blonde poker forum

Billy Walters, aka the Scottish Dave of Vegas.

Seriously. This is well worth watching.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6FAUQ6SFKM

Great video Humpy thanks. I think i might have a new hero.

Very good, glad I watched that through

Excellent link.

Would love to read an autobiography by him.

Wow. Thanks Keith

Really interesting guy.

That reporter sends me on tilt though - does a voiceover as though she's reading a story to three year olds.

She has a similar voice to one of the women in the xtranormal videos I thought.

Very enjoyable piece, left me feeling a tad jealous. I wanted to be a sports better years ago, I was held back by only missing the roll, the knowledge and the guts, other than that I was good to go.

Loved that Keith, thanks.

What an awesome set up he has at home.

He must have a considerable amount of trust & rapport in his "partners", the guys who do some of his betting for him. One word out of line from them would be a big problem.

If you were tasked with plcing a $100,000 bet, the temptation to take a bit for yourself would be huge, no?

I know how the operation works for a couple of big players in the UK.

They have to trust the putteroners totally and they are normally very well rewarded.

However if a put on guy betrays the organisation once.. by betting the selection themselves or telling other peeps about the selection they lose their job immediately.

Yup, my point exactly.

He seems to have "got by" though. How exciting his life must be on Sundays!

Don't think I'll bother introducing him to Sky Bet, eh?

I put your name forward, you know, & they treat their Priority Clients very well indeed, "Big Match" tickets, Race Days, da de da, & they have Corporate Boxes at every Premiership Club. "Corporate Hospitality" ftw.

They asked me a bunch of questions, I told them the truth. "I think we'll leave it" was the answer.......!

They genuinely believe that generally speaking, winning poker players are not ideal "Bet" Clients. I could name a few exceptions, though. ;)

Great word that. "putteroners".

Skybet gave me a good run.

They haven't got a reputation for laying a bet, but I had an account for well over a year before it got restricted.

Alot better than Laddies, Coral or the joke that is Betfred.

Every time I see Fred Done's face in that stupid advert he does I want to smash my televsion in.

"I've been in this game for over 40 years to give you value, I don't know why anyone would want to bet with anyone else".

I've never written these letters before but:

Fred Done DIAGF

I've wondered this for a while Camel; big winning gamblers in the UK- how do they do it when winning accounts become restricted; in some cases quite rapidly?

Is it just the same way as in the vid with runners doing the betting? or mainly betting in several different shops(which = less value generally)?

I had a mate who was a putteroner at the course for a biggish betfair player back in the early days. I went with him one day and it was mental, he was carrying 30-50k and the stress was intense as almost all the bets were struck in the last 30 secs before the off and he tried to get a better price on every bet while the other guy on bluetooth was barking amounts and prices at him.

Not a lot of people know this, but Fred had an older brother named Neil.

At the tender age of 15, Neil left the slums of Manchester and travelled to London to seek his fortune. Much to the consternation of his mother.

The six months anniversary of his leaving came and went, and having heard nothing at all from her first born, old Mrs Done was beside herself with worry.

One day, a week or two later, another young man from the neighbourhood announced his intention to move to London.  Mrs Done had known this young man since birth, so she decided to approach him for help. He wasn't the brightest bulb in the candelabra, but beggars can't be choosers.

"When you get to London, would you please see if you can find my Neil for me?" She beseeched him. "I haven't heard a thing from him except for the one letter that he sent me the first week he arrived. I haven't a clue where he is, but the the postmark on the letter is London W1."

The young man promised to do his best.

Presently, after a long, hot train journey, the young man found himself on the platform of a huge station. Feeling the need to attend to a call of nature, he made his way to the men's toilets.

Once inside the toilets he noticed that the first stall had WC1 in bold brass letters on the door. Remembering his promise, he tried the handle, but the door was locked.

"Is there anyone in there?"

"Yes"

"Are you Neil Done?"

"Yes, but there's no paper"

"Well that's no excuse for not to writing to your mother in six months, you heartless bastard".

rofl Red, if you made that up or read it somewhere, that's brilliant!

Read the book "Enemy Number One" by Patrick Veitch,

It really is a great insight into the tactics of a big punter, the trouble he has getting on and how he beats the bookmakers.

Nice link thanks.......

Fred Done advert is priceless.

Someone please ring them in March and ask for £200 on a 10-1 shot in the Eurovision. See what comes back.

Cheers for the tip Keith; looks a great read

Very interesting Keith. Thanks for posting.

Walters is a fascinating character and every US facing bookie is petrified of him yet this is the first time I have ever seen him interviewed.  It does seem to me that he seems to have editorial control over this interview though.  There is a much darker and very ruthless side to him from what I understand especially in the way he came to have control over all of the information and algorithms he uses.

For those that want an autobiography he hasn't wriiten one but a guy that used to move money for him has and it is called "The Smart Money" by, I think, Michael Konik.  It is not a great book in my view but is interesting enough.  Also if you do a google search for "the story of the computer group" it does a good job of putting otgether Walters early days and the trial for bookmaking.

Excellent - thanks!

FWIW I understand that this guy has bet the Packers for the Superbowl at -2.5 5/6.  Caveat is that he has been known to send money on the other team to create a market for himself but given the bet sizes taken on SB I would imagine that is the side that he likes.

Hills are -2.5 10/11 which I really cannot imagine will last.

Bumped for all the new posters on here.

