The Crooked Link

Life of a Low Stakes Gambler...

Friday, August 29, 2008

Good Karma

Another good day today with the baseball picks going 2-0. Hope to keep the good run going throughout the weekend.

I've been running pretty shitty in poker though. The cards have been falling ice cold so I decided to take a little break from playing and instead staked some players from FCP last night.

I staked 3 players in a Stars $4.40 180-man, and one of them actually won the damn thing. He had a huge lead starting heads up but then got crippled when his two pair went down against a straight. He was down to like 30k to his opponent's 200k.I thought meh, 2nd place money isn't too bad. But he somehow made a ninja comeback and won the tourney.

First place money was $206 so he shipped back $108. $108 minus the $13.20 I invested on staking the 3 guys came out to a profit of +$95. I can't tell you how huge $95 is to my poker roll right now which now sits at around $270 and I'll continue to grind it out in 10NL and $6.60 shorthanded sngs.

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Boston -1.5

LA Angels -1.5

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Day Profit: +$11.50

Day Record: 2-0

Total Record: 101-109-6

Bankroll: $124.30

Total Profit: -$75.70

Thursday, August 28, 2008

8th Inning Heroics

I only had one play today which was Cubs -1.5. I was regularly checking the score at work until they were down like 4-1 in the 7th which is when I stopped paying attention.

I come to find out my Cubbies went on to score 5 in the bottom of the 8th to win the game. Nice. Just enough to cover the runline, lol. Too bad I only bet a measly $3 on them.

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Cubs -1.5

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Day Profit: +$4.80

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 99-109-6

Bankroll: $112.80

Total Profit: -$87.20

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Back on the Interwebs

So my internet connection at home is finally up and running again at full blast. It sure wasn't cheap though. Had to pay $190 to get a new OS on the PC and then bought an $80 2Wire modem from AT&T. But all in all, completely worth it, as I also upgraded my DSL plan so now I'm browsing at 3 times my previous speed. No more waiting minutes for youtube videos to load, haha!

I'd been doing most of my blogging from work as well as placing my bets there which meant that I had been missing out on all the early afternoon games so it's good to once again be able to play those, although I usually don't wake up til around 2pm anyway, lol.

I also just got done playing some poker online. Played a HU match and a 6.60 sng and played like a donkey on both. I decided to play some 10NL instead and ran pretty good ending the session up one buy in. I had a player on my table who was just absolutely god awful. He'd call pre-flop out of position with like 8-3 off and then call you down all the way to the river with 8 high. Won most of my big pots off of him. To bad I had to leave to give my dad a ride to work.

Man, I really need a new laptop. The one I have is just not doing it anymore. It keeps crashing and the wireless card is messed up. Even though I have the desktop at home, I still really need a laptop for work since the day goes by so slow when I don't have it with me. I know I said a couple of posts back that I was going to start saving up for a car but now I decided I'm going to save up for a laptop first and make that my last "big expense" before actually starting to save up for the car. I want something in the $800 to $1200 range optimal basically for browsing, poker, and some music. My boy Alex just bought one a few weeks ago to take with him down to U of I and it's completely sick. It's an HP that ran him I think $1100 so I may end up buying the same one.

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Last night I had a nice 4-1 day on the baseball picks. I have no idea why I bet the Tigers and not Cleveland. For some retarded reason I decided to fade the 18-2 starter.

It's early right now, but looking at the board I've already got a smallish play on the Cubs and the Over on the game which is set at 10. I'm parlaying the two so I hope it works out. Cubs have been crushing the ball and Marquis has given up a ton of runs as of late so we'll see how that goes. A lot of soccer games later on tonight also so I'll definitely have more plays for the day.


Parlay: Cubs -0.5 & Cubs v. Pirates Over 10

Parlay: Santos v. Tecos Over 2.5 & Morelia (Pick)

Parlay: Atl. Madrid -0.5, Montreal -0.5, Santos -0.5 & Morelia -0.5

Cleveland -0.5

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Day Profit: -$4.81

Day Record: 1-3

Total Record: 98-109-6

Bankroll: $108.00

Total Profit: -$92.00

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tuesday Picks

Cubs -1.5

Brewers -0.5

White Sox -1.5

Detroit -0.5

LA Angels -1.5

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Day Profit: +$12.19

Day Record: 4-1

Total Record: 97-106-6

Bankroll: $112.81

Total Profit: -$87.19

Monday, August 25, 2008

Monday Favorites

NY Mets -1.5

Arizona -1.5

LA Angels -1.5

Cubs -1.5


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Day Profit: -$2.50

Day Record: 2-2

Total Record: 93-105-6

Bankroll: $100.62

Total Profit: -$99.38

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Saturday's Card

Santos (Pick)

Indios +0.5

Tigre v. Velez Over 2.5

Oakland -0.5

LA Angels -0.5


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Day Profit: +$14.05

Day Record: 4-1

Total Record: 91-103-6

Bankroll: $103.12

Total Profit: -$96.88

Friday's Results

Wasn't able to post the plays I had yesterday but here they are. Tecos couldn't hold a 2-0 lead heading into the second half and the Angels just got clobbered so the North Korea pick was just a "trying to get even" pick which worked off nicely.

