Terrible Session TodayUgh, where to begin? Everything that could have possibly went wrong did; long story short, I had my first (and hopefully last) -$20k day today. I did take a shot at 25/50plo chasing two pretty big fish, but that's not where I got killed. I was at two of the absolute juciest 10/20 games I've EVER seen for a few hours, and wound up losing just about every big pot I played. This one table was particularly amazing with an average of 4-5 players seeing the flop nearly every hand for 2+ hours! But obv I ran like ass and dropped $16k at that table. So standard...
Read the complete story at Brystmar's Blog.
 US to win most Gold Medals China probably should be favourites to win most Gold medals, but the market has over-reacted to their (limted) early success. After 3 of 16 days of the Olympics (and 34 of the 302 gold medals decided), the standings are as follows:
 One of Worst days ever in PokerWell, I just dropped 140k. One of my worst days ever, but not the worst. I have been running so hot, I guess I was due to lose. I ran about 200k below equity. I played some HU nl vs zig too, though he hit and ran me for a buyin. I feel like I played super great today, juts didn’t work out my way. Part of the reason I went to go get coaching was to deal with moments like this, and to be honest im not really that upset. I am obviously kinda sad, but games were good, I got my money in good, only so much I can do.
I AM upset a little bit that I broke my plan. I was gonna go lay down by the pool and swim a bit, but I got on and there were 4 plo games, so decided to sit.
Read the complete story at Cardrunners David B's Poker Blog.
 Close To A Great DayManaged to win just over £200 on the Aussie football overnight which is always a good way to start the day. Loads of action on the horses as you would expect on a Saturday. Tipping Legends put up seven horses, but the only return was an each way on Giganticus, 3rd at 16/1. Profitable but very frustrating day for us Isiris members. Kevin put up Papal Bull each way for the King George ante-post. Advised at 14/1, shortened up during the week but drifted back to that price on Saturday. I've yet to see the race but Papal Bull finished second, beaten half a length by Duke of Marmalade the pair finishing 9 lengths in front of the third. I understand Papal Bull traded at 1.1 in running, so narrowly missed out on a £3500 payday. More angst for Isiris followers as Kevin on-line on Saturday evening with an each way insider priced between 25/1 - 33/1. Kielty's Folly was the horse in question, each way 1234 and of course the damn thing came in fifth, although at least it wasn't a close fifth - that would have been a major kick in the teeth.
Read the complete story at JP's Betting Blog.
 Wedding, Running good and HawaiiYesterday was the wedding. It actually wasn’t that bad, though the ceremony itself took FOREVER. The preacher guy went on and on about some story of jesus turning water into wine, and the history of commitment and stuff. I nodded off in the middle, but Haley hit me and I woke up. After the ceremony there was a pretty sweet reception at the petroleum club, one of the nicer restaurants in Fort Worth. It is 2 floors at the top of a 42 story building, and you can see everything in downtown fort worth from the floor to ceiling windows encircling it. Dinner was good, dancing was good, and the cake was delicious. I tried to limit myself, but I’m a fat kid at heart and ate 4 pieces.
We had plans of going out downtown afterwards, but Haley and I were super tired, so we went back at like 1130, and insta fell asleep. Somehow I slept until 1130 this morning when my alarm went off, and I just kinda laid in bed for a while. I woke up, got in a good workout, and decided to play some poker. I got some sweet action at 25-50 HU, and had a pretty good sesh making almost 8 buyins, though a couple were at the 1 six max table. Lately I have been absolutely demolishing 25-50 whenever I play, though I am not really putting in a ton of hands, im pretty sure on both my computers im over 15 ptbb in last 10k hands or so, so that’s nice.
Read the complete story at CardRunners David B's Poker Blog.
 Poker Disaster: Losing 16 buy-insI've dropped about 16 buyins in the last two days playing hu. brutal.
Hands: 7,465
Profit: -8,396.40
Days remaining: 51
this is not what i expected. if i keep losing at this rate, i'll be completely broke in about 2 weeks.
Read the complete story at Cardrunners Andrew's Blog.
 USA to win most Medals in 2008 OlympicsIn Atlanta 2004 the Olympic Medals Total Tally for the top 3 countries was as follows:
Gold Silver Bronze Total
1. United States 36 39 27 1022.
Russia 27 27 38 923.
China 32 17 14 63.
