The Well: B00T
 

A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Wednesday, you can shout any question down that well, and you'll be told the answer" .

The stranger shouts down several questions, and all are answered. The stranger is impressed, and after thinking a minute he shouts down: "Why not on Wednesday?" and the voice from in the well shouts back "Because on Wednesday, it’s your day in the well".


B00T has volunteered to take a turn in The Well. This is his thread, and your opportunity to shout any question down The Well for B00T to answer...


<ul type="square">
Previous turns in The Well: [*] Performify - 02/02/07[*] B00T - 02/07/07[/list]
If you are interested in volunteering to take a turn in the well, send Performify a PM.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Hey B00T.
I´ll start out with pretty much the same questions I first asked Performify..

How old are you?

Where do you live?

How did you get into sports betting?

How long have you been betting sports?

Do you bet sports for a living? If not, what do you do?

What education do you have?

What sports do you bet?

How much did you make betting sports last year?

What do you think are your biggest attributes that make you successful?

What, if any, are your leaks? (replace leaks with suitable sports betting term if needed)

How much time do you put into betting sports? (per day and week, on average)

Do you play poker and/or are you involved in any other form of gambling?

What does your family think of your betting?

How important do you feel it is to be good at math in order to be a successful sports bettor?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

1) How much sushi do you estimate you have eaten in your lifetime?

2) How many links to OOT threads does Thremp IM to you per day with no explanation?

3) Somewhat related to question #3 -- if you could kill one poster from Sports Betting who would it be?

4) If you could become one poster from Sports Betting for a day, who would it be (other than me) and what would you do?

5) Do you ride dirtay on purpose sometimes so you can talk about RIDIN DIRTAY?

6) How many 7-10 splits have you picked up in your lifetime?

7) Explain the easiest way for a mediocre bowler like me to hustle someone with prop betting.

8) What is the biggest middle you've hit and what game was it on?

9) What is the worst bad beat you've suffered that cost you a middle or exposure?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

How often does this forum make you suicidal?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

which regular posters in this specific forum do you consider clueless retards?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Where does your username, b00t, come from?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

ok I'm alive.... I will start answering questions now [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I'm 26 yrs old. I live in Rockland Cty, NY which is about 30 minutes north of NYC.

I got into sports betting while I was in college. I worked at a local pizza joint and the owner of it was heavy into betting. He would call his bookie just about everyday and be betting more than the daily revenue of the store that day. He would be pacing around the store carrying a little black and white composition book with all his betting records and research on it. The guy was a true degenerate. He had a sattelite feed from DirecTV with every sports package he could get into a little 19" TV that sat atop a freezer box in the back of our store. He'd be hooting and hollering at any game there was. The days he would win, he'd let me go home early and he was extremely nice to all his customers and you could just tell when he was winning. The days he lost, this guy would pace back and forth throughout the store with a cleaning rag in each hand and literally just run to each countertop, meat slicer, stove, and when I say frantically start scrubbing, it's the understatement of the year. Picture those mexican guys at the end of a car wash with the towels that wipe down your car as fast as they can before you get off the track. Now picture them after taking like 6 hits of crystal meth. That was this guy. Anyway, he got me into sports betting. I used to bet about $50 a game and picked 1 or 2 games a week. After looking back, I think I picked a road favorite every bet I ever made. I never got the concept of homefield, and if I did, I didn't care.

I graduated from SUNY Albany with a B.S. in Economics in 2002.

I was betting sports for a living for all of 2006. Abotu 95% of these profits were from arbing, or taking shots at middles that were largely +EV. I am awaiting the arrival of my passport, and may look into continuing that for 07. It's still up in the air in this point.

I broke 6 figures for all of 06, after counting bonuses, and the Pinnacle rebate. To not sound spammy or self-promoting I had a lot to do with the conception of ArbCentral. The Pinnacle rebate which in my mind was the #1 underutilized profit building mechanism any arber could use.

