Reno Hilton Jun 2004

[AwolAtHTR]

Sat 19 Jun 2004

Hi,

The Reno Hilton Summer Showdown tournament has eighty-six (86) people entered
and an 'entry' count of ninety-six (96). I counted three with two and four
with two entries by using the end of day report.

I talked with TommyC and he said he would not be posting the standings. So, I
decided to post this report. I am not sure how many other HTR users are entered.

Here is a summary of today's standings:

1. 4,181.50 Dempster, Joe
2. 4,092.00 Dempster, Joe
3. 3,102.00 Lester, Bob
4. 2,175.20 Linkletter, John
5. 2,109.00 Burnett, Lang
6. 546.90 McKeon, Thomas
7. 527.50 Johnstone, Fred
8. 525.40 Nestegard, Jimmy
9. 525.00 Witt, Richard
------------
10 to 39 with $487 to 7.25

40 to 96 ALL zero.

---------------
Oh, Joe Dempster's third entry had zero.

I was very surprised that only five had over a thousand 'points'. Also, one
double entry had total values of $40. and $32. My strategy would have been
to use trifecta and superfecta keys for a PRICE. I think that the values are
a reflection of the person's betting attitude. So, with one person achieving
almost the same LOW value, apparently his attitude would be very different
than mine. Whereas, Joe Dempster with two of his three entries at the top
two in the one day standings, tells me that Joe D. has a winners attitude.
Also, I was amazed that Joe D.'s top scores are within ten dollars!!

I wanted to get the actual bets placed to get these scores but that is not
offered at this tournament. Oh, maybe my 'newbie' face showing here,
question: Do ANY tournaments report ALL the bets placed by the players?

Tommy C. said to say HI and I wished him luck for a Bettors-Better (BBD) day
than today. He was one of the thirty-seven players with zero.

AWOL

EXX-pect to WIN, ACC-cept the Losers

[ERNIE LOGSDON]

The Reno Hilton contest are the place to be....sorry I could'nt make this one.

none of the contest will tell you what each player bet......but a good ear will let you know what big score the top guy hit and enough good information to help you know how the high score came to be.....

could you post a list of the tracks that were available to bet ? that may offer a clue as to where the high score came from....what tracks did JoeD play? (or any of the high score names)

this contest is/would be a good test of your tri/super method.........how many points could you would you have at the end of today and how well would your system do in this crowd?

$4180/300 bet=$13.93 roi
$3102/300 bet= $10.34 roi

thanks for the update <E>

[km]

AWOL, thanks for the detailed summary from the tourney - hope you will post another message with the final results for us.

[AwolAtHTR]

Sun 20 Jun 2004

The results for Reno Hilton Summer Showdown 2004 are:

1. 7,900.00 Ragab, Hesham
2. 4,571.60 Dempster, Joe
3. 4,092.00 Dempster, Joe
4. 3,102.00 Lester, Bob
5. 2,764.00 McIntosh, Jeff
6. 2,175.20 Linkletter, John
7. 2,130.00 Engleson, Todd
8. 2,109.00 Burnett, Lang
9. 1,526.10 McKeon, Thomas
10. 1,392.10 Corvi, Joe
------------
11//12//13 = 1,384 // 1,155.40 // 1,137

14 to 35 range 766.50 to 307.20

36 to 56 range 285.90 to 21.80

57 to 96 ZERO.

----------------

The prize breakdown was: 40-18-13-9-6-4-3-3-2-2

With $19,200 in the prize fund, Hesham won $7,680 and Corvi collected $384.

Amazing that the prize money ALMOST matched his winning ticket.

re: Ernie L question, 'How did he win?'

Well, Hesham bet the first HOL pick3 for two hundred as a cold ticket!!
Do you hear the losers crying? He sure got lucky and it ONLY paid $39.50

I have a little story for you about Hesham and the winning ticket.

---------------------
I met Desham Sat night. He was using a computer and I asked him what he used.
He said ALLways by Cynthia was the software but he used it mainly to help him
find longshots. Well, I know HTR has a good history for finding longshots but
he said he would not want to learn a new program. He did say he did not hit
anything on Sat.

Well, Sun night when I returned to get the tournament results. I waited until
he was finished and packing up his computer. THEN, he told me about HOW he
hit the pick3. Let me just summarize:

A. Desham is from LA and knows the Hollywood horses.

B. Desham had ZERO collections when Hollywood's race one was up for betting.

C. Desham's wife just called and wished him a happy Father's day!!

Desham did NOT brag about his GREAT bet. In fact, he did what I call the
'..Prado apology..' (you know, after you win, you apologize for winning today).
That is, Desham admitted he was not as good as the other handicappers and he
did not even refer to the fact that he has won another Reno tournament in the
same way. Yes, Desham is a repeat winner and both times he did a cold ticket
that won!!

