|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Events / Coaches/Instructors / Free Dice Lessons / Newsletter / Contact / Home |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
It's More Fun When You Win!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
February/March 2008 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
In This Edition: |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Soft Touch Say's
Obstacles and Opportunity...
Soft Touch
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
PS If you have any suggestions for the Dice Setter website or newsletter please send them to my editor at Ed@dicesetter.com and I'll have a look and see how we can incorporate them into our future plans.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
With a little help from our friends... the campaign for doubling the Dice Setter newsletter subscription base is within 37% of reaching our March anniversary goal. We thank all our subscribers that helped expand the awareness of dice influencing and practical dice play by introducing Dice Setter Newsletter to others in the game. Dice Setter is committed to be the vanguard of dice players of the world.
Thank you!
News From The Dice Coach
* * * * * * ANNOUNCING * * * * * *
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Shaving Points at Craps?
What are Casino dice? I found this on the Internet. I imagine it is pretty standard even though it is from Australia:
· Dice must be transparent. · Dice must be manufactured to a tolerance of 0.0006 inches (0.01528mm). · All sides of the dice must be equal in dimension and have the same angle between the sides. · All edges and corners must have a uniform finish. · The surface of each dice side must be flat. · Any markings on the dice must be flush with the dice surface. · The texture and finish of each side must be identical to each other side. · The weight of the dice should be evenly distributed throughout the dice with no side lighter or heavier then any other side. · Each dice must have the Casino Name permanently imprinted, impressed or engraved on one face. · Each dice must have a unique set identifier permanently imprinted, impressed or engraved on one face. · The substance used to fill the markings on each face must be the same density as the dice. · The rear surface of the dice markings must be visible through the dice from the opposing face. · The dice faces must be numbered one to six. · Opposite faces of the dice must sum to seven. · The side of each die must be between 19.05mm and 19.69mm in size. · Dice must be supplied in sets of five with each dice in the set displaying the same identifying number.
As you can see, these are pretty tight specs. This is even a subset of the complete specifications. You would think they were contracting a critical part for the space shuttle’s main engines. Crooked dice are one of five types.
1. Loaded. That is weighted off center to favor coming to rest on one face more than they should by random chance. 2. Magnetic. Having an insert that can be influenced by a magnetic field that can be used to force the dice to come to rest on one face more than they should by random chance. 3. Mis-Numbered. The simplest concept possible. They simply do not have the numbers 1 to 6 on the six faces. In one case the numbers on opposite sides of a die are the same, duplicated that is. Suppose your dice only had pairs of faces numbered 2, 3, and 6? Could be a “slight” advantage there. 4. Not Cubical. Rectangular, trapezoid, concave or convex faces, non-uniform vertexes or points, or sides not parallel. Shaved dice or dice with one face purposely bulged out for instance. 5. Gaffed. Weird dice with sharp ledges on one edge or even a pin sticking out of one face to catch on the felt and thus get stuck with that face down.
If you go back and read the specs, you will see how they are addressing each of these problems. Also some of these methods are grotesquely obvious to even casual examination. Some like the magnetic ones require very large electromagnets as accessories.
I ordered two sticks of Dice Coach Dice, one red and one green and subjected them to the similar tests a bit more than a year ago. They passed. It was not easy to do. Measuring in the 1/10,000 of an inch range and determining absolute face flatness etc. That is tricky, but with a really good micrometer with a tension thimble and vernier and knowing how to use it correctly, it can be done. You can also use a strong light and a very high precision tool and die maker’s miniature square for some of the tests. There are dice spinners and the water glass test to check for uniform density. Visual inspection alone spots many “defects.”
There are just a few cosmetic aspects of dice not specified. The numbers 1, 2, and 3 have to meet in a single vertex. If you look at that vertex point on, the numbers can increase either clockwise or counterclockwise. Also a range of transparent colors is possible.