Being successful: It's a lot harder to answer this since I rarely spend any time capping events. I guess for arb purposes, I know exactly where to look at any given time of day to know when site X puts out their overnight lines, or when site Y is slow to move. A lot of this comes with experience. A good thing is I am totally desensitized to the monetary values. I started out 0/6 in $1000+ exposures, but it never discouraged me.

I used to 8 table 5-10 limit 6max before I got heavy into sports betting. My crapola winrate of .6bb/100 over 200k hands was just enough after getting some sweet rakeback deals kept me quite afloat. I also worked for a year and a half for Raketracker (Morgant, Cup, Toronto, and the former mod of SB Craig) I learned quite a bit from them about how to play poker and the behind the scenes action of the affiliate world. Once I started betting fulltime I switched to S+G's (up to the $33's) and never made too much. Maybe about $3000 total for all of 06. I never really applied myself to poker and studied the game.

My family is supportive of what I do. While working for raketracker and doing other affiliate work in the last 3 years, I always was "left alone" because my affiliate work was enough of a basic income where in my family's eyes it was a "job". They weren't worried that I had to make bets or play poker to support myself.

Math is extremely important although I can never formulate or even follow an arguement or theory being made. (King Yao is a great example of someone who shows the math behind sports betting, yet I don't have a great enough attention span to follow it). In hindsight I guess you don't have to be as sharp as him to profit, but it would definitely help your ROI, the stronger you are. I think it's quite conducive to never analyzing your poker play and being content with where you are.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

What's the most money you have ever lost on a race, or a single game? And also, what was your biggest score?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
1) How much sushi do you estimate you have eaten in your lifetime?

2) How many links to OOT threads does Thremp IM to you per day with no explanation?

3) Somewhat related to question #3 -- if you could kill one poster from Sports Betting who would it be?

4) If you could become one poster from Sports Betting for a day, who would it be (other than me) and what would you do?

5) Do you ride dirtay on purpose sometimes so you can talk about RIDIN DIRTAY?

6) How many 7-10 splits have you picked up in your lifetime?

7) Explain the easiest way for a mediocre bowler like me to hustle someone with prop betting.

8) What is the biggest middle you've hit and what game was it on?

9) What is the worst bad beat you've suffered that cost you a middle or exposure?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahaha

1. I mostly have eaten rolls. I really got into it about 2 years ago after dating some psychotic insanely hot polish chick who loved it. Figure like 5-6 rolls on avg per session and 5x a month is about 300 rolls.

2. About 1 per day. Sometimes they do have an explantion because thremp thinks of me as a brain-dead guy who never has knowledge about anything. (He is partially right though)

3. It would of been Dementia, but thankfully he got banned after welching on some prop bets in BBV. Does Dids post here? I can't stand reading any of his posts, and never realized if his fatass every rolled into this neck of the woods. For a regular poster here, I can't think of anyone off the top of my head that really stands out as a complete jerk. I would of said beetman, but after the arb thread he has definitely posted many more useful things and I enjoy reading his posts.

4. I'd want to become Performify and read the mod forum to see how seriously these people take their "job", and read a lot of his pm's for good insight into what makes him who he is.

5. I have the worst luck when Ridin Dir-Tay on the exposed bet. I lose exposures with -190 favorites, I lose with all the square sides of an arb where I know I am at least a 60% favorite to begin with.

6. Two of them. Matches the number of 300's I have. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Definitely a better feeling actually bowling 300 after the 5 299's I had before I ever bowled the 300's. I average over 230 in 2 different leagues this year and have the highest average ever in the local place I am in. I gave up playing hockey and baseball when I was younger and was really into bowling. It's the only sport a smoker can really succeed in.

7. I'd say challenging someone to bowling without using their thumb. It is something with minimal practice that you can destroy someone at who has never done it. We do many prop bets and the sort after our leagues our finished. We play a game called lowball which is trying to get the least score possible, but you must hit a pin each ball you throw. A perfect game would be 20, hitting the 7 pin and the 10 pin each frame for a score of 2 every frame.

