Well the NBA season kicked off last night and it was the same old story with the Los Angeles Lakers. I don’t have the stats infront of me but it would be very interesting to see what the Lakers record is ATS the last couple of years, especially in games where they are favoured by double digits. I know off-hand that the record won’t be good because I used to back the Lakers once in awhile as double digit favourites and the fourth quarters always turned into a complete mess. At the center of it all was always Lamar Odom who would commit a turnover or jack up a bad shot right near the end of the game when the spread was in question. Guess it was just “Lamar being Lamar”. It took a couple games but I learnt my lesson with the Lakers. If you are going to take them, take them as small favourites or take them straight up because they will not cover the big spreads.

Another game I checked out last night was the Celtics versus the Cavaliers and the Celtics showed them who the big dog in the Eastern Conference is. When completely healthy, the Celtics are the only team that I feel can stand in between the Lakers and another NBA Championship. I had the Celtics last night and five minutes into the game they were down 15 points to the Cavaliers and I was wondering why I bet against the Cavaliers at home. Have to give some big props to the Celtics who stuck to their gameplan and outplayed the Cavaliers for the remaining 3 quarters. Once Garnett is 100% this Celtic team will be scary.

The World Series gets underway today and it looks as though this will be a great series. Jimmy Rollins already got the ball rolling saying that his Phillies would win the World Series in 5 games, maybe 6. It’s good that he has some confidence in his team because the people that don’t have confidence in the Phillies are the lines makers who made the Yankees a -202 favourite. You have got to be kidding me. The defending World Series champions getting +185 to win the series, sign me up. These two teams met for three interleague games earlier this season and the Phillies won two of those games. I have to admit though what scares me is Pedro Martinez pitching game 2 for the Phillies. I know that Martinez is one of the greatest pitchers ever to play baseball and I also know that he has been pitching very well so far in these playoffs but I just know in the back of my mind that Martinez is an aging pitcher and he is coming off a poor 2008 season and he is going up against the Yankees and……. You know what I mean. I just don’t have much faith in him at this point of his career. With that being said, the Phillies have the bats to make up for their weakness in pitching this series and I will take my chances with the Phillies as a +185 dog for the series.

There is a 30% chance of rain for game one of this series tonight. Both Lee and Sabathia have been lights out in the playoffs so far so I expect this game to be a pitching duel between the two. -170 for Sabathia seems to be a bit to high for me so I suggest either the Phillies ML or no play for this game. I myself am going to pass on the game tonight.

Best of luck tonight everyone.

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A recent forum topic has got the gears in my mind turning. I have been gambling many years and I have seen how online gambling has evolved and I have come to realize how good it used to be and how bad we all have it now.

Bonuses

I remember back in the day when bonuses would be thrown around by books like they were nothing. New emails or forum messages would pop up each day about which bonuses were available and where we had to go to get them. Of course all of this brought about people using multiple id’s to create multiple accounts to obtain as many bonuses as they possibly could. The books soon learnt of this and started to restrict the amount of bonuses they had or to add a long list of “rules” attached to each bonus stating things such as rollover or deposit requirements.

Neteller

Oh how I miss Neteller. You could easily move money back and forth between the various sportsbooks that you had. Made things so much easier. It’s been a couple years now since Neteller left the market but people are still feeling the effects of that. Now, depending on the book, player’s have to worry about when they will receive their money, how they will receive the money and even IF they will receive the money. Some players have to wait two or three weeks for a cheque withdrawal from one site and then wait another week for a cheque to be sent to another book just to transfer money these days.

What a waste of time and all of this is due to the United State’s Government trying to do anything they can to kill the on-line gambling industry.  There is so much money that the Government can make from the taxation of online gambling winnings but for some reason they are not even looking into the issue. Society will always have the people that try to “go around” the system and not report their gambling income but there will also be the people that do report their gambling income and at this point any revenue’s received by the Government with respect to the taxes on gambling should definitely be welcomed. Every year it seems a new bill is introduced to possibly get the ball rolling to legalize online gambling again in the states but for some reason the bill always dies along the way. It is frustrating. Now everyone that is gambling not only has to worry about winning or losing money BUT they now have to worry about whether they will receive their winning’s or not. How is this helping the country? If someone wants to blow everything they own on gambling then let them. They only live once and it’s their life. People can smoke or drink and that is fine but gambling isn’t? Give me a break.