How many times have you seen the dice placed in front of the boxman where he can glare intensely at them? Or even pick them up and spin them expertly between his thumb and finger? Most of the crooked dice listed above could be easily spotted by just looking carefully at them, and certainly by spinning them to see if they are loaded.
I once had a fantastic sequence of fours. I could not stop tossing fours. Mostly hardways. I commented on it, the stickman commented on it, the other players were betting on it, I was betting on it, we were all cleaning up. Sure enough, first the stickman would just give me the dice. Then he started parking them directly in front of the boxman after each throw where the boxman would glare at them like he was using X-ray vision on them. After another four showed up, the boxman finally picked them up and gave them each a beautiful well-practiced spin. No heat. No negative comments from the staff. No problems. No swapping of the dice. Same dice stayed in play. But there was most definitely a low profile investigation of those dice!
Where’s the Advantage?
Now for the most important part of the “crooked dice” equation. Craps is played in two phases. The come out phase and the chasing points phase. In one the seven is your friend. In the other the seven is your enemy. Given that dice have to total seven on opposite faces, it is very hard to get such dice to suppress or enhance sevens. Most if not all the value of any crooked dice is lost if you do not switch out the true dice and the crooked dice based on the game conditions from moment to moment. Dice switching by players is a bit of a no-no. (Slight understatement).
Casinos change out dice when they are worried that the dice have become out of specs and are no longer absolutely trustworthy to be random. Like when they go off the table and suffer obvious vertex damage, or have been used long enough to suspect point or razor edge wear.
A math professor at a major university got some professionally shaved crooked dice and got his graduate students to roll them, a lot! The data collected showed that any slight advantage from shaved dice was swamped by the random roller style of the shooters. It appeared that the dice would have to be modified in a very significant way to survive all the built in randomizers on a craps table such as the felt, the pyramids, specs on a proper acceptable throw, chips in the way, etc.
There have been cases of stickmen and boxmen swapping crooked dice in and out of a game in cahoots with players who were co-conspirators. This was not a Casino sanctioned behavior (slight understatement).
Random is to a Casino business as actuarial tables are to an Insurance company.
Random is what makes it a business with a bottom line, a predictable cash flow and a return on investment they can bank on. To do this business they typically need a special license. Doing anything that would endanger that, such as petty cheating to increase slightly some gain at one game makes no sense at all. They would be “betting the entire farm” for chump change relative to the total take across all the games and slot machines on the Casino floor.
You would have to have something that works for all situations that come up in Craps in a 24 hour period, works with five dice of which two are selected at random, and which a shooter holds for a hand at a time and involves no funny switching of dice by stickman or boxman.
It would have to be completely legal and subject to examination by regulators. And it would have to generate enough extra income to justify the effort to select the dice in the first place and manage two types of dice at the tables. That takes equipment, manpower and adds complexity to making money.
That is a lot to deal with in order to create a scenario that makes business sense.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Craps ain't broke from the Casino's view and nearly all the rules favor them. Including their ultimate rule, they can just refuse to let you play for any reason at any time.
If you want to see Casinos trying to "fix" Craps, look at sit-down tables designed to cut staff required to man a Craps table. Should they use 12 foot or 14 foot tables? Or 10 foot, or super size tables?
Look at the decisions to either include or remove the Big 6 and Big 8 from the felt. Are there enough suckers to justify that waste of felt real estate? What level of odds to allow? Double? Triple? 20 times? 100 times!
How about the size of the Hardways? Make them big because your players love the Hardways, or make the lousier prop bets bigger in hopes of dumb suckers attracted by BIG RED LETTERING. Look at the few prop bets that have different payoffs at different casinos.
When to open a table? How many tables to have? Where to put the tables? What to eliminate to free up floor space for the poker room!
Do we need to eliminate a Craps table and put in a dumber game with just one dealer such as Let It Ride?
Those are the kinds of ways Casinos try to "fix" Craps to generate more income.
Not ways to get caught doing something shady or blatantly illegal that requires lots of extra work.
