THE GOLDEN TOUCH Rolling with the Lords of the Craps Table by Mattathias Schwartz

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LETTER FROM CHICAGO

THE GOLDEN TOUCH Rolling with the lords of the craps table By Mattathias Schwartz

For the gambler, dice have long been and their own steak-fed bodies, grad- The Golden Touch Craps team had the best machine with which to turn a ually transforming the beige void of scheduled one of their “Crap$ 101” small amount of energy into a large the Allegheny Room into a miniature courses to begin the following day. In amount of uncertainty. For the philoso- casino, a school for the study of dice Crap$ 101, novice players receive two pher, there is no days of hands-on handier piece of instruction in Gold- rhetoric with which en Touch betting to evoke the foggy systems, Golden relations between Touch visualization God and universe, techniques, and, universe and man, most important, or man and his own the Golden Touch affairs. And so as I “controlled throw,” watched two mem- a method of retain- bers of the Golden ing influence over Touch Craps team the dice after they construct a dice pit leave the hand. in a windowless Tuition is $1,495, conference room of which does not in- the Hyatt Regency clude room, board, O’Hare, I could not or a ticket to Chica- help but feel as go O’Hare; but with though I were wit- eight coaches and nessing the creation sixteen students, of a universe, a the student-to- green, felt-covered, faculty ratio bests racetrack-shaped the Ivy League. For cosmos where the dice are subject to control. I myself felt moved to pitch an additional $300, students can take the will of man and the men, there- in, holding one end of the scuffed rail home an instructional Golden Touch fore, are gods. as Colonel Fox unrolled the layout with DVD and the Gripper, a block of green The cosmos, in this case, was a bun- its PASS and COME solicitations lettered foam designed to enhance the muscle dle of hinges and planks that had in red and gold. He wore a gold cruci- memory of the ﬁngertips. As gradu- emerged the same morning, ex ovo, from ﬁx and four gold rings and a gambling ates, students are eligible to enroll in the back of Colonel Joe Fox’s Ford. The face like something out of the Old West, the $1,995 Advanced Course, though gods were milling around like Team- lines of stony indifference etched some of the school’s wealthier alumni sters, lugging boxes and power tools around his mouth and eyes. “I musta opt for private instruction at up to re-covered three hundred pool tables $10,000 per day. Those who prove Mattathias Schwartz was the founder and in my life,” he muttered as a GTC col- themselves capable dice controllers editor of The Philadelphia Independent. league plugged in a tiny vacuum clean- and clubbable personalities are some- He lives in New York City. er and ran it over the felt. times invited to teach Crap$ 101 as

White Dice, by Kate Brinkworth. Courtesy the artist and Mark Jason Gallery, London/markjasongallery.com LETTER FROM CHICAGO 71 (71-78)Schwartz Final2 10/22/08 9:42 AM Page 72

assistants to the assistant instructors. craps with a pair of imaginary dice. His Three. The ruinous Martingale says The post includes a $400 honorarium, arm churned the air with the slow flu- that if I lose at blackjack, I should dou- drawn from tuition receipts. idity of a Tai Chi master. ble and redouble my bet until I win. I spotted Frank Scoblete, the gray- The Dominator distributed room Today, systems occupy a dingy corner bearded, potbellied Zeus of the Gold- keys to the teachers. We broke huddle, of the gambling subliterature, a way en Touch, unpacking a box of Grippers. rode the elevators, unpacked, and re- for casino veterans to sell their ruined Frank spent more than thirty years convened that evening at the hotel fantasies to a new generation of teaching high school English on Long sports bar. It was called Knuckles, an chumps. I have collected a small li- Island before reinventing himself as auspicious name, for the first dice were brary of these systems. Most are over- America’s Number One Best-Selling astralagi, the six-sided knucklebones of priced and underwritten, and they con- Gaming Author. In person he seemed cloven-hoofed beasts. At a table near tain a wild diversity of guesses as to easygoing, with rounded features and the bar, hemmed in by billiard tables the mechanism that secretly influences feathery white hair, but when we shook and plasma TVs, the world’s top dice the outcome of a game. In the dice hands his eyes had the watchful opac- controllers angled at a plate of potato genre alone, there are betting systems, ity of security cameras. He began gam- chips. Frank held forth on what makes throwing systems, charting systems, bling during the Eighties on the week- a good gambler. and trend-oriented systems of “hot” ends, counting cards in Atlantic City. “Actors, athletes, anyone who and “cold” tables. The Art of Psychic “I wasn’t addicted to the gambling,” deals with an audience is going to be Dice, which quotes liberally from Ein- he told me; “I was interested in seeing a better gambler. You have to be will- stein and Napoleon, teaches the art whether we could beat the casinos, ing to put yourself on the line and of influencing dice with telekinetic these monsters, this industry that relies completely fall on your face, all in brain waves. Those who wish to ana- on the stupidity of its clients.” On the front of strangers.” lyze a promising system can test it table beside the Grippers lay a selection A chorus of nods. “It’s a perfor- against the heap of data collected in 72 of Frank’s teachings: Forever Craps, mance!” said Stickman. Hours at the Craps Table, sixty-two The Craps Underground, Golden Touch “A physical discipline!” clarified pages of hieroglyphic. A more sensible Dice Control