Category Archives: Gambling

Super Bowl 44 Prop Bets – You making any of these?

By web gangsta | Published: February 6, 2010



Super Bowl 44 Program Saints Colts

The Super Bowl.

A time for getting together with friends, family, and co-workers for the ultimate Super Bowl party as you gather around the big screen to watch the game (and the Super Bowl commercials), while you hunker down with some awesome Super Bowl party food.

And what makes watching the Super Bowl with a crowd more interesting is a little friendly wager.

We’re not talking about anything crazy, money-wise.  Everyone can just throw $5 into the pot and fill out some FOOTBALL SQUARES – you don’t have to know anything about the game, just put your name into a box and wait for the scoring to commence.  Could be the easiest money you’ve ever made.

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Read This Book: William Poundstone’s PRICELESS – THE MYTH OF FAIR VALUE

By web gangsta | Published: January 1, 2010


Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value

William Poundstone is one of Web Watch’s favorite writers, having written many books around the same theme of exposing various ways that professionals (magicians, street crooks, carnies, casinos, etc) lie, cheat, and steal their way into your wallet.  

Some of Mr Poundstone’s books that you may already be aware of include:

All are great reads and lots of fun.

And now Mr Poundstone adds to his roster with PRICELESS – THE MYTH OF FAIR VALUE AND HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT.  

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The 12 Most Ridiculous Bets of All Time

By web gangsta | Published: November 28, 2009


The Man with the $100,000 BreastsYou have probably seen the movie 21, about the MIT whiz kid blackjack players who figured out how to scam casinos for millions of dollars simply by counting cards and playing as a team.

Regardless of how glitzy the movie made it look, counting cards to make a living is not as easy as it seems.

Sometimes, gamblers need to have fun too – which is where proposition bets come into play.  What’s a proposition bet?  It’s a side bet of any type, usually of an uncommon event.

For example, people bet on the Super Bowl all the time – whether it be a Super Bowl grid or betting the line in Vegas based on who they think will win, or whether the point spread will be met.  A Super Bowl proposition bet are the more obscure items:

  • The coin toss
  • Whether there will be a kickoff return for a touchdown
  • Whether anyone will be heard swearing on the television broadcast

These aren’t necessarily tied to whether a team will win or lose the game, but rather what happens in the events surrounding the Super Bowl.  But a proposition bet doesn’t have to revolve around the Super Bowl or sports at all.  Sometimes, these bets are a bit more obscure and interesting.

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Hungry? Check out the Wheel of Lunch!

By web gangsta | Published: October 25, 2009


Wheel of RamonesSometimes the hardest thing about figuring out where to go for lunch or dinner is simply trying to figure out where to go for lunch or dinner.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just randomly select a restaurant from your local zip code, any time you wanted?

Well, now you can!

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What Are The Odds? (a different look at some statistics)

By web gangsta | Published: July 29, 2009


Whenever Web Watch visits Las Vegas, we like to watch people play the “carnival” games scattered across the casino.

You know the games – high visibility on the gaming floor, but not a lot of chance that the people playing will actually walk away a winner.  An example:  we once watched someone blow through about $1000 in 10 minutes playing Casino War.  Yes, the children’s card game WAR as played in a casino.  He didn’t stand a chance (he should have moved to craps or blackjack, where the odds were much more in his favor).

Knowing what the odds are in any scenario, whether it be a game of chance or a life-altering event, is important.

But odds need to be put into perspective.  One could tell you that you have a 1-in-6 chance of taking the unshaken beer out of the 6-pack carrier during a game of Russian Beer Roulette, or they could just bet whether you can roll a six on a die.  They’re the same odds, but sometimes you need these things pointed out to you.

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Movie Review: The Hangover

By web gangsta | Published: June 5, 2009


Rated R for adult situations, sex, booze, drugs, profanity, boobs, weiners, and too many shots of ugly dude butts.

Rating: B

THE HANGOVER is the latest comedy from Todd Phillips, the director of Old School.

The premise is simple:  four guys go to Las Vegas for a routine weekend bachelor party at Caesar’s Palace. 

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Join WSOP champion Annie Duke at “Sucking Out On The Rivers” poker tourney

By web gangsta | Published: May 20, 2009


What are you doing on Wednesday May 27th?

If you didn’t like the outcome of this year’s Celebrity Apprentice… and who did?… then this is your chance to join in a little good natured revenge with proceeds going to Refugees International.

(I mean really – while I admit that the last few Celebrity Apprentice episodes were hysterically entertaining, everyone knows that the best quality finale would have been between Jesse James vs Annie Duke.  That would have been awesome.  And we would next like to see Annie and Jesse take on Dancing with the Stars next.  But I digress.) 

