Stephen Duval, CEO of Australia-based Superfighter, met with the media to talk about his dream – it’s a doozy. Duval invented an eight-man eliminator that offers the winner a whopping $5 million. Fighters can’t even get their contracted minimums, which can be as low as $5,000 a fight, so this is better then lotto. The losers? They collect the $200K minimum.

Here’s the lineup, so far:

Chris Byrd (39-3-1 20 KOs) – The former IBF heavyweight champion. His style has put more people to sleep then Nyquil. Byrd will try to peck his way to victory. But after the beating he took against Wladimir Klitschko, and unofficially losing four of his last five bouts, I wouldn’t bet on him with your money.

O’Neil Bell (26-1-1 24 KOs) – The current cruiserweight champion. He crushed French tank Jean Marc Mormeck in a war. A big plus for Bell is that he can crack. But he never has faced a heavyweight, and he takes too many punches flush. Against a heavy it might be beddy-bye for Bell. Bet on him getting eliminated by the third round.

“The Nigerian Nightmare” Samuel Peter (26-1 22 KOs) – He’s George Foreman’s pick to take it all. In a four-rounder, he’s the most dangerous opponent. But can he carry his power through four hours, 12 rounds and three opponents? Odds should be in his favor.

Steve “USS” Cunningham (19-0 10 KOs) – He’s the #1 IBF cruiserweight and walks around at 195 lbs. Cunningham showed a dynamite chin by taking everything Guillermo Jones could offer. If he’s matched up with Samuel Peter, his ship sails. Otherwise, he has enough boxing skills to dazzle his way to the finals.

Tye Fields (36-1 33 KO) – I agree with Max Kellerman’s analysis: “At 6-9, 293 lbs., and not so skilled, he’s an attraction, not a contender.” He’s a long shot.

Shannon Briggs (45-4 40 KOs) – Since his loss to Jameel McCline, he has fought every club fighter from New York to Arizona. BUT … he’s got the experience, he can fight and has underrated hand speed. He might be the man to beat. I see him making the final

Alexander Povetkin (7-0 5 KOs) – I think Povetkin is Russian for pulverized. He’s too raw to best any of the combatants. He’s a huge underdog and doesn’t make it past the first round.

#8 – OPEN

Maybe we should put odds on this circus even getting off the ground. Just think back to Cedrick Kushner’s “Fist Full of Dollars?” Can you recall who won? Enough said …

Clottey Chasing Margarito
Joshua Clottey (28-1, 20 KOs) is ranked #4 by the WBC, #5 by the WBO and #7 by the IBF. Just as the high ratings indicate, Clottey believes he is capable of beating the best welterweights in the world, and having reeled off nine consecutive victories the star from Ghana has his eyes set on WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (33-4, 24 KOs).

“I’m determined to become a world champion,” Clottey says. “I have the skills, work ethic and heart to be a champion. I’ve dealt with many hardships throughout my career, and getting a shot at Margarito and the title would make it all worth it. This is what I have been working toward my whole life. I have a lot of respect for Antonio Margarito as a champion. I know he always wants to fight the best. I am the best welterweight contender in the world. Margarito may want to fight an easier fight right now, but if Antonio wants to stay at welterweight, he can run, but he can’t hide.”

Floyd Mayweather turned down an $8 million dollar offer to face the WBO champion, so Margarito is running out of defense options.

In a recent FightBeat.com interview, Bob Arum confirmed a Clottey matchup: “Mayweather has shown reluctance to fight Margarito, so we are thinking about putting Margarito-Clottey on the undercard of Rahman-Maskaev clash.” That fight takes place Aug. 12.

Are you ready for WWIII?

Diego “Chico” Corrales (40-2 33 KOs) and Jose Luis Castillo (52-7-1 46 KOs) are revving their engines to produce another “fight of the year.”

If you’ve never seen their first fight, GET IT! “Chico” was knocked down twice in the 10th round and came back some 60 seconds later to win it. Check out garyshawproductions.com to view Round 10. Just amazing.

Their second bout was marked with controversy. Castillo didn’t make weight and refused to even try. Castillo was fined for this stunt, but Team Corrales agreed to fight anyway.
The result: Corrales on his back.