Nevada Specific Information
Casino Dice are considered to be “associated equipment” in Nevada. Interestingly, there are no exact specifications for “Casino Dice” used in Craps in Nevada. But they would be covered under “Industry Standards” for such equipment. So it would not be correct to say dice used in Nevada are not regulated. From what I was able to find out, the Queensland specifications indicate what can be done to make high quality dice, specifications that manufacturers can routinely meet. They probably make a good example of “Industry Standards”. Some things like the casino name being required on the dice I am not sure about for Nevada. The main thing looked for in Nevada is anything about the dice that would affect the roll and cause them to tend to land in any specific way other than randomly. Dice would typically include a set in play that would be five dice all the same with the same serial number on them. Ways to affect randomness checked for would include weighting of course, but dice should also be perfect cubes, opposite sides should total seven, no numbers on a given die should be duplicated, and they are normally made of transparent material to facilitate checking for common methods of loading or weighting dice. There is some flexibility in the design of Casino Dice in Nevada as long as they are not manufactured or modified in such a way as to affect the randomness of their roll. I got the impression the experts I contacted thought the question a bit strange. That crooked dice would be, well crooked! Rather obviously. In a heavy handed sort of way, not something subtle. But seriously out of specifications in some way not that difficult to detect with even casual testing. Bottom Line
The bottom line, literally, is that casinos need dice to be predictably random. It is part of the business model for running a craps table. Cheap “toy” dice are born crooked. I tested a bunch of them and was amazed at the seriously bulged faces, the irregularly rounded vertexes, the non-parallel faces, and other glaring problems. And these were not even made to be crooked on purpose, just sloppy cheap work. I measured some Bicycle Dice and found them a considerable improvement over the el cheapo red plastic types. By comparison the precision of real professional casino dice is quite impressive and a serious cut above even the best “toy” dice. Given the slight advantage a Casino might gain, versus the incredible damage of being shut down for running a questionable game, why would they risk the entire golden goose?
I believe it is much more likely that aliens will land in your back yard and treat you to an anal probe than it is you will encounter a major Casino introducing shaved or otherwise out of spec dice in a Craps game to try to take unfair advantage of customers.
Mike in Hawaii
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Dice Setter’s Journal - How to Use Your Journal
Suggestions:
Keeping Your Journal:
The purpose of a journal is to provide you with important honest information about your game. It will help you improve your game in many ways. It will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Your journal shows you how you are doing financially with wins, losses and with your year to date total.
When recording a session, you may have a short entry or you may use several pages. It is up to you to record what you feel are the important and necessary pieces of information.
Here are a few things to definitely keep track of:
This is a required discipline for the player serious about improving their game. It is easy to keep a running count of profit and loss from each game. A journal provides you with an accurate account of where you stand for the year. It is important that you know if you are up or down for the year.
Keeping a record is essential for tax purposes. Gambling losses are tax deductible against gambling profits. If you are going to itemize gambling income, you must be able to defend losses with a record. The casino is not going to write you a receipt for your losses when you cash out. It is up to you to be able to document your gambling history.
The most important reason to document your craps play provides a learning tool as it is a reference to past performance. A journal can be a powerful resource to help you to identify strength and weakness in your game. If you find yourself in a slump, the first thing to do is refer to your journal. Read backward until you find a pattern or the place where your game started to break down.
A player can review their journal, look at the losing sessions, and usually identify essential elements that lead to the slump. When a player is experiencing an unsuccessful streak some typical telltale signs could be playing too long, chasing a loss, engaging in poor playing conditions, making mistakes, playing too tight, or playing too aggressive. This information should show up in the journal.
Playing too long is playing in a game that is going nowhere and ignoring the signs that the game has stalled. A game that goes back and forth - win one, lose one, and push - is a dead game. After an hour and half to two hours, the game turns cold and, in less than fifteen minutes, the entire betting stake can be lost. Better to leave early, cut losses and find another game. Playing too long tends to lull a player into a trance-like state, as the player believes that the game is bound to turn around and become favorable.
