Although we got close at Full Tilt, I missed out on playing the WSOP in Vegas the cheap way this year. If I want to play now, I have to pony up the $10k, plus flights, plus hotel…. Instead of doing that I’m just going to mark in my calendar to start trying to qualify earlier next year and not leave it until the last minute again!

My full action junkie attention span of 30 seconds is now focusing on something you may not have heard of, let alone thought to bet on before. It’s kind of like NFL, but no pads allowed.

You might not have known, but Ed’s an Aussie from way back. And in Australia this week is Rugby League’s premier event. The ‘State of Origin’ is the equivalent of the Superbowl in terms of viewer interest and TV ratings. It’s a mid season series of three games between players from two states - Queensland and New South Wales - where the majority of Rugby League players originate. Us Aussies pick strange contests to make a big deal out of…

They leave their club teams and play for their state. In the history of the series, each side has won an equal number of times - it’s been an amazingly tough and evenly matched contest over the years. And players play harder than than do in any grand final. The rest of the actual club season is almost an anti-climax once the State of Origin is finished.

But anyway, I’m a Queenslander, and we’re known as the ‘Maroons’ or the ‘Cane Toads’. New South Wales are the ‘Blues’ or the ‘Cockroaches’. And we hate each other at this time of year! Queensland is a slight favorite after winning 30+ to nil in game two, but game three is in Sydney where we always struggle to win.

If you’re interested in having a bet on something new than try taking a punt on the State of Origin at Bodog >> yes it’s a big enough event worldwide for even Bodog to offer odds!

Queensland is the slight favorite, but like I said they’re on the road, so I’d rate NSW as the slightly better bet at 2.35 for the win or 1.83 with the 4.5 point head start.

You cheer with your heart, but bet with your head right?

Go Maroons!

Ed

We prety much based our pick on the odds and the coach. No Guus Hiddink team should ever be 26-1…

But they have tough task ahead of them, in playing Spain tonight for a spot against Germany in the final. Bodog Sportsbook has them at an outside chance of 3.45 to beat Spain, who are paying 1.95. (convert sports odds formats with the OG calculator)

Russian keeper, Igor Akinfeev had some oinspiring words for his team mates before the semi final. “We shouldn’t be afraid of anything,” he said.

“We have almost made it to the top of the mountain, but we want to reach the peak. Neither Spain nor us want penalties. It’s not good for the nerves and only puts more grey hair on our heads.”

We’ll be watching the game and cheering home our 26-1 bet. Do us proud you Russkies!

Various news sources have reported that the Full Tilt Poker pro has bet $2 million on the Lakers to win the NBA championship.

We don’t know when he made this bet, but it was sometime before game 3, because he tipped staff at the WSOP to get the TV near his table to show the game instead of the level information for the tournament everybody else was busy playing. He was playing too, but the Lakers captured his attention more than any cards in front of him.

Other losses this week include $80,000 worth of re-buys and add-ons in the 2-7 Lowball tournament where he didn’t cash. And $100,000 to PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu on a golf bet.

If he has in fact bet $2 mil on the Lakers, he’s in some trouble after their game 4 capitulation. Here at OG, we’re still stunned at how a Phil Jackson coached team could squander a 24 point lead at home. They were -7 favorites with the oddsmakers, paying just 1.30 (-330) for the win versus Boston’s 3.65! (+265)

The Lakers are now a longshot to win the title, after starting the series as favorites. No team has ever come from 1-3 down to win an NBA Championship.

Phil won’t be the only one crying about that…

Ed

According to news reports, T.O. was in New York last tuesday, meeting with NFL officials after being placed in the league’s “reasonable cause” testing program for performance-enhancing drugs. The superstar was placed under additional scrutiny from the league on the same day that he received a contract extension for an exorbitant amount of money.

Will he test positive?

BetUS doesn’t think he will, offering 5.00 (4/1) odds on a positive result this season. They’re only paying 1.50 (1/2) for Terrell to stay clean.

Looking at the pic to the right, you sure couldn’t rule steroids out! He’s one cut mofo.

Let’s hope he got those abs from hard work and not the juice…

“He was empty. He didn’t have anything left,” jockey , Kent Desormeaux said. “There’s no popped tires. He’s just out of gas.”

But his last race was three weeks ago? How can he still be so tired?

The Big Brown one straggled home on Saturday, losing the Belmont Stakes to 38-1 long shot Da’ Tara, who led wire-to-wire. Eased up in the homestretch, the 1-4 favorite was so far behind at the end that his margin of defeat wasn’t even charted. He came dead last to end his Triple Crown hopes in the worst possible way.

He had arrived at Belmont Park undefeated in five starts, winning all of them by a combined 39 lengths. His path to history seemed even more assured when the also unbeaten Casino Drive was scratched on the morning of the race because of a bruised left hind hoof.

Luckily we didn’t end up betting on the race. We did initially have a sneaky bet on Casino Drive to win against the field minus Big Brown. But seeing as the Japanese horse was scratched, we got our money back.

So instead of becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner and first in 30 years -Big Brown was the first horse going for a Triple to finish last. That’s not what the 94,476 fans that showed up to watch wanted!

Well done Da’ Tara. You were the horse that was supposed to come last - you sure showed all of us punters!

Let’s hope the Lakers can beat those Celtics Sunday to give us a little happiness this weekend.

This week is another big one in sports. The Stanley Cup is still being contested for at least one more game, the French Open tennis is in full swing and the NBA finals start on Thursday night in Boston.

