Heavy's Axis Power Craps Forum

A lot of readers know about Howard. A lot have seen his videos. Some have even had the pleasure of taking a class with him. Who can remember his betting strategy in the casino and what was his press schedule?

I haven't played with Howard since our time together with the "Other" DI school. Back then he would start off at table minimum and after the point was set he would place the 6 & 8 for minimum amount and after he saw his first toss he would then place the 4. Howard back then had a habit of tossing a lot of hardways and the 4 was one of his favorite numbers. He very seldom pressed his bets right away because he wanted to get his money off the table first before pressing. When he did press it was a single unit at a time and I never saw him make a so called power press. I don't know how he bet nor press after he left the group. He was a very conservative player back then but I cannot say whether he changed his ways after that.

In all of the years I played with Howard, I never saw him with more than two units on any number. If he had a $12 Six and Eight he might press them up to $18 each, but never both at the same time. He would only press the one that hit. As soon as he got one hit on that number he would regress it back down or take it down completely. He seldom had large wins, even on his 70 - 80 roll hands, but he almost never lost more than $50 - $60 on a session. You could always tell how much Howard had lost on his previous session by his buy-in the next session. He took $1000 per day to the casino. If he bought in for $943 his next session - and he'd buy in for every penny he had left from his last session - you know he lost $57 his last session. Howard also never kept any winnings he had over his $1000 buy in (as far as I know). On several occasions I saw him take "bathroom breaks" after a big hand at the table. He'd take all but $1000 of his chips with him and go to the cage and cash them in. Then he'd go to the ATM and deposit the money directly into his checking account. He was the ultimate money management guy in this respect.

Howard's conservative betting style was a perfect fit for his personality.He was constantly looking for ways to adopt best practices but always regressed to his conservative style that fit his personality and which worked well for him.I remember spending a weekend with him in A/C where he wanted me to help him better understand a betting class we had taken given by a gentlemen called Lou who had the ability to win many sessions in a row .We could not figure out how to incorporate those strategies into Howard's style of play.Lou passed away a few years ago.
I took the 7th Dominator class and Howard was my coach.Since then we played together many times over the years.
I still say develop a betting strategy that fits ones personality and test it over and over again before getting into live play. Great ideas are out there including the betting strategies Heavy teaches

I appreciate you including me in your comments, Kumar. I had a couple over yesterday for a full day class. They had done four classes previously with the other group and were prepped to do a fifth class in Vegas when they happened to be at the table with a couple of my students playing a session together. After the session they got together and talked tosses, and who learned what where, etc. They also compared wins at that table and how the heck my guys had won so much more than they had. Well, my guys didn't Come Bet, like one of the members of this couple did. And my guys pressed their bets, unlike the other member of the couple, who had no idea how to press bets because all he'd been taught to do in the other class was to count to five and make come bets - or in some cases ONE come bet which you don't replace until it wins. Then you replace it with a second come bet. Their version of money management. Okay, let's agree on one thing. Not betting is the ultimate form of money management. It's also the ultimate form of not winning. The come betting member of this partnership had trouble catching a hand more than six or seven rolls. The other member routinely tossed hands in the high teens but never made any money on his hands. Sigh. So, my friends sent these good folks to me.

Fixing their tosses was relatively easy. Stand like this. Your grip looks fine. Hold onto the table instead of laying on your arm. I want you more upright so you can see down table. Turn your head. Lift your chin. Eliminate that backswing. Toss lower and slower. Think soft like a cloud, a marshmallow, and easter chick, a bunny rabbit. And the only problem left? Neither of them could land the dice on the same spot twice. So, I asked the partner who was having problems rolling more than six or seven times in a hand where she was trying to land the dice. She pointed out a spot. I tore off a tiny piece of paper and placed it there and told her to hit it with the dice every time. It took her about a half-dozen tosses to get the range down. Then she started pounding that paper - and the sixes and eights started repeated over and over - and the hands stretched out from six to ten to sixteen and beyond. No, I didn't convert her from come betting yet, but she is playing a Place to Come strategy that I can be happy with.

As for the other part of this partnership - I got an email from him this afternoon thanking me for the class and raving about his afternoon practice session. He'd loaded up the copy of BoneTracker I provided him with and run a practice session with those brand new APC .775 dice he picked up while here. He busted out - I think it was a 27 roll hand loaded with Sixes and Eights. At one point he tossed three 12's in a row and (who'd have thunk it) the "see a horn - bet a horn" message rang a bell and he bet a $20 horn which hit twice on the 12, followed by an ace-deuce 3. I forgot to tell him to always parlay that first hit on the Horn. LOL. That would have ruined him for life. He colored up around $2K on that session. I think it might have been more but he told me he didn't know how much a Horn bet paid. Sigh. I don't think I covered that in class. Never assume.

Anyway, it's always great when a plan comes together and when you hear someone bragging on what you do. I do appreciate it.