Playing carelessly usually shows a lack of discipline. The player enters a game that they have no business playing. It often is a matter of ego or emotion that causes a player to think they are invincible and that they can walk up to any table and make it pay. Being too eager to play, and getting into bad games, is an unsuccessful habit for both experienced and novice players. Getting into a game that you have not assessed for positive playing conditions will usually cost you money. The idea of playing anytime, on any table, is what built the “City of Dreams”. The games are always available. You must take charge of your game by being patient. You are a winner when you play at optimum times with optimum conditions. Realize that you are a hunter, if you are going to “eat”, you must hunt smart.
Here are sample journal entries.
Your journal may have shorter or longer notes. You may create your own “cues”, but however you chose to do it, include enough information to remind you of the session. The idea is to record information for your benefit, and learn from it when you need a review. When first starting out with a journal, more information is better while you get into the practice. You will find your groove and the information most important to you.
How you can interpret the information:
In the first example, the player identifies that the dice game was worthy of playing noting that he was not losing, but keeping even, (treading water). There were 6-7 players, this indicates a smaller game with the dice coming around for a dice influencer, more turns as the shooter. Note the shift in the game when it broke away from one or two point hands to his hand with three points, totaling five passes. Also, note that the seven-set was working, drawing out two sevens in a row on a come out. Nice to have the sevens appear at the right time. He is content with the way his dice are laying down. Playing early morning, the player is fresh, rested, and having fun with the other players. He indicates he is playing with a good group, including the dealers. With the game not costing this player, he was encouraged to continue, even though it was not producing much. The moment of “right time” came along and he caught a nice little burst. Seeing the game return to short hands, he made the wise decisions to quit and take the profit. Not a bad move for an hour and half game.
The third entry documents a loss. It is a red flag when you start off on the wrong foot. Too many short hands together is an indicator of trouble. Not having the dice bounce your way when in your hand is another red flag. Not that you have to be "the shooter", but if it's not working for you, who's it going to be? Better to cut losses and play again when conditions are more favorable. Looking closer at what was going on, the player probably should have quit the game earlier and may not have lost as much.
Here is what could be learned from the third journal entry. The early warnings of a tough game were ignored. Ignoring the fact that the dealer was a rude jerk is also an indicator. You can chose your playmates. Shifts in the game are signals telling you to play on your toes. Actually, it is better to be on your feet. Walking away from the game would have been the better play. Ignoring or missing the early warnings was important information recorded here. The mistakes cost the player 23 units.
Profit games are usually the result of hitting right off the bat or catching a long craps hand. Play like the “patient hunter”, waiting for your time to come. Sometimes you have to play tight defense while waiting for your opportunity to come along. Learn to recognize the difference between a game with promise and one that is going nowhere. Record your sessions and you will document the signals and start to discriminate between the two types of games. It will become clearer to you when it is time to bail out, and you will recognize the signs of a game worthy of your attention.
Keeping a journal and reviewing wins and losses can accurately paint the picture of your playing habits. You can honestly evaluate your play, recognizing those things that you are doing well, and the weaknesses that need improvement. The rewards will be evident as you educate yourself with the discipline of keeping a journal. $$$$
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Today's Wisdom: Poncho Villa - Villain or Hero?
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
A labor of love and a dedication to the Dice and Gaming Community, Dice Setter Newsletter comes to you monthly, free of charge. Help keep the dice tumbling. Your generous donation is much appreciated. Keep the "Boys On-Line" with a Toke!
Click the Pay Pal Button to Contribute with Your Financial Support.
Dice Setter Newsletter Thanks You!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
PLEASE: If you have any comments or ideas for future issues, feel free to email me at ed@dicesetter.com and as always, I'm looking for contributors with a fresh perspective.
Good Luck! |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Click Here to View Our Newsletter Archive
and a Link Back to DiceSetter.Com Please Email ed@dicesetter.com for more information.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
