Sunday, October 4, 2009

Arbs and Middles or both....

As I mentioned in the previous post, I am starting to get into sports betting a bit.............not what you usually think of sports betting, my main focus are props and other mathematical type bets.........one example is an Arb (short for Arbitrage), this is a position in which you make 2 bets, and between the two bets you secure a profit...here is an example from about a month ago.....Book A had this line Albert Pujols under 2.5 Hits, Runs, RBI +110, Book B had this line Albert Pujols over 2.5 Hits, Runs, RBI +110, in this example, you could bet both of these lines, in equal increments and guarantee a profit.

Here is an example of a middle.....Book A has Team X -2.5 +105, Book B has Team Y +3.5 -105, bet in proper increments this is a perfect middle in which you can not lose, but you can possibly win both bets if Team X wins by exactly 3 (which in the NFL happens roughly 9.5% of the time and in NCAAF happens around 9.0% of the time).

This weekend, I found a few prop arbs, that also included very tiny middles with them, like this one that I found for the Sunday night game, Book A - Hines Ward under 69.5 rec yds +120 & Book B - Hines Ward over 67.5 yds rec -115, bet in proper increments, this is roughly a 1% arbitrage opportunity...............but it also contains a tiny middle............if Hines Ward has 68 or 69 yds worth of receptions in tonights game, you would hit both sides. This type of bet has a guaranteed profit with the chance for a very big gain if you hit a very slim middle.

The next time you are searching your favorite online books be on the outlook for arbs that contain tiny middles to add additional EV to your gamblings.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Sportsbetting Noob

I have started to dabble in sports betting............right now, I am betting in the fairly small NFL prop betting market........mostly yardage props, but some reception props and other player related stuff.

Props are more easily beatable than game lines for a few reasons

1. The limits are much lower, this creates a much less efficient market as the "smart money" (ie, the pros/syndicates) don't usually bother with these sorts of bets
2. Due to the lower limits, the books don't spend nearly the amount of time they spend handicapping a game line or a derivative of a game line (like a halftime or 1Q line).
3. Since they have a small limit and are offerred often at square books, they are usually shaded in a direction in which the public might want to bet.

A few early observations................

The prop betting market seems to do the follow in the first few weeks

1) Unders seem to be the way to go...............I have found much more value in under bets. My guess is that 75-80% of the bets I have placed have been on unders.

2) Players that the general public doesn't really know, but that the fantasy football geek might know are generally underrated. An example of this is Darren McFadden...........I have been taking over lines on him all season as the books have been offerring very favorable lines on him. Not sure how long that will last, but I am sure others will appear.

3) The books will sometimes offer very profitable under bets on players who have just had an excellent week, but don't truly project to be as good for the rest of the year. Enter, Benjamin Watson, who in week 1, scored 2 TD's in dramatic fashion in a NE victory on Monday night vs Buffalo. Before week 2, I found this bet, Benjamin Watson - Will He Score a TD? NO -155. Basically, the bookmaker priced this prop as if Benjamin Watson scores in roughly 40% of his games. I thought this had to be off, because I just hadn't seen a projection for him to score 7 TD's this year. Then I took a look at his historical numbers......it turns out that in the he hasn't scored 7 TD in a year in his last 5 seasons.

When trying to add a little +EV to your gambling portfolio, try putting a little work/analysis into player props.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

An Unremarkable Tournament Win

This past Saturday, I won a $4.40 180 man sng on PokerStars. These tournaments run around the clock and a new one starts every time the previous one fills. They are a great training ground for learning tournament poker from a strategy standpoint and from a time commitment standpoint (they generally finish in 4 hours). I would recommend these to anyone looking to learn tournaments or sharpen there tournament skills as you can multitable them and get to a meaningful sample size sooner.

The tournament that I won was completely unremarkable, I didn't make any miraculous plays, I didn't flop top set vs 2nd set to win a big pot. Most of the poker I played was solid, not too tricky and pretty much standard. I did however pay very careful attention to my final table mates and was able to avoid some tough situations and capitalize on others inability to adjust their formulaic ways. Paying careful attention at the final table is far more important than paying additional attention at earlier tables because of the significant differences in payouts at the final table.

I am giving myself a gold star for each of these observations, but realistically, this is something that should always be done.

