Craps: Quick Tips For The Controlled Shooter

Most of what we learn is through trial and error and I’m always appreciative when I learn something before needing to ‘step in it’ to learn it. Hopefully some of the tips below will help you avoid the pain of ‘experiencing’ the pitfall before learning it.

Make sure your comfortable

Dice Influence is such a delicate skill that it doesn’t take much to affect your abilities at the tables. To ensure that you’re comfortable at the tables…

Wear comfortable shoes
Make sure your clothes are non-binding and don’t restrict your motions
Use the bathroom just before heading to the tables (whether you need to or not)

Keep your fingers and hands clean and dry

As you know, any moisture or grime on your fingers will affect your ability to execute an effective controlled toss. To avoid any issues, take the following steps.

Wash your hands with soap and warm water before going to the tables
Keep some tissues in the pocket of your tossing hand to dry off any sweat (some casinos get warm)
- Some shooters keep alcohol wipes or powder in a small baggie in their pocket
Avoid touching the rail with your tossing hand as much as possible

Avoid emotion and fatigue

Controlled shooters know the importance that ‘clarity of focus’ has on their ability to flip the odds on the casino and the impact if will have on their winnings.

Never play when you’re angry, depressed or mentally distracted
Get plenty of rest before going to the tables. Just as fatigue negatively affects an athlete’s performance, so to, will it impact your ability at the table
The positive, confident and clear headed you are, the better your performance will be

Bet on MYB

Avoid being obvious

Your goal is to get in and out of the casino with your winnings without drawing heat on yourself, or even worse, getting banned from the casino

Act natural (as though you’re just there to have a good time)
Chat with the dealers and players at the table
Learn to set and pick up the dice quickly, smoothly and with little delay

Avoid the crowds

Your goal is to have the dice in your hands as much as possible when you’re at the table. It avoids having to deal with random rollers and it lets you get in and out of the casino quickly.

Play during off-times (early mornings, weekday afternoons, etc.)
Avoid peak times and weekends
With less players at the table, you’re more likely to find a landing zone free of chips and odds bets

Tip the dealers

You want the dealers on your side, not drawing heat on you or trying to interrupt your flow. The easiest way to do that is to give them a stake in your game. Sometimes they’ll even tip you off if heat is on the way. (I only tip when I have the dice)

Place a bet for the dealers on the p
oint
Every couple of hits, put a hardways bet down for the dealers from your winnings
When you’re winning, replace the dealer bets when they come down

Avoid heat at the craps table

Looking and acting naturally will only buy you time in keeping the heat away until you start tossing the dice symmetrically down the table and start hitting point after point.

When the pit boss starts watching your toss, place a couple of hardways bets for $1 each and throw a craps or horn bet down. You’ll end up seeing the pit boss smile and walk away since no professional craps player would waste their money on those house heavy bets.
This will buy you a little more tim
e before the casino heat arrives again.

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Hide your winnings

The second time heat arrives, you’ll see the pit boss check your rack and get an estimate of much you have there in chips. Then he’ll walk over to the computer and check what you bought in for to see how much in winnings you’ve accumulated. The best way to get him/her to walk away again, is to hide your winnings. Here’s what I do;

I buy in for $1,000 and once the game starts again, I’ll casually take $400 to $500 in black chips and put them in my pocket
- Now, if I’m up $700 when the pit boss checks, they think I’m only up $200, and walk away again
Once I lose the dice, I’m going to casually get more of my chips into my pocket and be back to $500 on the rail before I get the dice back
- Yes, there will be times when your pockets are filled with chips, but that’s a good problem to have
When you’re done playing, only color up the chips that are on your rail and don’t expose the chips in your pockets

Don’t get greedy

Getting greedy kills the golden goose. The last thing you want is to get flagged and watched when you hit the tables, or worse, get banned from the casino.

Once you hit your win goal, b
e happy, and get out of the casino. At minimum, stop playing and go do something else for a while.
When you start getting real heat at the table, regardless of whether or not you’ve hit your win goal, get out of the casino.
- It’s much better to live to fight another day, than to lose this source of income

Bouncy Tables

With casinos continuing to try to find ways to dampen the skills of controlled shooters and keep the dice as random as possible, there are more and more bouncy tables appearing at the casinos. Have no fear… they’re still beatable.

Lower the angle of your toss. You’ll need less impact from the downward pressure during the descent of your dice onto the table.
Move your landing zone away from the backwall to give the dice more time to expel the increased energy the bouncy table gave to the dice before hitting the backwall.
The combination of these two items is usually enough to get the control back in your hands.
- Lighten your betting until you’ve got you’re toss re-zoned in.

Bouncy Dice

Believe it or not, I’ve been in a couple of casinos that are now using dice that are lighter than the norm. This causes the dice to bounce around the table like jumping beans. If you find that…

Get out of that casino. I haven’t found, or heard, of a way to combat that yet. If and when I do, (or if anyone out there knows) I’ll update this section.
Hopefully this is a one off and not a new trend at the casinos.

For more information on becoming a Controlled Shooter and flipping the odds on the casino, check out…