9-11 — Never Forget!!!!!!

September 11, 2008

I don’t want this to turn into a Political Circus…. Lets keep it clean and no bashing of Bush, etc…. NO matter what your feelings are…

Today is in remembrance to all those who Perished on this fateful day on September 11, 2001…..

Our Own The Devil has created a good thread in the Political Room where you can post where you were on that day.

But Today lets all have a Moment of Silence for everyone who Lost someone and for those that lost their lives or were wounded that day.

Let’s also Thank every Man and Woman who does or has worked for any Police Force, was a Firefighter, EMT, 911, Nurse, Doctor, Hospital, Red Cross, all Members of our National Guard, and any Veteran or Current member of our Armed Forces.

The People above (I am sure I left out many) and regular Citizens around this country banded together that day and the months that followed to do everything in their power to get New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, PA back to as normal of a life as possible as quickly as they could after this tragic event. People from all over the country sent help and Aid Came in from all over the world. The True Meaning of the American Spirit Came to life that day and we actually found out that Most people around the World didn’t really hate Americans by the public outcry of the despicable attacks carried out by a few zealots.

If you see any of the Workers I mentioned above today thank them for what they are doing. You need to do this because it is a thankless job and almost EVERY American out there takes these people for granted. Shamefully I know I do. Lets let them know how much they actually mean to US because the next time they are needed it could be you, your town, your city, or your State that is devastated.

Today is going to be a somber mood around my house today as I am sure there will be a lot of reflection going on.

I hope everyone has a great day and Remembers exactly how we felt like this day and that makes us bond together to make not only a better United States of America, but the entire World.

Thank You,

Dirty

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Soccer Betting — The Beginners Guide to the Beautiful Game.

August 15, 2008

 

 

Beginners Guide

The Beginners Guide to the Beautiful Game.

Welcome and thanks for checking out the site. Consider this a starting guide if you are looking to get into Football. It won’t be too in-depth but this should provide a good starting ground to get more information on the game.

Who Controls Football?

Football’s governing body is called FIFA. (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) They make sure cash is flowing into the game. They are not so hands on with regards to rules. FIFA has a special section that deals with the rules of the game. FIFA can’t stand politics or politicians. When the U.S congress was investigating the major sport leagues regarding steroids the heads of the four major sporting leagues all appeared before congress. That would not work with FIFA, not only would they thumb there nose at congress but they would ban U.S Soccer from playing in International competitions. Politicians manage the country and FIFA manages football is their mind set.

FIFA’s crowning jewel is the World Cup. More regarding the World Cup would be explained in another section below.

FIFA is the international body that controls football around the world. Each continent has there own governing body that oversees football within the continents. The European governing body is called UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and the North American governing body for the sake of information is called Concacaf. (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association)

Most of the examples will be based on UEFA since they are the biggest of the continental bodies. UEFA sets the policy when it comes to European football. Their crown jewel is the Champions League for Club competition that occur annually and the European Championships for national competitions which occur every four years. Each continental body has their own version of the Champions League and European Championships. For example the Concacaf national competition is called the Gold Cup.

Each country’s also has their own FA (football association). Each country’s FA looks after football at the grass roots level all the way up to the top professional leagues.

Now we’ll move on professional leagues.

For this area forget everything you know about North American sports since it doesn’t really apply here.

Each country has their top professional league. The example used here will be the English Premier League. Most of the top leagues have between 16-20 teams playing within and play each other twice a year. The standard calendar for most leagues is between August and May. MLS and other cold weather countries such as Russia run between March and December.

A win is worth three points and a tie is worth one. Using the EPL (English Premier League) example whoever has the most points after 38 games wins the league. Where it differs from North American sports is that whoever occupies in the bottom three places in the EPL no longer get to play in the EPL next season. Those three teams are sent down to play in the second division (in England its called the Championship) and three new teams from the Championship take there place in the English Premier League.

So there is no playoff type format?

With some exceptions such as the MLS, no there isn’t a playoff structure to determine the champion. It’s based upon the entire year of league play.

