by Jimmy Vaccaro (Twitter @JimmyVaccaro)

December 1, 2009

Booking in all the ways that it is explained and talked about is sometimes lost in translation. There are many ways to cut this turkey, but it comes down to the players laying 11-10, getting a seat, and coming back in three hours to cash or get a new ticket.

Just keep things moving to the best of your ability, and in most cases it should work out.

But when you have a couple of games that are going to be on the top of the interest chart for the weekend with questionable quarterbacks, it throws you out of a rhythm.

You know we are talking about the Titans and Steelers games. The initiated understand why a game is off the board, but the momentum you start building from Friday afternoon just leaves your clerks acting more like an answering service as opposed to writing tickets.

As we did, surely most of the other books removed at least the Steelers game from the parlay cards, but that only leads to more aggravation as people usually fill their cards out before approaching the window.

And being the late game it attracts about 50% of card players, who plan to enjoy the game if they are live, or watch it when they get back home sometime in the afternoon.

Then the adjusting of the board prices becomes a little intriguing as you want to put up the adjusted number in order to keep the game live.

The Matt Leinart number was easy only because you had a guy who has not lived up to his USC heritage, with the line sliding from a +1 to at least a +3, with a flicker to 3½ and usually bought back, even though it did pop a few 4’s.

Obviously, that number was no good for the takers but that is how it sometimes turns out.

The Steelers game was more of an art form, being you have a guy making his first start in a very hostile environment and you knew this would be a drastic line change.

We opened the adjusted price with the Ravens -7 and it was bet to -8 within a few hours, but we closed the game where we started at Ravens -7.

Actually, we juiced the game out from that spot. Remember, it is just an opinion and you also have yours, which in most cases is as sound as ours, when we run into these spots.

But here might lay the difference to see where you stack up, whether you should look for a new calling when putting your hard-earned money up.

Come Sunday morning, when it was announced there would be no Kurt Warner, if you lost money on that game you should turn in your betting credentials.

There was still some -2’s and 2½ money, and as talked about earlier 3½ and a few 4’s were there for the plucking.

Maybe even a cheap money line on the Titans could have been bet.

So the worst you should have done was push or win the game.

Remember that the aggravation with these types of games should only come from the inside of the counter, and not from your side.

So use our misery next time to win a bet.

Oh, by the way, it looks like we can add a few more quarterbacks on the questionable list this week, and it is only Monday morning.

Take care,
Jimmy V.