By LYNDA COLLINS (Posted 1-3-08, 2 p.m.)
    Michael "Point Shaver" Handzelek flashes back to an old episode of the classic Twlight Zone series when asked about his and partner Joey Gaffney's victory in football handicapping's Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest. The show was set in a billiards room and starred Jonathan Winters and Jack Klugman, which probably ages Point Shaver a hair (he's 48).

    Klugman portrays a great pool shark with the cockiness and charisma of a Jackie Gleason ("The Hustler") or Tom Cruise ("The Color of Money").  Winters asks Klugman what his formula for success is, what it took to excel at a high level.
    "Klugman told him it took talent, luck, hard work and nerves of practically steel," Point Shaver recollected. "I've been doing this for 35 years with success, so I must be pretty good at it.
     "We all know how those balls take funny bounces sometimes, which is where luck comes in. Joey and I each put in 15 to 20 hours a week, so I know we're doing the work.
    "Then there's nerve.
    "Sometimes favorites are flat. They're maybe caught in a sandwich situation or something like that. You figure they'll win the game, but barely."
    Handzelek has a system in which he shaves points off posted lines to get a number.
    "I'll tell you," he said. "It takes guts to play a dog when the number's right. You really have to be thinking ATS vs. SU. If you're thinking SU winners, bet the money line. That's where I make money."
    Ptshverj Gaffney entered Week 17 with a one-game edge and was in the locker room at 3-2, while Blondie 89103 was 3-1 with Indianapolis out.
    "Blondie got a damn good line on the Colts," he said. "It was 6 1/2 in the contest and 4 1/2 offshore by game time.
    "One thing I didn't count on was Seattle resting its starters and the Falcons winning."
    Point Shaver pointed out how he and Gaffney were 10-5 in the critical last three weeks. The pair ended up nipping Blondie 89103 in a tie-breaker after Ptshverj Gaffney finished the season 54-29-2 and Blondie 89103 checked in at 55-20.
    "That's (tie-breaker) an important fact to know if you're a contender," he said.
    The East Coast duo, who met online in a sports gaming chat room, wound up being entered at the Hilton under the name of Ptshverj Gaffney because that's how a computer, uh, shaved down Handzelek's moniker. They got together in NYC, Gaffney's home base, felt each other out and decided to be partners, each posting half of the $1,500 entry fee.
    Handzelek, a resident of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., wasn't aware until last summer that out-of-towners could enter the contest via a proxy, who now gets 10 percent of the $205,200 first prize.
    "I thought you had to live in Las Vegas," he said.
    Handzelek's cheery Christmas/New Years Week saga about winning the Hilton's grand prize reads like it's straight from the long extinct Saturday Evening Post:
    The family's down on its luck and in debt, mostly to other family members. There's a baby in the house and a tween-age daughter (Naomi). Point Shaver yearns for his ship to dock.
    It finally does, and during the holidays no less.
    "We owed my parents, credit card companies, the furniture people," Handzelek clicked off. "You can really get behind having a baby. I'm hoping I'll have about $30,000 when all is said and done. It's not life-changing money, but it's going to put us ahead."
    One thing he eventually wants to do for his family -- "Especially my wife Tammy, who was so supportive throught the contest" -- is take them to Maui, where he bought interest in a timeshare he hasn't used in four years.
    "That's the only time I've been to Hawaii, when I got the timeshare," Point Shaver revealed. "But I think we'll wait until my son Jakey is out of diapers. The words diapers and vacation just don't seem to go together. I spent my last honeymoon in Vegas. We stayed at the Luxor and had a great time."
    Family comes first on another front also.
    "My parents are delighted," Handzelek said. "They're happy because they're proud of me AND I can pay them back."
    Point Shaver says he learned handapping at the knee of his father Jacob, who has been suffering from the rigors of cancer. He and Gaffney dedicated their efforts this season to him.
    "He already was feeling better and I know he's just thrilled about this," Handzelek said.
    Handlezek says he posts plays on a Chicago-based site that returns 100 percent of a tout's sales and relies on advertising for its own profit. But in honor of the spirit of the holidays, extended bowl season and celebration of their Hilton triumph, the champions have agreed to freely pass along their NFL first-round playoff picks to ViewFromVegas.com.
    Check the site for plays later Thursday on the Collins' Columns page. We also promise picks from Pro Championship Challenge winner Sundown, who also had a pair of Top 10 finishes at Harrah's; Stations champion RGS2; and perhaps Glory of the Gridiron winner Dallas Mike.
    Both halves of Ptshvrj Gaffney are planning to be in Las Vegas by Monday to collect their winnings. Handlelek's a family man with financial obligations, but Gaffney's a bachelor. Where's his moolah going?
    "You have to understand Joey," Point Shaver explained. "He's a great guy, but he likes to joke around a lot and sometimes people take him seriously. Right now when he's asked what he's going to buy, he says hookers and booze!"
    Blondie 89103 gets second-place prize money of $82,080. Gary Lyon, who has been hanging around the leaderboard's top, gets $41,650 for third, while Rico used a 5-0 to springboard into fourth and a $25,650 check.
    Fifth through 10th-place finishers earned $17,955, while those in 11th through 17th pocketed $5,130. Seven players deadlocked for the final money slot.

