Let’s face it. Every hand that a precision shooter throws, be they novice or journeyman shooter, eventually ends with failure. Whether hand lasts three rolls, or ten or thirty rolls, an eventual unintended seven arrives in due course. If we were capable of throwing a perfectly executed controlled toss every time, perhaps this would not be case, but bottom line is we CAN’T throw a perfectly executed toss every time. The seven is inevitable. This is a fact of life for a precision shooter. This doesn’t mean that you should live in fear of seven. As I’ve stated before, as a precision shooter, if you’re shooting in fear of seven, you are giving it power over you.

We’ve established then that for every hand you throw as a dice influencer, it will end in failure. We aren’t going to dwell on negative aspects of that right now. The purpose of this article is to determine whether you are getting most out of those failures at tables.

Every Session Is A Learning Opportunity I’ve been involved with precision shooting for several years now. Regardless, I still approach every session as an opportunity to learn something new. Perhaps it’s a new betting method, maybe it’s a fresh approach to money management, or being more adept at troubleshooting my throw while I’m at table. There is always room for growth. Anyone who tells you that they know everything there is to know about game and about precision shooting is delusional or has an ego that’s run amok. Continued growth is extremely important to your future success at tables as a precision shooter specifically and as a craps player in general.

Debrief I certainly hope by now, you know importance of keeping session notes. The Mad Professor has several articles on subject, as well as MickeyD’s article Notes, Notes, Notes. I’m aware that a lot of shooters keep session notes solely for purpose of keeping track of wins and losses. That’s really a secondary purpose. The main purpose for keeping notes is for gaining insight into future sessions. Your session notes will provide a method for you to FAIL BETTER in future.

That was my initial impression of Scoblete's new book which I posted on message board a few weeks back. Now I've had a chance to re-read book a couple of times and fully digest it. Fortunately, I acquired one of pre-release copies of book, gratis. I would have had a SERIOUS case of buyers remorse had I actually paid $24.95 for this 315 page hard cover dog.

My complete review follows.

I read a lot. I spend an hour and a half each work day on a train, so I go through books quickly. In my library, I have probably 40 to 50 books on craps specifically or gambling in general. In all gambling books I've read, I can unequivocally say that no matter how poorly written or conceived book was, I've always found some redeeming quality in book. The Craps Underground is exception. If a good gambling book is like a delicious filet mignon, this book is more akin to stuff they feed people on TV show, Fear Factor.

Let's start with ENTIRE title of book. The Craps Underground - The Inside Story of How Dice Controllers Are Winning Millions from Casinos. Pure, unadulterated hype. For arguments sake, we'll assume that "Millions" means something more than one or two million, ten million would be a reasonable starting point, and it's at least implied that it also means millions in net profit. Last spring, Frank Scoblete estimated that there are fewer than 200 skilled "dice controllers" operating in US. By doing a little division, that would mean on average, those 200 dice "controllers" are taking down $50,000 in profits, each. Except for a few rather well bankrolled shooters, there is no evidence that average dice controller is showing that kind of profit. Yes, many dice influencers are consistently profitable but title alone, and I'll repeat myself here, is unadulterated hype.

So, now let's get into book a bit. Chapter one opens with Scoblete having a marathon winning session with dicecoach, Beau Parker. Here's how Scoblete describes session with dicecoach,

"...seven glorious hours shooting dice with a fellow dice controller and newfound friend known as 'Bodacious One,' Beau Parker."

This session, and these warm expressions of friendship for dicecoach occurred just a few months prior to formation of GTC. I'll get back to that later.

Let's dive a little further into this drivel. In early chapters, we get to hear Scoblete wax poetically about "the Captain," again. Yawn.... hasn't he beaten that horse to death yet? Then he introduces various future members of GTC organization. Apparently, these guys never lose! Or if they do happen to have a poor session, it is quickly followed by a miraculous comeback. AMAZING! There are a couple of chapters on "The Lee Brothers." These two chapters are almost engaging. Except for one thing. OF COURSE "The Lee Brothers" coincidentally have read all of Scoblete's books, and religiously play like captain. Subtle as a freight train, that Scoblete.

There's a chapter on Las Vegas Craps Festival which I participated in. Scoblete briefly mentions me here, and he certainly had opportunity to take some shots at me if he wanted to. Surprisingly he didn't though, for whatever reason. However, he did misrepresent what I discussed that day. Here's what he had to say about me.

"Irishsetter has strong opinions."

Well, he got THAT part right but later went on to say,

"In fact, Irishsetter made a strong pitch that people shouldn't be paying or charging to learn dice control, that all information should be free."

In all actuality, I said nothing of sort. The gist of my discussion was twofold. One, that aspiring dice influencers should learn as much as possible for free, or as cheaply as they can, and two, that there is no one single correct philosophy on how to set, grip and throw dice. My opinion today is no different. If you're interested, I have an article on dicesetter.com which goes further into my discussion that day called, The "Missing" Tape - The Article. My guess is that given opportunity, Scoblete didn't want to take any obvious shots at me, but instead chose to misrepresent my discussion in an attempt to embarrass me since I do occasionally participate in seminars. What IS missing in book, is what Scoblete talked about that day. One of major points of his discussion was that dice influencers would soon begin to experience kind of heat that card counters get if they didn't go "underground." It seems Scoblete had a change of heart. Either that, or his definition of going "underground" is hyping dice influencing in books, holding seminars in casinos, and advertising dice control on radio and in newspapers and magazines.

Blah, blah, blah. Several chapters not even worth mentioning.