WSH Day-3

[ERNIE LOGSDON]

It's all over. Another bombs away day on Saturday. Four players exceeded 3000 points overall. This was also the best day for most HTR players, but only one of us managed to get some cash out..

Congrats to 'OPM' (Gupta Etwaru) and his partners from CA for finishing in the top 10 with two of their entries and collecting more than $30,000 overall including some day money. A great comeback and one more winner they would have taken it all.

Jerry Pagels and Mike Dee did very well to finish in the top 100 in an extremely tough competition with 768 highly determined handicappers.

Final winning score was 3,278 and that was good for $384,000!!! The winner's Michael Ray, but I have no further info on him.

The Coast is extremely happy with the event despite not getting the full 1000 players. But the mutuel handle and lines at the windows were crowded and there were no snafus.

Super job by OPM and Co. in their first tourney, and what a friendly bunch, glad we had a chance to interact - they will be tough competition from now on.

Spent some time talking to TimH, he is one sharp handicapper, and endured 12 days in Vegas starting with the NTRA and stayed right through to the end of this one like a real trooper!

JohnB (dawgfan), Tomcat and Mike Dee made a strong effort as usual to get back it. Most of us hit at least one or two of the bombs during the the 3 days, but could not connect all the dots needed to get past 2200 points and into the prize picture.

I'll have a detailed review in the February newsletter of the contest.
KM on Ernie's computer........>>>>

[Sheets Guy]

After all the dust settled OPM, Mel Moser and I ended up with a 9th and 10th place finish. If EITHER Marwood or Zakocity win the last 2 at GP, we probably finish up 1st and 2nd. Never could have done it without HTR. In fact, I've never entered a tournament before and would not have even considered it if not for Ken's remarakable software. Big round of applause for my teammates for not only being terrific handicappers, but for prodding me to do something I really had no inclination to do. To top it all off, I guess I have a new toughest beat ever story.

Now I've got to start figuring out how to come up with these kind of horses in March.

Sheets Guy

[Mall]

You did a masterful job as the QB, & it will be interesting to see if OPM agrees, but I think the turning point was your dope on that $34 winner of the 1st at Aqu. Maybe it's just me & maybe it's because I'm still fairly new to this, but I think exhaustion plays a much bigger role in multiple day events than anybody acknowledges. That early longshot winner gave everyone the juice & intensity to make it through the 3rd day.

Re Zakocity, the sports page in the local rag has a big picture from the race, taken near the top of the lane, which is entitled "Sweet Musique for bettors." I don't suppose you want me to order reprints for the crew. As bad as that & the beat in the turf race were, if my memory serves we had 6 or 7 similar beats for 2nd on longshots. Place money on just half of those races would also probably have been enough for 1st.

On the other hand, I'm sure we didn't suffer any dqs & I think we only had one contest horse which was left at the gate. And it was pretty lucky that FG put on a Thurs card which played into our strenghts & was easily better than most Sat cards.

Finally, my hat is also off to TimH, who should win an Iron Man of Handicapping Award if nothing else, especially if he's taking part in the contest scheduled for today. The contest format raises a lot of strategy questions which can be discussed & debated, but what I really want to know is how TimH was able to survive 12 days in Las Vegas. Quite amazing, at least to someone who is not getting any younger.

[OPM]

It was finally great to meet a couple of you guys and I want to thank Ken for doing that custom export for me which helped immensely in this tournament. It was great meeting Ernie, Donnie, etc. Donnie great longshot screen. I am really story I am going to miss the seminar in July but family calls. Since this is our first tournament, I am very happy with the results but it kills you to lose because of missed bets but these are the toughest beats in the world. I don't know if we will come this close again so you have to take advantage of your opportunities. Thanks Ken and please don't forget my suggest to add a link to the ppq fiields that will access the result charts but clicking on the appropriate pp in the ppq field. I also want to thank Sheet Guy for introducing me to HTR 18 months ago, it only took to 8 months to find the ppq field!!!!!!
Gupta

[Donnie]

Gupta and crew...

