After some tough losses in Vegas, I’ve come to learn that objectivity is central to picking winners, but I’ve also learned that subjectivity (or gut) plays a strangely vital role as well. If I had a $100 for every time I’ve heard or said – “I knew it. I knew it!” – I would be very rich. So sports wagering is like anything in life: you can get lucky a few times but it is those who consistently do their homework that win in the long-run. The fundamental difference between just guessing and becoming a student of the game is that the student learns to see the subtleties and to interpret the miniscule and to find an edge where others see nothing but open sky. It is knowing the players, the coaches, the ownership, the trends, the obstacles, the weather, the zeitgeist, the time, the alignment of the stars, and a multitude of other factors that are accumulated, synthesized, weighed, and finally deduced into a selection that is either a winner or a loser. Simple and pure. You either got it right or you got it wrong, or worse: you pushed. And here in the United States, no one likes to be a loser at anything – ever.