The Challenge

By DAVE TULEY (Posted 1-5-08, 11 a.m.)
    RGS2 won The Challenge at Station Casinos with a 4-0-1 record in the final week of the NFL season to overtake Big M and win the $100,000 first-place prize.
    RGS2 finished with a record of 52-29-4, falling short of the 67 percent needed to win the bonus of a one-year lease of  a Mercedes Benz C-300 Sport, but it was good enough to finish one game ahead of Big M and Calmy Scott, who each were 52-31-2 and earned $13,725 apiece as they split the second- and third-place prizes.
    RGS2, who prefers to keep his real name private, might be the best NFL handicapper you (or any of us in the business) have never heard of. Then again, if you’ve followed the major football contests in Las Vegas over the years, you might have come across his aliases time and time again.
    Jarhead won all three major NFL handicapping contest last year, but RGS (we’ll drop the “2” as he also used the name “RGS1” in a couple of contests this season) has a resume to rival even that of the former Marine:
* In addition to this year’s title, RGS also won the Stations contest in 2001, so he’s a two-time winner of that event, which would be impressive all by itself.
* He’s also the 1991 Hilton SuperContest champ.
* And in 1999, he finished first in the Stratosphere contest over Russ Culver, who that year won the SuperContest and placed in a bunch of others. RGS, going at that time under the alias RICKSPICKS, kept him from really cleaning up.
    “I would estimate that over the years I have had about 45 entries in the major contests around town,” the 53-year-old Las Vegas resident wrote in an e-mail to yours truly. “I also estimate my entry fees add up to about $53,000. In 1991, the Hilton paid about $123,000; the other three contests paid $100,000 each (for) a total profit of about $400,000 when you add up other smaller prizes such as $2,400 for a Top 10 at Harrah’s this year.”
    So how come he’s so unknown? He started that same e-mail with the line: “In the past I have shied away from any publicity.”
    So why did he offer any information about himself this time? Well, I know I’m supposed to be an impartial reporter here, but I have to say it really made me feel good about the things we’ve done this season here at ViewFromVegas.com, especially with the consistently solid handicapping contest coverage provided by Lynda Collins, because RGS said the only reason he contacted me about his victory was “I liked the information that you gave on your site, the lines, standings, etc. So here are some facts about me.”
    So here’s his background, and we thank him for breaking his code of silence:
    “I was playing poker for a living in Cincinnati until the General Motors plant closed in my home town of Norwood, Ohio. In 1981, a friend was working at the Four Queens and called me on a Friday. He told me he had a job for me dealing poker if I wanted. I packed the car and on Monday I was dealing poker at the Queens.
    “I did more playing than dealing. In the summer of 1985, I started middling sports and I have been gambling for a living ever since.”
    And now you know the rest of the story.

