Casino Games: Walk Away Ahead of the Game
By bettingfool | September 4, 2008
We all know that you’re going to lose money in a casino if you play long enough. The object of the game is to get out while that win/loss variance is showing in your favor. That’s the difference between a gambler and a problem gambler. The problem gambler is there for the action, while the gambler is there to get ahead and get out. There isn’t much sense to gambling if you don’t take out your winnings.
Every person is different when it comes to deciding when it’s time to step away from a game. Some players want to continue to play after they win a big sum. If you’re one of these people, you should learn to cash out most of the winnings and just play smaller stakes with a portion of your profit. Set stop limits for losses as well as wins, and stick to them every time.
Topics: online betting | No Comments »
Baseball Betting: White Sox at Red Sox Odds
By bettingfool | August 28, 2008
The battle to make the American League playoffs heats up this weekend when the Boston Red Sox host the Chicago White Sox. After Wednesday’s action, the Red Sox (77-55, +10.11 units) had a 2.5-game lead on Minnesota for the AL Wild Card. The White Sox (76-57, +13.75 units), meanwhile, are one game up on the Twins in the Central Division.
These are arguably the two best teams in the junior circuit. Boston has the highest run differential in the league at +123; Chicago is in second at +108. The Red Sox padded their stats with a successful road trip, taking two of three from both Baltimore and Toronto and winning their first two at Yankee Stadium before Thursday’s finale. The Pale Hose have the day off after beating Baltimore two out of three on the road.
Boston is 15-2 at press time on the World Series futures market. Chicago trails at 12-1.
Topics: MLB Baseball Odds | No Comments »
Why Bet on 2008 Summer Olympics?
By bettingfool | August 21, 2008
I remember at this time four years ago, things were pretty quiet on the Olympic betting front. Now we’ve been bombarded with opportunities to bet on nearly every single event in every single sport. Most people couldn’t even name anyone in the women’s javelin competition, let alone handicap the event.
That’s what makes the Olympics such a great betting opportunity. It only takes a little effort to create a knowledge gap between you and the betting public. And in individual events like the javelin where it’s the athlete versus the elements, the ones who produce at the highest levels tend to win over and over again until the next hotshot comes along.
Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic is 1-2 in the aforementioned women’s javelin; she’s the reigning world champion and has repeatedly proven herself better than the competition. You’ll find an army of heavy favorites like Spotakova in the athletics events. It’s a chalkeater’s paradise.
Topics: 2008 Summer Olympics | No Comments »
Betting on Beijing Olympics: Star Athletes
By bettingfool | August 18, 2008
Did you bet on Michael Phelps to win 8 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics?
Bettors deal with well-known players of questionable quality all the time in sports like football and baseball. Separating the wheat from the chaff is a big part of the handicapping process. But it’s a lot more difficult for an athlete to become a public figure in a sport that only gets a mass audience once every four years. For that to happen, that person almost always has to be really, really good.
Take the case of American swimmer Michael Phelps. He was an overwhelming favorite in each of his eight races (including team events), and he won the gold medal in all eight. It’s a feat that’s never been matched in Olympic history – but Phelps does join a long line of star Olympic athletes like Mark Spitz and Eric Heiden who dominated the competition and threw the whole concept of “value” betting out the window. In the end, you still have to bet on the winner to get paid.
Topics: 2008 Summer Olympics | No Comments »
Betting on the 2008 WSOP: Who is Ivan Demidov?
By bettingfool | August 7, 2008
Ivan Demidov is a Russian-born poker player from Moscow who has made the final table of the 2008 WSOP main event. He is an online professional poker player, but before this year’s WSOP he had very little live tournament experience. It’s his first WSOP tournament, but he has made a splash on the professional tournament scene. The main event is his second cash of the 2008 WSOP, he also finished 11th in event #44 no-limit hold’em and won over $39,000.
He currently sits in second place with 24,400,000 chips. Demidov is less than two million chips from the lead, and could easily be the chip leader with one winning hand. The “November Nine” will resume play on the ninth of November, and the new champion will be crowned. Could it be the year for a Russian-born player to win the biggest poker tournament in the world?
Topics: WSOP | No Comments »
2008 Beijing Summer Olympics: Odds to Win Men’s 100m
By bettingfool | July 31, 2008
The men’s 100-meter dash may never get its mojo back. But interest remains high for what most of the planet still considers the marquee event of the Olympic Summer Games. Having three of the World’s Fastest Men competing for gold in Beijing ought to liven things up even more.
