They share a reputation as smart gamblers, leaders willing to take big risks, and they do the research and analysis necessary to turn those risks into basketball gold.
We would all be better off if they were productively employed in the "real" economy — or pursued wealth in Las Vegas, where the risks the smartest gamblers pose to the house are carefully controlled.
But this production, directed by Scott Alan Evans, gets its tale told efficiently, with some nicely turned performances, especially by Mr. Salata as Patsy, the smartest of the gamblers, and Ron McClary, who is perfectly suited to be the bartender nudging things along.
The internet made earning real money on bookmaking possible by sharply increasing the volume of gamblers a bookie could handle, but it also made the average gambler, "the square," somewhat smarter too.
Along the way, Elizabeth meets first a drunken cop (David Strathairn) and his faithless wife (Rachel Weisz), then a gambler (Natalie Portman) who has a smart plan and a need for company.
"I suspect Leon is pussy-bound," said Gary. "Smart man," said Vic. John did gambler things with his shirtsleeves, spat on his hands, hopped around on one foot, blew on the dice.
Here he's a psychiatrist and gambler who's perceptive and smart but has a nervous-oddball manner that creeps people out (and a mother who calls him just to nag him).
For her, Gill was not a gambler who hit on a smart look, but a lone exponent of the Chicago School in a city populated with other transplanted Easterners and Midwesterners.
These might not work incredibly well, but for even the most financially disinterested party concerned about problem gamblers, it smarts that there's no such provision when a player is locked into a feedback loop on their phone, using gambling apps which ape social media notifications.
Bellin fits the profile of the gambler as a talented person who is nonetheless unsuccessful, smart yet unable to fit into the conventional workaday world.
