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How To Get It, and How To Keep It Can
You Be At The Top Of Your Game And STILL have Bad Sessions? Abso-friggin-lutely! In
fact, its an immutable truth that even when you are at the top of your
Precision-Shooting game, youll still have bad sessions and sometimes even bad days. Even
the best of the best have bad days
but it's what you do and how
you handle them that determines whether it turns out to be merely disappointing
in terms of profit-production or whether it turns into an ego-bruising blowout
where you and your bankroll does a China Syndrome meltdown through the Moho Discontinuity
into the molten guys-FORMERLY-known-as-skilled-dicesetters core. There
are countless dicesetters who had the talent, but lacked the discipline. They
were able to keep the dice on-axis like it was nobodys business, yet they
couldnt control their betting enough to keep the profit that their
dice-skills generated. Do
you notice that Im using the past tense in describing them? Many
extremely skilled shooters are no longer playing the game because they couldnt control
their bets as well as well as they could control the dice. Its
a sad but true fact that your good shooting results will only bail your bad-betting ass
out of trouble so many times before the gradual but steady bankroll erosion overcomes even
your best dice-influencing abilities. If
your bets arent geared to your current skill, then theres a high likelihood
that your efforts will fail like so many who have come before you
but it doesnt
have to be that way. You
have to control your bets as much as you control the dice.
In fact, in my view, you have to control your bets EVEN MORE than you
control the dice. Each
element doesnt operate in exclusion to the other.
Rather, you need to control both
to get them working together
in
order to garner sustainable success. Its
no big secret, but it is a substantial task. Its
what you do when your shooting-skills arent up to par that determines whether it
ends up being a mild set-back or a total bankroll blowout.
A
few too many blow-outs will cause the skilled, but undisciplined dicesetter to bow out of
this game completely. So
yeah, you can be at the top of your game yet still endure bad sessions and sometimes even
bad days. In fact you can count on that
happening, but its how you handle those setbacks and how you prevent minor losses
from turning into major fatalities; that will ultimately determine just how well you, your
ego and your bankroll survives. Handling
Ruts, Droughts and Setbacks With
Precision-Shooting, its never a question of IF; its a
matter of when and how frequently you run into shooting ruts, profit
droughts and bankroll setbacks. Its
entirely up to you insofar as how deep they go, how long they last and how expensive they
are. If
its you controlling the dice and its you controlling the bets, then it is also
YOU who is controlling your where the profit comes from and where your money goes to. Whether
you like it or not, that means that your definitive profitability or ultimate loss is
ENTIRELY up to YOU! If
you havent figured that out, or you dont accept that premise; then I can tell
you right now that Precision-Shooting will probably never deliver the results that
you are looking for. When
you take responsibility, you take control. You
are responsible for your bets, so you ultimately control your profit. Yeah,
its THAT simple, but
when
you are in a deep drought, its hard to remember what the rain felt like, let alone
when it last fell. When
your shooting isnt up to par; then in a fit of frustration, irritation, annoyance
and impatience, you are more likely to abandon some of the key elements of your previous
success because current failures make past successes feel so far removed. That
feeling can descend upon the best of us after just a couple of bad turns with the dice. It may have taken a long time to build up the
faith and trust in our own Precision-Shooting abilities; but many players will let that
trust and confidence completely erode with just a couple of not-so-good hands. Sometimes
we are our own toughest critic and have the lowest faith in ourselves when it comes to
betting on our own shooting especially after just one rocky outing. At
the first sign of trouble, so many players will try such radical changes like switching
from right-hand shooting to using their left-hand, or carefully setting the dice and then
intentionally trying to knock them off-axis; theres little wonder that they
dont give up dicesetting altogether, as a large number of players already have. Guys,
a shooting rut or slump does not mean you have to abandon the fundamental elements
that gave you a taste of success in the first place. In
fact, those are the elements you should be concentrating on and focusing the
most effort into strengthening, and not following some quack path of becoming an
elegant throwing, goofy-footed random-roller again. That
is NOT the path where reliable Precision-Shooting profit is going to come from. When
your shooting-skill takes a vacation and your bankroll suffers a setback, you have to take
a step back and take a look at the fundamentals (the girl that ya brung to the
party).
Ø
What
brought you success in the first place?
Ø
What
grip gave you the best on-axis consistency?
Ø
What
stance gave you the most reliable throwing-motion?
Ø
What
trajectory gave you the best results?
Ø
What
target-area gave you the steadiest, non-popping, non-hopping, non-splattering landings?
Ø
What
throwing-energy gave you the most reliable straight back roll-outs?
Ø
What
spin-rate gave you the lowest into-the-wall jumps, skips and bounces? These
are the questions you have to be asking yourself if you want any of the sweetness to
return. Instead of throwing out the entire
kit-and-caboodle (whatever that is), you have to keep the best and work on
the rest. If
you let frustration, anger, impatience and annoyance guide your decisions and you
dont adequately refocus your concentration and basic on-axis throwing efforts; then
horrific losing sessions will become more frequent
and your shooting will only get
WORSE. Losing
your perspective leads to losing money. Physical
skills and mental fortitude go hand in hand. If
theyre on the same path, working together, they lead to profit. If they are on different tracks and not working in
harmony; then hope that you accidentally fall into a big pool of luck. If
you cant rely on or trust random luck to bless you at the right time in the right
place with the right amount; then youll just have to work with your strengths and
re-bolster your weaknesses to build a much firmer foundation upon which your
Precision-Shooting skills (both mental as well as physical) can advance. Hard
work, focused efforts and gritty determination DOES have a way of creating its very own
unique brand of luck. Will
you still have bad sessions or even bad days once your skills gets to the point where they
generates steady and reliable profit? Hell
YEAH! But
that doesnt mean that you abandon the skills that got you to success in the first
place. It doesnt mean that you start
looking for a high ledge to jump off of, and it certainly doesnt mean that you have
to start throwing the dice with your left foot! It
simply means that you have to re-group, re-focus, and regain perspective. This
is not the time to start worrying whether youve lost your skill and tearily
wondering if youll be able to reclaim you it. This
is the time to give yourself credit for coming so far along the advantage-play path, and
the time to reflect upon the blessing of being able to generate so much
positive-expectation money from this negative-expectation game. This
is the time to look at the basics of your grip and throw
the time to review the
ENTIRE Getting
the Most Out Of Your Practice Sessions series, and the ENTIRE More Gain and
Less Pain (More Practice Tips) series. This
is the time to do a temporary withdrawal from the casino battles
to re-arm, retrain
and reload for a much more successful and much more sustainable attack on the boxmans
stacks. Yes
its a lot of reading and its a lot of practicing, but if youve gotten to
the point where losing seems to be easy and winning seems to be tough; then theres a
lot of money that has flown under the bridge, so maybe some no-cost rebuilding and
realignment is in order before you redeploy more of your cash into battle. If
you doubt your Precision-Shooting skills
then develop them, improve them and hone
them to a point until you dont. It
takes dedication, commitment, discipline and patience to GET you there
and
those are the same characteristics that will KEEP you there. Good Luck
& Good Skill at the Tables
and in Life. Sincerely, The
Mad Professor
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