Knock out competitions do occur through the course of the year. Some countries only have one and some have two. In England they are two. This first one is the FA Cup. Certain weekends are set aside during the season where teams will play for the FA Cup instead of playing in the EPL. Provided you are a registered club with the FA you are entered into the FA Cup. That means this title in not only open to the 20 teams playing in the main league. It’s open to every football team in England, professional or amateur. When the FA Cup draw is made there is a chance a small club that averages 1000-2000 people a game can have Manchester United visit them which is part of its charm.

The FA Cup is played throughout the course of the year, while the rules differ from country to country if you win you move on. England for example if the game ends in a draw the game is then replay at a later date. Only this time if team A plays team B in team B’s home stadium the replay now takes place in team A’s home stadium. If after two games it’s still a tie then extra time is needed, then penalty kicks.

The second knockout type format is the League Cup. As mentioned some countries have this and some do not. The League Cup is not open to every team registered with the FA. It’s only open to the teams that play in the four professional leagues in England. The top division in England is called the English Premier League and the second division called the Championship. There are two more leagues under it. The next one down is called League One and naturally the next one below is called League Two. Unlike the FA Cup, the League Cup differs slightly in that there are no replays if a game isn’t decided in 90 minutes. Instead extra time and penalty kicks would be needed.

A fan typically has three trophies in which to root for. The EPL title, FA Cup and League Cup. That will bring me to the next question.

It’s seems like only big teams like Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea win the league. If that is the case what does a fan of a club, let’s say West Ham have to cheer for?

While the goal is to win the league and its true for most clubs it is unrealistic, fans that don’t cheer for the big four still have reasons to be interested.

Below is an example of the EPL standings. (Forgive the format)

Points
1 Manchester United 76
2 Chelsea 71
3 Arsenal 70
4 Liverpool 62
5 Everton 57
6 Portsmouth 53
7 Blackburn 50
8 Aston Villa 49
9 Manchester City 49
10 West Ham 44
11 Tottenham 39
12 Newcastle United 35
13 Middlesbrough 34
14 Sunderland 33
15 Reading 32
16 Wigan 31
17 Birmingham 30
18 Bolton 26
19 Fulham 24
20 Derby 11

This is where UEFA now comes into play. Mentioned above UEFA controls European Football. It is the goal of just about every team to end up playing in Europe, partly for the money and partly for the prestige. UEFA runs two European competitions, one is the Champions League and the other is the UEFA Cup. For any college basketball fans think of the Championships League as March Madness but more importantly the UEFA Cup is the NIT however winning it is treated with much more respect.

The top two team teams in the EPL currently (this may change in the future) will automatically qualify for the Champions League. The teams in 3rd and 4th place will then go into a draw and will play another European based team in an home and away format and whoever comes out on top will then go on to the main Champions League competition. Usually England gets four teams in the Championships League however that is due to the EPL being a strong league. Each country depending on the quality of their league only gets a set amount of teams entered into the Champions League. For example Portugal the top two get in automatically and then the 3rd place team has to qualify. Scotland only gets the 1st place team and the second place team needs to qualify. As you can see each country is different.

The Champions League is where you want to be. It’s the money league and playing in the Champions League will convince the best players to play for your team but that will be touched on later.

The same quota system is also in placed for the UEFA Cup. The 5th place team will qualify for the UEFA Cup. Now the tricky part comes into play. On some years the 6th and 7th place team will also qualify however there is a big if to that.

Remember the FA Cup and League Cup mentioned before? Well if a team wins that then their ticket to Europe is already punched. So Tottenham for example won the 2008 League cup. That means despite them being in 11th in the EPL their assured of an European place which means one less spot to play for. In 2008 whoever finishes in 7th will not have a direct entry into the UEFA Cup (There is a back door called Intertoto Cup which can gain you entry but that falls outside the scope of this article) The same also applies to the FA Cup whoever wins that will also go straight to the UEFA Cup and that would mean the 6th place team wouldn’t make it to Europe.

2008 is a strange year with regards to European places (spots) due to the fact that the big four teams in England usually win the FA and League Cup. In doing so that opens up the door to places 6th and 7th making it to Europe.

