From the DRF....

Sheets man rules Coast contest

While Angela Daniels used the Ragozin sheets to help win the $30,000 second-place prize at the DRF/NTRA National Handicapping Championship, sheets expert Len Friedman did even better.

Friedman, the top analyst for Ragozin, won the Coast 2 Coast Super Tournament that was conducted last Thursday through Saturday at the Suncoast and the Barbary Coast.

His score of 9,082 was 25 percent higher than second-place finisher Bernardo Wiesner at 7,210. The 424 players in the tournament made nine mythical $100 win bets each of the three days. First place earned Friedman $93,100, but that was only part of the story. Friedman had two entries and had identical scores with both on each of the first two days, sitting in 12th and 13th place after Day 1 and in third and fourth after Day 2. On Saturday, he diverged on some of his plays and his second entry finished fourth to earn an additional $10,640. Another $500 award for having the fourth-highest score on the final day brought his overall earnings to $104,240.

Friedman used a similar strategy in the inaugural Suncoast Invitational in March 2001, when he had the top two scores on the first day to claim $7,000 in daily prizes, then wound up finishing second (with earning $52,190) and third (for an additional $27,630).

Wiesner won $46,550 for finishing second, and Doris Smith $22,610 for third. Mike Mayo was fifth, earning $7,980.

The next Coast Casinos tournament is the Championship at The Orleans, April 3-5.