Month: February 2014
NCAAM
Struggles for us in NCAAM continue. Last night was semi-brutal. We had Brown @ +3.5 and the score was Princeton 65 Brown 64 with 4 seconds to go. First, the obvious…Pat, what the Hell are you doing betting on Ivy League basketball. OK, that’s out of the way. Second, the only way we lose in this scenario is exactly how things play out, with everything hinging on Princeton being smart enough to foul Brown instead of letting them chuck up a desperation 3. Nauseating. You haven’t reached levels of pathetic gambling degeneracy until you are watching the live ticker on an Ivy League basketball game because the game is so obscure there isnt even an illegal internet feed.
Mississippi St +11 -102 @ Auburn @ 13
***UPDATE***
More picks. I’m more due than a chick 10 months pregnant. All bets @ 16.
Florida Atl @ Texas San Antonio +4.5 -109
Indiana @ Purdue -1 -110
UNLV +4.5 -110 @ Utah St
MTD : -87.86
YTD : -129.93
***UPDATE TWO***
Having a good stretch. These will be my last few picks for the day. See if the good times keep rollin’. Bets @ 15.
Rice +19.5 +101 @ La Tech
FSU @ Wake Forest +1.5 -102
Morehead St @ Tennessee Tech +1.5 -106
TJ Oshie
I’ve never seen a guy take 6 straight penalty shots before. He was so composed; almost stuff you see on the pond (because he was so slow and deliberate) not in actual NHL-sytle shootouts. For Russia, that Datsyuk guy….he’s pretty good. The USA now (4-to-1) are serious Gold medal favorites, IMO.
Bets today:
Olympic Hockey:
Czech/Swiss Over 4.5 (-120). We hit our benchmark, and as good as the Swiss have played defensively in this tournament, I actually think they’ll be able to open up their offensive game vs the defense-less Czechs. It’s a pretty big game for both teams. Someone wins 3-2 here.
UFC (in Brazil):
Saturday Hockey
Curling bet the other day was a winner, though the US lost to Russia yesterday morning in the equivalent of blowing a 2-run save in the 9th. Admittedly it was very close as after the last shot by the US, everyone stared at the ice for 30 seconds or so like old people in an Omaha game before determining that Russia won. 3-0 +2.31 for Olympics so far. Perfect record on the line at noon: Czech/Swiss OVER 4.5 -122. Switzerland’s first two games have finished 1-0, hence the line. I’m scared off enough to go 1/2 unit here.
China/Canada tomorrow at 10 Eastern in a Curling Medal preview for those looking for something to watch next to Arsenal-Liverpool.
NCAAM
Another mixed bag of results for NCAAM last night. Seton Hall covering by .5 point kept the night from sliding completely out of control. Light schedule as per ush on Friday. Only like one game this evening which I’ll put a little added mustard on. Good luck out there.
Princeton @ Brown +3.5 -102 @ 22
MTD : -65.86
YTD : -107.93
Quick Hits
Norway +2.5 (-110) vs Finland
Finland looked like crap vs the Austrians last game. Captain Teemu Selanne is playing at 75% and Tuukka Rast, who gave up 4 goals, has been shaky all year. I expect this to be a close game.
Canada/Austria Under 7.5
Too many goals. I expect Austria to pack it in and not go forward to keep it close versus a talented Canada team. I also don’t know how they score goals vs Canada (the Fins were just awful on defense last game). Austria gave up 8 goals last game but that’s an outlier IMO.
Also glad I didn’t take the Czech/Lativa over 6.5 (-145). The books’ adjusted. There was also an alternate line at 5.5 at -225, but that was too much juice. Basically, any game that the Czechs play should have 6 goals total in them either way. That’s our bench mark.
USA Curling
Puts me on tilt. It’s amateur hour relative to the other good teams that are playing. The captain reminds me of a bad poker player bemoaning his bad luck, ignoring the fact that it was the decisions before the last one that caused all of the problems in the first place. It’s also different playing relative professionals versus the equivalent of me and Darts at the local curling club. That said, Germany relatively stinks too. USA/Germany Over 12.5 -140. Starts at Midnight EST for you night owls.
NCAAM
There are plays, there are mediocre plays, there are bad plays, there are horrific plays, and there are whatever South Florida did last night against UConn plays. I turned on the telecast at one point roughly 1/3 of the way into the second half. The commentator noted that South Florida since halftime had made only 2 shots. One was a free throw, the other was goaltending against UConn. Only like one game in the 7 o’clocks.
Manhattan @ Rider +3.5 -106 @ 14
Will likely add onto this as evening progresses.
MTD : -49.37
YTD : -91.44
***UPDATE***
Told you I’d be back…All plays @ 14
FIU @ Tex San Antonio +2 -106
N Dakota St @ W Illinois +9 -106
E Kent @ Tennessee Tech +3.5 -109
St Johns @ Seton Hall +1.5 -104
Cal Poly @ CS Northridge +1 -106
Hawaii @ Cal Riverside +6.5 -109
NCAAM
Good news/Bad news from our soccer picks this afternoon. Bad news – we could not have been more wrong in regards to Arsenal/Man U. I would have thought considering their respective positions both teams would have been a lot more attack-minded but both were more cautious than anything. In the Tott game we got a bit unlucky. With the score 2-nil Tott we have got several squares covered in terms of possible final scores. Unfortunately none hit. Good news – Hey, we just made 4 bets, went 0-4, and we’re only in the hole 33? Are you kidding me? What am I, 14 years old? Forward! All plays @ 14.
Nova @ Depaul +13.5 -106
Eastern Michigan @ Ball St +5.5 -102
Akron @ West Michigan -1.5 -106
South Florida +14.5 -112 @ UConn
St Bon @ Fordham +6.5 -109
Stanford @ Washington +2.5 -106
Tenn Martin +11.5 -106 @ SE Mizzu St
Couple Premier League Plays
Arsenal/Man U – Will both teams score? Yes -135 @ 15
Final Score Plays Newcastle/Tott. All plays @ 6
New 1 Tott 2 +832
New 0 Tott 2 +1148
New 1 Tott 3 +2198
Olympics
Just covered my Sweden over with Pat with 11:45 to go in the 2nd period. The 4.5 line was so bad I was immediately suspicious of some kind of fix or other information I wasn’t privy to. I’ve never seen an NHL line below 5 and Sweden is a medal favorite.
Also won the Men’s Luge Doubles play I posted in the comments last night for another small win. The two guys who won were 6 for 8 on wins for the season in 2013, winning their first six in a row and basically taking the last two races off. Seemed good enough to me at -310, though those kind of bets can be dangerous.
No curling plays yet. I’ve been studying the totals for these teams which seem to always bet set at 12.5
UPDATE: 4-2 Sean covers too!
