My story starts with a phone call that I received about a month ago.. The gentleman on the line said that “He want to learn from the best”. He asked if i would come out to Vegas to teach him Dice Control techniques.
He said that in the past he was at one time a dealer in Vegas, and later went to Law school to become a lawyer.. He was very successful and is now retired and living in Mexico.
He saw my YouTube interviews researched me on the internet. He also read about me in Frank Scoblete’s books. I actually had no plans of traveling to Vegas at that time because the pandemic was still going on, but he offered me a lot of money to make it worth my while to fly out to Vegas and teach him. He prepaid for his full day class.
I booked a flight to Vegas from Ft Lauderdale and arrived a couple of days ago on June 25. The following day I explored the table conditions in many of the casinos. To my pleasant surprise, things looked pretty much the same as always. The casinos were busy and “The Vegas Strip”was full of life.
The table minimums are a little higher now...During the week, most casinos have $15 min, where before they were $10 min. Off strip, the tables in the Orleans and Gold Coast are now $ 10 minimums.
There are no longer plexiglass dividers and masks are optional...
Unfortunately, my first student that brought me out to Vegas, wasn’t feeling well so we postponed his class for another time. In the afternoon I met some of my local friends and played a session at the Gold Coast ....I took straight out and tried out a new “Specialty Toss” that I’ve been working on at my Fl craps pit. It’s an underhand toss, with an unusual set and grip... it looked promising at home....
My first time trying it out in the casino was pretty good with a 16 roll hand... I made a few adjustments with my grip and landing zone, and the next time I got the dice I tossed a 28 roll hand hitting 3 repeater bets... I hit Hard 10s in a row!
Then, 4 of my local Vegas friends took me to a locals casino in Henderson.. I had never been there before... the table conditions were good and I had 2 more great rolls in the mid 20s using my new toss from straight out..
Afterwards my friend Bill treated me, Dennis, and Tony to a nice dinner, where we celebrated out winning session, and caught up, with good conversation, with our friends.
I had another student come over to my Vegas craps pit. His name is Dan C. I met him years ago when I was an instructor at PARR and later when I was an Instructor with GTC. He’s a great guy and we had a lot of fun in class and then during our casino session. He loves my new toss technique and mastered it pretty well today.
I finally named my new toss, "The Rock n Roller Super Toss"
We played a casino session and I tossed a
32 roll hand with it...
The evening session started off a little slow... my local friends’ tosses were a bit off and the random shooters were all having short rolls. Soon the dice came to me, and I used my Rock n Roller Super Toss from the stick left hook. That’s pretty far from the back wall, and I had to adjust to a different table from earlier in the day.. but still had a nice hand of
22 rolls...
Next, my local friend Mark, used the Parr on-axis toss from Straight Out and tossed a
28 number roll. He used a high grip.. fingers on the edge of the dice. The dice had a lot of back spin, and dice stayed together nicely.
The player next to him had one of the worst tosses ever
I don’t know what kind of crazy grip he was using, but the first 3 tosses from Straight Out flew off the table in all directions... I mean they didn’t even bounce on the layout!
So, Mark and I both played the don’t pass, don’t come on him...I don’t know what kind of crazy grip he was using, because his hand would cover the dice as he set them... His dice were flying everywhere, and sometimes hitting chips, but somehow he managed to have a nice hand and knocked us off of the don’t side.
We colored up winners and went for dinner, but my friend Bill still wanted to play... He was struggling with his toss earlier in the evening.... just couldn’t get a good roll going ...So he changed his position from stick left to stick right and used a different toss. About 45 minutes later, he joined Dennis and I at dinner with a handful of chips... lots of Black and Green.... He managed to have a great roll! We missed it, but I’m really happy that he had such a great comeback.
June 4: Dan C. came over again for the second half of his class. He has learned my new “Rock n Roller Super Toss” and after one class had a big
28 roll hand at Bally’s last night...
Today, after class, we did our casino session...I had 2 more big rolls.. a
31 and a fantastic
48 number roll, hitting lots of Hard Ways and repeater bets.
Before the session started, I called many of my students to join us at the tables... There were seven of us... I held the dice most of the afternoon... my second roll lasted an hour and a half.. There were so many hard-ways to pay out.. it slowed down the game.. plus all of the repeater bets.
Unfortunately, my student Dan C, became fatigued and took a cab back to his hotel in the middle of my big roll, to rest. But that’s Ok, because I’ll take him out again tomorrow for another casino session.. and hopefully have another big roll... plus there is a good chance that he’ll have a big roll too.
