Practice Profitability?

For quite a few years, I have worked with some very motivated students interested in adding precision shooting to their craps game. These players come to me already holding the belief that we can influence the dice in a consistent mechanical fashion and just wish to capitalize on the potential profitability of adding this element into their game.

As I initially began my involvement with workshops, I worked with players on how to practice the mechanical elements of dice influencing, assisting them with the understanding that this dimension of the game does require some practice in order to acquire enough skill to perform consistently at the tables. All good precision shooters will admit it takes a lot of practice to understand the kind of influence we can potentially exert on the dice.

So, with a working knowledge of how to practice precision shooting, my students have been able to apply their newly acquired skills with tremendous success, creating long, out of probability dice rolls. I have received wonderful feedback on how many of my students have "monster rolls" and how they made a bit of profit.

Still, there are some students who are tremendous shooters and sadly report back to me that they could not capitalize on the profitability of their roll. They were too focused on their shooting and were unable to incorporate proper betting strategy. Their "trip report" of having held the dice through numerous stick changes ends with the statement "but I didn’t make any money." In my view, the shooter had achieved his comfort zone with shooting but had not allowed his betting to enter into his/her comfort zone.

I began to recognize that long rolls were of no benefit to me, either personally or financially, if I was not going to capitalize on them. That is when I started to realize that it was just as important for me to study and practice what I would be doing with my chips in between my rolls.

Realistically, in a live game, we do pause in between our throws to manage our chips for placement of bets and retrieving our payouts from the dealers. And we should be doing this in between our practice throws as well.

Whatever your strategy, be it an "up and pull" betting strategy or applying a pass line progression system, it should always be practiced in the same fashion as you practice your shooting skills. As a player, this part of your game should be committed to memory and in time you will play the game with a sense of detachment from the money.

Serious players should invest in practice chips. I have always believed that focusing on practicing what you do with your chips is equally, if not more important, as focusing on how you throw your dice. Visiting Vegas’ Gambler’s General store is a must when it comes to purchasing practice chips. Invest your money on chips in denominations you actually play with in a live game.

Because I am big on visualization, when I first started my serious practice, I bought green and black chips. I did invest in white and red but I found myself always practicing with the green and black ones. It did not take me too long to feel the pull toward those quarter tables. For me, buying these chips was money well spent.

If you are truly serious about your game, an investment in chips is an investment in yourself. Please buy some chips, get familiar with them and practice making money. You are worth it.


Soft Touch