Gaining an edge at the craps table is possible. It is not easy. It requires lots of practice. However, the edge than can be achieved is much higher than any blackjack card counting method.

There are several components to dice control and all of them must be mastered to obtain an edge at the craps table. The Dice Control 101 series has covered them all. In this final installment, money matters as an advantage player will be discussed.

To review from the last installment on getting the monetary edge over the casino: The casino psychology departments use comps as a way to get you to measure your self-worth based on how many comps you get and what a big shot you are for getting them. No comp is worth the loss of money or sleep. Play your game and the comps will come or they won’t. Use these tricks too because they can’t hurt!

You are not playing with chips; you are playing with real money. If you win a bet, the money you won is your money now, not the casinos. When you lose a bet, that money belongs to the casino, not to you. As a smart advantage player, money matters.

The first thing you should do, if you haven’t already done so, is to set up a separate bank account for your gambling money. If you feel you don’t have enough money to do this, then you should not be going to casinos!

Your 401G account (the "G: stands for gambling) can be built, and grow, in three ways:

1. Regular deposits from your paycheck. It doesn’t matter how much you earn, take five percent and put it in the account. If that means you don’t go to a movie this week, so be it. Don’t go to a movie.
2. All gambling winnings go into the account until you reach the "magic figure," which will be discussed later.
3. If you are already a high roller, take a nice chunk of money and put it in the account. This is your gambling stake.

A 401G does several good things for an advantage player. You don’t have to berate yourself on a bad night (and there will be plenty of bad nights no matter how good you become) and say to yourself, "Golly, I could have used that money I lost for a heart operation."

Your betting levels are determined by the amount of money in the 401G. As the money goes up, your betting can go up; if the money goes down, your betting goes down. The idea is to never get wiped out of the game.

The "magic number" in a 401G is the amount you reach (i.e., a goal you set) that allows you to take some of that money and reward yourself and use it for other things like a new car, a new house, or a non-casino, non-gambling vacation. How much is the "magic number?" Well, that depends on you.

For every dollar that you wager in the casino on one bet in craps, you should have $400 to $1,000 in your 401G backing it up. So, if you wager six dollars on the 6 and 8 (a $12 total bet), you want a low of $4,800 to a high of $12,000 in your 401G. If you want to bet $120 on the 6 and 8, then you should have $96,000 to $240,000 in your 401G.

Why such high amounts? Because as a controlled shooter the last thing you want to think about is the amount of money you are betting. You want the money that you are betting on yourself to be inconsequential – as if you were rolling the dice to win matchsticks. The worst thing that could happen in the mind of a controlled shooter is thinking: "Oh, my God, I have a lot of money on the layout!" That will take you right out of your game. Unlike card counting in blackjack, where you just have to keep the count and the cards come out the way they come out, in controlled shooting, you create the edge – and the mind is a major part of that skill. When your mind wanders or worries, you throw will be adversely affected.

The "magic number" comes about when you say to yourself, "I can’t bet more than this amount because I get nervous." This is a very personal thing. You will need to determine for yourself where you become nervous and manage the size of your 401G accordingly.

Now, what happens when the account goes down? Simple – you reduce the amount you bet. Your must limit the total amount bet to within the 1/1000 to 1/400 of your 401G.

As a controlled shooter, you quit a session when you feel tired – either mentally or physically. When a controlled shooter gets tired, it negatively impacts his performance. Random shooters can be exhausted and it has no effect on their chances of winning or losing.

As a controlled shooter, you have a mental situation that random rollers do not have. Random rollers hope that they can win; they don’t really expect to win. As a controlled shooter you always expect to win – and losing hits you hard. We never get used to the 7 showing! When we throw we are stunned when we seven-out – which could happen on each and every turn of the dice.

If you lose on several of your rolls in a row, even if you are wide awake and seemingly alert, that is a good time to walk away and take some time to recompose yourself. Losses are harder for controlled shooter. That is just the way it is.

Some Golden Touch Craps students have to constantly wage a battle between the old gambler that they once were and the advantage player they are becoming. The gambler wants action, action and more action – that is even more important than winning. The advantage player wants to win money. The gambler wants to make stupid bets; the advantage player wants to keep his bets at a low house edge level so that he can overcome them with his skill. Gamblers like to play long hours.

If you are a gambler, you will find that following the whole Golden Touch routine might be very difficult for you. First you will try to figure out a better way than the 5-Count to bet on random rollers; then you will con yourself into thinking there is money to be made on random rollers because some of them have winning rolls. You might also play when tired. You may shoot the dice form the end of the table because you desire action, action, and more action. But, the more mistakes you make, the closer you become to a just another loser.

There are even some skilled controlled shooters who are long term losers because they haven’t been able to tame their inner gambler. That inner gambler is a tiger looking to eat your bankroll. The Hindus call their inner self "the wild monkey." It is indeed.

As an advantage player the money you gamble with definitely matters. You need a relatively large bankroll in order to have the best chance of shooting well and to minimize tapping out in the short term. You need the discipline to avoid shooting when you are tired or distracted. You need the discipline to only make the best bets. You need the discipline to know when to quit – and then quit.

The Dice Control 101 series discussed everything that is needed to become a controlled shooter and an advantage player. Take these suggestions to heart and you are well on your way to becoming a long term winner in the casinos. Until then…..

All the best in all your casino and life endeavors.

Jerry "Stickman"