by Frank Scoblete
Casinos want all their games to have an edge
for the house, and, for the most part, all their games do have house edges,
some high, some low. Blackjack is a singular exception because it is
possible for some players to get the mathematical edge at that game by
playing perfect strategy and keeping track of the cards that have been
played. Not many people can do that in the real world and blackjack makes a
boatload of money for the casinos, mostly from people who think they can
beat the game if they play this or that homegrown system long enough.
The mathematical underpinnings of all the
other casino games rely on randomness; as in the spin of a roulette ball
that then bounces randomly from pocket to pocket and where it stops nobody
knows; the random shuffling of cards, usually by machine, at Let It Ride and
Caribbean Stud before dealing out only a single round; the throwing of dice
against a back wall that has foam-rubber pyramids to deflect and make them
randomly bounce hither and yon. Randomness is the key to these games and the
math (and money the casinos haul in) is based on a random distribution of
results. Given such a random distribution of results, in the long run the
casinos must win, as they rarely pay off bets at the true odds. They must
win and indeed they do.
However, in craps if the game is “derandomized,”
the mathematical underpinnings of it must change. Take a simple example. The
6 comes up five times for every six times a 7 comes up. The casino gets its
edge on a 6 Place bet by paying $7 for every $6 wagered. For a $6 player,
the house loses five bets (total loss: $35) but wins six bets (total win:
$36). The house wins $1 for every 11 decisions on the 6.
But what if a player were able to change the
game so that the 6 and 7 come up the same number of times, say, six times
each? Now the casino loses $42 on the six times the 6 appears, but only wins
$36 on the six times the 7 appears. Suddenly the player is in the catbird
seat. He’s flipped the game in his favor big time.
Players who attempt to flip the game to favor
them can only do so by exerting influence over the results of their throws.
This is called many names, rhythmic rolling, controlled shooting, precision
shooting, but all these names mean one thing - the player is trying to
influence the dice so that the result of the game is no longer random. In
short, it is an attempt to impose one’s mind and muscle on the casinos’
original math.
How is this accomplished? [There are many
skeptics who believe it can’t be accomplished.]
The Golden Touch Craps dice control analysts
have isolated eight distinct physical elements for controlled shooting; each
one of which must be done with a high level of proficiency for the player to
actually gain a real-world casino advantage. The eight elements are as
follows:
1. Table position: Like a hitter in baseball,
dice controllers must have their “spot” and “stance” for effective throwing.
Where you stand is an individual matter but most dice-control experts
recommend learning only four positions so that, with practice, you can
become proficient from any one of them.
2. Setting the dice: If a pitcher wants to
throw a curve ball, he places the ball just so in his hand, giving him the
best chance that the ball will do what he wants it to. The initial dice-set
that a shooter uses will, if the throw is dead-on accurate, determine which
numbers are most likely to appear.
3. Pick-up angle: They angle that you use to
pick up the dice will determine whether they stay flat against each other,
desirable, or tend to split, undesirable.
4. Grabbing the dice: Coming in with the
proper angle will allow a shooter to grab the dice without the dice moving
or slipping. Both dice sides must be given equal force or the dice will
split.
5. Gripping the dice: Once you have the dice
in your hand, how you grip them, the pressure you exert, how many fingers
you utilize, will determine how much control you have over them.
6. Delivering the dice: How you utilize your
fingers, wrist and arm to make a soft, perfectly pitched throw is similar to
how a pitcher will use his fingers, wrist and arm to deliver a baseball.
7. Spin control: How fast the dice spin, how
many revolutions they make before hitting the back wall, whether they are
mirror images of each other or delayed mirror images will determine the
effectiveness of the throw.
8. Controlling bounce: The harder and higher
the dice bounce, the tougher it is to control the outcome. The softer they
hit the back wall, the less influence the back wall has on the dice.
Now you might wonder why five of the eight
elements deal with the initial conditions and only three elements deal with
actually “throwing” the dice. I asked Dominator of Golden Touch Craps, one
of the elite dice controllers/teachers in the country, to explain:
“By way of analogy, if I am going to move an
object one inch into a box that is two inches wide and my thrust pushes the
object in such a way that it is off one-thousandth of an inch, there will be
no trouble getting the object into the box. However, if I want to land that
same object on the moon and I’m off a thousandth of an inch in my initial
trajectory, I am going to miss the entire moon! Small changes in the initial
conditions have profound ramifications over extended time and space. So we
want the initial conditions of a dice throw to be as uniform and solid as we
can get them. If the initial conditions are off, it doesn’t matter how
softly you deliver the dice, you aren’t going to have the ability to change
the game. The initial conditions, from grabbing, gripping and setting, must
be as stable as we can humanly make them to have a chance to make craps a
positive expectation for the expert player.”
Craps was constructed by the casinos to have a
house edge; it was built on a foundation of randomness and probability. But
dice control changes all that; by taking your mind and muscles and flipping
the game by physical means to favor the player.
“It’s not easy,” states Dominator, “but it can
be done.”
Frank Scoblete is the #1 best-selling gaming author.
His books and tapes have sold over a million copies. He is executive
director of Golden Touch Craps dice-control seminars. His websites are
www.scoblete.com and www.goldentouchcraps.com . For a free brochure or more
information call: 1-800-944-0406 or write to: Paone Press, Box 610,
Lynbrook, NY 11563