy to lose a couple of hundred bucks on a cheap table; just wait until you see how it can INSTANTLY VAPORIZE much larger bankrolls on a high-ticket layout!

However, if you find that your focus is more intent, that the freshness of each new roll is exactly as first-class as you want it to be, and that your on-axis, primary-face outcomes arrive a little more frequently; then you have to consider how the psychology of playing at a higher-denomination table is actually HELPING your game as well as your profitability.

Sometimes you have to force yourself to overcome your discipline woes:

Ø       If you are more cautious at higher-min tables, especially when it comes to betting on R-R’s, then making it PROHIBITIVELY expensive to bet on them (until your bankroll forces you to wean yourself off of as much R-R betting as humanly possible); then it makes absolute sense to move up to a more expensive table…especially if your own Precision-Shooting currently justifies it too.

Remember if you aren’t betting with an advantage over the house, then the house has the advantage over you. 

You’ve worked so hard to gain your dice-influencing edge, so why would you voluntarily give it right back by making unnecessary negative-expectation wagers on unqualified random-rollers? 

Heck, how big of an edge do you think you have over the casino? 

Is it so big that you can afford to surrender most or all of it back to them and STILL come out ahead?  You must be one hell of a shooter if you can do that. 

Be honest with yourself.

Are you playing this game to enrich the casino or to enrich yourself?

If you are in this game to make money for yourself, and not improve the bottom-line of all the casino-corporations; then you have to play and bet like you actually mean it. 

Ø       If that means you have to force yourself into situations where no one in their right mind would be betting on random-rollers because the base-bet is prohibitively expensive, and if that’s the only way of breaking yourself of that nasty R-R habit, and your own shooting is good enough to justify playing at a more expensive table…THEN DO IT.

Obviously I understand that most players won’t even believe that this could work…much less subscribe to the idea, but let me tell you this:

Ø       Those players are the same ones that will piss and moan and squawk about how hard it is to resist the urge to bet on random-rollers and how much it costs them as they wait for the dice to cycle around the table…and how crowded the cheap tables are…but they won’t do anything about it, and they won’t redeploy any of their I’ve-got-gamble R-R money as a self-invested positive-expectation undertaking into their own talents.  

It’s no wonder so many good-enough-to-be-great dice-influencers fade into bankrupt oblivion.   It wasn’t their shooting that led them there…it was their betting.

It doesn’t take courage to keep doing the same old thing and getting the same old losing results and hoping all the while for better outcomes…it takes stupidity. 

That may sound like a John Patrick rant, but the sad truth is that most aspiring Precision-Shooters could make sustainable profit if they laid off all of their random-wagering and only put their money on bets where they had developed a validated substantial edge over the house. 
 

Will most good-enough-to-be-great dice-influencers do that? 

Hell no, but you don’t have to be one of them!

Ø       If you can positively influence the dice, then invest in yourself.  Put your money where your advantage is.

Ø       If your shooting is good enough to make money on your own hands on a $5 table, but you lose back most of it to random-rollers; then taking a portion of your bankroll that you would normally waste on R-R’s and putting that same money on your own shooting at a more expensive table will usually produce less frustration and better results.

Ø       Take a close hard look at the cumulative amount of your R-R bets to determine whether they are equal to or greater than your own advantage-play wagers (even though the individual bets that you make on any one random-roller may be considerably less than the average bet you make on yourself). 

Ø       When you add up all the money that you’ve been losing to random-rollers and redeploy even a small portion of it onto your own verified advantage-plays; then it makes absolute sense…and for the newly-disciplined Precision-Shooter, it makes absolute PROFIT too.

Ø       Remember…if you can afford to make ANY random-roller bets while you are at the table then you can afford to make MORE advantage-bets on yourself.

Good Luck & Good Skill at the tables…and in Life.

The Mad Professor

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