After the award's, I asked Desham's permission to share with you the fact that
just before the bet that he had talked to his wife. Well, I say that was the
little extra that Desham needed to just '..go for it..'! Also, do you notice
that he changed his attitude to '..bet chalk..' instead of '...longshot..'.

Here is my opinion:

A. Desham FELT he knew the horses.
B. Desham's FELT the Pick3 was a good bet.
C. Desham had just talked to his wife and FELT good about himself.

Yes, this is being very unscientific with the FELT qualification.

Now, AWOL says: Do I want to emulate Desham or one of the other top ten players?

Well, first of all, I have no childern but have two ex-wives. I am still looking
for my third wife but that 'project' has been postponed until after I am a winner.
So, I will not change my priorities to be like Desham but will work to define
a collection strategy that will allow me to compete with Jim Dempster and Joe Hinson.
Oh, Joe Hinson, the recogized '..King..' of tournament players, had a zero total for
THIS tournament.

Things were hectic at the end of the tournament. Later, I plan to ask Steve F. about
getting a more complete collection report from which we could review the bets that
achieved being in the top ten for this tournament. In other words, let us learn how
to be a contender and not accept defeat by assuming that you have to be lucky to win.

Enough for now,

AWOL/ AwolAtHTR

(c) 2004 Duane Frunz aka AWOL

PostScript:

ah yes, about the copyright note
OK, IF you extract some part of above,
THEN, no problem, just say as posted in HTR forum by AwolAtHTR.

[Donnie]

Hey AWOL....did you enter, or were you just running in and out getting the stats?

(also, hate to tell you, but I don't think you can copyright anything you post to a public board. At least I hope not, or else I probably owe you a cut of what you wrote. :D )

In reference to talking to his wife....is that all it takes to win one of these things? Hell...I always have my good luck charm (my wife) sitting right next to me in tournaments and even though I FELT her up and it FELT good to me and it FELT good to her, I couldn't hit a COLD ticket anywheres (just ask Tommy....he saw me FEEL her up!!)

I know a lot of these players put a lot of prep time in for these tournaments and some days your horse wins and some days he doesn't. It took us to get into the NTRA finals to actually hit a tournament where we went 0-fer-30. Never in my life have I gone 2 straight days with out picking one winner. No matter. I was told it was gonna happen, believed it was gonna happen, FELT it was gonna happen, but hated to see it happen there. Next day, 10 races picked by PRM at simulcast outlets, picked 6 winners and 1 place. Believe it or not....got disqualified!! I have great respect for those who go 0-30 and don't bat an eye. They understand the tournament game and they are the first ones back at it again, next tournament.

I am kinda concerned that it appears 17 or 18 of the people attending the seminar are planning on playing the tournament. Tough crowd there! Some of us will 0-fer, others won't. Gonna hafta warn the wife before we leave......

[km]

Tommy reported in on the Reno contest on his drive back to Dallas. He and his partner Barry finished in the top 20 and got their entry money back. With a disappointing 96 entries total (maybe 50 actual players) the prize money wasn't very alluring and they were happy to break even. Looking forward to meeting up again with team super mex at the Gold Coast next month.

[AwolAtHTR]

Wed 7 Jul 04

well, this post/reply is so past due that I considered just scratch it off my task list.

BUT, I finally got the answer about the players tickets, so, decided to post.

re: Ernie L

yes, you are right that the players tickets are NOT available. When I finally got around
to asking Steve F., he said: No. There are some corporate technical reasons and that
was enough for me to know that to ask other tournament directors for this data would
be a waste of my time and theirs. So, another data sample that could have been studied
is now off the list of '...what can I learn of other peoples' bets..'

-------------
re: Donnie

re-re: enter tournament

No, I did not enter the tournament because I FELT that my trifecta theory is not ready.
That is, I believed that the only way a person could compete in this format would be
to have a sound Exoctic betting strategy. Well, my trifecta/superfecta bet plan is just at
the embreyo stage and have seen it work SOMETIMES and seldom do live bets, YET!
Looking forward to using HTR to help me refine my theory.

However, I expect to be ready for the Sept tournament and believe that I will be a very
strong contender.

re-re: FELT

I enjoyed your variation on my FELT opinion. Thank you.

re-re: copyright

Yes, I know this is the ATTITUDE of a public posting but part of my intent was to get a
reference to the HTR forum as a neat place for horseplayers to read about betting.

So, a person just has to be careful that IF you have a creative thought THEN maybe you
will have to hold that thought for the old fashioned, printed version of your idea.

OK, more than enough.

[Donnie]

AWOL---

agreed....you need to be swinging for the fences in this type of tournament. I personally do not feel I would do well in this type of structure. Was reading on the DRF site today of a tournament where the entry fee was $100 and you used a $200 live bankroll (Delaware). The winner grew that bankroll up to $3,472 using strictly win/place/show bets...no tris!! Wow! That was incredible in my book. Remind me to steer clear when you get your method down. I'll stick to points awarded to win/place wagers!