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BGonline.org Forums
Why I Hate the Meyer Dice Tube
Posted By: Bob Glass
Date: Monday, 6 December 2010, at 11:54 p.m.
If people wish to play properly with the Meyer Dice Tube, they will have to await my new book "Dynamic Tube Strategy". But seriously, folks, I intensely hate the dice tube. Trust me, no one is more paranoid about the randomness of dice rolling than I am. First of all, it takes all the passion out of the game. When I want that really special roll, I start shaking vigorously as if to will the number of my dreams. I may roll hard with a big follow through for big numbers or soft for small numbers. I know that these methods probably meke little difference on the outcomes but they make me feel better. In the Californis card clubs, Dice games are considered games of chance and are therefore outlawed. However, some of the clubs have allowed craps. The loophole used to allow this is that instead of using dice, the "dealer" pulls two cards numbered form Ace to six out of a shoe. To no one's surprise, this is not nearly as popular as traditional craps. It turns the passionate game of craps into a dead fish. As sophisticated as most modern backgammon players are, you can't tells me that there blood doesn't start flowing when they need that certain set of rolls. I think that is part of the very essence of backgammon and was intrumental in its popularity.
Another shortcoming of the dice tube is the ability to manipulate the dice. Although not as frequent as cup or baffle box play, the dice do occasionally cock within the cube. Suppose an alert player notices that the dice are cocked but he is still holding on to the tube, he can quickly give the cube a little nudge to uncock the dice. If he sees one of the dice a split second before it lands about to settle upon a certain number, he can do the same thing.
If one of the players should accidentally or intentionally knock over the tube, what was the roll?
Are the tubes as random as cup rolling or bafflebox rolling. It would be nice to sees some sort of analysis on this before accepting this as fact.
Just as an aside, are the dice in the tube visible when a match is being videotaped?
Because of all the shortcomings, I don't feel that tournament directors should make dice tubes mandatory if one of the players wishes to use them and wins the rolloff on whose equipment to use.
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