Just came back from our annual ski trip to SLT with our friends. The moms got to go out one night while the dads watched the kids, and the dads received the same treatment the following night while the moms watched the kids.

To say that this trip was a success would be an understatement. I broke even which was my goal, and I had a great time. I played a total of 3 sessions, and similar to my LV trip back in December, I walked away with some great lessons learned & some encouraging signs that my game is improving. I’ve kept up my "sofa-turned-craps-table" practice at home: been only concerned about the mechanics of my throw and whether or not the spinning dice stay nice & tight along with whether or not I can consistently hit the same spot on the couch about 90" away from my "throwing station". Below are some highlights, thoughts, and observations.

1. I played only $10 and $15 dollar tables because the $5 tables (yes, there were a couple of them!!) were filled with random throwers and really obnoxious people. While I was hanging out with my buddy who was playing blackjack, the table got REALLY hot (random chucker), but about 30 min later, it got incredibly cold. Players who kept playing eventually lost the majority of their winnings.

2. My arm is clearly calibrated to a 12′ table. Two of the casinos had both 12′ and 14′ tables. The number of chip stations to the left or right of the stickman told me what the length of the tables were.

3. One of my friends insisted on watching me shoot because he’d heard about the exploits of these GTCers. That ratcheted up the pressure because I felt like I had to prove something, so I made a mental note that I needed to stay calm.

4. If you want to influence the dice, you gotta get a routine down before tossing them. Like my free throws in basketball, the routine calmed me down and helped me stay focused.

5. I took the advice of some of the posters here and a couple of the books that I’ve been reading: even if a random shooter passes the 5 count, I refuse to play with them. And it paid off. Several of them passed the 5 count only to seven out on the 7th or 8th roll! That decision saved me some money.

6. My first shooting session was 16 rolls. $15 pass line with $20 or $25 odds depending on the point. I’m not quite ready to put a lot of money down just yet because I need to be more consistent. I hit one 7 on a come out roll (which took away my pre-existing come bet), but overall, my session was good enough for a $50 profit.

7. My next shooting session was awesome (at least by my standards)! While my friend was playing blackjack, I headed over to a $10 table (which emptied out because it went from $5 to $10). I took my usual position (SL1) and decided during my shooting session that I would only bet a single pass line because I just wanted practice. I ended up with a 28 roll session, by far my best shooting session since the GTC Primer! I’m finally in the 20 roll club! I only won $10, but I didn’t really care because I felt that the casino experience was the best.

8. I got backed off AGAIN during my 28 roll session. Except this time, it was just plain weird. I tossed the dice down my "alley way": roughly 6-8 inches from the side wall with a landing spot about 4-6 inches from the back wall. The stickman asked me the throw the dice towards the middle of the table because I was in danger of "hitting the guy who is standing to my right". In fact, when he instructed me to do so, he sounded agitated (and I wasn’t even close to putting that player in any sort of danger!). I dealt with this back off much better because I continued rolling without getting flustered. BUT…has anyone else received a comment like that from the stickman?

9. During the 28 roll session, the ONLY seven I hit was when I finally sevened-out. Needless to say, I was thrilled. My only regret is that I didn’t get to 30 rolls. My friend, who finally joined me after his blackjack run, couldn’t believe how I was shooting. Afterwards, he commented that my delivery and arm motion was extremely consistent, and he walked away VERY impressed. In fact, during dinner, HE was talking about it with the other dads more than me!

10. The 28 roll session was on a table that felt EXTREMELY bouncy, but that didn’t appear to have too much of an effect on my rolls.

11. I sevened-out after 12 rolls during my 3rd and final session the next day, so I lost my winnings. Put in $300 and walked away with $240 for that session. There was no sense in sticking around since I had gained some more valuable casino experience…which was my end goal, anyways.

12. I loved the feeling of the dice leaving my finger tips. My arm is now straight (after a lot of tweaking), I have much better spin on the dice, and I believe my grip on the dice is light with just enough pressure so that it leaves my fingers rather than me throwing them off my fingers (if that makes any sense).

13. The two times I hit a 7 where when I was short to the wall (but I hit my spot), and the dice literally DIED on the spot. No bounce, nothing…it just landed right on the face with a 7 showing: either a 4-3 or a 5-2. While I was disappointed, that told me that I was throwing correctly.

14. Finally, I met another controlled shooter during my 3rd session! He was the only shooter I bet on during the weekend. We chatted, and he hadn’t taken any lessons (he heard of GTC and name dropped a couple of people within the dice controlling community), but his form was pretty good: decent arm action (could’ve kept it straighter), solid grip, same dice set (hard 8), etc. But poor back spin. Nonetheless, he was worth betting on. Before I left, we traded contact info.

I’m looking forward to one or two more trips to either LV or SLT this year before August. Those will prove useful as I continue to tweak my throw before I get to receive some more direct instruction in August at the Refreshers course (just e-mailed and asked to be registered as an attendee!). AND…I’m about to put my order in for a 10′ craps table this weekend. That will come in about 2 months, and I’m just absolutely thrilled.

This craps thing is fun. 😛

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