Russ Culver (1950-2018)

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Nick always landed on his feet, no matter the situation.

From The Horseshoe to Mandalay Bay to The Stratosphere to the Golden Nugget and now at William Hill, Bogdanovich is a survivor.

I knew he was a great guy by the way he treated everyone as someone.

Whether a guy bet hundreds of thousands or less than a hundred, it did not matter to Nick, he always respected the player.

How people treat others who cannot help their cause is a great indication of a person's character.

Nick respects everyone.
 

Viejo Dinosaur

EOG Master
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Absolutely. Early to late 90s, Mirage & Binions, and Hilton, took on the biggest players & outfits..with much more tolerance than many of their competitors. Hell, Binions had legions of runners talking into earpieces, and storing heavy six figure sport chips inboxes there. Mirage unknowing had national outfits firing into phone accounts using local relay. Artie, Dee, Brant,etc,..moved dinero. Nick treated BW well, took the Chinaman's opening shots,etc.. Pittsburgh Jack & Mr Gaughan at Barbary were old school too in the 80s/90s..treated players with appreciation and class!

Those days are long gone....great post sir!
 

Horseshoe

EOG Senior Member
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

VD, I had the honor of making your quick acquaintance before running off to shop numbers, while at a relative of mine living in LVCC back in the day..no names. Think you were there to pick up a square-up.:lol
 

railbird

EOG Master
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Nick always landed on his feet, no matter the situation.

From The Horseshoe to Mandalay Bay to The Stratosphere to the Golden Nugget and now at William Hill, Bogdanovich is a survivor.

I knew he was a great guy by the way he treated everyone as someone.

Whether a guy bet hundreds of thousands or less than a hundred, it did not matter to Nick, he always respected the player.

How people treat others who cannot help their cause is a great indication of a person's character.

Nick respects everyone.

Bogdanovich was on vsin yesterday explaining how he didn't think the Barkley wager should have been a terminable event
 

FISHHEAD

EOG Master
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Russ, Jimmy V, Rob Terry, and Tom Smilanich made for a mighty foursome at the G.Nugget back in the glory days.

Putting those four on an NFL or MLB pregame TV show(along with JK) and one would have had the top pregame show on television for both sports.
 

Scatana Fas

EOG Addicted
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Nick always landed on his feet, no matter the situation.

From The Horseshoe to Mandalay Bay to The Stratosphere to the Golden Nugget and now at William Hill, Bogdanovich is a survivor.

I knew he was a great guy by the way he treated everyone as someone.

Whether a guy bet hundreds of thousands or less than a hundred, it did not matter to Nick, he always respected the player.

How people treat others who cannot help their cause is a great indication of a person's character.

Nick respects everyone.

You left out his gig as a strip club manager.
 

texaswizzard

EOG Dedicated
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Not rooting for anyone to die but isn't it weird that some of the better and most liked handicappers have passed away in the last couple years and some of the biggest scamdicappers & losers like Stu Feiner, Brandon Lang, It's Vegas Dave, Wayne Root & RJ Bell seem to have to have 9 lives?
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
Re: Russ Culver (1950-2018)

Not rooting for anyone to die but isn't it weird that some of the better and most liked handicappers have passed away in the last couple years and some of the biggest scamdicappers & losers like Stu Feiner, Brandon Lang, It's Vegas Dave, Wayne Root & RJ Bell seem to have to have 9 lives?

Life is a gift. Cherish every day.

Reality is that it takes a lot of focused effort to search out winners. Can't just coast and cash. That may have correlation to the quicker than expected demise.
 

WILLROBINSON

EOG Member
Russ was truly a great guy and a different kind of cat - if you met him away from the Strip - you would never have guessed that he was a Vegas Lines Guru. When talking with Russ, he would sometimes stop , after you asked him a question and you could actually see him thinking - sometimes for 10 or 15 seconds. I swear, he could read the AP and UPI tickers in his office all day! Russ, you were always nice to me - I Thank You and I Miss You!
 

Viejo Dinosaur

EOG Master
Russ was truly a great guy and a different kind of cat - if you met him away from the Strip - you would never have guessed that he was a Vegas Lines Guru. When talking with Russ, he would sometimes stop , after you asked him a question and you could actually see him thinking - sometimes for 10 or 15 seconds. I swear, he could read the AP and UPI tickers in his office all day! Russ, you were always nice to me - I Thank You and I Miss You!
Russ and Kieth Glantz made a hell of a team at Palace Station…both were gentlemen and treated their staff and customers with respect…
 

Heim

EOG Master
Russ was really good at baseball, if I remember correctly, Shrink paid him to post his baseball
stuff on here for a short period.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
The Mirage opened in the fall of 1989.

I think Culver worked at Palace Station in the mid-1980s.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Russ was really good at baseball, if I remember correctly, Shrink paid him to post his baseball
stuff on here for a short period.

That's right.

Baseball was Russ's specialty which made his success in the football contests all the more impressive.
 

Heim

EOG Master
Exciting times back then when Jimmy and Russ were handling everything at the Mirage.

The buzz was different then compared to Circa now. Celebrities everywhere walking around the book.

Jimmy was a rock star. The show 'The Simpson's' even showed up to shoot Jimmy for their Halloween special.
 
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ComptrBob

EOG Master
Russ Was A Past Stardust Invitational Contestant ?

Stardust Contestant 1998, 99, and 2000, went 5-9 (beat Norm Hitzges, lost to Peter Brown), 12-9 (beat Keith Glantz, Greg Daraban, lost to Dana Corbo), and 1-6 (lost to Cathy Creevy) for 18-24-0 overall.
 
