Posts Tagged ‘gambling’

Stu Ungar didn\’t have much going for him in most areas of life. In fact, it could very well be argued that he was downright inept in most areas of existence. He also had a self destructive streak that manifest itself in heavy drug use and other behaviors. Ungar, however, had one great gift–he was a prodigy with a deck of cards. He would become one of the first superstars of poker before it became a fixture on ESPN, but wouldn\’t live to enjoy the \’boom\’. Ungar would eventually be done in by his baser elements, and would be found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room in November,\’88.

Ungar\’s skills at the poker table were like Mozart\’s at the piano. While countless volumes of poker strategy and theory have been written, Ungar\’s understanding of the game was downright instinctive. Ungar\’s greatest achievement was his three World Series of Poker victories, but he won millions in informal games and profitable card room sessions. The amazing thing about Ungar\’s sheer mastery of Texas Hold\’em was the fact that it was the third card game he had mastered. Ungar first came to Las Vegas as a gin rummy prodigy; he had beaten all of the good players on the East Coast and moved to the desert mecca in search of new opportunities. He had soon run the table of Nevada\’s gin players, and then turned to blackjack out of necessity. He was quickly barred as a card counter at a number of Southern Nevada casinos. Needing a new vocation, he took up poker.

Ungar\’s problem was that he was awful at basic survival skills. He fought a number of addictions-most notably to drugs and sports gambling. After his WSOP win in\’97, he was nearly broke and wasted away from drug use by the time the\’98 tournament rolled around. Vegas casino owner Bob Stupak provided the $10,000 he needed to defend his title, but as the games began Ungar cowered in his darkened hotel room unable to pull himself together enough to play.

Other stories of Ungar\’s troubled life away from the poker tables evoke the same theme: buying a new Mercedes with cash after a WSOP victory and driving it until it fell apart from lack of maintenance; signing mortgage papers as he played in the Dunes poker room; losing 1.5 million dollars betting on sports or golf in the course of a weekend on more than one occasion.

Ungar\’s death came as something of a shock as he\’d shown signs of cleaning up his act. Longtime friend Bob Stupak and helped pay off his debts and staked him in the major poker tournaments. Ungar was found dead two days after the two had drawn up a formal contract. Ungar also left behind an ex-wife and a teenage daughter, who still live in Las Vegas. Though the official cause of death was listed as a \’heart attack\’, there were a mixture of drugs found in his system including cocaine and methadone.

Most of the famous gamblers of Las Vegas legend-guys like Puggy Person and Doyle Brunson– have been tough, larger than life individuals with a healthier than normal dose of self-preservation skills. In this respect, Ungar was an anomaly among gambling greats-he was physically frail and almost completely helpless away from the poker table. With a handful of cards and a pile of chips, however, he became a ruthless and indomitable warrior. His story is certainly not one that the modern day, publicity conscious Las Vegas will celebrate. He will be remembered, however, as part of the tradition that gives the city its unique character. From the mobsters that pioneered the city, to the Rat Pack that civilized it, to the corporations that cleaned it up, characters like Stu Ungar have provided the spice that makes Las Vegas America\’s \’Paris in the desert\’. Ungar may never have a statue on Fremont Street, but his spirit will live on.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected sports betting expert. He is also a staff handicapper for Sports-1 Sportsbook and is in charge of setting NFL lines. He has written extensively on sports handicapping theory along with a wide range of other topics including fencing, self defense and falconry.

Sports betting futures wagers can be an entertaining and profitable investment, but there are a number of pitfalls. These are some things to avoid:

You gotta shop around: More specifically, you have to \’shop points\’ just as you would with a straight bet. This is crucial in all forms of sports betting but particularly key with futures wagers. There are often greater variances in the prices from book to book on future plays than any other type of wagering proposition. The reason for this is simple–most books are less concern with what the \’other guys\’ are doing as they are with keeping their own position \’in balance\’. All in all, the sports betting marketplace just doesn\’t react as quickly to changing futures prices as it does to individual game lines.

Don\’t try to pick the winner in a competitive marketplace: This may sound sort of counter intuitive since the general idea of betting on futures is to determine the actual winner but it\’s really not. Like everything else, its essential to always be mindful of the value you\’re getting. In a futures market with several legitimate contenders at the top the price offered is seldom high enough to properly compensate for the risk you\’re assuming. Here\’s an example: in a hypothetical NCAA hoops tournament Duke is +200 to win the national championship. They\’ve certainly got a shot, but at a payback of only 2/1 its hard to justify a wager at this point with the potential for so many interceding events that can make a championship more problematic. Such events as injuries, a tough tournament draw or even just going into a slump at the wrong time can happen to any team but when you bet a higher priced team–a \’dark horse mid major at 15/1 for example–you\’re getting \”compensation\” for assuming the \”risks\” of betting on a proposition with so many unknown variables.