I am very suprised to see that 11/10 at William Hill/Betfair is availible on USA. Home advantge will count somewhat, (as well as the desire of the China state apparatus to win), but for China to overturn a 39 medal deficit would be an incredible achievement. I believe that they would need to make signficant improvements in both swimming and athletics (where the most medals are), and there is no indication of this. I actually think that Russia may still retain 2nd place.
N.B. Don't make the mistake that a China medal win = a USA model loss (i.e. a net 20 medal swing is all that is required - in many cases the medals that China are targetting are not currently held by USA.
Read the complete story in KickingBets Blog.
 Oscars 2008 Predictions, Tips and Odds
The Academy Awards 2008 Predictions including "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best Actori", "Best Actress", "Best Supporitng Actor" and "Best Supporting Actress" from various blogs and sites:
Best Picture:
Oscar Frenzy: "Well, well, well. It all comes down to this, right? “The Kite Runner” is out for reasons specified above. “His Dark Materials” is probably not going to win since it’s the first of a trilogy and “Atonement” may not have a wide enough appeal. That means the race comes down to “Reservation Road” vs. “My Blueberry Nights.” You would think the obvious choice is “Reservation,” since it’s a serious drama with hefty, possible award-winning performances and backed by Focus. But we still feel it may be a bit too dark and depressing to snag the top prize. Call us crazy, but this may just very well be the first year since 1998 (”Shakespeare in Love”) that another romantic comedy beats them all. It would be fitting, actually, since it is exactly a decade later. Our pick for 2008 Best Motion Picture is “My Blueberry Nights"."
Alternative Film Guide Blog:
"No Country for Old Men.
Until late last week, things were still somewhat murky in the best film
race. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were the
front-runners, while Juno was the dark horse that could potentially
upset the heavy-drama heavyweights. But after the SAG best ensemble and
DGA wins, No Country for Old Men, about a drug deal gone murderously
wrong, has become the official front-runner."
BetFirms Blog: "Best Picture is a tough one this year, but Juno will likely take the cake on this one. The hot new cast and buzz worthy stripper-turned-screen writer (yep, it’s true) has caught everyone’s eye in the past few months. This fresh story has caught the attention of day time talk shows everywhere and it’s doubtful that it will lose any publicity in the next few weeks. Rivaled by Atonement and No Country for Old Men, the Grammy could very well be stolen by any one of these note worthy blockbusters."
John's Movie Blog: "No Country for Old Men, pure and simple. It is the best of the lot and the most unanimously praised. There was a time when There Will Be Blood was considered a serious threat but the DGA and PGA wins for the Coens' film are clear indicators that No Country for Old Men is not budging. Some feel that if those two films split among their target audiences, Juno might take the crown but it is still a little too feathery and lightweight (which is probably like Little Miss Sunshine last year). As for Michael Clayton and Atonement, the nominations are their ultimate rewards (though I think Atonement is the close second here)."
 Autopilot trading, Betfair software and PowerstatsMark Iverson is on Autopilot winning over £151.57 since his last post: "These are the times I find really difficult. It's just so frustrating to have a weekend free and not have many opportunities to take advantage of. Okay, I've still been able to keep the profit & loss ticking over but I feel I could be doing so much better. If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that November, January and February are my expected quiet months but that doesn't make it any easier - it's still boring! But...I guess this when the real pro's stand out from the rest - I'm convinced they sit it out and importantly don't get frustrated. Discipline at this stage is the big difference between getting it right and getting it wrong and the danger is to get dragged into random markets to stave off the boredom. Fortunately, my approach of creating a trading plan before the start of each month seems to have worked in avoiding these pitfalls. Put simply, I list every event I plan to trade and don't veer from the plan. I think it helps for two reasons; the need to chase any losses is reduced as I know when/where my next action is coming from and secondly it ensures I only stick to sports I know."
 Soccer Mystic Review and a Cricket Plan
Wizardgold is scratching the surface with Soccer Mystic: "After my disappointments with the interface of Soccer Mystic yesterday , I thought I should actually read the user guide. It is good to try out software without doing that first because you get a better idea of how intuitive it is, and mostly it worked well enough.read more..For example in the Bookmaker tab (which only places lay bets) I can set how much I want to stake, how much I want to have as profit or just go by the minimum bet amount and then by using the Margin Maker checkbox on the unders side of the market, see what odds I need to have the lay bet go in at to make the money. It is similar to making a back bet on the unders then laying off as the price comes down when no goals are scored at the start of a match. The difference being that the back bet part of the trade is replaced by making a lay bet on the overs side.read more..The ability to have the stake size determined by the price you want to make per tick is useful too. This is because of the tick sizes not being equal.".
