We are offering three different practice rigs:

1. Pablo's Mini T, $119.95. Weight 6 pounds. Folds to 16 1/2 inches by 12 inches by 2 inches. Landing zone is half-inch plywood 11 inches wide and 16 inches long. Total parts: 35 (landing zone, back, two sides, ten wing nuts, ten washers, ten cap nuts, and an extra felt). You could glue the washers to the plywood, reducing the number of parts by ten. The ten cap nuts are not really needed, and merely keep the ends of the bolts from damaging anything in your suitcase. No tools are needed for assembly; merely remove the cap nuts, align the landing zone, back, and two sides, and then screw on ten wing nuts on top of washers. Assembly takes three minutes after removing the cap nuts; disassembly takes two minutes. If you want to use the cap nuts, add an extra minute for assembly and an extra minute for disassembly. The extra piece of felt that can be pressed onto the landing zone to make it bouncier but quieter. Image: http://www.dicecoach.com/images/mini4.jpg

2. Shoot-it-all's Mini Rig, $169. Weight 6 pounds. Folds to 18 inches by 12 inches by 2 1/4 inches. Landing zone is half-inch plywood 12 inches wide and 17 inches long. Total parts: 5 (landing zone, back, two sides, and an extra felt). No tools are needed for assembly; merely put the landing zone, back, and two sides in the right positions and close to each other, and strong magnets do the rest. Assembly takes a few seconds; and disassembly takes a few seconds. Included is an extra piece of felt that can be pressed onto the landing zone to make it bouncier but quieter. Image: http://crapsfest.com/images/MiniBoxCollage.jpg (briefcase not included)

2. Shoot-it-all's Big Rig, $199. Weight 12 pounds. Folds to 18 inches by 12 inches by 3 1/2 inches. Landing zone is half-inch plywood 16 inches wide and up to 29 inches long. Total parts: 7 (three-piece landing zone, back, two sides, and an extra felt). No tools are needed for assembly; merely put the landing zone, back, and two sides in the right positions and close to each other, and strong magnets do the rest. Assembly takes a few seconds; and disassembly takes a few seconds. The landing zone comes in three pieces, so you have options as to how long you want the landing zone to be. Included is an extra piece of felt that can be pressed onto the landing zone to make it bouncier but quieter. Image: http://crapsfest.com/images/threeinonerig.jpg

For all three practice rigs, The landing zone is high-quality plywood covered with the same quality of felt that is used on casino crap tables. The back wall is the same quality of pyramids as is used on casino crap tables. The result is the dice act and sound the same as when they land on casino crap tables. You can practice on a rig and easily pretend you are actually throwing in a casino. What's important is the similarity (between practice rig and casino) of dice reaction after hitting the landing zone and back wall. Any toss that would behave properly in a casino will behave properly on a practice rig. Any toss that would bounce overly much in a casino will bounce overly much on a practice rig. Any toss that would bounce to the left in a casino will bounce to the left on a practice rig. Any toss that would get a dead-cat bounce in a casino will get a dead-cat bounce on a practice rig.

The main thing I like about using a practice rig is the feedback I get as to whether I have been able to keep the dice properly aligned. If I don't have the dice aligned just right, they bounce way too much. That's particularly noticeable on a small practice rig, where dice thrown properly generally stay on the rig, and dice not aligned properly almost always bounce off the rig.

I like all practice rigs; I have yet to see one I don't like. My favorite is Shoot-it-all's Mini Rig. Its small size makes it light and easy to slip into a suitcase. The magnets make it quick to assemble and disassemble, and that's important to me because in a hotel room after every use I disassemble the rig to hide it in my suitcase.

If you want to use your practice rig to accumulate statistics on how well you are doing, you might prefer Shoot-it-all's Big Rig for two reasons. First, almost all your dice will stay on the larger surface, so you will accumulate stay-on-the-surface data faster with a larger rig. Second, a larger surface means you can generally can toss more than one pair of dice before retrieving them, since you generally will have an open area on which to toss the second pair. With the smallest rigs, if your first toss results in both dice staying on the landing zone, tossing a second pair of dice is likely to result in one die hitting another.

A practice rig held together by magnets takes a few seconds to assemble and a few seconds to disassemble. A practice rig held together by wing nuts takes me three minutes to assemble (if I don't drop any washers or nuts), and two minutes to disassemble. That's just enough time difference that I prefer a rig held together by magnets for use in a hotel room. But for practice at home or anyplace else where speed of assembly is not a concern, I'd take Pablo's Mini T because it's cheapest.

We have (or soon will have) samples of all three rigs in the office if you want to come in and check them out in person before deciding which to buy.

There is a $30 shipping charge for each craps practice rig ordered. Craps Practice Rigs are available from

Pi Yee Press
4855 W. Nevso Dr.
Las Vegas, NV 89103

Phone 702-579-7711
E-mail info@bj21.com

Or use the Pi Yee Press online order form.