Season Four wraps up Thursday Night with two of the Apprentice's most able candidates since the series inception, Randal and Rebecca, and both might win.


Miami Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 14, 2005 -- The final week of the 4th season of Apprentice is upon us. It's down to two very talented and extremely intelligent candidates in next week's finale, Randal and Rebecca.

"Although both candidates have been successful throughout the series, Randal's impressive resume and standout performance in the tasks to date give him a clear edge over Rebecca," said Simon Noble of www.pinnaclesports.com, in a statement issued early last week.

And while Randal opened as a strong favorite to win going into last week's challenge, the betting public seems to have sent the odds down tremendously.

Last week when www.pinnaclesports.com opened betting on The Apprentice: Donald, Randal was at -400 and Rebecca at +350 to win the job with The Trump Organization. The company closed betting on Thursday evening before the show aired with Randal -403, Rebecca +353.

On Monday, Pinnacle re-opened wagering with Randal at -300 and Rebecca +260 because both candidates face obstacles in their final tasks, but Randal’s seems more daunting as Mother Nature is threatening the entire event.

As of 11:00 am EST Tuesday, Randal was still at
-200 while Rebecca was at +180, but now an influx of recent bets have pushed the lines in Rebecca’s favor, according to Pinnacle Sports.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Rebecca is now the -133 favorite while Randal is +117 dog.

In a statement issued by PinnacleSports.com Tuesday afternoon to Gambling911.com, a representative from the company commented that "It appears that bettors believe the problems facing Randal are greater than Rebecca needing to find a replacement emcee for her event and this will sway Trump’s ultimate decision."

The Donald has been criticized at times for his tendency to hire white males. On last season's Apprentice, Trump hired his first female apprentice. Trump is yet to select an African American. Randal is clearly one of the strongest candidates to ever appear on the show, regardless of race or gender. But then again, Rebecca is no slouch either, having worked her way to the Final Two much of the season on crutches after suffering an injury during an earlier episode.

"Both are highly intelligent and driven individuals," commented Christopher Costigan, Founder and President of Gambling911.com. "But like other Apprentice candidates before them, neither is without their flaws."

And though Rebecca might be seen as somewhat of a "charity case" with those crutches, it was Randal who made the tough choice to stay after his grandmother passed away during filming of the show. Randal was especially close to his grandmother and the Donald showed a soft side by ultimately allowing his candidate to fly via helicopter to attend her funeral in Philadelphia.

Both Rebecca and Randal appeared to be the strongest candidates coming into the Final Four, but Alla Wartenberg may easily have given either one of them a run for their money.

Alla, 31, is already a multi-millionaire owner of a chain of upscale Dolphin Court Salons & Day Spas in Las Vegas (Nevada) that offer a variety of massage treatments, body wraps, and skin and hair care products.

She emigrated with her parents to US in 1988, when she was 14. At age 19, she made her first investment in real estate, thus starting to fulfill her “American dream”. At age 23 she was one of the youngest pioneers of the spa industry.
And though the official NBC bio for Wartenberg focuses on her self-made millions and fails to mention her pole-dancing past, all it took was a little digging from the super sleuths at the Smoking Gun to uncover the goods on the 31-year-old Apprentice contender.

Back in her stripper days, Wartenberg danced at Las Vegas' Palomino Club under the name Ecstasy and was involved in a "pretty platonic relationship" with convicted murderer Robert Acremant, a client of hers who apparently considered her his girlfriend.

On his frequent visits to the club, Acremant would reportedly shell out between $500 and $1,500 for a night in the company of Alla/Ecstasy (or "X," as her friends called her) and eventually developed something of a cash flow problem.

Low on funds, but desperate to continue seeing his scantily-clad lady friend, Acremant attempted to rob a pair of Oregon women in 1995 but ended up killing them in a heist-gone-wrong.

Later that year, he also murdered Scott George, a friend from California, in a second robbery attempt. He was convicted of all three murders and was sentenced to death in both California and Oregon, where he is currently on Death Row.

As a result of her association with Acremant, Wartenberg was called upon to testify at his trial in Tulare County Superior Court in August 2002, where she explained that she had simply "used him for money."

"I liked him as a client," Wartenburg said, according to the court transcript. "I thought he was really nice."

Alla is Now a happily-married mother of four and now she gets to go back to them. Why she would leave a multi-million dollar business to work for the Donald at only a few hundred thousand dollars is anybody's guess. Alla was fired for "being too difficult to lead", which might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Meanwhile, trailers for the final episode seem to show Rebecca holding her own as project manager, which may in essence have affected the odds.

Randal on the other hand appears to be sweating it out. Randal certainly has the track record and respect of everyone but he might not be pushing as hard as Rebecca.

Be sure to check out www.gambling911.com for all the latest Apprentice betting news.