Attending A Dice Control Class in Las Vegas

Attending A Dice Control Class in Las Vegas

by Jerry Patterson

In this article, I present you with a first person account of a relatively new Dice Control Player attending a Class and Dealer School Practice Session in Las Vegas (March 2001).

You will experience the Class, meet the attendees and the instructors through his eyes and be right there with him as he tries PARR (Patterson Rhythm Roll) out in the casinos.

This account, e-mailed by the student in installments to the PARR list server network, has been edited to disguise the names of the writer and the students he meets. I have changed the writer's name to "R." Otherwise, it's as he wrote it.

R knows how to write and this is a classic gambling story. You will enjoy reading R's story even if you have no interest in craps or dice control.

Here is R's Account - - -

Introduction

The PARR box arrives around Thanksgiving and I begin 2 months of frustrating practice. Results are so-so. Sometime late December the PARR Play Weekend schedule arrives, and I'm thinking I can't wait until March this ain't gonna work--I'll go to Vegas in January, throw the dice on real tables, then send for my refund.

Before my trip, I call Fletch anyway and reserve a spot. I do surprisingly
well, and continue into a 2nd 2 months practice--more focused, adjusting, modifying, experimenting, reviewing the manual, viewing the videotape, browsing the archives for tips and in the final 3 weeks or so before the Weekend, the results get better and better--so much so that I'm dampening my optimism and enthusiasm, not letting myself get carried away.

No feedback you see, I don't really know what I'm doing. Along the way I fantasize (a little) what if I can get to play at the same tables as Sharpshooter, LongArm, and the other experts--the money I might make!

Pre-class Trip

Hello PARR Network,

From a new enlistee (R) who will attend the 3/24-25 LV seminar. I bring to the table (pun intended) over 30 years experience in Nevada craps play. After 2 months practice with the PARR box and the HW set, I spent the week before Super Bowl in downtown LV cautiously testing my PARR.

I felt that the box was way too bouncy and didn't know what my throws
would be like on real tables. A skeptic since my school days, I bet small on my own hands. The tables turned out to be friendlier than the box and the practice served me well in distance, trajectory, and momentum factors.

I threw decent hands a little more often than not and my confidence increased with each session. I warmed up some cold tables, kept losing players "in the game" with my hands, and even caused one player to remark to a newly arriving one, "this guy is GOOD, I'm waiting for him to shoot again," (whereupon, I obliged with another good hand)! Mind you, I still threw early 7s, but my new attitude was "no problem-- I'll get it right the next time."

My trip ended plus 80 units, with many decent hands, a couple good ones, and a near great one. Not bad for a maiden voyage, but alas, I had violated Key #3 on page l.l of the training manual: do NOT bet on other shooters (unless they show rhythmic rolling ability).

The win would have been 3 or 4 times bigger if I had bet only on my own
hands.

In future sessions, maybe a screening or qualifying method will help me cut risk on playing other shooters. Or maybe I'll concentrate my play during the morning hours between breakfast and noon when the tables are empty.

I've started practicing the other sets, and my initial feeling is they are better than the hard ways set, but time will tell if this is true as I continue training. Hoping to learn and improve, I look forward with optimism to the March weekend.

Initial Assessment of PARR Weekend Class

Thanks a million, Jerry, Sharpshooter, Fletch, and everyone else involved in putting together a terrific PARR Weekend. To anyone out there who has not attended one of these, make every effort to do so: this is a Must-Do.

To witness in person Sharpshooter (The Best There Is) tossing the dice
is in itself "worth the price of admission."

Jerry Patterson struck me as possessing the visage and demeanor of a spiritual leader. For me, PARR may turn out to be one of those watershed things. There is so much more to what Jerry has initiated than the gaming aspect. Mark my words: if we earnestly practice total PARR (not merely the technical end), we will find our lives, indeed ourselves, much improved and enhanced. And it is Jerry's hand in this that has attracted people like you and me.

If you asked casual observers, say, non-gambling neighbors or relatives just returning from their first trip to Vegas, to describe what kind of players they saw the craps tables, they'd likely use terms like: rowdy, brusque, boisterous, bellicose, and the like. Tell them you were going to a dice seminar? Imagine what their thoughts were. They'd likely have not noticed the quieter players at the tables. Well, by and large, those attending this PARR seminar were intelligent, thoughtful, generous, gentle even, and genuinely goodhearted decent folks. This is the impression that will stick with me whenever I recall this weekend.

Arrival in Las Vegas

THURSDAY 8 PM, MARCH 22: There must hundreds of worse places to stay in Las Vegas, but the BW Mardi Gras is old--what? At least 40 years? Its staff is cordial and courteous--but one of several inconveniences is great enough to cause me later to politely ask a manager for an adjustment in rate, which she granted post-haste.

After unpacking, I headed off to my usual haunts Downtown. Betting conservatively (first night), I took a small profit off of other shooters at the Main Street Station and headed next door to the Cal. There I settled
in at DR-hook-#1 (my favorite spot from my non-throwing pre-PARR years).

I threw a good hand from this long distance slot (by the way, I had a couple decent hands from this spot in January, too, and also by the way, I'm firmly in the Place Betting Camp), a good hand with several comeout 7s (I set 7s), and maybe 3 or 4 point makes (setting 3Vs and 2Vs).

A couple of heavy hitters on the table picked some nice change off of this
hand, and the funny thing is that table was SILENT--tranquil--no cheering at all--did my demeanor and personality affect the other players? Or was it that I had a Zone experience and not heard it? I think the former.

The next shooter, a Hawaiian non-PARR 3Vs setter followed me with a very decent hand himself. They cheered HIS winning throws. Very pleased with the profits, I cashed in and headed off to visit my high school buddy who is now a senior bartender at Sam's Town. During school lunch hours, we ran 5 & 10-cent BJ games.

An "Early Bird Session" before the class

FRIDAY, 2 P.M. MARCH 23: I arrive at Gary P.'s Early Bird Paris session, (thanks again, Gary) recognize no one, see no pins, try a $25 table, move to a $10 table when SL opens there, can't find the range (my set-up at home's slightly longer distance than from this SL). Out of the corner of an eye, see a bunch of people, must be them, feel a twinge at my throat: social reticence--hesitate, the stick pushes the dice to me, I grip the rail cushion and pick up the dice--the game becomes my security blanket (oh well some of them will soon come here there's lot of room), after 7ing out, a lady squeezes into SL apologizing. She soon gets her turn and immediately I know You're L aren't you I'm R. (L, thanks for your kind remarks.)

How fortunate I am to have such a fine, attractive, down-to-earth lady, and with a great sense of humor, to remember as my very first in-person PARR player contact. After some promising near- decent hands, my shooting goes south and I catch myself trying to stretch out this session and close the gap to the 5 p.m. Open House.

To be continued in next month with and introduction to "Ice" and the Long Hand with "High Five."

Editor's Note: For more on dice control, pick up a copy of Jerry Patterson's book – Casino Gambling: A Winner's Guide to Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Baccarat and Casino Poker