|
|
|
Dice Coach & Instructors / Newsletter / Contact / Home
|
|
|
Why
Do You Do The Things You Do? I
recently received an e-mail from a regular reader: “Hey,
Mad Professor. Why do you do some of the
things that you do? The
biggest puzzle is why you play at the low-end tables with the cheap minimums? You
are always complaining about crowded conditions. Why
not play at the more expensive, but less crowded tables.
With your level of rolling, and the size of your bankroll, I would think
that you would love to leave the cheap tables, and play at the more exclusive ones. So
I’ll ask you again, why do you do some of the things that you do?” That’s
a good question, and I have an even better answer. The
lower the table-minimum is, the lower the risk to your bankroll. If you bet in moderation; then you have a higher
likelihood of catching a good roll. Since
your bankroll will still be intact, you will have more ammunition in which to wage battle. A
low-minimum also acts to keep your blood-pressure and stress-level to the lowest amount. If the table-minimum is $25; then your base Pass
Line bets with full Odds and your Place bets will equate to a fair amount of money even if
you stick with the smallest allowable ones. That
being the case, your concentration will be partially distracted or at least diluted due to
the higher amount of money involved. In most
cases, that also equates to a higher percentage of your session buy-in being on the table
at one time. Neither of those things are good
for your stress-level, your concentration-level or your bankroll-level. Remember
the lower your bankroll exposure; the lower your risk.
The lower your risk; the lower your stress level should be. I’ll
put it to you this way guys; there are two places where you don’t want to run into
“performance anxiety”. The first
place is in the bedroom, and the second place is at the craps table. Don’t
put undue pressure on yourself or your bankroll. Further,
at a “cheap table”, I am more likely to try some newer or somewhat riskier
strategies with either my Precision-Shooting or with my betting methods. Let me qualify that statement. When I say “riskier”, for a simple
example, I am talking about increasing my Place bets by two or three units on a win,
instead of my usual single unit pressure. Of
course, that is after ALL of my wagering action has been paid for, AND there is already a
substantial profit locked-up on my rail. In
addition, if I am playing from the “cheap seats”, I might be willing to toss the
dice from a different table position if none of my favorite spots are open. Now,
I’m not saying that you should get stupid with either your dice-tossing or your
betting. What I am saying, is that you can be
a little more comfortable shooting from a new table-position if the cost-of-entry
isn’t too high. Again, you have to keep
your bankroll-exposure to a bare-minimum, until all your bets have been paid for, and you
have a profit to show. In
addition, if you get on a good roll, your betting can be a bit more aggressive without
causing too great of a concern. Again, I
advocate locking up a profit before ANY bets are increased.
For me, that rule stands regardless of the price of the table. What
you want to do is to keep the “stress elements” to a minimum. The more uptight that you are, either because of
the amount of money that you have on the table, or because there are other aggravating
factors at play; then the more likely it is that your Precision-Shooting will not be as
focused as you might hope for. I’ll
give you two examples of what I mean. The
first case in-point is from a relatively cheap $2 table at Sunset Station in Henderson
(south Las Vegas). I was there for a short
meeting at the Gaudi Bar. The craps tables
are very close by, and as my meeting was ending, I was watching as a hot hand was
developing. There was only one spot
open beside the dealer on first base, at the extreme end of the table. This is one spot where I haven’t shot from in
probably 10 or 11 years. At that stage, I
didn’t care because the hot shooter was still producing a grand hand. Even though I only got onto the last sixteen or
seventeen minutes of his roll; he produced a decent amount of coin for my bankroll. I
want to pause here for a moment to talk about getting in on hot rolls that are underway
when you stake your place at the table. PLEASE
do not do anything to disturb the rhythm of the
shooter. Regardless of whether he is a
Precision-Shooter, a Rhythm-Roller, or just a very lucky random-roller; try not to
interrupt the game with your need to buy-in. So
how do you avoid the need to plunk down your cash on the table to exchange for chips? Simple. Ask
one of the fellow-players on either side of you, if they will sell you a SMALL amount of
chips. Yes,
I know that you are anxious to whack down that wad of fresh $100 bills. Yes,
I know that you want to get your Players Card in the hand of the floor supervisor so that
every second of your play is rated. Yes,
I know that you want to get in on a good roll, especially because it comes along so
infrequently. But
listen pal, please do it as quietly and as unobtrusively as possible. You’ll
have plenty of time to buy-in for your intended amount of money later on. You’ll
have plenty of time to get your Player Card in to be rated.
