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| Bodog 2010 Calendar |
One of my 2012 resolutions that I did honor, maybe the only one, was not to do any gambling with any of the online offshore sites on any football games. The only downside of this decision is that the site no longer sends me their “Swimsuit” calendar that I used to post on the beer cooler in Buzzy’s. This was the same calendar that I used to have to hide whenever my Mom would pay a visit to the Store. As I would hide the calendar from her, it always made me think “Here I am 60 some years old and still hiding T&A stuff from my Mom!”
So here it is now 2013 and lacking any resolution to not bet this year, I find myself ready to jump back in the betting waters knowing full well it’s a dumb move. (May be a moot point however, because just now when I tried to go to the Bodog site looking for their latest calendar, I found this click here. Oh well.)
All of this makes me think about my buddy who by his own admission was once a semi-degenerate gambler. Also, by his own admission, he confides that he bet and lost alot on a fairly continual basis for an extended period of time. However, unlike one of our former County Commissioners, who had to resign purportedly because of unpaid gambling debts, my buddy says that he never had the boys with baseball bats camped out on his front doorstep wanting to be paid. He maintains that he eventually got tired of losing money and simply gave up his gambling “hobby.”
I always think of my betting buddy whenever I get that urge to do some gambling on ball games such as today’s NFL playoffs. In particular, I am reminded of a couple of his betting guidelines: always bet home underdogs and double digit dogs. (Believe it or not, there are actually some statistically-based studies that tend to confirm that betting a double digit underdog is a good bet click here.
Thus, when the odds for today’s games came out last Monday, both of the bird named teams appeared ready to qualify for my buddy’s two guidelines: the Ravens were a 10 point underdog against the Pats and the Falcons were getting 3 points at home. However, thru the course of the week, the lines moved. In the Ravens’ case, the line moved 2 points which would indicate that other “wise guys” also adhered to my buddy’s double digit guideline.
And yet, as much as I was tempted to pull the trigger and bet these, another of my buddy’s caveats came to mind. He would always preface his guideline discussions with “Just remember one thing – I have lost alot of money following these guidelines.” Thus, I’ll harken back to my 2012 resolution and not bet today. But should both the bird teams cover today, I’ll be giving my buddy a call to suggest we do lunch sometime and see who he likes in the Super Bowl.
P.S. Both games will be on at Buzzy’s Country Store. Donna will serve up some rounds whenever the Ravens sack Tom Brady. Here’s hoping a lot of rounds are served up.