Revolution! and Beat the Colonel Fox, embarking on his sec- title, a $1 pamphlet called The Facts of Craps Out of the Casinos! On the cov- ond bourbon. Craps, contains warnings like “play for er of this last book is a photograph of “When you see a great shooter, you recreation only,” and “you figure to Dominic “Dominator” LoRiggio just see that there’s no such thing as luck, lose every time you play.” Yet its cov- after releasing the dice. The cubes hov- just math,” said Frank. His eyes were er, like all the others, warrants that it er in perfect alignment below his out- wide, his face animated. Before he will teach you “how to win.” stretched hand, like tiny kites guided by took up gambling, Frank was part own- Even in their folly, these books em- invisible strings. He is dressed conser- er and leading man of a community body many essential features of West- vatively, in a blue Oxford and rimless theater company. He can still engage ern thought: the fetish for prediction glasses, but his eyes shine with a mys- his face like a motor. “When I’m and control; the fear of the unknown tical blaze. shooting, I believe in having a total- and unexplained; the urge, in the ab- A slightly mellower Dominator soon ly empty mind. I believe in nothing. sence of a complete explanation, to arrived, puffing at a cigarette and grous- I think of nothing. Nothing build patchwork models of unobserv- ing about the Bears’ chances of cover- but numbers.” able particles and massless ethers. ing the spread. The faculty gathered Reading them is like watching sci- round, wearing pleated khakis and GTC For as long as men have chalked cer- ence’s messy birth over and over again. logo-ed polo shirts. All had workaday tain occurrences up to chance, and so As the authors take aim at the mys- careers, I would later learn, and treated set them beyond human intervention, teries of random phenomena, we see gambling as a pleasant and profitable other, more ambitious men have that no amount of contrary evidence sideline. Bob “Mr. Finesse” Convertito sought to bring these events under will shake their faith in an underlying sold cars in Connecticut. Jerry “Stick- control. Scoffing at Dante’s warning order. Consider the beginning of the man” Stich was an I.T. director. Rick that wisdom cannot stand against For- Numbers Almanac: “Missouri Rick” Schulten was a para- tune, they have devised or divined sys- medic; he had seen action in Desert tems—methodical ways of winning . . . every person, place, thing and activ- Storm and had won a world champi- her over. The ancients invented sys- ity is influenced by a number; therefore onship in foosball. Howard “Rock ’n’ tems they believed could manipulate a certain knowledge of numerology re- Roller” Newman owned a chain of the weather, bring triumph in battle, veals numbers indicated for certain days and months of each year because it is nu- physical-therapy practices in Florida. and appease the gods. Most modern merology that influences number activ- Colonel Joe Fox dealt in rare coins. He systems have a narrower object: mak- ity, and their selections are probabilities, was not a colonel in the military sense; ing money at gambling. Usually they which the ancient and indisputable law the title referred to his skill as an auc- comprise a series of if/then statements. of averages will justify. tioneer. (“Not a failure in the bunch!” The Original Lucky Red Devil Numbers Frank would say later that night, sur- Almanac, for instance, says that if I Here we see the author straining to veying his instructors with pride.) quarrel with my mother-in-law, I bring the Red Devil’s numerological Across the room, Rock ’n’ Roller played should play the 329 in the daily Pick hoodoo into line with the “law of av-

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erages.” He is about to launch into a land on each of its sides. He then cal- highly speculative system, one that culates the probabilities for various proposes that everything from nose- throws. “The reckoning is not exact,” bleeds to birthdays to black cats can in- he notes, “yet it happens in the case of Collected for fluence tomorrow’s lottery numbers. many circuits that the matter falls out To make his system seem more rea- very close to conjecture.” sonable, he begins by kowtowing to The reputed gambling talents of cer- \PMÅZ[\\QUM probability, a theory that does little tain astrologers do not impress Car- for the lottery player in its authentic dano. Their ability to “occasionally non-numerological form, aside from make the right forecast” he writes off aMIZ[WN disparaging his decision to play at all. as luck. When it comes to his own What probability knows about picking gambling, though, he is not so eager to lottery numbers is that all are equally dismiss the supernatural. In a lengthy KWZZM[XWVLMVKM likely, equally meaningless, and that digression, Cardano tells of how he one will happen to win. It does not lost his clothes, his rings, and twenty- give him tomorrow’s winning number; five gold pieces to a bearded stranger at JM\_MMV\_W it doesn’t even give him a satisfying the villa of a Venetian senator. He way to conjecture about it. then repairs to his home and devises This is where the system comes in. a system, consulting the occult art of TQ\MZIZaTMOMVL[ It offers protection by linking the num- geomancy to determine “all the numbers to events in the player’s daily life. bers whereby I should win and all Betting becomes personal, winning be- those whereby I should lose.” He re- comes providential, and the numbers turns to the senator’s house and wins themselves come alive with meaning. everything back in his first twenty They run Fast, Medium, Slow, or Dor- bets. “This fortune of mine seems to mant according to the Almanac’s na- have been something greater than tionwide “number performance” re- mere