Another thing that pisses me off about gambling is society’s perception of people that gamble. If someone gambles on the stock market or plays poker they are viewed as professionals…..if someone gambles on sports or on table games they are viewed as a degenerate loser. That’s great. We only live once and if a person chooses to smoke, drink, gamble, be a bum…whatever it is, let them be. Live your own life

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Happy NBA Regular Season eve to everyone out there. Does that make sense? Can’t wait for the start of NBA basketball. Out of all of the major sports, most of my time is spent betting on basketball. There have been some pretty big moves this off-season and it is going to be very interesting to see how these new player’s will help to improve their teams.

One of the acquisitions that I love is the Celtics getting Rasheed Wallace. Sure he is getting a bit old but in a reduced role coming off of the bench he will improve the Celtic’s bench immensely. Kevin Garnett is said to be in great form and ready for the season but Wallace is a good safety net should the Celtic’s experience any further problem’s with Garnett’s health.

As everyone knows the Cavalier’s acquired Shaquille O’Neal which I feel will be a very good move for the Cavs. Ilgauskas is a soft soft player and the Cavaliers were lacking a big presence in the paint to do all of the dirty work and that is going to be where the Big Diesel comes in. At this point of his career Shaq knows that he is no longer a number one scoring option for a team so he should have no problems playing alongside Lebron. As long as James stays healthy I see no reason why the Cavaliers shouldn’t finish at the top of the Eastern Conference.

The Orlando Magic also made some moves this off-season losing Hedo Turkoglu but picking up Vince Carter. Vince is not the player that he once was but the one thing that he can still do is score so the Magic won’t miss much offence with the departure of Turkoglu. Jameer Nelson back and healthy is also going to be a big boost for the Magic.

At this point you can pretty much pencil in the Magic, Celtic and Cavaliers for the First, Second and Third seeds in the Eastern Conference. The only question really is in which order they will finish.

A team that will be greatly improved from a year ago will be the Toronto Raptors. I love the acquisitions of Hedo Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack and the drafting of DeMar DeRozan. So many times in the last couple of years the Raptor’s have blown games in the final minutes and with the acquisition of Turkoglu the Raptor’s finally have someone that they can give the ball to during crunch time. The Raptor’s won’t be winning any divisions but they should be able to get back into the playoffs this year.

Lastly we can’t talk about the NBA without mentioning the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers lost a key player in their NBA title run in Trevor Ariza but they made up for that with the acquisition of Ron Artest. Both Artest and Ariza are great defender’s that can also score when needed so the transition from Ariza to Artest should go smooth as long as Artest can hold himself together. If Artest can get along with Kobe and fits nicely into the Lakers system, I don’t think there will be a team in this league that can keep the Lakers from repeating as champions. The problem is that the odds makers feel this way as well because the Lakers to win the championship is +225 and that really has no betting value at all.

One game in the NFL tonight. Take the Eagles and thank me later. The Redskins are brutal. Have a good night everyone.

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Well the first of my two futures went down the drain with the Dodger’s last night. Nothing like putting up an effort till the last out guys. Brutal. It’s nice to think about sports back in the day when players actually gave a shit about the games but now adays they have guys like Manny Ramirez and we all know what point the game has come to. You know your bet on the Dodger’s is dead before the game even starts when they talk about an interview with Manny Ramirez and he states that “It’s just another game”. Thanks Manny. Everyone knows that you don’t give a shit about anything but you aren’t supposed to actually come out and say it.

In other news everyone is ripping on Steve Phillips for having sex with a girl that is …… not very attractive. I guess whatever floats his boat. We have all gone out to the bar and picked up someone that we weren’t to happy about so we can’t really put the guy down here. Let him be.

