Jeff Haney listens in as some of Las Vegas’ best pro sports gamblers dole out a few tips for picking winners at the windows

Monday, March 5, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

The Fezzik's Place conference call was launched nearly a year ago as an informal weekly meeting place for a handful of sports bettors.

It picked up momentum last football season, when it began featuring a different guest speaker from the gambling world each week.

After listening to the Feb. 15 conference, however, I came away convinced the series of calls had reached a new level. Guest-hosted by Las Vegas poker pro Blair Rodman, the Thursday night call evolved into a free-form and wide-ranging discourse on all things gambling between Rodman and professional bettor Fezzik (one name only, please).

If you're a sports bettor or poker player serious about making money, you couldn't help but learn something from the discussion, which touched on topics ranging from Rodman's stint on a well-financed sports betting team years ago to the current state of poker in light of the government's crackdown on online gambling.

Previous versions of the conference call - named for Fezzik's eponymous Web site (fezziksplace.com), where the original participants exchanged sports betting tips - have featured guest speakers such as outspoken professional gambler Alan Boston, respected handicapper Dave Cokin and gambling law expert I. Nelson Rose.

The conference call draws about 50 to 70 participants each week, with a record high of 90-plus for Boston's appearance, according to Jon Spevack, the creator and coordinator of the call.

Spevack, who handles the call's logistics on a voluntary basis, wasn't sure what to expect in the earliest calls, given the sometimes abrasive tone of the written messages on the Fezzik's Place Web site message board.

"I was afraid it would be the audio equivalent of the old professional wrestling battle royal, with people smashing each other over the head with folding chairs," Spevack said in a phone interview from his home in Oakland, Calif.

Instead the conference calls, free except for the toll, have been refreshingly free of hype, bluster and other nonsense. There are no commercials and no set time limits, so the calls develop a natural rhythm - as opposed to the frenetic pace of a radio call-in show. Although many callers choose to just listen, anyone can comment or ask a question at any time.

The calls, which are scheduled to move from Thursdays to Wednesdays starting March 14, focus strictly on solid, often high-level, gambling information.

So it's a bit of an upset that Spevack, a 42-year-old sales professional, never bets on sports himself. He's a sports fan and talk-radio buff who got hooked on the old Stardust Line radio show from Las Vegas more than 20 years ago. He now listens daily to the Internet broadcast of the Leroy's Sports Hour betting show (KENO 1460-AM).

"I wanted to find a way to get involved," said Spevack, who hopes to recruit Leroy's Sports Hour host John Kelly to appear on an upcoming conference call. "I knew it wasn't going to be by posting picks (on Fezzik's Web site) or doing statistical analysis, but I wanted to contribute in some way."

Spevack wasn't surprised that Boston's appearance nearly maxed out the conference system's capacity of 96 callers on Dec. 21. A college basketball betting specialist, Boston has also been known to offer unique insights into the psychology of a professional gambler.

"I never get tired of listening to the guy," Spevack said.

Indeed, Boston was in rare form on the December call. Mired in a losing streak at the betting window, Boston opened by saying he hopes he's among the 90 million people who could die if an avian flu pandemic hits, that he feels "miserable" and that he's "over the hill." (For Boston, the glass is not half-empty. It's in a million little pieces because he threw it against the fireplace after Pitt lost in double overtime as a 3-point underdog.)

Boston then delved into his singular theory of sports handicapping, which is based on going beyond the obvious stats and trends in search of "something more subtle and profound."

If that's too philosophical, the weekly conference calls also offer plenty of nuts-and-bolts, against-the-spread sports betting picks.

On a recent call, for instance, Fezzik released his best bet in major league baseball regular-season victory totals for 2007.

Play the Baltimore Orioles "under" 73 wins, he said.

How's that for profound?