In a perfect world an EPL team would want to be in the top 7. Places 8th-13th are not great but not bad either. Those teams are not going to Europe yet are in no danger of losing their EPL status and getting regulated. Teams 14th-17th can’t be comfortable since it’s close to the drop zone. You don’t want to finish 18th, 19th, and 20th since a team would lose their EPL status. Unlike in American sports where teams mail it in for the last part of the season to get a better draft pick the reserve is true here. Teams at the bottom end have to fight tooth and nail to ensure they stay in the top division because that is where the money is.

How’s Does Player Movement Work?

Try to forget the North American based systems here as well. It will be good to list roughly the top eight teams in European Football. (Apologies to a few clubs that should make the list but I wanted to keep it simple.)

In no order

1 Manchester United
2 Arsenal
3 Liverpool
4 Chelsea
5 Real Madrid
6 Barcelona
7 Inter Milan
8 A.C Milan

To bring it back to college sports consider the above your power house teams. With a few exceptions consider any other team below that a Mid Major team.

What this means is if a team from the big eight chooses to go after a player from a team not in the big eight that player will most likely want to jump ship. It gets tricky and expensive when a team in the top eight wants a player from another top eight team.

While North American sports have drafts, trades and free agency, Football has transfers and loans.

In football there are only two times a year where transfers are allowed to take place. The first is the summer transfer period which is between July 1 to August 31. The other is the winter transfer period which is open between January 1st and January 31st. You can talk and try to make moves at anytime however it won’t become official and that player won’t become part of your team unless it falls within those two time periods.

This is roughly how transfers happen.

Team A goes to Team B and says we want this player, how much would it cost to buy him? If team B wishes to put a price on the player they will come back and say “you can buy the player however you would have to pay us 10 million dollars for his rights” If Team A is fine with that they cut Team B a check.

This is where Football also differs to North American sports. In those sports league if two teams make a trade the players involve have to report to their new team. Not the case in Football. As a side note while trades do happen its very rare in Football so that is all I will make mention of that.

Back to the example now, Team A and Team B have agreed to a price Team A is now allowed to talk to the player regarding a contact. See in North American sports the contract gets taken over by the new team. Not so in European Football, Team A will now have to deal with the players agent since the player will need to sign a contact with the team that wants to sign him before it can become official.

In the end this is how it would break down.

Team A gets the player they want.

Team B gets cash which they can keep in the bank or use to buy another player

and

The player gets a new contact which usually means more money.

Free Agency is also rare in Football. If a team likes a player they will approach that player about signing a new contact two years ahead of time. If the player says no they the team will look to sell him before losing the player for nothing.

The other major form of player movement is sending a player out on loan. If team A sends a player out on loan to team B, team A still own the player however usually team B pays a part if not all the players wages. Much like a transfer the player would have to agree to the loan in order for it to take effect.

Football Competitions

The Champions League

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In the Champions League 32 of the best club teams from around Europe meet up to determine who is the best in Europe. Not only does a fan get to cheer for their team on a National level but the best of the best is determined on an Continental level every year. Unlike Baseball who crown teams World Champions in a league that is only played in North America. In Football there is no argument, the best of the best is crowned not only in Europe with the Champions League but that team goes on to play in the Club World Cup in Japan where all the winners of each continents version of the Champions League meet to see who is the best.

Back to the Champions League, 32 teams which are broken down into 8 groups of 4 teams. The groups of 4 then play each other home and away in a round robin format. The top two teams in each group move on to the round of 16. The 3rd place team doesn’t move on however they will now drop down to the UEFA Cup and play in that competition. The last place team goes home. The group stages of the Champions League take place between September and December

The next stage of the Champions League start again in February. The 16 teams left are then placed in a draw where one team will face another team. Unlike the group stage this round will be played over two games in a home and away format. The winner over the two games moves on. Away goals are important since it is considered the main tie breaker. For example is Team A and Team B play in Team B’s stadium and the result of the first game is 2-1 for Team B. If in the second game Team A Win 1-0 while the overall score is 2-2 they will move on since they scored an away goal.