 Markets falling worldwide, Beckham to return
The Gambler discusses the stock markets and FTSE. "Did watch the FTSE going up and down all day. US cut interest rates and markets recovering.
I was going to post yesterday that this fall in stock markets is a load of nonsense. Just a few American people getting into negative equity. It really should not cause this world wide panic. Funny enough this rate cut might be seen as a panic measure, and may have a short term negative effect. I would not be surprised if the markets go down again. The FTSE could drop a lot. At some point people will realise how stupid this all is, and buy back into the market. If the FTSE falls to 5300 then I would expect it to rise sharply. A buying opportunity maybe. Anyway it is all quite interesting, and possibly teaches us one or two lessons on how to trade on Betfair and the exchanges."
 Winning in sports betting, is it really a mug's game?
{mosimage}Cloning Arteta is wondering whether sports betting is a mug's game. "How can any individual expect to win against bookmakers who are spending such resources compiling odds? To a large extent this argument holds, and the simple fact that it is very hard to win long term is no doubt underestimated by punters in general. But there are factors in the punter's favour also. One is the sheer number of markets that bookies have to cover - whereas the punter can focus exclusively on certain areas. Another is that bookies can be slow to react to new developments, such as changes in the balance of power between clubs, players improving etc.".
 An Awful Week
{mosimage}Betting on Horses had a wager on Macs Joy in Cheltenam the other day. He had an each way @5-1 which unfortunately lost. He has been busy with work lately, so didn't have enough time for punting and updating his blog. However, it is definately worth a look, since his accumulated P&L is over £5,000 despite his last bad days. We wish him he gets back on track ASAP!
The 30K Challenge had also an awful week, which started with a deficit of £425.70 mainly due to a tipping service's lost bet but his personal trading didn't perform that well either. Then had a couple of days when the negative balance read £258.60, because of a (not so apparrently) reliable source's strong tip, followed by another disappointing and losing day only to finish the week with 3 lost bets by the tipping lines, but fortunately his own trading earned him a nice profit of £167.47. Although his 30K Challenge seems more like a longshot these days, his overall profit is still something to be really proud of! Well done sir!
 £10,000 Monthly Gains, X-Factor and an Algorithm
{mosimage}Footygeek had a not so excellent day on 16th of December, mainly due to some punting on the X-Factor. He did ok though regarding trading the football. 2 days later, he traded successfully the over/under goals market of Manchester Utd.'s game and Arsenal v Chelsea, increasing a bit more his bankroll. Then, on the 19th he had another profitable day, trading the same markets but had a small loss in Asian Handicap. His posts always conclude with his personal tips, take a look!
 Laying wrong donkeys, playing Poker and Trading Rugby and NFL
{mosimage}Mark Iverson went for shopping during last weekend and managed to report a healthy gain of £108.97 although most of the profits were wiped out due to a festive trip to Cardiff. He does like this time of year but he prefers being inside ratther than outside. He traded Rugby Union and NFL while he plans to take a look at the Darts World Championship. Good luck there Mark and we'll keep checking your performance!
Man of Mystery posted a long awaited article about what he is up to lately. It must have been about a month since his last post and he is informing us that he is nowadays in France waiting for his internet connection setup. This post was a great opportunity to thank everyone who visits, reads and listens to his blog (don't forget, he is the man behind the WUBT Radio) and he will be back next week with more interviews! Stay tuned!
Jimmakos is into poker for real! He won over $1,000 playing cash poker games on December 13, then he got ready for the VIP Poker Tournament against WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, and finally he published that sit and go tournament's video, showing how he busted out at the bubble! And if you think that was the end of it, guess again. In his latest post he shows $240 Poker winnings made by playing $100 NL poker. Good game sir!
Now, let's welcome Dailydonkey to our links' section and let's take a look at his two latest posts. First, Jazz Messenger was looking like a banker but the lay bet didn't succeed. The horse managed to win the race but he still considers it a "lay" for the Champion Hurdle. Then Royal Wedding did some damage at Plumpton. There were two reasons to lay that horse: "he hadn’t seen a racecourse for over 2 years when making his reappearance at Kempton around a month ago and also he had never proven himself on the prevailing soft conditions he would encounter at Plumpton". Take a closer to that blog, it's really worth it.