In more theoretical terms, the \’true odds\’ of a Duke or similar top team winning the tournament are almost always higher than the price offered. Think of it this way–say we\’re betting Duke to win the national title at 2/1. This means that the Blue Devils would have to win more than 33% of the time to break even. So lets say, for the sake of argument, that we could play the tournament over 100 times. Would Duke come out on top more than 33 of these times? If not, they represent a poor value. Let\’s say that they win 30 of 100 times. This means that any price under +333 or thereabouts is a poor wagering value.

In a less competitive field, there can be instances where even a big favorite is a good value. For example, lets say a book was to take action on a bikini contest between a Victoria\’s Secret supermodel and three members of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The model would essentially be a 100% probability to win the contest, meaning that even a high chalk price would be a good value. Risking a lot of money to win a little is a tough thing to justify, however, even if the math makes sense.

Don\’t try to make a huge profit with little risk: Sports betting provides few opportunities to make a \’big killing\’. It may happen occasionally, but even the big payouts when it occurs doesn\’t make chasing big longshots a good value. If you\’re serious about sports betting it is crucial to maintain your focus on the underlying numbers and look for value at all times. If you want to take a longshot at a huge jackpot, play the lottery but don\’t try to do it at a sportsbook.

Wagering value is just as important at the bottom of the barrel as it is at the top. Just because you\’re getting a huge potential payback on a big dog doesn\’t make it a good value. Make sure that the payback you\’re getting presents an overlay situation–even on a huge underdog.

Don\’t waste your money on ridiculous prop bets: Occasionally sports books offer ridiculous bets to get press or to be funny. For example, a book once offered odds on Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher and Bruce Willis all hopping into bed together and releasing a video tape of the proceedings. You\’d no doubt get a huge payback were this to happen, but the \’true odds\’ of such an event transpiring far exceeded even a big potential payback.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

For the NFL handicapper, understanding the methodology behind NFL totals (also called over/under numbers) is crucial. For those not familiar with NFL totals, its the large number youll see accompanying most pointspread betting propositions. For example, the 2009 Superbowl line opened with Pittsburgh a 6 point favorite over Arizona. The total was set at 47. Simply stated, the total allows the better to decide whether the combined score between the two teams will go OVER or UNDER.

To the uninitiated, betting on NFL totals can seem very arbitrary–like office pools where players pick the final score of a game. In reality, they\’re a favorite tool of serious sports handicappers. Many are of the opinion that its easier to accurately foretell the *type* of game that will transpire between two teams rather than who will actually win and by how much. Like NFL pointspread wagers, the ability for a bettor to pick is spots is also a valuable asset as a successful handicapper can look for situations where the total itself is off as well as more subjective factors (weather, injury or matchups) that can contribute to the scoring output or lack thereof.

The basics of setting NFL totals are fairly simple: the bookmaker looks at the offensive and defensive data for the two teams and constructs a number based on points allowed and points scored. If one team had scored 275 points and allowed 350 in their previous sixteen games thats a total of 625. Divided by 16 and thats an average of just over 39 points per game. If their opponent had scored 285 and allowed 400 (685) over 16 games that translates to just under 43 points per game. Add the two numbers together, divide by two and youve got a base total of 40.5.

At this point other factors are considered such as the significance of key numbers like 3 and 7 on final scores, weather conditions, injuries, playing surface, etc. Another component that is important is the qualitative matchup between the offense and defense of each team\”meaning that a team with a strong defense will be more likely to dictate the tempo\’ of a game resulting in a lower final score. All of these factors weigh into a final NFL total that is posted for betting.

Of course as in the case of the NFL pointspread, public perception is a crucial component of the linesmaking process. For example, the conventional wisdom is that bad weather like rain, snow, or sleet results in lower scores and for that reason a bookmaker will shade the total accordingly. However, its not quite that simple–some handicappers would maintain that sloppy weather can produce higher scores in certain situations as turnovers are in theory more likely in inclement weather.

In conclusion, NFL totals are a very good opportunity for a hard working handicapper to leverage his information about a situational matchup to find good wagering value. Like most elements of the sports handicapping discipline, its not easy to stay a step ahead of the bookmakers who have access to the same weather and injury–and have factored it into the number–but is a very entertaining and potentially rewarding challenge for the NFL bettor.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected sports betting authority. He is also a staff handicapper for Sports-1 Sportsbook and is in charge of setting NFL lines. He has written extensively on sports betting theory along with a wide range of other topics including fencing, self defense and flower arrangement.

In order to successfully bet on NFL football its important to start with the fundamentals. And were not talking about the Xs and Os of professional football game planning\”were talking about the fundamentals of understanding the wagering side of the equation. Theres a lot of misunderstanding about what NFL pointspreads mean and how they are set. A firm grasp of the essential bookmaking concept of setting NFL lines is a prerequisite for any hopes of sports betting success.

The general public has a tendency to oversimplify the meaning of an NFL pointspread. The conventional wisdom is that it is simply a prediction of which team will win and by how much. There is a component of that in the NFL bookmaking equation, but theres a lot more to it. In theory, a sportsbooks primary goal is to equally divide the action they take on an individual game. If they do their job right, the outcome of the game is irrelevant to the bookmaker. Youll frequently hear clueless sportscasters make inane comments following a big upset like Boy, the sportsbooks in Las Vegas must have lost their shirts on that one or whoever set the line got this one wrong. Thats something that simply cannot be determined from the outcome of the game alone.

