Been betting 20+ years. I actually picked 0-13 one sunday in the NFL. It was somewhere around 1992. Luckily, I was broke from the week before(IMAGINE THAT)!! At least I figured out early, that the NFL was brutal to the weekend gambler.
It also made me aware that the more I liked a game, the more likely it was to be a loser. This philosophy actually works ( in PRO sports) if you really watch the league closely and don't second guess. It's not 100%, by any means, but you should win more than you lose.
Try to only play wks 5-12 in the NFL. Vegas will use perception against the public during this time. I haven't seen this to be as effective in college, so as a general rule...go against what looks too good to be true in NFL and with it in college. I actually just play the NFL occasionally now.
Enough on that tangent....sorry! The best run I've ever witnessed was by my best friend in college. It was all NBA. He had 2 yrs worth of tracking and played either favs or dogs...every game, every nite! The only exception was that we would occasionally play one fav on a dog nite, or vice versa.
I do remember that I was the one that found a bookie, therefore I met him each wk. We collected for 6 wks in a row. 1000+ twice, 2000+ 3 times, and 4200 the last wk before he cut us off. We started at 25 each(50 bet) and ended with 100 each(200 bet).
I remember walking in and people at the bar whispering and pointing. Here's that 19yr old kid, he gets picks outta Vegas, they said! It was the luckiest run I've ever seen or been a part of. Had to be up about 120 games in 6 weeks...
I remember we got a new book and started big-dogging $500 plays and lost 6 grand in 2 weeks. Then we were broke again!!! We had already blown the rest...