Las Vegas Weekly

March 25, 2009 · 5:55 PM

Johnny Avello’s odds have Gilles Marini vs. Melissa Rycroft in DWTS final

By Robin Leach

Cheryl Burke and Gilles Marini are considered front-runners on Dancing With the Stars.

Photo: ABC TV

New odds have just been posted by Wynn race and sports book director Johnny Avello for the remaining contestants on Season 8 of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.

Johnny, who has his odds featured on Good Morning America and Extra, reminds us that his odds are for entertainment purposes only and not for wagering. He uses more than 20 years of gaming industry experience, research, networking and odds-making formulas to come up with his listing.

Late this afternoon, Johnny released the updated listing predicting that it will come down to a final battle between Sex and the City actor Gilles Marini and pro partner Cheryl Burke against jilted The Bachelor girl Melissa Rycroft and pro partner Tony Dovolani. The Wynn bookie predicts that Steve Wozniak, the Apple co-founder, partnered with Karina Smirnoff, and Jackass stuntman Steve-O, partnered with Lacey Schwimmer, have zero shot at winning -- and probably will be next to be kicked off.

Here are the odds:

Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke opened at 18 to 1 and are currently 3 to 1.

Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani opened at 14 to 1 and are now 7 to 2.

Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas started at 5 to 1 and remain at 5 to 1.

Lawrence Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska began at 8 to 1 and stay there.

Lil’ Kim and Derek Hough opened at 30 to 1 but have jumped to 10 to 1.

Chuck Wicks and Julianne Hough started at 6 to 1 and have slid to 12 to 1.

Ty Murray and Chelsie Hightower began at 10 to 1 and are now 15 to 1.

David Allen Grier and Kym Johnson started at 4 to 1 but are now 22 to 1.

Holly Madison and Dmitry Chaplin opened at 20 to 1 but are now 40 to 1.

Steve-O and Lacey Schwimmer began at 40 to 1 but have dropped to 75 to 1.

Steve Wozniak and Karina Smirnoff started at 25 to 1 but now rest at the very bottom with 125 to 1.

Vegas DeLuxe will report any further updates by Johnny.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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