The Crooked Link

Life of a Low Stakes Gambler...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Back to $100

A week ago today the bankroll stood at $134.66, but it's been a bad week. More like a bad weekend actually. I played a soccer game way to heavily on Sunday putting $20 on it only because I bet the other side of it with a guy at work and I wasn't liking the play so I bet both sides to cancel it.

I bet on Chivas with Alex from work for $20 and then put another $20 on America on BookMaker. Chivas won so I lost the $20 on BookMaker, but I did get paid by Alex today, so it kind of works out as me just withdrawing $20 from the BookMaker account. Still wish I hadn't done it though because I was on a roll the last couple of weeks.

Anyway these are all the plays from this past week that I hadn't posted and basically outlines how I got back to $100.

10/22- Tampa Bay -0.5 (-$5.00)

10/23- Tampa Bay -1.5 (+$5.83)

10/25- Tampa Bay -1.5 (-$5.00)

10/26- America -0.5 (-$20.49)

10/27- Philadelphia -1.5 (+$0.00) no action

10/27- Indianapolis +4 (-$10.00)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Going with Lakers Celtics and Bulls tonight. Also going to follow Paper Chaser on his Hockey play since he's been on a roll with those. I'd be happy with a 2-2 day.


Bulls -6.5

Celtics -6

Lakers -7.5

Penguins -0.5


Day Profit: +$0.77

Day Record: 2-2

Total Record: 142-153-7

Bankroll: $100.77

Total Profit: -$99.23

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got invited to a home game for tomorrow night but I'm not sure it's still on. So far only 4 people have confirmed so it's not looking to good. Hopefully more people decide to come because I really feel like playing. Haven't played live in a while.

I actually went to this same home game back in February and was the big winner that day. That time we were playing .50c/$1 but tomorrow it's suppose to be $1/$2 NL Hold Em' and Pot Limit Omaha. I don't mind playing Omaha. I really suck at it but I won my biggest pot of the night in Omaha last time, haha.

But like I said, I'm still waiting to hear back from the host to see if the game's still on. If not, I might hit up the Casino up in Rolling Meadows although that's also up in the air since it's like an hour bus ride.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Soccer Parlay

Okay, I wasn't planning on having any action tonight but I that's just not like me. Haha, so I've got a 2 game soccer parlay going which looks kind of solid. First game is Atlante v. Joe Public (I swear that's the name of the team, lol. It's some small soccer team from Trinidad and Tobago)

Anyway Atlante needs a win in this one and Joe Public's back line looks sketchy due to some suspensions. Atlante's offense is not anything to brag about either but I think they can come away with a 1-0 win here.

Second game is DC United v. Cruz Azul. I think Cruz Azul comes away with an easy win here. DC United is fielding a team full of reserves because they have a big match coming up in the MLS this weekend not to mention the fact that MLS teams always struggle when playing in Mexico city.

I had to parlay the two because individually they were -185 and -300. That's too much chalk for my liking. So hopefully this works out nicely.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Game Parlay: Atlante (Pick) & Cruz Azul (-0.5)

Day Profit: +$7.26

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 139-147-7

Bankroll: $134.66

Total Profit: -$65.34

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big win for me yesterday with New England crushing Denver. Good thing I decided to up the ante on the game. I did that for a couple of reasons though. 1, I felt like gambling and 2 because not only was Paper Chaser on the pick, but also this other dude from the FCP forums who's been on a tear lately in football picks. He's made like $1500 off of other posters in the last couple of weeks. He's actually the guy I lost like $80 to in the last Super Bowl. Anyway, he too liked the Pats so I felt good with the pick.

I actually didn't even get to see the game. I was at the movies. We went to this movie place that's like two blocks away from my house. I hadn't been there for a while and now I remember why. It may just be the crappiest movie place in Chicago. Back in the day it used to be a pretty nice place to go watch a movie but now a days all they show is Bollywood foreign movies and an occasional new release.

