About Rob Holiday - Founder of Sports-Picker.com
Rob @ Cowboys Stadium
Hello and Welcome to Sports-Picker.com. My name is Rob Holiday, here is a little bit about my background and how I got started in gambling.
I got my start in gambling at age 15 when I first saw the move Rounders. I was instantly hooked on Poker.
I started reading every book I could find on Poker, I bought the Mike Caro Videos and bought all of the classics like Doyle Brunson’s super system.
I started a weekly poker night with friends which eventually developed into playing a lunch hour and on spare class time at high school.
We couldn’t play with cash on the lunchroom tables so it wasn’t long before I invested in some Vegas style Poker chips. Students would buy in from me in the morning and cash out at the end of the day.
We played $0.25-$0.50 NL with an average buy in of about $20 bucks.
I have always been very calculated and I kept meticulous records, for my last year of high school I won over $4,300. Not bad for a high school student.
At age 20 a friend of mine told me about the success he was having with online Poker. He told me about the money he was making on True Poker.com (no longer in business), so I signed up and made a $50 Deposit.
With my very first game I entered a $9 sit’n’go satellite that entered me into the weekly $5,000 guaranteed tournament if I won, and I did.
That Sunday night I sat in my parents study and played the main event for the week, I played my usual tight aggressive style and made a lot of moves at the bubble. I had a great showing and placed 2nd in the Main event and netted myself over $1672 in the process.
Not bad off a $9 investment.
The best part was that by coming in the top 3 in the weekly event, I got entered into a shootout for the top 3 players form 10 weekly Sunday night tournaments. The grand prize an all-expenses paid trip to the 2004 World Series including Entry to the main event and spending cash.
I played the shootout a couple months later on a Saturday night from my Student House in London Ontario. I actually had a few friends over pre-drinking for a night out while I played.
I got my start in gambling at age 15 when I first saw the move Rounders. I was instantly hooked on Poker.
I started reading every book I could find on Poker, I bought the Mike Caro Videos and bought all of the classics like Doyle Brunson’s super system.
I started a weekly poker night with friends which eventually developed into playing a lunch hour and on spare class time at high school.
We couldn’t play with cash on the lunchroom tables so it wasn’t long before I invested in some Vegas style Poker chips. Students would buy in from me in the morning and cash out at the end of the day.
We played $0.25-$0.50 NL with an average buy in of about $20 bucks.
I have always been very calculated and I kept meticulous records, for my last year of high school I won over $4,300. Not bad for a high school student.
At age 20 a friend of mine told me about the success he was having with online Poker. He told me about the money he was making on True Poker.com (no longer in business), so I signed up and made a $50 Deposit.
With my very first game I entered a $9 sit’n’go satellite that entered me into the weekly $5,000 guaranteed tournament if I won, and I did.
That Sunday night I sat in my parents study and played the main event for the week, I played my usual tight aggressive style and made a lot of moves at the bubble. I had a great showing and placed 2nd in the Main event and netted myself over $1672 in the process.
Not bad off a $9 investment.
The best part was that by coming in the top 3 in the weekly event, I got entered into a shootout for the top 3 players form 10 weekly Sunday night tournaments. The grand prize an all-expenses paid trip to the 2004 World Series including Entry to the main event and spending cash.
I played the shootout a couple months later on a Saturday night from my Student House in London Ontario. I actually had a few friends over pre-drinking for a night out while I played.
Rob at the 2004 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event
My strategy was to play super tight then get super
aggressive, and it worked. I had a very tight image, and by the time
everyone realized I was bluffing it was too late. I had over half of
the money with 10 players left and I just steam rolled every last one
of them and won the seat in the 2004 World Series.
Well the amazing run lasted a bit longer, I did well at the cash games in Vegas but only made it to the 3rd day of the World Series. I came in 598th out of about 2600 players that year.
I have continued playing poker ever since but in about 2007 I read an article on sports betting.
The article detailed how some ex-investment bankers were using stats models to win obscene amounts of money betting on sports.
I have always had a very mathematically inclined mind so I started reading up on the subject.
I can say that to date I have probably read about 50 books on Sports Betting. Some good, some terrible.
A few of my favorites are:
Conquering Risk
Mathletics
Sharp Sports Betting
Well the amazing run lasted a bit longer, I did well at the cash games in Vegas but only made it to the 3rd day of the World Series. I came in 598th out of about 2600 players that year.
I have continued playing poker ever since but in about 2007 I read an article on sports betting.
The article detailed how some ex-investment bankers were using stats models to win obscene amounts of money betting on sports.
I have always had a very mathematically inclined mind so I started reading up on the subject.
I can say that to date I have probably read about 50 books on Sports Betting. Some good, some terrible.
A few of my favorites are:
Conquering Risk
Mathletics
Sharp Sports Betting
After I had done my research I partnered up with a friend of mine who had been working for an investment bank for a few years then private equity.
We worked together to build excel models that analyzed the most predictive stats in various major league and College sports.
The outcome was that I was able to win consistently.
In 2011 I tore my knee apart playing soccer. It was a brutal injury, but the one plus was that while recovering I taught myself web design. I learned how to use simple programs like Weebly to design websites and emails services like Aweber to manage a subscribers list.
Given I was already doing the research, I decided to start the Sports-Picker.com blog to start sharing my picks in 2012.
As my website design and internet marketing skills improved I started the subscription based services that I now offer.
In 2013 I wrote my first program on Sports Investing Titled “The Sharp Sports Investing NHL System”
I am still working to improve the site every week and I have now hired a staff of 3 to help me with research, blogging, site updates and SEO.
Thanks for visiting the site today.
As always feel free to send any questions or comments my way, I always love hearing from fellow sports investors. infoATSports-picker.com
Rob Holiday
We worked together to build excel models that analyzed the most predictive stats in various major league and College sports.
The outcome was that I was able to win consistently.
In 2011 I tore my knee apart playing soccer. It was a brutal injury, but the one plus was that while recovering I taught myself web design. I learned how to use simple programs like Weebly to design websites and emails services like Aweber to manage a subscribers list.
Given I was already doing the research, I decided to start the Sports-Picker.com blog to start sharing my picks in 2012.
As my website design and internet marketing skills improved I started the subscription based services that I now offer.
In 2013 I wrote my first program on Sports Investing Titled “The Sharp Sports Investing NHL System”
I am still working to improve the site every week and I have now hired a staff of 3 to help me with research, blogging, site updates and SEO.
Thanks for visiting the site today.
As always feel free to send any questions or comments my way, I always love hearing from fellow sports investors. infoATSports-picker.com
Rob Holiday
