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.

Chromosomes are strands of DNA that act as a map. They map out exactly how rabbit will look. In each cell, inot including sex cells and red blood cells, a rabbit has 22 chromosomes. Each one of these pairs controls a different thing about rabbit. For example, one might control rabbits gender, some control colour, others control fur. Each chromosome pair has two genes in it. These genes may be same, or they might be different, but there are always two (unless there is a genetic mutation, but we will not discuss that here). For example, a rabbit might have two genes for blue eyes. Conversely, a rabbit might have one gene for red eyes, and one gene for brown eyes.

If a rabbit has two of same type of genes in a certain chromosome pair, it is referred to as being homozygous for that particular gene. If it has two different genes in a certain chromosome pair, it is referred to as being heterozygous.

If a rabbit is heterozygous, one of genes is usually stronger than other. That means that stronger gene will be one to cause effect n rabbit, and weaker one will just hide, though it can still be passed on to rabbit's offspring. Stonger genes are referred to as being dominant, and weaker genes are called recessive. For example, if a rabbit had one gene for red eyes and one gene for brown eyes, rabbit would have brown eyes because gene for brown eyes is dominant to gene for red eyes. For a rabbit to have red eyes, it would have to be homozygous for red eyes, since gene for red eyes is most recessive.

Sometimes certain genes are not really stronger or weaker than another. These genes are referred to as being incompletely dominant to each other. This means if two different genes that were incompletely dominant to each other were in same rabbit, rabbit would have traits from both genes. In flowers, and example of an incompletely dominant gene can be found when you breed a white flower and a red flower and you get a pink flower.

Colour Genes

Each variety of rabbits requires many genes in order to look way they look. Certain genes are related, and they are all found on same are of DNA strand. These groups of genes are called loci, or locus if it is just one.

You may have seen some genetics stuff written with a bunch of ABC's and other letters. Well, those are how various loci and genes are written. Genes have their own alphabet. When "letters" of genetics alphabet are all put together, it is referred to as rabbit's genotype. This is basically a list of all colour genes that rabbit has, or at least ones that are important to understanding that particular variety.

A LOCUS

The first "letter" in genetics alphabet is "A." This determines basic pattern of rabbit. The genes are as follows:

A: Agouti Pattern - These rabbits have tan, white, or fawn markings on belly, underside of tail, inside of feet and legs, inside ears and nostrils, around eyes, and in shape of a triangle at nape of neck. On body, fur has rings of different colours when you blow into coat.

a(t): Tan Pattern - Like agouti pattern, these rabbits have tan, white, or fawn markings on belly, underside of tail, inside of feet and legs, inside ears and nostrils, around eyes, and in shape of a triangle at nape of neck. However, body does not have different colour rings when you blow into coat.

a: Self Pattern - Each hair is a solid colour, and there are no tan, white, or fawn markings.

B LOCUS

"B" is next "letter". This "letter" tells rabbit how intense colour of fur is. The genes are as follows: