Good Afternoon, I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity with so many new Members joining our Pregame Community to Introduce myself again, as well as pass along our blue-print of how we have been able to get the reputation for beating the number and have forced the oddsmakers and the books to make sure that they take notice each and every time we make a wager...and the best way to do that is to start at the beginning...now a lot of the Members got the chance to read my "Intro" when I first was selected as the Pro-Bettor Challenge Winner over the winter and I have not been able to locate that post, which I had hoped I would...so I will try and summarize it and get to the main points and explain how I got into this racket a very long time ago.

I was raised in Philly and as most people know, that is one of the biggest betting cities in the world...most people have a bookie before they have a drivers liscense and as a Off-Shore Book Owner said, "I have taken bets from people, that are from all over the world, and have to say that Philly is the one place that has more "wiseguys" per capita than any other city in the world"...now when I first started out, trust me, I had no clue what a "wise-guy" was and a funny thing happend years later when a bookie I was using called me a wiseguy and I thought he meant that I was being an asshole...but I'll get to that part of my life in a little bit...so I began actually betting on sports at a very, very young age and by middle school, I was introduced to the point-spread and began distributing football pools for some of the older guys in the neighborhood and I was hooked...I mean, I loved it...by the time I got to high-school I was introduced to one of the bigger books in our side of town and he explained to me how I should start taking straight bets from kids as well as continue passing out pools because I was obviously growing and by that point, was distributing my pools through friends who I convinced to do the same at about 11 different high schools.

It didn't take much convincing, so I began taking book and would call everything in and get a cut...it didn't take much convincing either to realize that "PEOPLE ALWAYS LOST"...I mean the football pools was like printing money and nobody ever really hit anything big, but taking action over the phone was so much more fun and I admit, I loved every minute of it...well I can go on and write for days passing along many of the stories about those first few years, but I'll try to keep this short...

Well as a few yrs passed, I decided that I had all the clients that I can possibly get from school, including a few teachers and parents...and everyone was beginning to find out that if they wanted action, just get in touch with Ace and you can get down,no problem...so at that point I realized that school was beginning to take away from my progress as a bookmaker because I needed to uncover and tap into new sources of revenue...aka "squares"...and I dropped out and became a full-time bookmaker who knew very little except that as long as my phone was working and I could provide a point-spread, everything would be ok...

As most people know, as you grow in that business, especially in a city like Philly, greed will get you in trouble with the wrong people and if you want to stay in business, you need to find some backing...and quickly before someone gets wind of your success and takes your business over...so I went ahead and "merged" with a great man, who at the time was the biggest bookmaker that I knew and I began taking action from my clients at one of his offices which was actually in meat-distributorship which was cold as hell at all times...and that is where my eyes finally opened up to what is really going on...

At the time, most big books were using "Don Best" line service, who also was a Philly guy who moved out to Vegas and began providing us books with the most current numbers for anything we asked...and to be honest, each time the phone rang and they gave us an update to move a line, I had no idea why and just figured that the books must be taking a lot of action on one side and they want to try and balance out the work....yea, like that really happens...anyway, this was when they would call you with all the updates so on a Saturday, we had 3 guys whose only job was to answer that phone and scream out the changes...

Eventually, I became really close with the big guy and asked him about that and he explained to me how there are groups of bettors they call wiseguys who have better info than the books and when these guys bet, you need to move the lines or else they will keep infiltrating your book and nailing the specific game under different bettors accounts...and the reason for this is because they Win...of course I was skeptical until he explained to me that 2 of the guys who I had betting with me were beards for one of those groups and that is why I had paid them 7 of the last 10 weeks...and I was so naive, I chalked it up to "luck" and figured that they would end up giving it back and then some...but then he asked me to look at their work and see how different it is than other players, just by the way they bet...and finally broke the news to me that I shouldn't expect to see that money ever again because once these guys get up on you...you stand no chance because they don't like to gamble, they like to win.

Well, I wondered why we booked their work then and it was explained to me how they are actually an asset and it was then explained to me that in the one room where we had about 8-10 guys on phones who didn't have to sit near the cold ass meat locker that they were actually in there betting and not booking...I was confused so we went to dinner and it was explained that when a play comes in from these known wiseguys, it immediately goes into that room and those 10 guys call every book that they have access to and then a handful of other guys that they have under them who also have books and bet these same games...and that he is bankrolling the whole operation because over the years, he has made as much money, if not more from betting than from booking...this was new to me, but I'm the type of guy who rather than "hate" asked, "how can I be down"...

I was told to find all the books I can and to also offer friends of mine $300 for each bookie that they can find me who was legit because he informed me that eventually, the books would screw me...that also seemed strange because as a book, having a rep for quick pay was the most important asset you can find...but he said when they realize you are a sharp and will keep winning and they don't have the drive to use you correctly, they will ultimately screw you over...or as he put it, you will leave them with only 2 choices...join you or fu*k you...and that I need to work on having them join me, even if I have to eat some of the money that they will end up owing me...this sounded to good to be true, but I decided to give it a try and aquired all the books that I can as well as all the books that I can that friends hooked me up with...

