BC Betting Challenge winner
 

Steve - Any chance you might be able to get Patrick McGoey on ATR? He just won the BCBC for the 2nd year in a row! I know how much your listeners enjoyed hearing Michael Beychok after he won the NHC; I would think this would be equally as interesting. (Amazingly, the runner-up to McGoey in 2011, Christian Hellmers, was also the runner-up to him again this year!)

More importantly, I can't find an article about it at all. Thats an amazing accomplishment and DRF nor Bloodhorse writes about it.! ?:rolleyes::confused:

Tom..

You see Jerry Brown's post at TG?

Meanwhile, pretty good story re the contest, which as always I'll point out was my idea: Christian Hellmers, a California guy who used to be Betfair's rep in the U.S., is a friend of mine. He uses our data (along with a lot of trip stuff), and finished second last year, leading the whole second day until another guy bet 10k to win on Drosselmeyer. So this year he hit a $1,000 two horse exacta box on the FM Turf, took the lead, and nursed it through the second day. In the last race he bet 2k to win on Fort Larned, only to find out.. THE SAME GUY (McGoey) bet 7k on FL, plus a $300 exacta over MMM.

So there Christian was, rooting his horse home, only to find out he would have been better off losing the photo (170k first prize).

Yeah, caught it yesterday. I'm just shocked that it hasn't been covered by DRF or Bloodhorse yet, especially with how it went down.

Pretty amazing for Hellmers, again!

So any chance of getting McGoey or Hellmers on the show?

McGoey visits at 9:30 today..

Here's a story on Bloodhorse..

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ting-challenge

He had 7k on Fort Larned and a $300 Ex with MMM and if that wasnt enough, he wins the handicapping contest for 280k.

Amazing!

$200 exacta

Let's not forget he had a big time losing weekend until he went all in on Wise Dan. Then parlayed almost all of it on Fort Larned, for a remarkable comeback!
The attitude in the room most of the weekend was that Helmers was going to be near impossible to catch. Helmers got too conservative with betting the Classic and got caught. (2K to win on FL)

My make or break horse for the weekend was The Lumber Guy.
It didn't work out and I was thankful just to cash decent on Fort Larned, to bring home about half of my starting bankroll.
It was my first time playing in the BCBC.
The 2 day format lends itself to being really conservative early, which I wasn't.
I had a blast though and, look forward to playing in it again next year.

This tournament style seems more intriguing than the NHC with the $2 W/P mythical wagers. Real money, real bets. Congrats on qualifying this year.

I'll second that...I've played in the NHC 3 times and am now switching my focus to these real money events.

I thought the real money aspect was incredibly interesting. I prefer it to any other way. Tournaments like the Horseplayer World Series, where you get 15 optional plays per day are preferable to a tournament that has any number of mandatory races.

Real money contests separate the men from the boys. I am constantly amazed as to how many people enter contests like this and then play in a way that gives them no shot to win. If you look at the final leader board, there were dozens of people who had between $1,000 and $3,000 left at the end and didn't go all in.

I played reasonably well for two days for one purpose, to put myself in a position to win. I bet $8,000 in the last race and if Flat Out wins, you are talking about me today. My hats off to the winner for being willing to put it all on the line.

In a mythical money contest, everyone fires away. When it is real money and you are making really large bets, many people (even those who put up $10,000 to enter) will sit on some money rather than make the big bet and thus give themselves no shot to win.

Paul

almost as amazing as Alabama Stakes back to back wins in the 3rd and 4th annual saratoga handicapping contest !

0

What was your prize?

artisan braids

There were maybe a few like me that went all in with what little was left and cashed for a modest sum in the classic.

That is exactly my point. You played exactly right. If you had a little more to play with at the end, you would have crushed the race and may have won it all.

At the same time, others with a few thousand left were content to take the money home rather than go for it and try to win.

Paul

I'm wondering if some of the players who have earned their way into the contest with much less than the $10,000 entry fee are looking at taking a chunk of change home.

I'm not saying they're right or wrong, just speculating on a rationale for not "going for it"

I agree with this. The real money aspect changes the dynamics of the tourney dramatically. For people who didn't have to put up the cash, i'm sure that the idea of walking away from the tourney with a couple of thousand on top of having the whole tourney expierence is a no brainer for them.
It does works out well for the serious players, because there's that percentage of people that won't go for the hail mary late in the game.