Pro Championship Challenge

By LYNDA COLLINS (Posted 12-30-07, 11 p.m.)
    Sundown is home in Las Vegas, counting his dough.
    The 35-year-old professional sports gambler and native Californian who settled in Las Vegas six years ago captured his first major football handicapping championship on Sunday.
    Sundown, who has been chasing the mysterious Purple Sage for weeks and only recently climbed into a tie, finally overtook him at the wire to claim first place in the $250,000 Friendly Frank's Pro Championship Challenge at South Point and the El Cortez.
    Sundown was 3-2 in Week 17 for 56 points, while Purple Sage was 2-3 for 55 points (64.7 percent winners). Both players entered the NFL's last regular-season week with 53 points.
    The victory earned Sundown $100,000 for finishing first and another $50,000 for nailing upwards of 65 percent winners. Purple Sage pocketed $50,000.
    By Sundown's calculations, he's banking roughly $203,000 minus $8,000 he posted in entry fees for a net profit of $195,000.
     Asked what he planned to do with the money, Sundown replied: "Ahhh … I'll have to think about it. No immediate thoughts come to mind. Oh, I got one. Buy a good CPA!"
    Sundown's gambling carrer began about the time he started school.
    "I've been gambling since I was a kid," he said. "I had a fascination with picking up losing tickets off the ground at Del Mar racetrack when I was about 6 and pitching quarters when I was 8! I started sports betting for real money at about 16 when Caliente racetrack introduced it in Tijuana, Mexico.
     "I started booking bets in my early 20s and became a local bookmaker. I got convicted for bookmaking twice in San Diego, gave that up for good and moved to Vegas soon after. I started betting at a semi-professional level for the first few years and at a professional level for the past three or four."
     Sundown also made a splash in the Las Vegas Hilton SuperContest, where he'll collect a fifth though 10th place award ($17,955), and Harrah's Glory Of the Gridiron, where he lost to Dallas Mike I, who had a 6-0 mark to seize the championship.
    Sundown, who was second to Jarhead at Harrah's last year, earns bridesmaid wages for a second straight year.
    Congratulations to Dallas Mike on a 6-0 ticket to close out the Harrahs contest," said Sundown. who signed off 4-2.

Glory of the Gridiron

By LYNDA COLLINS (Posted 1-5-07, 8 a.m.)
    Unlike RGS, Dallas Mike is remaining incognito, at least for the time being.
    RGS came out of hibernation after winning Stations Casinos' Challenge football handicapping contest to give ViewFromVegas.com's Dave Tuley a glimpse into a high-rolling sports gambler's life (see The Challenge story above).
    We haven't heard a peep from Harrah's Glory of the Gridiron winner Dallas Mike, howvever, so we googled his name.
    We found Dallas Mikes that were into real estate, computer sciences and even BBQ, but not a single one who acknowledged an interest in sports betting. So we know as much as you and less than the folks at Caesars Palace, contest headquarters this year.
    Dallas Mike finished with 69 points picking six NFL games a week, to win the $40,000 top prize.
    Harrah's paid down 10 places.
     Fezzik, Sundown and David Miller each had a pair of entries in the Top 10.
    Fezzik's Backupthetruck was fourth with 64 points. His I Can't Drive 55 tied for fifth through seventh with 63 points.
    David Miller was second with 67 points, while his David A. Miller entry tied the Fezzik second entry with 63 points. Takeoutthetrash, champion of a five-week $20,000 mini-contest, also had 63 points.
    Sundown was third with 66 points and his Juxtapose entry tied for eighth through 10th with 62 points. RGSI and Operation Mongoose also had 62 points.
    Finishing behind Takeoutthetrash in the mini-contest were David A. Miller, David Miller, Hawkeye, Operation Mongoose, Nick Smith, Backupthetruck and Dallas Mike 1.
    Harrah's charged a $1,000 entry fee and limited players to two apiece. The contest attracted 80 players.