My sister told me you didn't even have to pay for a ticket because no one was ever watching the entrance. People just walk in and out without paying. We got there and there was in fact no one watching the entrance but I still decided to pay for the tickets anyway which we had to buy at the concession stands. Probably because there was exactly one person working the entire theater. And that was probably due to the fact that the place was completely dead. Granted, it was Monday night but still, I'm talking absolutely dead. We were the only two people in there. The place looked like a good spot to shoot a horror film or something because it gave me the creeps.

Anyway we ended up watching The Express which was the only movie in english playing besides Death Race. I actually thought the movie was really good and would definitely recommend it. They actually shot a bunch of the film at Lane Tech High School which is were a bunch of my friends go. They also shot some scenes across the street from where I work in this tunnel that leads to a train station. They converted it to look like a tunnel that leads into a football field. I remember when they were shooting last summer cause we had film crew coming in and out of the pizza place the whole day. Oh yea, also my high school music teacher had a small role in the film as well. So a lot of connections to the movie, lol.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I arrived late to work today because once again I over slept for a job that requires me to be here at 4 PM, lol. WTF is probably what you are thinking. First I woke up like at 3PM and hit the snooze button. When I woke up again it was 4:15PM. And my dad wasn't home so I couldn't get a ride and had to take the bus. Got to work like at 5:15. Gabriel the manager was cool though and didn't give me too much lip.

Why'd I wake up so late? Well, I was up all night watching episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Hulu.com. Man that website is awesome, they have every episode of the show along with some other great ones like Arrested Development.

Then I decided to watch that movie Kids. Hadn't seen it in a while. Definitely a good movie to check out if you've never done so. My favorite scene from that movie is when Casper and his gang beat the crap out of that dude at the park. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'll leave you all with a clip:


Monday, October 20, 2008

Monday Night Football: Let's go Pats!

A split day yesterday but I ended up on the red because of how much juice I laid on the Santos game. Looking for the Pats to cover tonight.

edit: Screw it, I feel like gambling tonight and seems this is the only game on besides hockey, I'll go ahead and throw $13.70 on it instead of the usual $5.

New England -3


Day Profit: +$13.70

Day Record: 1-0

Total Record: 138-147-7

Bankroll: $127.40

Total Profit: -$72.60

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Still on Chaser's Picks

Still tailing Paper Chaser. Two of his 3 picks have already split so let's hope the Colts manage to cover against the Packers

Also going with the Rays tonight. I'm hoping Garza has a big game on the mound and shots down the Red Sox.

I'll probably have a play on the Santos v. Jaguares game but I haven't made up my mind on that yet.


Baltimore +3

San Diego +0.5

Indianapolis -1.5

Tampa Bay -0.5

Santos Laguna -0.5

Santos v. Jaguares Over 2.5



Day Profit: -$2.74

Day Record: 3-3

Total Record: 137-147-7

Bankroll: $113.70

Total Profit: -$86.30

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lucky Misclick

Paper Chaser has been red hot with his football picks the last couple of weeks so I decided to tail this weekend.

But let's backtrack a little. I made a few plays during the week which I didn't post. I went 1-2 in those and lost -$8.84 leaving me with a $100 bankroll heading into today.

So I decided to tail all 4 of Paper Chaser's picks and ended up with a solid 3-1 in those. Then I also had a play on the baseball game today. I wanted to bet on the Rays, but I must have misclicked when I placed the bet cause when I went back to check the day's results it showed that I actually took Boston -1.5! LOL, nice! Huge break there as Boston ended up winning 4-2.

That's actually the second break I've gotten this week. Last Thursday I was going to bet on the Rays also but for some reason my bet never went through. Rays gave up a 7 run lead and I saved myself $5, haha.

Missouri +4

South Florida -24

Ohio State -3.5

USC -42.5

Boston -1.5


Day Profit: +$16.44

Day Record: 4-1

Total Record: 134-144-7

Bankroll: $116.44

Total Profit: -$83.56

Monday, October 13, 2008

MLB Playoffs and MNF

So as was expected, ever since I mentioned how hot I was running in the HU SnG's a couple of days ago, I've now gone completely cold, lol.