Edit: If you throw a gutter ball on the first shot of the frame, you get a strike for the frame. If you get 3 on your first ball, then throw a gutter on the 2nd shot, you are given 3/.

8. I was exposed on a 2nd half NFL total. I had u17 I believe on a game between the Vikings and the Cardinals, and there were only 7 pts in the 3Q. Thanks to a friend he showed me a 4Q O/U total. (I cant remember the #) I hit the middle for a tad under ~$5k. It put me almost at zero lifetime on mistakes.

9. Worst bad beat was probably the day you were at my house. I needed u9 runs in a Nats/Giants game on an exposed bet. It was on 8 in the bottom of the 8th. They score one run on a wild pitch to put it on 9. I was content with it being a push to have my first escape of at least a non-loss. Top 9 score is 7-2 I think, 2 outs 0-2 count and Soriano goes yard to make it 7-3. I've lost middles on buzzer beaters in basketball, a missed free throw with .4 secs left, but that is much more common. I hate Soriano.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
How often does this forum make you suicidal?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not very. I really think SB would be better if there was 1 daily thread for each sport, instead of individuals with their picks. I think it would form much more of a group atmosphere and condense the number of posts. It would also be useful to look in the archives of particular matchups. Say Knicks are playing the Pacers, do a search for the night they last played and look at some of the reasoning of those games, see the spread and what has changed.

I made this suggestion about 4 times and it has came and gone. I don't really cap so I don't care that much. I just think structure-wise it would make this place better.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
What's the most money you have ever lost on a race, or a single game? And also, what was your biggest score?

[/ QUOTE ]

$1900 lost ~$4440 won

I lost $9,000 on a real estate deal gone bad, which was my worst score to date in life. I have since recouped it on some other ventures, but that one stings the most. More than any sports loss.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
Where does your username, b00t, come from?


[/ QUOTE ]

Back in college circa 1999, I was the first kid in the dorm with a cd-burner. I had copies of every single music album and PSX game. I used to make copies and sell them to the kids in the dorms. I was known as the bootlegger in college. I sold and installed mod chips along with games. I had random kids I have never seen before coming my dorm with like shopping lists of crap. I was making barrels of money and "hired" my 2 suitemates to make games while I was in class and at my job. Anyway, I made a screenname which I still use to this day. I wanted to shorten it in an IRC room and went to use Boot. It was taken, and since I was on IRC getting my games after renting most of 'em, I used the 1337 version which became b00t. That stuck from about 5 years ago and thats that.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
7. I'd say challenging someone to bowling without using their thumb. It is something with minimal practice that you can destroy someone at who has never done it. We do many prop bets and the sort after our leagues our finished. We play a game called lowball which is trying to get the least score possible, but you must hit a pin each ball you throw. A perfect game would be 20, hitting the 7 pin and the 10 pin each frame for a score of 2 every frame.

[/ QUOTE ]

I bowl without my thumb 100% of the time, am I at a horrible disadvantage? I started bowling weekly with a few friends of mine several months ago, and have been looking to improve since then.

I am a smaller guy and I typically throw a 14-16 lb ball with a decent hook, and I probably never used my thumb because it's easier for me to control the ball that way (plus I'm afraid it will get ripped off). I don't get a ton of speed on the ball because of this, but I get pretty good results with those balls, much better than I did throwing a 12lb with more speed.

I recently got a ball for christmas from my parents, a 14lb Brunswick PowerGroove that I then had drilled for my hand. My scores have been wildly inconsistent since then (I was somewhere around a 165 average before). I don't really know what I'm asking now that I type this up, but am I at a severe disadvantage because I don't use my thumb? Most of my hook is generated from flipping my wrist, which I've heard is bad. Its never really been a big problem with the new ball except when the lane is a little dry, then my ball typically finds its way in the left gutter or hitting too far left of the head pin because the PowerGroove takes a wild turn there. Do most lanes typically have someone that can give a few lessons?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Boot,

What area have you made the most arbing at? Is March Madness going to be Arb Madness?

