This Weekend

I had meant to write this entry last night, but was too tired. I hadn't slept well Saturday night So I ended up going to bed early last night. It is Monday morning now and as I start this, it is about 8:30am. A pretty typical time for me to get up since I have arrived here in Vegas. That's a far cry from my last couple of years in Albany!

Yesterday was a good day. In fact, the whole weekend was pretty good in that I managed to get in a few phone calls to various friends. I get into stretches where I, for whatever reason, can't seem to pick up the phone and call people. I spent just about all of last year avoiding the phone, so I am trying to do much better. Just note that if I don't call you in a little while, call me and tell me to get on the ball!

Anyway, back to yesterday. I went to the Hilton again to place a bet. I took $2500 with me and I was fully prepared to place it all on the Dallas Mavericks to beat the Miami Heat on the money line. Basketball is like football in that the games have a spread and the Mavs were favored by 15.5. Basically, they were not going to lose this game and I knew that. The money line is a bet where you play the game straight up, that is, with no point spread. In essence, the Mavs needed only win the game, they did not need to win by 16. The downside to the money line is that in a situation like this, you usually have to lay a lot of money to win a little and I was expecting to lay about $2500 to win $100.

Alas, the line was -4000, which meant I had to lay $4000 to win $100. If I had had $40,000, I would have laid it to win $1000. That's how sure I was that the Mavs would win this game. As it was, I felt it silly to lay the $2500 to win a mere $62.50, so I went with the spread in the first half. The Mavs were favored by 8.5 in the first half of the game and I expected them to put it away early, so I laid the standard $110 to win $100 because my goal was to win $100.

After placing this bet, I talked on the phone with John (from South Carolina) for a while and after we were done I came in to check on the game. I missed the first six minutes, but was pleased (not surprised) to see the Mavs had started the game on a 19-2 run. Things had started pretty much as I had expected them to start and now I just had to wait for the first half to end to collect my bet.