At press time, the favorite was Jamaica’s Usain Bolt at 5-4. He holds the world record in the 100m at 9.72 seconds, which he set in New York just two months ago. Tyson Gay is the best hope for the United States at 9-5; he clocked a 9.77 at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. And former world record holder Asafa Powell is a close third at 2-1. Powell might be slightly past his prime, having set the previous record of 9.74 seconds last September. His best time this year was the 9.82 he ran at Tuesday’s Monaco Grand Prix; neither Bolt nor Gay was in the field.
Topics: 2008 Summer Olympics | No Comments »
Top 10 Gambling Legends
By bettingfool | July 24, 2008
1. Stanford Wong is the Godfather of blackjack and wrote the definitive Professional Blackjack.
2. Mike Aponte is a former member of the MIT blackjack team who has won millions globally.
3. Mickey Rosa, also a former MIT blackjack member, plays on the World Series of Blackjack Circuit.
4. Anthony Curtis made a fortune from casino coupons and good gaming.
5. Regina Guzior is one of the best blackjack players in the world, despite being legally blind.
6. Michael Konik plays high-stakes poker and blackjack, and is an acting celebrity.
7. James Grosjean has beaten the casinos on the floor and in the courtroom.
8. Kerry Packer, the richest man in Australia, once lost $28M AUS in three weeks.
9. Ken Einiger has made a fortune in five years playing blackjack.
10. Previn Mankodi left a lucrative finance career to bet large sums of money in casinos.
Topics: Gambling | No Comments »
Betting on the Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee
By bettingfool | July 17, 2008
Barack Obama’s cult of personality has grown so big that it’s hard to imagine anybody who could complement him as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. But someone has to do it, and all indications are Hillary Clinton wants the job really badly. She’s the 7-5 favorite on the political futures market to get the veep nod.
Such a marriage would have seemed inconceivable not too long ago. The split between the Obama and Clinton camps, along lines of both race and gender, is a fractious one. But a unity ticket would certainly be the most expedient way to heal that rift, and Obama has shown an appetite for expediency by moving to the center, even if it means moving away from his message.
These odds seem rather short, though, considering VP shares in Clinton last sold at 14.7 over at Intrade. Kathleen Sebelius (5-1), governor of Kansas, was priced higher in very light trading at 16.0. Curiouser and curiouser.
Topics: political prop bets | No Comments »
Is it Right to Sue the Casino for Your Gambling Debts?
By bettingfool | July 10, 2008
Charles Barkley paid off his casino debts.
The United States isn’t the only country where you can sue someone for your own mistakes. This story from Australia involves a gentleman who is trying to recover AUS$4.7 million (US$4.5 million) in gambling debts. The crux of the argument: He should have been recognized as an addict and not allowed to gamble in the first place.
Lawsuits like this happen all the time, in Las Vegas and elsewhere. My opinion carries no weight in a court of law, but here’s where I draw the line: If a casino or credit facility is actively targeting you knowing that you’re an addict who’s going to run up a deficit, then responsibility for your actions should be shared to some extent.
The key phrase here is “actively targeting you.” Someone who simply cannot resist the allure of gambling and blames his addiction on the provider gets no sympathy from me by retaliating with a lawsuit. Try Gamblers Anonymous instead, before it happens.
Topics: Gambling | No Comments »
Christine Wins Hell’s Kitchen, Hollywood Bound
By bettingfool | July 9, 2008
Proof that experience doesn’t always count, Hell’s Kitchen winner Christine showed the most potential.
If you missed the latest season of “Hell’s Kitchen” you missed some pretty delicious stuff. Matt and Jen were hellish to deal with but they both made for some colorful scenes in the kitchen (Matt was a psycho and Jen was a big bee-atch); Ben had a habit of talking back to Chef Ramsay, and Louross couldn’t get anything right. In total, there were 15 contestants vying for the job of Executive Chef at Chef Ramsay’s London West Hollywood Hotel. The final two hopefuls (Petrozza and Christine) had to battle it out by putting together their own menus with their own brigades (HK losers) in the dining room they designed themselves for the final episode. As it turned out, Christine’s menu and team did the better job and Ramsay awarded her the job — an Executive Chef position at the trendy London West Hollywood Hotel worth $250,000.
“Christina had the least amount of experience coming in, but I sensed something special,” Ramsay said. “She had the best potential of any contestant.”
Present for the nail-biting conclusion were friends and family members, along with the entire cast of Hell’s Kitchen. Nobody looked more surprised than Christine’s mom, who even as the credits rolled was seen with her mouth wide open, obviously still in shock over the fact that her daughter was headed to Hollywood.
Read up on the Hell’s Kitchen final episode here. Get all your entertainment betting and reality TV odds here.
Topics: Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV | No Comments »