I've been playing craps since July of 1998. Of course, I'd seen many dice shooters who would set the dice in some way. For years, I never took it seriously, for they seemed to have about the same results as random shooters like myself.

     The first indication that maybe there was something to dice setting (arranging the dice prior to shooting them) was in 2002, (mentioned in the 8/24/2002 entry of this blog), when this guy was setting the dice, and he kept saying "Come on, snake!" (meanig he wanted to roll a 2, or snake-eyes). The desired roll came up for him six times. Since the probability of rolling snake-eyes ONCE is only one in 36 rolls of the dice, to roll that six times would take an average of 216 rolls of the dice! I know for a fact that the guy didn't roll the dice one-eighth that many times during one turn of shooting the dice. Nobody has shot the dice 216 times in one turn (I think the record is 154 times). I should have seen back then that there has to be something to this dice setting, if done correctly.

     Over the years, I've developed into a craps player, who ends up ahead two out of three times on average (yes, I've lost more money than I've won in all). I've said to people that my main strength in this game is the way I bet, not my shooting of the dice. The first time I'd even considered making dice setting part of my repertoire, was in early 2012, when I was at the Plaza casino in Las Vegas, and someone had told me after one of my wins, "You're too good of a player to be shooting the dice like you don't know what you're doing." That got me to thinking that maybe I should learn more about dice setting. I first tried it while on that Las Vegas trip. Not having a clue on how exacting dice setting really is, to do it right, I pretty much bombed at it, and dismissed the whole thing.

     It wasn't until early 2014 that I started taking dice setting more seriously. By that time, I had gone on YouTube, and started downloading craps videos. I'd seen the story of the Dice Dominator, and it was very inspiring. It was then that I'd learned just how much goes into dice setting and more importantly, how one grips and tosses the dice. The concept of the mechanics behind all of that, I understood, because I used to be an avid bowler, and a lot of the same concepts regarding the mechanics, applied to bowling (I averaged just over 200 the last seven years I bowled, mastering the mechanics). I saw KogaNinja's YouTube videos on the various dice sets, and I started learning some of them. Unfortunately, 2014 was a horrible year for me financially, so I couldn't go to casinos but barely at all that year. But on December 5th of that year, I went to the Isle of Capri casino in Lake Charles Louisiana, and tried out my new dice sets. I did the hardway dice set from positions at the table next to the dealer, and the 3V dice set from the end of the table. I ended up $232 ahead, at the end of the day. I was very much encouraged by my results.

     To say that my life's been peaches and cream, as far as dice setting goes, would be absolutely false. There are still many times I have bad shoots. I still point-seven-out every once in a while (although I'm sure I've done that much less often since I started dice setting). But overall, my results have been good enough to continue on this path of dice setting. Admittedly, I still have a long way to go before I can say that I've mastered dice setting. I do not call it dice control, because I cannot really control the dice--I cannot control the dice to the point that what roll I want to roll next, I roll. That's not how dice setting works anyway. The primary goal of dice setting is to avoid the seven-out as long as possible, for longer rolls lead to making more money at the craps table. Since I've been dice setting, I've shot 35 times each on two separate shoots (one on 6/5/2017 at Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, and the other on 12/1/2018 at L'Auberge in Lake Charles). But I'm sure I've had longer shoots as a random shooter (with my longest being probably when I held the dice for 40 minutes on 12/8/2001 at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas). My average number rolls per shoot has gone up since I started dice setting. I think that's true with other dice setters as well. However, I think random shooters' shoots have more variance. The New Jersey grandmother who shot 154 in 2009 was definitely a random shooter. But if you put the average number of rolls per shoot of that woman versus that of the Dice Dominator, Dom would definitely come out in front.

     I've been playing craps for almost 22 years now, and I'm still very much evolving as a craps player. When I was bowling, it took me 22 years before I finally bowled my first perfect game (I bowled 15 of them before I stopped). And back then, I bowled an average of twice a week, and more than 10 games a session. I can't gamble that frequently. I'm at the casinos maybe three days a month (even less now, with this damn Corona virus running rampant). I'm still experimenting with new dice sets and new betting strategies. For now, I'll just say that I've developed what I call a 415 dice set, with the fours kissing, which I've used with some success, since developing it early last year. Also, I plan to try what I call a One-Hit Regression betting strategy, once I'm able to go to the casinos again. I hope to update this blog with results of these things in the future.

     One thing that really convinced me that dice setting works with the proper mechanics, occurred last month (February, 2020) when me and my wife visited the Belle of Baton Rouge casino. The craps table was smaller than most craps tables. I used my hardway dice set, and shot a 19 with a nice easy delivery to the back wall. I probably would have shot more, had I'd been concentrating more. It takes a great deal of concentration to do dice setting correctly. It takes work, discipline, and dedication. And with that, A LOT of practice.

     That's my $.02 on dice setting. Hope you've enjoyed this article.