GAMBLING GUIDE

5 Betting Tips: From one gambler to another

5 Betting Tips: From one gambler to another
Vegas has caught on to how the defending champs score runs. Harry How/Getty Images

As One Shining Moment plays for the last time in our heads for the season, we look to other sports to fulfill our degenerate needs for action. Here are 5 random thoughts that can help you along your gambling ventures.

1) Betting Baseball

When wagering on Baseball, things work a little different than in other sports. Lineups are not released until closer to the first pitch making it harder to take advantage of "early" lines. Taking certain things into factors such as umpires, pitching rotations, ballparks, and teams giving players days off are all things to keep an eye on. Baseball has a ton of variables; you must stay on top of it to be successful.

2) Baseball Home Field Advantage?

When betting sports, we put a tremendous amount of emphasis on Home Field advantage. Especially in the NFL, where playing at home is usually worth 3 points to the handicap, but when betting on the MLB, playing at home may not play as much of an impact.

                                                              Sportsrefernce.com


As you can see, in the regular season, Baseball carries the least amount of advantage of playing as the home team, while the NBA leads the way where teams hosting win 59.9% of the time.

In the postseason, however, things change, and the NFL takes the front, and home teams win 64.7% of the time.

3) Hottest MLB team to start the season

The season has just begun, and the journey is long-drawn, the Hottest teams thus far:

Runline Records
Minnesota 4-0-0    
Seattle       4-0-0
Tampa Bay    4-1-0
Houston    4-1-0
Colorado    3-1-0
Washington    3-1-0
NY Mets    3-1-0
Pittsburgh    3-1-0
Toronto    4-2-0

Best Over-Under Records
Atlanta    2-0-2
Arizona    3-1-0
Colorado    3-1-0
San Diego   3-1-0
Seattle       3-1-0
Pittsburgh   3-1-0
As of 10:41 PM 4/3

The Hometown Defending Champion Astros (feels great to say that) have come out scorching hot as expected. The Astros are 5-1 vs. the Runline, and straight up. When the Astros win, they do it in fashion and cover the run line by an average of 1.7 runs.

The Over/Under in Astros games are 3-3 thus far, and much has to do with the inflated totals books are setting as traps knowing the public has caught on to this team's bats. A better strategy could be to bet Houston's Team totals separately, as they have scored 6+ in their last four games.

4) Rockets Playoff Run Update


A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on what the best strategy to profit on the Rockets down the stretch is. At the time, you could get the Rockets in the +180/+210 range. Earlier this week, Bovada tweeted that for the first time all season, the Warriors weren't favored to win the title by themselves. Both Houston, and Golden State now sit at +120 giving merit to the mechanical parlay strategy I spoke about. If and when these two giants collide in the Western Conference Finals, the odds you get by rolling over the initial amount round by round will profit substantially higher odds than the current +120.

5) Poker tip of the week

A problematic situation you can catch yourself in on a poker table can be that of falling victim to an over-aggressive player. When playing vs. one of these table bullies you must:

A) Play position carefully, ideally you want to be sitting behind them, being you would like them to act first.

B) When involved in hands with the "hyper raiser," try and find yourself raising more often, rather than calling the villain's hands. To stop an aggressive player, you must take command of the hand when the time is right. When executed correctly, a good old fashion check-raise can be enough to get the bully off your back. Play the game, don't let the game play you.

For any question or comments reach me @JerryBoKnowz on twitter.

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Is leadership the main problem for Houston? Composite Getty Image.

With the Astros now officially ten games under .500 for the season, manager Joe Espada is taking a lot of heat from the fanbase for the team's struggles.

While we don't agree with the sentiment, we even hear fans clamoring for the return of Dusty Baker and Martin Maldonado, thinking the Astros wouldn't be in this mess if they were still here.

Which is ridiculous. First of all, Maldonado has been awful for the White Sox, hitting .048 (even worse than Jose Abreu's .065). And for those of you that think his work with the pitching staff justifies his pathetic offense. Let me say this: Where was Maldy's game calling genius for Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez last year? All of them regressed significantly.

And as far as Baker is concerned, we have no idea how much a difference he would make, we can only speculate. Baker would also be dealing with a pitching staff ravaged with injuries. And let's not forget, Baker was the guy that refused to move Jose Abreu down in the batting order, even though he would finish the regular season with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.

The reality of the situation is managers can only do so much in baseball. Which leads us to something else that needs to be considered. Is Espada being handcuffed by the front office? Espada and GM Dana Brown both said recently that Jon Singleton was going to get more at-bats while they give Abreu time off to try to figure things out. Yet, there Abreu was in the lineup again in the opening game of the Cubs series.

It makes us wonder how much power does Espada truly have? The Astros have some other options at first base. Yainer Diaz may only have eight games played at the position, but how much worse could he be than Abreu defensively? Abreu already has four errors, and Diaz is obviously a way better hitter. Victor Caratini isn't considered a plus offensive player, but his .276 batting average makes him look like Babe Ruth compared to Abreu. Let him catch more often and play Diaz at first. Starting Diaz at first more often could also lengthen his career long-term.

Maybe that's too wild of a move. Okay, fine. How about playing Mauricio Dubon at first base? I understand he doesn't have much experience at that position, but what's the downside of trying him there? If he can play shortstop, he can play first base. He's driving in runs at a higher rate (11 RBIs) than everyone on the team outside of Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez. And he's producing like that as part-time player right now.

The other criticism we see of Espada is his use of Jon Singleton to pinch hit late in games. Let's be real, though, who else does Espada have on the roster to go to? Batting Abreu late in games in which you're trailing should be considered malpractice. Espada can only use who he has to work with. This all really stems from the Astros poor farm system.

They don't have anyone else to turn to. The draft picks the club lost from the sign-stealing scandal are really hurting them right now. First and second rounders from 2020 and 2021 should be helping you in 2024 at the big league level.

Maybe they go to Astros prospect Joey Loperfido soon, but after a hot start he has only two hits in his last six games.

Finally, we have to talk about what seems like a committee making baseball decisions. Lost in a committee is accountability. Who gets the blame for making poor decisions?

As time continues to pass it looks like moving on from former GM James Click was a massive mistake. He's the guy that didn't sign Abreu, but did trade Myles Straw (recently DFA'd) for Yainer Diaz and Phil Maton. He also built an elite bullpen without breaking the bank, and helped the club win a World Series in 2022.

The reality of the situation is Dusty Baker and James Click are not walking back through that door. And all good runs come to an end at some point. Is this what we're witnessing?

Don't miss the video above as we hit on all the points discussed and much more!

Catch Stone Cold 'Stros (an Astros podcast) with Charlie Pallilo, Brandon Strange, and Josh Jordan. We drop two episodes every week on SportsMapHouston's YouTube channel. You can also listen on Apple Podcast, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.

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