The United States got skunked in the World Baseball Classic, which may be a reason why bookmakers wrote more action on the event than they anticipated.

America was such a prohibitive favorite bettors were scared away.

"The U.S. was like a $5.00 favorite when it played," said Las Vegas Hilton supervisor and oddsmaker Jeff Sherman.

"People shied away from them.

"We wrote more on the Classic than I thought we would.

"It was slow early, but picked up in the semis and finals.

"The elimination rounds were bad, but later ones were good."

The USA opened as an 8/5 favorite to win the inaugural Classic and eventual champion Japan went up at 12/1.

Sherman noted futures wagering was slow because of low odds.

America was an overwhelming 1/15 favorite to nab the Pool B first round championship, but got beat by Canada in Round 1 and Mexico in Round 2.

The assemblage of Major League Baseball players then was eliminated by "virtue" of preset tiebreaker rules, paving the way for other interesting matchups that also featured some of American baseball's marqee names.

Cuba, Korea and the Dominican Republic joined Japan as semifinalists.

The off-Strip Hilton, which draws a great mix of local and tourist traffic, was one of the few valley bet shops to book action on all games.

The Stardust reported very little interest in futures and took action only on games involving the four finalists, while the Stratosphere ignored the event.

"We had trouble finding numbers for the early games and we really didn't have time to do it," Eric Solomon, a Stratosphere supervisor said.

"People were interested in the NCAA Tournament and that's what we concentrated on. We had a few requests, but not many."

Stardust supervisor Eric Viggio blamed America's early exit on a pair of factors.

"Cuba and Japan are already into their seasons, which was an advantage," Viggio said. "They were well prepared.

"I also wonder about the attitude of American players, that they had to play rather than being happy at the opportunity to represent their country."

Lynda Collins is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League. Read all of her articles at http://www.procappers.com/Lynda_Collins.htm