Tea Time

While growing up, I used to play all day long with my friends, and even though I wasn’t very good at football, I still liked playing it. I had a certain hour by which to be home, but other than that, nothing bothered me. After a while, I started noticing that my friends were spending more and more time indoors, instead of playing with me outside.

I wanted to know why, of course, so I started paying visits to most of them and see what they’re doing inside. To my surprise, their activities included watching TV and playing video games. I tried to get them to come outside and play some football with me, but they showed little interest.

My parents had to listen to me complain about it for endless hours, until they decided they would but me something to keep me occupied outside. A bike was out of the question, as they said, but something even better was on the way. They just didn’t want to tell me what it was.

The huge box that appeared in front of our driveway in a couple of days didn’t really interest me, until I noticed the writing on it that said Razor E300. I knew it was mine and I stayed with my dad until he assembled it, and charged it. I was so excited, that the first time I took it out for a test I stopped by all my friends’ houses to show my new scooter to them.

Liking it a lot, they all wanted to try it. I did let some of them try it, but after seeing one of my friends crash into the sidewalk, I decided to tell them to buy their own, and not ruin mine. Of course, they all bugged their parents so much to get them one, that in a couple of weeks all of us had one, and we were all racing and having fun on them.

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Everyone quickly understands the basics of sports gambling, because its as simple as the sports themselves. Horse racing, on the other hand, is a more difficult form of gambling to approach successfully. While there are some similarities between sports gambling and horse handicapping, success in one by no means assures even competency in the other. CBS Sports icon Jimmy ‘The Greek’ Snyder was by all accounts a first rate sports handicapper, but downright awful at forecasting horse races.

The information below is the bare bones basics of what you need to know to enjoy a day at the horse track. If you’re interested in becoming a serious horse handicapper, you’re best advice to start with one of the countless books or DVDs that deal specifically with the discipline.

Reading in Fundamental: The first thing you should do when you arrive at the horse track is to purchase a track program and a copy of the Daily Racing Form. The Daily Racing Form (or DRF for short) is the Wall Street Journal of the horse handicapping set. The track program will offer much of the same information about the specific track, but is frequently in a more user friendly format than the often arcane DRF. The basic stats you’ll find in these publications are the names of the horses, jockeys and trainers, the morning line odds, and the types of bets available for each race. You’ll also have past performance charts, which are the bread and butter of serious horse handicappers. These charts reveal a lot about a horse and what they’ve done on the racetrack, including its record, where it ran, the quality of competition it ran against, and what position the horse was in at various points in the race. Most tracks have customer service types that are helpful in clearing up anything you don’t understand. While asking the personnel in a sports book who they like isn’t a wise idea, its OK at the track for a reason well now discuss”you’re not playing against them.

The House Doesn’t Care Who Wins: One thing that is important for the sports bettor to remember when playing the horses is that its a parimutuel situation. In other words, you’re not playing against the house, you’re playing against the other bettors. The track just facilitates the betting and acts as a middleman, handling the money for a fee (15 to 25 percent of the parimutuel pool). Another difference is that the track odds are determined by how much money is bet on each horse. If everyone bets on one horse”whether it is the best horse, or just has the catchiest name”it will go off as the favorite. Long odds on a horse doesn’t necessarily indicate a bad horse, but just one that the wagering public isn’t investing in. Sometimes this can be one and the same, but not always.

So where do odds in the newspaper or program originate? These are known as the ‘morning odds’ or ‘morning line’ and is basically an educated guess as to where the betting will go. They can be helpful as a handicapping tool, but may or may not reflect what will happen in the actual betting.

Handicapping basics: There are so many different approaches to handicapping horse races that its difficult to even know where to start. Some handicappers emphasize past performance data. Others factor in the results of recent workouts, while others prefer a visual examination of the horses in the paddock.

Once a handicapper gets an idea what will happen in the race, he has to factor the available odds into the proposition. A favorite may be an unattractive wagering prospect due to a prohibitively high price, while a long shot may be a good wagering value based on a high potential payback. It all boils down to wagering value, which is simply a matter of doing a math. Teaching the youth of America solid math skills is crucial for no other reason than to help them gamble effectively and profitably.

