Blow Up Gambling

If you’re thinking the Yankees are a sure-fire preseason baseball bet, hold onto your wallet. Please. Please don’t make the same mistake the Yankees did and overspend on a bunch of question marks. It’s always popular to jump on the pinstriped bandwagon before Opening Day and declare the Yanks the champs.

Champs in March, chumps in November, that should be their motto for the new millennium. No, it’s not harsh. What have the Yankees done in the last nine years to prove they deserve any better. What have they done to win your confidence to the point where you’d be comfortable putting money down betting on their postseason success (or regular season success for that matter)?

They’ve done a hell of a job at hoarding huge-name talent from across the country and world, but ultimately have zero clue how to mesh a team together to get them to perform and win as a team.

At least they purged Abreu and Giambi, that’s one step in the right direction.

My hesitancy with the Yankees, though, isn’t rooted in some feeling of unfairness against the rest of the league (although I do feel that, too). It’s not that they spend a nine-figure number on players in the off-season, it’s those players that they obtained. It’s similar to betting on soccer when it comes to Manchester United.

I know Sabathia is a Cy Young pitcher, but I’ve never seen him as a fear-instilling staff Ace. I think he can strike you out, he can last 7+ into a game, but I don’t think he scares anyone when it comes down to it.

Maybe he’ll prove me wrong this year. He had a good year in Cleveland and then got shuffled over to a hot and cold Brewers team before they tanked it in the first round. He better be the Ace they need, though, because Burnett (how could they give him what they gave him?) won’t make it through May without a trip to the DL, Chamberlain has legal issues now, Pettite is 75 years old, and Wang…is pretty good.

As for MLB Baseball superstar Texeira? He’s a step up from the big bats they let go, no doubt. He has an average to go along with his power, and he’s generally healthy, all positives. If anything, Jeter will help pad his RBI’s more than ever. But is he a game-changer? I say no. I say he’s a Paul Konerko, Pat Burrell-level talent.

Also, you run through the lineup right now and just about half the names you don’t recognize right off the bat (heh). Maybe that’s a good thing, that not every starting number is paired with a household name.

Maybe, but not good enough this early to lay a chunk of change down on them. For what it’s worth, I think the Red Sox are the strongest team in that division, and the Yankees are third or fourth this year, behind the Angels for sure. If you want a sure fire bet, check out our section on Nascar Betting.

For a lot of us poker players especially right now during these tough economic times we don’t always have the money available in order to play poker. Over the years on many poker forums there has been discussion about staking players and many people have stakes poker players in the past. Basically staking is when someone with money gives money to someone else to play poker with and then at the end any profit made is split.

The most common relationship between the PokerStars.net poker player and the person staking the money is a 50/50 split down the middle which is fair for both parties. In the early stages of your relationship with someone who is staking players they might demand a higher percentage until they can see your results. If you’re looking to build up long-term clients who will stake you then you need to take the pay cut in the early stages of your career to prove your skills in poker to the people with the money.

As a poker player in this deal you don’t have much to worry about because you’re using staked money which isn’t yours. Now if you want a long career playing poker with other peoples money you’re going to want to ensure that you’re wise with the money you get from the person staking you. If you’re not wise with the money then you’re going to have a tough time getting a stake again from that person.

The most difficult thing to do after you download pokerstars and start staking poker players is to have a trusting relationship. Usually either the player or the person staking the money feels cheated in some way and these deals usually end up sour. IF you’re looking to find someone to stake you for a long period of time so you both can make some money then you need to show the person staking you that you can be trusted. You can’t show any emotions at the poker table since it isn’t your money you’re playing with and you definitely can’t just call an all-in in hopes of doubling up with staked money or else you won’t be staked again.

As I mentioned earlier most of the time you will end up having a 50/50 split with the person staking you the money, but you also need to keep in mind that you only get 50% of the profit. If you lose $500 and then win $800 there is $300 profit which you would get 50% of. You can definitely make money by getting staked by someone, but as soon as you can afford to stake yourself then I recommend doing so because then you won’t need to split your profits with anyone.

Generally people who stake poker players on PokerStars.com run from player to player trying to lock up all of the profitable players so if you’re not profitable you will have a tough time getting staked. If you are profitable and can get staked without problems then you should be considering using your own money to stake yourself to avoid losing 50% of your winnings. There are a couple poker forums where you can find people who are staking poker players and that would be your best bet for finding a gig.

On we go to the NCAA Sweet 16. Coming off a furious four days of action, I find some of my predictions held up, and a few unfortunately didn’t, but I’m doing great in a couple of my brackets.

As an alumni of Mizzou, I admit I’m pretty hard on them. They managed to survive Marquette, albeit nearly blowing a sizable half-time lead in the process, and now face big, bad Memphis. So, do I have a newfound belief in the Tigers’ chances? No, I don’t. In fact, I’m picking Memphis to win by at least a dozen. Expect the line to be less, so I’d say Memphis is a strong bet outside of bracket play.

I will, however, give props and maybe a small college basketball bet on my hated rival, the Jayhawks. They look great, and I’d expect them to not only hold their own against higher-seeded MSU, but take them out to advance to the Elite 8. I predict Kansas will even be the favorites going into this by a 2 or 3-point margin. It’ll be a close game, but I think Kansas will pull it out by 5-6 points. And Kansas won’t stop there, they’ll upset Louisville, as well, and prevent another year of all four #1’s making it to the final four.

That’s right, expect UConn, Pitt and UNC to all handle their business and advance through the next two rounds. Purdue barely squeaked by Washington, and I have a feeling their tank is about out of gas, UNC should blow by them and then win a respectable 7-8 point victory of Memphis to get their spot.

UNC will have the most trouble for the sports gambler, but I think their underrated defense will bolster the offense and carry them over Gonzaga. They’ll then face a tough but vulnerable Oklahoma team that just isn’t as good as they think they are. Griffin or no Griffin, this isn’t a Final Four team this year.

To get the best NCAA lines, visit Absolute Poker today. Pitt faces a tough road, too, but my pre-tournament prediction to be the National Champs just needs to keep playing the ball that carried them to their current 30-4 record and they should pass by overachieving Xavier. That Nova/Duke game is too close to call, but I’m going with Nova in an upset. After crushing UCLA, I think Nova’s confidence might just give them the edge here.