Golden Touch Craps

Posts of Distinction of the Month - March

The entire committee voted unanimously to give both The Director and Scan a POD for their posts. There is no POM this month. We hope that as the primer and refresher students get more comfortable and more experience, we will be seeing more posts from them.

Goddess

On February 10, 2010, the man known as "The Captain" passed away.

The Captain was the leader of a Runyonesque group of fun loving gamblers that frequented Atlantic City in the 1980's and 1990's.
The former president of "the Claridge" Robert Renneisen wrote about a band of AC Craps players in his book "How to be Treated Like a High Roller". Some believe he was referring to the Captain and his crew.

The Captain's "First Mate" was a WWII veteran known as "Jimmy P" a big money player that turned his game around by playing the "super system."

"John the Analyzer" a fashion designer in the real world, was a conservative bettor making only low house edge bets. However, once he started with a few cocktails he turned into to a wild gambler risking his cash on high house edge bets hoping for a big score.

The gravely voiced,"Russ the Breather" suffered from emphysema He was a brilliant man with a dry sense of humor.

"The Doctor"was a surgeon that once save the life of a man that suffered a heart attack at the table.

"Vic" was an wiz with numbers and an expert blackjack player.

"Frank T" met "The Captain" in 1933 when they were students in Brooklyn's PS 103.

"Phil the Forgetful" often left chips on the table and the rail.

"Fearful Frank" was also in the crew.

The female members were "Rose", "Connie" and of course "Ceel" known as "The Arm" she was a natural dice influencer with a unique knuckle ball type toss.

Back in those days Frank was a junior member of the crew (known as Barnacles) as was Dave (Satch), and Alan Tinker.

I believe just about all of the main crew members have either passed or retired from craps.

Having been on this board for quite a while now, I have seen many members come and go. I have watched the core group of players evolve and become the " NEW CREW."

This new crew has two "Co-Captains" - Frank and Dominic.

The first mate is probably ___________ ( Decided at the last minute that I am not sure who the First mate actually is. So I rewrote part of this post)

I speculated about the members of the new crew and the barnacles..... Of course this is not an official rooster and it is certainly not all inclusive.... just a fun exercise. ( I probably left out a bunch of people.... I apologize in advance)

Today's Crew includes:

Jerry (Stickman), Armin (Pitboss), Charlie (Sand Trap), Jack (Raging Baritone), Skinny, Mr. Finesse, Glue Factory, Section8, Not2soon, No field five, Timmer and a few others

Marilyn (Goddess) is the new Ceel a/k/a "The Arm)

The Barnacles ( Not a pejorative term) include

Dice Pilot, Big Ron, Lois and Clark, Marksman, emaloney, Charlie F, DBR, Missouri Rick, Boxcar, Timmer, Dr. Crapology, Aligator Rose, Yoow, ACPA and a bunch of others

The Captain's crew was larger than life, each with his/her own eccentricity... I do not know most of the today's crew's background but I am sure each person has an interesting story. Perhaps the "NEW CREW" will someday find themselves immortalized in a book

In "Beat the Craps out of the Casino", The Captain of Craps stated,
 "I enjoy playing with members of my crew because there is an immediate camaraderie at the table."
I would bet that this feeling is shared by each member of today's crew.

I was doing so well in AC. Holding my own at the tables and my toss was looking very good in practice.

I get back home all excited about the tweaks the instructors made and started practicing again at home. I was having a real rough time of it, not getting the same results as I did in AC at the refresher.

I have an 8ft practice rig, custom made by a craftsman who put a lot of time into making the action, yet my toss was not even close to what I was able to achieve in AC.

After 4 days of frustration I think I figured out my problem.

I keep playing with my chips in that special way.

Like some of us I have a set of chips on my table to practice my betting and to measure my results of my practice financially.

What I have come to realize is that practicing my betting is at best distracting and at worse interfering in the concentration needed for effective practice.

Betting should be a known quantity. There should be no question about how I am betting when I get to the casino. No questions, the plan should be laid in place long before I touch the dice for real.

Those that have read my previous posts know that I have tried, and failed, to figure out a way to maximize my winnings through some kind of betting system. I gave up on that a few months back after realizing that all I was doing was maximizing the amount that the house was eating into my winnings.

Yet I kept playing with my chips and I did go blind.

Blind to the focus I needed on the real practice that I needed. Rolling the dice and building muscle memory for my controlled throw.

So, the chips are in their case, waiting for that Texas Hold' em home game never to see my craps table again.

Never again will I try to satisfy my self by playing with my chips. I will save myself for the real thing when my focus during practice will pay off when the chips hit my rack.

My satisfaction will be a growing 401G, not how much I can 'make' in practice.

Good practice to all.