If both games end up with the same score in the two games then extra time and penalties will be needed.

That is the format used in the Champions League right up until the deciding game. The finals are a one game winner take all with extra time and penalties if needed.

UEFA Cup.

The format for the UEFA Cup is changing in the fall of 2008 to pretty much match up with the Champions League. With that being the case there isn’t too much of a difference between the two competitions going forward.

Now that the major club competitions have been taken care of, we move on to the International tournaments.

The European Championships.

As mentioned previously each continent has there own governing bodies. Each governing bodies holds a major tournament once every couple of years. With UEFA being the most powerful and biggest of the continental bodies the example of the European Championships will be used. The examples below are not standard with the other governing bodies. For example in the European Championship, countries need to qualify for it. The South American version which is the Copa America no qualifying takes place. The information below is not standard across the world.

The European Championships take place every four years and aside from the World Cup, Summer Olympics and maybe the Super Bowl there is no bigger sporting event.

The home nation automatically qualifies for this event. Since two countries are hosting it in 2008 (Switzerland and Austria) that leaves 14 other countries that need to qualify. Seven groups of either 7 or 8 teams are formed with each country playing the other twice over a 18 month period in order to decide who qualifies. The top two teams in each group then move on to the European Championships.

Once the European Championships kick off there will be four groups of four countries. Each country plays within there group once in a round robin format. After the three games are complete the top two teams move on to the knockout round. When the final eight is set its win or go home right up until the final which will determine the winner.

The World Cup

The World Cup is the grandest stage in Football and It occurs every four years. A good month will lift a player into legendary status. Each continental federation gets a certain amount of places in the World Cup. With Europe being the largest football playing continent they get the most entries into the World Cup with 13 places (out of 32 teams) the lowest is CONCACAF (North/Central America) who only get three automatic places. Each continents system for awarding World Cup places is difference. In Europe it pretty much follows the same routine as qualifying for the European Championships. The only difference is that the first place team qualifies. The teams who finish 2nd are then put together where they would have to face another 2nd place team in a home and away format. The country that wins over the two games then advances.

Once the World Cup starts, the format is exactly the same as the European Championships, only with more teams. There are eight groups of four teams with each team playing three times again in a round robin format. The top two teams then move on to the knockout rounds. When the final 16 are set its win or go home all the way up to the World Cup finals.

That pretty much wraps it up. If anyone has a question please feel free to email me at
dmmd98@sinnacle.com

Written by dmmd98 · Filed Under Guest Columnist, Online Gambling News, Soccer | Leave a Comment 

Staying in the betting game against all odds

August 13, 2008


How to keep yourself in the betting game

You’re probably betting too much money on every game you bet. I bet you are wondering how I know?  No you aren’t!  You don’t have to study money management from a gambling perspective to see that about ninety-nine percent of sports bettors wager way way too much when they place a bet!  They are craving action but they don’t realize betting like that will make you go broke in a hurry with one stretch of bad luck.

Think about this for a second, would you wager twenty-five percent of your retirement fund or kid’s college money on something that most likely had a better than fifty percent chance of dropping to nothing by tomorrow? The answer no you wouldn’t.  And if you said yes your kids are screwed and you better pray we find a way to fix our social security problems.  Now here is something else to consider, why is it that so many people who bet on sports are willing to chance losing up to or even over twenty percent of their gambling bankroll on just one game? The sad fact is that it is extremely easy to risk it all and not even realize it.  Most sports bettors don’t risk THAT much, but some do.  Even those betting up to 10% of their bankroll are betting irresponsibly and they probably don’t even consider it.

Would you take the chance?

This is a pretty touchy subject among people who bet on sports and other events especially college and nfl football. You can understand why, they have a real problem, most of the time they dont realize it before its too late. They aren’t professional gamblers, they’re doing it for entertainment, and they enjoy it, but sooner or later they get caught up.  If you were offered a ten percent advantage in a game of chance, (45% for the house vs. 55% in your favor) for a total of 500 bets, would you take that chance?

