Tips for Tikay

[bobby1]

I am interested by the first goalscorer bet put up by Class but from a slightly different angle. If Cresswell plays up front then its obv value and should be backed but if Southend are having to play a centre half up front should we not be looking to bet Wycombe too?

Looks like Wycombe have lost Stuart Bevan to PNE so that is a big loss for them

[bobby1]

I've also been smiling to myself about the Isle of Man Hills operation.

 Keith will remember a friend of mine from New York who made very good money arbing US sports throughout the 90s. He used to have an account in the Isle of Man and he wanted to get a broader range of bets on it so that it looked more like he was a random guesser. At the time, (around 2001), I was betting a lot on UK horses doing 10 bets a day on the flat with an average price of 5/1. I was struggling to get on.

 My friend said I could use his account which was set up in a fake name, (forget what), but that I'd have to put on a Manhattan accent.

 I was working at IG Index at the time and the guys on the desk would laugh when I rang six or eight people to back each horse but every now and then I had to put on a ridiculous voice and I had a different name.

 I did my bollocks on that account and it still got shut.

lol, I have  mate who has accounts in Scottish Irish and bad comedic French, I once heard him on the phone in his Scottish accent and he suddenly said ' I will ring back in a minute' I asked him what happened and he said ' the guy was Scottish I hadn't got a bloody clue what he was saying'

That Hills operation was a bit of a shambles in the end, the gaffers that decided to take on the Asian cash all 'moved on' in the end, just after they worked out how much  it had cost the firm.

i don't know that guy Neil was he a footy punter?

[Bad Beat]

 He was a big winner on the spreads, seemed to be very shrewd, could never get enough on, always wanted unlimited. City Index took him on quite big, IG would only lay him £500 a goal but he still took it. He was always asking if he could bet on supremacies with a 2 goal stop loss and he liked to sell big favs. It didn't seem like good business to us.

 When he first came on the scene he showed up at the City Index office in about 1999 with a massive suitcase full of cash and asked what was the most we would take on football games.

 I often wondered what the Isle of Man guys thought about the bloke from New York having decent ew bets on 12/1 chances from Salisbury to Hamilton and all points in between.

[bobby1]

lol, you must have been laughing having to make sure it stayed plausible.

[redarmi]

I can only imagine you are talking about about SE Neil and I would be amazed if you have never come across him Bobby.  I was introduced at a dinner with a mutual friend in NY about 4 years ago but had dealt with him at every firm I had ever been at.  He actually told a funny story that night about how his girlfriend hates all his american punting friends but loves the British ones because they are so polite.  Can only assume he was talking about you!!!!

  Sonchai I remember and always assumed he was just betting when the spreads were different against where the Asian market was.  No idea if he was a punter or layer though.

Funny story about that Hills operation when I was at VC we had an account and they seemed keen to lay.  One night TB was having a big bet on Forest on the handicaps and they were like a 1.5 goal fave and as you prob know a certain Mr Tabor has a shareholding in VC and phoned the office and asked me to get him on Forest outright at 4/11with Hills....only problem was the size of bet he wanted was 7 figures but you don't say no to MT if you value your job so I dutifully phoned Hills IOM and the first response of the nice Yorkshire lass that answered the phone was "what do you really want?"....when I insisted she laughed in a way I now understand as a married man means "you'll be lucky son" but went away and asked before coming back and offering us 3300 win 1200.  Suffice to say MT wasn't that impressed.  I left soon after so I can confirm that the last word the great man spoke to me was "c*nts".

[The Camel]

I can only imagine you are talking about about SE Neil and I would be amazed if you have never come across him Bobby.  I was introduced at a dinner with a mutual friend in NY about 4 years ago but had dealt with him at every firm I had ever been at.  He actually told a funny story that night about how his girlfriend hates all his american punting friends but loves the British ones because they are so polite.  Can only assume he was talking about you!!!!

  Sonchai I remember and always assumed he was just betting when the spreads were different against where the Asian market was.  No idea if he was a punter or layer though.

Funny story about that Hills operation when I was at VC we had an account and they seemed keen to lay.  One night TB was having a big bet on Forest on the handicaps and they were like a 1.5 goal fave and as you prob know a certain Mr Tabor has a shareholding in VC and phoned the office and asked me to get him on Forest outright at 4/11with Hills....only problem was the size of bet he wanted was 7 figures but you don't say no to MT if you value your job so I dutifully phoned Hills IOM and the first response of the nice Yorkshire lass that answered the phone was "what do you really want?"....when I insisted she laughed in a way I now understand as a married man means "you'll be lucky son" but went away and asked before coming back and offering us 3300 win 1200.  Suffice to say MT wasn't that impressed.  I left soon after so I can confirm that the last word the great man spoke to me was "c*nts".

Do you remember Flutter.com?

If you clicked on a offer to lay a bet, you could see who wanted it.

I always avoided matching bets with Somchai, which was about 95% of the liquidity on the site, so I didn't have many bets!

[redarmi]

When VC briefly had a spreads dept he was basically their only punter.  That dept was stacked with talent.  Run by Bloom and Edery, a 20yo Ben Keith who now owns Star Sports, Ruthers who worked for TB later and retired after getting the lot at about 26, Jonny Longley who used to play cricket for Durham and may have been the nicest man in the world, John O'Connell who runs racing for Lads now I think.....although the legend of the lot was a Gibraltarian lad called Brandon who didn't have any accounts so I layed him prices out of the paper for a tenner......of course he wasn't as daft as he looked and was betting all Tony's stuff and took me for about £2k before I embarrasingly knocked him back.  He also had an even £200 he would kiss Britney Spears within two years and still owes me ffs!!!

[redarmi]

Oh, and Somchai (it was spelt with an m right?) still beat them I think.