chance,” he boasts, looking back port. Even if the system is bogus, the on this big win, “although we do not numbers it suggests are no worse than know the law that connects any others. The argument that Blaise the parts.” Pascal made for believing in the existence of God can be applied to the t nine o’clock the next morn- Red Devil as well: It can’t hurt. It Aing my fellow students and I arrived to might work. find the Allegheny Room in perfect The question of how to win at gam- academic order. Each seat was fur- bling attracted many of the Enlight- nished with a notebook, a pen, a green enment’s leading minds. Galileo, Pas- Golden Touch knapsack, and a syl- cal, and several members of the labus filled with such enticing terms as Bernoulli family all worked on it, often “optimum spin control” and “pendu- at the behest of a gambling friend or pa- lum delivery.” As promised, the new- tron. Girolamo Cardano had a more comers were friendly and prosperous- THE SELECTED personal interest. A doctor, scientist, looking creatures with no obvious LETTERS OF and author of more than a hundred indicators of desperation or degenera- books, Cardano likely would have been cy. All reported themselves to already )TTMV/QV[JMZO among the leading figures of the Italian be winning or break-even craps play- Renaissance were it not for his addic- ers. Among them were a married cou- AND /IZa;VaLMZ tion to chess and dice, which he gam- ple, a retired accountant, a smooth- bled on daily for twenty-five years. Car- jazz deejay, and a businessman who ~ dano’s notes on gambling were rolled dice to stop worrying about busi- EDITED BY BILL MORGAN published in 1663, eighty-seven years ness. One man switched from slots be- after his death, as Liber de Ludo Aleae cause he “got tired of pressing but- or The Book on Games of Chance. The tons.” (“Most are highly successful work is rambling, contradictory, and individuals,” Frank had said of the stu- probably incomplete, yet in between dents the previous night. “What we Hardcover | $28.00 its crackpot superstitions and dire warn- see is a person who is educated,” the ings not to gamble at all is Cardano’s Dominator had added. “A person who novel technique for calculating the understands that there’s something to odds on a roll of the dice. He propos- winning. It’s not just luck, but skill in- es that a fair die has the property of volved with luck. It takes an educated www.counterpointpress.com “equality” in that it is equally likely to person to realize that.”) Available at booksellers everywhere

LETTER FROM CHICAGO 73

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Frank put on his teaching voice, a off the inner wall of stiff rubber pyra- threw . . . another 7! Silence. Everyone modulated Brooklynese that rang with mids, and return to the table. Each stared at the dice. This was exactly authority as he described the conver- stage of this flight subjects the dice to what the Hardways Set was supposed sion we were about to undergo: “You an array of unpredictable forces, and to prevent. Like medieval surgeons come to us as gamblers. My hope is every part of the game—dice, pyra- gathered around the dissection table, that you will leave as advantage play- mids, felt—is engineered to give a ran- our faces wore varying shades of be- ers.” Advantage players, he explained, dom result. This can be overcome, the lief. Frank said: “One more, Bob.” Fi- think like a casino. They are prudent Dominator told us, with the heart of nesse finished with a 5. and disciplined, making bets only the Golden Touch: the Delivery Sys- Next up was Stickman, who pos- when they have a statistical advan- tem. Using Golden Touch Dice Control sesses, Frank told us, “the perfect body tage. To them, luck is the enemy, and Revolution! as our guide, he described for a dice controller. Just look. He’s in they look with contempt on the ordi- the throw that will carry the Hardways control of this whole side of the table!” nary craps players who rely on it, those Set to the back wall without disturbing Indeed, Stickman’s lanky frame and “random rollers” who indulge in “crazy its tight formation. “We want a smooth, long arms allowed him to release the crapper” bets. gentle toss. Your dice should keep to- dice perhaps a full foot closer to the Despite the complexity of the craps gether in the air, like they were stuck wall than his less gifted peers could. layout and its surfeit of sucker bets, craps with crazy glue. Then they smack the His dice were tighter and quieter than is a very simple game. On the player’s table, release all their energy, and gen- Finesse’s. His first shot was an 8. The first throw, known as the “come out tly kiss the pyramids.” second looked good as well, but land- roll,” 7 wins, 11 wins, and 2, 3, or 12 los- A hand shot up in the front row. ed 7. “Whoops,” Stickman said softly. es. If the player hits any other num- “Can you say a little more about the Frank didn’t appear to notice. “You see ber—a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10—that be- mechanics of it? I understand what the how perfect those shots are? See his comes his “point.” The object of the dice are supposed to look like when form? It’s perfect!” Then five consecu- game is then to roll his point again be- they leave our hands, but where’s the tive sevenless throws. “Can you all see fore rolling a 7. The key to beating guarantee that they’ll land that way?” what we’re talking about?” Frank asked, craps, the Dominator explained, is to The Dominator sighed. “Dice con- as Stickman loaded up, released, and control the number that controls the trol is like a watch. We’re not here to watched another gorgeous-looking game—the 7, also known as “the Dev- teach you how to build the watch. throw land 7. “Oh, man,” said Frank, as il,” “Big Red,” or simply “It.” A ran- What we are