Tecos (Pick)

LA Angels -1.5

North Korea (Olympic Hand Ball)

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Day Profit: +$1.36

Day Record: 1-1-1

Total Record: 87-102-6

Bankroll: $89.07

Total Profit: -$110.93

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Paper Chaser, Make Me Rich

Going with Paper Chaser's picks tonight. I like them, he likes them, good enough for me.

Actually I'm not so confident on the Seattle pick. Just hard to trust a team almost 25 games under .500. But that's why we call it gambling =)

Yankees -0.5

Seattle -1.5


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Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 0-2

Total Record: 86-101-5

Bankroll: $87.71

Total Profit: -$112.29

Another Record Update...

I've been making plays the last couple of weeks but hadn't been posting them here cause I've either be too lazy or my internet connection has been shitty.

So I just got done going back trough my bets to update my record.

It's actually somewhat of a miracle that my bankroll is as high as it is since it was somewhere around $30 only three or four days ago but the USA Women's Soccer game and the Mexico game today helped me get back on track.

I want to get back over $100 so badly as I think it'll be a good confidence booster. Hopefully I get it done soon.


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Total Record: 86-99-5 (45.2%)

Bankroll: $97.71

Total Profit: -$102.29


Monday, August 18, 2008

You Know You're a Degenerate Gambler When...

...you're up at 5am and wondering if there's any sporting events going on right now that you could possibly bet on. Thankfully, you remember there's this thing called the Olympics going on half way around the world so you log on to your online sportsbook to check the lines on any events going on and realize there's a Women's Soccer match about to start between USA and Japan. You decide to put your whole bankroll on the line on said match since you're steaming from earlier in the week when your 13 game Olympic parlay lost because of one Andy Murray who couldn't fucking beat an unknown Taiwanese tennis player providing the biggest olympic tennis upset of the last few years. A -2500 favorite fucks up a 13 game parlay. Nice


So, anyway you end up taking the USA as -200 moneyline favorites despite the fact that you probably can't even name a single player on either squad. The match starts and you begin to sweat it out because despite the commentator's remarks that USA is a big favorite in the match because they have never lost to Japan in 21 previous tries, you notice that the Japanese have complete control of the match trough out the first 15 mintues and USA can't generate anything up front. Then it happens, Japan scores a goal. Not a pretty one either, just a lost ball that everyone scrambles for in the box but no defender can get to and suddenly it's Japan-1 USA-0.


Then you begin to tell yourself what a moron you are for having put yourself in this position. You could have tried to grind what little was left of your bankroll, the good old Paper Chaser way, with patience and bankroll management. But you fucked up and now there's nothing left to do but hope these females have it in them to make a comeback. They immediately begin to play smarter soccer and thankfully don't go into panic mode being down 1-0. They have good wing approach and it's in one of these sideline runs that they manage to score the equalizer 5 minutes before halftime. You want to scream in joy but realize it's early in the morning and everyone in the house is sleeping.

You begin to feel a little better about the pick and better turns into fantastic when another goal hits the back of the Japanese net just before halftime putting the USA up 2-1. This time you don't care if you wake up the entire neighborhood. You break out a scream in celebration while at the same time you first begin to notice just how good these USA girls look in soccer shorts. Damn if only WNBA girls looked this good, you could begin to wager on those games as well.

By halftime it's 7:00 am and your mom is awake probably a byproduct of your joyous second goal celebration. She asks what you're doing up so early. Ha! Right, like you ever went to sleep.

The second half is oh so sweet as USA take complete control of the match and manage to add two more goals. Those type of goals that the scorer will always tell you were meant as shots on goal but really you know they were center passes that were so bad that they turned into a goal. Hey, whatever, you're not complaining.

The final whistle blows with a score of USA 4 Japan 1.

It's 10:00 am and you're finally ready to call it a night..err day and need some sleep since you've got to be at work in 4 hours. You're feeling happy and relived that your compulsive bet didn't break your bankroll and promise yourself you won't make those kinds of bets anymore.

Yet deep inside as you wonder off to sleep, you know you'll probably do it all over again tomorrow.


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Monday, August 11, 2008

I Hate Andy Murray

details later today...maybe.

p.s.
FUCK THE OLYMPICS

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Soccer Parlay

Been kind of busy the last couple of days with some cousins from Houston in town for Lollapalooza so I've been driving them around and what not.

I also had to work yesterday, with a shitty run in poker and blackjack ending the day -$13. There's this new guy playing with us. He's name's Curtis and he's the son of Malik, one of the cooks at Gigio's. He was watching us play and my friend Furcio convinced him to play with us even though I told him not to cause I thought he was going to suck and I didn't want to take his money,lol. But turns out dude can hold his own and he actually pulled out about even at the end.

Furcio was the big winner of the night leaving with around a $30 profit which were mainly from me and a driver named Alex.

I've got work again today, so I shall try to make some of that money back from him.

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So tonight I'm just going with a 3 game parlay that pays 2-1 since these are all big favorites. Ya'll know I suck at parlays but I just couldn't resist. Good luck me, I guess.

3 Game Parlay-

Monterrey (-0.5)

Pachuca (Pick)

Atlas (Pick)

Risking 5.42 to win $10.53

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Day Profit: -$5.42

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 78-89-3