The weight issue proved to be a mistake, something even promoter Gary Shaw admits:
“I’ll never do again what I did in this fight,” Shaw said. “If the contract calls for 135 pounds it will be at 135 pounds.”

The fight takes place June 3. Stay tuned next week for my breakdown and prediction. Sportsbook has Castillo-220, Corrales +180

Barrera Wars with Juarez

As the final bell rang, he walked back to his corner with swollen eyes, a bloody nose and probably a broken jaw – and that was the winner!

Marco Antonio Barrera really underestimated 2000 Olympian Rocky Juarez. Juarez showed power with both hands and kept countering Barrera all night with left hooks and overhand rights. HBO did its usual cheerleading for Barrera, seldom mentioning Juarez unless he got hit. The fighters dueled on even terms for 12 rounds, and the decision was what most anticipated… a draw

Unexpected was the announcement that judge Morita’s scorecard was tabulated wrong. The correct total was 115-114 in Barrera’s favor to give the champion a split-decision victory.

For Christmas I promise to send the commission a calculator

Boxing Notebook: Everything’s Super This Week is a post from: Online Casino Blog

My friend is called Emma. She is not exactly what you would call good with money and I am often amazed at the amounts she spends when we go out shopping together. Emma earns a fairly good wage but many people would probably expect that she earns three times this amount by her attitude towards money. If there is a store card available, Emma will sign up for it. I have often tried to advise her that she could find herself in a nasty position if she does not take more care with her finances, but she would never listen and thought that I was just too careful and even tight with my own money.

About a year ago, Emma confided to me that she was in quite a large amount of debt. She had bought a lot of items on her credit cards and had been unable to make all of the repayments. Emma also had a car loan which she also found hard to pay back, she of course had to drive around in the best car. Emma said that it was not a problem as she was looking into ways of reducing these debts and had read many debt consolidation articles on the internet, which had provided her with some useful information.

Six months later, Emma confided in me again. She now stated that she was in too deep and that she had been stupid as she had tried to gamble her way out of debt. I could not believe it, however tried to remain positive for her sake. I asked her to explain what had happened. She replied that she had started to play poker on the internet. Originally it was only for a bit of fun and in the first two months she was up around three hundred dollars. Emma then thought that this was a possible way to help her to reduce her debts and started to play for much higher stakes. Her winning streak was not to last and she ended up losing a lot of money.

Emma is still finding it hard to pay back all of the money she owes various people and companies, but has realised that gambling is not a form of debt solution for her.

Beware Gambling Can Increase Your Debt Problems is a post from: Online Casino Blog

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Betway.com will offer sports betting with a huge selection of odds and live betting events on all the biggest leagues and sports internationally. Players can also sit down and experience the thrill of playing in our award winning casino and poker room. In particular, the rise of poker has blown new life into the way people use the net. Betway.com will be second to none in that area. Together with one of the biggest and most respected networks (PRIMA) Betway.com poker players will not only have the best sign up bonus the industry have ever seen, but also a wide selection of levels, tournaments and special promotional events that immediately puts Betway.com/Poker on the map as one of the most active, fun and entertaining places to play poker. Betway.com poker will off course also offer special European tournaments and events that put our players in the most wanted live tournament seats around the world.

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BETWAY.COM part of the Carmen Media Group is set to change the standards of Online Betting is a post from: Online Casino Blog

In article one, I introduced you to the Betting Exchange concept and explained the basics of LAY Betting (Lay to Lose). Now in this article, I’m going to introduce you to another unique and powerful feature of the betting exchanges, the Place Markets.

What Are Betting Exchange Place Markets?

Place markets are as the name suggests, markets which allow you to bet on a selection to be ‘placed’. Eg. a horse to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in a 8 runner or larger field.

Now, the first and most important thing to highlight here is that these place markets are completely different to the well known Each Way (EW) betting markets offered by traditional bookmakers. The Each Way bet is in fact 2 bets of equal stakes.

The 1st stake is on the selection to win and the 2nd is on it to be placed. So a £10 EW bet will cost you £20 in total.

A £10 place bet on a Betting Exchange is a single bet and therefore will only cost you £10. If your selection finishes in a place, you collect your winnings and smile.