gonna teach you is how though some fleet-footed outfielder had dom roller will throw a 7 six times in to read the watch.” The real proof, he reached over the fence and robbed every thirty-six rolls, yielding a “Sevens- said, is witnessing the Stickman of a home run. “The die went to-Rolls Ratio,” or SRR, of 1 to 6. But throw in action. scooting out! One more, Jerry.” An 11. if the player can occasionally keep the Now came Rock ’n’ Roller, renowned 7 from coming up, he can tilt the game We took a short bathroom break by the Golden Touch team for his abil- in his favor. The house edge on craps is and gathered around the craps table ity to “drop into the zone.” He closed his so minuscule—less than 1 percent for where Mr. Finesse had slung his ur- eyes, gently rubbed the dice into felt, particular bets—that it doesn’t take sine body over the rail. He gathered and began to throw. Frank’s voice grew much control to turn a gambler into the dice in one thick hand and more excited after each shot: “Ladies an advantage player. An SRR of 1 to 6.3 paused a moment, focusing his atten- and gentlemen . . . you are seeing . . . will suffice. In other words, if one can tion on his target area, an island of bee-you-tiful throws!” Seven times the successfully prevent the dice from show- felt near the far wall. He set the dice, dice flew. The Devil stayed out of sight. ing 7 just once every thirty rolls, then paused, and swung his forearm back “Now get ready for the Dom-in-ay-tor!” one can consistently win at craps. smoothly, like a pendulum. There Frank touted, and the headstrong Dom- The Dominator held two big yel- was a collective gasp when the dice inator, looking to vanquish any linger- low dice together. The faces read 5-5. left his hand—the control was in- ing doubts, warmed up. He began to “This is what we call the Hardways deed palpable. Only a narrow column call his shots, his voice taut and steady. Set,” he said, as he slowly turned the of space separated the two dice, “Gimme a six and a three.” He pair to show 4s, 3s, 2s, then 5s again. which rotated from front to back in rolled a 2-1. “This set is designed to protect you tandem, like a space satellite. They “Now a four and a two.” He rolled against the seven. See, it takes what we struck the table with a loud slap, soft- a 1-3. call a double pitch”—he spun one die ly caromed off the pyramids, and fell “Eleven,” said Frank, softly, and the 180 degrees so that the pair read to rest perhaps three inches from the Dominator nailed it, a 5-6 landing 5-2—“to roll a seven. Your dice can back wall. Two pips, three pips: a 5. clean against the wall. “Look at that!” have a single pitch in either direc- The Dominator wielded the stick. Frank exulted, “Look how his dice are tion”—he showed 5-5, 5-4; 5-5, then He slid the dice back to Finesse. Fi- right together!” as the Dominator loft- 5-3—“and you’re covered.” nesse shot again. The throw was iden- ed the dice back into the air. It sounds simple, I thought, and it is tical, except one die seemed to dip be- The two men chortled as they fell, simple, until you let the dice go and low the other. They landed with a and, 6-1, the Devil 7 appeared. As the they fly through several feet of empty cackle. 7. “Double pitch,” Finesse mut- class continued to watch in volatile air, bounce against the felt, rebound tered. Then he gathered himself and silence, Frank took the dice from the

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Statement Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685 showing the ownership, management and circulation of Harper’s Magazine. Published month- Dominator and delivered a coup. ly (12 issues per year). Date of filing September 30, 2008. Publication “Hard four!” he commanded, and three No. 514-410. Annual subscription price: $21.00. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 666 throws later the dice obeyed, showing Broadway, New York, NY 10012-2317. SUBSCRIBER ALERT Complete mailing address of headquarters of general business of- two pips each—a 35-to-1 shot. “Beau- fice of Publisher: 666 Broadway, New York, NY 10012-2317. Dear Harper’s Magazine Readers, Publisher: John R. MacArthur, 666 Broadway, New York, NY tiful!” cried the Colonel. The students 10012; Editor: Roger D. Hodge, 666 Broadway, New York, NY 10012; Managing Editor: Ellen Rosenbush, 666 Broadway, New turned to one another in laughter and It has come to our attention that York, NY 10012. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders relief. Frank zapped the four white several of our subscribers have owning or holding one percent or more of the total amount of bonds, spots with a magician’s flourish. mortgages or other securities: None. received renewal notifications Changes during the preceding 12 months in the purpose, func- “You can hear when they’re hit- tion and nonprofit status of the Harper’s Magazine Foundation and from an independent magazine the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes: None. ting. You can see how they’re dying, clearinghouse doing business Extent and nature of circulation: close to the wall. You can feel the Average number Actual number under the names Magazine Billing of copies each issue of copies of single control. Now, go to your tables. during preceding issue published Services, Publishers Processing 12 months nearest to filing Bring your own dice. For the next date forty-five minutes, you are Services Inc., and American Con- A)Total number of copies printed: 297,657 291,474 going to work!” sumer Publish Assoc. These com- B) Paid circulation: 1) Paid/Requested panies have not been authorized Outside-County Mail Subscriptions Stated By the nineteenth century, prob- to sell subscriptions on behalf of on Form 3541: 176,280 176,881 2) Paid In-County ability theory was well established, and Harper’s Magazine. Subscriptions: 