There are several components to dice control, and all of them must be mastered to obtain an edge at the craps table. The Dice Control 101 series will cover them all. In this installment betting into your edge will be covered.

To review from the last installment on delivering the dice to the back wall: Consistency is what dice control is all about. Landing you dice in the same spot helps with consistency. However, craps tables are all different. You must change your delivery slightly as you encounter different table conditions. Lower your throw and land the dice farther away from the back wall when shooting on a bouncy table. Land the dice slightly closer to the back wall for a "dead" table.

Learn to change your landing spot slightly to avoid other player’s chips in your landing area. If possible, have friends guard your landing area.

Don’t let comments from the pit rattle you. If they do get to you, leave the casino and go where they appreciate your action.

In a random game of craps, the casino has the edge. I repeat – in a random game of craps the casino has the edge. Anyone who tells you anything different is ignorant of the facts. A plague of ignorance is rampant in the craps world and many of the "crapsters" who profess to be experts are the most ignorant of the lot. The facts: No betting system, no hedging system, no on/off method, no right side, no wrong side strategy can give you an edge in a random game of craps.

Authors and self-styled gurus who claim that this or that betting or money management system can overcome a mathematical edge are selling illusion. No system or betting method can change the fact that in the long run, you will lose whatever the house edge is on the bets you are making – if you play a strictly random game of craps. Yes, you will win some nights and lose other (and lose more) nights but in the end, if you play enough, you will lose the house edge on the bets you have made.

Those are the facts.

Many players have no idea how the casinos actually win money from them in the long run. They have vague ideas about something called an edge that is working against them but they don’t really know what this edge means. How you lose money when you lose a bet is easy to see – the casino takes your money and puts it with the casinos money.

However, you also lose money on bets that you win. You disagree? Well look at place bets and those "crazy crapper" bets in the center of the table. They are all based on short-changing your win by paying you less money than true odds on your wins. If you bet the "crazy" 11 bet for $1, the house pays you $15 to $1 if you win, but the true odds of this bet is 17 to 1. The house keeps the extra $2 from every win.

At craps you lose in two ways: On the Pass, Don’t Pass, Come and Don’t Come, the casino wins more decisions than the player. On the Place, Buy and "Crazy Crapper" bets, the house shares in your win by not paying you the true odds of the bet. So, on these bets you actually lose when you win.

The worst the bet (the higher the house edge) the more the casino takes from you. As a controlled shooter and would-be advantage player, the worst thing you can do is try to overcome the crazy crappers bets. The house edge will crush you!

The best bets for a dice controller are the bets with the lowest house edge because they require the least skill to overcome. It is extremely difficult to overcome a 10 percent house edge. It is much easier to overcome a 1 or 2 percent house edge.