Think about it for a minute. How many times have you been certain that a horse will be placed, but you have not been confident that it will win…

Traditional Each Way Betting

Take the following example. A horse named ‘Im gonna be placed’ that is available to back with traditional bookmakers at 4/1 (5.0). Your very confident that it will finish in the top 3 in a 10 runner field.

With a traditional bookmaker, your options are:

1) Take a chance on it winning and place a win single on it. E.g. £10 at 4/1

2) Place an EW bet on it. E.g. £10 EW at 4/1 (5.0). Total stakes £20. The bookies will pay you 1/5 odds on the place element of this E/W bet based on their standard EW rules. On our horse which is available to back at 5.0 this equates to 1.8

Now, the only time the above race will be profitable for you is if the horse actually wins. In both cases you would make a very nice profit if it did. For option 1 you would win £40 profit and for option 2, £48 profit.

BUT, if as you suspected the horse only finishes placed in 2nd or 3rd, you actually lose money in both cases. With option 1 you obviously lose all your stake money so are down £10. With option 2, you win £8 on the Place side of the EW bet but still lose £2 overall as the win part of the bet was a losing one.

Enter The Betting Exchange Place Markets

Using the above example and depending upon the prices of the other horses in the race, you would probably see the Betting Exchanges offering odds of around 1.60 – 2.00 (evens) on this horse being placed. You can therefore put your £10 PLACE bet on at say 1.8 and collect £8 profit (minus commission) as long as the horse finishes 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Only if the horse finishes outside of the top 3 do you lose your £10 stake.

I’m sure this has got you thinking and you can probably see the power in this straight away!

When combined with a good staking plan and a sensible selection process, it can be common to have very long winning streaks when backing horses to be placed on the betting exchanges. These longer winning streaks more than make up for the relatively short prices that are offered on selections to be placed.

Place Market Important Notes

A few important things to note about place markets:

1) Unlike the betting exchange win markets, Place markets DO NOT go “In-Running” when the race starts but this is true of the traditional E/W bets offered by bookies as well.

2) If a race is planned as a 8 runner or more event but a number of horses become non-runners leaving less than 8 runners, the betting exchanges still offer odds on 3 places. This is different to bookmakers who in such cases adjust their odds on the place payment from 1/5 to 1/4 of the win odds BUT they only pay out on 2 places. If a 5,6 or 7 runner field is shortened to less than 5 runners, the betting exchanges will still offer place markets and payout if the horse finishes 1st or 2nd.

3) You can make up the equivalent of an E/W bet on the betting exchanges by placing a bet on the win market and a separate bet on the place market. Depending upon the type of race and the form of the market, you will often find that this offers more value in terms of odds than an E/W bet with a bookmaker.

Backing Or Laying On The Place Markets

As explained in article 1, the ability to Lay a selection is perhaps the most important feature of the betting exchanges. You now have the ability to Lay selections to be placed. In other words, if you have a valid reason to believe that a selection will not even finish in a place, Lay it to Lose on a betting exchange. The real beauty of laying on the place markets, is that the odds are always much lower than the outright win odds so your lay liabilities are much lower.

Trading On The Place Markets

As the place market prices are much lower than the outright win market prices, they also offer a great place to learn the skill of TRADING without much risk to your balance! Betting Exchange trading is simply the process of betting on price movements for guaranteed profits. E.g. Back a horse at 4.0 and then Lay it later at 3.0 for a no risk bet or guaranteed profit regardless of the outcome!

Betting exchange trading will be covered in detail in a future betting article.

Summary

Place markets should be used as part of your betting armory. They offer you the chance to make money frequently with long winning streaks being very common. This helps to build your confidence as well as your betting bank!

Bookie Each Way bets are not always poor bets but in the vast majority of races, the odds are stacked firmly in the favour of the bookmakers. They simply love punters taking EW bets on these races as they know its their bread and butter. A small proportion of races where the market is formed in a certain way do offer the punter very good E/W value but that’s for a different day…

Well that’s it for part 2 of my betting exchange articles. In part 3, I will be explaining the Betting Exchange In-Running markets.

Betting Exchange Place Markets – Wise Up And Win is a post from: Online Casino Blog

In his third minor league rehabilitation start, Colon gave up six earned runs and nine hits against the Fresno Grizzlies. In three starts for the Angels this season, Colon is 0-2 with a 7.07 ERA and they are going to send down their best pitcher to accommodate him.