The answer is yes, you would jump into that proposition with both feet and a blind fold! Over the course of time (500 bets let’s say), the law of averages states that you might end with close to 55% winners (275 wins vs 225 losses). Now if you were betting one hundred dollars for each bet you would happily walk away with approximately $5,000 right? Piece of cake!

But consider this…Say that perchance, I told you that you were able to begin the game with only $500 (which would be your bankroll) and that if you lost all of that money, that you would not be able to replenish your supply of cash. Now think about it, let’s say that I was MAKING you bet 20% of your bankroll on each bet. Would you take that chance? Would you be able to outsmart the oddsmakers for a mere five thousand dollar profit?

A smart person would be saying, “No, don’t do it, walk away!” but you feel that familiar tingly feeling that all gamblers feel.  That misguided arrogance that keeps you there, the rush of adrenalin that courses through your veins as you straddle the fine line of winning and losing.

You are definitely going to lose it all. 

If you were smart, and knew you could hit that 55% mark, and you bet the appropriate amount of money per wager, you would be betting near that same 20% per bet that you started with by the end of your 500 game run, ironically.   Unfortunately, I’d bet my bankroll that you can’t do it…not now, not ever.  Prove me wrong, and keep your wagers to less than 3% of your bankroll.

Discuss this article in our Sports Betting forums

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The Native Americans Give…And then they take away

August 8, 2008

 Written by: pvcpipe

This past weekend, I journeyed back to my home away from home, the reservation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. I wanted to take in some history, some heritage, and view first-had the unbelievable collection of American History artifacts such as ancient Choctaw craftwork and centuries-old arrowheads. It turns out there’s also a casino on this reservation. What a happy coincidence! Even though I had no previous knowledge of a gambling establishment on the sacred tribal land, since I was already there I had no qualms about a little leisurely gambling.
I decided to take along a gambling companion. Similar to watching a movie, having an associate to gamble with doesn’t really enhance the experience itself, but it’s nice to have the company. Although most of my friends are either married or giant vaginas, my buddy Chad agreed to join me on my adventure. Everyone has certain friends that are great to hang out with, but are equally exasperating. Chad falls into that category. I always have fun spending time with him, but when I do, a good 10% of my sentences begin or end with “Fucking Chad.”
There’s nothing better than that first minute inside a casino. All the bells and whistles, the artificial sound of slot machines paying out, cries of jubilation and desperation as fortunes are won and lost……all of these things make a casino a Mecca of sorts for the action junkie. Best of all, upon arrival, the gambler hasn’t yet had a chance to lose, and the anticipation of winning far outweighs the potential anguish of losing. So, I wish my friend good luck at the roulette table (sucker!), and head to the dice pit.
It didn’t work out as I’d hoped. It was so cold; I’m convinced there were supernatural forces at work. Either the table is located directly above an old Indian Cemetery, or the casino was employing a tribal shaman as the stickman. Down a few hundred, I feel hot breath on the back of my neck. Good ol’ Chad. Slurping away on a beverage like Cousin Eddie, he enlightens me with this nugget of wisdom: “Well…The Lord giveth and the lord taketh away. That’s from the Book of Job. There was nothing else to read in the hotel room when I was taking a dump, so I grabbed the Bible. Pretty good stuff in there.” Fucking Chad.
(Incidentally, the Gideons would save a lot more people if they placed the Good Book on the back of the can in hotel bathrooms, rather than in the night stand. You’re telling me you wouldn’t peruse some scripture if there was nothing else around? The Lord works in mysterious ways, I always say.)
So, after being robbed blind at the dice table, I followed my friend into the High Limits slot salon. I tried to tell him that slots are useless, boring, and primarily for trophy wives that can’t figure out the intricacies of blackjack, but he wouldn’t listen. Probably a good thing, since no sooner did he pull the lever did he nail the machine for a $2,000.00 score. He immediately went into a celebration dance that would make Chad Johnson blush, while flies buzzed lazily out of my wallet. I won’t go into details about his makeshift end-zone celebration, I’ll just say it began with The Robot and ended in a slow, sensual dry hump of the “Blazing 7’s” machine. The real miracle is that we didn’t get laid.
After Chad’s victory over the slot machine, we decided to grab some food at the all night diner. Our waiter, like most employees, was Native American. And from the service, it’s safe to assume he’s still pissed about the Trail of Tears. I’m pretty sure his given name was “Drags Ass While Bringing Water,” or “Brave Who Will Make Paleface Suffer From Dehydration.” But his nametag just said, “Phil.”
To close out the evening, we hit the poker room, just playing some pot-limit hold ‘em. We did pretty well over a four hour span, but were eventually asked to leave when my friend slow rolled an opposing player, then winked at him and stiffed the dealer on a tip. Turning to me, they asked, “What the hell is wrong with your friend?” All I could say was: “Fucking Chad.”