Since a bookmakers primary goal in setting NFL betting lines is to equally divide action, they have to make each side of a wagering proposition attractive to a prospective player. For that reason, its more accurate to say that NFL lines are more of a reflection of the betting publics perception of which team will win a game and by how much than anything else. Some NFL teams are considered public teams due to their popularity and/or perceived qualitative skill. So if the numbers in a hypothetical game between Dallas and Cincinnati indicate that the Cowboys should be a -6 favorite a book may open the game at -7 or -7.

In early season wagering there are a few additional factors at play. A bookmaker may consider a teams NFL preseason record for the simple reason that the NFL betting public gives it undue attention. Sharp players know that there is little correlation between a teams preseason success (or lack thereof) and their regular season performance. Another consideration is a teams performance in the previous season or, in some cases, their historical performance.

Furthermore, its important to understand why NFL lines are moved after the opening numbers are posted. While it may occasionally be due to external factors such as injury or weather, more often than not its a direct result of the money a book is drawing on one side of the proposition or another. If in our hypothetical example above, Dallas opens -7 and not long after the line is moved to -7 that is an indication that the book has received the majority of their bets on the Bengals. The idea is that by moving the line it makes wagers on the side a book wishes to attract money on more attractive. Indeed, many sharp players base their NFL football bets exclusively on line movements.

To successfully bet on NFL football, however, it is important to spend as much time as possible understanding the intricacies of the sports gambling marketplace\”and in this regard nothing is more fundamentally important than understanding how NFL pointspreads are made and why they are moved.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

Public and private lotteries have existed since the 1800’s all around the world. In some countries it is outlawed and in others it is very much run and regulated by the government. In some countries the lotto is both state and province wide and in others there are national and regional based lotteries. In America the lotteries are regulated state wide as there is no national lottery like, for example, in Canada with Lotto 6/49. Some may think that because there is no national lottery in the US that the jackpots are smaller but easier to come by. Well, this isn’t true there have been massive winnings recorded within the United States; in fact, the largest recorded lottery prize was won in the US. It was upward of three hundred and fifty million dollars! Now haven’t you ever dreamed of that kind of cash prize? The Michigan State Lottery has been a staple in the lottery business for many years attracting thousands upon thousands of users every week. To some playing local lottery tickets is a tradition or even a hobby. With the extreme of accessibility many people have added that trip to the corner store into their daily lives.

As well playing their tickets and choosing the lucky numbers following the results each day or week is just as important for people. The lotto results have fuse themselves into all media outlets both with major broadcast networks and online applications. For example the Michigan lotto results like any other state wide lottery results can be found in a multitude of places making it convenient to check if you won, no matter what your lifestyle is. Say you drive into work every morning listening to your favorite morning radio show, or perhaps you work in a home office where the internet is at your helm all day. No matter what your daily life consists of there will be a convenient way for you to get the results. The lottery industry gas infiltrated everything from local news shows on television to having dedicated areas in major newspapers.

To go back to our example the Michigan lottery results can be found on the internet, on television, the internet and on the radio. These days news shows and newspapers use the lottery results as a way to draw people to buying there paper or watching their broadcasts. Some of us will buy the same newspaper for our entire lives without realizing that the reason is almost solely based on the habit of checking lotto results.

It is a well-known fact that you should always keep your specific state’s gaming policies in mind to enjoy a stress free weekend at the pub or casino. The Oklahoma gaming dept and the Ohio gaming dept have similar rules yet when you go to play at a casino or online, you should make sure and check out each state’s particular gaming policies. As with any state, these two states have distinct differences in age allowances, games allowed and other such rules. If one neglects to keep track of their specific state or casino’s rules, unfortunate consequences could occur such as being kicked out of the casino, small fines and even police intervention in rare cases. The lottery is taken very seriously and can be hours and hours of fun for those who know how to play and abide by the given rules.

On a similar vein, when playing the Ohio lottery Mega Millions, the drawing dates are on different days than that of the Oklahoma Mega Millions lottery. Though the rules are the same, the draw days are different and there may be some slight differences in smaller rulings or lottery results. For example, Ohio lottery results will not be the same as Oklahoma lottery results. Each state has their own draw time and place so keep that in mind when buying a ticket and playing a lotto game. Some lotto type games are national games though and the drawings will be all in one state. Powerball, for example, is drawn in Florida every Wednesday and Saturday. Each any every state as well as each game has its own unique rules, regulations, draw times, etc… You will enjoy the games better if you keep these things in mind.

No matter what you intend to do or what game you love the best, the gambling industry was intended for moderation, fun and socializing. Clubs, Groups, Sports Teams and even some families can enjoy gambling as a sport. Let’s help our states keep gambling in play by using the system wisely, moderately and with respect. Each any every gambler (whether avid or occasional) will have a better time when the rules are followed and intentions are met. From Slots and machines to Poker and Keno, give yourself a relaxed evening with your friends, family or co-workers and enjoy your favorite gambling game at your local bar or casino!