I knew, sooner or later if I wrote enough craps articles, I’d get around to the topic of dice control. The great myth of the craps tables. He who controls the dice can control the game. What’s your take on all this? What do you set your dice to before a throw? Does it matter? Some think so.

A common misconception of dice control is the notion that you can determine on what numbers the dice will land. By applying this technique or that spin, many feel this can be accomplished. But it can’t, not consistently. I read a great analogy online about how controlling dice is more of a game of duck, duck, goose. I can’t take credit for that, I read it on a forum, but it’s a brilliantly clear way to express how dice control really works.

What you’re doing here is setting the dice first, then gripping the dice and wafting them toward the end of the table. You apply a light backspin, just enough kick to get to the wall at the end. If the spin remains tight and even, and the dice stay together, the outcome will more often than not be something other than a seven. So basically, it’s about avoiding. It’s about not being the goose in the game. At some point, you will throw a seven, or get tapped as the goose, but the longer you can avoid it, the better chance you have at winning the game.

All these techniques take incredible patience and practice, mind you. And I certainly don’t have enough time for either. I love playing craps, but trying to manipulate the outcome and gaining an edge is something I never got into the way I did counting cards in blackjack.

The casinos can’t really do anything about this, either. I suppose if you’re openly re-arranging the dice and tossing in the same motion over and over again, and maximizing the bets when it’s your throw only, that will arouse suspicion – which is really all they need to kick you out. But they’re looking more for chip thieves then they are dice mechanics, trust me.