Definitely worth watching the link.

ha, forgot about scottish dave!

I do not usually much like bumps, as mostly they are bumped for the wrong, or mischievious reasons, but that is a quality bump, Keith.

Interesting to read the comments in there, from a year back. My, what a difference a year makes.

I reckon you should start a Diary on blonde instead of re-starting your Blog. I could GUARANTEE you'd get more hits, because I would tweet it & FB it, & I have quite a few thousand "followers & friends".

Not seen the vid yet but are these guys that place the large bets aren't allowed to have a few quid  on themselves?  Seems harsh, I'd have thought it would be a perk of the job.

Definitely not.

They are paid very well and get bonuses when the selections win.

If they had a bet themselves it might tip off the bookmaker which way the big punter was going to bet and stop him getting his bet down in the scale he wants it.

Walters in particular is well known for sending his runners the wrong way to manipulate the price for him if he thinks they are frontrunning him

Missed this last time around, very interesting thanks

would it not be possible to do both without tipping off?

like I'm putting 10k on for you, and I want 1k for myself as well -- I just put 11k on it at the same time and when I go to collect I work it out?

This is what he is doing effectively by paying you a bonus when he wins.

Interesting job to have that, putting bets on for other people, I wonder how you get into that line of work!  Not sure my bets would tip them off, although a bet of £125,010 perhaps would look strange.

Very interesting video, I'd love to be able to do that sort of thing, even on a much smaller scale!   It's a fascinating world and one I know virtually nothing about.

Do systems like his work better on stat based games ?  In my mind, baseball and NFL are very much stat based where as something like our football or rugby are more likely to be influenced by other things like player on player actions, referees likely to make the wrong decision etc, is that a correct assumption?   Therefore is it safer/better to bet on these things? 

oh yeah... d'oh! :D

Most start out by not knwoing much at all.  That is the main attraction....that they are 'clear skins' so to speak although some are big losing punters...those are the holy grail because once a bookie has decided that you are a big mug they will do anything for you and change their opinion slowly.  In the States they call them 'beards' (ie they are your disguise) and one of Billy Walters 'beards' wrote a book about his experiences although he doesn't name the man himself or any of the other characters by their real name.  Its called "Smart Money" and it is by Michael Konik.  Interesting read.

Cheers, the book looks interesting, I may grab a copy

For those that want an autobiography he hasn't wriiten one but a guy that used to move money for him has and it is called "The Smart Money" by, I think, Michael Konik.  It is not a great book in my view but is interesting enough.  Also if you do a google search for "the story of the computer group" it does a good job of putting otgether Walters early days and the trial for bookmaking.

Just about the best gambling book I have read, and I must have read it 6-7 times. It isn't just about the betting side of their work but the toll it takes on them mentally.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+smart+money&x=0&y=0

Blonde aff link ftw

Cheers for video link, Keith. Billy Walters hero. Just ordered Veitch book on Amazon too!

Lol just read this thread after asking Mr Camel about putteroners on one of his other threads.

I had the pleasure of helping a mate do this once for his bookie friend many years pre internet and he did allow us to stick a £5 on to his bet which he gave us strict instructions as to the bet size particularly differentiating between some of the big national bookies and the local one man independent bookies. It was all legwork and took us 3/4 hours to get round all the bookies in our home town taking early prices where offered and sp when none available.

It won and was hard work but good fun - thing is if it hadnt won it was well out of our normal punting league for our own bets so I can see why the professional putteroner will restrict his own money and be glad to only take the commission from his boss.

Hasn't been bumped for a while and I just watched it again.

Really is worth watching if you haven't seen it.

Keep bumping Keith fascinating viewing.

Funny you should bump this today because he was responsible for a moment of great professional pride for me today.  For those that don't know Billy Walters is famous for being the most respected professional in the US betting market but also he is notorious for being impossible to follow because he plays with the market and will often send out plays on the wrong team to confuse the market and ensure any of his "beards" (a US term for the guys that put on for him) that try to have a bit for themselves end up on the wrong side often enough.   All week I noticed the sharpest of our guys that act alone seemed to like Louisville and then all of a sudden there were a couple of big moves for Florida International to drive the line below the key number (in this spot) of 42.  I was convinced it was BW trying to shift the market so he could bet Louisville and it was confirmed shortly after kickoff.  It felt like the sports betting equivalent of calling down Phil Ivey with A high and I was very proud of myself....probably quite sad really......

I found this interview quite intriguing, merely for the size of the bets, while watching it I had his vision of a "beard" or English equivalent walking into Ladbrokes and having £500 000 on Man utd -1 only to be told the max bet is £50! Obviously not like that at all in Vegas and it seems people do not bat an eye at large sports bets so it must be common? Crazy money that he deals in.

I assume he is a pro gambler because of the successes he has on sports betting, but in the film it indicates it has not always been like this, eg won a million on golf course lost it that night on blackjack, my question being if he was skint would he be known as a degenerate gambler or  even "ice cream". Sometime it seems there are very fine lines between the 2.

New article on ESPN about Walters.

Not much new stuff, but still worth reading.

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12280555/how-billy-walters-became-sports-most-successful-controversial-bettor

This fascinating interview with John Mastronardo (who is well worth a Google) has a fair bit on Walters as Mastronardo used to take his action. US gambling really is a different world.
http://www.thephillygodfather.com/podcasts (http://www.thephillygodfather.com/podcasts)