Jered Weaver, the Angels’ first-round draft pick in June 2004, reduced his ERA to 1.37 and became the second pitcher in franchise history to win his first four major league starts on Tuesday night. The other was Bo Belinsky, who won his first five starts in 1962 and finished his rookie season 10-11. Whether that’s enough to keep Weaver up in the bigs is another story. He has allowed just four earned runs, 16 hits and four walks in his 26 1-3 innings of work — and has received a total of 30 runs of support from his teammates.

The player who should be sent down is Weaver’s brother Jeff Weaver who is 3-9 with an embarrassing ERA of 6.15, but is earning $8.3 million.

The Angels are lucky to have Orlando Cabrera in the lineup as this guy has been incredible. Cabrera has reached base in 43 consecutive games without the benefit of a fielder’s choice, the longest current streak in baseball and longest in club history. He has hit safely in 27 of his last 31 contests and is 25-for-54 over his last 14 games, raising his average from .271 to .313.

When the LA Dodgers acquired Brad Penny a couple of years ago, much was expected of the hard throwing righthander, but some arm ailments affected him and he was just 7-9 in 2005. Already in 2006 he has equaled his 2005 total. Penny (7-1, 2.34 ERA) is 5-0 with a 2.03 ERA over seven starts since his lone loss of the season at Arizona on May 1. He also hasn’t allowed a home run in 10 outings since April 14.

The right-hander enters tonight’s start with a scoreless streak of 14 1-3 innings after a victory at Colorado on Friday. He surrendered five hits over 8 1-3 innings in a 3-0 win.

Padres catcher Mike Piazza, a former Dodger who is hitless in his last nine at-bats, is hitting .400 (12-for-30) with three homers and 12 RBIs in his career against Penny. Piazza is hitting just .188 at home this season.

The Colorado Rockies look to win three straight road games for the first time since April when they continue a four-game series against the Washington Nationals at RFK Stadium on Wednesday.

The Rockies (32-32) opened the season winning 10 of their first 13 road games, but have gone just 6-13 away from Denver since May 1. Still, Colorado is 16-16 on the road this season — a huge improvement over last season’s 27-54 mark.

Garrett Atkins had a double and scored two runs, and is batting .395 (17-for-43) with seven runs, five doubles and nine RBIs during a season-high 12-game hitting streak.

Washington will counter with Tony Armas (6-3, 3.48), who has won six of his last seven decisions. He allowed three runs and six hits in five innings in a 9-8, 12-inning win over Philadelphia on Friday, but did not receive a decision.

The Nationals have won in six of his last seven starts.

Armas is just 1-1 with a 4.80 ERA in six starts at RFK, and has pitched five or fewer innings in three of his last four home starts, posting a 7.13 ERA in those games.

The right-hander is 2-2 with a 7.39 ERA in seven starts against the Rockies, but went 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA in two starts against them last season.

We told you what to expect this year from over the hill Randy Johnson and he has failed to earn his salary in 2006. Johnson (7-5, 5.63 ERA) was hit hard again his last time out, allowing six runs and six hits over four innings of a 6-5 loss to Oakland on Friday. He gave up three more homers, a season high, to bring his total for the year to 15.

The Big Unit has surrendered 10 homers in his last 33 1-3 innings spanning six starts, doing nothing to dispel the notion that his dominance may be fading at age 42. Last year, he gave up a career-high 32 homers in his first season with New York.

Baseball betting numbers that matter! is a post from: Online Casino Blog

Yes the story has been told far too many times about the last Chicago Cub’s team to win the World Series in 1908 and most sportsbooks have them at 50-1 to win the October Classic, while their South Side neighbors the White Sox are 3-1 to repeat.

Yesterday things got so bad at Wrigley that a drunken female fan through a ball from the stands, that just missed taking the head off of slumping Jacques Jones.

The Cubbies now invite flame thrower Kerry Wood back to the nest on Thursday and considering that have been without Wood, Mark Prior, Wade Miller and Derrek Lee, for an extended period, 12-22 is not that bad.

