TL;DR I almost got kicked out of sportsbook today while chasing steam. Still managed to get a few thousand dollars of wagers down

I know that this doesn't have to do much with poker but thought I'd share it anyways: I came within an inch of getting myself backed-off from a large sportsbook today!

My goal is to put as much as my bankroll as I can to work for me in +EV situations. If you've never heard of them, there's Right Angle Sports (RAS). They have a legitimate record of beating college football and basketball. When they make their picks, the sportsbooks listen and move the line within seconds. Recently, I've been scouting books and try to catch them sleeping. Places like LVH are impossible - they will change the line before you can even say the rotation number you want, much less get down on it. The service cost me almost $2000 so I need to make the most of it.

Today, I found a book that was slow. I could get about a 30-second window before they would move their number. If you can beat the stupid frat boys to the window and get a fast ticket writer, you can get down on what you need. I found a female attendant that was a fast typist and very efficient, I used her for all my tickets.

RAS stages their releases, each one three minutes apart. The first few came in and I was able to step right up to the window and get my wagers in. I was up to wager #5 and banged away spot on the number I needed for the amount I needed.

I used to count cards on a BJ team and have been backed-off from BJ from here to Reno; I know what a back-off looks like - people usually start appearing out of nowhere. As I was getting excited to get the next pick (RAS uses text messages) a new manager appeared behind the counter. He came from the back offices and looked exasperated. He quickly walked over to the same ticket writer that I had been using. They started to have an animated conversation, I could tell he was upset. I'm sure he was asking the attendant about who was making the same wagers over & over again. Before she started to look up to (presumably) point me out, I ducked my head and made my way to the exit quickly. I'm no fool, I know what was coming next and you always walk with your head down so they can't get a clear look/pic on the cameras.

There were 8 releases today and I managed to get down on 5 of them. So not nearly as many as I wanted, but I made good wagers and I now know more about how to get down on these. It's not easy but it will certainly make college football a little more fun this year

Let's assume a 2% edge for your tout, you only need to wager 100k to break even. Gl sir...you will need it.

I know it's easy to write off "tout" services. But seriously, you should look into RAS - they're as above board as can be. They are averaging (roughly) 80 picks a season. So cycling through a large number of wagers is not as hard as it sounds.

shoulda just plopped 10k on seattle w/the over today ...i slammed down a whopping $40 haha

I thought Don Best was the service the lines were moved toward.

LOL! Sorry, but no. Just . . . no.

Don Best is two things. First, its a line service that lets you see all the numbers around town. You can see both B&M as well as online books. They do not move the line, they only report it. And they are very, very good at this.

Second, they also have their own touts that sell their picks. These guys are a bunch of hacks. You do NOT want Don Best for that. They have total hacks like Jim Feist and Dave "Smokin'" Cokin. Do NOT listen to these guys. Tweet these guys and ask them to keep a publicly verifiable record for a season (heck, even a single month!) and you will get nothing but crickets. For this, Don Best is a joke.

I made solid $$ on this game, for Rodgers vs Wilson QBR, i got 2:1 taking Wilson.

Just did a 4-way chop on a small daily at Mandalay Bay for $188. Not a bad day for a tournament that I enjoy playing. I like the staff there and the room is nice. Doing this tournament is a little like an extended coffee hour to start my day. It's even better when I can cash. I'm feeling pretty good right now, playing pretty clear & focused poker.

Are you going back to cash games? Or sticking with tourneys?

The intent is to go back to cash (as soon as this week). Of course, the irony of that is the my tourney results are much better. I'm up to almost $10K of tournament winnings this summer alone while I'm still down in cash. So, yes, cash is the intent, but it's not like I'll just stop tourneys either.

When you go back to cash are you going to stick with 1/2 NL or move up? Personally, I think you have a better chance moving as a the rake has less and less of a effect on results as you move up. At 1/2 it's beating the rake, at 5/10 it's more about beating the other players but you have to chose games carefully.


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good job you only got down on 5 RAS plays. they went 6-12 on the week :-(

Only 5 on that particular day - I got down on 10 total. I completely took it up the a$$ yesterday

Did the Sat nite Aria 7pm tourney pretty nice tourney nice structure nice to just go in and get seated vs cash where you may have to check a few casinos to find a seat plays deep for first 1 1/2 hrs then the levels come up fast easy to forget the differences between cash and tourneys one being you have to make some plays to keep up I waited to long and ended up going all in against a guy with a ton of chips. Also didn't catch many cards had AK in bb bet 3 bbs got two callers with Ace on flop with flush drawbet 1/2 pot both called flush completes overbet pot oops both push I tank and fold both had flushes c***p anyhow it was fun

Just 1 bit of punctuation in that whole blob. Sorry for the derail, JB.

I had a pretty good coaching session with a new coach last night. I'm trying him out for a session or two to see if I like working with him. I picked up a couple of concepts that I want to start putting into play. I'm going to try my best to clear up my schedule so that I can play some cash games this weekend. I've really only played tourneys this whole month, and that's OK. But I think it's time to hit the ring games again. My courses this semester have been a tough going, but I think I have my schedule down to a structure now that would allow me to start playing ring games with a clear mind again.

Just cashed another small MTT at Mandalay Bay. This is my second weekend in a row winning this tourney and my third weekend in a row cashing a tourney :-)

I don't want to use the name of the site because I don't want to seem like I'm spamming the boards, but I bought a new membership today. This site let's me sit at a table and it presents different hands and user scenarios, in a game setting, and rates me according to choices made and what-not. I think it's a really neat site and I signed up for a year.

After playing for just this afternoon, about 1000 hands, I'm already starting to collect numbers that I have been curious about and I didn't think I was ever going to be able to get:

VPIP = 17%
PFR = 7%
WTS = 19%
W$S = 54%
Poker IQ = 123

I'm very encouraged by these numbers and I'm grateful that I'm now able to practice hands away from the table. I love watching videos online and I have a DC subscription. But it's nice to have something a little more interactive that also gives me some solid, quantifiable, numbers.

I think that the number that jumps out at me from above is the low WTS percentage. From what I've been reading, it (basically) means that I let people bluff me too much; I get scared off from boards. I need to work on making that number considerably higher than what it is. I think it does reflect my thinking accurately; I tend to fold off second-pair (or hands like that) thinking they're no good.

I'm open to any other suggestions that people have for improving my WTS numbers.

Please go ahead and post the site! I am interested! Or please pm me the site if you don't mind.

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Do you exercise pot control? In other words if you think your hand is probably good do you call bets vs folding or raising to keep the size of the pot down. fyi mix that in with having the nuts and check raising at times to keep everybody honest too.

Might want to check your PFR range, 7% is really narrow. But if it works for you, then don't

Yea, I was also thinking about this.

A bit more pre flop aggression may narrow the field and their potential ranges, giving you a better feel for where you are in hands, in turn giving you more confidence to stay in those hands where you are folding off value.

Be very cautious trying to play to your stats. Stats can be useful tools to get you thinking about your game but targetting values for those stats can really screw you up. Example: low WTSD% may also mean you are taking down lots of pots with bluffs of your own, right?

Also a lot of the river related stats need 10,000 hands for a good sample, especially with low VPIP since, for instance, you only see 1700 of 10,000 flops (17%) and fewer turns and rivers.

That's a good thought, thanks. I currently do not do this. But I am thinking along these lines. I'm also in the process of reading Miller's "Poker's 1%" and his book is similar to this. The book, basically, emphasizes the concept of fold equity - with the right numbers and read on your opponent, any two cards can win, given the fold equity (among other things). So the items you mention are definitely something high on my next research list.