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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
The sports section of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner spoke to us sports bettors and horseplayers.

The Los Angeles Times, not so much.
 

WILLROBINSON

EOG Member
Exciting times back then when Jimmy and Russ were handling everything at the Mirage.

The buzz was different then compared to Circa now. Celebrities everywhere walking around the book.

Jimmy was a rock star. The show 'The Simpson's' even showed up to shoot Jimmy for their Halloween special.
Jimmy was a rock star and sure could work a room! Between the Mirage Sportsbook and the Mirage Poker Room at one time - at least half of ALL OF THE MOVERS IN THE BETTING UNIVERSE were on hand or had representatives on standby waiting for Jimmy to feel frisky with a number. I once saw Jimmy move the number the opposite way 10 straight times before the World Series game 1 between Oakland and Cincy. Jimmy LOVED Oakland , Game 1 and the Series! Jimmy has big balls but I would not bring up that particular series to him! PS No disrespect to Henry at Pinnacle but I saw Jimmy use a penny line many times - yes , one penny !
 

boston massacre

EOG Master
Jimmy was a rock star and sure could work a room! Between the Mirage Sportsbook and the Mirage Poker Room at one time - at least half of ALL OF THE MOVERS IN THE BETTING UNIVERSE were on hand or had representatives on standby waiting for Jimmy to feel frisky with a number. I once saw Jimmy move the number the opposite way 10 straight times before the World Series game 1 between Oakland and Cincy. Jimmy LOVED Oakland , Game 1 and the Series! Jimmy has big balls but I would not bring up that particular series to him! PS No disrespect to Henry at Pinnacle but I saw Jimmy use a penny line many times - yes , one penny !


Why Doesn't Pinny Allow U.S. Based Accounts ?
 

Rockfish

EOG Addicted
Jimmy was a rock star and sure could work a room! Between the Mirage Sportsbook and the Mirage Poker Room at one time - at least half of ALL OF THE MOVERS IN THE BETTING UNIVERSE were on hand or had representatives on standby waiting for Jimmy to feel frisky with a number. I once saw Jimmy move the number the opposite way 10 straight times before the World Series game 1 between Oakland and Cincy. Jimmy LOVED Oakland , Game 1 and the Series! Jimmy has big balls but I would not bring up that particular series to him! PS No disrespect to Henry at Pinnacle but I saw Jimmy use a penny line many times - yes , one penny !
Wasn't Oakland a huge favorite in that series? Odd to have such a big opinion on such a large favorite. Doesn't take big balls when it is not your money.
Big difference with Jimmy at the Mirage having an opinion with his lines and someone else who owns a shop having an opinion.
Big time illegals in the States were using penny lines on baseball before the Mirage was even built.
 

WILLROBINSON

EOG Member
Wasn't Oakland a huge favorite in that series? Odd to have such a big opinion on such a large favorite. Doesn't take big balls when it is not your money.
Big difference with Jimmy at the Mirage having an opinion with his lines and someone else who owns a shop having an opinion.
Big time illegals in the States were using penny lines on baseball before the Mirage was even built.
I defer to you Rocky but I never saw a one cent line before or since.
 

WILLROBINSON

EOG Member
PS Let me clarify one thing I said, I said that ‘Jimmy Loved Oakland’ - I shouldn’t have said that. I should have said that it APPEARED as though Jimmy Loved Oakland - Hell, for all I know, Jimmy was just getting the game even! But he sure did it with ‘Style’!
 

Rockfish

EOG Addicted
I defer to you Rocky but I never saw a one cent line before or since.
Sorry Will i misunderstood what you said. i thought you were referring to moving the baseball line by pennies. You were talking about a one cent spread.
Your right i have never seen that. Closest to that was at a place like Matchbook or an exchange like that.
 

homie1975

EOG Addicted
Alan Malamud

Allan Malamud (Allen with two L's but just a minor point).

awesome column "notes on a scorecard" in the LA Times sports section.

we were lucky to have Allan and the legendary Jim Murray at the same time. The LA TImes sports section was incredible in those days.

Chris Dufresne another one, gone too soon.

hard to believe it's been 26 years since Mr. Malamud passed away.

when these types of legendary guys die, I often wonder what they would have thought or written about on all of the amazing sports games and stories that occurred after they were gone.
 

railbird

EOG Master
I learned how to read from Jim Murray, could not wait to get the sportspage from the driveway every morning,
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Allan Malamud (Allen with two L's but just a minor point).

awesome column "notes on a scorecard" in the LA Times sports section.

we were lucky to have Allan and the legendary Jim Murray at the same time. The LA TImes sports section was incredible in those days.

Chris Dufresne another one, gone too soon.

hard to believe it's been 26 years since Mr. Malamud passed away.

when these types of legendary guys die, I often wonder what they would have thought or written about on all of the amazing sports games and stories that occurred after they were gone.


Of course, Malamud could not write like Murray, but he had a good eye for sports in Los Angeles.

I saw Allan on several occasions in the Santa Anita press box chatting it up with guys like Jeff Siegel, Jack Karlik and my favorite, Bob Mieszerski.

On another note: Have you seen ESPN's Mechelle Voepel lately?

They are going by the name M.A. Voepel.

I believe "they" is M.A.'s preferred pronoun.

Welcome to this brave new world where men are now women and women are now men.

My preferred pronoun, you ask?

It remains, Your royal highness.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
I think I can hit an elbow jumper in the WNBA.

Would they would accept me as Joanne Kelly?

Minimum salary in the WNBA for a short five-month season is $60,471.
 
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