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Columnist Jeff Haney: Blackjack expert 'wongs in' on sports betting
Jeff Haney's sports betting column appears Wednesday. Reach him at 259-4041 or haney@vegas.com
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When the lowercase form of a man's name becomes a verb in the English language, it's a good bet he has reached the top of his profession.
And any blackjack player worth his Evian can tell you what it means "to wong."
"Wonging" is a form of card counting that involves playing when the deck is advantageous ("wonging in"), then leaving the table when the cards are no longer favorable ("wonging out").
The technique was popularized by author Stanford Wong, whose books on pro-level blackjack and casino tournaments forged his reputation as a gambling expert.
So when Wong says he plans to devote his time and energy to betting sports, the gambling world sits up and takes notice.
"I think the area of sports betting has a need for a good book," Wong said. "One reason for that is people who are really good at betting sports would rather not share their secrets with other people -- they're making too much money at it.
"Me? I'm not going to hold anything back."
Tournament time
Wong, who recently began working on his sports betting book, says he'll duck the blackjack tables for the rest of the year in order to concentrate on betting football.
"If (a casino) wants to offer a 2-1 (instead of 3-2 on blackjacks) promotion, sure, I'll play that for a while," Wong said. "But otherwise I prefer to do only one thing at a time."
As Wong envisions it, his book will combine gambling theory with anecdotes harvested from his own betting exploits in Las Vegas sports books this fall.
Besides posting his football picks on the sports section of his website (bj21.com), Wong plans to enter some high-end football handicapping contests this season.
"If the Hilton and the Stratosphere contests have the same format they had last year, I'll enter both," he said.
Last season, the Hilton's contest carried a $1,500 entry fee; the Stratosphere's was $1,000. This year's plans are uncertain, as the Hilton is being sold and the Stratosphere has undergone a change in sports book managers from a year ago.
"The smaller contests don't appeal to me because they usually make you pick all or most of the games, and chance becomes too much of a factor," Wong said. "If there was a contest with a $5,000 fee, I would enter that."
Wong, who earned a Ph.D. in finance from Stanford University, first thought about applying his gambling knowledge to sports one week during last year's football season. Several sports bettors Wong respects were recommending laying the points with a big favorite in a college game.
Wong liked the underdog. He made a token bet of $220 and cashed when his team covered.
"I felt what those bettors were doing wrong was using a mathematical model that may have been sound -- but didn't work in this particular situation," Wong said. "I figured there must be other situations like that. ... In sports betting, of course, you're not going up against the sports book. You're going against the other bettors.
"What you have to do is find situations where the models that other bettors are using break down."
Until then, Wong had rarely ventured into sports betting.
"I really don't get any pleasure out of making bets just for the sake of making bets," he said.
"I didn't make that bet to have fun. I made it because I thought I had an edge."
The new, new thing
In recent months, Wong has made wagers on NBA playoff games, prizefights and NFL teams' total number of wins for the season.
But for a couple of reasons, he said, his book will focus on NFL sides.
For one thing, it's good business. He wants to sell as many books as he can to as wide an audience as possible. To the general public, sports betting means placing a wager on an NFL team.
Wong glanced around a busy restaurant where Las Vegans were devouring omelettes and bagels. "Listen to the conversations at these tables during football season," he said. "They're not talking about totals, whether the game is going over or under. It's which team they like, which team they're betting on."
And besides, it's a new challenge for Wong. After all, this is a guy who has carved out a nice living by devising ways to beat casinos at their own games.
"Making a profit betting NFL sides has a reputation for being very difficult to do," Wong said. "Which is why they'll accept much bigger bets on sides than totals.
"But if something's too easy, I don't want to do it. It's always been that way for me. If something is difficult, that gets me motivated. If it's supposed to be impossible, well, that's even better."
Brilliant disguise
Wong, a 57-year-old Southern Californian, keeps a low profile by necessity. As a general rule, casinos do not welcome blackjack authorities into their 21 pits.
For instance, when Wong was interviewed by the Discovery Channel last week for a special on gambling, he not only wore a hat down over his eyes, but he had his hair dyed bright orange for the occasion. ("I asked for red, that was how it came out," he shrugged.)
He admits his foray into sports betting will make him more visible, at least in Las Vegas sports books.
He speculates, with a hint of the healthy paranoia that infects all good blackjack players, that perhaps someday he'll wear out his welcome there, too.
"I would hate to get that tap on the shoulder," Wong said. "And I'd turn around and a guy wearing a suit would say, 'I'm sorry sir, no more sports book action for you.
'But you're welcome to give our blackjack tables a try.' "
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