EOG's Grand Challenge presented by BetDSI (MRBOWLING300 is our August contestant)

Abundy

EOG Addicted
Baseball is a tough sport to beat. I have been trying all my life. So many games every day . But so unpredictable. 17-13 is a good record Mr. Bowling. I am surprised you didn’t mix in a little NFL
 

ouch

EOG Dedicated
Great job done by Mr. Bowling in this contest. It's a killer to come so agonizingly close. I have to say that this was the most entertaining Grand Challenge that we have had in recent memory.

Again, a terrific effort.
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
Baseball is a tough sport to beat. I have been trying all my life. So many games every day . But so unpredictable. 17-13 is a good record Mr. Bowling. I am surprised you didn’t mix in a little NFL
I intended to play some NFL Ex, but never really found decent plays that I was confident enough to use.
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
Great job done by Mr. Bowling in this contest. It's a killer to come so agonizingly close. I have to say that this was the most entertaining Grand Challenge that we have had in recent memory.

Again, a terrific effort.
Thank you very much, even though I didn't win, had a blast playing, and had a lot of fun being spotlighted this month. Hope I get another chance in the future.
 

TEXED

EOG Veteran
Great job Mr. Bowling. You not only took it right to the end, but your commentary throughout made it even more interesting. Well done all around.---Don't know, but it seems like you did well with the Detroit games.
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
I had a blast, thank you everyone for all the kind comments along the way as well. On to the Football Contest, will give an update on who is signed up and paid soon. As I hand the baton over to Don Eggleston, let me say good luck to you in September!
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
To win this thing, you need some good breaks, and luck has to be on your side as well.

Texted asked about having success with the Detroit Tigers. I do not know how many of my 30 selections involved Detroit, but all of them would have involved selecting the under. I did fade Detroit once, by taking the Angels, the game where Detroit blew a 10-2 lead and lost 13-10.

If I did anything wrong, I maybe played one or two too many run line games.

I did intend on playing some NFL ex games, but like I said, nothing I really liked, and the vig always seemed beyond the stipulated -110 maximum.

For anyone playing in the future, I would look at the Pinnacle lines at around 8 am to 9am vs. the live Vegas lines. Pinnacle does not seem to adjust their lines from the overnight as quickly as the Vegas live lines, which greatly helped me to see how the market was moving the lines. I started tracking the market this way about mid-month, wish I started earlier, who knows, I may have squeezed out one more win that I badly needed. The best example of this in the 30 days was the Oakland selection I played over the Yanks (when the Yanks had a 13 game winning streak), where on Pinnacle it was -103 at about 8.30am ET (The Yanks were -109ish), but the Vegas live lines around the sportsbooks had the game at around -115. I locked in, and sure enough within 20 minutes Pinnacle adjusted Oakland to -114, and the game eventually closed at about -124 for Oakland. The beauty of sports betting is there are no guarantees, as everything played towards the advantage of taking under 8.5 in the Philly Nats game (my 30th play), which closed at 8, and I still lost.
 
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mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
I would of back bet to guarantee 500 but that me!!
I was waiting for someone to ask, you are the first person, and yes, I did a hedge for half. Any good gambler would have done that on day 30, you come this far not to walk away with anything.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
On play #30, MRBOWLING300 beat the number but not the game.

Frustrating.

Betting against the Yankees with play #28 was a gutsy move.

At the time, the Yanks were riding a 13-game winning streak.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
I appreciate the rules of this handicapping challenge because there's no money manipulation in the late stages of the event.

No stabbing for money-line underdogs or looking for longshots that will save the day.
 

