Younger players making mark on live-bankroll tournaments

The youth movement in livebankroll contests continues in full swing. A few weeks after 32-year-old Dennis Montoro won the $7,500 Del Mar Challenge, 26-year-old Tyler Hoffman finished third in a $500 contest at Del Mar, netting more than $12,000 in cash and prizes, including his $4,500 entry into the Del Mar Fall Challenge. Hoffman was a small child during the 20th century, but his story of how he came to racing has a decidedly old-school ring to it.

“The first book I ever read was the Daily Racing Form and my parents actually met at Santa Anita Park in 1981,” said Hoffman, who is still a Los Angeles resident and went to Santa Anita for the first time at 6 weeks old. “I went with my dad and grandfather to the track practically every weekend and used to love watching them mark up the Form. When I was real little I obviously didn’t know what they were looking for, but I would dutifully sit next to them in the paddock and highlight random words on the program so it felt like I was contributing.”

Hoffman’s father, Alan, is also a regular in the contest world. He had a top-10 cash finish in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge and ran second in the inaugural World Championship of Handicapping. He understood the importance of teaching his son about betting as well as handicapping.

“My dad introduced the concept of betting and value of odds by letting me bet quarters with him,” Tyler Hoffman said. “On an eight-race card, I would risk one quarter each race and if I won, the odds of my horse would dictate my ROI. It didn’t take long for me to figure out I couldn’t make any money betting 6-5 shots.”

The senior Hoffman and Tyler’s uncle Ed Spaunhurst have played in contests a long time, since the old days of the Reno Tournaments, such as the Cal-Neva. But Tyler Hoffman didn’t really become aware of contests until his dad and uncle started competing regularly at the National Horseplayers’ Championship.

“When I was about 16 or 17 years old my dad’s entry had snuck into the top 15 and had a bullet left for the nightcap at Santa Anita,” Hoffman recalled. “He bet P-Val on a Mike Mitchell horse down the hill at about 18-1, which we thought would be enough to win the tourney. The horse got the lead like we were hoping and he cut the corner crossing the dirt and opened up two lengths on the field. He got run down in the final 60 yards and finished third. I remember that feeling in my chest of the combination of excitement and nerves when P-Val opened up and think that’s when I realized just how much fun tournament play could be.”

Tyler couldn’t wait to get started in tournaments after that rush, and he had some success right away, at 18 years old.

“One of the first tournaments I played in was the Santa Anita online Showvivor tourney,” he said. “The goal was to pick one horse to show each day and the longest person to ‘showvive’ won.”

He outlasted approximately 3,000 people over 22 days and took home $3,000.

“If I wasn’t already hooked playing tournaments by then, that result pretty much cinched it,” he said.

He’s been playing in tournaments beside his dad and uncle since he turned 21 and was able to compete. Sometimes they’ll pool money and take one entry in a larger event, other times they’ll play separately and share profits. When they do the latter, they’ll still combine efforts on the handicapping side, but their betting decisions are made individually, well within the lines of even the strictest anti-collusion rules.

Hoffman credits his dad and uncle for how quickly he’s been able to get up to speed in livebank games.

“There have been so many lessons learned, but the biggest one is that you can’t be afraid to bet because otherwise you have no shot to compete in these tournaments,” he said. “On a normal day at the track, I am a significantly smaller bettor than 98 percent of livebankroll players. If I lose more than a $100 in a day, it was a rough day. Mentally to get over the hurdle of adding a “0” to whatever the tournament bet is going to be is still a work in progress, because it is just not my nature as a bettor.”

Aside from the mental hurdle of being able to bet above his usual comfort zone, he doesn’t see his youth as a disadvantage.

“I actually like being one of the youngest people at a tournament,” he said. “It’s fun to see people look at a leaderboard and try to figure out who I am. I believe I’m just as good as any of these other tournament players. It’s not that I’m arrogant, it’s just a mentality that I believe you have to compete and win these tournaments.”

Hoffman may be young, but he has more experience in tournaments than many older competitors. Between that and the guidance of his mentors, he’ll stand toe to toe with anybody.

“Tournament play is all about who had the better opinion on that given day in that given race,” he said. “I may be young in age, but I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ll take my opinion over my competitors’ opinion and live with the result.”