0 0 3) Sales through dealers the throwing of dice could no longer be and carriers, street vendors, If you receive a renewal notice counter sales and other considered a serious scientific pursuit. Non-USPS Paid and are unsure of its authenticity, Distribution: 35,371 29,165 Gambling systems, however, enjoyed 4) Other Classes Mailed please call our subscriber care ser- through the USPS: 0 0 a period of public fascination beginning C)Total paid in the 1870s, when Monte Carlo be- vices department and order your circulation: 211,651 206,046 D)Free distribution by came the world’s first international renewal through them. You may mail: 3,944 3,917 E) Free distribution gambling destination. Now any theo- contact subscriber services by outside of the mail: 1,820 1,844 F) Total free distribution: 5,764 5,761 retically inclined gambler who want- calling our toll-free number, G)Total distribution: 217,415 211,807 H)Copies not distributed: 80,242 79,667 ed to test his system against the (800) 444-4653, or via the web at I) Total: 297,657 291,474 Percent Paid and/or roulette wheel could book passage and www.Harpers.org. Requested Circulation: 97.35% 97.28% find a fair, legal, high-stakes game wait- I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and ing for him. Systems players acted like complete. legitimate entrepreneurs, soliciting in- (Signed) John R. MacArthur, President & Publisher vestors with detailed prospectuses and newspaper advertisements. There were con artists like Charles Deville Wells, SOLUTION TO THE S C HIOOL C H L D R E N a failed inventor who sailed to Monte NOVEMBER PUZZLE Carlo on his yacht in hopes that the O R A C L E A D M I R A L A Martingale might fend off his angry M E P H I S T O P H E L E S creditors. In a remarkable run of good N E SSE V A D A M S P R O luck, he turned £400 into £40,000, a A PPR E N T I C E S H I P feat memorialized by the song “The MMI A S A O U T R E A C H Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte NOTES FOR Carlo.” Wells hung on to the money “SESQUIPEDALIANISM”: B E N Z O I N R E A R T H A for six months, lost it back, and wound U R S UWLLI E D A T E R up serving eight years in an English L I S P D I C T I O N ARY prison for his deceptions. The public’s A U T H ENT I C AT I O N credulity began to fade after 1903, when Hiram Maxim, inventor of the T I R INN G I C E D I U G machine gun, challenged a British no- I C E L A N D S M U GGL E bleman who claimed to have a system O P A ISLLE Y A U M N A that could reliably beat the house. The Puzzle editing by Dan Asimov. N Y M P H O M A N I AAC L two men locked themselves in a room Note: * indicates an anagram. with a roulette wheel. Newspapers FOURTEEN-LETTER WORDS: a) NASOPHARYNGEAL*; b) NYMPHOMANIACAL*; around the world waited for the ver- c) A-PP-RENT-ICES-HIP; d) AU(THEN-TI[rev.])C[A]TION; e) SOMNAMBULATION*; dict. Two weeks later, Maxim the skep- f) SCHOOL-CHILDREN (pun); g) MEPHISTOPHELES, hidden tic emerged triumphant. ACROSS: 11. hidden; 12. admir(e)-a-l(iberal); 15. a-dam; 19. my-asthma, homophone; In the middle of the twentieth cen- 21. outré-a-ch; 23. Ben(zo[o])in; 25. Earth-a(alternative-rock); 26. S.U.(rev.)-(tria)l-lied; tury, another scientist became en- 27. wa(t[h]e)r; 29. *; 32. *; 35. two mngs.; 36. hidden; 38. 1-cel-and; 40. s-Muggle(s); 41. tranced by cards and dice, and his pa(isle)y; 42. * fixation would have far wider conse- DOWN: 2. Cree-pie-r(upee); 3. pun; 4. evil-o(rev.); 5. b(less)ed; 6. cat-a-tonic; 7. imp-acted; quences than Cardano’s. In the early 8. two mngs.; 9. R-alph(abet); 14. S.(pan)S.; 16. *; 17. ric(h)er; 20. (f)ailing; 22. *; 24. ol(rev.)-den; 28. Anti-Gua(m); 30. *; 31. Phi*-lip; 33. *; 36. hidden; 37. u-L-na(rev.); 39. two mmgs. LETTER FROM CHICAGO 75 (71-78)Schwartz Final2 10/22/08 9:45 AM Page 76

1920s, Joseph Banks Rhine attended quire; he was adored by graduate stu- entist who stakes his career on a ven- a lecture by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on dents, one of whom called him “the turesome hypothesis is not so differ- the possibility of communicating with Galileo of our age.” In 1952 he was ent from a stubborn gambler following the dead. Doyle’s conviction resonat- invited to conduct a secret experiment a hunch. Push the same theory for long ed with Rhine, a professor of psychol- for the Army, attempting to psychi- enough and eventually you will find ogy who had once considered joining cally guide two German shepherds to data to support your claim. Howard the ministry. “If there was a measure of boxes buried under sand. But even as Schwartz, who owns the Gambler’s truth in what he believed,” Rhine Rhine’s discoveries began to achieve Book Shop, Las Vegas’s biggest sys- would later write, “it would be of tran- popular credibility, skeptical oppo- tems emporium, has an apt metaphor scendental importance. This mere pos- nents in the scientific community were for this phenomenon. “If you shoot at sibility was the most exhilarating busy undermining his methods. After the sky long enough a duck will fly by, thought I had had for years.” decades of research, Rhine had still and then you will be a great duck Rhine spent the next decade looking not found a subject whose powers hunter. Just make sure you don’t run for a way to study paranormal phe- didn’t abruptly disappear or an exper- out of ammunition.” Among other nomena. He dabbled in hypnosis and iment whose results could be replicat- variants are the Texas sharpshooter séances. He investigated a horse named ed outside his lab. The records of his who paints bull’s-eyes around bullet Lady Wonder that could reportedly PK experiments were found to con- holes, and the semidiurnal- read minds and predict the outcomes of tain numerous clerical errors, almost all ly accurate broken clock. boxing matches. Finally, after estab- of which were made in