All those coolers that I'd been fading are now coming back at me with a vengeance one after another. I've lost something like the last 5 out of 6 or something. I may switch back to the $6.60 6max for a while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice 3-1 day yesterday with the football picks. I was really thinking about taking Atlanta instead of the Bears yesterday but changed my mind last minute. Gotta start going with my gut feeling more and not over analyze the games.

Anyway, going Rays and Dodgers tonight. Also taking the Browns but I'm holding off on that til before game time to see if I can get a better line.

Thought about teasing Browns +14 and Over 36 but my tease record speaks for itself. I'm like 0 for brazillion in them, so no dice.

Rays -0.5

Dodgers -1.5

Browns + 7.5


Day Profit: +$10.19

Day Record: 2-1

Total Record: 129-141-7

Bankroll: $108.84

Total Profit: -$91.16

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sunday Results

Bears -3

Colts -3.5

Eagles -4.5

Chargers -5



Day Profit: +$8.65

Day Record: 3-1

Total Record: 127-140-7

Bankroll: $98.65

Total Profit: -$101.35

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mexico & USA Parlay

USA is a sure pick on this one against Cuba but Mexico has struggled somewhat when playing in Jamaica. Still, I think they can pull off a 1-0 win here.

2 Team Parlay: Mexico -0.5 & USA -0.5


Day Profit: -$10.65

Day Record: 0-1

Total Record: 124-139-7

Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00

Friday, October 10, 2008

Super Hot

I'm currently on a 10 game win streak in the $5.25 HU SnGs between PokerStars and Full Tilt. Pretty amazing considering the variance of these things. But, like I said in my last post, I've just been fading coolers and making big lay downs.

Lets hope the streak continues.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salt Lake City couldn't come up with a win against the Redbulls yesterday and the game ended 1-1 giving me a losing pick. Bankroll now stands at $100.

Going with Boston and LA on tonight's picks. Hoping to go 2-0. I really don't want the Bankroll to dip under $100 again.

Boston -0.5


LA Dodgers -1.5



Day Profit: +$0.65

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 124-138-7

Bankroll: $100.65

Total Profit: -$99.35

Thursday, October 9, 2008

New Laptop

Haven't blogged in a while.

Between work, shopping for a new laptop and mourning the Cubs' playoffs choke-aments, I haven't had much time.

I finally went to pick up my laptop at Best Buy yesterday. Not the one I linked in my last post though.

That one has apparently been discontinued and I would have to order it online which I didn't want to do. So I went with my second choice, which was a lot more expensive but a better laptop overall.

4GB of memory, 250GB HDD, and an Intel Duo Core processor. Integrated Webcam and what more do I need?

Grand total?

$1,099.99.

Ouch!

Completely worth it though. This thing is blazing fast. I'll probably be blogging more now and with the integrated Webcam, I might even do a video blog here and there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On to Poker. I've been putting in a lot of time on the $5.50 HU SnGs on Stars and Full Tilt and been running extremely well. I know part of it has been luck and avoiding many coolers, but I've also been playing extremely well and capable of laying down big hands to stay alive.

So I'll continue to grind those out along with a $6.60 6 Max here and there.

I haven't played live since last Wednesday. I ended up down $25 in that session after like 5 hours. Never really had anything going and spent most of the session with a stack of around $100-$130, grinding back to $200 and then going back down.

There was an interesting hand that came up, but I'll save that for one of my video blogs if I ever get around to doing one.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sports betting has been pretty minimal the last few weeks. I've made a few plays that I haven't posted with the biggest one being taking the Rays against the White Sox in the ALDS for my whole roll which was around $80. I profited like $26 from that and so the updated record looks something like this:

Total Record: 123-136-7

Bankroll: $106.67

Total Profit: -$93.33

I've got one play tonight on Salt Lake City -0.5 v. NY Redbulls.

I was going to throw some money on the Dodgers also but I think I'll hold off on that.