Very nice job! You guys were rocking! A very large congratulations! Nice to meet you and share in your weekend!

The whole tounament was very well run, as said by Ken earlier. Twas good to see the "old" faces again and to meet some new ones! OPM and crew, met TommyC's two boys ....and a few others!

Now back into the routine!

[km]

Have spent many hours on the phone with Ian (sheetguy) over the years and knew that he was one of the best, so I kept imploring him to get involved in the tournaments; glad you guys finally took the plunge as it was a huge success. Thanks for the accolades Ian, look forward to meeting you and Mel in March or July next time you guys get together.

OPM, Keith and the other partner from NY (forgot his name) and I spent several hours at the blackjack table on Saturday night. Made a few bucks and had a lot of fun and got to know each other. Really good people and they enjoyed themselves a lot, they're hooked now!

Mistakes, bone head moves, bad bets, missed opportunities, etc, etc are part of the deal for every torunament player. Contests are an outstanding investment in terms of risk/reward for HTR users because of our hyper data, but they are not operated in a vacuum (as when we bet at home) and playing them in realtime can be frustrating and distracting. All part of the edge gained with experience and preparation.

Our HTR Winter tournament is coming up on Feb 11 - 21. Very flexible 7 day and night schedule for players and great prizes, including a freebie at the Orleans in March. More details soon.

[km]

I'll probably forget someone, but let me see if I can remember all the HTR users that attended the WSH ....

Ernie (thanks for all your help)
BobStark
ronnie
burke (Wes, thanks for dinner)
OPM (Ian 'sheetguy' and Mel Moser not in person, but part of the team)
Donnie and Sue (good roulette players!)
Bernie "Fr1" Stroum
Steve Kozarich
Mark Bogdanoff
TommyC and sons
AlanN
RickyNewton (needs AA)
TimH (needs sleep)
Mayo and Marsha
Don 'gumper' Marconi
Stan 'texas hold em' Heston
Colonel DougC
gg Pagels (just missed, Gerry, next time)
BobbyB
Tomcat
John 'dawfan' Buls
Mike Dee (nice comeback you guys)
Gary Triplett
Barb Buckley
John Buckley (last named JB so you will kill the thread!)

Good try everybody - had a great time - thank you - let's do it again soon

[ronnie h]

great cappin opm! glad to see old faces and meet new ones did not make any $$$ but got the pleasure of hearing new stories from ernie see. you all in march

[Mall]

da man, that is, who might be in a position to talk to the Orleans about making some changes before March, given that I count about 30 HTR members who attended the contest which just ended. I cannot for the life of me understand why players don't have access to a leaderboard. One of the fun aspects of most of the NTRA contests, & an important strategy consideration, is knowing where you stand, & taking that into account when making plays. I know the technology is readily available, as for two yrs FG has been using a system which provides almost immediate updates, & which includes both the dollar total & a very important plays made category. I understand TVG was filming this past weekend, & there's a rumor going around that they will be covering next yr's contest live which, if true, means that there is going to have to be a leaderboard. Perhaps the right guy at the Orleans would understand that adopting one for the March event would improve the event & give them a chance to iron out any bugs before next yr.

[hurrikane]

wow, looks like an HTR seminar.

look forward to seeing everyone in march.

Mel,
not sure why but the Orleans has never had a leaderboard. You know they hae the data they just chose not to share it..not sure why.

i think they should show the bets people made too.

[Cliff]

Nice performance guys!

Wasn't this one supposed to be taped for television? Any feedback on that?

[OPM]

I hope they don't show me screaming my head off or Donnie picking me up off the floor!! Michael Ray is a retired computer guy who sold his company 3 yrs ago and moved to Vegas to 3 yrs ago to play the horses. He has entered these tournaments over the last 3 yrs and this is his best finish. He seemed like a really nice guys when I met him in line on Sunday morning. I don't know what he uses to handicap.