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BGonline.org Forums
Dealing with dice that appear cocked (Long)
Posted By: Colin Owen In Response To: Dealing with dice that appear cocked (Long) (Daniel Murphy)
Date: Monday, 16 July 2012, at 3:10 p.m.
What blurs the issue of when a die should be defined as cocked is this extremely rare occurrence of a die landing on its corner. Such a die will clearly be very unstable, and could easily be moved by outside influence. It would seem to be a special case. With the better precisions (with a slight point on the rounded corner) I don't believe it can balance on its corner on all but the softest surface; even then it might require the downward pressure of a hand. It's a pity the other precision dice are sold at all.
With all other cases of dice leaning at an angle - that do actually shift - should it matter whether the die, for a moment at least, appears to have come to rest? If the table is solid enough, then any outside influence should be fairly obvious, like a player moving the table. In the absence of this, if the die shifted then it HAD NOT come to rest and, as long as it does so within a reasonable time it should count. I maintain, from experience, that if it's going to shift it will probably do so within a second and, almost certainly, within 2-3. If a die seems in a particularly precarious position, leaning at an angle, waiting up to 2-3 seconds to be pretty sure seems a tiny ask. One second is too soon to decide.
Of course, if both players have agreed 'cocked' before it shifted then it should not count, but is there such a rush? I mean, it could well be a couple of seconds before both players actually agree, and in that time the die will very probably have shifted if it is going to. And peoples perception varies; one player may have much better visual acuity. The movement may actually be so slight before the shift that he is not consciously aware of it. But he is nonetheless unconsciously so, providing a feeling, or intuition, that he should not immediately declare it to be cocked.
The notion put by some players that, if a die even momentarily APPEARS to come to rest (other than perhaps, on its corner) that this means it is cocked EVEN IF it shifts a few tenths of a second later, is flawed. In the UK, where I have played exclusively, I have never met anyone who tried to argue that. The other extreme is to be able to insist we wait for up to 5-10 seconds say. The middle position is to be prepared to wait, in certain cases, for 2 or maybe 3 seconds.
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