There have been some reports of the WTA looking into a possible fixed tennis match with Caroline Wozniacki…….NO WAY. I have witnessed myself many “manipulated” matches and the tennis associations always look the other way so this whole “investigation” thing is just a front to make the public think that they are serious about cleaning up tennis. Won’t happen. Too much money to be made and to easy to manipulate matches. End of story. Next.

Well today is probably the last day for the LA Angels or whatever you want to call the team. Seems they like to change their name every couple of years so I am just going to guess that I have picked the proper name this time.  The Angels have the right guy on the mound if they are hoping to extend this series in any way with John Lackey. Guy has proved that he is nails. In his last 3 starts he is 1-1 with a great ERA of 2.40. Career vs the Yankees he hasn’t pitched that bad going 5-7 in 16 starts with a 4.66 ERA. To close it out the Yankees are putting AJ Burnett on the mound who has also been pitching very well down the stretch. In his last 3 starts he is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. The thing that worries me about AJ Burnett is that he can look like the best pitcher in the league for three or four innings and then all of the sudden implode and allow 5 runs just like that. He has a tough time controlling his emotions and I think if the Angels can get to him early then the flood gates should open on Burnett. The Angels have their backs against the wall and need this game so I am going to take the Angels tonight at -105.

The total for this game has been set at 8.5. I like the under for this game. In the Yankees last 8 playoff games the under is 5-1-2 and in the Angels last 29 games as a favourite the under is 20-7-2. Take the under 8.5 +100.

Best of luck tonight with your plays.

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So far the Major League Baseball playoffs have been fairly exciting, aside from the fact that the Yankee’s games seem to be played at a snail’s pace. Some sad news today regarding Manny Ramirez showering during the ninth inning of the Monday night meltdown by the Dodger’s. Is anyone really surprised by this? Seems that it’s just another example of Manny being a selfish player. The Yankees series looks as though it’s only a matter of time before the Yankees wrap it up. Sabathia had another great pitching performance and Alex Rodriguez is redefining his legacy with another monster game. One of the overlooked points in this series is the fact that even though Mark Texiera’s bat has been non-existent in these playoff’s, he has saved the Yankee’s many runs and has probably saved the Yankees from some losses by his amazing fielding so far in these playoff’s. The Yankee’s infielder’s should probably work on throwing balls to first base instead of taking extra cut’s in the batting cage for once. They are all going to turn into Chuck Knoblauch out there if they don’t watch out.

Only one game in Major League Baseball tonight and that is game five of the Dodgers/Phillie’s series. Will the Dodger’s show up in this game or just pack it in since the series is probably over anyways. The fact that the Phillie’s are at home in this game isn’t really helping the Dodger’s cause at all. I guess one positive for the Dodger’s at this point is that they will have their hottest pitcher on the mound to try to help them avoid elimination tonight in Vicente Padilla.  Padilla was lights out in his last start vs the Phillie’s pitching 7 inning’s allowing only 1 run while striking out 6. In his last 3 start’s Padilla is 2-0 with a 0.93 ERA. The Phillie’s will counter with Cole Hamels on the mound tonight. Hamel’s won game 1 of this series but he wasn’t exactly pitching well allowing 4 runs in 5.1 inning’s. In his last 3 starts Hamels is 1-2 with a 7.42 ERA. I am going to take the Dodger’s tonight as a +132 underdog to come out hard with their backs against the wall and take this series back to Los Angeles.  

The total for tonight’s game is set at 8.5 runs. In the Phillie’s last 16 games as a favourite the over is 12-2-2 while the over is 8-3 in the Dodger’s last 11 playoff road games. Factor in that Hamel’s is very hittable at this point and 3 of the 4 games already played in this series have gone over the total and the over 8.5 -103 seems like a good bet here. Book it.

Not much else happening out there today unless you like shitty college football games or betting on the National Hockey League. I am not sure about you guys but any time I bet the NHL I lose so I basically have packed it up and avoid betting hockey at all costs.

Best of luck tonight guys. Let’s hope the Dodger’s win so we have some more games to bet on. I hate these short series.

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