My craps story goes back to before Golden Touch Craps even existed.

I lived in San Diego/Los Angeles from in the mid 60s and probably went to Las Vegas only 3 or 4 times. Skied at Lake Tahoe and would visit the casinos when I was there but again that was very few times.

Left Los Angeles with my job and went to Milwaukee and eventually left my employer and opened my own CPA practice that I eventually moved back to a small town in Arkansas that I had grown up in.

Casino gambling opened in Mississippi in the Tunica area that was 75 miles from where I lived.

First Tunica was very small and always crowded even though they charged a $10 admission to get on the casino. Went down and played blackjack and a little craps.

Eventually they expanded casinos in Tunica and major casino companies, Harrahs, Caesars, Boyd, MGM etc. I concentrated on Craps playing and Sally went to Video Poker. Eventually we were regular visitors to the Tunica casinos Sally played enough to earn there top player level and at some I had a top level card and other mid level.

I discovered and was an active poster on the Recreation.Gambling.Craps NewsGroup. It was an active group and I now know than Scan posted there and I’ve been told that Dom did but I do not remember him from that group. All of this was prior to GTC existing.

Jim the System Man was active and he accumulated betting methods and posted them on his own web site. Remember this was when the access to these sites was usually with a 14 KB telephone modem. Slow as all get out.

People on the NG asked questions about craps and there was one post all about the rules and how to play craps. One guy, Mason, was very good at correcting misstatements people posted about craps. People posted about trips they had taken to the casinos. Alan M posted about his trips to Vegas from Los Angeles. Alan was on TV in Los Angeles. At one time I saw a summary of posting to the NG and I was in the top ten of people that posted.

A Guy Rudy, had started a throw away bi-monthly newspaper that had details about all the Tunica casinos and another issue that focused on the casinos in the MS coast area also. Frank was a regular author in the newspaper, along with other gambling authors, Henry T., Bob Dancer, etc.

Rudy also had on one of the Memphis radio stations “The Good Times Show” which was a radio show along the same line as the throwaway paper. Frank appeared regularly on the radio and also brought along people like Bill Burton, John Grochowski, etc. I called into the show on occasion and talked about taxes and gambling.

Frank has talked about a presentation in made to a Parr session in Vegas, may have been the first time he met Dom. Steve from the NG also spoke at that same Parr session and Steve would mention dice control some on the NG. Mason debunked the idea and Steve was going to be teaching a group in Tunica and offered to let Mason join the group.

Mason couldn’t make it and I offered to come by and observe part of the session and report my unbiased thoughts on what I saw. I joined the session at one of the motels near the casinos for about three hours and then saw Steve and some of his group at the tables later that night. Fairly standard stuff was what I heard at the sessions and while I was at the tables with them there were no really long rolls that occurred.

I reported that back to the NG and some other times I have seen Steve at the tables and he and I have a running joke that I jinx him.

Remember this is all pre GTC.

I had numerous back and forth on the NG with Madeline who did some writing about craps and had sent some stuff that Frank used. Rudy schedule, through Same Town, a two day affair with Frank being on his radio show all Saturday morning and Frank brought some other people with him on had a gambling discussion presentation at Sams. I planned on attending and knew Madeline was coming and we planned to have dinner together.

Madeline agreed to meet me, however a day or two before she told me Frank had invited her to dinner and she felt she had to join him. OK with me. However I approached Frank after the radio presentation from the lobby at Sams and said that Sally and I had plenty of comp amounts and could we join then for dinner. No problem he replied.

We were at a table with AP, Bill Burton and his wife, Walter Thomason, an auctioneer from Florida who had written Twenty-First Century Blackjack, and two others but I don’t remember who. Madeline was at Frank’s table and I caught up with here later. I remember the conservation went very well that night

Godness has indicated that she and Sandtrap, along with two others were the first GTC class. (Godness, was Sharpshooter one of your instructors?) The next class was held at Sams Town in Tunica and I along with some thirty plus had two full days. Class then was nothing like it is now. A lot of those attendees were regular gamblers at Tunica, but I think I may be the only member of that class that still posts on the GTC site.

After some general material about dice control, both physical and mental we broke into groups and stayed with one instructor for all the training. My instructor was No Field Five. Each instructor brought there group to the central table and we demonstrated what we had learned and were critiqued by Sharpshooter.

The mental part included a demonstration of control with a sword where the sword yielder cut through a fruit that his soon was holding between his neck and shoulder. Don’t remember the guys name, but he also taught day trading type investing and ran into some legal problems with that later.

I have previously posted about playing at the tables Saturday night of the class week end. Frank, Dom, and Sharpshooter game up to SL 1,2, 3 and Billy the Kid was at SR with someone else. They each shot twice and I don’t think anyone made a point until Billy the Kid shot the second time and he had switched to shooting from the don’t. He did manage to seven out without making a second point. Maybe I jinx them just like I did Steve.

The Tunica regulars from that class started Tunica Touch, and we met several times a year, using n RV that Chip of “Chip and Dip” owned. We would throw and critique each other, go to the tables and then have a meal at the buffet. We would have somewhere between 6 to 15 of us show up for those meets. Stickman attended when he was available.

Frank has talked about the problem GTC had with Mississippi wanted them to be registered with the state and Tunica Touch disbanded because of that.

I later took the Speed Count class and always dropped in to visit with the instructors when a class was being held. I attended both the big GTC event that Frank has talked about how some people were upset.

Brothelman says he has shot with more GTC types than anyone, but I haven’t seen his count and have never tried to list everyone I have shot with, but my number would be pretty big also.

I now live in Los Angeles and don’t get to Vegas often.

I Thought Nick at Nite post was right on. GTC is a business and I have been a happy customer.

Hope this wasn’t too boring. If you have questions, I’ll try to answer.

Noah

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