Marc, you have outdone yourself this time with your implication on the Ragozin board that contest winner Michelson does not really use our data, and was not really using it for the contest.

For the record-- he bought around 20 or so sets on-line last year, which fits with his comments in your publication that he is "an occasional weekend player". He DEFINITELY had TG for the contest-- he downloaded for the first day, took hardcopy for the second.

As you know, we offered our customers free sheets in exchange for their talking us up if they did well-- THE ONLY THING ANY CONTEST COMPETITOR HAS EVER GOTTEN FROM US IS FREE TG DATA. Even a genius like you should be able to figure out that if they don't use the damn data the deal doesn't do them much good. All six of the TG customers who finished in the top 20 took us up on the deal and used TG for the contest. Overall, there were 28 contestants who had on-line accounts. Of those, two said they no longer use our data, and another just uses the RBR (he finished top 5, by the way, and I didn't count him in the 6). Another 3 do use the data, but turned down the deal for whatever reason (including Kent Meyer, last year's winner), a fourth said he turned it down because he switched to Ragozin, then took $60 worth of our data on-line for the first contest day. Go figure.

Anyway, if you were at the banquet, and I'm sure you were, you saw Michelson thank us from the podium, along with BRIS and DRF. So you have crossed the line, Marc-- again. And this time, as an advertiser in your paper and just as someone who doesn't like having crap thrown at him-- in this case by someone who uses DRF for credibility in his post-- I'm going to have a word with your employer.

A quick word on BRIS-- don't know if it's true, but my understanding is that to play in one of their on-line contests you had to open an account, even if you didn't use their data. If so, that explains how they were able to list so many contest players as account holders-- guys who play contests coincide neatly with guys who play contests. No idea whether Michelson or others use their data or not. Not the same here-- the only reason anyone ever opens an account is because they want our data.

Leaving for the day now, I'll have much more on the contest later. There are some really interesting ways to cut the numbers up so they tell quite a bit.



TGJB