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10/29/2011 - Martinsville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Virginia-native Denny Hamlin became a first-time race winner in the Camping World Truck Series by taking Saturday's Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
Hamlin, a Sprint Cup Series regular, dove underneath points leader Austin Dillon and Ron Hornaday Jr. during a three-wide pass for the lead just after a restart with 14 laps remaining. His first win came in his 12th truck start.
He drove the No.18 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Hamlin and Busch are teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I can't say enough for everyone here at KBM and for Kyle letting me drive this truck," Hamlin said. "It really means a lot to me to get my first truck victory."
Hamlin became the 23rd different driver to win a race in each of NASCAR's three national touring series. He has four Sprint Cup victories at this 0.526- mile track.
"I just gave it everything I had during the last 50 laps; it was the hardest 50 laps I've ever driven at Martinsville," he said.
Hornaday finished second, while Dillon took the third spot. Johnny Sauter and rookie Joey Coulter rounded out the top-five.
Kevin Harvick, Cale Gale, Timothy Peters, Brendan Gaughan and James Buescher finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
With two races remaining, Dillon holds an 11-point lead over Buescher. Hornaday and Sauter are both 15 points behind.
"It was wild," Dillon said. "There were a lot of wrecks, and there weren't that many cautions thrown...I really had fun today. We finished third, and it was good for us in points."
Hornaday has finished either first or second in the last four races, as he continues his surge towards a record-extending fifth championship in the series.
"It was a great day," he said. "Stupid me, I started the race and forgot to turn the blowers on for about 30 laps, and I lost my pedal. Luckily, the yellow came out, and it came back a little bit."
The 200-lap race at Martinsville featured nine cautions for 50 laps. One of the cautions involved Germain Racing teammates Todd Bodine and Max Papis. Bodine got into the back of Papis and turned him around. Both drivers tangled again on pit road shortly after their incident.
"I can deal with things on the racetrack, but when you put a pit crew in danger on pit road for absolutely no reason, especially with a teammate, I just can't stand that," Bodine said. "I used to be that guy out there changing the tires. I did that for many years. That's a dangerous place enough without having a driver doing dumb things like that."
Bodine finished 11th, while Papis settled for 18th. There was no altercation between the two after the race had concluded.
The series will run at Texas on Friday and then conclude its season on November 19 at Homestead.
<< Oilers D Sutton suspended, hearing scheduled for Monday
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton has
been suspended by the National Hockey League for at least one game, with an
in-person hearing scheduled for Monday.
The NHL made the announcement on Saturd
<< Oregon stars Thomas, James return
Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas and running
back LaMichael James, who had been dealing with injuries in recent weeks,
returned to the field Saturday against Washington State.
Neither played last Satu
<< Kokrak survives for Nationwide Tour Championship lead
Charleston, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Kokrak posted a three-over 75 in windy
difficult conditions Saturday, but it was enough to stay atop the leaderboard
after the third round of the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship.
Kokrak, a
<< Juve downs Inter at the San Siro
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Claudio Marchisio's fourth goal of the season
lifted Juventus to a 2-1 win over Inter Milan at the San Siro on Saturday, as
the Turin side remained unbeaten and atop the Serie A standings.
Mirko Vucinic also
Riders dominate Hamilton >>
Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Milo connected on three field goals and
Neal Hughes scored the lone touchdown of the game as Saskatchewan downed
Hamilton, 19-3, at Mosaic Stadium.
Brandon West totaled 96 yards on 19 carries and
PSG downs Caen to run unbeaten streak to 11 >>
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nene scored his fifth and six goals of the
season, while Javier Pastore also bagged his sixth, as PSG moved its unbeaten
run in Ligue 1 to 11 matches with a 4-2 win over Caen on Saturday at the Parc
des Pri
Sens win 5th straight with shootout win over Rangers >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milan Michalek scored the game-winning goal in
the first round of the shootout, lifitng the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win
over the New York Rangers from Madison Square Garden.
Michalek drifted in on goal s
In the FCS Huddle: App State trips No. 1 Georgia Southern >>
Boone, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - No. 1 no more.
Again.
For the second straight year on Saturday, the FCS' No. 1-ranked team lost on
the road in the bitter Appalachian State-Georgia Southern rivalry, and this
time it was the Mountaineers who e
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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.
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