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There was a time in poker—and it really wasn't all that long ago—when men played cards like men, goddammit. A time before sponsorship deals and under-the-table cameras and sanitized modern-day casinos. In this earlier era, poker players honed their skills and filled their pockets working illegal games that could often turn violent, especially if players were armed. (And weren't they always back then?) Poker hall of famer Doyle Brunson knows something of those days. Brunson has been playing cards for more than half a century and, like most old-timers, has a few tales to recount. More »
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Republished with permission from PunditTracker.com. More »
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Two weeks ago, the New England Patriots walked all over the Denver Broncos in a 41-23 win. More importantly, Mayweather got rich—well, richer. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Mayweather had $1 million on the Patriots. The director of the Cantor Gaming sports book at the M Resort, Mike Colbert, refused to confirm or deny the report, but did offer up this tidbit: More »
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"ACCVentures" over in the Covers.com forums put down $22 at 50-1 that the first score in Sunday Night Football would be a safety. Seems kind of low, and he had to play each team separately, but he's got $1100 and you don't. More »
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According to Bodog's Sportsbook Manager, this week's Monday Night Football game is shaping up to see a historical lack of action. Says Richard Gardner, "with Bradford and Feeley both being questionable, and the fact that the game is on the West Coast this game is pacing to be the lowest bet Monday Night Football game since I have been at Bodog (which is over ten years)." More »
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Are you a Missourian inspired by the St. Louis fan who rode the Cardinals at 999/1 when all hope was lost? Maybe now's the time to throw some dough at Tyler Palko and the miracle Chiefs. (Does that roll off the tongue? Not so much.) Two games out of first in the AFC West, KC is being offered at 500/1 to win the Super Bowl. Maybe not so crazy given that a leaguewide cholera epidemic isn't a mathematical impossibility. More »
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After a few months of suspiciously restrained behavior, blackjack savant Don Johnson has returned. He was spotted in October in Atlantic City stuffing fistfuls of casino chips into his gullet. Just grinding them up between his world-class molars. No, I made that up. He was actually cashing in fistfuls of chips at the Tropicana Casino and Resort—$2 million worth of them—to be precise. The Press of Atlantic City reported the news last week: More »
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Why you gots to pick on Delaware, bettors? Delaware never hurt no one. They were the first state. They don't charge income sales tax. It only takes like 20 minutes to drive through on your way to more important places. And now you're all gaming the system to bet NFL games, even though you're not technically allowed to? What did Delaware ever do to you? More »
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Alabama is at -4.5 offshore and in most of Vegas, and that hasn't come down much despite the vast majority of bettors backing LSU—75 percent by one estimate. But it's all "$20 and $50 bets." The big money has withheld judgment so far. More »
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There's probably a good-sized group of folks wandering into the Las Vegas MGM Grand sports book tonight, taking the Cardinals at -125. If they were to throw down $250, it could become $450. A nice chunk, but nothing to wet the bed about. More »
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Hello, folks. Welcome back to Bad Beats, the column you visit for betting advice and sad tales of gambling woe. Read past Bad Beats here. Got any stories for us? Email us at tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Bad Beats. More »
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Vegas loves long shots. When statistics and history scream against the possibility of a miracle, Vegas can always count on the dreamers and the fools to put down cash in the hope of a once-in-a-lifetime payout. It's free money for the house, 999 times out of 1,000. More »
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Tipster Cyrus the Virus was kind enough to record and send in some video he captured of a subway floor dice game last night. Unfortunately, he put the camera down before one player broke every rule that Ashy Larry has ever championed by making a scene when the dice fell wrong. More »
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The Justice Department dropped another bombshell in their assault on online poker, alleging that Full Tilt Poker ran a Ponzi Scheme that saw owners being paid nearly half a billion dollars, while player accounts were filled with "phantom money" to the tune of more than $300 million. The original Black Friday complaint, filed in April, alleged that poker companies had violated laws ranging from wire fraud to money laundering, but today's amendment goes a step further. Now, says the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Full Tilt Poker was defrauding its players. And more sexily, it adds to the complaint top poker pros like Howard Lederer and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. More »
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This season, Deadspin will be asking gambling expert and musician I.C. Grey for his analysis of NFL wagering opportunities. His season-opening advice: More »
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As Alex Rodriguez stays in the headlines because he's Alex Rodriguez (even though he wasn't actually at the high-stakes poker game mentioned in the tabloids since he was playing in the World Series at the time), the real story is the re-emergence of baseball's complicated relationship with gambling. But if MLB were to listen to sensationalist headlines and ban Rodriguez from the game, he'd have some pretty good company: both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were permanently banned from baseball for their associations with gamblers. More »
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Yankee third baseman/centaur Alex Rodriguez has been on the DL since mid-July after knee surgery. His recovery's coming along nicely, but there's new trouble looming: MLB brass wants to ask him about the strange poker game he played in. He might get suspended, ESPN New York reports. More »
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Hello, folks. Welcome back to Bad Beats, the column you visit for betting advice and sad tales of gambling woe. Read past Bad Beats here. Got any stories for us? Email us at tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Bad Beats. More »
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Atlantic City casino scourge Don Johnson (not to be confused with 80s-era TV scourge Don Johnson) must have seen the damage the Bruins did in the MGM Grand bar in Foxwoods recently. He must have burned with envy. For those of you unaware, Don Johnson has earned the dubious moniker of "The Champagne King" because he buys pricey bottles of bubbly in Vegas. But what he did in London this past weekend is rubbish. It's utter rubbish. You don't get to brag about your rock star friends and how hard you party, Don Johnson, when you produce an unseemly bar tab like this. Yeah, yeah, you spent $271,000 in one night at a club called One For One. Yeah, yeah. There are pictures of you spraying your foam on people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's the thing: You've got six drink orders on this tab and one of them is complimentary soda water. (Who's the mingy bastard what runs One For One?) This epic bar tab is bought. It ain't earned. Where's the hard crawl through jager-bombs and rusty nails? Where are the gallons of vomit-inducing liquor? There's no effort here. No heart. No story. Only rubbish, Don Johnson. Pure rubbish. More »
