Black Book, Workbooks packed with betting angles, systems

With pro and college football around the corner, the smartest, most disciplined bettors have begun serious searching for information about teams, patterns, angles. In effect they are arming themselves for a six-month war — their bankroll against that of bet-takers — and a few pieces of betting ammunition are already available.

Among the newly arrived books helpful to sharpshooting handicappers are Marc Lawrence's Black Book: A Guide to Picking College and Pro Football Winners (107 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $29.95); The NFL & NCAA Football Power System Workbook (65 pages, 8x11 paperbound, $24.95); Mike Hillin's Las Vegas Line-Maker Workbook (71 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $19.95), RME's NFL Workbook (72 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $16) and NCAA College Workbook (124 pages, 8x11 plastic spiralbound, $20).

Lawrence's Black Book is unique among angle books because it offers true believers 100 percent winning and losing plays for both college and pro teams, along with dozens of weekly plays. (For example, Purdue is 5-0 against the spread before Illinois and Cincinnati is 10-0 against the spread after meeting the Cleveland Browns.) The book offers angles in 18 different situations (off a win, off a loss vs. division or non-division teams home, away, as a favorite or dog and contains regular season schedules with weekly angles). In addition, compilers offer in-depth explanation and rationale for 10 more angles. Overall, an annual best-seller because of its simplicity of use and unique format this one is for those who hope to cut corners and get in on past history with a tendency to repeat.

The NFL & NCAA Football Power System Workbook has 50 pro and college systems — some with logic and rationale, like: "After a road loss that ensures a losing season and no bowl trip, big underdogs have simply given up." That angle is tracked back to 1983 by the compilers. The systems or angles are all 100 percent wins or losses, some of which go back to the 1980s and might fall into the category of "league-wide" or overall NCAA-wide. Each angle is documented with an explanation and a historical chart or "workout" showing all qualifying games.

Mike Hillin's Las Vegas Line-Maker Workbook teaches you how to create your own lines, looks at quarterback ratings, power ratings and offensive and defensive rankings. It contains schedules, room to keep records, and readies you for the upcoming season with team analysis and seasonal comparisons. The author intends the book to help handicappers save time analyzing a game.

The RME college and pro football workbooks are similar in format in that they have schedules, record-keeping capability, a dozen or more team trends against the spread, three years of spread histories and total histories. It's a simple, no-muss-no-fuss approach to tracking your team's performance and your betting prowess throughout the season.

Copyright Gambler's Book Shop. All books reviewed in this article are available from Gambler's Book Shop (Gambler's Book Club), located at 630 South 11th Street, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 and online at www.gamblersbook.com.