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• Back to the beginning

Gambling and golf have been synonymous since duffers first set their sights on a tee and aimed to prove who was better at driving and putting. As the sports books of Las Vegas have diversified their offerings to encompass more than the traditional menu of football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, golf has become almost as common.

And even in the smaller books, when one of the four major tournaments (The Masters, The U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship) is featured, they generally set the prices based on the odds offered by Las Vegas Sports Consultants, the official oddsmakers for almost all of the books throughout Nevada.

The following represents a sample of a typical Thursday-Sunday four round stop on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour:

TIGER WOODS	5/1
DAVID DUVAL	7/1
ERNIE ELS	8/1
VIJAY SINGH	10/1
DAVIS LOVE III	10/1
JUSTIN LEONARD	12/1
PHIL MICKELSON	15/1
HAL SUTTON	15/1
JIM FURYK	20/1
CHRIS PERRY	20/1
JEFF MAGGERT	25/1
NICK PRICE	25/1
TOM LEHMAN	30/1
JOHN HUSTON	30/1
BOB ESTES	30/1
LOREN ROBERTS	30/1
FRED FUNK	35/1
MIKE WEIR	40/1
CARLOS FRANCO	40/1
STEVE PATE	50/1
JEFF SLUMAN	50/1
FIELD (ALL OTHERS)	5/1

Pitting two golfers in a particular tour stop has become a popular proposition for Las Vegas as of late. This type of bet takes two golfers in the same event. If you take the favorite, you are laying money that he will finish higher than his opponent. For the underdog, you are making the same bet, only getting plus money back.

For example, in the first match-up, you have to lay $180 for every $100 you want to win that Tiger Woods will finish higher than David Duval. If you believe that David Duval will win, you get $160 back for every $100 you lay.

MATCHUPS*	OPEN
DAVID DUVAL	+160
TIGER WOODS	-180

VIJAY SINGH	+115
ERNIE ELS	-135

PHIL MICKELSON	+115
HAL SUTTON	-135

CHRIS PERRY	-105
JIM FURYK	-115

FRED FUNK	+115
LOREN ROBERTS	-135

MIKE WEIR	EVEN
BOB ESTES	-120

JOHN HUSTON	-110
TOM LEHMAN	-110

NICK PRICE	+110
JUSTIN LEONARD	-130

STUART APPLEBY	-105
BRENT GEIBERGER	-115

**BOTH PLAYERS MUST TEE OFF FOR ACTION.

**MOST COMPLETED HOLES WINS.

**IF PLAYERS COMPLETE SAME NUMBER OF HOLES, LOWEST SCORE WINS.

**FOR ACTION, TOURNAMENT MUST BE COMPLETED WITHIN ONE WEEK OF SPECIFIED DATE.

In order to win the teaser bet nothing more or less than an exotic parlay, the bettor must win all of the games. Any one loss negates the ticket. Many properties have canceled the two-team NFL teaser as a losing proposition for them, based on the fact that so many of the games end in a close decision.

By betting teasers on the underdog receiving more points while simultaneously taking the favorite giving fewer points on different tickets, the observant bettor has a relatively enhanced chance of winning both sides.

In college football betting, the teaser is not nearly as effective. There are many more blowouts in college, so that the favorite would not need the lowered number and the underdog will need far more help to cover than 6-10 adjusted points.

Buying The Hook

Long-time Las Vegas handicappers will tell you that the importance of getting the best number possible cannot be overrated. One of the chief advantages of living in Las Vegas is the immediate access to betting numbers in so many different books. This situation is not nearly as good as it was 10 years ago, before so many properties consolidated with the betting lines commonly shared.

But the opportunities to bet a game and get the best number possible remain. If you are visiting, you can take advantage of these opportunities. Realizing that time may be a limiting factor, you can still ask who might have the best number for your game.

According to Roxy Roxborough and Mike Rhoden, co-authors of the authoritative Sports Book Management, the most common margin of victory is 3. This number occurs approximately 16% of the time. No other result is nearly as frequent, with the next closest 7, at 7.2%.

Many properties will allow you to pay 6-5 (12-10, rather than 11-10) and "buy" the extra half-point or "hook" in either direction, to get off of these numbers. Some books have reservations about buying off of 3, but it never hurts to ask. If you believe that the game will be very close, it might be worth it to you to do this.

An example might be if you saw the New England Patriots favored by 3 over the New York Giants at Foxboro, Massachusetts. You believe the Pats can win, but are afraid of the Giants’ defense. You "buy the hook" and make the Patriots a 2.5 point favorite so that if they win by a field goal and the margin of victory is 3, you win. Without doing this, your bet is a push, or tie.