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The Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City was bankrupt in 2009 when billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn sidled up with $200 million to buy the joint. After New Jersey approved Icahn's bid in 2010, the Tropicana embraced a new strategy: high stakes table games. (You can now bet $50,000 on a single blackjack hand.) Shortly thereafter, the Tropicana started getting its ass kicked. First, by this guy, who took the casino for $5.8 million in April. And now by another ragged-tooth predator, who last week destroyed the casino for $5.3 million on a Wednesday night when most of us were home watching some dumb reality TV show. More »
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The countdown clock says we're mere minutes away from launch of the most heralded website subsection named for a long-dead hagiographer since Salon's ill-fated ÆlfricOfEynsham.com. We couldn't be more excited, because they've gathered a lot of talented people, many of whom haven't yet had the proper platform for their work. More »
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Sixteen people—including current Serie B/C and former Serie A players, including ex-Lazio captain Giuseppe Signori—were arrested today related to fishy results throughout Italy's leagues. We suppose this thing is a bit more common in Europe than it is here, but wow. This is the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit Italian soccer since the last one, in 2006. More »
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Two weeks ago, we learned about the gambling ace who saddled the Tropicana Casino and Resort with a record $5.8 million loss at the blackjack tables in April. There was much speculation about his identity. Now, there is an answer. The Press of Atlantic City scored an interview with the gambler, an Oregon State fan who revealed that he'd not only crushed the Tropicana's bottom line but also hammered several other casinos during a remarkable six-month spree. His haul: $15.1 million. His name: Don Johnson. More »
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Originally published as "Lips Gets Smacked" in the January 1993 issue of Philadelphia Magazine and later anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing 1994. Reprinted here with the author's permission and his addendum at bottom. More »
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The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement yesterday reported April revenue for casinos in Atlantic City. The numbers, down across the board, are disheartening for the second-biggest gambling market in the country. Heartening for the rest of the world, however, is that the Tropicana Casino and Resort got cleaned out by a single blackjack player. We don't know his/her name. But we approve. The mysterious gambler took advantage of the Tropicana's recently arrived high-stakes tables to win a record $5.8 million in April. No idea if this took place during one drug-fueled weekend or over several weeks. But, again, we approve. More »
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I like Archarcharch (based on that stretch-running 98 Beyer fig in the Arkansas Derby) and Mucho Macho Man (who finished third in the Louisiana Derby despite leaving his shoe at the gate), and I'll box them in the exacta with Shackleford (who ran a smart second in the Florida Derby). More »
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From time to time, you gamble, and we write about it in a column called Bad Beats. Of course, there are no Bad Beats without your Bad Beats, so please, we beg you, send us any gambling stories you normally consider appropriate only for the company of drunken assholes. More »
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Hello, folks. Welcome back to Bad Beats, the column you visit for betting advice and sad tales of gambling woe. Read past Bad Beats here. Got any stories for us? Email us at tips@deadspin.com. Subject: Bad beats. More »
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Since the dawn of time, it's been mankind's dream to own the Sports Almanac from Back To The Future Part II. If one could know the result of a sporting event beforehand, one could make untold riches by gambling on it. While the Novikov self-consistency principle — or perhaps Calvinism — means this can't happen, what if you could wager on an event with a predetermined outcome? Welcome to the world of betting on pro wrestling. More »
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Miami was in Cleveland tonight, taking on the Cavaliers, Zydrunas Ilgauskas' former team. More »
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Forget those two perfect Final Four brackets on ESPN.com. How about someone who stands to earn some real money? One lone soul laid down a ten-spot on the Rams at the Las Vegas Hilton during the regular season, and got 5000-1 odds. That's looking a little closer right now. [USA Today] More »
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Your morning roundup for March 18, the day the world braces for the biggest, brightest full moon in a while. More »
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Four-and-a-half hours of pregame coverage is about to start on Fox. Water torture for the brain. So, here's a collection of Super Bowl XLV stories that have filtered in over the course of the past few days. More »
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After starting the season 18-0, Syracuse lost four straight. Almost immediately, rumors began circulating of a point-shaving scandal involving a number of players, including Scoop Jardine. These two facts are not unrelated. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5750152&view=rss&microfeed=true Here's a list of eight great covers from the year gone by, many of them on late pick-sixes. Only one Brian St. Pierre appearance, but that's just because he only had one start. More »
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Allen and Mayo got into a scrape on the team flight home Monday, over, what else, a card game. At least no one pulled a gun this time. More »
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Yesterday, Vick told an interviewer he'd love to own another dog to help with his rehabilitation. Naturally, Bodog is already taking bets on that dog's breed. More »
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Marino. Esiason. Sharpe. Cowher. Football legends all. They managed to compile a mathematically improbable record picking games last week. I think Paul the Octopus could do better, and he's dead. [CBS Sports, h/t Nathan] UPDATE: More »
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In sports, everyone is a winner-some people just win better than others. Like the Wisconsin Badgers, who were up 25 with 6 minutes left, and went for two. It didn't please Minnesota, but it pleased some people with money on the game. More »
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Early in the season, we examined one Bucs fan's foolproof strategy of always betting against the Pirates. Turns out, they were even worse than Vegas knew. A 9.98 percent ROI was his reward. More »
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