You will have plenty of time to do all of that AFTER the roll is
finished…PLEASE! It
not only shows that you are VERY savvy when it comes to understanding other peoples
superstitions about the game; it also shows that you understand the ebb and flow of the
game, and that you recognize and respect a good thing when you see it. To do so, shows a high level of professionalism on
your part. Okay,
back to the main subject, which is, playing at low-limit tables. As
soon as the hot-shooter 7’d-Out at the Sunset Station, the table applauded
appropriately, and then the stickman tapped his stick in my direction, and asked if I
wanted the dice. Normally,
I would have just colored-out and left. I
wasn’t in any of my “normal” shooting positions, and I hadn’t even
intended on playing at all that particular afternoon.
Further, Station Casinos seem to favor the longer 18-foot and 20-foot
tables, and this was one of those 20-foot giants. I’ll
bet if you painted that 20-foot table all in black; from a distance it would look like one
of those early 70’s big-assed old Cadillacs. Anyway,
I nodded my head and motioned the dice towards me. From
my end of the table, the far end-wall looked like some distant mountain range. I wondered how hard I would have to propel the
dice to get them past the 50-yard line of the stick-mans Prop-box. Normally,
I would have used the Mad Professors “Long-Ranger” grip and release, but because
of the angle of where I was standing, it was impossible.
Instead, I used my modified “All-Finger Back-Toss”. It kind of looks like one of those back-handed
pimp-slaps that you would see in a ‘70’s “blacksploitation” movie like
“Shaft” or “Superfly”. That
is where my thumb and my little finger, lightly grip each one of the two
outer-axis’ of the dice, while my three other fingers completely drape over the front
faces of the dice. It isn’t pretty, but
it gets the job done relatively well. Now,
if this had been a more expensive table, I probably would have just cashed-out and moved
on. Instead, I decided to shoot, and I had a
relatively good roll. I made a number of
Points, and a wheel-barrel full of Inside-Numbers. Again,
if it had been a more expensive table, I would not have felt enough
confidence from this shooting-position to “bet it up”. As it turned out, I worked my Pass Line Odds up to
the max-permitted 10x-level. Again, at a more
expensive table, my lack of confidence from this distance would have held me back. I was able to add a respectable amount of profit
to the sum already generated by the previous shooter. Okay,
let me give you another example. I
was at Mandalay Bay the other week, playing at a $5 table, and enjoying a number of
good-hands. It was pretty crowded, and it
looked like it would be a while before the dice would return to me. At that moment I saw a friend of mine step up to
the $50 table. Now “Al” has a
superb Precision-Shooting ability. I’ll
be writing more about him in an upcoming article entitled, “Raise Your
Conscientiousness and Fatten Your Wallet”.
Anyway,
whenever I see him at a table, I want to get into the great things that usually occur when
he gets the dice. This session with him was
no exception. To my mind, the only problem
was the high entry-fee of the $50 table. While
my bankroll can sustain it, I don’t like to start out at such a lofty level. Sure I often raise and press my Place bets way,
way, way, beyond that $50 amount, but I hardly ever start them there unless it is on my
own hands. Even then, it is done with the
intention of regressing the bet to a more reasonable level after one hit. From that point, I let some of the profit fuel
further bet-increases, while I lock up a profit with each and every subsequent hit. It was with all of that in mind that I stepped up
with chips that I carried over from my previous table. Surprisingly,
the $50 table was almost as crowded as the $5 one! I
got a spot close to “Al”, without being close enough to infringe on his shooting
motion in any way. He shoots from positions
that are diametrically opposed to my own “regular” spots, so I was nowhere near
my own favorite shooting-locations. “Al”
had a pretty good roll, and I made some decent coin from it, but to my mind, my pressing
of winning Place bets was rather timid. Instead
of Pressing on every other hit; I would collect from three, or four or even five
successive pays, before I Pressed my bets with any degree of significance. I
also hesitated to add Place bets on the outside numbers of 4 and 10, even though Al had
hit them a couple of times. It was only when
I had built up a multiple hundred-dollar profit in my rail-space, that I finally added
those high-cost Outside Place numbers, through Buy bets.