Everyone made money and had a great time.. We got comped, and celebrated at Ping Pang Pong Asian Restaurant.. with us at the table were : Steve, Gary, Daniel, Ricky, Coaster, and Gene “Selfer61.”
What a great day we had!!
June 5: I picked up my student Dan C. from Bally’s to join Coaster an and Gene for another casino session. We took a ride over to The Gold Coast Casino. When we got there Coaster was in the middle of a hot roll.
A few years ago, Coaster came over to my Vegas craps pit and I taught him some of my toss techniques.. The one that he liked the most was the "Yuri Toss”. It’s a low on axis toss toss, and his favorite position is Straight Out. He practices his toss everyday and has really mastered this technique. Today he tossed a
38 roll hand at the Gold Coast ..
Next, we took a drive Downtown to check out the casinos on Fremont Street. There is a lot of road construction going on downtown. On the way there we passed by the new Resorts World Casino. They are still working on it, and it’s going to be the largest casino resort in Las Vegas. It’s looking good! Also, by the Stratosphere is a new Arch welcoming everyone to Las Vegas... It has lights on it so it must look pretty cool at night.
When we arrived downtown, we first checked out the Fremont Casino. The craps table was crowded, and only one table was open. Next we walked across the street to The Golden Nugget.. Again, only one table was open but eventually we found a few spots to squeeze into.
Once again Coaster had the best roll of all of us... His Yuri toss from straight out looked great!
I got a text from my friend Mike Mora who was in town, and invited him to join our group, Dan, Coaster, and Gene (Selfer61) and I for lunch at Binion’s.. I really enjoy their hamburgers. Mike is a great guy and it was good to see him again.
After lunch we walked down to The Plaza Casino to play... Once again they only had one table open, and it was packed. By then, Coaster’s back was hurting him, Dan was getting tired and Gene, Mike and I agreed that it was time to take a break.
Gene and I walked back to the Fremont hotel Valet, picked the guys up at the Plaza and dropped them off at their hotels. Since I’ve been on the go for the past 12 straight days, teaching and playing, I needed a break too.
I went back to my condo took a nap and soon my phone rang... it was Dennis, and he asked if I wanted to meet him and Bill D to play a session. I said Ok and we went to a casino for a late afternoon/evening session. During this session, we found a casino that wasn’t crowded and we were the only players on the craps table.
We had some pretty good rolls tonight. I used my new Rock n Roller Super Toss from stick left near the hook.. I tossed three good rolls.. a
22,
28, and a
32 roll hand
Dennis tossed a
34 roll hand from straight out using an off axis toss.
And Bill tossed an
18 and
24 roll hand from stick left 1, using an on axis Yuri type of roll.
We had a few shorter rolls too, in between the longer rolls..
All in all, it was a great evening session with good friends. I’ve known these guys for 20 years, since the older PARR days . We had some great rolls, a good time, and afterwards we enjoyed a nice dinner together.
In the next few day more friends and students, and family are coming to town .... Including Boris (Coal Miner), My wife Ivy and my sister Arlene... The adventure continues...
June 8: I am overwhelmed by the support everyone has shown by contacting me and coming over for classes.. it’s been so great teaching again and spending time with my students and friends.. After a year and a half of staying home and being safe, because of the pandemic, it feels great to be enjoying life again. Like the sign says at the Gold Coast “Open!” Yes, Vegas is open once again!!
So many students and friends have come into town, it’s really great to see them again.
I’ve been teaching almost everyday since I’ve arrived in Las Vegas on May 25... I’ve also been playing at least one or sometimes 2 session per day and have been on a winning streak... although I have to be honest, I did have a slight loss on Sunday morning at the Gold Coast .... My first loss. But that’s expected.... stay away from the dark opaque small dice they sometimes put out over there. It seems no one at the table could get things going. I should have played the don’t side... but, you don’t really want to do that when you are playing with friends.
At night I made up for it by having two good rolls at a different casino.. I tossed a
22 and a
34 number roll.
In the morning while i was playing with Gene and Coaster, It was good to see my friend Aloha Jonny who stopped by to say hello..
Yesterday, a student from Costa Rica came over for a full day class. We split the class into two 4 hour classes. He is a good natural shooter and had never had any formal training in Dice Control... Since it was his first class, I started him off on a very simple toss technique that he would be able to use in the casino, later in the day... I taught him The Split Shot from Straight Out ... but made a modification to make it very easy to learn, by using an Ice Tong Grip... He loved it, and it worked great! I showed him the classic “On Axis Toss” and “The ice Tong Toss”. We talked about betting, and we had 4 hours of on hands training. I’m looking forward to our second class.
