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08/05/2007 - Blaine, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.A. Weibring fired a six-under 66 Saturday to take a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the 3M Championship.
Weibring completed 36 holes at 13-under-par 131. His 131 matched the 36-hole scoring record that Ed Dougherty set in 2000.
Jim Thorpe, who shared the lead after one round with Tom Jenkins, posted a four-under 69 Saturday. Thorpe is alone in second place at minus-12.
Jenkins carded a two-under 70 and is two shots back at 10-under-par 134. He stands alongside John Harris, Senior British Open champion Tom Watson and Curtis Strange.
Weibring was steady to start his round with birdies on two and six, both from inside 15 feet, that moved him to minus-nine. He stumbled to his lone bogey, a three-putt bogey, on the seventh at TPC of Twin Cities.
The three-time winner on the Champions Tour fought back around the turn with birdies on 11 and 13.
Weibring converted back-to-back birdies from the 15th to jump to minus-12. He closed with a kick-in birdie at the last hole to end one clear of Thorpe.
"It was a challenging day out there," said Weibring, of the breezy, rainy conditions. "I hit the ball solid today. Whenever you shoot 31 on the back nine, especially in tough conditions, it gives you a good feeling."
Thorpe traded a birdie for a bogey from the fourth. He birdied the par-five sixth from 10 feet out and made it two in a row with a 20-foot birdie putt at the seventh.
The 58-year-old Thorpe parred four straight around the turn. He ran off three birdies in a four-hole span from the 12th to take the lead at 13-under.
However, Thorpe faltered to a double-bogey at the par-four 16th to slide to 11-under. His drive found water left of the fairway, then his third shot plugged under the lip of a greenside bunker.
Thorpe got back within one of Weibring as he two-putted for birdie at the last to finish at 12-under.
"The course was much tougher today. I played well, but the wind blew hard," said Thorpe. "The course played much longer today. There are still lots of people in this tournament. I need to shoot seven-under on Sunday to have a chance to win."
Bruce Lietzke (68), John Jacobs (70) and Craig Stadler (70) share seventh place at nine-under-par 135. Keith Fergus, Senior PGA Championship winner Denis Watson, Bobby Wadkins and Jay Haas are one stroke further back.
<< Brewers active Linebrink from bereavement list
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Milwaukee Brewers activated reliever
Scott Linebrink from the bereavement list prior to Saturday's game against
Philadelphia.
The right-hander has appeared in two games for Milwaukee since being
<< Franchitti on pole in Michigan
Brooklyn, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dario Franchitti won the pole for Sunday's
Firestone Indy 400 at the Michigan International Speedway. The No.27 Andretti
Green Racing Honda circled the high-speed, two-mile oval in 32.9810 seconds
(218.30
<< Harvick wins wild one in Montreal
Montreal, QC Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Harvick captured Saturday
afternoon's inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in
wild fashion after Robby Gordon spun out the race leader. The No.21 Chevrolet
crossed
<< Walton leads by one in Kansas
Wichita, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Walton fired a five-under 66 Saturday
to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Wichita Open.
Walton, who is going for his first tour title, completed 54 holes at 14-under-
par 199. He is ma
Flesch leads by five in Reno >>
Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Steve Flesch posted his second straight three-
under 69 Saturday to push his lead to five strokes after three rounds of the
Reno-Tahoe Open.
Flesch, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, completed 54 holes at
Roddick to battle Isner for DC title >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded American Andy Roddick remained on
track to win his third tournament in the nation's capital, beating seventh-
seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5) in Saturday's semifinals of
the $60
Fielder homers, Hart robs HR as Brewers rally to beat Phillies >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Prince Fielder's two-run homer in the eighth
inning put the Brewers on top, and Corey Hart robbed Tadahito Iguchi of a
potential tying homer in the ninth, as the Milwaukee Brewers edged the
Philade
Hudson leads Braves over Rockies >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Hudson pitched seven scoreless innings to
lead the Atlanta Braves to a 6-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Turner
Field.
Hudson (12-5), who also knocked in two runs at the plate, scattered five hi
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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