Training and bloodlines: Handicappers often focus on a horse’s breeding lineage, considering the quality of the bloodlines and the racing pedigree of his parents and grandparents. Others put great focus on a horse’s trainers. An ‘A-list’ trainer can often get the most out of a horse much in the same way an elite level NFL coach can cause a team to ‘over perform’.

The Jockeys: In the simplest terms, jockeys are independent contractors and thus to make money they need to do well. In theory, a jockey wants to get on the best horse possible in each race to maximize his chances of winning. That also results in sort of a chicken and the egg conundrum–are the horses winning because the best jockeys are aboard, or are the best jockeys merely adept at getting on the best horses? Most serious horse players look to the jockey as a secondary consideration. Its sort of a situation where a good jockey cant win with a bad horse, but a bad jockey can cause a good horse not to win.

Don’t Go Overboard, and Try to Find What Works For You: As with any new betting discipline, its always sound advice to not go overboard with the amount of money you wager. These are just the basics of how to bet a horse race and what some of the salient factors are in determining who will win or lose a race, and doesn’t even to begin to scratch the surface of successfully handicapping the sport. If you want to learn more, Id suggest starting with the Daily Racing Form website, after which a simple Google search can expand your options from there.

Ross Everett is a experienced freelance writer who covers travel, poker and sports handicapping. He is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, flower arranging and scuba diving. He lives in Southern Nevada with four dogs and a pet coyote.

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My dream has always been to have a scooter. Whenever I went to the park I was attracted to the corner where the kids were showing off their latest tricks. I really envied them, and there was no day without asking my parents to buy me one. They tried to explain to me that I need to learn the value of money.

I finally learnt it, and I started doing chores not only for my parents, but for everybody in the neighborhood that asked for any help. It wasn’t as easy as I expected, and the money I got wasn’t much, but I kept doing it. The model I wanted was too expensive for the money I had, so I bought another one.

I did buy the one I had money for, however, and showed it to all my friends. At first, they weren’t really interested, but after seeing me play with it all day long, for a couple of days, they came to see what all the fuss was about. In a short while, they had all ridden it at least once, and had started fighting about who gets to ride it next. Not coming to any conclusion, they all decided to buy their own scooters.

I gave them as much information as I could about the best models, and soon everybody in my group had one. As I was the first with a scooter, they came to me anytime they needed their toy repaired, so I got some money out of it. Soon I had enough money for my dream scooter: the fuzion asphalt ultimate carving machine. This was perfect for doing tricks. I have become one of the kids showing off in the park, and my scooter has become the dream of all the children in the neighborhood. I loved the feeling of knowing everyone was watching me whenever I was riding it.

Doing tricks with my new scooter isn’t as difficult as I thought, and I have become really good at it. My friends look up at me, I’m happy that I’ve made my dream come true, and my parents are pleased that I have learnt something important: the value of money.

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Each summer lots of people do like something interesting: camping. This is a great activity to be done with friends, family and relatives. It can be done on a single day or even the whole summer period. Since my childhood, I have been an avid camper. I started then going on some trips with my parents and years later with my friends.

My whole family and I love doing camping. I also like doing it alone. Camping is usually practiced the weekend in our family. Driving 2 hours afar from the city, we know a nice camping spot. My kids love this camping place. Breathing air, away from the city, is very important for the health.

The equipment used in camping is very important. During that escape, you should carefully select what you will bring with you. Don’t forget things for the kitchen and of course the North Face Vario 23 tent. Bringing two of them is the right thing to do for the whole family. One tent for the children and the other one for myself and my wife. This tent has very good water resistance and is lightweight. Do not forget to pack another fishing pole in case you will go fishing and your main one will get broken.

My family found that camping is an interesting thing to do. Running, enjoying outdoors, walking are what my children love to do. Personally, I found camping as a great escape for the daily stress. Even when it is raining, there are places designed to accommodate campers. It is simply the greatest sport for my kids, my wife and I. No matter if it is a rainy or a sunny day, in both cases, we can enjoy camping

My final point is about health and its importance when doing camping. Always bring some medical equipment (kit) with your when going on a camping trip. The nearest hospital can be far away from your camping place and you need to be prepared for any emergency.

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Jean Makoun scored early in the second half to give Lyon a hard fought 1-0 victory in the first leg of their round of 16 Champions League matchup against Real Madrid. The Spanish champions lost for the third straight time on Lyon’s Stade Gerland home field and will now have an uphill battle when the teams meet at Bernabeu to advance to the next round. With the Champions League final slated to be held in their stadium, an exit this early in the competition would be nothing short of an embarrassment for Real Madrid.

