Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Final Vegas Sports-Book Tally

Cincy -2.5: Win. (Thursday.)

Texas -3: Push.

Ohio State -14: Lose. (AARRRGGH. WHAT WAS I THINKING??!?!)

Northwestern -14: Win. (Ahh, the irony!)

Minnesota +17.5: Lose. (Not far off, actually.)

USC -10: Lose. (Foiled by Notre Dame, naturally.)

Georgia Tech -2.5: Win.

Texas/Ohio State parlay: Lose.

Texas/USC parlay: Lose.

In the end, I only lost $20 -- for better or worse, the Texas push took a big chunk of risk off the table.

I had a couple gut feelings -- my "coulda-shoulda-woulda's" that are, obviously, totally useless in hindsight: Houston covering over Tulane, South Carolina using that generous +18 at Alabama.

And, of course, I don't know what I was thinking picking Ohio State to cover. I was talked into it, but I take responsibility for not checking that with "But you think Ohio State sucks, Dan!" internal monologue. And I should have known Notre Dame would come back to eff me.

My one regret is the Texas push. If I had any experience in sports gambling before, say, 48 hours ago, I would have acknowledged that even if I think Texas is going to win by 10 -- let alone 3 -- I should have bought the half point to allow me to put Texas at -2.5, hedging against a FG differential. But whatever: I got my fairly sizable bet back, which is better than losing it.

And, let's be clear: I see all my losses as the karmic balance for Florida's ridiculous escape at home today against Arkansas. As you can imagine, I was flipping out for most of it.

More on that tomorrow, and more on the Vegas trip next week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Normally I'm a Notre Dame fan myself, though I've reached the end of my rope when it comes to Charlie Weis. I can't stand him anymore and really want to see him gone. So yesterday, I actually found myself hoping on a USC blowout and was a bit upset when ND almost managed to force overtime. That felt a bit wrong. I know this might have been ND's best chance to beat USC for awhile, but maybe a better coach will fare better against them in the near future.

CorrND said...

Unfortunately, with that decent performance against USC, Weis has saved his job as long as he ends up 9-3. If we had been eviscerated by USC for the third straight year and ended up 9-3, I think he might have been canned.

If we end up 8-4 with the kind of talent that's on the field, I think there's little doubt that he gets canned. But 8-4 seems highly unlikely.

At this point, Weis appears to have learned/recruited his way to 9-10 win seasons. I doubt we're ever going to see a national championship under him, though. The only question is whether ND is satisfied with that level of performance.