The upshot of all his shooting was that I made a fair bit of money, and I
was totally pleased with the amount, but not at all pleased at how hesitant the $50
minimum had made me. At
the end of his hand, he asked if I was going to shoot.
Since my rack was fat and happy with profit, I said that I would give it a
try. I adamantly and firmly warned him to
take it very easy with his betting on me, “because I hardly ever shoot from this
spot, and I have NO idea what’s going to happen”.
If I was hesitant and cautious when I was betting on Al’s roll due to
the $50 limit; then I was downright super-cautious when it came to betting on myself from
this table position and because of the same high-limit. My
grip from “stick-right” is not even related to any of my normal dice-grips. By the way, for clarification,
“stick-right” is actually on the left side of the stickman when you are standing
behind him. I know that sounds backwards, but
from the casino box-mans position, that is the casinos rating-card description. From
stick-right #2, I use the four-finger front grip, with my thumb supporting the rear seam
of the two dice. I use a very light release
that targets an initial touchdown point about eighteen inches from the rear wall. I figure that I must look pretty spastic when I
throw from this position, because I use a sprawling, side-reaching, exaggerated extension
of my arm upon release of the dice. My left
leg extends out in the opposite direction from my right arm, and I use up as much
casino-floor real estate as a mini-baccarat table. Like
I said before, it ain’t pretty, but it’s the only way that I have found any
degree of success from this shooting location. Surprisingly,
“Al” actually followed my advice, and hung back on his betting. Usually when I advise friends to hold off on my
hands, they summarily ignore it. Yes, it
usually pays off for them, but if I don’t feel like I’ve hit my shooting stride;
then I think it’s a safer thing to do. That
may seem overly cautious, but I don’t want my own or their bankrolls to be
jeopardized by a quick and costly 7-Out. In
this case, Al followed my advice. I quickly
repeated my Pass Line Point, and followed it up with three more Pass Line winners and a
large handful of Place bets hits. At the end
of it when he was patting me on the back, he said, “Yeah right, ‘Don’t load
up on me’. Next time I’m going to
bet heavy on you right from the beginning like I usually do. By holding off, you cost me about a thousand
dollars because you made me hesitant about jumping in on your roll.” Well,
how the hell did I know that I was going to throw so well from that spot? The consistency that I have previously achieved
from this shooting-location has been less than stellar, and I didn’t want to
jeopardize Al’s bankroll before I had found my groove.
Plus, the $50-minimum made me even more cautious and hesitant. So,
why do I do some of the things that I do, like playing at low-limit tables? Well,
I would rather err on the side of caution. Low
table-limits give me the flexibility and confidence
to take bigger and faster advantage of a good roll. However,
it also permits me to keep the cost of my mistakes
as low as possible. I
know you understand that no matter how good you get at Precision-Shooting, there are
always going to be losing sessions. Low
table-limits permit me to keep the cost of those losses to an absolute, bare minimum. Figure
it this way. If
things go sour at an expensive table, then obviously the base cost of the losses are going
to be higher. Why increase the risk to your
bankroll if you don’t have to? In
Las Vegas, all things are relative. For
example, at the Gold Coast Casino, they may have four tables open. Three of them will have $2 minimums, and be
totally packed with players. The fourth table
will be empty due to the higher $5 cost. Well,
in that case, you can bet the farm, the prize cow, and your favorite pig; that I will be
the lone shooter at the $5 table. That’s
one of the reasons that I favor playing in gaming-cities that have multiple casinos. The ability to shop around to find cheap AND
empty tables is very attractive to my playing style. So
that my friends, is WHY I do some of the things that I do? Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables…and in
Life. The Mad Professor
|
|
