Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.
A howl exploded between the swank club Light queue and the luxurious Bellagio race and sports book very early three Sundays ago.
At a U-shaped bar between those two areas, a man momentarily interrupted everyone within earshot the second San Jose State tailback Tyson Thompson had zipped 85 yards for a touchdown with six minutes left in Honolulu.
That cut the Spartans' deficit to 46-28. Most important, it shot the total score of the game over its predicted 70 and gave the yeller, with a fine view of a television screen at that bar, a winning wager.
It was past 3:30 a.m. for anyone who was watching that game on the East Coast.
Welcome to the Hawaii home game, the most exotic, if not psychotic, game on the big board for the college football bettor.
It cuts both ways, too.
Not far from that euphoric holler, another man slunk deeper into a plush leather chair inside the Bellagio book. That touchdown by Thompson meant Hawaii, favored by 21 at kickoff, would need another TD to cover the spread.
The Warriors, though, bled away the game's final minutes. The man in the chair -- who, like his fellow gambler at the bar, declined to reveal his name or the amount he had bet -- walked away slouching, hands in pockets, cursing the ground.
The Hawaii home game, dubbed "The Bail-Out Special" and a typical "Get-Out Game" by the industry's professionals, had struck again.
Some insiders view it similar to Sunday night National Football League games or Monday Night Football, as a last shot to get even or a chance to double up, making a good day against the number a great one.
But no other team, college or professional, plays in that last game of the day as consistently as the Warriors. By then, 50 games will have taken place before the first kickoff at Aloha Stadium.
The Hawaii home game is also in a league of its own because of its tropical flavor, typically frenetic pace and Mai Tai-smooth announcers Jim Leahey and Doug Vaioleti, locals whose voices evoke luaus and Waikiki Beach sunsets.
Don Ho should be the sideline reporter.
"I've always loved the game itself," said veteran handicapper Dave Cokin. "There's such a relaxed atmosphere at that stadium. It's just a nice way to wind down what is usually an extremely long day, and it's such a low-key announcing crew.
"When I'm at the house late on Saturday nights at kickoff, if it's not a good game I'll fall asleep. But that generally does not happen with a Hawaii team that's usually very exciting."
It isn't farfetched to envision someone in Utica, N.Y., who has had a bad 12-hour stretch with his bookie, intensely watching a Hawaii home game unfold on his TV set as the wind chill plummets outside his window.
"There's certainly something to be said of the guy in upstate New York who is shivering and watching the Warriors on TV late at night," said professional gambler Ted Sevransky, "with the leis and all the cheerleaders and the festive atmosphere.
"But at the same time, many times there are better betting opportunities available than what you'll find in the late-night Hawaii home game."
The trip is no vacation
Playing Hawaii on its own turf comes with a unique set of challenges, which Air Force, Brigham Young, Army, Navy and Wisconsin have learned in recent years.
No doubt UNLV fans took keen interest when the Rebels flew to Honolulu at the end of the 2000 season. The Rebels won, 34-32, but the Warriors, as seven-point underdogs, covered the number.
Alabama fans might not favor the Crimson Tide returning to Oahu. At the end of the '02 and '03 seasons, Alabama respectively won a 21-16 game but failed to cover an 11-point spread and lost a 37-29 decision as a slim favorite.
"Alabama had no interest in being there," Sevransky said. "After (Hawaii's Western Athletic Conference) schedule is finished, it plays two or three games against these teams who are getting a vacation game. In some of those games, you can find some real good circumstances to back Hawaii."
Cokin said most of those late-season island visitors -- NCAA rules allow Hawaii and its home opponents a 12-game schedule, one more than usual -- don't properly prepare for the jaunt.
In its past five seasons, Hawaii finished with two, two, three, three and three home games, respectively, against nonleague opponents. It won eight of those 13 games, also going 8-5 against the spread.
Idaho visits Honolulu on Nov. 20, Northwestern on Nov. 27 and Michigan State on Dec. 4.
"That's such an extremely tough trip," Cokin said. "It's such a dramatic change -- in conditions and atmosphere, and just attitude -- for some of these teams from the Midwest. Everyone's having a good time.
"Holy cow, it's a huge disadvantage for those teams and an advantage for Hawaii, if (the Warriors) have anyone who can play, which I'm not sure if they do this year. Their history against nonconference games ... I'm not sure if that'll hold up this year. This team stinks."
Cokin said he had a minor play on Hawaii in its 2004 home opener against Florida Atlantic. The Warriors went into that one as 25 1/2-point favorites, after opening the week minus-21 1/2, but lost, 35-28.
"Never had a hope," he said. "Lost it straight up."
That started a frenetic season for the Warriors, who are one of the nation's most schizo teams on the field.
Only Hawaii, Baylor and Oregon have gotten at least 20 points as an underdog and given at least 20 points as a favorite in back-to-back weeks this season, but the Warriors' mood swings are the greatest.
Overnight those crates of Prozac to Oahu.
Baylor sustained a swing of 53 points, the combination of points lost by and points won by, in consecutive weeks this year. Oregon followed a 62-point swing with one of 53 points.
Hawaii, however, leads the country in mood swings. It had one swing of 53 points, followed it with a 49-pointer and entered Saturday's home game against Louisiana Tech off an 84-point swing.
The Warriors' relatively mundane 34-23 victory against the Bulldogs capped a 77-point swing from the previous week.