What do you see yourself doing with your life? Do ever see yourself having a career (i.e. the same job for more than a decade? Don't answer if you don't want to, it's just a question I seem to be asking myself an awful lot lately.

thanks

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
I bowl without my thumb 100% of the time, am I at a horrible disadvantage?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. I meant it takes awhile to get used to doing, whereas if you had some prior experience doing it, agianist someone who hasnt, you would be a strong favorite. As it stands, I think bowling without a thumb would be an advantage vs bowlers who do use a thumb.

Obviously you cannot be as accurate without your thumb than with it, but there would become a point in time where the extra revolutions and subsequent pin action would give you an edge compensating for your less accurate throws.

All the rage these days are pros and avid bowlers dropping down from a 16lb ball to a 15lb. They insist they can get more revs on the ball and it still hits and finishes as hard. I personally still use 16 because I lose accuracy throwing a 15lb ball too hard.

There is a guy in my league who is averaging around 220, and does not use a thumb. I personally tried it and I injured my shoulder in doing so. I have had enough success doing what I have been doing, so I just stuck with it.

I think the lanes make no difference whether they are dry or soaked throwing a ball like that. Assuming you are righty, you can just keep moving both your target and your feet to the left. You can put the ball down over the 2nd arrow on the left and have it go to the right gutter and have it come back.

If that is impractical or too difficult to do consistently (which I think it is), you can either:

1. Get a new ball that hooks less, or more importantly a ball that you can get more length on. Pearlized balls get more length than dull coverstocks. All the balls I use are pearlized.

2. Put your ball in the polishing machine that all bowling centers have. This will give you more length also. (Length meaning the longer your ball will go down the lane before it starts to hook: how far it skids before it flips).

Does the bowling alley you bowl in have a pro shop? If there is someone on-site who drills balls, ask him to watch you bowl, and he'll have an idea how to drill your ball that better suits your needs. Depending on the pin placement relative to your finger holes (the pin is that solid colored dot that should be near your fingerholes) it can make the ball do different things. If it is below your finger holes the ball will react differently than if it is above.

Just ask the local guy in the pro-shop or ask a younger kid working the desk. The younger kids would be more liberal in their reccomendations. Someone will refer you to a coach, or a guy who knows how to drill balls. I've probably tried 5-6 different guys until I trusted someone who understands how to drill balls in general, and understands my style.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Do you ever go opposite of your picks when you are in a really bad funk?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I made the most money betting halftime lines. Particularly NFL. NBA lines were really starting to pickup maybe 2 weeks before Pinnacle croaked to US bettors. For me, the best things to bet were the thing with highest limits. SIA wasn't too useful because of their low limits. It is hard to bet a 6c arb for a measely $15 profit when you can get 2c arbs and 10x that amount on a site with large limits.

As for a career, I already have done a ton of things. I graduated college and immediately started workin 60hrs a week a restaurant manager. I was then approached in my store for an interview with Sam Adams. I interviewed and took a job as a sales rep for the company. I did that for about a year and got burnt out real fast. I played poker and then got a job through a temp agency working for a mortgage company. I worked in the appraisal department, which I learned a lot about real estate. I quit that after getting a job with Morgant and decided to play poker full-time.

That was a hard decision to make because I knew it would be my last corporate job. My plan at the time was to pile up away as much cash as I could playing poker and rakeback money while my Raketracker money was paying the bills. I was going to use the money out of my roll to start investing in real estate. I never moved up except for a brief stint chasing fish at 15-30 from my normal 5-10 game. I did this for awhile and built up a nice bankroll which I started to scalp sports betting. I had a good friend who I threw the idea back and forth with for awhile before we ever started it. In fact, I remember reading and learning about the concept while working at the mortage company. That was more than 2 years before I even placed my first bet. He got into it and loved it, and helped me through the learning phase rather quickly.

At this point, I own 2 condos and had plans to buy at least 2 more in 07. I was going to slowly transition from sports betting into focusing solely on real estate. I planned on that transition to take about 5 years and have about 10 properties at that time to make a living off of. With the current landscape, I am not really sure what to do.

