I am already signed up for the Blackjack and my first refresher. I am feeling like a kid at Christmas waiting for tomorrow. Can’t wait. Look forward to seeing everyone and meeting a few new faces, as well.

Should be a lot of fun.

That’s a great lesson for us all Dom. I have the great fortune of being married to a GTC’er and she and I constantly watch each other’s throws. Little quirks will find a way into our throws. I think it is a good, no scratch that, a GREAT idea to come back preferably once a year but at least every other year and do a Refresher or a Tune up to correct the little things. For those who want to take it a higher level, then you should schedule a Video Elite session and an Advanced, even better, do them both in the same weekend.

Sorry I can’t be in AC but hope to catch with everyone very soon.

Back to basics:

Rose and Doc have been running a possible post like Dom’s through out heads for sometime. We have been in a bit of a "funk" as our throw was off and has been for awhile. So we have gone back to the basics just like we teach the primers during their first hour or so in class. At the beginning of our first practice session for the day:

1. We check our stance–feet shoulder length apart, stomach against the table.
2. Get the gripper and practice the grip—fingers straight across the front, middle finger centered on both dice (feel the seam), and thumb centered on the back of the dice.
3. At set up we make sure the dice are square to all surfaces of the table.
4. Next we do what we call the "no field five" drill—by not targeting (for this drill only) keeping our eyes down so that we can see the dice are square, the back swing is about 3 to 4 inches and straight back and the forward swing straight down the runway with our eyes still looking down not releasing the dice to get the feel of the dice being level when we swing forward–we need to "feel" this in our mind. Then and only then we check to see the dice are level at release. We also are able to now see if we in fact went straight forward.

We go through all of these steps each morning at the beginning of our practice each day. We always use the gripper for our first turn with the dice to insure we have the proper grip—when we grip the dice this is the only time we have 100% control of the dice. Once released the laws of nature take over.

We may not practice long in a given session (15 to 20 minutes), but we try to have 2 to 4 sessions per day.

The results over the past several weeks. Each day we have several rolls in the teens that make a small profit, the occasional 20, 30 or 40 roll and of course a few very short rolls maybe a point 7 out or 2 as they will happen to the best. But overall making money.

Guys and gals–from time to time you have to get back to basics at our sport of choice. Never forget the very best pro golfers, pro football quarterbacks. etc. practice every day and often under the watchful eyes of their respective coaches. We are pros and need to do the same thing.

Dom, thank you for starting this post since it allowed us to share what we have been doing—just as you did.

Rose and Doc are lucky that we live with coaches as do Jaw Bones and his lovely wife.

We are really sorry to be missing AC this time but are looking forward to seeing many of you at the next class! Have fun!!

Rose and Doc

Absolutely agree! I have the good fortune to have run into a GTCer at a local venue. We now regularly shoot together, and when I work from home, we’ll do a lunchtime practice session. Today is a Friday for us so we’re getting together before heading out to Vegas in the morning; else I’d be out there with all y’all. After almost 20 years since he got me interested in Craps, I’m shooting with a friend who just moved back from HI. Scooter, him and I hope to post a great trip report!

Have a great weekend, folks,

Don

Hello Everyone & Welcome to Atlantic City!!!
After reading Dom’s post and Rose & Doc’s reply, I just have to chime in.
Rob & I do exactly the same things to prepare for a big weekend like this one or for just a short night out at a local casino here in Delaware.
We, too, have been in slumps but we are fortunate to have eachother to critique our shots, take videos of our swings in slo-mo, and keep our grip loose.
As The Goddess taught us, everything must be straight and square….body, arm, dice and release.
We also use her technique of checking to see if our grip is too tight. Can you easily pop those dice out of your fingers?
Sometimes casinos have very poor lighting around a table and you can’t see your dice are ‘cocked’. Sometimes I need my eyes examined!!! 😆
We use Doc’s tool of shooting dice into a bucket or target. When we just can’t get it right, we pull out the bucket and take target practice.
And when we feel the shot going wonky right off the fingers, we invoke Mr. Finesse’s "GET LUCKY" call. He always stressed that it was "All About That Grip!"
So we’re looking forward to seeing you all & HAPPY ROLLING !!!!
Kay & Rob