Wood seemed to be realizing his potential when he made the All-Star team in 2003, finishing with a majors-best 266 strikeouts and a 14-11 record. But he went just 8-9 in 22 starts in 2004, spending nearly two months on the disabled list.

Last season he was 3-4 with a 4.23 ERA in 21 games. Wood made three trips to the DL, missing about three months, and even pitched out of the bullpen for the first time in his career, making 11 relief appearances, because of shoulder problems.

Wood’s rehab was pushed back after minor knee surgery in early March. He made two minor league rehab starts and threw 85 pitches in five innings for Triple-A Iowa on May 12.

The Cubs so have a starter hitting over .300 with Todd Walker the closest at .298 and Juan Pierre has been awful from the leadoff spot. His on base percentage of .276 is downright embarrassing and multi-million dollar a year players Jones and Aramis Ramirez have combined for just 34 RBI’s.

They travel across town this weekend and hopefully they learn a thing or two from the White Sox and maybe Dusty should takes some notes on how to manage by Ozzie Guillen!

Baseball betting: will the Cubs start winning or will Dusty get dusted? is a post from: Online Casino Blog

There were reports of lack of discipline in the clubhouse and on the field last year and it looks like things have gone from bad to worse this year. On Sunday the Twins scored 7 runs in the first inning, to answer the 3 that the White Sox had posted in the top of the frame.

Then the Twins allowed the defending World Series champions to storm back for a 9-7 win and in the process get nailed on a embarrassing triple play in the 6th inning. With Nick Punto on second and Shannon Stewart on first, the Twins Luis Castillo popped up a bunt and a charging Paul Konerko made a shoestring catch.

How in the world could Konerko right himself and throw to first for a double play and then second baseman Tadahito Iguchi fired to Juan Uribe at second for a triple play. The first rule of thumb that a little league player is taught on a sacrifice bunt, is to make sure the ball hits the ground before taking off.

What is heck were Punto and Stewart thinking and why did Gardenhire not sit their butts down on the bench. Sunday’s game was also the first time in AL history that a starting pitcher (Mark Buehrle) allowed 7 runs in the first inning and won a game.

Scott Baker was the latest Twin to get roughed up for Minnesota, whose starters have a collective 6.51 ERA, the worst in either league! The Twins needed a strong start from Baker, especially with everyone else in the rotation not named Johan Santana still struggling to find their form. Before the game, righty Carlos Silva was sent to the bullpen temporarily to give him more time to straighten himself out.

Budding star lefty Francisco Liriano will fill his spot for now as the starters are an embarrassing 13-21.

In eight starts, Silva is 2-6 with an 8.80 ERA and 74 hits and 15 homers allowed in 46 innings. After going 14-8 with a 4.21 ERA in 2004, his first year as a starter, the righty pitched through an injured right knee and was picked as Minnesota’s most improved player in 2005. He went 9-8 with a 3.44 ERA in 188-plus innings and led the majors with the fewest walks, 0.4 — per nine innings.

The Twins are a horrible 7-14 in their own division and now head to Motown to face the surging Tigers, who are the most improved team in baseball. After that they face the Brewers in Milwaukee and a embarrassing road trip, could spell the end to Gardenhire’s regime in the Twin cities!

Baseball Betting: the White Sox send the Twins a crystal clear message! is a post from: Online Casino Blog

Randy Johnson is 5-2 through seven starts. But that’s not as good as it looks.

Facing a Tampa lineup missing Jorge Cantu, Aubrey Huff and Julio Lugo, Johnson gave up five runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings Thursday night, letting the Devil Rays stay in the game until the Yankees finally broke it open for a 10-5 victory.

Such games have become routine. In his previous start, against Toronto on Saturday, Johnson allowed six runs on six hits in five innings. The Yankees bailed him out by scoring 17 runs.

That method may work now. It won’t in October.

“Right now he’s not as good as he’s going to be,” manager Joe Torre said of Johnson, 42. “Let’s put it this way: We don’t have any concerns. … This is just normal pitching stuff.”

Johnson has allowed 19 earned runs in his last 23 innings, bumping his ERA to 5.02. But he is 5-2 because the Yankees have averaged just over nine runs over his seven starts.