Lyon controlled the play in the first half and held a decisive possession advantage. Unfortunately, they didn’t get many accurate scoring chances with a number of them going wide or high of the net. Despite Lyon’s time of possession advantage in the first half, Madrid actually got the best scoring chances in the first half. Following Makoun’s goal just 2 minutes from the start of the second half, Madrid controlled play but could not score the equalizer. For the game, Madrid held a 66% to 34% time of possession advantage. The shots on goal were even, but Madrid had the better chances despite not scoring on them.

Real Madrid has won the Champions League title 10 times, but now must rally from this 1-0 deficit when play resumes on their home field in May. Despite their tradition of success, Madrid hasn’t made it past the round of 16 for six straight years. Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t particularly worried heading into the home half of the matchup:

“In football anything is possible. We’ve lost here but we have a game at home in which we can repeat what they did here. I’m calm. In this competition you have to suffer. I’m sure that we will give a good answer in the return game and that we will win. The Bernabeu will help us. We will have to give to give it everything from the first minute until the last. The tie is not lost.”

Madrid General Director Jorge Valdano added:

“It’s been a bad night in general, especially the result. We had ups and downs during the match, but at no moment were we ourselves. The result means we have to really concentrate at the Bernabeu. Lyon barely stepped out of their half in the final minutes, but they made things very difficult for us for a long time, especially in midfield.”

Real Madrid will have to do without a couple of starters in the rematch. Marcelo and Xabi Alonso are suspending for the May contest due to bookings in previous contests. The team isn’t particularly concerned due to their deep and talented roster.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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An early goal gave the United States soccer team hope, but in the end the result of their World Cup Qualifier against Mexico at Azteca Stadium was a familiar loss. Mexico rallied for a 2-1 triumph in front of their home fans, sending the US to defeat for the 23rd time in 24 games at the venue. The US soccer record at the 105,000 seat venue is 0-23-1 with the best result the US has been able to muster on Mexican soil was a 0-0 draw in 1997.

The United States silenced the raucous crowd with a goal just eight minutes into the game. Landon Donovan threaded a perfect pass to a Charlie Davies who converted his four career goal in international play to give the Americans a 1-0 lead.

Mexico would pull even just ten minutes later when Cuauhtemoc Blanco set up Israel Castro, who beat US goaltender Tim Howard with a blistering shot off the crossbar. That set the stage for Miguel Sabah’s goal in the 82nd minute which gave Mexico the come-from-behind victory. Mexico coach Javier Aguirre sounded simultaneously elated and relived with his post match comments:

“Today is a day to celebrate, drink a few tequilas, and then get back to work. Everybody will go to bed tonight a bit more relaxed.”

US Coach Bob Bradley noted:

“I think it’s a tight game and a fair score. It’s tough loss to have so many guys work so hard and then give up a late goal. The feeling inside is one of great disappointment.”

US forward Landon Donovan spoke of his teams performance and the difficulty in playing at the high altitude:

“We did a good job starting the game well and scoring. They made one play at the end that made the difference. It’s hard to play here, man. It wears you out. It’s just exhausting.”

The Americans play Sept. 9 at Trinidad and Tobago. Theyll finish up qualifying on Oct 10 at Honduras and at home against Costa Rica on Oct. 14. Mexico will wrap up qualifying on Oct. 10 at home with El Salvador and at Trinidad and Tobago on Oct. 14.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

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The New Orleans Saints used a 14 point fourth quarter to defeat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 on Sunday to win their first Superbowl in franchise history. Drew Brees broke open a tight game midway through the final quarter with his touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey, and Tracy Porter scored on a 74 yard interception return as the Colts were driving on the next series to secure the victory. Brees completed 32 passes in the game, tying New England’s Tom Brady for the all time record in that category.

After enthusiasts had come in early on the favored Colts, a good deal of buyback on the Saints had pushed the line to -4′ and the New Orleans backers were enriched by their team’s outright victory. The underdog has now covered three straight Superbowls and taken the money in five of the last seven games. The 48 points scored stayed well under the posted total of 57.

