Dave “Gambling Actuary” Nichols picked 4 winners and 1 runner up across the 12-race featured schedule on Sunday. One of his victors was a whopper—Go Jocelyn Go ($52.00, $26.80) in the 9th at Tampa Bay Downs. The final scoring total for Nichols was $101.20.

That total wasn’t the highest of the day. A small handful of players did better. But no one accomplished more with what they had, thanks to Nichols’s aggressive multi-tabling.

No sooner was Eric “Skeet” Boyd crowned 2024 HorseTourneys Tour champion then the 2025 edition of the HT Tour got underway. Again, it will be a year-long competition concluding on December 31st. Here’s how it works:

Potential tax liability at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers is a function of a player’s total NET WITHDRAWALS for a calendar year. Net withdrawals are defined as the total of a player’s WITHDRAWALS minus the total entry fees (i.e., purchases) played at HorseTourneys and HorsePlayers for the calendar year. Auto entries (entries won from feeder events) are counted according to their entry fee value.

If the total of NET WITHDRAWALS exceeds $600, the player will receive a 1099-MISC form in late January or early February following the year of qualification. 1099-MISC forms are the only tax forms issued (no W2Gs or otherwise).

The formula is simple:

NET WITHDRAWALS = Total Withdrawals minus Total Entry Fees (Purchases) for year

If the total of the NET WITHDRAWALS exceeds $600, a 1099-MISC form will be issued.

REPORTS: Please note that players may request updated activity reports of their activity at any time in the My Account section. These reports include total PURCHASES, DEPOSITS and WITHDRAWALS for the year selected.

To compute net withdrawals, players simply need to total the WITHDRAWALS and PURCHASES amounts from the spreadsheet, and apply the above calculation.

Questions may be directed toward support@horsetourneys.com.

Our first featured tourney of the week, Wednesday’s $5,000 Guaranteed cash game, reminds us of a powerful lesson perhaps espoused most effectively by noted philosopher Felix Unger.

Never assume.

We’ve often amused ourselves in recent years referring to Eric Boyd as Eric “B Connected” Boyd in a nod to the name of the Boyd Gaming players card utilized at The Orleans. However, we now feel compelled to officially change his HorseTourneys nickname to Eric “Skeet” Boyd.

Why? 

Because that is his actual nickname…and it has been such for a very long time.

If Evan Trommer made a New Year’s resolution to resume winning contests in bunches here at HorseTourneys, he is off to a very good start.

There’s an old saying in horse racing: Keep yourself in the best possible company and your horses in the worst. In a way, Scott Galica did that on Saturday.

Christmas came early to several featured-tourney players who wound up with full sacks last week. One of them was Curtis Meyer, who said, “Ho, ho, ho”—one “ho” for each of his Friday triumphs.

Ken Seeman and Steven Meier had similar weekends around here last week—similarly excellent, to be more precise.