The divorce of long time mates Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox and former pitching coach Lee Mazzone, has made life miserable for both of their teams. The Braves avoided dropping to 10 games behind in the National League East when they broke a four-game losing streak Sunday by beating the New York Mets 13-3. Still, the nine-game deficit beginning the day was the Braves’ largest since Aug. 11, 1993.

That was the third year of their unprecedented string of 14 division crowns (there was no champion in the strike-shortened 1994 season). The streak remains alive but appears in jeopardy with the Mets’ emergence.

Baltimore starter Bruce Chen gave homers to Kevin Mench and Mark Teixeira in his last start against Texas and Chen was battered for 11 hits and eight runs (seven earned) in four innings as he fell to 0-4. RHP Jim Brower, who ended the week ahead of all relievers with the most earned runs allowed at 14, the most walks with 11 and most hits allowed with 17. Their new pitching coach is Mazzone.

The Boston Red Sox team slugging percentage of .409 entering April 28, is ranked 22nd in baseball. The Red Sox finished in the top two in slugging each of the past three seasons. Few teams succeed while digging themselves holes, and the 2006 Red Sox have proved no exception to that trend. For that reason, the fact that Boston had been outscored by its opponents by a 25-13 margin in first innings prior to Wednesday raised something of a red flag.

The Sox own just a 5-9 mark when their opponents score first, something that has now happened in exactly half of the team’s games. It is a pattern that the team is eager to reverse.

With Thursday’s 7-4 win, the Sox now have an 11-3 record when they score first. If the recent awakening of the Boston bats (20 runs during the first three games of a homestand) points to more such nights, then the team might be able to breathe a bit easier.

RHP Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox continued silencing the critics who jumped on him in spring training, saving his ninth game in nine opportunities Thursday. His velocity on his fastball is still on the rise, but the impressive thing with Jenks has been his other pitches, especially his curveball. The Sox swept the two-game series against the Mariners and in doing so won their 10th consecutive home game, tying a franchise record. They have won 19 of 23 overall, becoming the first team in the majors to reach 20 wins.

Since getting swept in the 2000 American League Division Series against the Mariners, the Sox are now 8-17 at Safeco Field.

The Indians’ inconsistent pitching staff cost the team another game Thursday, as Cleveland lost 12-4 at Oakland. Starter Jason Johnson (2-2) lasted just two innings and gave up seven runs.

Johnson had a 1.83 ERA after his first three starts, but his ERA in the last three starts is 9.64. That’s the kind of inconsistency that has plagued the Indians in the first five weeks of the season.

Equally distressing to the Indians is that Johnson has averaged less than five innings per start in his last three starts. Not pitching deep into games has been a problem for Indians starting pitchers since the beginning of the season, and the two innings Johnson pitched Thursday was a reminder of that shortcoming. Because of the starters’ inability to consistently pitch six or seven innings, the bullpen has been overworked. The result has been that the pitching overall has been wildly inconsistent.

That lack of consistency has sabotaged a terrific start to the season offensively. The Indians are at or near the top of the league in most offensive categories, but yet they are just one game over .500 (15-14).

The Indians failed to hit a double Thursday, snapping a streak in which they had at least one double in 43 consecutive games, dating to last year.

RHP Jason Johnson’s career record against Oakland fell to 1-8 after he was roughed up Thursday.

RHP Jake Westbrook, who will start Friday night in Seattle, has a 9.17 career ERA in eight appearances, six starts, against the Mariners.
C Victor Martinez has reached base in 43 consecutive games, dating to last year. That’s the longest such streak in the majors since Jim Edmonds reached in 47 straight games from June to August 2004.

DH Travis Hafner has homered in his last four games. In his last four games, Hafner is hitting .389 (7-for-18) with four home runs and 13 RBIs.

When RHP Carlos Silva surrendered a two-out, fourth-inning walk to former teammate 1B Doug Mientkiewicz on Thursday night, it snapped a streak by Twins pitchers of more than 3 1/2 games without allowing a walk. The first walk of the homestand (four games in) ended a 33-inning streak that spanned 133 plate appearances.

The Twins’ 1-0 loss to the Royals on Thursday night was their first 1-0 loss since the same team handed them one at Kansas City last Aug. 31 — beating the Twins with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning after the Twins failed to score despite 13 hits and a walk.