PVCPIPE

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A Look at Gambling

July 14, 2008

These Articles are a part of a weekly series that will be published every Monday from a different Gambling IQ member. We want to get some perspective and thoughts of the diversity and into the minds of how our posters think. We hope you enjoy.

* Written by guest columnist and Gambling IQ poster PickandWin1

Why does a person Gamble ? Good Question, with a lot of Answers.

There are many reasons why people gamble, and there are many ways To Gamble.

From stories from My dad, back in the 30’s, they gambled on the game of Pool, Dice, Cards ( Poker ) and Numbers, ( you remember this, where it would be the last 3 numbers of the Track handle )

But over the years, gambling has become Big Business. ie, Horse racing, Poker and Sports. Casinos have plenty to offer on Gambling as well.

I like when a person says to me they Don’t Gamble. You Don’t ? I say… Do you Own Stocks ? Yes Do you Own Real Estate ? Yes

Well, Then you Gamble as well.

If you would look up the Word Gambling in the Dictionary, you will find 6 or 7 defintions.

1.

to play at any game of chance for money or other stakes.

2.

to stake or risk money, or anything of value, on the outcome of something involving chance: to gamble on a toss of the dice.

3.

to lose or squander by betting (usually fol. by away): He gambled all his hard-earned money away in one night.

4.

to wager or risk (money or something else of value): to gamble one’s freedom

5.

to take a chance on; venture; risk: I’m gambling that our new store will be a success.

6.

any matter or thing involving risk or hazardous uncertainty

7.

a venture in a game of chance for stakes, esp. for high stakes

Some of these are scary, aren’t they.

So with the above defintions listed, Why in the World would you gamble. Better question would be, If you saw the above Would you have Started to gamble ?

My guess would be that only 10-20%, if shown the above Defintions would have not started to gamble. Because most gamblers that I know, that have Bet over the past 30 years. Wouldn’t know better about ” hazardous uncertainty ” 30 or 40 years ago. They would have been too young to care less.

So the question remains the same, why do people Gamble ?

Could be A) The Thrill ? B) The Action ? C) The Money ? or D) ALL

The answer is “D” People love the Thrill of Winning. People Love the Action and Most of all They Love to Win Money.

But of course there is a Down side to Gambling, Losing Money !

At this point, you can throw out the “Thrill ” and the ” Money ” but you still have the Action.

Now there is no sure fire way of making you a winning Gambler, but I will leave you with this to help give you a small edge.

When Sports Gambling, Look for the Best Line. Meaning you need more then One Sportsbook when Betting Sports. You need to shop the Lines. You need to get the Best Price.

You might ask why, what’s the difference ? Doesn’t matter if I lay -120 or -125

WRONG ! There is a Difference if you lay -120 or -125 Because if you Lose, you lose $5 more then if you would have found it for -120.

Big Deal, who cares about $5.00 Bucks….Well if you played 30 Games in a week and you lost Half ( 50% ) that adds up to $75 a week Extra that you lost.

Now if you take that for a Whole year, 52 weeks it adds up to $3,900 in a Year That you could have saved by Shopping the Lines.

This is Only if you can hit ( win ) 50% of the time for a Whole year.

The other thing that will give you a small Edge is Money Mangement.

You have heard this plenty of times, Use it ! it Works.

PickandWin1

Written by Dirty · Filed Under Guest Columnist, Handicapping, Online Gambling News | Leave a Comment