PK’s favor. lishing himself as head of the parapsy- Most damning of all was evidence that Arranged in a semicircle around chology lab at Duke University, he set- Rhine sometimes neglected to report the main craps table were six “throwing tled on cards, a twenty-five-card deck unfavorable results. Once these de- stations,” folding tables with raised cush- consisting of five symbols: a star, a cross, fects became public, Rhine and his fel- ions designed to simulate an arm’s worth a circle, a square, and wavy lines. He low parapsychologists were shunned of rail, and six dustpan-shaped “receiv- conducted experiments on hundreds by the mainstream scientific consensus. ing stations,” whose back walls were of Duke students, looking for subjects Rather than give up on his hypoth- upholstered with green pyramidal foam. who had improbable success at guess- esis, Rhine made excuses. He argued (Paying $598 for a pair of these sta- ing the order of the cards. He dubbed that bored, tired subjects and skeptical tions, we were told, greatly increases this ability extrasensory perception, or observers disrupted the operation of the odds that our skills will continue to ESP. Eventually he found Adam Linz- psychic powers. His arguments re- blossom.) For the small-group learning mayer, a Duke undergraduate who mained focused on the astounding suc- session I was paired with fellow south- seemed to consistently score well above cess of a few subjects, none of whom paw Ralph Nozaki, the jazz deejay, who chance. But when the abilities of his maintained a high level of performance is known as Rick O’Dell to his listeners star subject began to fade, Rhine be- over the long run. One Lillian Pegram, in Chicago. Ralph, a tall, slender Asian came frantic. He tried giving Linzmayer he reported, correctly identified twenty- man in his mid-forties, said he plays sedatives, and even drove him out to three of twenty-five cards, then twenty- craps perhaps a dozen times a year, the country, where he guessed twenty- five of twenty-five, “and thereafter sometimes around Chicago, sometimes one of twenty-five cards from the pas- dropped back to the chance level again. in Las Vegas, always for modest sums. senger seat of Rhine’s car. The conditions were the same through- “Did you see that last throw?” he Following the publication of his out. It was Lillian who changed.” These asked me in butterscotch radio tones. mass-market book in 1934, Rhine be- occasional breakthroughs, however “There’s really something to this, don’t came a magnet for would-be savants fleeting, were enough to shore up you think?” who wanted his lab to confirm their Rhine’s certainty. “We destroy the phe- I hedged: “Yeah, the dice look claims, among them a young crap- nomena in the very act of trying to good.” But not until I attempted the shooter who said he could control dice demonstrate them,” he wrote in 1962. Golden Touch controlled throw did I with his mind. The results of an im- “Evidently the tests themselves get in realize the difficulty of consistently hit- promptu trial in Rhine’s office were the way of the abilities they are de- ting the same spot, let alone keeping modestly successful. Rhine then con- signed to measure.” the dice together in the air or conducted some preliminary experiments The Rhine experiments failed to trolling their backspin. Despite my ap- with his wife and friends at home be- prove the existence of psychic pow- plication of the pendulum swing, my fore moving to the lab, where he found ers, but they are full of lessons about first shots deviated wildly from their what he believed to be conclusive sta- cards and dice—namely, that within flight plan, soaring over the receiving tistical evidence that gifted individuals any random series are Linzmayers, cas- station and crashing into the wall. The could alter dice throws by desire alone. es so stunning they can be used to Dominator said my grip was too tight. This power he named psychokinesis, prove almost anything. The urge to I loosened up. My dice started hitting or PK. turn these cases into stories, then gen- the table. Watching my own throws, I By the end of the 1940s, ESP and eralize the stories into theories, and realized the action around the wall un- PK were media sensations. Rhine wrote then, after performing some experi- folded too quickly for the eye to follow. a best-selling book; his research was ments, promote the theories to truth I could see where the dice were and debated in the pages of Life and Es- can be irresistible. In this way, the sci- where they were headed, but as soon as

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they hit the table their pips dissolved (now well into his third vodka) shift- tice stations (“Would you pay tu- into a red blur. ed to a tone of wiseguy intimacy, as ition to go to Harvard and then not Our throws were built up piece by though everything up to this point had buy any books?”) followed by more piece. Each instructor’s station was an- been for show and we were now, final- practice. My throws were still wild. other stop on the assembly line. Stick- ly, getting to the heart of matters. Colonel Fox dropped a quarter on man taught us how to diagnose our own “You’re gonna die ultimately, right? the felt and instructed me to focus throws, how eccentricities of flight can Your life is a negative-expectation game. on this target. be traced back to small quirks in one’s No matter what you do, you’re dead. “So you buy into this thing, totally?” grip or release. Mr. Finesse focused on You can eat your broccoli. You can take Rick asked the Colonel as I shot. This pacing. “You’re moving too fast,” he the whole thing and just shove it in surprised me. The day before he had advised me. “Go slow. They’ll get your mouth. You’re still gonna die. But seemed convinced. there.” By lunchtime Ralph was clear- by