There is a saying that makes the claim that the only way to become an expert at something is to have first made every mistake possible. If that were true, then I should be the best golfer in the world. I've seen good golfers, and I've seen great golfers. I grew up during a time when golf wasn't even on the map. We played team sports for the most part like baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. At the age of eighteen, I realized that these activities were going to come to a screeching halt soon and needed to find something else. So I took up golf. There was a problem back then for the athletes in my era. We were ingrained with a "baseball" swing, and that just doesn't cut it for golf. The weight stayed on the right side, and the swing was from the outside in. Hitting fat shots and big, roundhouse slices were the norm. What could I do?

This journal captures the day-by-day, week-by-week excitement of a fall season spent challenging the sports books of. Reno as the author tries to beat the point spread betting college football. While basically the story of one man, armed with a system, going head to head against the oddsmaker, it is also an ethnography of the sports books of Nevada. The author, a professional anthropologist, presents the mo detailed account ever written of just how sports books operate. How is the point spread made? By whom? How does it change, game by game, in response to the money bet? All this and more is revealed. .. . . . But beyond that here is a very human story of an avid football fan, indulging his passion and his hobby, trying doggedly to outsmart the oddsmaker. Moreover; the book catches the flavor of the gambling scene in Reno, as well as reflecting the color and pageantry of college football.

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