The Twins have been shut out four times already this season, including three times in their past seven games. This after they thought they improved the lowest-scoring lineup in the AL in 2005 — which didn’t get shut out until May 9 last year and was shut out only four times until Aug. 26. The 2005 Twins were shut out 10 times all season.

CF Tori Hunter’s infield single in the fifth inning Thursday was the 34th of the season for the Twins, who entered the day tied with Baltimore for the major league lead.

Baseball Betting: number’s don’t lie! is a post from: Online Casino Blog

John Q Public then probably decided to take the Big Red Machine in Texas as they played the Astros and by the time they left the Lone Star state had compiled a nice big bankroll as Cinci swept Houston. Next stop was the “Show Me” state of Missouri and could Reds bettor have the guts to play them against the vaunted Cardinals? Why not as Pujols is on the shelf, and the Reds are pounding the ball!

If Reds fan backed them all the way through Houston and St. Louis he is one happy camper today as they have reeled off 7 in a row and head home to Ohio, to face Chicago. Tonight I would be betting with the whole bankroll as the Reds look like a mortal lock.

The Reds are averaging 7.4 runs while batting .303 with 13 home runs during their winning streak, and have not won eight consecutive games since winning 10 straight from June 21-July 1, 1999.
Ken Griffey Jr. did not play Wednesday because of a tight left quadriceps muscle, but Reds manager Jerry Narron expects him back in the lineup for Thursday’s contest.

Griffey is batting .471 (16-for-34) with four home runs and eight RBIs during an eight-game hitting streak. Adam Dunn is 11-for-29 (.379) with five home runs in eight games against the Cubs this season, and is 10-for-25 (.400) with six homers and 12 RBIs in his career against Thursday’s Cubs starter, Glendon Rusch.

As I mentioned in a previous article, the Boston Red Sox must be kicking themselves for trading Bronson Arroyo to the Reds for Willy Mo Pena as the right hander has been on fire all year with his arm and his bat!

Arroyo (7-2, 2.40) has homered off Rusch twice this season, in an 8-6 win over the Cubs on April 5 at Cincinnati and again in a 9-2 victory at Wrigley Field on April 11.

Arroyo went 3-for-3 with a career-high four RBIs, while allowing two unearned runs and eight hits in six innings in a 7-5 win over Houston on Saturday.

The right-hander has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his 12 starts, and the Reds are 9-3 when he takes the mound.

Arroyo is 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA in two starts against Chicago this season, both of them wins over Rusch.

The Reds are doing this as well without any offensive contribution from catcher Jason LaRue who is 1-30 in the month of June.

Baseball betting: did you bet the Reds on their road trip? is a post from: Online Casino Blog

March begins with the newly-established Vodafone Gold Cup at Newbury on the 4th over two and a half miles. It’s something of a surprise to find such a valuable race staged so close to the Cheltenham Festival, and many trainers face the dilemma of deciding whether to run here or in either the Ryanair Chase or Racing Post Plate over similar distances at the Cheltenham Festival.

Twelve months ago a solid handicapper in the shape of Supreme Prince held on to land the valuable prize while in its inaugural year, the classy Isio was a well-backed winner. Absent since that season, Nicky Henderson’s gelding may well reappear in this race and would be an interesting contender.

On the same day Doncaster’s Grimthorpe Chase, a staying handicap over three and a quarter miles, has been transferred to Lingfield and may well be the chosen target of A Glass In Thyne, who won the Skybet Chase that had also been switched from Doncaster to Southwell in January. Maybe the changing fixture pattern will repeat itself again for Ben Pollock’s improving young chaser.

Champion trainer Martin Pipe has endured a stop-start season but plenty of punters will still be scouring the list of runners for the Imperial Cup at Sandown on March 11 in the hope of unearthing another Pipe hotpot for one of the season’s most keenly-contested handicap hurdles.

Pipe has won the race five times overall and has landed the prize three times in recent seasons. His mass of entries should be studied with the utmost care and may well include progressive sorts such as Buena Vista, Acambo and Desert Air.

The punishing combination of a fiercely-run race and a stamina-sapping finish up the demanding Sandown hill has often meant that lightly-weighted horses have held an advantage over their higher-weighted rivals, while waiting tactics have also proved successful for several of the recent winners. Making all in a race as competitive as this isn’t easy.

