Jeff Haney finds good plays on the Masters, the title fight and the American League East

Friday, April 7, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

The Masters got underway Thursday at Augusta National, but it's not too late to place your bets.

The Las Vegas Hilton sports book is offering adjusted daily odds on the Masters, both to win the tournament outright and on a selection of head-to-head player matchups for each round.

"After each round is complete, we take the same pool of 49 players plus a field (all others) that we started with, and update their odds based on their performance as well as how much money we have taken on them so far," said Jeff Sherman, an assistant manager of the Hilton sports book and a specialist in golf oddsmaking.

Single-round head-to-head matchups are challenging for bookmakers and bettors alike, Sherman said, because they are subject to bigger fluctuations in the players' performances.

In other words, anybody can get lucky for a single day.

"Four days of play smooths it out better," Sherman said.

Perennial favorite Tiger Woods went off as a 3-1 shot, though he did not attract significant betting action until Sherman briefly raised the price on him to plus-325 Wednesday morning.

"That was finally a number where we saw some support for Tiger," Sherman said.

In his matchup against Phil Mickelson, Woods was bet up from minus-140 (risk $1.40 to win $1) to minus-165 in heavy action at the Hilton.

Woods settled for par Thursday, five shots behind leader Vijay Singh, an 11-1 shot to win.

A survey of betting lines on Saturday's welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Zab Judah showed Mayweather favored by anywhere from minus-430 (Caesars Palace and related properties) to minus-550 (Coast Casinos properties).

The price on Judah ranged from plus-300 to plus-425.

The earliest line I saw, at Wynn Las Vegas, had Mayweather minus-400 shortly after the fight was announced.

From a betting perspective, the matchup has some similarities to Mayweather's last big fight, against Arturo Gatti last June. Mayweather opened at minus-360 against Gatti and was bet up to nearly 5-1 - yet the price remained reasonable thanks to the support Gatti, a fan favorite in New Jersey, generated from East Coast gamblers. Mayweather stopped Gatti in six rounds.

I believe Mayweather, with his superior skills and "ring smarts," is the right side again and that anyone considering a bet on Judah, with his questionable chin, would be better off investing in a uranium field in Asbury Park. "Pretty Boy" by eighth-round technical knockout.

Baseball handicapper John Meister has recommended a play on the Toronto Blue Jays to pull a mild upset and win the American League East.

In his analysis, Meister immediately crossed off the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as if they were hopeless nags listed in the Daily Racing Form. That left the Jays and the two division favorites, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

The Jays had a better offseason than their rivals, adding right-hander A.J. Burnett, slugger Troy Glaus and closer B.J. Ryan, Meister pointed out.

Meister said he made his play against an early line of 9-1 on the Jays, but current odds in Las Vegas reflect Meister's opinion that Toronto has some value. The Blue Jays are now 6-1 at the Palms to win the division. Also at the Palms, the Yankees are heavy favorites at minus-280, the Red Sox are 5-2, the Orioles 18-1 and the Devil Rays 50-1.

Pinnacle, a leading offshore sports book, received a nice - and unsolicited - mention on this past Sunday's episode of "The Sopranos" on HBO.

A character named Da Lux, a rapper, tells Tony Soprano he bet on a boxing match at Pinnacle, getting odds of plus-350. Tony replies that if he had bet with "Paulie Walnuts," one of the Soprano henchmen, he could have received odds of plus-375.

Kyle Fratini, a spokesman for Pinnacle (online at pinnacle-sports.com), said company officials were pleasantly surprised by the plug and did not pay for it or arrange for it in any way.

"However, we doubt that Paulie Walnuts would have given better odds on the fight than Pinnacle," Fratini quipped.