8 Pillars of Winning from
Heavy at Axis Power Craps

from his 04/30 email monthly newsletter:


If you want to win serious money, you’ve got to play like the serious players do. You’ve got to build your game on a rock-solid foundation—on the eight pillars I’ve laid out in my past craps articles and seminar books over the years. Let me remind you what they are, because clearly, a lot of you skipped that chapter over the last twenty years.

First, Knowledge of the Game. I still hear players at the table asking, “How do you play this game?” while their chips are on the line. Are you kidding me? You should know the rules cold—every bet, every payoff, every term. Pass, don’t pass, odds, Place and Lay Bets, the whole thing. With that said, forget that center action. You don’t need that crap. If you can’t win with the other bets I just mentioned, you probably need to be playing slots. If you don’t understand everything about both sides of the game – right side and wrong side - you’re giving up your edge before you even start.

Second, Sufficient Bankroll. Your chips are your bullets, and if you run out, you’re dead. That story I sometimes tell about the guy who bought in for $20 at the Horseshoe in Bossier City—then turned it into $9,600 on a single hand—might sound inspiring, but it’s a fluke. He got lucky. Most of the time, a short bankroll means a short night. Bankroll is money set aside specifically for gambling. It is not an extra $80 in your wallet on top of that money. It is not $200 you can pull out of your bank or credit union on your ATM card because you blew through that money you brought to the casino to gamble with. And it’s damn sure not money you have set aside to buy groceries, pay the light bill, the mortgage, put gas in the car, or pay for your kids school lunch bill. If you don’t have sufficient bankroll to play – you don’t play. Build your capital, or don’t bother stepping into the casino. Doing anything else is a recipe for failure.

Third, Conservative Strategy. You can’t play marathon sessions without a plan. My old friend, The Professor, who taught university mathematics in California back over 24 years ago, loved playing eight to ten hours a day. His strategy? He played a single Don’t Pass with Single Odds on every shooter. When the table was cold he progressed his bets by a half unit on every win. On a loss he regressed back to a single unit. That and his wife’s play were sufficient to get him fully comped for his weekend visits to Bellagio including dinner in the evenings and breakfast in the mornings. He never scored any monster wins, but he never lost either. He wasn’t chasing glory; he simply played smart. Your goals will likely differ from him. I play a much more aggressive strategy than The Professor, but I incorporate both Right Side and Dark Side strategies in my play, and am always looking for opportunities to turn every hand into a profit-making opportunity by regressing or simply taking money off the table. If the hand continues, I can always press my bets back up and out, giving me the opportunity to take even more money off the table. You need a plan that lets you ride streaks without getting crushed by the house edge.

Fourth, Money Management. I’ve seen players lose track of their own chips on the table, asking, “Is that my money?” That’s a disgrace. Set win goals and loss limits. Adjust your bets based on your bankroll. Know exactly what you’re betting in every situation, and stick to it. Without this, you’re just a ticking time bomb. Secondly, don’t take your entire trip bankroll to the tables with you every session. Break your trip bankroll down into individual session envelopes, based on the number of sessions you plan to play on this specific trip. For example, if you’re in Vegas for three nights and plan to play two sessions the first day, four the second, and four the third then you need to plan for a total of ten sessions. Assuming your trip bankroll is $5000, you’d break that down into ten individual session envelopes with $500 in each. Put all but one in the hotel room safe. Only take the envelope for the session you’re playing to the table with you and buy in with those funds. Set a win goal and loss limit. If you achieve your win goal you should set your initial buy in and your win goal aside in the back rack. Continue to play with any surplus chips you have in your rack as long as you continue to win. Lost half of those chips or lose on three consecutive shooters and you must cash out and leave the casino. Put the money you won plus your initial $500 back in that envelope and write “TAKE HOME” on the outside of the envelope. The rest of the trip, all winnings and initial buy in money will go into that envelope. Should you hit your loss limit – say it’s $350 of that $500 – then cash out and take the remaining $150 back to your room and put THAT in your Take Home envelope. Do this every session and you’ll never leave Las Vegas broke again, and there’s a very good chance you’ll go home with a win.

