Contest Crunch


by Lynda Collins - Date: 2006-12-09 - Word Count: 555 Share This!

Rules differ slightly, but names pretty much are the same, at least at the top.

Jarhead, who has been running roughshod over the Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest field, also is knocking 'em dead in two other Sin City high-end football contests, which, not coincidentally, were germinated by former SuperBook bosses.

Jarhead, a nickname for members of the United States Marines, takes a comfy 3 1/2 cushion into the final four weeks of the Hilton competition.

He also leads Station Casinos' Gambler's Challenge by three games and already has cashed twice in Harrah's new Glory of the Gridiron contest, which debuted this season with a $2,000 price tag, $500 more than the well-entrenched SuperContest.

While Harrah's, the planet's largest gaming company, sponsors Glory of the Gridiron, the machinations are handled by Caesars Palace bet shop chief Chuck Esposito, who moved to the Strip resort from the Hilton in 2004, when both properties still were members of the same family.

Glory of the Gridiron bowed with 70 contestants, some of whom also are signed up in the SuperContest and Gambler's Challenge.

"I'm only guessing, but I'd say many are the same," Esposito said.

"That's what I hear and I know we went after the same type high-end player."

One way in which the Harrah's shootout differs from the SuperContest is that it's divided into "tiers" that give entrants additional chances to cash after the first and second thirds of the season, in addition to a five-week mini-contest at season's end that awards $20,000 to the winner, independent and separate from the main competition.

"That's $50,000 in guaranteed bonus money," Esposito said.

"How many times have you heard someone say, 'I was leading after six weeks" or "I was ahead going into the last five weeks?" Esposito asked.

"This gives them something.

"The players really seem to like this part of the contest.

"I've heard a lot of guys say they didn't get in this season, but can't wait until next year."

Esposito couldn't say for certain that Glory of the Gridiron, which uses all half-points to avoid pushes and involves six weekly picks rather than five like the Hilton, will return in 2007.

"I imagine it will, though," he added.

The inaugural champion will recive 50 percent of all entry fees, or $70,000.

Second will receive 16 percent of entry fees, third 10 percent, fourth 6 percent and fifth through 10th 3 percent.

Art Manteris, who himself moved from Caesars to the Hilton when the SuperBook opened in the 1980s, later took the top job at ever-expanding Stations, basing himself at Palace Station until the Red Rock opened on the valley's West side last year.

He immediately established the Gambler's Challenge, which cost $1,000 and presented participants the opportunity to use one major college game among their five weekly selections while offering a side competition in which players have a chance to compete against the bookmaker.

Jarhead currently has a 45-42 point lead over Nothing2Prove, who is not among the Hilton leaders.

Others in the Top 10, however, are easily recognizable to anyone also tracking the SuperContest: Sweetness, Iceman, Tony Soprano, Sundown.

While the Hilton remains one of Las Vegas' few independent books, Esposito says belonging to familes with multiple properties, like Harrah's or Stations, has advantages, such as allowing contestants to submit weekly cards at a variety of locations.

"You can enter in Tahoe, get the lines in Las Vegas and put your plays in at Laughlin," he said.


Related Tags: football, nfl, procappers, professional handicappers league, lynda collins, las vegas hilton supercontest

Lynda Collins is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League. Read all of her articles at http://www.procappers.com/Lynda_Collins.htm

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