The Irish won this race with shock outsider Regency Rake, trained by Arthur Moore in 1999, and any runners from across the Irish Sea should be accorded the greatest respect. Jessica Harrington’s Studmaster, an easy winner of his last two races might take in this contest or wait for the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

On the same day at Sandown make a note also of the EBF Novices’ Hurdle Final, a race that often produces a star of the future. Plenty of classy young hurdlers will have this contest in their sights including the Lambourn-trained duo Mr Pointment, and Wogan while the NickGifford team intends to field Dusky Lord.

In recent years the Irish have held the Champion Hurdle on March 14, the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, in a vice-like grip, winning five of the last seven renewals and looking at the somewhat weakened field for this year’s renewal it’s hard not to envisage the hurdling crown being whisked away once more across the Irish Sea.

Reigning title-holders boast a superb record in the Champion, but recent dual winner Hardy Eustace will have to banish a bout of the blues on his latest and disappointing effort in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopradstown. At the age of nine many think his time may have passed.

Plenty of horses that have been placed in the race previously have put that beneficial experience to good use by returning again the next year to run well. Ireland’s formidable trio of Brave Inca, Macs Joy and Al Eile, who finished third, fifth and seventh respectively in last year’s race will all be fancying their chances of winning this race a second time around.

The home-based challenge looks poor and has been hit hard by a spate of cruel injuries as well as the loss of form of emerging contenders such as Faasel and Penzance. Maybe the best of the British will be Arcalis, whose chances will be much increased by quick ground at Cheltenham, and a return to form for his stable.

Wednesday sees the two-mile heavyweights clash in the stirring championship that is the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Predicting this year’s winner revolves around whether punters think dual winner and reigning champion Moscow Flyer is just a jaded member of the old guard ready to be swept away by young pretenders such as the classy Kauto Star and the improving Fota Island.

Disappointing on his two starts so far this season, the mighty Moscow Flyer is twelve years of age and you have to go back almost thirty years (1977) to find the last winner from that age group.

Kauto Star, by contrast, has youth on his side and hails from the Paul Nicholls stable that has the best recent record in this race with winners in 2004 and 1999, and four placed horses since 2000. Kauto Star is a worthy favourite to add to that auspicious tally.

Thursday’s championship race is the World Hurdle, formerly known as the Stayers’ Hurdle and rather like the Queen Mother Champion Chase, it features a past champion in Baracouda attempting to add a third title at the age of eleven in what must rank a one of the most open renewals in living memory.

But for the foot-and-mouth abandonment of 2001, Baracouda would already have three Stayers’ titles to his name but his task this year is made even harder by his advancing years and the presence of a strong domestic and Irish challenge from Mighty Man, No Refuge, Asian Maze and Golden Cross.

Friday March 17 is Cheltenham Gold Cup day and after the brilliant dominance of the chasing blue riband by three times victor Best Mate, this year’s renewal is one of the poorest and also most open in years and likely to produce a surprise result in this greatly-anticipated championship event.

The loss through injury of Kicking King, last year’s easy winner, has left the race wide-open but many backers will be looking to Monkerhostin, runner-up to the imperious Kicking King in the 2005 King George VI Chase, as a possible winner. Seven of the last ten Gold Cup winners ran in the King George, making it a key trial for future Gold Cup heroes.

Cheltenham week closes with the Midlands Grand National day on March 18 and Ossmoses, a course winner last year, will be a leading fancy for the four-mile one-and-a-half furlong prize given his preference for running over long-distances in the mud. On the same card backers should watch out for Sue Smith’s tough mare Viciana in the EBF Mares’ Novices’ Chase Final.

March closes with the William Hill Lincoln run for the first time at Redcar (due to building work at Doncaster) and the draw is sure to have a big say in the outcome of this one-mile handicap, and the first big prize of the new turf Flat season.

Twelve months ago Newmarket trainer Sir Michael Stoute won this contest for the first time with Stream of Gold and bids to do the same again with the progressive King’s Majesty while James Fanshawe will be looking for easy ground if he’s to run Cesare, another young and improving horse.

A preview of March’s UK Horse Racing is a post from: Online Casino Blog