Fifth, Self-Discipline. Let’s be honest here. I can’t teach you self-discipline. You learn it. How? Things have to get so bad that the pain of losing is worse than the high you get from standing at the table and playing. It comes when you reach that point when you really want to feel what it feels like to win. Guys, if I said I wanted you to stand up against the casino wall and let me kick you in the groin as hard as I could for as many times as I could OR until you cried “Uncle” you’d probably cry “Uncle” before the I ever got my foot off the ground. So, every time you go to the cage and cash in a loss, I want you to imagine me kicking you in the groin. Because that’s exactly what the casino is doing. A few years ago I watched a guy lose $14,000 in 45 minutes because he couldn’t control himself—drinking, throwing $100 hop bets, $500 hardways, parlaying everything and never hitting anything. In that same 45 minutes, I walked away with a $1,200 win because I stayed disciplined, stuck with the low edge bets and followed the trend. I left the table because I simply couldn’t stand to see the poor guy do that to himself anymore. Know when to walk away, or the casino will carry you out.

Sixth, Streaks and Trends. I don’t care what the math guys say, this is one place I’m going to disagree with them. Craps is a game of streaks and trends. You’ve got to learn how to spot them and you’ve got to take advantage of them when you do. Can you predict them? No, although I’ll admit I’ve had some pretty good luck with a few trend indicators through the years. But you can recognize them—just like snow in Minneapolis. Every blizzard starts with a little snow shower. Then it picks up and you get some larger flakes and it comes down a little harder. People around you start getting ready for a heavy snow. Chains come out for the cars. You see men connecting their snow plows to the fronts of their trucks. Snowmobiles start appearing on the trails next to the highways. Then the skies open up and it dumps snow on your for 48 hours. When a shooter gets on what looks like it’s going to be a hot roll – when numbers start repeating and bets start getting pressed up – when the prop box fills up with hardways and hop bets - don’t stand there with your hands in your pockets. Get some kind of smart action on the table before the storm passes. The last person you want to be is that guy who stands there for 57 rolls saying, “He CAN’T toss another Six.” And here comes Six number sixteen and old Heavy’s getting paid $5000 for $100 off an initial bet of $18 on the Six.

Seventh, Precision Shooting. Yeah, it’s controversial, but the best players can influence the dice. The naysayers claim it can’t be done. And as long as they believe it – they’ll never be able to. But DI’s know the difference – particularly if they are dedicated. They set them, toss them softly, and aim for a spot on the table. Their toss is precise, repeatable, and the results are measurable via our signature software BoneTracker 5.8. With BoneTracker we not only verify our mathematical edge over the game, we can determine out best 24 sets of 576 possible dice pre-set arrangements. Then we take it a step further and determine our best set for every box number on the layout – our best Four, Five, Six, Eight, Nine, and Ten sets. And for those who like the challenge of Crapless Craps, you can also determine your best sets for the Two, Three, Eleven and Twelve. Darksiders – don’t feel left out. You can also look up your best set for every combination of the Sevens – Six One, Five Two, and Four Three. And to top all that off, BoneTracker also suggests the best betting strategy to use with each of those dice sets. Dice Influencers who don’t train with BoneTracker are just guessing in the dark when it comes to which set to use. Casinos hate Precision Shooters because they shift the odds. You can learn to influence the dice—most players can. Don’t just chuck the dice and pray.

Finally, Winning Attitude. Or as I like to say, “the crap between your ears.” The casino loves a loser, and I hear it players say crap that reinforces this all the time: “I just want to lose these last few chips and I’ll be ready to go eat dinner.” Are you kidding me? You’re there to win, not to tip the dealers or get a comped breakfast. You want their money—lots of it. So, act like it. Be like Ziz Zeigler and “Get rid of that stinkin’ thinkin’.” Come up with some positive affirmations and lift yourself up instead of putting yourself down. “I’m a winner capable of facing any challenges that come my way.” Or, “Every new session is filled with opportunities and I am here to cash in on them.” Visualize success. Imagine yourself walking to the cage with your pockets filled with black, purple, and yellow chips. Feel what it’s like walking up to the table your next session and buying in with a $1000 chip. That’s the winning attitude. Get it!

Team, it’s time to stop playing like amateurs. No more hop bets, no more Field bet fantasies, lay off the props, no more random tosses you pretend are skilled. Get some training if you need it. Work on your mental game and start thinking like a winner. Last of all, no more excuses. Build your game on these eight pillars, and you can become a long-term winner. Now get out there, play smart, and let’s take the casino’s money.


In my opinion, this is very appropriate for winning handicappers also!!