Do you remember the first bet you ever made?
I don’t know if it was my first bet, but the first bet I remember was in 5th grade. I bet $5 on the Minnesota Vikings against the Pittsburgh Steelers in against my friend Andy Schenk and I lost! I grew up in Pittsburgh at the time and I remember betting $5 on the Vikings in Super Bowl IX.  The Steelers won the game 16-6, so that was the first bet I can ever remember making, and I lost the $5.

What’s your most memorable bet?
Good question. I don’t know, I suppose the biggest bet I ever won. I risked $28,600 on the Giants-Vikings playoff game in the mid 90’s, I think 1997. Minnesota over the Giants, they won the game 23-22 as a 4 1/2 point underdog. That was the biggest bet I ever won. I don’t know if it's necessarily the most memorable bet, but that’s the biggest bet I ever won.

What’s your favorite sport?
To bet on or to watch?

What’s your favorite to watch?
I’d say I enjoy watching the San Antonio Spurs NBA games -- that would be my favorite.

Have you entered any other contests of this kind?
I won the Stardust Invitational in 2004.

Anything else you’d like us to know about your self?
I used to practice law. I attended undergraduate and graduate school at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As far as the other things I like to do, they really don’t have any relevance to handicapping. I run my website www.bigal.com and on the website I sell picks for myself as well as handicappers like Larry Ness, Marc Lawrence, Bryan Leonard, (who I am going up against in the first round of play) Scott Spreitzer, Tom Stryker, ASA, Ben Burns and some others. It’s a really great website with great articles, great information, and so drop by.