HE\'S KEYING THE SAME GAMES!
Cliff Notes - Big casino on Utah-Nevada border won't let guy who obviously knows nothing bet as many $10 10-, 9-, 8- & 7-teamers as he wants to.
I know nothing about NFL betting; might play a parlay card by accident every 2-3 seasons.
Happened to read Bill Simmons' column this week about there being nine home dogs this week all with a legit shot of winning outright, and I just re-read Michael Konik's old column about how you should take 3.5 and lay 2.5 in the NFL, as 3 is the most common margin (Gregg Easterbrook and many others have mentioned this). There are eight 2.5 or 3.5 games this week, with a couple of both crossover and conflicting games with the home dog list. Hell, why not?
So I go out to the Rainbow in Wendover (hardly a hole in the wall) yesterday and fill out 1 ten-teamer, 3 nine-teamers, 2 eight-teamers, and 16 seven-teamers, all for $10 each; then also a $100 3-teamer (Falcons, Bills, Pats [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]) and a $50 six-teamer. Total of $370.
Took me awhile to fill 'em all out; kept duplicating the various combos, filling in wrong circles, getting confused between the two 'groups' I'm picking from, plus the Pats are listed on the card as being at home, it's a LOL.
Take the cards up to counter. Typical smaller casino sportsbook nametag starts riffling through the stack, shaking his head, sneering, contemptuous chuckle under his breath: "Why didn't you just do one for $100?"
- Because they're all different games (you stupid piece of...)
Nametag immediately gets all nervous; starts mumbling "Might have to check, they might think you're up to something, etc"
He rings up $250 of them, then the typical $50 suit walks by. "John, John, you need to take a look at this, he's KEYING THE SAME GAMES."
Suit looks thru the stack already run, then tells nametag to "slow down on those" as he walks to the back with them. Nametag stands there shuffling the remainder, anxiously staring at the door, while I'm standing there desperately trying (and failing) to think up some classic zingers that'll sting but won't get me barred (I play poker there).
Suit comes out and says "No more" (I have no idea what $10 tickets hadn't been rung up yet), I say "If I can't bet 'em all I ain't betting any of 'em", suit says "That's fine", then I hear him say to nametag "Some guy did the same thing yesterday".
And that was that, except for I presume nametag's Gold Star Employee of the Year award ceremony. I mean, WTF? Has anyone ever heard of this? Everyone I've told this to, gambler & non-gambler alike, has been dumbfounded.
In some ways, this is typical Wendover, but still, who bars a sucker (although I apparently know more than the employee did) from betting seven-teamers?
They all can't win; the Bears are on half & the Lions are on the other half, and they've got a ~20% edge on the payouts! Crazy. What would Benny do?
With the way the Panthers & Niners look right now, everything's dead but the three-teamer so I'm either out $330 or saved $370(which I don't care about either way), but it was interesting early with the Falcons, Browns, Bills(!) and Raiders all coming in, and the Vikes should've covered.
Oh well, at least I told everyone there that the Falcons were lock of the week when they laughingly asked me! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
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