[aaron1867]

I have just had a look at the footie and for me this week there is nothing that really stands out as value or good price, maybe apart from one.

West Ham are 6/4 at home to Fulham. I think this is a good price, maybe bigger, I just browse William Hill.

West Ham have been signing a few players and now Andy Carroll to their team, will be most definitely strengthen. You can now look at Fulham and they just haven't done much, they have missed out on a duo from Spurs and lost Dempsey too, although I believe he hasn't played this season, has he? Although they have added Berbatov, but will he start or even feature tomorrow?

West Ham are bit hit and miss at home, but did beat Villa, whilst Fulham are probably the worst away performers in the Premier League history?! Both played in midweek, West Ham through, Fulham out, Fulham having much tougher opposition against Sheffield Wednesday.

Rec @ £30.

MK Dons are 5/6 at home to Carlisle. Although, again better prices can be found elsewhere.

MK have added quite a few over the transfer market, most notable Jimmy Bullard, this guy might be the physio's best mate, but this guy is still by far the best player in League One. MK Dons, again a very tough home team to beat. Mk Dons have a far superior side to Carlisle and home form should count for them for sure.

Furthermore MK Dons didn't have to endure Extra Time in the week, which Carlisle did against Ipswich.

Rec @ £30

[Bad Beat]

 SE and his girlfriend came to London on a trip once and I took them out to dinner a couple of times. She was an artist. We took them to Fontwell Park races for a day out as I had a front row bookmakers pitch there. We went to a genuine English country pub with horse brasses and stuff afterwards.

 I used to speak to him about five times a week, and we helped each other get bets on. We just lost touch and I haven't spoken to him for years.

 SE used to play backgammon to a high standard and he was a frequent visitor to the Mayfair club in the days when Dan Harrington, Erik Seidel, Steve Zolotow and Howard Lederer used to play poker there. SE wasn't much good at poker. He was a complete nit. He did like to play though. I was talking to him at the Horshoe during the WSOP once. He was playing $1/$2 NLH and he hadn't played a hand for an hour. He was very excited that Erik Seidel had stopped by to chat to him,(which was no big deal for him), and that all the players were now giving him 500% more respect than they had before.

 In 1997 he introduced me to Stu Unger and we chatted about the chances of him winning the Main Event (there were 18 left and he had almost three times average).


 I had watched Ungar on day one for some time. Tony Bloom was at his table.

[aaron1867]

Thoughts on Forest at home to Charlton on EVS?

Cox and now Sharp up front with other numerous additions.

[smashedagain]

Wow you met stu ungar Neil. Don't suppose you ever played with him?

[tikay]

Strewth, I SO love these stories & tales, & I have a thousand questions to ask, but no time. Stu Ungar, Michael Tabor, da de da, incred.

Mr Channing came to see me one day recently in my office to discuss some business, the meet was scheduled to last an hour. After 5 hours, Neil was still in full flow, I was sat there in amazement, gawping open-mouthed at an array of tales about punting & punters, I was like a kid in a steam-engine factory. I don't think we ever got round to talking about the business matter we had met to discuss.

In Vegas this year, Bobby came out for a week, & we saw a good bit of each other, but he was mainly playing, & by then, I was working 18 hours every day, & I had no time to chat to anyone. Anyway......he came to my "office" one evening at around 8pm, & he told me story after story about punting, punters, betting shop scams, "characters", dodgy sorts, coups, I think I sat there, enthralled, it must have been 2am when we finished. In fact I may even have fallen asleep eventually, just through sheer fatigue. Vegas this year for me was bittersweet for a bunch of reasons I'm not in a position to explain yet awhile, but on the sweet side of bittersweet, that evening was one of the highlights, & great memories, & I wish I could do it again right now.   

You guys - Reds, Camel, Bobby, Neil, I hope you all realise there is a cracking book waiting to be written about this sort of stuff, people LOVE it. I will be penning my own book soon, (shush, don't laugh), but it will not hold a light to the tales you guys could collectively tell.  Ripping Yarns indeed. 

It's rather a shame I have to destroy the flow & interrupt it with the Daily Reports, but I have to.

Fred won about five bob yesterday, but I doubt he has ever had a more enjoyable day, one way & another.

I don't exactly know what it is about punting, punting people, & the like, but it gives me a real buzz and tingle.

OK, I'd better move on, Daily Reports, how to play AK in early position, herbie chucking lit matches into dormant powder kegs, & the 9,735rd blonde thread entitled "Ruling".

[millidonk]

Devestated I wasn't on Falcao. Wp horsie and congrats everyone that got on.

Loving the trips down memory lane! Some amazing stories on here espesh from Bobby, Red and Channing!

I don't have any stories to rival these, but I do have photographic evidence of the day I was bitten by the bug! I was 13yrs old and it was 26 Dec 1997. I always remembered my dad and uncle putting on their coupons on the weekend but I never really got involved. This weekend I decided to give it a shot, I gave my uncle £1 of my hard earned paper round money and marked my 4 draws.. A few hrs later I had 3 draws already in the bag and was just waiting on Sheffield United vs Stoke, it was 1-1, then Peter Thorne for Stoke scored on the 86th min, my dreams had been crushed, I slumped back in the chair resigned to my fate that I had dusted off 100 mojos.. then boooooom. Brian Deane comes from nowhere to fire home a 93rd min equaliser. The final whistle blew and I had successfully turned my £1 into £104 of her majesty's finest.

Click to see full-size image.

*accuracy of results, scorers and minutes subject to memory.

[tikay]

Ooh, great story Milli, even greater photos.

I guess we all have a story of the day we got "bit", I certainly do. Unusually, I think, I eventually cured myself, & abstained for 12 years. Then Keith gave birth to a son called Fred.....