Even though the Celtics have the home court advantage, the Lakers are favorites with the oddsmakers at Bodog’s Sportbook. They’re giving Boston just a 38% chance of claiming the Larry O’brien trophy for the first time since 1986, with odds of 2.65 (+165 or 33/20). The Lakers are paying 1.53 (-189 or 53/100).

In other betting markets this week, Bodog is also taking bets on when Charles Barkley will be spotted on a casino gaming floor.

They’re paying 8.50 (+750 or 15/2) to anyone who bets that Sir Charles will hit the blackjack tables again before the end of the NBA Finals. You can also bet whether he will relapse before the start of the 2008-09 NBA season.

We think Charles is probably crazy enough to go straight back to the tables regardless of all the furore his recent gambling losses and non-payment caused. It’s probably not a bad bet…

What can be a bad bet is betting on the spread in a Lakers game when Sasha ‘The Machine’ Vujacic is on the floor. Check out the video below for Sasha’s three pointer as the clock winds down, the Lakers already winners. He annoyed some punters with that shot and even the commentary team gets stuck into him!

It is their year off after all… They’ve never won back-to-back titles.

Kobe Bryant was just awesome and now the Lakers are paying just 1.50 (1/2) to win the NBA title. Imagine if their centre, Andrew Bynum was actually playing!

The Celtics face the Pistons on the road today and are trying to secure their own trip to the finals. Bodog has the Celts down for a tough game though, favoring the Pistons to win by 5 points.

The Celtics are paying 2.80 (+185) for the win on the road.

The haven’t been able to do it yet this playoffs, relying on the home court advantage in game seven to win both of their previous playoff matchups against the Hawks and the Cavs.

Bodog are also offering some fun player props. They’ve got odds for who will score the most points out of Ray Allen and Tayshaun Prince, which will be interesting. The ghost of Ray Allen awoke in game 5 to break his slump and score 29 points, so we’re picking Ray to keep up the good form and beat the gangly Prince by more than 2.5 points for a 1.77 (-130) collect.

There’s some other good props there to keep the game interesting. Paul Pierce, McDyess, Sheed, Chauncy and Rondo are all featured.

That’s one of the best things about online sportsbooks. They make watching these games for fun with these funky little types of bets. It doesn’t have to be serious bets on the spread for big money, we can bet a couple of bucks on our favorite players to have a good or bad game.

To me it makes watching the game just that little more exciting.

Enjoy the weekend!

Ed

And that’s exactly what the oddsmakers thought would happen….

A 1-1 draw was the shortest priced scoreline result and Man U was tipped to win. And that’s exactly what we bet on, and what we recommended you should have bet on too.

Did you get a win? If not I hope you at least enjoyed the close game, because it was pretty much the last of the club football this season.

But Euro 2008 kicks of in 14 days, and there’ll plenty of good football bets to be had throughout the tournament.

Even if England didn’t make it! I’m still amazed they couldn’t crack the top 16 teams in Europe…

Centrebet has Germany as the 4.60 favorite, followed by Spain at 7.50 and Portugal at 8.00. They’re also offering a free $50 bet to new accounts.

With no England, our usual bet isn’t possible. We usually bet on whoever England is playing against and usually make a good profit. (sorry England, but you always choke)

With Guus Hiddink coaching Russia, they could be a diamond in the rough at 26.00. They beat lowly Kazakhstan 6-0 in a warm up game, which probably doesn’t mean much, but Guus always has his teams ready to play.

So we’ll be having a sneaky little bet on the Russkies. Not much, because we’re probably throwing our money away, but at 26.00 it’s worth a stab just for fun.

Bodog Sportsbook is offering odds of 3.25 (+225 or 9/4) on the Spurs winning the NBA western conference finals against the LA Lakers. 3.25!

The Lakers are a big favorite, only paying 1.38 (-265 or 20/53).

So perhaps the Lakers should be favorites after sweeping the Nuggets, then beating the Jazz 4-2 and having the homecourt advantage. But there’s no way in hell they should be that short against the defending champs. The Spurs have got Duncan, Parker and Ginobli for petes sake! Two former NBA finals MVPs and the current runaway sixth man of the year. There’s just no way they are only a 9-to-4 chance of winning this series.

If you’re a Spurs fan, that is a must take bet. Even if you’re not sure the Spurs can do it, the odds are too good to pass up. But get on it quickly because the price will come down as soon as the Spurs win a game.

I will let you know that I’m not going to have a bet on this series.

But that’s purely because I’m a diehard Lakers fan from way back in the Magic Johnson showtime days and there’s no way I could be such a traitor to bet on the Spurs. But damn I’m tempted… The odds don’t make sense to bet on the Lakers unfortunately, except maybe 3.35 for the Lakers to win it in 7 games. (Yes you can bet on any possible series result at Bodog)

Ed

I was too chicken to predict the result, and was cheering for the Hornets. But even though they were favorites with the sportsbooks and had won every home game by 20 points, in my heart they were still underdogs against those damn Spurs.

We did however suggest the under bet on the game score, which came through when only 173 points were scored. Collecting money without having to pick the winning team is fun.

I’m a Lakers fan. And I’m scared of the Spurs. I would have rather we play the Hornets in the Western Conference Finals, because I think we match up on them better. There’s no odds up yet, but I’m sure the Lakers will be favorites in the series. But those damn Spurs will find a way to make it scary.

Not that we care - the more games that are played, the more chances we get to sit on the couch with chips and beers and bet on the action with Bodog Live.

Have you seen this live betting stuff yet? It’s freakin’ awesome. You can bet on things happening whilst the game is playing and the odds are continually updated. There’s nothing better than some in game action to keep it interesting.

But anyway, well done Spurs, damn you… You’ll live to fight another day and we’ll continue to have bets that don’t involve you losing…

Ed