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Old 01-21-2011, 12:50 PM
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Dunbar Dunbar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by asudevil View Post
Richard Eng

Anyone involved in the business of gambling should have watched ''60 Minutes'' on Sunday for its feature on successful Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters. Look up the phrase ''luck is the residue of design'' and you'll see Walters' face. He wins big because he understands odds and does his homework.

Walters was shown doing what he does best: betting on sports. He also mentioned playing craps and poker.

But he never mentioned betting on horse racing, which should have made industry officials cringe.
I wouldn't assume too much meaning in the omission of horseracing. I didn't see the segment, but did Walters mention blackjack or video poker? I know plenty of people making good livings from one or both of those areas of gambling. For that matter, one of the best and most successful blackjack players I know admits that he knows almost nothing about video poker. He knows it can be beaten, but doesn't want to spread himself too thin.

Every gambling skill has some kind of learning curve, and in most cases it's a steep learning curve. There's also a time requirement in staying on top of a game after you have learned it. If Billy Walters is playing poker in addition to doing sports betting, that's already a pretty challenging quinella.

--Dunbar
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Curlin and Hard Spun finish 1,2 in the 2007 BC Classic, demonstrating how competing in all three Triple Crown races ruins a horse for the rest of the year...see avatar
photo from REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
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