How does the saying go? The higher the risk, the higher the reward? It's true in business, and yes, in Bettin' or Braggin'.
How does the saying go? The higher the risk, the higher the reward?
It’s true in business, and yes, it’s true in the world of Bettin’ or Braggin’.
As the pro football season stampedes into its second half, many of us have stepped our bets up a notch or three. And why we may hit an occasional big winner, a stinker week with big bets can sink your battleship. Yikes.
All Bettin’ or Braggin’ players had losing tallies in Week 10. SFBay reader ParksideGreg dropped $3,400 SFBay bucks while traveling in Japan. I guess it’s true, everything is really expensive there.
All of us SFBay staffers suffered the same fate: $500 losses. My two big cover hopes — San Francisco and New England — sputtered mightily. Mighty Houston, on the other hand, covered against overrated Chicago, saving my bacon.
Ali T. lost big on New England but balanced his losses with winning bets on Baltimore and Denver, while Chelena G. got swept, save her wise pick of Baltimore against Oakland.
This week presents a few home dogs and some pretty ugly numbers. My against-the-grain lock is Indianapolis against New England. I’m picking them to win outright, so covering the nine shouldn’t be a problem.
Also, with New Orleans and Oakland moving in (predictably) opposite directions, 4-1/2 shouldn’t be too tough for New Orleans to cover.
As with all things gambling, though, there are no guarantees. Lay down your bets and enjoy the action.
Fair warning: We’re not touts, sharks or bookies. We don’t splash action around the web or line up bets in back alleys. We’re just a few local writers picking games without much of a clue. So using these picks for your own gambling is probably a very bad idea.
| Name | Bankroll | Last week |
| Jesse | 12,600 | -500 |
| Chelena | 9,500 | -500 |
| Ali | 8,800 | -500 |
| Game | Ali | Chelena | Jesse |
| Chicago at San Francisco (-5 1/2) |
SF 200 |
SF 100 |
SF 600 |
| New Orleans (-4 1/2) at Oakland |
NO 1000 |
NO 200 |
NO 800 |
| San Diego at Denver (-8) |
SD 200 |
DEN 100 |
DEN 200 |
| Indianapolis at New England (-9) |
IND 200 |
IND 100 |
IND 1000 |
| New York (A) at St. Louis (- 3 1/2) |
STL 200 |
STL 100 |
NY 200 |
| Baltimore (-3 1/2) Pittsburgh |
BAL 500 |
BAL 100 |
PIT 500 |
To refresh anyone’s memory on how point spreads function, the team with the “minus points” is the favored team, and has the “point spread” deducted from their score at the end of the game. The final score adjusted by the point spread determines the winner of the bet.
If a team is favored by three points, they must win by more than three points to win a point spread bet.
Of course you can play along with Bettin’ or Braggin! What kind of pro football picking game would Bettin’ or Braggin’ be if you couldn’t play?
You can win prizes! (We can’t. All SFBay staff can win are bragging rights over each other. In other words, priceless.)
But first, some rules:
* – Actually, we will be picking two Thursday games, the Seattle-San Francisco game Oct. 26 and the Denver-Oakland game Dec. 6. On those weeks, the deadline for weekly picks will be Thursday at 5 p.m. See why we don’t like Thursday games? Too complicated.
Third-place: SFBay black fleece hoodie, high quality. Nice stuff. $50 value.
Second-place: Limited-edition, authentic SFBay Golden Gate FC soccer shirt, customized with your name. $120 value.
First place: A green Joe Montana Notre Dame Adidas jersey, “True School Authentics,” Size 56. Very high quality retro-authentic heavy mesh. Brand-new, never-worn condition. All tags attached. Very collectible. $250 value.
Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.
FAlling fast!
SF $500
NO $800
Den $200
Ind $500
St. Louis $500
Balt $200
Good luck All. pg