Dice Setting Can Be Very Profitable for the Observant Craps Player

There are numerous books and articles about setting dice to increase your probability of winning. What is dice setting? Dice setting refers to a special method of launching the dice. The basic idea involved in dice setting is to develop a routine so that each toss of the dice is similar to the previous toss. Generally, the average shooter throws the dice six times before he sevens out. A good dice manipulator can throw 20 times before the dreaded seven shows. This is where profits are made by beating probability.

By developing a certain routine the dice influencer hopes to make money. If you are at a craps table for any amount of time, you will notice that many shooters have a routine when they are handed the dice. Some dice shooter's will quickly throw them a few inches away from their hand a few times for practice. Others will take both dice and slam them or tap them on the table once or twice. These routines are more superstition on the part of the shooter than they are actual useful methods. You will see people throw the dice and in arc sometimes 4 feet above the table surface and often times one of the dice or both will leave the table and delay the game. Some shooters will quickly flick their wrist and hit the backboard, very hard, causing the dice to come halfway back to the shooter. Others throw the dice so hard that chips go flying and dealers must quickly re-stack chips. These methods are useless and are not considered dice setting. The kind of shooters that use these bizarre methods of throwing the dice are referred to as chicken feeders. They are called this because their hand motions simulate a person tossing feed to chickens.

A real practitioner of dice setting has a regular method of shooting the dice. First of all, the dice setter quickly rearranges the dice in a way that will avoid shooting the dreaded seven. By practicing rearranging the dice quickly at home, the dice setter avoids detection by the pit crew. These dice setters spend hours and hours arranging the dice so that they can do it within two seconds. Arranging the dice this way avoids scrutiny by the dice table crew hired by the casino. One trick that dice setter uses is to ask the stick man to push the dice with, for instance, both sixes on top. The dice setter then quickly arranges the dice to his liking. To the untrained observer, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Now that the dice are set the shooter grips the dice in a special way. Each dice setter has one or more special ways of gripping the dice that works best for them. Some of the dice shooters grip the dice with only two fingers, one finger in front of the dice, and one finger behind the dice. Others grip the dice with three fingers, two fingers forward and one finger behind. Still others grip the dice between their little finger and thumb. The better shooters use different grips for different lengths of tables. Their grip also can change depending on their position at the table. There are many variables that these dice influencers must think about.

So now the dice setter has arranged the dice and has picked them up using a special grip. The setter throws the dice gently down the table at a specific landing target about a foot from the back board. If the toss is done right the dice will spin the same amount of revolutions through the air and land at the same time. Hopefully the dice will roll together and gently hit the backboard and rotate backward together. The dice setter is looking to hit place numbers like 10, 9,8, 6,5 and four. These numbers are the ones that pay. Ideally, the dice setter would like to hit these place numbers over and over again to make his profit. Some dice setters manage to throw 15 or more place numbers before they throw the dreaded seven. Throwing place numbers is what dice setting is all about.

Craps is a very social game. When the players are making money on a good shooter it's a lot of fun. Look at the shooter's routine. Does he pick up the dice and throw them at the same spot each time? Is he betting on those numbers? You may be witnessing a dice setter in action. Bet those numbers and make some money too.