All Rise...
No matter what feelings you may have about jury
duty, jury duty is a civil responsibility to be taken seriously by every citizen
of the United States. So, when I received my notice in the mail last month I
quickly read the instructions and went down to the County Court Office to
reschedule my civic duty. The date I was required to report fell right in the
middle of a planned trip to the City of Dreams.
After returning from Las Vegas, I called the
phone number provided on my jury notice to find out if my juror number had been
selected. When I called, the recorded messaged for potential jurors informed me
to call back the following day. Okay, fair enough, it was after all, July 6th.
Perhaps an extended holiday for government officials followed a Saturday Fourth
of July.
At 8:34am on July 7th, with coffee in
hand, I sat down at my desk. As I fired up the computer I saw the court notice
and decided to take care of that business first. When I listened to the recorded
message, I learned that my juror number had been selected and, to my shocked
surprise, I was due in court in nine minutes. In the famous exclamation of the
Dice Coach, “Yikes Mister!” After a re-reading of the notice of jury duty
instructions, I discovered my mistake. I had misread the instructions and
thought that I could call on July 6th between the hours of 7:00am and 5:00pm.
However, the hours were 5:00pm to 7:00am of the next day. Fortunately for me, I
was still on summer break. I made it down to the court office lickity-split,
late none the less.
I checked in with the clerk and explained my
situation. She offered two options; I could reschedule or wait and see if the
judge would accept me late. Since I am a “professional waiter”, I asked how long
the wait might be. The clerk replied with, “about ten minutes”. It is good to
know how court time equates to real time. Twenty-five minutes later, the clerk
announced a settlement in the case and all potential jurors were dismissed,
including me.
In the game, it is easy to be caught up with
time and be overwhelmed by the details. Just like misreading the times to call
for the juror’s notice, misreading the cues in a game can be as troubling. It
can be fatal to fall victim to a reversal of the signals. All the signs you need
are present in the metaphysical information during a game. It is the difference
between being in the present moment versus being lulled into a false notion that
everything is okay because one is oblivious to the energy. The tendency for the
stubborn player is to lock in the intellect and listen to the side that says, “I
am right, I know what I am doing”. My example about the call-in times for jury
duty comes to mind. The call-in times did not make sense to me so I transposed
the times in a way that made sense in my mind… wrong as it was. I ignored the
reality of what was true and replaced it with what I thought was reasonable.
Do not fall victim to this trap. Learn to
recognize the shifts in a game. Paying attention to all the details so you can
see what is true. Do not be a victim of your own undoing by insisting upon what
you want, in place of reality.
Ego has a hard time accepting defeat, or a
mistake, for that matter, and ego tends to want to fight back or make excuses.
The player can continue to support a losing battle with ill fated play. The
application and use of metaphysical principles is imperative. It provides the
player with the advantage to stay on top of the details that shape the game.
Denial can be a typical response instead of accepting the more difficult choice
of taking responsibility for noticing all things. The honest acceptance of what
is really going on in a game can be most enlightening, as well as empowering. It
puts you back in your body and in charge of your emotions and thus in control of
your game.
In the process of dealing with the jury duty
experience, once I accepted and admitted “I made a mistake”, instead of
justifying my error with excuses, I got real within myself. I was honest with my
feelings. I released the guilt, the fear, the anger and the anxiety of “what is
going to happen next”. By simply accepting life as I had created it, the energy
of negative emotion immediately fell away. This provided the space which allowed
for “flow”. Being in the flow, versus swimming up stream, is as simple as I know
how to explain it. When in “flow”, a higher order of energy occurs effortlessly,
like being in the right place, at the right time, and with the right action, for
example. In the end, instead of hanging out in the court house for two hours,
bored stupid, I was released after thirty minutes. I do not account for this
experience as luck, happenstance, accident or a fluke. It is a life lesson to
help to reflect on how metaphysical energy works.
The Professor
Copyright © 2009 Michael Vernon
Hey Professor!
I found your work very informative (especially the metaphysical aids) and
helpful, but I have one question. If the pass line parlay is the key, why can't
we just play single odds or no odds at all?? I am aware that double odds lower
house advantage but odds bets still lose 60% of the time. Thanks in advance for
your input on this matter.
Sincerely,
J. P.
Hey J.P,
The game of craps, as you know, is complicated, and there are as many ways to
play as there are players. You may wish to read an article I published in 2007,
by Mike In Hawaii.
http://www.playing4keeps.com/Newsletters/2007/August.htm#Fair
The reason for double odds has to do with keeping up with the 50% progression.
Without double odds, you will not lock up enough profit nor will you have the
necessary funds to progress with your betting as the hand continues. It has to
do with the way the play is designed. It is designed to fund progressive betting
when opportunity comes knocking while locking up profit at the same time. In my
playbook, I explain this with three examples
comparing double odds, 5X’s and 10X’s odds. The play really only works with
double odds… dollar for dollar, percent invested to profit, it comes down
to the least money at risk with biggest bang for the buck.
True, once on a point the pass line is doomed with a 60% loss probability. The
strategy is to take advantage of a monster roll and you never know when one is
about to hatch. For a lot of math guys, the odds portion does not make cents
(sic) to them. I agree. Still, a player has to hang his hat on something and
after almost twenty years, I have not lost my hat.
Now, if you want to forego the odds, here’s a play for you.
Play a single unit, say $5 for example, no odds. Parlay the win four times and
pull it all down after the fifth pass. What does the win look like? $155 plus
your original $5 line bet.
Why make this play? Well, five passes is not unheard of even on a choppy table.
Say you buy-in for $150. That gives you 30 shots to find one shooter to roll
five passes. Okay, we have to admit to craps on the come out so you may not see
30 shooters. But think of all your times at the table… five passes parlayed four
times is a 31 to 1 shot. There is no rule that you have to go five passes. Hell,
four passes pays 15 to 1.
Sure, you will lose a lot of parlayed bets that don’t complete, but you are only
risking $5 for the shot at $155. Even if you are down to your last $5 and hit,
you will show a profit of $10. What I am really trying to say is we are always
playing for the time when the dice roll out of probability and in the players'
favor. Making this play, and hitting at least one shooter that rolls five
passes, will net a reasonable profit for the session.
Craps is like cats… and there is more than one way to skin’em. Playing 4 Keeps
is all about playing a consistent method that works by the math. Toss in the
metaphysics and you are miles ahead of the rest of the crowd while giving the
casino a run for the money. Wheels should be turning already as you start
thinking of how modification to this play could be applied to many different
situations.
I
hope I have answered your question as well as given you something else to think
about.
Well, that’s it for this edition of the Playing 4 Keeps™ Newsletter.
See you at the tables,
Michael Vernon
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