doing what you do, you can push off “No doubt. It works,” said the ly improving. His dice were consistently death another few months, a few years, Colonel. landing near the back wall with almost in order to take more for yourself out After an hour, the Dominator sum- no wobble or yaw. I watched one throw of life. Advantage play is the same moned us back to our desks for a lecture smoothly rotate around the outside one- thing. We take the casino’s money and on the mental aspects of the game. He pip and land exactly as he set them: we enjoy it. Ultimately it will be mean- had a precise model for how a con- 5-5. “Sunflowers!” exclaimed Rick. ingless. They will make billions of dol- trolled shooter’s mind should work, a “Ten the hard way! I saw them in the lars to our hundreds of thousands. But mix of positive psychology and locker- air! That wasn’t an accident.” we will have taken them for what room Zen that unfolded from the His excitement reminded me of a they’ve taken everybody else as. It’s a acronym POWER. The “P” was for question I had asked Frank and the wonderful feeling.” Preparation. This meant practice, prac- Dominator the previous night. We had Are there ever bad streaks, I asked, tice, practice, two months of daily prac- quit Knuckles and had strolled along times you’re not in the zone? tice at least, before we ever entered a an arterial road to a Morton’s Steak- “Right,” said Frank, “sometimes casino. “O” was for living Only in the house located in the basement of a you’re off. There were times when I present. “W” was for Witnessing only nearby office park. In the luxuriant was in the zone, Rock ’n’ Roller was in good thoughts: “The sale you’re trying gloom, as I listened to the team re- the zone, Dom was in the zone . . . and to make. See the customer sign the or- count their greatest rolls, I thought of there were other times when we . . . der form. At the craps table, you’re wit- a prehistoric hunter clan gathered when we stunk.” He grimaced at these nessing numbers.” “E” was for Energy, around the fire, telling stories of their shameful memories, then suddenly set best obtained by sitting down, closing biggest kills. The Dominator leaned his fork down and plucked my digital our eyes, and breathing in through our into me, describing the transcenden- recorder off the table. “Do you want centers. And the “R” was for Risk. We tal experience of shooting. any of this?” he asked, considering the must learn to accept it. To this end we “It’s like slow motion,” he said. “I thin black bauble. “You know I could were to create a “401G,” a separate know that when those dice are in the destroy this right now, if I wanted to.” bank account dedicated exclusively to air, I am gonna hit the number I want “You could,” I said. A tense mo- gambling. This would help us treat our to hit. When I’m in that zone, per se, ment, then Frank surrendered the craps play like a business and segregate there’s absolutely no stopping me.” recorder. I turned it off. We finished it from the rest of our affairs. If we were What kind of temperament does our steaks and walked afraid of losing the kids’ college fund, one need to enter this zone? back to the hotel. Frank said, we would not be able to fo- “You gotta be like me,” said Frank, cus on the dice. abruptly. The first day had ended with a More practice, then Frank ran “The temperament you need to be warning: we should not, under any cir- through the Golden Touch betting a great controlled shooter is the tem- cumstances, drive to the casino and system. We were to make wagers only perament that Frank Scoblete has,” gamble. “Today your body learned when the house advantage was less agreed the Dominator. something,” Frank had explained. than 2 percent. Everything else was “That sounds insane!” said Frank. “Tonight you need to let it gel.” for the crazy crappers. He explained “No, but it is true,” said the Domi- The second day began with a con- the 5-Count, a multistage progression nator. fession. “I did something last night,” by which we were to make smaller wa- “It is,” admitted Frank. The Domi- said a sheepish older gentleman in the gers less often. We should treat nator recited the ways their associa- front row. “Something I’m not proud “comps”—the free rooms and meals tion has improved his game. He gave of. I drove to the boats and I played. I that casinos give away to regular much credit to the Captain, the anony- shot dice.” Frank shook his head in players—like another casino game, ex- mous and possibly apocryphal shooter gentle admonishment. Placing his aggerating the stakes and duration of in Scoblete’s books who pioneered the hands on the gambler’s shaggy white our play so we can, in the Dominator’s art of the controlled throw. head, he shouted like a revivalist words, “extract every goddamn dollar “Craps is life,” said Frank. “It’s life preacher: “Brothers and sisters! We from the casinos.” Much of this infor- boiled down to little things.” gonna heal you!” mation was commonsensical and avail- I asked him what he meant. Frank There was more hawking of prac- able elsewhere, but Frank had a way

