Chicago player

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
I just saw he was 58. Very sad. Played him many times and once we got a chance to talk a few times he loosened up and was quite fun to talk with. Old school for sure in how he played and how he interacted with people during competition. Met him around 1990. He still played good at that time for sure.

Tom was an integral part of John Abruzzo's killer teams that kept winning the BCA championship year after year. Some of the regulars were Abruzzo, Spencer, George Pawelski, Billy Incardona, Mike Bandy and occasionally Jeff Carter or Rich Slupik. I'd put Bandy, Cardone and Pawelski as the top three on that team, so you can see how strong they were.

I really liked Tom and we got along fine. He could be moody and introverted and he didn't make friends easily. He'd been through the road man grind for a few years and that can wear you down. I saw him in L.A. San Jose, Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Dayton and Chicago of course. We also played one other time in Redwood City, CA in a tournament. We both had won two matches and were in the money. He asked me to make a deal for 10% which I happily accepted. He beat me something like 11-5 and went on the win the tournament for $1,000. I treated him to dinner afterwards. Just another friend I met through pool and miss when we talk about him.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Too funny, watching the nobody try and go after a somebody. Artie's life could be a movie. And others, more of a cartoon ;) lol Nits do what nits do. They hate it they could never play as good, that they never got recognition, and the only thing they have left is to attack others. I guess it's more amusing and most folks see what it is, kind of pathetic. Artie is laughing all the way to the bank. He was good enough to outsmart Vegas, and others still can't figure out how to get out of St. Louis ;)

Artie beat the Vegas books out of millions. So much that they got the Feds after him. Artie got a raw deal, just like Ivey is getting now from the Borgota.
 

mr3cushion

Regestered User
Silver Member
Artie beat the Vegas books out of millions. So much that they got the Feds after him. Artie got a raw deal, just like Ivey is getting now from the Borgota.

I wish there were still some, 'Old school' studio owners/producers in Hollywood that would take a look at Artie's life/Vegas! What a movie it would make! With the right director, Martin S. it could rival, 'Casino'!

You're right Jay! The Fed's gave Artie a good old fashioned, 'horsef***ing!'
 

Low500

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member

I wish there were still some, 'Old school' studio owners/producers in Hollywood that would take a look at Artie's life/Vegas! What a movie it would make! With the right director, Martin S. it could rival, 'Casino'!
You're right Jay! The Fed's gave Artie a good old fashioned, 'horsef***ing!'
No the Feds did not.
That is pool room detective bull.
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Artie beat the Vegas books out of millions. So much that they got the Feds after him. Artie got a raw deal, just like Ivey is getting now from the Borgota.



I wish there were still some, 'Old school' studio owners/producers in Hollywood that would take a look at Artie's life/Vegas! What a movie it would make! With the right director, Martin S. it could rival, 'Casino'!

You're right Jay! The Fed's gave Artie a good old fashioned, 'horsef***ing!'

I admit it....I don’t know nuttin’.......bring on the movie...
...which the pool world could use.

pt...wishes he’d seen Artie play...probably knows 100 people that knew him
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
I admit it....I don’t know nuttin’.......bring on the movie...
...which the pool world could use.

pt...wishes he’d seen Artie play...probably knows 100 people that knew him

So here's the scoop, which can be told today. Artie, who had no formal education to speak of, figured out that the Books were making incorrect/bad lines on many of their proposition (prop) bets and he could take advantage of that. He had confederates in various sports books comparing notes with him and he might make bets both ways to "middle" the line. This way he could also bet more, using the limits that each book placed on individual bets. Let's say the betting limit was 3,000 and he had eight guys helping him. They could now bet a total of 24,000 on that single action. Artie was the guy who wised up the books and all those high line handicappers to the error of their ways. He did them a favor in the long run, and to repay him they found a way to clean him out. He got taxed and penalized MILLIONS! Why, because he outsmarted the casinos.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So here's the scoop, which can be told today. Artie, who had no formal education to speak of, figured out that the Books were making incorrect/bad lines on many of their proposition (prop) bets and he could take advantage of that. He had confederates in various sports books comparing notes with him and he might make bets both ways to "middle" the line. This way he could also bet more, using the limits that each book placed on individual bets. Let's say the betting limit was 3,000 and he had eight guys helping him. They could now bet a total of 24,000 on that single action. Artie was the guy who wised up the books and all those high line handicappers to the error of their ways. He did them a favor in the long run, and to repay him they found a way to clean him out. He got taxed and penalized MILLIONS! Why, because he outsmarted the casinos.


Yep — he became somewhat infamous as Artie the “Middler.”

Lou Figueroa
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
Sounds like a parley

Yep — he became somewhat infamous as Artie the “Middler.”