Again, this is another part of my life that I can talk about for days, but I'll stick to the meat of the story...as time went on, I realized that this was even better than booking because I was the player and I didn't have to feel guilty for getting wealthy by having people I know lose money to me betting...I mean, I was the sucker, right...I became a bettor which meant that to most books, I appeared to be a mark...anyway, within a few years, I had aquired so many books throughout the east coast and all the way to New Orleans believe it or not...and because I had so many outs, I began getting these wiseguys games earlier and earlier, which meant that I was able to beat almost any book to the line moves...so being able to do this put me right in the center of the action and I was introduced to just about every sharp on the east coast who moved money for one of the groups here in vegas and elsewhere...I was moving so much per game that I sold my book and decided to become a full-time bettor for these groups and at one point I was getting just about every single sharp move that went out and sometimes, they were even different sides of the same game...those were by far the funnest and wildest times of my betting life.

After a while, my biggest concern wasn't whether or not I would make money and keep winnng because that was the easy part...the difficult part was trying to get paid from all these books after they realized that you aren't ever going to give it back...and truth is, I was infiltrating books from every direction to try and cover my tracks and with so many different bettors moving the plays for me, we were doing a lot of damage and most books, rather than jump on board and become part of what we were doing...decided they preferd going back to their little book, taking their friends money, and just screwing us out of ours until we went away.

Finally, it got to a point where it was to much work to find a decent out because "steam" had become so well known and the fame of the "computer group" made people realize that not everyone loses...so I did the only thing a professional sports bettor could do...I moved to Vegas and began going legit...or at least I thought so...

So I made it out to Vegas and already had a rep for a stand up guy who always stood for the money even when books screwed me...and I also had a rep for being pretty sharp when it came to the elaborate ways I would get down on a game...so I became a full-time runner and after a few months, became so good at it, I began running for many of the betting syndicates simultaneously...going from book to book with 4 different 2-way radio communication devices that I kept taped to my chest, kept in my pocket and where ever I could to hide them even though the sportsbooks knew I had them...and it was such a rush, getting the game over the 2-way and running to the window to get down before they moved the number and then running to the pay-phone to call all the guys I had under me who were also moving through bookies across the country on these plays...it was awesome...

Those days the Stardust had a lottery and all of us runners would gather an put our names in a hat and they would draw to see who goes first and gets a shot at the numbers when they first appeared on the board...eventually the books got tired of us winning and let the dogs lose on us and we began getting picked up and charged for bookmaking even though its not what any of us were doing...or at least most of us...then I had a daughter and realized that I can't be getting into so much trouble and had developed such a good relationship with those who ran everything that I asked to come off the street and go into the offices where everything originates...

Finally, that is where I ended up, and I got a first hand look at what their cappers were looking for and what they were trying to do to the market and it was a new learning experience...up until then I thought that I knew everything about sports betting...but realized very quickly how little I knew...but I was lucky, I got to work with some good people who allowed me to ask all the questions that I wanted and would answer me honestly...for a few years, I learned so much about sports betting that had never before even crossed my mind...and in fact, I began capping myself and even though I wasn't betting these games, I would go over them with the cappers they had and explain why I liked them and things like that and they would help me form my reasoning better and better and also passed along to me what things they look for when coming to a decision...I mean these guys didn't miss a beat, we even had a UNLV student who was going to be a meteorologist who would analyze weather...

Anyway being in that office opened a lot of doors and I got to meet and become friends with a lot of different outfits and cappers who I still speak to almost everyday even now...well eventually, runners became obsolete because the offshore market had evolved and finding quality outs became easier and easier...so I had a decision to make, go to Costa Rica and continue what I was doing, or take a shot with a few of the guys I had grown close with who were also beginning to capp their own plays and go off on our own...and we chose the later, and the truth is, for the first 3-4 yrs, we were afraid to actually make an official play unless we confirmed it with those that we had worked with and for, all of those years...and we began aquiring our own sources of info...like ticket writers and runners from outfits whose plays we didn't have access to prior because now we were on our own...so we were free to build our own network or information...

Well as time passed we became pretty successful and we established a very good reputation for being able to beat the books with our own plays and in fact, we began passing along our own work, in exchange for what other groups were doing...and to this day, we are still doing that...so that is how I began in this business and also how I eventually became a professional sports bettor/handicapper and after being introduced to RJ here at Pregame...the thought of being the first of our kind to cross over and share his work with the casual bettor became really appealing and after getting a chance to speak with Pregame and getting assured that what they wanted was the real thing and they informed me that they weren't interested in making me a tout, but instead they wanted me to do exactly what I have been doing and what they heard by being here in Vegas that me and my group were able to accomplish wagering on sports....and truth be told, I had began getting a bit bored just picking a few games and doing the same thing each day and this venture really gave me new life and inspired me to go back into the trenches and dig up all those resources again and go all out like I had done in the beginning...and rather than be content with just moving on enough games a month to maintain the lifestyle that my family had become accustomed to, I would now go back to doing it the exact way I did to build my own bank and this time, help others do the same....and even though all the sharp contacts that I have told me that I was crazy and that there was no way that I can ever convince the betting public to begin wagering like a wiseguy and invest in this market, rather than gamble in it...I believed otherwise, and I felt that today's bettors are so much more savvy and sophisticated than we were when we began because of all the info available to them with the internet...remember, I didn't even know what a sharp/wiseguy was and I had been booking for a while up to that point...

So here I am and I know that I left out tons of info but I hope that I was able to get across a bit of who I am and how I got to this point in my life, as well as the type of sports bettor that I am...Thanks and Best of Luck, Vegas-Runner...

** In Part II, I will break down the philosophy of how we wager and explain the objective of sharp bettors as well as lay down the blue-print that was taughtto me on how to beat this market the way that wiseguys have for years, which is also the way that I try to have my clients beat it....because the truth is, its not as difficult as many believe, but it does require a lot of work and a lot of didication and understanding...