Monday, April 6, 1998 | 8:38 a.m.
The NCAA Tournament is over. The NBA and NHL playoffs are weeks away.
Sounds like a good stretch for sports books to take it easy.
Not so fast. Now is the time when bookmakers can least afford to get caught napping.
"It's not the most fun time of the year," said Cesar Robaina, odds manager for Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which supplies numbers to around 90 percent of all legal sports books.
Most NBA and NHL teams already know if they will be competing in their respective postseasons. And many of those are locked into their bracket seedings. With that knowledge in hand, some coaches are resting their star players with little warning.
That puts sports books on alert.
"We look at it very seriously," Robaina said. "You don't want to get caught too short on information because, let's face it, there are more bettors out there than bookmakers, and they're liable to come across the information before we can."
Robaina conceded the situation is not as troublesome in the NHL as it is in the NBA. Because hockey, by nature, is a low-scoring sport, star skaters or goaltenders don't have as much impact on the final score.
A backup NHL goalie can come in and record a shutout, but is there a basketball player who can play as well as a resting Michael Jordan, Karl Malone or Reggie Miller?
"There's no way you can replace Jordan if he's out," Robaina said. "Or what about a 7-footer like David Robinson? There's just no way."
Sports book employees scour the Internet and check their sources for any last-minute lineup scratches. But bettors can do the same in an attempt to gain a major edge.
For protection, sports books will slash the maximum allowable wagers on games in which an impact player might sit out.
"What most books do is they'll circle games, meaning they'll take half the limits when there is a good chance a coach will rest a guy," Imperial Palace sports book director Jay Kornegay said.
Another trend bookmakers must be aware of is poor play from teams who have been eliminated from postseason contention.
"Some teams know they definitely are already out of it," Robaina said. "Like Vancouver, Toronto or Sacramento in the NBA, they might tend to play not quite as strong in terms of intensity, especially on defense. Those tend to be higher scoring games and can really affect the total.
"It's a difficult thing to handicap and make odds for."
Book marks
* MASTER BETTORS: Local sports books aren't exactly bracing for a rush, but the Super Bowl of golf is expected to generate some action this week. The Masters starts Thursday. "The Masters is the biggest golf tournament, by far," Imperial Palace sports book director Jay Kornegay said. "It's like night and day. The U.S. Open is a distant second." Defending champ Tiger Woods is the overwhelming favorite. Woods went up on the IP's board immediately after winning the green jacket last year. He opened 5-to-1, was bet down to even money and now is 3-to-1. Fuzzy Zoeller is an unnamed member of the field at 12-to-1. ... The over-under final winning score, according to the IP, is 276 1/2. ... Another interesting wager at the IP pits 12 select players against the rest of the field. The dandy dozen is minus-140 and the field is plus-110.
* TURNER PAGE: A look at the IP's Turner Cup odds sheet shows the Detroit Vipers are the favorites to win the International Hockey League title at 8-to-5. The Long Beach Ice Dogs and Chicago Wolves are next at 3-to-1. The Las Vegas Thunder, which opened at 15-to-1, now is 30-to-1.
DESK -- Please add to gaming notes after Masters and before IHL. Thanks.
* NIGHT MOVES: Workers at the Las Vegas Club worked through the night in an attempt to get the casino's new sports book ready for today's scheduled opening. The new book is located in the modern wing of the Las Vegas Club, with an immediate entrance on the corner of Ogden Avenue and Main Street. It will feature nine large-screen monitors and continue to utilize its manual boards for now.
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