GOLDSTAR #1 - There was an opponent at my table who seemed pretty solid, played his hands well, and was generally fairly tight. I wasn't particularly watching him to start as he wasn't opening too many pots when we were 8 and 9 handed.........as the play got shorter handed, and I was short stacked so I was observing more than playing flops........I noticed that he began making proper strategy adjustments and opened many more pots............I did notice, however that 2 times, he open limped (when he had otherwise opened with a raise) and in every one of these situations, he overbet the flop. ALARMS were blarring in my head, THIS GUY OPEN LIMPS HIS BIG HANDS,...............fast forward to later in the tournament, we are now 4 handed and pretty evenly stacked (I think i have a slight chip lead), the enemy open limps on my big blind.............I have 88, now normally, against your usual weak tight final table opponent, i would raise this 4 to 5X and pick up the pot...........but I remembered my opponents obvious betting tell and realized that if I raised, he would probably reraise and I would be forced to fold, or if the reraise was small I would have a substantial portion of my stack in the pot in a very tough situation...............so i checked................as if the poker gods were looking down, I got a glorious flop 9,8,2, giving me a set of 8's...........(we are all sitting behind 30 to 40 bb's), I checked, he overbet the pot, I jammed and he called, felting (interwebally) AA, as expected............the board blanked and he berated me for sucking out on him :)

GOLDSTAR #2 - I had a very very tight player to my immediate right when we got 3 handed, which meant, I was on the button when he was on the bb.............when this situation occurs, I find any reason to open the pot with a raise on his bb.............having the biggest stack, the other player stayed out of my way, so I raised liberally, probably over 90% of the time (I am talking the ugliest of hands, like J2, Q4, 10,5 etc).........if he played back, I folded, if he opened a pot on me, I folded...............EZPZ

GOLDSTAR #3 - After the uber-tight player was eliminated, I was left with a loose aggressive opponent as my heads up mate.................I played for a little while with him and realized that he would repop my raise almost 50% of the time and then follow with a continuation bet........one time I even saw him jam the flop when I called his continuation bet..............I wasn't sure if he had anything, but I felt this would be my way to win................I pick up J10s on the button and raise, he obligatorily 3 bets.............and I turn to my wife (who was watching) and tell her.............I have a strong heads up hand with a lot of drawing power.........I am going to flat call and if I hit anything I will win the tournament.................the flop comes Q, 10, 2..............my opponent lobs out a pot sized bet............at this point, I like the flop, but want to reevaluate on the turn, I also want to see how my opponent acts towards me calling...........I call.............turn is a Q, the best card in the deck for me................this means that it is highly improbable that he has a Q, meaning only AA, KK and JJ, a 10 with a better kicker or very rarely 222 has me beat...........I check, my opponent jams the river, and I instacall..........he felts K3s, no pair, no draw and the river blanks.

Playing unremarkably is a good thing most of the time, making the most obvious play is generally best in low limit tournament poker. Also, overlooked is the attention to detail that is necessary when playing a final table, observing opponents and making tough decisions for most of the money is key in tourney poker.

Remember these keys the next donkament you get deep in................

Monday, August 31, 2009

FF Drafting Ideology

When preparing for fantasy football drafts, I have a small outline that I consider my ideology for drafting......

1) In the early rounds (roughly rounds 1 & 2 or 1, 2 & 3) draft high floors, dependable players

2) Pick value, let everyone else make mistakes and you pick up the value left ........having no plan is better than having a plan as things happen that are hard to anticipate

3) At the end of the draft, pick players who will either make a big impact or will be easy to cut, fungible, but potentially potent........

The reason I emphasis these points is that over and above the projections I will use to calculate players values, these 3 guidelines help me to manage risk effectively. With Point 1, I am trying to avoid losing the league, taking safe players, with reasonable injury histories, players that might not be the #1 pick in the near future, but are likely to remain close to this years draft position in future drafts.

Point 2 is basically to remind myself to go with the flow and allow the market to provide opportunities. It is a point that many people have issues with as they like to have a plan of what positions they will draft when and who will be on their team..........not following #2 often ends up costing more than helping..............you might like a certain player and draft that player too early, you might panic during a run, etc..........no need to paint yourself in a corner early.

Point 3 is another that I see as rarely used........in the last third of your draft, you should be selecting the obligatory, K, TE & DEF, as well as players who will either be cut, or make a big difference in your league. In this years draft there are a ton of rookie or 2nd year runningbacks that will either be the starter shortly into the season, get a share of the carries as the #2 or be in prime position to start should an injury prone starter go down. Constantly I see the old stand by wide receiver with very low ceiling being drafted ahead of the high risk high reward rb.........remember, you are buying lottery tix at the end of the draft.

keep these points in mind when undertaking your next draft....

Friday, August 21, 2009

Non-Diversified Portfolios?

I have recently been listening to rotowire's Fantasy Football podcasts with Chris Liss. I find Chris to be incredibly knowledgeable and often use many of his ideas and thought processes, but I find this statement from his recent blog named My Portfolio to be flawed

"I've drafted six leagues over the last couple months, and figured I'd put them up side by side to see how the portfolio looks as a whole. As you'll see there's a lot of overlap, and that's by design - both because I like the guys I like, and because it's far better to have a big stake in a few players than a small stake in everyone in the entire league - in which case, you're always rooting for and against everyone."

