Featuring Vegas Legend Packer Dave

Well my name is Dave and I am originally from Milwaukee, WI and lived and graduated high school in Wichita, KS, I actually traveled quite a bit as a child but those are the 2 places I really lived the most and say I’m from.

I moved to Las Vegas in 2008 to become a poker dealer and have worked for most of the casino chains out here and at one time held dealing jobs for 5 casino chains at one time, but 3 were tournament dealing jobs and just dealing tournaments on occasion. I still work for The Sands Corporation (Venetian), MGM Resorts (Excalibur), and Caesar’s Entertainment (Tournament dealer).

I am a Dual Rate Poker Supervisor at the Venetian 3 days a week and my time there is split up between dealing poker and being a Floor Supervisor in the poker room, I also deal poker on Monday and Tuesday nights at the Excalibur poker room and deal tournaments for various Caesars properties, including the Caesars Classic and the WSOP.  I have dealt the WSOP for the last 4 years and been on TV several times, this year I dealt the final table and winning hands in the Millionaire maker and 6 handed shootout tournaments, both can be found on ESPN.com under other sports tab and in poker. I don’t appear until after 7 hours into the final tables as I worked the night shift.

I really do enjoy my job in poker and don’t look to retire anytime soon, maybe give up a job or two but really enjoy working at the Venetian. I have been betting sports with friends most of my life and since I came to Vegas found out I did not know really what I was doing. I am still learning and do not consider myself an expert or a high roller, I have had my ups and downs and blew my bankrolls more than once. Actually I quit sports betting the end of January as I blew my bankroll in 2 months and my wife asked me to stop. I went on a bad streak in basketball following someone bets and not using good money management.

I started betting again in August of this year after finding an ad on Facebook for Zcode and did some research on it and signed up. I have never really bet baseball so it was a learning experience and had my ups and downs like all the new members I started out with $1000 and ended up adding more to it up to reach a maximum of $4500 of my own money before I started to hold my own. I am happy to say I have pulled out the $4500 and am playing on the casinos money now.

Well growing up in Wisconsin I was born a Packers fan and when I lived in Kansas my friends used to laugh at me and introduce me as Dave and he is a Packers fan hence the moniker Packer Dave and it has stuck with me. I just really have a passion for football and hockey growing up in the north, never really got into basketball and played a little baseball and some semi pro football. I lost interest in baseball after the baseball strike and Robin Yount retired around the same time so I mainly focused on football and hockey.3. What parameters do you value the most when analyzing the game?

I watch the numbers, when I analyze hockey I look for hot goalies and hot scoring teams, I also look for win and loss streaks and home and away. If I see a big differential I jump on that team, and pretty much the same for football yards gained, yards given, records against the spread, win and loss streaks. I spend a lot of time on the computer and go to covers.com look at the print sheets and also go to Vegasinsider and check out where the money is going.  Also learning more about Zcode as it is helping me handicap better.

Still learning line reversals and line moves and hope to have these figured out here soon so stats data is my forte, I used to watch Packers games in the early 90’s in a sports bar in Wichita with other Packer fans and got the nickname of Statman as I could spout out stats on any player or trivia question given.  I would be talking and giving out stats on a player before the announcers on TV would and they would say almost the same thing I had said after the fact. I once had a dream of becoming a color analysis for either TV or radio.

To be honest I work with a professional sports capper here in Vegas and we came up with this goal.  Most of my big plays are picks from him, as I stated before I just started betting again in August and signed up with Zcode at the same time. August was a shaky month and I teamed up with my guy at the start of football or the beginning of September so in little over 2 months I took $4500 and made it into almost $22,000 with $17,000 coming in the last 4 weeks. We started out small and started building it up and increasing bet sizes, now I don’t recommend doing everything the way I did but my average bets are $500 to $1000 on football and $100 on hockey and baseball I use his suggestions and some of my own also and I am a little more aggressive than most people. I don’t win every day and some weeks are better than others but I usually have one real good day a week and at least hit my goal of $2000 a week.

I have mobile apps for my phone and computer for 2 casinos in town (Palms and Southpoint)(closest to my home)and keep $5000 in each and just started a 5 Dimes account and have $500 in that so I can start cashing in on some of Harout’s and other parlays as they are becoming more popular. I just started the mobile apps in August and like them, but I will go to a casino if the lines aren’t there and I have the time to place the pick, I usually check out Vegasinsider to see the lines and odds in the different casinos and they even list the different online books. But working in the casinos, I cant bet in certain places because of employment so the apps work good for me where I can make bets on breaks if I get a tip or something.

60 minutes did an interview with Billy Walters and you can google it as its online, (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7253011n) fascinating story on how he became who he is. He basically sits at home on his computer and he can make bets or send his runners out to make bets and make lines move in his favor and jump on the other side, he analyzes the games and if he sees a discrepancy in the line he will jump on it or manipulate it to his favor, I remember he put a bet on $200k Indianapolis ML to win the superbowl when the Saints won. It is not uncommon of him to place up to $1,000,000 on bets in a given week.

I also know a retired bookmaker and he had a TV show on the USA Network and now all he does is sports bet and plays poker. I have meet all kinds of people famous and not dealing poker and heard all kinds of stories. That’s the best part of my job. Yes sometimes you get that occasional jerk but most of the time its not that bad.

I think the online books work separate from the casinos sometimes the lines are way off between the two. Sometimes you just have to shop and find the right price.

I think the LVH is the best book in town as you can make the most bets there and their lines come out first most of the time. Some casinos have run lines and puck lines, and some don’t, I use Palms and Southpoint because they have the adjusted lines but it is limited to +1.5 and -1.5 and buying points is just the hook, unless you do multiple teams in a teaser.

The casinos don’t do the things online books do because they don’t have to. You have immediate access to your money and no fees and etc. to put money in or get money out, online books have to attract people to invest money into their accounts, Do you really believe your money is just sitting there? No they are using your money in other ways to make more money for them that’s why you don’t have quick access to it. Casinos when they are busy want you in and out of that window quickly as right before game time they want to take as many bets as they can and if you have all those options it just takes more time and denies more people from making bets. Most people that bet in Vegas are casual betters that place a bet on their favorite team when they are in town and that’s how they rake in the money, there are people out here making a living off of betting and living good and they may mix it up with online and local books.

10. So what’s the best steakhouse and show in Vegas right now?

Vegas has it all, there are so many famous chef with restaurants out here it is just a personal choice. Now the last 20 years Brand at the Circus Circus has been named #1 steakhouse in Vegas but every casino has a steakhouse and it depends on how much you want to spend. I ate at Bills Steakhouse one night and it was $45 for just a steak and sides were extra, so just be careful there are cheaper places with good food all around.

And for shows, I have seen quite a lot of them and it depends on your likes, some like this one and others don’t. But if you gave some ideas of your taste I could recommend something you would enjoy.