More news from the Betting Blogs to come! Check back soon or subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the updates!
 Powerstats, Trading and some Cricket
{mosimage}Talkbet gave 9 predictions for December the 15th according to the "Powerstats", prompting to get the best odds available. He also took a look at the Cottbus v Hannover game but in the end he left it alone, it was already 3-0 after 50 minutes by the way. Although powerstats have been on a good run lately, his predictions didn't perform so well and his loss for 15th was 6.14 points. Going on some commenting on the games he had his predictions on, he sums up Powerstats' performance at +163.11 points! That sure is a great result! He doesn't stop there however! He even made £336 trading with his in-play application! Nice trading sir! Finally he gave 2 predictions for December the 16th which they both won bringing the total profit to +174.91 points! You know what they say, the sky is the roof! Finally, as far as his blog's design concerns, he is thinking of sorting his blogs' links in two sections, those that update regularly, and those that don't. We are sure we'll see BetStories in the appropriate section, won't we? In case we missed it, a post about giving some details on Powerstats would be of great interest. Hope we'll see one soon.
Trader Pete can surely make it pay for 3 days in a row. Starting on 14th of December, he won £13 trading the horse racing markets, while compaining about the racing schedule and how TV influences it. Next day, although it ended up a quiet day, that didn't mean it wasn't profitable. The profits climbed up to £118 trading the horses but also the X-Factor! Finally, on 16th he made over £50 mainly from Kempton. Great trading results and we are sure good performance will continue!
The Betfair Trader made £427 on Twenty 20 enjoying the fest between Australia and New Zealand. His winnings didn't come though just from that game, he had also took a look at NFL earlier in the week. Who says you have to specialize on just one sport? Cricket must be his favorite however, profiting £662 by trading test games such as India vs Pakistan or Sri Lanka vs England! Congrats!
More news from the Betting Blogs to come! Check back soon or subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the updates!
 Trading profits and Spoiling it all
Kicking Bets doesn't really trust X Factor's polls 100%, but he also believes that Same Difference should be a 6-4 chance. Later that day, he shows a green book by laying at 4.4 his "back" bet of 5.8. Excellent advice and a perfect example of profitable trading!
The Sports Trader has had another good week and his weekly profit reached £1164. An impressive performance by a well known punter. In his post, he goes on showing his daily profits (7 winning days in a row!) and explaining his trading moves. His best day was Sunday, winning almost half of his total profit for the week. A fantastic finish to a great betting week for him! Hopefully we'll see similar performance next week!
Wizardgold traded the Marseilles vs Liverpool game the other day but he had just chosen the wrong one. In the end, he was left looking at a 9 euros loss. Certainly not a huge leak but we are sure he will make it back soon. And indeed he was doing ok trading a snooker game but unfortunately spoiled it all by trading on the Rangers game. He now has reverted to BetIE which offers him a learning mode in order to test his trading skills. Up to now he was using Binary BDI which he has found extremely useful. That however didn't prevent him from taking a closer look at Forex on Friday!
More news from the Betting Blogs to come! Check back soon or subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the updates!
 Value and Trading secrets in Betting Exchanges
Slipperytoad discusses on sports betting and is totally correct when he says that a bet based on the measure of league position holds no wagering value. He then examines the ELO ratings system and reminds himself to look into other sports besides football. After all, since he wants to be a consistent and profitable punter he needs to consider all options available.
The Gambler worries about the English National Football Team and believes changing the manager (Cappello) won't solve the problems. Regarding betting and trading, he did manage to make 65 quid trading in-running horse racing and about 70 in golf. He feels that the world is spinning quite fast and before you know it, it's Christmas already. Even then, when we might get a couple of days off gambling, NFL, Boxing Day and loads of football games are just around the corner. At the moment, he is over £3K up on the month winning today 600 on the rugby and he announces the winner of the Blog of the Day to Bert's Blog! And a piece of advice: if you are near him, switch off your IPOD!
Hamish comments on a Guardian article about whether betting exchanges corrupt sport . Quoting trainer Mark Johnston, he totally disagrees with him and responds "NO" to the original question along with managin director Mark Davies. Other than that, he posts a flashback of his trading background, saying that "It all started in 1986 when I bought some British Gas shares as part of the governments privatization and I've bought and sold shares ever since". It was just one year ago that he found the betfair horse racing markets becoming extremely volatile and very difficult to trade, but after speaking with a very knowledgeable trader, he is again enjoying trading the markets. How about sharing the secret? :) Finally, he spreads the word about good sports forums with trading strategies and betting systems. Definately worth a look.