After class, I had dinner with my old Parr friends..Bill, Dennis, Tony and Boris (Coal Miner). Boris isn’t a Parr guy, but is a great shooter. We always team up together in Atlantic City, and Las Vegas He flew into town Sunday night from Pennsylvania to tune up and play together.
Afterwards, I went to the Airport to pick up my sister Arlene.
Boris told me about a great roll that he had at Bally’s. He took his spot at stick right and used his on axis toss. He held the dice for about an hour and cashed out thousands up!! He bought in for $500 He placed a hard 4 for $25.. and every time he hit it, he pressed his hard 4 up... He had it up to $175 and then he hit it!!! Making around $1400.. He also hit the ace deuce about a dozen times, sometimes having $25 on it... He bets the ace deuce because he is setting for the hard 4 and one die flips over at time to the 3. Plus he hit lots of hard ways.. Man, I wish I would have been there!
June 13: Sunday was a busy day once again. I had a couple of Students stop by for a class during the day. The class went very well, and I love teaching my students new toss techniques after their regular on axis toss is tuned up. We all had a great time together at my craps pit.
Then at night Arlene, Ivy and I had dinner at Famous Dave’s Bar b Que on Blue Diamond near Decatur.
After dinner, Ivy was tired, so I dropped her back at our condo, and I took my sister Arlene sight seeing Downtown, on Fremont Street.. .. On the way there, on Las Vegas Blvd we got to see the new “Las Vegas Arch” outside the Strat.. plus we got a glimpse of the new Resorts World casino... it almost finished.. and is big and beautiful!!! It’s supposed to open later this month.
We enjoyed all of the excitement, light shows, weirdos and rock bands playing on Fremont Street..It was crowded and quite a scene, and a lot of fun.
We finally had a chance to see the new Circa Casino.. It was beautiful!
They have 2 floors of gaming and a beautiful Swimming pool area, with giant screens to watch your favorite sports. Even though it was around 10 pm, there were a lot of people in the pool drinking and talking, while the DJ played loud dance music.
It was a nice way to enjoy a fun evening in Las Vegas!
June 16: Yesterday, I had the morning free, and planned to meet my students for dinner at 4pm, and then teach a 4 hour class in the evening.. The two students are part of “The Craps Nation”, and are really great guys.
It was Arlene’s last day in Vegas so I wanted to do something special.. So, we took a ride up to Mt Charleston. I love it up there, the pine forests and the cooler country air. It was about 114 degrees in Las Vegas... but on Mt Charleston it was only 83 degrees.. It was a beautiful sunny day and a nice change from the busy “Strip”.
I picked my two students up from Bally’s and along with Arlene and Ivy, we drove about a 1/4 mile to Ellis Island Casino, for their wonderful Bar-b-q. Having dinner together gave me a chance to get to know my new students. We all had a great time...
After dinner, Arlene went to play slots in the casino... My students and I went back to my craps pit for our class. The class went very well, we all had fun as I demonstrated and taught some new tosses .. plus tuning up on their classic Parr on axis toss... What a great time we had at my craps pit practicing and learning. I really love teaching, and watching the students become proficient with the techniques that I am demonstrating and teaching on my craps table.
Ivy took Arlene to the airport while I was teaching... It’s quiet now that all of my out of town friends and family went home. but I have Ivy and my local friends to keep me company.. Oh I almost forgot! Selfer61 is still I town. He lives near me in Florida, plus he bought a place in Biloxi too.
Today, I’m going to play a session with .. Selfer61. Tomorrow, he’s driving back home to Biloxi.
Then later today, my friend/ Student Karen is arriving for a class..I can t wait!
It’s going to be another fun day in Las Vegas..
June 22: Ivy and I had a wonderful visit with our family in Arizona on Father’s Day. It was great to see our Grand-Babies once again. The last time that we saw them was Jan 2020. Just before the pandemic started. So when we saw them last they were only a month old... now, they are around 18 months old..it was great to see everyone again.
We came home on Sunday evening, and had a nice dinner with our friend Tony “Dice Guy”. Yesterday, a very nice student, Ron, came over for a class. He signed up for a full day class and was a newbie on Dice Control. He had previously watched a few videos on YouTube and had the general idea of what the Parr on axis toss should look like... We worked on his grip, toss, landing zone, dice set etc, and after an hour, his toss was looking very good ... He was having hands in the upper teens and twenties.
Next, we worked on some of my “Specialty Tosses”. He really liked the new “Rock n Roller Super Toss”. This toss became his favorite of the day... and he became very proficient at it from Straight out and from stick right.