"Hawaii has been so fortunate at home this season," Leahey told viewers. "But the Warriors have been blitzed on the road. Road trips for this team this year have been debacles."
Those who put a buck or two on the outcome of Hawaii football games pick a seat on the college game's wildest roller-coaster.
"Hawaii is a completely different team when it plays at home," said handicapper Jay Ginsbach. "Their home-road dichotomy is well worth recognizing. I have not played many Hawaii games, but I think there are many who like to bet that late game."
Volatile numbers
Five weeks ago, Lou, a second-generation gambling aficionado in Encino, Calif., who has a partner named Ted, ended a successful day with a four-figure wager on Hawaii, which gave 18 1/2 points to Nevada in Honolulu.
The duo bet through a bookie in an efficient underground system that thrives in Southern California.
With the Warriors ahead, 24-13, at the half, Ted gave into his nerves and went to bed. Past midnight, Lou delayed the, ahem, advances of his wife, telling her he needed to watch the rest of the Hawaii game.
The Warriors won, 48-26.
An hour before Saturday's kickoff in Honolulu, where Hawaii was a four-point favorite -- with another 70 total -- against Louisiana Tech, someone suggested the Bulldogs to his friend at Renata's on Sunset.
"Why?" came the response. "I'm all over Hawaii, all over the over."
"Grab a calculator," Leahey said before the game, played in 94-percent humidity.
When Hawaii took a 34-23 lead early in the fourth quarter, at 11:07 p.m., Leahey said, "This game is far from over." Thirty-one minutes later, though, it ended with no additional scoring.
"If I were to give any information to a bettor, when Hawaii is at home and the line comes out Sunday night, blindly bet Hawaii," said veteran handicapper Brian Leonard. "You know, by the end of the week, that line will usually move three or four points the other way.
"If you don't like Hawaii, wait till the last minute (and bet its foe, to get the most points). Very few things in this industry are givens, but those are two of the givens."
Leonard said Hawaii games also present regular opportunities for the gutsy gambler to get a "middle," to get, say, Hawaii at home minus 18 early and its opponent plus 22 or 23 late, hoping the Warriors get a 20-point victory to win both wagers.
Area casinos had the Warriors favored between 6 1/2 and 4 points during the week.
Therein lies the danger for the sports book, and no book director has viewed the Hawaii game with more caution than longtime Stardust boss Bob Scucci.
He said the house liability on those games in Honolulu is always great because it's often the last play in six- and seven-team parlays, and plenty of parlays hit on either side of the Hawaii game.
A six-teamer at the Stardust pays 52-1, so a throwaway $20 bet can net more than $1,000. Double that for a seven-team parlay.
"We don't keep track of it team-by-team," Scucci said. "I just know, from my own experience with them, a lot of times we're in a situation where we lose on either side. That's why I can't see how we'd be ahead on Hawaii."
Trying to solve a puzzle
In general, the Warriors perplex Scucci.
"I don't think we, as odds makers, have gotten a real good hold on (them)," Scucci said. "There's so much of a disparity from how they play at home and how they play on the road ... you can't get a proper reading on them."
Scucci didn't four weeks ago when Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which sets opening lines, established Hawaii as a 3 1/2-point favorite at Texas-El Paso. Then he saw that an offshore book made the Miners a 4 1/2-point favorite. Scucci withdrew the game from the Stardust board.
"I asked him what the story was," Sevransky said, "and he said, 'We're never that far off. Something smells funny and we'll leave it alone.' And, of course, the offshore line was right."
UTEP won, 51-20.
According to Scucci, injuries on both sides of Hawaii's lines were the reason for his delay in posting a line.
He said he deliberated on many of Hawaii's games last season, too, because of coach June Jones's penchant for pulling quarterback Timmy Chang in the second quarter, then putting him back in in the second half.
"We didn't know whether Chang would play a whole game," Scucci said. "We never knew who the quarterback would be most of last year, so we'd hold it up until we knew a little more."
Scucci did not post a number on Hawaii's game against Louisiana Tech until Saturday.
"If Hawaii were playing in the middle of the day, with all the other games, it wouldn't draw near as much action," Scucci said. "Because of the fact that it stands out by itself, at 9 o'clock all the time, it becomes a much higher profile game."
Games that Sevransky stays away from, a rule that was reinforced two weeks ago when the Warriors got crushed, 69-3, at Boise State,
"Chang was completely ineffective," Sevransky said. "You don't know if that was a lack of focus on the road or what it was, but it's not a team, not a coach and not a quarterback that I trust one iota right now.
"I probably won't bet a Hawaii game until after Chang graduates in the fall."
Road woes, home cookin' or other trends be damned, Sevransky said. The danger, in trying to get even or double up, of a Hawaii home game rubs against money-management principles that must be heeded for survival.
"It's a very dangerous game," he said. "Many bettors think, 'Oh, I've lost today. I'd better double-or-nothing on the last game.' That's a strategy that's doomed to failure. That's ignorant and irresponsible."
Scucci agreed about betting on the last game of the day just because it's the last game of the day.
"If you have an opinion on the game, you'll have an opinion whether it's played at 10 o'clock in the morning or 9 at night," Scucci said. "If you don't have an opinion on it, you should stay away regardless if it's on national TV or the only game left."
Hawaii football in 2004 relative to the point spread
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