In his postgame comments, a fabulously elated Brees gave much of the credit to the city of New Orleans:

“We play for so much more than ourselves. We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat nation that has been behind us every step of the way. It means everything. We’re here because of their strength and everything they fought through here the last few years. They’ve given us so much support, so we owe it all to our fans.”

“Just to think of the road we’ve all traveled, the adversity we’ve all faced. It’s unbelievable. I mean, are you kidding me? Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening? Eighty-five percent of the city was under water. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. We just all looked at one another and said, ‘We’re going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.’ That’s what we’ve done the last four years and this is the culmination in all that belief.”

Never known for his elocution, Peyton Manning had little to say after the game particularly about the decisive interception return:

“Made a great play. Made a great play. Corner made a heck of a play. Certainly disappointing, very disappointing. Disappointing.”

Saints’ coach Sean Payton made a bold call at the beginning of the second half when he called for an onside kick. New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Casalis suggested it was a game changing play:

“We were really excited when he made the call. That changed everything.”

Payton explained the unusual decision:

“We’re going to be aggressive. We’d seen the onside kick all week and guys executed it well. It turned out to be a big change of possession.”

The city of New Orleans will celebrate their team’s victory with a parade. With Mardi Gras celebrations already scheduled to begin shortly thereafter, it could be quite some time before New Orleans returns to business as usual. Add New Orleans to cities like Miami, Bar Harbour, Palm Springs and Fire Island as must see spots for any fabulous football fan on the go.

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

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Books on other ‘winnable’ gambling pursuits like horse racing and poker are good resources of theoretical information for the sports gambler. While for some reason there hasn’t been much written specific to the sports handicapper that deals with the discipline from a serious theoretical level, there are countless books devoted to a thoughtful discussion of horse racing and poker.

Poker–like sports betting–can be a profitable endeavor, and one in which knowledge and skill can counteract the theoretical odds against him. Legendary poker theorist Bob Caro once noted that while there are some professional poker players, sports bettors or blackjack players there’s not a single professional roulette player.

Basically, this is because that no combination of skill, strategy or money management can negate the house edge in roulette and many other casino games. While Caro likes to stress the importance of the decisions that a poker player makes to his long term profitability, in roulette player decisions simply don’t matter over the long haul. Red or black, even or odd, the house edge remains the same.

Caro stresses the paramount importance of discipline to a poker player’s long term success and profitability. It’s important to keep in mind that to succeed as a professional gambler that you need to approach a trip to the casino with a diametrically opposite mindset to that of the recreational gambler. A recreational gambler heads to the casino to *avoid* discipline and ‘unwind’. The professional uses discipline to his advantage.

The importance of discipline that Caro imparts to poker players also applies to serious sports gamblers. The most fundamental component of sports gambling success is to look at it with the same degree of seriousness, discipline and professionalism that you would any other vocation. It’s crucial to rework your thought processes to those of a professional, and abandon all vestiges of the ‘recreational gambler’s’ approach to betting. The greater degree to which you can be disciplined and methodical in your sports gambling, the greater your level of success and profitability.

There’s nothing wrong with being a recreational sports gambler, or a recreational gambler of any sort. They’re vital to those of us who do this for a living since they’re what keeps casinos and sportsbooks in business. Ultimately, the best handicapping is pointless without a sportsbook to take the action.

If your goal is to bet recreationally, that’s great. Unless you have the dedication, desire and discipline to approach it at a profession a recreational approach to gambling is ultimately better for most people. You might benefit from some greater money management discipline, but at the end of the day as long as you don’t bet more than you can afford to lose it’s really no big deal.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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In one of the highlight matches of the DREAM/K-1 Fields Dynamite! New Years Eve megacard, Japanese submission machine Shinya Aoki used a heel hook to submit a top notch opponent in Eddie Alverez at 1:32 of the first round. With the victory, Aoki sets up a rematch against reigning DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen and bolsters his claim as the best lightweight fighter in the world.

When the Aoki/Alverez fight was first announced, there was some speculation that Aoki had chosen one of the worst possible stylistic matchups for him. A product of tough Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia, he grew up not far from where much of the exterior scenes were shot for the first Rocky movie. With this sort of toughness and heart bred into him, and a solid background in boxing and amateur wrestling hes become one of the best all round fighters in MMA and among the best in the world at the weight.

