Some quick picks

Selection 1: NFL Football
Chicago Bears 30-October-2005 10:00 AM PST
Money Line for Game +130

Selection 2: NFL Football
Miami Dolphins 30-October-2005 1:05 PM PST
Money Line for Game +131


Selection 3: NFL Football
Philadelphia Eagles 30-October-2005 1:15 PM PST
Spread +3.5 for Game -103

Back on the Bus

Let's see if we can turn this NFL thing around. A couple of picks for this weekend:

Carolina Panthers 16-October-2005 10:00 AM PST
Spread +1 for Game +103

Cleveland Browns 16-October-2005 10:00 AM PST
Money Line for Game +225

I turned on Word Verification for comments today, because I grew tired of deleting spam comments moments after each post was submitted. Of course, this means there will be no comments, and my entire readership of spambots will be offended, but I'm willing to take the risk.

I haven't played any poker lately, and so not much to relate.

No Attention Span Theater

I'm not a person to claim that you need to fully focus on the table to win at poker, although it certainly helps. There's a good chance that, especially at lower limit SNGs, you could simply wait on good starting hands and play them aggressively in order to make the money. I've done it before, watching football or a movie or something. Usually, I have to start paying attention when it gets down to 5 people, though, or the remaining players are likely to steal most of my stack, unless I get great cards right when I need them. It's not that that never happens, it's just that it, um....never happens.

So, last night I took a shot at a $22 SNG, and it went OK, except that when I made a move with AQs, I ran into KK and QQ. It either crippled me or knocked me out right there; as usual, I don't really remember. No worries, I'll just make some more money at the $11s and take another shot, right? Well, it turns out that between reading the Tiltboys book and the 2+2 sports betting forum, I didn't watch the tables well enough, and got knocked out 5th in both tourneys I played. Oh well. I may not play again for a few days, so I can work through these distractions.

I decided on another NFL play for the weekend:

Miami Dolphins/Buffalo Bills (O 33.5)

I'm leaning toward the WAS/DEN UNDER 34, too. We'll see.

Good news for the Bears, Lions and Packers. I firmly believe that the Packers and Lions now share the common afflictions of clueless management and hapless coaching, but only the unique brand of Mike Tice nincompoopery can win a race to the bottom of the division. My Bears may have a shot at 4-5 division wins this year.

Go Pack Go

For a team in decline, the Packers are exceedingly generous. I had the Packers +7.5 last night, as well as a teaser (Packers +14.5, OVER 36). When I went to bed at halftime, I figured the whole weekend for a loss, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Favre led the team to a valiant cover, and halved my weekend losses. What a guy. I don't suppose this will quiet the legions of asshats who insist Favre should have retired two years ago, but it would be nice.

I took a look at the early lines, and had to grab this one:

Cincinnati Bengals (+2.5) vs Jacksonville Jaguars

I also like Chicago +3 against Cleveland, but I have recused myself from betting the Bears, remember? For the truly adventurous, DET +1 against BAL looks good. It is one of the atrocities of the early 21st century that Brian Billick is allowed to coach a professional football team. He continues to squander one of the best defensive units in history, and for some reason continues to get away with it? Remember when he was considered the big offensive genious? Yeah, me neither.

Comeupance

I am not as smart as I think I am. Apparently, one good week in the NFL led me to believe that I would be able to pick the pockets of fortune on a regular basis. The three picks I posted last week, plus the teaser, all bombed out. Detroit twisted the knife by pretending to score in the final seconds, but even with replay, the points came off the board. Ugh. I'm still slightly up on the season, but what a kick in the pants.

I am now 4-4 on picks, and 0-1 on teasers. Is it even worth counting the teasers? Probably not. I'll certainly have to put more effort into my picks this week, since my sense of entitlement doesn't move the ball down the field.

I haven't yet seen my name pop up in the blogger tournament on PokerStars, but I am a patient man. Imagine being one of the poor souls who has to pull up all the blogs submitted; there is some serious depravity out there. I hope these brave workers are at peace with themselves and their gods.

I bought Tales From the Tiltboys and it is a hoot. I don't think I've laughed out loud reading a book since The Daily Show's America (The Book). There is also a little part of "there but for the grace of God go I." Bastard.

I don't remember the last time I blogged about playing poker, but I'm on a winning streak. I won the last two SNGs I played, although the last one was on Friday. I guess I need to get back to the tables in order to fund some sports betting. Speaking of--I haven't looked at the line yet, but I'm going to be looking closely at the Red River Shootout (Texas/Oklahoma). Oklahoma managed to hold off Kansas State, even without Adriaan Peterson, and OU is like Kryptonite to Mack Brown. With OU completely out of the AP poll, and Texas pounding the hapless victims in its path, the line could be generous.