Next, we worked on my “Ice Tong Toss”. It’s an on axis toss from stick right one.. We use the Hard Way Set , or the 2/4-4/2 set... its a great shot, and he picked up the technique pretty quickly.. He was a natural at it.....
We took a lunch break at a nice Greek restaurant nearby, with Ivy joining us.
Then, we worked on some toss techniques from Straight Out ... After lots of practice his tosses were looking really good... We reviewed betting techniques... and all of the tosses learned.
Next it was time for our live Casino session. I called up my student Karen and asked if she’d like to join us.
Downtown casinos were requested so off we went... The I-15 was all backed up, so we got off on Sahara Blvd. There was so much road work being done on Las Vegas Blvd, heading downtown, it was ponderous and backed up too.
Soon we arrived at The Fremont Casino. The tables have a good solid bounce, but are 14’ long.. Still it’s a great table to play on. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, most casinos have raised their table minimums.. The Fremont was always a $5.00 game.. but now they raised the minimum bet to $15.00 Most of the casinos downtown have raised their minimums from $5.00 to $10.00. We went to Binions where I’ve had some big rolls In the past.. but this time there was a player that was drunk and very disruptive at the table.
We soon left and went to the 4 Queens Casino. In the past they used to have a hard table with ridges cut into the ends of the layout to stop on axis parr shooters.. I would alway beat them with my off axis Split Shot, because the ridges would help me hit box numbers.
Well, they changed the layout, no more ridges, and a soft pad under the layout.
The soft pad makes the dice bounce around more than normal, causing a problem for on axis shooters. There was a guy there shooting from the hook with an on axis toss who had a pretty good roll.. but watching the dice land, they were bouncing around a lot.
I later found out that his name was Mike as he seemed to recognize me and said to my student... “That’s Howard rock n roller!” Ron ignored him...
Then the dice came to me... I used my on axis parr toss with the all 7s set with a lot of backspin, nailing numerous come out 7’s. Then I established a point and switched to my my “Ice Tong Push Shot”. I was hitting box numbers like crazy and hit four hard 8’s in a row and making points.
I hear the pitboss telling the box man, that I am a “Sharp Shooter”.. a professional... Then, Mike at hook yells out, “That’s Howard Newman, from Same Bets Interviews on YouTube “. It all took me by surprise.. but it was pretty cool.
Later he came over to shake my hand and tell me that he was a big fan...and congratulated me on my roll.
Soon it was time to head back to the Strip.. because I had dinner plans at Ping Pang Pong, Asian restaurant at the Gold Coast with Ivy, Aloha Jonny, Malia and their daughter Alex.
We had a great dinner.. the Gold Coast was very generous and gave me a $40 dollar comp from previous my play there. Dinner was great and we all had a fun evening together.
Today I had two classes to teach, a morning class and an afternoon class... The students names are Will and Tony. The classes went very well with my 2 students, both from New Mexico. Both students had previously taken classes with me, and wanted me to tune up their on axis toss, review some of my Specialty Tosses, and were really interested I learning my “Super Toss”. The class went very well and they became very proficient with the tosses.
In the meantime I got some texts from my students Ron and Karen, who teamed up to play together today.
Karen had a
36 roll hand at Paris in the morning, using the On Axis Parr Toss, that we worked on last week.
Ron had some nice rolls in the
20s, using my Rock n roller Super Toss”. This is really amazing, being a new shooter and first learning that toss yesterday... I am really proud of my students, and love hearing about their success at the tables..
I’ve been in Las Vegas since May 25th.. just about a month... and so much has happened during that time... I’ve taught about 35 students during this period and want to thank everyone for coming over for classes... I’m getting great casino reports from everyone and am so glad that I was able to help.
I had some great rolls with my students. One of my best ones was with 7 students at the table with me, and I tossed a
44 roll hand, using my new R n R Super Toss!
Another highlight was when my friend Art from Hawaii came over for a class with his niece Shyla and friend Calvin. Then after class we went to the Gold Coast and my students had rolls in the
30’s-40’s.. using the on axis toss and also the New Super Toss.... Wow what a day that was!
So many good memories.. too many to mention right now...
I’ve had so many out of town friends and relatives, and students visit me... From Coaster, Gene ( Selfer61) Boris the Coal Miner, my sister Arlene, My wife Ivy, Dave C and so many others.. plus playing with my students and local friends made for great times...Tony, Aloha Jonny, VDC and CDC, Dennis , Bill D, Gary, and a few others..
Oh, then our trips to Mt Charleston, Zion National Park and Tucson Arizona were great fun... plus sharing my Son’s Birthday and Father’s Day together, and seeing our Grand Babies..
Wow! What a great Vegas Adventure we had!!
