Well, I didn't get my pick in for the Superbowl on the blog here (busy), but did manage to hit the Cardinals for +7 on Sports Interaction for $50. If I count that my playoff record against the spread jumps up to a very uninspiring 4-7. Winning the last game was sweet, but my picks this year were really lacking.
This NFL season was the first for me at my current job and as such I was able to enter a few different pools in addition to my regular forays. The big "work pool" was a $150 a head and involved 30 guys picking against the spread as it appeared in the Thursday Toronto Sun. A nice $4500 prize pool that pays out the top 5 with first place being around $1800. There were always weekly prizes of $50 to the best record of the week and ties at the top would create a carry-over like in Skins Golf.
I started the season horribly, had a few good weeks with 10 wins being my high water mark and was a complete non-factor throughout. I did not find out until around week 10 that last place got $100. I found myself in the bottom 6 or 7 on the table and decided to take the position that I would do my best to climb upward by trying to take down best picks of the week and plug a few of my losses from that. I did this for the following four weeks, had some decent weeks where I finished in the top third, but it was never really enough to propel me up.
The fourth week was what really helped me turn the corner. 3-13. I now knew what direction I had to focus all of my attention. Picking losers is just as hard as picking winners, but I started looking at different factors and instead of just asking what a team could or would win (and trying to justify the pick to myself) I was now asking, "why is this team going to lose this game?" I was able to finish 5-11, 6-10, 4-12 during my last three weeks and secured last place overall and the $100 that goes with it. I think going into next year I really need to look at why a team won't win a given game just as much, maybe even more so, than just why Team A or Team B will win.
So there I am plugging my losses and feeling pretty good about things. My Detroit Lions had just wrapped up a perfect 0-16 campaign and I under the moniker "Barry Sanders" had just finished dead last in my work football pool. How apt. I had payed my first installment of $75 in October and now had a $25 credit and was sitting at -$50 overall. I was able to re-invest my $25 credit and purchased some land on the traditional squares board. At $5 a piece I bought 5 of them and took a "Let It Ride" approach to it. Here's the board:
As you can see I hit it big with the final score. From a $500 pool the payouts went like this: Q1 = $100, Q2 = $100, Q3 = $100 and Q4 = $200. I should have had the second quarter too if it wasn't for the Harrison play. I had some really favourable numbers in this format. Not too many 5's & 8's. I had 4 and 0 going both ways which was really lucky. I had the 4th quarter wrapped up near the end, right before the penalty that backed up the Steelers to their own goal line and eventually led to the safety. I was right on the number after the first Larry Fitzgerald touchdown closed the gap to 20-14 Pittsburgh. The safety made it 20-16 with less than 3 minutes to go and of course I was like, "Aw fuck! Screwed again." But wait. That little score put a touchdown from each team away from the cash. To be honest I did not even pick up on this until Warner hit Fitzgerald with that 64yd TD which made it 23-20. I became a big Steelers fan at the end and it really paid off. Ha ha. So that put me at $125 net profit for the year and I now have my entry for next year plus my fantasy football entry for next year as well.
And now a Superbowl commercial montage:
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Hope you Canuck's enjoyed that as we usually get shut out. I do remember seeing one for Budweiser with the Clydesdales, but it kind of sucked in my opinion.
This past weekend saw me out more than in. I spent Friday night out drinking longer than anticipated. The night just flew by and with no dinner, Saturday didn't start off well. I had plans to head up to a home poker game in Markham on Saturday night with a buddy and some guys I had met a couple of times before. We just played an ongoing cash game where the max buy-in was $20. There were 8 guys at the table and I dealt the first hand that resulted in a pot of over $80. Things were loose. I think when we finally cashed out there was over $600 on the table. I had a hard time all night picking up anything. The game was so loose and aggressive that isolation was hard. I did fold the best hand a few times (because I was in pussy mode) and generally tried to play cards that did well vs multiple opponents. I ended up, but by nothing significant. Especially compared to the money that was flying around and the level of play demonstrated at the table. I think I can be a consistant winner if I play in this game more often.
Superbowl Sunday morning started with me smoking a super bowl and went from there. JJ & I hit Tim Horton's as we drove back into the Big Smoke. I got cleaned up. You always feel like ass when you stay over at an unfamiliar place and basically just crash in a chair. I was on deck to make Arizona Chicken. Hey, I like to theme it. My better half made some nice salads and a heavenly corn chowder. My sister and her girlfriend came over bringing pizza (why?), snacks, a football shaped cake, dips, caesar ingredients, etc. We basically have food for the week. The game was great. I think a casual or non-fan would have found it interesting which is a good measuring stick.
Since my last post I have made it to see both Slumdog Millionaire and Gran Torino. I think Gran Torino is a great film. Yes, I love Clint Eastwood and do have a Detroit bias, but trust me, it's good stuff. As for Slumdog Millionaire, I though it was an above average film. I don't know about an Oscar for Best Picture, but I would recommend it. The soundtrack was good. I am going to watch Trainspotting this week. It's another one of Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle's films and it's been a while since I've seen it.
That's all for now.
