Practice Makes Competent

I just received a funny as in stupid email quoting a writer who recently took up dice control. Now this writer never built or bought a practice station or craps table and he rarely practiced. He would on rare occasions throw the dice on his bed. His SRR hovered around 1 to 6.3 – which is slightly enough to beat the game of craps if you make very low house edge bets.

Now this writer was complaining that getting an edge and winning at craps by controlled shooting is not easy to do and that he didn’t think anyone was really beating the game based on his experiences. He had also written that he didn’t need to practice, as he saw no difference in his skill level in the casinos after practicing dice control a few days at home on his bed.

So now he is down about dice control.

If he were a baseball player who never went to spring training, who never took batting practice or fielding practice or warmed up before a game and then he wondered why he wasn’t putting up strong statistics – or even competent statistics – we would think the guy was nuts.

You can’t get good at dice control without serious practice. That is an unarguable fact. Practice may not make you a perfect dice controller but it will make you a competent one. You cannot become competent at craps and hope to win if you don’t practice.

The GTC instructors, all of those who have had many 40-plus and 50-plus rolls practice almost every day. I practice almost every day. That’s how you maintain your edge. Dice control is not like riding a bicycle. It’s more like hitting a baseball. If you don’t practice whatever skills you have will erode.

I feel sorry for this writer because he has unfortunately sold himself a bill of goods that you can achieve something without effort. He can’t.