So that was the real long answer to your 2nd question. I don't see myself doing anything for a long period of time. The property I have now has some huge long-term benefits which will greatly expand my options in the future. It is kinda hard to explain, but at this point, I really have no idea what I am going to do for the next 30 years.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I dont really make any picks that I can go the opposite of. I wont shy away from the chance of throwing $1000 away on a polish middle if I feel the bet warrants it. I never really got into a funk doing that. I am however "running bad" lifetime when it comes to my wagers and my expected return.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I guess I should try and interject some actual tips instead of just flapping on about stuff that is of no use to anybody here.

I definitely put a strong value on Poisson and its results in regards to bets. There are plenty of props and other bets out there where this can be of great use and profit.

You need to have a strong risk tolerance and be impervious to the idea that you can run awful and take a huge hit you roll.

One bet I can remember quite clearly was taking a Mussina strikeout prop in the playoffs. It was something like O 3.5 strikeouts +170 and U3 -110. I found this on a few sites and loaded up on it maxing it out. I got burned and lost 4 figures on the bet, but don't regert it at the slightest.

I loaded up on the Cy Young prop, loaded up meaning, maxing out all my accounts, calling friends and having them create accounts, and using other people's accounts to get money down. I was exposed for almost $10k on certain results but knew the payoffs warrant the risk.

(sidenote)I am horrible at explaining things, especially written responses compared to many others on this board.

Look for polish middles that are EV. There are polish middles on like 22 pts for a halftime line. I am involved in a small group of hardcore scalpers who hate that I even post here, but I see countless times they see polish middles on 22 pts, or other obscure things at like 30% returns and pass them up. Granted, they are gigantic nits [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] and make plenty of money off other stuff, but this is one area I see that is never talked about on this board.

Don't be afraid to gamble on things. These guys play $2k NL and wouldn't think twice about going all in pf with AA, but are afraid at the 5% chance one of these polish middles rain on you than the 20% your AA will lose to a random hand.

Take your skirts off, everyone, and take any edge you can get.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Explain a Polish middle please? Thanks.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Polish middle is the opposite of hitting a good middle where you win both bets. You lose both of them.

Say I have the Jets -3.5 at one site and the Dolphins +2.5 at another site. If the Jets win by 3, I lose both bets. This is ordinarily awful to take. If you are getting the odds of lets say Jets -3.5 +180 and Dolphins -2.5 +100, thats an 80c arb and an expected return of ~$400 guaranteed profit on a $1000 bet on each side. So you are risking 2k to win $400, or a 20% ROI for that particular bet. Are the Jets going to win by exactly 3 more than 1 in 5 times? What if the bets were +300 and +100.

If you are getting paid 20-1 on a 4-1 occurance you should take it no matter what provided you are not crippiling your bankroll. There comes a point where all of these become +EV at one point. My theory or hint is, people aren't taking these nearly as often as they should.

Edit: the Jets example sucks I edited the numbers. Like I said I am bad at explaning things outloud and threw this example quickly. Sorry.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

If you were to tutor a friend who doesn´t know sports betting from a hole in the ground. How would you go about to make him a winning bettor?
He´s no fool and is willing to put in plenty of time and energy to learn and make it work.


Do you ever bet soccer? Being european I don´t know a thing about football, not much about hoops and baseball is a [censored] mystery.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I have already done this with my best friend in real life. He was strapped for cash and struggling trying to put together his wedding. I had him come over one day and I showed him exactly what I was doing step-by-step and explained the process to him.

The information is out there and people like Homer take a lot of their time to go out of their way to help people out on these forums. If I were just starting out I would try and read as much as I can from these boards and other sources to fully understand what is actually going on.

I have bet soccer briefly but not strong enough to do it on my own. I have blindly bet some arbs that others have given me and did fairly well during the World Cup. For an American, much like you looking at football it's hard for someone unfamiliar with soccer to get too involved in it.