What do you need to do to join in the fun?  Just join poker champion Annie Duke at the SUCKING OUT ON THE RIVERS POKER TOURNAMENT at the Hard Rock Casino’s poker room in Las Vegas.

Annie Duke and renowned Joan Rivers impersonator Frank Marino are joining forces on this charity poker tournament.  Buy-in is $200 (with re-buys), and they expect a few poker pros to come out and join the fun.  There are also going to be 20 other Joan Rivers impersonators playing along, each one with a bounty on their head for the lucky player who knocks them out.

Advance information is saying that the tournament is going to start at 6pm, but considering how much fun this sounds like, I wouldn’t be surprised if it started later and ran long into the night.

Full press release after the break.

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Top Three Stickiest Websites

By web gangsta | Published: April 11, 2009


According to Nielsen Online ratings, these were the top three Internet destinations based on the total number of unique users (in February 2009):

  1. Google
  2. Microsoft
  3. Yahoo

This includes all sites owned and operated by these companies, such as email, photo sharing, search, chat, etc.

The top three Internet destinations based on the average amount of time spent on the site per individual user were:

  1. Full Tilt Poker (average time spent: 12:44:25)
  2. Electronic Arts Online (average time spent: 6:56:18)
  3. PokerStars (average time spent: 6:26:04)
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Lessons Learned from THE BEST DAMN POKER SHOW

By web gangsta | Published: April 2, 2009


I’ve been watching THE BEST DAMN POKER SHOW on Fox Sports Net. 

It’s a tournament-based series, with two teams of (mostly) amateur poker players competing against each other and coached by poker pros Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth.  For whatever reason, I can’t watch most poker programs on TV, but shows like this one or Bravo’s prematurely cancelled CELEBRITY POKER SHOWDOWN that offer decent, approachable advice for the casual player (along with a little bit of personality and humor) are more entertainly watchable for me versus the more serious World Poker Tour or High Stakes Poker shows.

Besides, who wouldn’t want to get free poker advice from Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, or Phil Gordon (an early commentator on CPS)?  As such, I turn you to one small piece of advice learned from season 2, episode 5, of The Best Damn Poker Show. 

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The Human Litterbox Bet

By web gangsta | Published: March 16, 2009


I do not know anyone who would be willing to take this bet.  It certainly would make for an interesting end to March Madness tournament betting, especially for those who are always looking for the ultimate bet payoff with one’s friends:  THE HUMAN LITTERBOX.

All the loser has to do is use a cat litterbox for a week instead of the toilet.

Sure, you’d have to figure out what to do about using the facilities at the workplace, but that could be easily arranged as litterboxes are fairly portable.  What could possibly go wrong with this idea?

Apparently, this is not a new concept.  Cats are writing advice columns on how to deal with messy humans, and Half-Bakery even has a suggestion on using kitty litter as a way to keep your bathroom clean between scrubs…and they’ve done the math in how humans and cats differ in pee volume.

I know what you’re thinking – someone did think that there was a practical reason to poop in a cat box.  GEM718 asked Yahoo Questions the following: “Can I Poop in My Cat’s Litter Box to Train her to Do So?  My kitten is 5 weeks old, and she just will NOT use her litter box. I needed to know if I were to take a dump in her litter box, would she get the idea?”

You’re just going to have to click the link to see the answer for yourself.

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How To Pick the NCAA Basketball Bracket

By web gangsta | Published: March 15, 2009


Whether you call it the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship, March Madness, Bracketology, or the World’s Best Office Pool, every year office work grinds to a halt as millions of people sweat over their 63 game selections as they fill out their basketball brackets – hoping ultimately to win their local office pool.

How tough is it to pick the perfect tournament bracket?  Try 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 1 (nine quintillion, if you lost track of the number of commas in that number).

Officially, the NCAA does not support using the grid in any form of gambling, and frowns upon the amount of effort thrown at filling out the brackets for monetary gain.

Got that?  Good.  Now that THAT is out of the way, let’s talk about the 10 BEST WAYS TO FILL OUT YOUR BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BRACKET SO YOU CAN WIN YOUR OFFICE POOL. 

(Okay, we may cover more than 10 rules for you to follow while filling out your bracket, but who’s counting?)

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Gambling on Entertainment

By web gangsta | Published: February 21, 2009


With the Academy Awards this weekend, Dancing with the Stars gearing up in a few weeks, American Idol still whittling away singers, the NCAA Basketball Tournament coming up in March, now is a good time to take a look at who the oddsmakers are saying is going to win.

The bookies at BETUS have the following for Dancing:

And while some of these singers may be gone in a few weeks before the competition even gets rolling, they currently show American Idol favorites to be:

  • Danny Gokey – 350:1
  • Adam Lambert – 450:1
  • Matt Giraud  - 450:1
  • Anoop Desai  - 1000:1
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