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07/18/2010 - St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two players in the world were unable to make a charge Sunday at the British Open.
Tiger Woods, a three-time Open champion, could only muster an even-par 72 in the final round Sunday. He finished the championship at three-under-par 285.
World No. 2 Phil Mickelson could have passed Woods in the world rankings with a win this week, but only broke par in two of the four rounds. He stumbled to a three-over 75 Sunday to finish at one-over-par 289.
Leader Louis Oosthuizen is 17-under par.
Both top players have been inconsistent of late.
Woods returned from his neck injury at the Memorial Tournament. Though he shared fourth with Mickelson at the U.S. Open, Woods was a non-factor in his other two events, the Memorial and the AT&T National.
Mickelson, who won the Masters back in April, has three top-five finishes since Augusta, including one at the U.S. Open, but he also missed a pair of cuts.
Woods, who had won the last two Opens at St. Andrews, got off to a quick start with birdies on one and two, but gave both those strokes back with a double- bogey on the fourth after he left a shot in a bunker.
At the seventh, Woods found more sand and that led to another double-bogey. Woods birdied the ninth for the fourth straight day.
He got back to even-par for his round with a birdie at the 12th. Woods then bogeyed the 13th for the third day in a row, but closed with a birdie at the last.
Mickelson birdied the third and fifth to move to minus-four. After six straight pars, his round fell apart.
He stumbled to a bogey on the 12th, then bogeyed the par-five 14th. Mickelson faltered to a double-bogey at the 16th for the second straight day. That dropped him back to even-par for the championship.
Mickelson bogeyed the Road Hole, No. 17, for the third consecutive day. He parred the last to end at plus-one.
The struggle for Mickelson was nothing new at this championship. He owns just one top-10 finish in his 17 British Open starts.
<< Marlins designate Lamb, recall OF Petersen
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Marlins designated veteran infielder
Mike Lamb for assignment on Sunday.
The team will have 10 days to trade, waive or release Lamb. If he clears
waivers, he can be outrighted to the minor leag
<< Oosthuizen four ahead at the turn
St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - South African Louis Oosthuizen rolled
in an eagle putt on the ninth hole Sunday to take a four-stroke lead to the
back nine in the final round of the British Open Championship.
Oosthuizen, who is
<< Almagro denies Soderling in Sweden
Bastad, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Spain's Nicolas Almagro denied Robin
Soderling a second straight title in his native country with a three-set win
in Sunday's final of the Swedish Open.
Almagro earned a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory ove
<< Indians seek four-game sweep of Tigers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians go for a four-game sweep of the
Detroit Tigers today, as the teams conclude their series at Progressive Field.
Despite being well below .500, the Indians have come out of the All-Star break
with
Burnett apologizes to Yankees for outburst >>
NEW YORK (AP) -A.J. Burnett says he has apologized to his New York Yankees teammates for a clubhouse fit that left him with cuts on both hands.Sporting a bandage on each palm, Burnett said he had no trouble playing long toss Sunday and the laceratio
Oosthuizen cruises to first major title >>
St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There was little drama Sunday at the
British Open Championship.
Louis Oosthuizen eagled the ninth and after a birdie on the 12th, he was eight
strokes clear of the field.
The South African cruise
Toronto activates Marcum to make Sunday start >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays activated pitcher
Shaun Marcum from the 15-day disabled list.
Marcum went on the DL July 2 with inflammation in his throwing elbow. The
right-hander started Sunday's game agai
Yankees' Pettitte leaves game with strained groin >>
NEW YORK (AP) -Andy Pettitte has left the New York Yankees' game against Tampa Bay in the third inning because of a strained left groin.Making his first start since pitching in the All-Star game Tuesday night, the 38-year-old left-hander never appea
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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