Extra! Extra! Tuley scores in Vegas football contest
This is a departure from my normal reporting on what happens in the race and sports books of Las Vegas by the public at large or by individual bettors. Instead, I'm going to tell you about your truly, Dave Tuley, winning more money in one of our fair city's football contests.
It happened last Sunday in the "Fantasy Football Contest" held jointly by the Rampart and the Cannery casinos. Now, it's not one of the biggest contests in town, but it offers a $5,000 prize each week to the contestant (or contestants in the case of a tie) who pick the most winners out of 12 fantasy football matchups. NFL players are used and you add up the players' yards, receptions, TDs, kicking points, etc. to get a score and determine each winner. Each entry for the season costs $25 and I have three entries (the maximum) and on one of my tickets I went 11-1 with the only loser being on Tennessee's Rob Bironas, a week after he kicked a record eight field goals in a game, vs. Oakland's Sebastian Janikowski.
As it turned out, four of us went 11-1 so we each won $1,250. We also earned berths into the postseason contest where $35,000 will be up for grabs, including $10,000 to the champ.
Over the course of the last seven seasons, I've averaged right around $2,000 in contest entry fees each year here in Las Vegas ($1,500 in the Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest plus between $400 and $600 in the smaller contests, depending on how many are available and which appear to offer good adequate prizes and/or offer the best chance for a sharp handicapper to win more than his/her own share). So, that's roughly $14,000 in entry fees. The prizes I've won include:
$10,000 at the Palms (in 2002)
$5,000 at Leroy's (last December)
$5,000 at the Hard Rock (in 2002)
$4,375 at Bally's (College 101 in 2001)
$3,000 at the Hard Rock (in 2005)
$2,500 at the Hilton (mini-contest in 2004)
$1,250 at the Cannery (this past Sunday)
Plus I've hit the "Fiddle in the Middle" several times at Station Casinos for a few hundred each time, a few minor prizes at Barley's when they held their contests in Henderson, and at the Bourbon Street and Tuscany outlets for Club Cal Neva.
I've yet to win one of the major prizes like a top finish at the Hilton or one of the $100,000 prizes like they offer at Stations and Coast Casinos, but my main goal is to keep in action and make money until I hit the big score, and I've more than covered my entry fees over the years and have profited more than $18,000 overall, a fairly decent part-time job as I estimate I spend 5 hours a week putting in contest entries (that's a little high since part of my job is making the rounds to all the sports books to talk to people and pick up current odds sheets, but I like to err on the high side) for 17 weeks a season, so for the past 6.5 years that would come to roughly 550 hours, or nearly $33 an hour.
Now, I'm not writing this to brag (OK, let's be real; of course part of the reason for this column is to brag), but I've long been a huge supporter of these contests and encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunities out there.
However, almost every week, someone sees me filling out the cards in different sports books, or sees me tracking the results on a Sunday and says "All that time and effort isn't worth it." Well, for them it might not be, but as my results above show, it certainly works for me. And the other point I want to make is that most people who've followed my picks for years will tell you that I've never claimed to be a great handicapper (or else I'd do that part of my job full-time and not bother writing at all) and that I go through all the winning and losing streaks just like anyone else. But I firmly believe that these contests allow people to maximize their winning weeks when everything falls into place. Yes, it takes a lot of time and effort, but you have to play to win.
Even if you're not in Vegas with access to all these contests (see the full Las Vegas Football Contests list that I print every August), the lesson is to take advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you, whether it's office pools against clueless coworkers, or online contests, or whatever. There is money out there for the taking if you put yourself in the game.
It happened last Sunday in the "Fantasy Football Contest" held jointly by the Rampart and the Cannery casinos. Now, it's not one of the biggest contests in town, but it offers a $5,000 prize each week to the contestant (or contestants in the case of a tie) who pick the most winners out of 12 fantasy football matchups. NFL players are used and you add up the players' yards, receptions, TDs, kicking points, etc. to get a score and determine each winner. Each entry for the season costs $25 and I have three entries (the maximum) and on one of my tickets I went 11-1 with the only loser being on Tennessee's Rob Bironas, a week after he kicked a record eight field goals in a game, vs. Oakland's Sebastian Janikowski.
As it turned out, four of us went 11-1 so we each won $1,250. We also earned berths into the postseason contest where $35,000 will be up for grabs, including $10,000 to the champ.
Over the course of the last seven seasons, I've averaged right around $2,000 in contest entry fees each year here in Las Vegas ($1,500 in the Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest plus between $400 and $600 in the smaller contests, depending on how many are available and which appear to offer good adequate prizes and/or offer the best chance for a sharp handicapper to win more than his/her own share). So, that's roughly $14,000 in entry fees. The prizes I've won include:
$10,000 at the Palms (in 2002)
$5,000 at Leroy's (last December)
$5,000 at the Hard Rock (in 2002)
$4,375 at Bally's (College 101 in 2001)
$3,000 at the Hard Rock (in 2005)
$2,500 at the Hilton (mini-contest in 2004)
$1,250 at the Cannery (this past Sunday)
Plus I've hit the "Fiddle in the Middle" several times at Station Casinos for a few hundred each time, a few minor prizes at Barley's when they held their contests in Henderson, and at the Bourbon Street and Tuscany outlets for Club Cal Neva.
I've yet to win one of the major prizes like a top finish at the Hilton or one of the $100,000 prizes like they offer at Stations and Coast Casinos, but my main goal is to keep in action and make money until I hit the big score, and I've more than covered my entry fees over the years and have profited more than $18,000 overall, a fairly decent part-time job as I estimate I spend 5 hours a week putting in contest entries (that's a little high since part of my job is making the rounds to all the sports books to talk to people and pick up current odds sheets, but I like to err on the high side) for 17 weeks a season, so for the past 6.5 years that would come to roughly 550 hours, or nearly $33 an hour.
Now, I'm not writing this to brag (OK, let's be real; of course part of the reason for this column is to brag), but I've long been a huge supporter of these contests and encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunities out there.
However, almost every week, someone sees me filling out the cards in different sports books, or sees me tracking the results on a Sunday and says "All that time and effort isn't worth it." Well, for them it might not be, but as my results above show, it certainly works for me. And the other point I want to make is that most people who've followed my picks for years will tell you that I've never claimed to be a great handicapper (or else I'd do that part of my job full-time and not bother writing at all) and that I go through all the winning and losing streaks just like anyone else. But I firmly believe that these contests allow people to maximize their winning weeks when everything falls into place. Yes, it takes a lot of time and effort, but you have to play to win.
Even if you're not in Vegas with access to all these contests (see the full Las Vegas Football Contests list that I print every August), the lesson is to take advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you, whether it's office pools against clueless coworkers, or online contests, or whatever. There is money out there for the taking if you put yourself in the game.
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