Lou Figueroa


It sounds like by betting with different books with different odds he was able to set up parleys. Happens in the horse world with a single betting parlor once in a blue moon, by betting right it is impossible to lose. Huge amounts would be bet both ways and in less tolerant days the person setting the odds might go to swim with the fishees.

Hu
 

Rico

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Great post Jay,I haven't heard mention of Rocketman or Mike Bandy (a great 40+hr a week working family man)who could play.Tom got me to come to Marie,s and set me up with Wendall Wier.Another character . I started this thread just wondering about Artie never suggesting he was the G.o.a.t .But i know he knew how to get the cash.Thanks to all who actually did know and see Artie play and made this thread fun If Artie gave you 8-7 you needed 9-6. If he was getting weight it was a trap or bait.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It sounds like by betting with different books with different odds he was able to set up parleys. Happens in the horse world with a single betting parlor once in a blue moon, by betting right it is impossible to lose. Huge amounts would be bet both ways and in less tolerant days the person setting the odds might go to swim with the fishees.

Hu


He was a master at it and made huge dough.

I believe he did jail time for it (wrong or right) but I could be wrong.

Lou Figueroa
 

Low500

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You don't get let out much, do you.
So sorry, Julius, you're wrong again.
Your pool room 'heroes' didn't have enough brains to come up with how to middle a bet.
People been putting football bets in the middle since the 40's when the games came in on the Western Union wires.
Man, you are ignorant about those things. You shoulda' went ahead and became a doctor instead of loafing in pool rooms.
Have a nice day.
 

benjaminwah

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
He’s selling his diamond table on Facebook
 

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1pocket

Steve Booth
Gold Member
Silver Member
So here's the scoop, which can be told today. Artie, who had no formal education to speak of, figured out that the Books were making incorrect/bad lines on many of their proposition (prop) bets and he could take advantage of that. He had confederates in various sports books comparing notes with him and he might make bets both ways to "middle" the line. This way he could also bet more, using the limits that each book placed on individual bets. Let's say the betting limit was 3,000 and he had eight guys helping him. They could now bet a total of 24,000 on that single action. Artie was the guy who wised up the books and all those high line handicappers to the error of their ways. He did them a favor in the long run, and to repay him they found a way to clean him out. He got taxed and penalized MILLIONS! Why, because he outsmarted the casinos.

Dead on -- if you google it comes up. Scroll down into this article for example:

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2001/oct/31/lv-man-pleads-guilty-in-fbi-case/
 

jimmyg

Mook! What's a Mook?
Silver Member
So here's the scoop, which can be told today. Artie, who had no formal education to speak of, figured out that the Books were making incorrect/bad lines on many of their proposition (prop) bets and he could take advantage of that. He had confederates in various sports books comparing notes with him and he might make bets both ways to "middle" the line. This way he could also bet more, using the limits that each book placed on individual bets. Let's say the betting limit was 3,000 and he had eight guys helping him. They could now bet a total of 24,000 on that single action. Artie was the guy who wised up the books and all those high line handicappers to the error of their ways. He did them a favor in the long run, and to repay him they found a way to clean him out. He got taxed and penalized MILLIONS! Why, because he outsmarted the casinos.

Ex brother-in-law, gambling degenerate, used to do basically the same thing back in the 70s, maybe still doing it. He had a few friends in different cities and, let's just say NY was playing LA and the spreads or lines were in favor of the home team, he'd bet the NY side in LA and the LA side in NY, he's hope to hit the middle...called it a "mouse". Worked occasionally, but mostly he paid the "vig".
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
separate bookies down here

Ex brother-in-law, gambling degenerate, used to do basically the same thing back in the 70s, maybe still doing it. He had a few friends in different cities and, let's just say NY was playing LA and the spreads or lines were in favor of the home team, he'd bet the NY side in LA and the LA side in NY, he's hope to hit the middle...called it a "mouse". Worked occasionally, but mostly he paid the "vig".



Down here sometimes private bookies are setting their own odds with inside information to make a parley possible. A lot of catches to that, starting with private bookies being illegal. Most cap the odds they will pay also, ten or twenty to one last I knew. Seemed to be a sideline of barbers down here, or maybe more accurately the barber shop became the sideline! The dummy at the end of my street took thousands in bets while a police officer was sitting in the barber chair! One bookie ran a used car lot too. Like anyone making a lot of illegal cash the hard part was laundering the money.

Sounds like they probably got Artie on taxes, very possibly on money he didn't make! I remember a man hitting the slots for milllions over three days, he ended up with a whole line of people feeding slot machines for him. Originally uncle sam came after him for all of the payouts that had been recorded, ignoring the fact that almost all of it had been put back in the machines. He still won a few hundred thousand in the sixties or seventies, a nice score for a desert rat but nothing like the original claims that just noted his winnings without his losses. Something like this happened now and then and of course Vegas made major hay out of all of the customer big wins without detailing their losses.

Hu
 
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