Going for Broke
Going for Broke
Blue-Chip Investment
Bank on Dodgers falling short of expectations
March 7th, 2013
The Astros jump from the National League to the American League. Josh Hamilton bolts from the Rangers to the rival Angels. A big (expensive) chunk of the Marlins’ roster gets shipped north of the border to Toronto. The Nationals are a consensus favorite to make the playoffs, while the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t. Alex Rodriguez is injured and caught in a performance-enhancing-drug scandal … Read more »
Going for Broke
It's a Slam Dunk: March Will Be Maddening
February 27th, 2013
On the shocker meter, seeing Gonzaga in the Top 25 ranks somewhere between seeing Seth MacFarlane crack tasteless jokes during the Oscars telecast and the PC police immediately feigning outrage over said tasteless jokes. Read more »
Going for Broke
‘Spreading’ Knowledge on the Road to March
February 21st, 2013
The scoreboard read UNLV 70, San Diego State 62. The clock showed 3:09 remaining. And even though my big play was the Rebels minus-4 points, I knew I was screwed. That’s because moments earlier, from my seat at midcourt, I could read UNLV coach Dave Rice’s lips as he delivered crunch-time instructions during the final media timeout. Read more »
Going for Broke
Not-for-Profit Rebels to Pay Dividends
February 14th, 2013
Ask hard-core UNLV basketball fans to vote for the biggest underachiever so far this season, and the majority would point the finger at two individuals: the injured Mike Moser (a preseason All-American candidate who in the month of February has scored three more points than you and me) and Dave Rice (who somehow was a two-time winner of UNLV’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award despite not knowing the definition of “adjustment”). Read more »
Going for Broke
Treading Lightly After Another Super Success
February 7th, 2013
Unfortunately, in three years on this job, I’ve learned the hard way that what goes up tends to come down. To wit: Exactly one year ago, my bankroll stood at $7,033 after a profitable Giants-Patriots Super Bowl … then came a disastrous college-basketball stretch that lasted through the Final Four. Which is why, for the foreseeable future, I’m going to proceed more cautiously than Manti Te’o on an online dating site. Read more »
Super Going for Broke
The Ravens Will Keep You in the Black
The underdog’s underrated defense will undermine Kaepernick, 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII
January 31st, 2013
Charles Barkley—the basketball Hall of Famer/hack golfer/frequent Vegas visitor who would bet four figures on an ant race if given the chance—was recently on Dan Patrick’s radio show lamenting how he’d lost every NFL playoff wager he’s placed this year (and would’ve lost the ones he didn’t place). That led to this exchange: Read more »
Going for Broke
Holding Court As the NFL Recesses
January 24th, 2013
Two weeks of Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh. Two weeks of stories about how UNR alum Colin Kaepernick is revolutionizing the quarterback position in the NFL (while somewhere in Vegas, Randall Cunningham screams, “Say what?”). Two weeks of the media drooling over Ray “Can you believe nobody remembers I was once charged with double-murder?!” Lewis. Read more »
Going for Broke
Flying Into the Great Unknown
January 17th, 2013
Speaking of playoff surprises, how about that scoring binge last week? With combined point totals of 58, 69, 73 and 76 points, all four games easily soared “over” the total. This a week after the four wild-card games finished with 32, 33, 34 and 38 points. Here’s a stat for you: If you bet the first half, second half and game “under” the total in the wild-card round and all three categories “over” the total in the divisional round, you would’ve cashed 24 of 26 tickets! Read more »
Going for Broke
Rescaling the Fiscal Cliff
January 10th, 2013
Anybody catch the license-plate number of the semi-truck that ran me off the road and over the fiscal cliff during college football’s bowl season? Holy hell, you know it’s bad when both Bob Stoops and Notre Dame fans are sending emails mocking your pathetic bowl performance. Read more »
Going For Broke
Our National Nightmare
The only thing worth rooting for in the BCS championship game is a lot of defense
January 3rd, 2013
The question has been posed several times in recent weeks: “So, who do you like in the Notre Dame-Alabama national championship game?” There’s no in-between: You either love Notre Dame or loathe Notre Dame. I loathe it (so much so that I’ve never even seen Rudy). As for Alabama, look, there are only two kinds of people who should pull for the Crimson Tide in the Nick Saban era: those with deep roots in Tuscaloosa and Saban’s blood relatives (and even then I’m sure there’s a cousin or two who think he’s a huge prick). Read more »