It is especially difficult with no soccer intelligence to try and find some "overlays" when it comes to certain outcomes. For example, I have no idea how likely a draw is, or the shootout rules in certain events to determine a lot of profitable stances.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I know nothing about arbs and scalping. I am in Canada so I have access to Pinny still.

I also have an account at the Greek, those are my only 2 places right now.

Can you give me an example or an arb or a scalp using the 2 sites (hopefully with NHL if you can as that is what I undertstand the most).

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Ok thx for replys. Appreciated. You too Performify, if you´re reading this thread.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

OK assuming the OT counts or doesn't count in each bet but are the same, say both sites include Overtime and aren't regulation only.

Say the Greek has the Devils at -110 and Pinnacle has the Rangers at +115 for the full game moneylines.

I would bet $2000 at the Greek on the Devils win $1818.18 if the Devils win and lose $2000 if they lose.

At Pinnacle, I would risk $1775.90 on the Rangers. If they win I win $2042.28 and lose the $1775.90.

So if the Devils win the game, I win the Greek bet and win $1818.18 and lose the Pinnacle bet on the Rangers of $1775.90 for a ~$42 profit.

If the Rangers win I lose $2000 at Greek on the Devils, but I win $2042.28 on the Rangers for a ~$42 profit.

So regardless of which team wins, I booked a $42 profit. Thats the basic principle of scalping a game. There are plenty of resources out there that explain it in further detail. The FAQ here has some great info for starters.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Boot this is gold. Thanks for doing this.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

In the first "The Well" thread here on SB, where Performify was the one thrown in, there was another great explanation written by fun160 on what constitutes an arb.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Thanks.

Just to make sure I got it, I am looking at the games tomorrow and the lines. If I had $500 at each site to risk, how would I do it and what would the profit be?


Carolina vs Boston

Pinny has Car -115
Bos +105

Greek has Car -120
Bos +100


Thanks.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Boy did I luck out. Thremp is on a one week IP ban.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

There isn't any profitable bet you could make there. Basically the + number of one side has to be greater than the - of the other side.

In your example the Pinny line of +105 on the Bruins would have to be +121 or higher to have a profitable scalp. The + on Boston has to be higher than the - on Carolina.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
Boy did I luck out. Thremp is on a one week IP ban.

[/ QUOTE ]

lolloollololo why?

you skipped my last question, I noticed.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

He'd be trolling me like there is no tomorrow.

I dont think anyone is really retarded. If there are people who I dont like reading posts from, I just skip over them. I never waste my time with posting politics. I could care less if I ever make El Diablo's designated poster list, I could care less about adhering to OOT posting standards.

I read the forums more for entertainment than posting and getting involved. I've been here almost 3 years, and only have 2k posts. Thats quite a low ratio compared to most people who have been around and read the forums almost daily.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

[ QUOTE ]
There isn't any profitable bet you could make there. Basically the + number of one side has to be greater than the - of the other side.

In your example the Pinny line of +105 on the Bruins would have to be +121 or higher to have a profitable scalp. The + on Boston has to be higher than the - on Carolina.

[/ QUOTE ]


ahh ok, I looked at all the games and I don't see any scalp opportunities.

Is it true that baseball has more opportunities compared to hockey?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I think baseball has more only because there is more people betting on it than hockey. Most arb opportunities occur within an hour of the game starting. As I wrote earlier, a lot of becoming a successful scalper is to know when it is best to look for certain things.

I rarely looked at NHL lines this year. I think I only had under 10 arbs compared to 500+ I had in the NBA.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

I guess there are last minute bets placed and the lines change differently near the start of the game thus giving the opportunity to scalp?

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Yea, I am not the best person to ask for this, but I am sure the majority of bets placed on games are when the game is about to start.

Also when injuries are announced and a key player is declared out like 2 hrs before the game, the lines go berzerk.

Youtalkfunny or beetman could probably provide more factual information on this.

Re: The Well: B00T
 

Ok, thanks for the help!!! Got me started.