ComptrBob

EOG Master
To ComptrBob, what is the aggregate historical win percentage in this contest?
GC summary:

Year W L T Pct Winners
2011 34 37 0 47.89% 1
2012 156 159 3 49.52% 1
2013 154 145 3 51.51% 3
2014 162 164 6 49.69% 1
2015 147 152 8 49.16% 2
2016 128 153 7 45.55% 2
2017 156 138 8 53.06% 2
2018 139 151 14 47.93% 2
2019 160 153 9 51.12% 2
2020 91 86 1 51.41% 2
2021 92 116 2 44.23% 0

Total WLT, Pct., Winners 1419 1454 61 49.39% 18
 
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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
GC summary:

Year W L T Pct Winners
2011 34 37 0 47.89% 1
2012 145 147 2 49.66% 1
2013 154 145 3 51.51% 3
2014 162 164 6 49.69% 1
2015 147 152 8 49.16% 2
2016 128 153 7 45.55% 2
2017 156 138 8 53.06% 2
2018 139 151 14 47.93% 2
2019 160 153 9 51.12% 2
2020 91 86 1 51.41% 2
2021 82 101 1 44.81% 0

Total WLT, Pct., Winners 1316 1326 58 49.81% 18


Pinnacle's tough to beat.

And, of course, the constraints of the contest requirements -- daily full-game sides or totals at -110 or lower -- add to the degree of difficulty.
 

ComptrBob

EOG Master
Texted asked about having success with the Detroit Tigers. I do not know how many of my 30 selections involved Detroit, but all of them would have involved selecting the under. I did fade Detroit once, by taking the Angels, the game where Detroit blew a 10-2 lead and lost 13-10.

If I did anything wrong, I maybe played one or two too many run line games.

I did intend on playing some NFL ex games, but like I said, nothing I really liked, and the vig always seemed beyond the stipulated -110 maximum.

Really good job to get to the last game.

Summary MLB:

Sides 6-2, RLs 3-3, Totals 8-8.

Tigers Sides 2-0 (1 pick on Tigers, 1 against), Tiger UNDERS 4-1.
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
Really good job to get to the last game.

Summary MLB:

Sides 6-2, RLs 3-3, Totals 8-8.

Tigers Sides 2-0 (1 pick on Tigers, 1 against), Tiger UNDERS 4-1.

Thank you ComptrBob! As I mentioned, I tried sticking to the formula that was working for me, trying to find line advantages. I happened to choose the Phi/Wash under 8.5 as it moved to 8, but passed on the Tigers under after it moved to 9 from 9.5 and heavy vig. Hind sight is 20/20, but I think I would play it the same again taking the advantage. Also early on, I was leaning on too many RL's, they are fools gold. If I had to do it all over again, I would do everything exactly the same, but stay away from the run line, except in certain circumstances.
 

mrbowling300

EOG Dedicated
Any idea how many players came up 1 game short, and of those, the 1 game short was the 30th play?

I'm a stats guy too, as you can tell, and love the peripheral information like this.

Again, thank you very much!
 

ComptrBob

EOG Master
Any idea how many players came up 1 game short, and of those, the 1 game short was the 30th play?

I'm a stats guy too, as you can tell, and love the peripheral information like this.

Again, thank you very much!

Quite a few within one game of >=60%, almost all had the last game to decide, some have had more than one try:

Entrant W L T Pct%
richsox24 17 12 1 58.62%
ManchesterUK 17 12 1 58.62%

Milwaukee Mike 15 11 4 57.69%

Railbird 17 13 0 56.67%
hustledouble 17 13 0 56.67%
Cheapseats 17 13 0 56.67%
Nut6 17 13 0 56.67%
Raininthrees 17 13 0 56.67%
MrBowling300 17 13 0 56.67%
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Quick story: I grew up in Chicago following the Cubs.

On Marquee Network, there was a recent panel featuring five Cub legends, all Hall-of-Famers: Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Williams, Lee Smith, Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson.

Fergie starts out by saying he never played with Andre Dawson but that he was a teammate of the other three panelists.

Ferguson Jenkins played with Ryne Sandberg?

I immediately threw the red challenge flag.

However, a quick check of Baseball Reference shows Fergie was right.

Fergie and Ryne were Cub teammates in 1982 and 1983.

Fergie was 40 in 1983 and "Ryno" was only 23.

Ferguson Jenkins is now 78 years old and he looks great.

The Cubs will erect a bronze statue of Fergie in front of Wrigley Field in April of next year.


1630652685510.png
 

ouch

EOG Dedicated
Ferguson Jenkins and Ryne Sandberg both started out in the Phillies organization. Both actually played for the big league club.

Do you think there might be some regrets there?

Unlike Sinatra, too many to mention.
 
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