Handling a slump

9 September 2012

By Frank Scoblete

Handling a slump
posted by Chip on the Golden Touch Craps private members-only website

Hi all, Chip here.

I am a controlled shooter and I am posting here for the first time in a while. I was fortunate to be with the GTC group in Tunica and made some money. It was great to see others have great rolls and getting together with such great friends is always a privilege. I had OK rolls but my expectations for myself were not realized. In the past I have had total domination at the tables in Tunica, which is what I have come to expect of myself.

When I rolled 10 to 15 number rolls I was disappointed ... can you imagine the audacity? Well, this was like a virus and it spread faster than a speeding bullet. This downer attitude is what I want the new students to learn about from this post. This is a malignancy and must be removed with great dispatch.

My great friends in GTC tried their best to dispel this bad attitude, but I can be a real stubborn guy. It took several good practice sessions and a trip to Las Vegas to come out of this poor frame of mind. Let this be a lesson to all. Keep your bad attitude out of the casino and I might add out of your life.

I did break the attitude with a short layoff, then as I mentioned, very serious practice sessions. I am fortunate enough to have a wife who believes in me and helped by encouraging me and acting as coach and stickman in my practice sessions.

With the change in attitude, we went out to Phoenix to visit and headed up to Las Vegas. I had some OK rolls in LV, but most importantly, my attitude was very positive.

Vicki and I entered three Texas Hold'em tournaments. In the first, Vicki and six others chopped the $4,500 with no winner declared. The next day I won the whole shootin' match! Imagine that, a GTC boy wins at another game of skill, concentration and discipline. Wonder where that came from? In the third, Vicki made the final table once again. She is also a Golden Touch Craps graduate. Way to go, Vic!

After being eliminated from the final tournament, I headed to the craps table for my final session since we were leaving the next morning. The dice were coming to a young man at SR1. I bought in and took up my position at SL1 [left of the stickman and immediately next to him]. This SR [stick right] shooter was setting the dice and delivering a very methodical throw, although not the same as taught in GTC. He made the 5-Count, I started on the 3-count with a Come bet and 45 minutes later, and several hundred dollars into the rack, he sevened out. The dice were passed to me with the instruction to follow in his tracks. My roll lasted another 45 minutes and the wood was showing where chips used to be on the casino’s side of the table except for in the orange area. What a thrill!

We drove back to Phoenix the next morning. The sky was cloudy but the reflection of our smiles was blinding to the oncoming traffic.

Lessons to be learned:

1) Maintain a positive attitude

2) PRACTICE

Chip and Dip


BILLY THE KID RESPONDS:

Chip,

That's good news.

Slumps do happen, when you look at the numbers it seems that the slumps almost have to happen, since long term SRR's in the 20s would seem unlikely, if not impossible.

You have shown a great method for overcoming these downturns. A player's attitude can help or hurt these periods of time where the hands are not as long as usual. I also like to take a lay off and practice much more when these short hands show up in rapid succession and, like most folks, have to regroup my attitude at the practice table.

Way to bust out.

Billy the Kid


ADAM TEASLEY RESPONDS:

An excellent post, Chip, because we have all experienced the bad times and sometimes we let those go to our heads. If we use a sports analogy, no baseball player goes through a season without some slumps here or there. The key thing is to not let those slumps ruin our mental game, as you so well put it. Thanks for a great lesson.

FRANK SCOBLETE RESPONDS:

I guess we can call this "slump management." I was not too good in AC last week, but I have started to come around in my practice. I had hands of 21, 15, 29 and 18. I think we all have to keep our heads screwed on straight and realize that we want to be perfect but perfection is some reach!

Good post, Chip.

BILLY THE KID RESPONDS:

I think that the ability to understand and mentally deal with the slumps and short term losses allows the wins to follow.

What I mean is, if you have a 401G [editor’s note: a 401G is an account used for gambling], and bet within the parameters that you are comfortable with, the losses won't matter and it just becomes part of the long walk you are on. If you can ACCEPT the loss you make the big win easier to accept. Knowing through your practice that you are able to win makes the bad sessions inconsequential, and easy to overcome.

You can't win each and every time, but over time you will and do win, so why worry about a small setback. It just doesn't matter.

Billy the Kid


SATCH RESPONDS: [Satch was a member of the legendary Captain’s Crew.]

Billy brings up a good point in his last post. He says that "Knowing through your practice that you are able to win makes the bad sessions inconsequential, and easy to overcome."

This is good advice for all of us. If we've been at this for a while, we all know what the perfect controlled throw should look like and what the result should be.

When the slump hits, we have to keep in mind that we are capable of good throws and have done it before both in practice and at the tables. If we've done it before, we can do it again. It may not be at this session, but we can do it and will do it in the future. That's good peace of mind for me!

[This post appeared on the private, members-only Golden Touch website. Get a free 60-day subscription. Just e-mail Frank Scoblete at fscobe@optonline.net.]