We'll be back with more news from the betting blogs found in the Links section.
 Profitable Days
{mosimage}Pete over at Trade On Sports is pleased that set of matches (Champions League) is over making the running total +£81.15. He thinks there was no value in laying both Marseille and Rangers since he finds very difficult for some games to make a selection as you are tending to side against the deserved favourite. He also mentions his plans for a football trading room in February next year. Take a look!
The Betfair Loser isn't that much of a loser after all. He just had 13 profitable days in a row ! Now, tell us that is not impressive. He goes on suggesting doing nothing when you don't fancy anything, a well-said advice. None of the champions League games appealed to him so he turned to India v Pakistan test to make his daily profit. We wish him this winning streak to continue as long as it can!
According to JP's Betting Blog his daily profit reached almost £700 when he bet a horse at 40/1 each way and he is feeling good again! No kidding!! The horse was placed third and JP was heading for the cashier. Apart form that he is currently facing some problems with his trading software (Bet Trader Pro) and had decided not to get involved in any betting activity on Wednesday. Still, he showed over £200 profits for the day!
Don't give up your day job had one race that ended up a total mess. He tried to regain the lost ticks, got some back but in the end, the red amount read -£14.22. However, he managed to make some money when the racing was over and his P&L showed green £23 if he hadn't made the error. On Wednesday he was in profit as well although he made stupid mistakes, the Betfair SP was introduced and Hexam was cancelled. Imagine if they hadn't been for all that, what kind of profit would be. He is just £102.95 away from hitting the £1,000 balance and making his first withdrawal! We are sure that withdrawal would be the first of many to come!
 Trading dilemmas, Betfair SP and a Midas Touch!
{mosimage}Footygeek had a dilemma regarding trading tactics . He firstly adopted a sit and wait style until a few bad results saw the bank disappear. Then he went on applying the "in and out" technique which has your stake not exposed for too long. He went on describing some of his trades in football and particularly in Champions League saying among others: "I traded 2.5 goals after spotting Liverpool were 1-0 up, and then traded off my fiver in small poritions to maximise profit and reduce the exposure. £3 had been laid off before the second goal and I was £2 down on overs.". Whatever the trading style he chooses, we hope he ends up a big winner!
Life of Brian had two cracking days applying the Wilkinson system which he wonders if it should be renamed to Midas touch! He won over £1,500 bringing his monthly P&L at almost £9,000. Those are surely impressive results and if you thought he would be satisfied, you are mistaken. He has started experimenting on the Betfair SP system and has already made profits there as well! Keep it up Brian!
The 30K Challenge lost his wallet but made over £1,000 using the tipping lines which is a fine amount of money for compensation. On the next day he had to rely on internet accounts enroute to Cheltenam and he is not blogging until Monday since he already misses his laptop.
Call of the Wildcat won the William Hill 1.5K Added Poker Tournament which meant a £1,000 increase in his bankroll ! Fascinating stuff and a good game! However, he doesn't only play poker but he is also into betting. His main concern is betfair's feed and in-play football suspensions, saying: "Obviously someone with a quicker feed is coming in and wiping the market with huge sums. It ain't gonna happen again easily, I will be betting far smaller amounts, and much less often. No way am I going to see weeks of profits wiped out at one go because betfair can't get the fastest feed possible. God knows, the amount of money they make from these markets, it isn't too much to ask, is it?".
Over at Bert's Horseracing Blog , you can read everything you need to know about the Betfair's SP Launch, like: "It launched quietly yesterday and I would expect it to creep along for a while, gradually picking up turnover as it goes. We need to make some performance tweaks and at some point we need to strip the page down a bit as it’s pretty cluttered right now. I believe that in time it has the scope to become an important product, and it could serve as the foundation stone for a variety of advances further down the line.". Good luck with that sir! This will be the final significant contribution he makes to Betfair’s products as he is to stay on the Betfair board as a non-exec, since he feels they don't need him any more because they are truly an outstanding product team. We hope he continues to update the blog regularly while enjoying his sabbatical!
That is all for now, more news will be posted during the day to cover other betting blogs! Check back soon!
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