Hi Dan,

First some information on the functionality and pricing of Smart Craps. The Roll Recorder does just that. It records rolls. It will tell you if you are passing the tests that prove you are keeping the dice on axis, but that is all. Smart Craps handles the recommended dice sets, showing how much you can make with your specific roll history using various betting strategies. It also tells you what your session, trip, and lifetime bankrolls should be based on your roll history and your level of risk tolerance. To do the whole job, you need both apps. Roll recorder for Windows costs $35. Smart Craps costs $89.95. Smart Craps Professional (both of these apps combined plus Roll Recorder for Palm OS) costs $129.95.

Now for some information about when to use Smart Craps. Until you have developed a controlled throw, Smart Craps really doesn’t give you much. There are two ways to tell if you are controlling the dice; SRR and axis control. In the Golden Touch primer class we recommend throwing the dice at least 5,000 times and calculating the SRR (Sevens to Rolls Ratio). Random is one 7 for every 6 rolls of the dice. If your SRR is 1 7 in every 6.3 rolls or better (fewer 7s) you have a slight advantage and can consider using Smart Craps as a tool. Smart Craps determines whether you have axis and pitch control. When the dice are "on-axis" they land showing only numbers that were not on the ends of the dice. If you set the dice with a "hardway" set, the hardway numbers are around the dice (22, 33, 44, 55) and the 6’s and 1’s are on the ends. You must use the hardway set using Smart Craps so if there is no 1 or 6 showing on top of the dice when they land, the dice are on-axis.

Until you have a controlled throw, Smart Craps will not help you. My best recommendation to you, Dan, is to forget about Smart Craps for now and take a Golden Touch class. I know it is a lot of money, but it works. The class is an intense weekend where you learn all the proper ways to accomplish an edge over the casino in craps. If this is beyond your reach right now, get the book Casino Craps: Shoot To Win and the Golden Touch Dice Control DVD which shows exactly how to throw the optimum dice control shot. These two items will give the very basics for developing a controlled throw. And if that is also beyond your reach, get the book only and study it. It gives all the information about dice control that is covered in the class but obviously has none of the personal instruction.

I am not pushing these items to simply sell things. I don’t get anything for each course or DVD or book that is sold. But I know they work. I also know that when people try to do this on there own, they usually develop some bad habits that impede there mastery of dice control and when they finally do come to a class it is doubly hard to get it right because they have to "unlearn" the bad habit(s).

Dan, I, along with the entire GTC family want you to become a success at dice control but buying Smart Craps now is putting the cart before the horse. Learn and practice a controlled throw first. Only then Smart Craps will become a valuable tool.

Jerry

I agree.

[Changed my username from DanR to lylastar but its me the orig. poster]

I am now (with about 700 practice throws behind me) oscillating between hardway rolls using the hardway set, and rolls with no 1s or 6s (implies axis ctrl) and total botched rolls 55% of the time. As of last night I accidentally rolled what seems for myself as a perfect roll, with that "in the groove" feeling as the dice just roll in total synchrony down and off the very tips of the index and middle finger, whap! on the landing zone, take a short bounce 5" up the backwall and stop dead on the playing surface. I walk up to them and the roll is two 3s. Then again two rolls later, but this time its two 5s. I decide to stop, after deeply memorizing the LAUNCH, which for me was the last part I was doing wrong. In the past the way self-learning goes is to try til its accidentally done perfectly once. Then I instruct my subconscious mind to revisit that spot in my brain on demand, which, if the dice controlling goes like the rest of my life, will dramatically start getting far far easier to duplicate now that I found "the hump". There will, too, prolly be many times I will mess up again. So I ordered a craps table-simulating practice rig, which I will receive next week. I cannot afford the software yet. I have read, months ago, 3 of Frank’s books and ordered the most highly reviewed non-Frank dice control book which should arrive in 3 days. So am well along the way. I could take the class WITH MY BANKROLL MONEY and then spend almost a year regenerating it, AND NOT PLAY CRAPS AS THE TRADEOFF FOR 1 YEAR, or, I could NOT take the very desired class BUT PLAY CRAPS THIS YEAR. You can guess what the choice has to be. If I win a huge amount far over what I expect to, I could then DO BOTH. p.s. thx for your helpful distinctions!!
–Dan

My humble opinion. You are better off taking the class. It will give you what will last longer than just a year of playing without an edge.

Orig. poster back again:

One other factor I did not mention (those who are age 50-55+ may know this by experience…if you only understand by "theory" or imagining, you then don’t feel it in your heart and deep in your "bones" and, well, it’s just not the same form of knowledge):

I turned 56 on Sept. 3. Since about 3 years ago, the only factor that possesses any real value relative to say: pleasure, money, challenge, learning, helping others, etc is TIME. No matter if I am having fun or in acute pain from a broken leg, THE TIME I HAVE LEFT TO REMAIN ALIVE is of almost infinite value compared to other things. This heightening of this one value occurred simultaneously when I crossed the line from knowing how short and quick even a long human life expectancy is, say one of 94 years, to actually feeling that knowledge in my heart and my core of being by being sufficiently close to my own personal death…plus the disappearance of celebrities I knew since childhood (esp. musicians and rock group members, and deaths of family members) past a certain threshold. So the $1500 GTW Craps Class is valued downwards because its duration is only 48 hrs. (including all the logistics surrounding the class attendance). Were this a 5 month college course its TIME VALUE would scale way upwards by the same way of thinking (this assumes I am intrigued by the subject matter equally, etc.). Also, having lived most of my life as a loner and having great success in teaching myself some very complex stuff, I in no way think that dice influencing is denied me if I must do all the learning by myself. I grant you that there is eloquence, fun, and concentrated value to be personally taught by 4 or 5 of the top dicemen in the world…only a moron would discount this set of valuable things. But, having very few fun and fully self-createable activities once the year of NO CRAPS sets in, I would be relegating myself to watching TV, or doing whatever, in my apartment alone. I AM NOT AFRAID OF LEARNING TO BECOME GOOD WITH THE DICE AT A SLOW PACE I must go through that by not taking the GTC class. I could still have all (4) Atlantic City trips to look forward to, paying $24-$45/night plus food and $17 for round trip by train to get there and return, (this I do regularly, it is not theory), and add/subtract craps wins/losses (so far I have never lost during a trip, and won $45-$375 in craps. Only 1 trip 3 years ago, before I discovered craps, was a gambling loss ($220) playing the infernal slots. (It is unfair to dump on slots without also saying I won a $1024 jackpot at the now dead Atlantic City Hilton 2 years ago).

So one would need to know all my life particulars before writing off 1 YEAR OF CRAPS in favor of NO GAMBLING FOR A YEAR AND TAKING THE GTC CLASS. I am not afraid to teach myself (and GTC *has* taught me much thru Frank’s great books & public videos). I am afraid of poorly investing my time. No matter how much time I am given (& I am lucky to have aged relatively well, so far…), the time is precious and has an infinite value. Money doesn’t hold a candle to the value of 1 day. There *is* a <5% chance I will get such large winnings that GTC’s class becomes affordable, but realistically I prolly won’t be able to afford it for at least 4 years.

–Dan

Just make more trips and make more money but do put some aside for the class.
Good Rolling. 😀 😀