There is significant downside risk to this idea, especially if the big stake you have is in players at the top of the draft. With Injuries playing a large part in fantasy football, taking a big stake in a few players could crush many of your teams. In this example, Liss has Pierre Thomas as his #1 RB in 4 of his 6 leagues, so he is putting lots of risk into the fact that this barely proven RB is going to 1 - Stay Healthy, 2 - Continue to be the primary back throughout the season. I don't think this is the optimal idea when it comes to fantasy leagues in which you believe you have an edge, I think more diversification is ideal. If you play this many leagues and don't believe you have an edge then by all means go ahead and blast away at loading up on a single player, but if that is the case, I have to ask why you would be in that many leagues to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I think in the later rounds, when you are buying lottery tix with a smaller shot at breaking out, it is fine to have a bigger share of the same players, because of the positive effective of holding one of these breakout candidates, because the downside risk is almost non-existant..........so go ahead and grab Chris Henry in every league and LeSean McCoy in every league............but at the top, if you play to play 6 leagues and draft a top receiver in the 1st round of each, I would suggest an even spread of Fitz, Moss and AJ.............but that is just me.



Saturday, August 15, 2009

Poker - Balanced Play

I would consider my blog to be more of an intermediate gambling blog, you have to at least know a little bit about each situation to grasp the ideas in this blog.

Here is something that is more advanced and I am blatantly stealing it from Bart Hanson's Podcast "Deuce Plays" which is on www.deucescracked.com, a training site, but the podcast is free. Bart used to be the man on his podcast Cash Plays that was on PokerRoad, but he moved to Deuces for a more financially rewarding deal. Anywho, his podcast is the absolute best on the web. The focus is mainly cash games, but I would more call it an intellectual take on poker. The podcast is NOT math heavy, which makes it an easy listen and you often pick up some golden ideas with each podcast.

Balanced Play, was his topic at the start of a podcast that featured Shaun Deeb (this podcast actually dealt with tournament play, but that's neither here nor there). Quickly, balanced play is when you play different hands in the same manner or the same hands differently, confused yet? Basically, you play in a fashion that theoretically extends your ranges for situations, ie, usually upfront in a cash game you would raise the top 3% of hands, but occassionally, you might raise a suited connector for balance. Same thing flop, turn or river play, you throw in some plays that aren't your usual play to balance and add doubt to your opponents about your play.

Hanson told a story of a hand he played in a live game in which based on his opponents unbalanced play, he had an easy river decision, in what looked like a difficult spot. He talked about how against unbalanced players, you can play a couple different situations similarly because they are always doing the same thing. Another point he made was that depending on your game, you don't need to be balanced to be successful. This is the point I loved......

When playing in a game with good, thinking and attentive players, balanced play is important, you need to have your opponents guessing as to what your range of hands is......on the other hand and more importantly for 99% of us who are playing poker............you never need to balance your play when playing against players that are strictly recreational and won't think too deeply into the game, you just make the best plays (equity-wise) possible and live with the results.

Remember, thinking (balancing) is only important if others are also thinking. If they aren't just think about the best equity play and execute it. Keep It Simple Stupid, when applicable.

Friday, August 14, 2009

In contention - what to do now?

Okay, lets assume you are close, but not quite in first..........this is often the time to get very aggressive, mainly because your equity is considerably larger by increasing your chances of winning vs finishing in the lower money positions.

1) Be aggressive. If you have to trade Prince Fielder for Michael Bourn because picking up 20 SB's in the 2nd half gives you an outside shot at winning, then you should do it. If you desperately need pitching, go give up a top hitter and make sure you get it. The worst thing a team in the lower money positions can do, is sit back and not take shots at winning. Do not assume your team will suddenly jump up and take the lead, unless you have evidence to believe this can actually happen....ie injuries or slumps from major players

2) Leverage the waiver wire. In some leagues, you don't need pay for moves, so this play can work and really is a solid idea for teams of every place. Prime examples/ Assume you are close in the counting stats in Hitting, but your BA is dead last by a mile, you can now churn players on Monday and Thursday (assuming your league has daily transactions) and catch up in counting stats by using many more at bats. Same thing in pitching if your ratios stink, you can pick up Wins and K's by streaming pitchers.

3) Analyze the teams ahead of you and see where there is potential for catching up, not just in the standings, but look at places where their team will likely be susceptible.......are they an older team? did they have a young overachieving team in the first half? You can sometimes draw conclusions based on this. In one league i was in, I saw a team that I trailed in SB's (and we were neck and neck for 1st) had a player who was now injured who provided a big chunk of steals, so they were susceptible, so it made sense for me to deal a good player to get a player that got SB's. These little windows of value may be small, but no stone should be left unturned.

In the end, teams in the lower money position should be a very aggressive while minimizing their downside risk to falling out of the money. Certainly a tough position.