Well here it is, the culmination of the list of Nicky cop outs. After copping out meeting Vegas Dave, copping out on NHL All Star tickets, copping out on the Poster Of The Month Award and copping out on god this has to be a good one. And it is.

I swear to god, boys, this started out as such an exciting thing. Nicky and LTProfits agreed to a contest. In the blue corner we had Nicky who is the sharpest capper ever according to Sick Gambler and BeanTownJim. In the red corner we had LTP who had 10+ winning seasons...... across all sports. This was a fight between the handicapping heavyweights. This was what the forum needed. SBR Forum has a tough time over the winter due to the huge drop in traffic when pags11 stops posting - SBR management hoped and prayed that this contest would keep the forum surviving until the spring.

There was a lot of jostling for a few days as the two professionals pounded out the rules, but finally a consensus was reached. This was a $2000 challenge - this was big money at stake.

[QUOTE=LT Profits;1181871]1 - Contest runs through Sunday, May 31, 2009. Each player must make EXACTLY 500 plays. If they do not make 500 plays, they lose automatically. If both players make 500 plays before May 31, 2009, the contest is over.

2 - Available sports are NFL, CFB, NBA, CBB, NHL and MLB.

3 - All wagers will be for one unit, and are to WIN one unit with favorites and RISKING one unit with underdogs.

4 - Available wagers are ATS, Totals, and Money Lines (Dogs no more than +400, Favorites no more than -250). Only full game wagers are allowed, no halves or periods.

5 - Available Books are Pinnacle, 5 Dimes and BetJamaica only. Line and book should be posted with each selection, and tiimestamp will be used to verify lines at SBRLines.

6 - Players can post plays as often as they wish throught the day up until the SCHEDULED start times of the games. Players may NOT post after scheduled start times, even if the books leave the lines up because games have not actually started. Any past-posted play will be NO ACTION.

7 - Once plays are posted, they can NOT be removed.

8 - If you write a bad line for a game, the game will be graded based on the actual line at the book that you post at the time that you post for the TEAM that you post. If you accidenatally write the wrong team, you are stuck with that team.

9 - You may NOT edit a post that contains plays in it. If you edit a post, ALL PLAYS in the post will be graded as a LOSS.

10 - You can not play both sides of the same game.

11 - The winner will be the player with the most units.[/QUOTE]

The game was on.

However, things took a turn for the worse with Nicky's first pick.

[QUOTE=Nicky Santoro;1182351]edm +183 pinny[/QUOTE]

Where did he get that line?

[QUOTE=LT Profits;1182377]Nicky,

You get Edmonton +181.

11/10 07:01PM: +178 / -191
11/10 07:02PM: +181 / -196

Starting to cheat already are we?[/QUOTE]

Whoa, Nicky's first pick and sparks were already flying. But there was still respect between the two participants.

[QUOTE=Nicky Santoro;1182401]LT,fukk you if you're going to be a fukkin weasel like this all year..[/QUOTE]

And the excitment was certainly hotting up with the rest of the forum who were looking forward to a long running contest with no chance of a cop out whatsoever.

[QUOTE=rjt721;1182385]Wow. Day 1 and already controversy. Priceless.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Dougie Fresh;1182410]This is going to get good :D[/QUOTE]

But as the night progressed, it seemed like we were privvy to an all-star cop out.

[QUOTE=Nicky Santoro;1182480]if you keep doing this i am not going to waste my fukkin time.. i will bow out.. i swear.. i will.. i am not in the mood to go through this shit everyday.. not worth it for me.. i make a living in this and i am not going to aggravate myself like this.. i need no aggravation..[/QUOTE]

Some of the forums sharps just KNEW how it would turn out. How did they KNOW?

[QUOTE=tacomax;1182502]Interesting. Is this your attempt to pull out of the contest and save face at the same time?

If it is, it isn't going to work.[/QUOTE]

And, just 3 hours after LTP started the thread, Nicky had bowed out. The contest was going to cause him to lose $100,000 with all the time it takes. The guy's a pro - maybe he realised that wasting time over a $2,000 contest is not worth it when there is $100,000 to win.

[QUOTE=Nicky Santoro;1182509]this already is an aggravation for me.. i missed out on the fukkin caps at -153 because of this fukkin contest., and now it's 3-0 caps.. i am fukkin pissed. this contest is taking up all my time and this contest will cost me 100,000 bucks probably cause it's time consuming.. LT is being a prick and i dont want any part of thsi aggravation if he will be like this.. fukk it..

i am out of this shit.. not worth it for me.[/QUOTE]

And if all the crap over the difference between +181 and +183 wasn't enough, Nicky wanted to be credited for plays he made but didn't actually post. Unreal.

[QUOTE=Nicky Santoro;1183127]yeah, but i went 1-0 up 1.83 units and should have been up 2.83 units cause i swear to GOD i had WASH too, but this contest fukked me, but you dont see me asking people to look at me cause i won today, like you are doing now..[/QUOTE]

But anyway, we saw Nicky's point. There's no way he's going to waste his time on a $2,000 contest when there is REAL money to be made. And what was the REAL money to be made? What REAL money would he be missing out on by taking part in a 500 play contest with LTP? Would he be missing out on a seat at the WSOP? Would he be missing out on a head to head with Fishhead for the World NFL Handicapping Title? Or would he miss out on a SBR $100 contest where he would make [B]more[/B] than 500 picks. I bet you can't guess!

So yes, it was a shock to us all when SBR hired CrazyLou. Why was he hired? What could he bring to the company. Well, in December 2008 it all became clear. CrazyLou was hired for his ability to come up with well thought out contests which were swiftly graded so we wouldn't be waiting 3 months for the winner.

The first assignment was a team capping contest where CrazyLou thought it would be a good idea to use stale lines so anyone with half a brain would bet right at the last minute taking their pick of the lines and thus making the contest have nothing to do with handicapping ability. And that's what Nicky did, and he did it excellently.

[QUOTE=CrazyLou;1376724]A dominant performance. Great victory. :cheers:

Nicky Santoro: 55.42% | 281-226-10 +52.15u :bowdown:[/QUOTE]

After copping out out of a 500 pick contest with LTP worth $2,000 after making one pick, he decided to spend his time making [B]OVER[/B] 500 picks hitting 55% on stales lines for a $100 prize which was shared between 5 people. So actually a prize with an EV of $20. And this, ladies and gentlemen is the all-time Nicky cop out.

A special thanks to SBR for hosting this award, to the forum members for reading this shit and most of all to Nicky for providing us with so many cop outs that it made my task very easy.