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of making it sound like the fire- proposition with a friendly wager, one er accuse Frank of deliberately throw- breathing maxims of a griz- dollar per roll, setting the line at six ing a 7 to keep dice control a secret. But zled cornerman. and taking the under. first came his own attempt to redeem his “You got yourself a bet,” said the colleagues’ sub-random performance. By now I could see that the Gold- Dominator, evenly, but his eyes burned He tightened his face into a rigid mask en Touch had some undeniable value. as on the book cover. of athletic focus. Almost immediately If the average craps player followed “Novices first,” said Frank. Rumbling he entered the zone, hitting two double- the GTC system—betting smart, bet- and clicking, the dice began to fall. I 4 hardways in his first eight shots and ting less, and leaving as soon as he gets took an early lead. Missouri Rick sev- snapping his fingers as the dice hit. Cries tired—he would recoup (in diminished ened out on his third throw. Colonel Joe of “Come on!” and “Get up! Get up!” losses, if not in actual gains) the cost threw a 7 on his first. By the time Nick erupted around the table. After twelve of the two-day seminar many times “Lefty” Ticaric picked up the dice—to sevenless throws, Colonel Fox inquired over the course of his craps career. shouts of “Come on, Nick! Let’s go, whether I’d brought my checkbook. At But what of the control? Was it real baby!” and “Show us how it’s done!”— fifteen throws the table’s supplications or imaginary? I still had no idea. My the room had lost all scholarly restraint. grew more insistent. There was a sense hopes now rode on three words at the The men were cheering, hollering, and that the Dominator’s lease on the zone end of the syllabus: “No Sevens Con- leaning over the rail; every eye followed was evaporating. “Come on, mon- test,” the Golden Touch equivalent the path of the airborne dice. Lefty, an keeeey!” pleaded the Dominator. “Oh of a final exam. Each student was to auto mechanic, made an eleven-roll come on! Just a little luck,” shouted take a turn rolling the dice, throwing run. Then came Stickman, who closed Frank. “Attaboy!” Then he calmly as many Hardway Sets as possible with- his eyes as he cast the dice through ex- turned to me and said, with the right out hitting a 7. “This is a little taste of ceptionally consistent parabolas. His amount of irony, “Sometimes, if you what you’ll be feeling in the casinos,” shooting hand had the stillness of a sur- yell at the dice, it helps.” The seven-out Frank announced, as he laid a prize of geon’s; his face showed the strain of did not come until the Dominator’s fifty dollars down in the middle of the preserving a fragile geometry. On Stick- seventeenth throw. craps table. “Everybody is looking at man’s thirteenth throw one die tottered I read off the results and the Dom- you. There is money at stake.” to a stop just short of the wall to make inator punched them into a pocket The results were miserable. Three a 7. “That was Lady Luck there,” said calculator. There were eight 7s in fifty- students had decent results (eleven, Colonel Fox, shaking his head. five throws, yielding a collective SRR twelve, and thirteen consecutive sev- But Mr. Finesse sevened on his fifth of 1 to 6.875. The GTC team had suc- enless rolls), but the other thirteen of shot, Rock n’ Roller on his fourth. ceeded in beating the theoretical odds us couldn’t break six. Ralph sevened Fortune, it seemed, had made herself by a single 7, but the sample size was out on his first throw. When I sevened numb to the team’s ministrations. far too small for this result to confirm out on my second, Colonel Fox of- Now it was Frank’s turn, and the mood or refute the existence of dice control. fered this consolation: “You knew from in the room grew even graver. This To the team, however, the meaning of the time you let go that it wasn’t a felt like the clutch, the showdown the data was clear. Once more they good shot, right?” Our collective SRR within the showdown. Frank leaned had pitted their powers against an un- was a pitiful 1 to 4.4, about 25 per- over the table, paunch resting on the believing House, and once more the cent worse than random. “This doesn’t rail. He set the dice, loaded them in House had left the combat a few dol- look very good for the instructors,” his right hand, and released them with lars poorer. muttered Roy Malley, the winner, be- a careful lob. They flew strangely, a “The point is that we’re the in- fore accepting his fifty-dollar prize. No- quick rise and a lazy fall with almost structors, and we’re better than ran- body seemed to hear. no spin, and landed in the corner, dom,” said the Dominator, a wad of SRRs notwithstanding, there was where the table meets the back wall, singles now coiled in his palm. “And plenty of valedictory applause as Frank neither bouncing nor rolling nor that was cold!” added Colonel Fox. handed out laser-printed diplomas. touching the pyramids but dying on We settled up. I had lost seven dol- Frank gave us some parting words. contact, like two cubic baseballs re- lars and proven nothing. “Do what we say and you can become ceived by a pliant green mitt. The A few minutes later Frank appeared winners. Go to our website, practice throw was so clean, so laden with in- in the lobby, preparing to rendezvous for six months, come back, take a re- tention, that it took a moment for the with his wife for a tour of Chicago. fresher course. Maybe in a year, two white spots to register. A 3 and a 4: 7. From his plush, leather-like chair the years, you’ll be ready for an advanced “Jeee-sus Christ!” Frank gasped. hotel’s geometry scrolled outward, an course, and you’ll be on “Well, it just goes to show you, any- imperial court. He was no longer em- your way.” thing can happen,” said Missouri Rick. barrassed about his early seven-out. “It was pretty, though,” observed “You saw it,” he said. “It was a beau- After the students left, I called Colonel Fox. tiful throw.” Then he said something the coaches back around the pit. I ex- “It looked pretty,” corrected Frank. God might say, if I met Him on the pressed my skepticism bluntly, then “It did, it did,” said the Dominator, street and asked Him for proof. “Look, proposed a second No Sevens Con- with an edge of disappointment, or sus- there’s no answer to it. Either you be- test, one roll per coach. I sweetened the picion, or faux suspicion. He would lat- lieve me or you don’t.” ■

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