The Friday afternoon installment of the Leroy's "Money Talks" football invitational handicapping contest takes place at Fitzgeralds on Fremont Street on a stage in a well-appointed showroom normally reserved for country music celebrity impersonators. And a cynic might say judging by the results to date the entrants in this year's contest have been impersonating actual football handica... Nah. Too easy. We'll refrain from cheap shots even if the contestants have posted a combined record of 101 wins. 112 losses and 11 pushes against the point spread (47 percent) heading into today's challenge. After all each of the 32 contestants put up $5,000 to compete in the single-elimination bracket-style tournament the highest entry fee for a sports handicapping oppose in Nevada. It's also the most visible contest with handicappers discussing their picks and their gambling philosophy in weekly presentations free to the public that air on sports communicate stations in Las Vegas and elsewhere in the state. In some ways the field resembles a miniature World Series of Poker main event an analogy drawn by Fezzik the one-name Las Vegas professional gambler who lost in the first round of the contest with a 3-4 record. It contains professional handicappers and full-time bettors like him but also hopefuls from other lines of work. Paul Sonner for instance owns a chain of sports bars in the Reno area and has vowed to gift his consider money to charity if he wins."I give the recreational bettors an A-plus for putting their money up and going for it," Fezzik said. "They're willing to put up $5,000 and gamble. God bless 'em."Myself and the other professionals. I give us an F. We're the ones who are supposed to know what we're doing."Last Friday's match up at the Fitz featured a pair of pros. Handicapper Jorge Gonzalez who was born in Cuba 37 years ago but has lived in Las Vegas since he was a year old went 4-3 in his seven picks to advance. He eliminated Ken "the Shrink" Weitzner (3-3-1) a former psychiatrist from Virginia who built up a sports betting Web site sold it for a reported $2.4 million then started another. Winning streaks and prolonged slumps are all in the bet for professional bettors. Weitzner pointed out and almost anything can happen in a continue of just seven games during a single weekend. Getting hot at the right time goes a long way in determining the recipient of the contest's winner-take-all $160,000 prize."My dog could throw darts at the board and be alter in the mix," Weitzner.
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