Alverez received an enthusiastic reaction from the fans in Tokyo’s Saitama Super Arena as he made his way to the ring on New Years Eve”his run to the DREAM lightweight finals and particularly the epic battle with Hansen has made him a highly respected and popular fighter in Japan. The reaction he received was nothing like Aoki’s, however, who was cheered like a rock star as he bounced to the ring to his trademark theme song Baka Survivor.

As the two fighters stood for referee instructions, it was striking how much taller and rangier Aoki was than his opponent. Aoki is listed at 511, Alverez at 58 but the visual difference suggests that there’s much more than a three inch height advantage in favor of Aoki.

For the first minute of the match, it appeared that a slow feeling out process was underway. Alverez landed the first blows of the contest, connecting with a nice three punch combination that displayed his lightning fast hands. Aoki danced away, however, and wasn’t hurt by the attack.

What happened next can only be described as unbelievable”the sequence started when Aoki grabbed Alverez’s ankle after a kick and appeared to go for what looked like a standing anklelock submission. Alverez managed to extricate his ankle and seeing that Aoki was off balance took the opportunity to go for his own takedown with a move that looked more like a judo throw than a traditional wrestling move. Against 99.9% of the other fighters in the world, Alverez would have ended up on top and started working in full or half guard.

When Alverez landed, however, Aoki wasn’t there. In one single, almost gravity defying motion he’d used the momentum from the takedown to shoot under Alverez and grab his leg. Alverez struggled briefly, but Aoki quickly cinched in a painful heel hook. Eventually, Alverez was forced to tap.

Ever the gentleman, Aoki dropped to the canvas after the tapout to check on his opponents condition than started his postfight celebration. Aoki is known as one of the most emotional fighters in the sport, and its an even money proposition that hell start crying during his postfight speech to the crowd. This time, however, he quickly addressed the crowd in Japanese to an enthusiastic response before heading to the back.

One superlative that is no longer in dispute is Shinya Aoki’s status as the best submission artist in mixed martial arts. Hes got the technical background to be sure, but what elevates him above the rest is his amazing ability at improvisation. Even if an opponent has mastered all of the defenses and counters for every known submission technique, there’s no way to defend someone who can make up effective submission moves during a fight.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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Brett Favre has been a significant part of the Minnesota Vikings undefeated start the NFL regular season, and on Monday night he finally beat his old team, the Green Bay Packers. Favre passed for 271 yards and three touchdowns as the Vikings prevailed by a 30-23 final score. With the victory, Favre has now defeated all 32 NFL teams during his Hall of Fame career.

The Vikings rewarded NFL betting enthusiasts by covering the spread as -4 home favorites. Minnesota is now 3-1 against the number, while the Packers loss evened their ATS record on the season at 2-2.

Afterwards , Favre said that he didnt have any unusual emotions playing against his old team:

“I don’t know how to explain it. I felt right, but I guess I never thought I’d be in that situation.”

He had gone out of his way to downplay the significance of the matchup:

“My statement has been what I’ve done over my career. One game does not define my career good or bad. I know what I’ve done. I’m proud of what I’ve done. I know I can play. I wanted to do what it takes to win.”

Still, Favres teammate Adrian Peterson said that the team understood the games importance:

“I definitely wanted to get this win for Brett. He downplayed it all week, but I just knew it meant a lot to him. I could see it in his eyes.”

Packers cornerback Charles Woodson gave credit to Favre, but then admitted that his team didnt help themselves with their effort:

“I don’t think there was any question what he could do when he came back. But you know, we didn’t do ourselves any justice.”

Favres replacement under center in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers, had a rough night. He was sacked eight times and threw an interception, though put up decent numbers with 384 yards and two touchdowns but was still critical of his performance:

“Below my expectations, definitely. To have three possessions where you’re in their territory and come away with zero points, two of them are directly related to mistakes by myself, that’s disappointing.”

Vikings coach Brad Childress was impressed with Favre’s poise in the face of all the media focus on playing his former team:

“You don’t want quarterback crying coming out of the locker room. He was great.”

The Vikings will your head to St. Louis to play one of the NFLs worst teams this weekend, the St. Louis Rams. Minnesota has been installed as a -10 favorite with the total set at 39. The Packers will take this weekend off before hosting the Detroit Lions on October 18th. They’ll play at Cleveland the following Sunday before a return date with the Vikings at Lambeau Field on November 1st.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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