Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts

  • Let 8 Ride is back with big wins

    POSTED Jul 11, 2013 By Unknown
    What started out as an $8 win bet on Thursday turned into a $1,407 decision on Sunday.

     California horseplayer Ryan Yokoyama decided to take the plunge, and although he didn't connect on his win bet to land in the Jay Trotter Hall of Fame, there was a $1,000 safety net waiting for him as the lone Let 8 Ride player to survive Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

    "My thought is I was getting a free $1,000 bet, and that rarely happens," Yokoyama said. "In one way, you can look at it as I lost $407, but I prefer to look at it as a $984 profit since I wouldn't have bet on these Arlington races without the contest; I try to play all the great contests you have at TwinSpires.com."

    To play Let 8 Ride, all a TwinSpires.com user has to do is place an $8 win wager on the eighth race on Thursday at Arlington Park. If successful, you can let it ride in race 8 on Friday when another success means guaranteed money ($500) on Saturday. Make it another day to Sunday and the guaranteed money doubles to $1,000.

     Although the $1,407 win bet didn't work out for Yokoyama, other wagers on Sunday did, as he connected on a Pick 5 at Hollywood Park that paid $3,646.45.

     "I wasn't going to pass up a 'free' $1,000 bet, so I let it ride. In what was clearly the biggest bet of my life, it made for an exciting day even though I lost, but the Pick 5 at Hollywood later in the day made the day even better," Yokoyama said. "I ended up using some of the winnings to buy a new, comfortable chair for my desk so I can spend hours watching TwinSpires.com on the computer.

     "Thanks again, and I appreciate all you provide to horse players."

     Let 8 Ride begins race 8 every Thursday at Arlington Park exclusively on TwinSpires.com.

  • TwinSpires player turns $20 to show on Orb into $6,705.67 pay day

    POSTED Jun 19, 2013 By Unknown
    For those who thought (as I did) that Orb was the most likely winner of the Belmont Stakes, nearly even money (19-to-20, paying $3.90) to show on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands winner in the third jewel of American Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown must have seemed like great value.

     Indeed, ChungMing Hui of New York thought Orb gave him the best chance not only to cash a show bet but also win his share of the $10,000 TwinSpires.com put up as part of its Triple Crown SHOWdown competition. Each correct $20 show bet on 17 prep races plus each classic was worth 1 share. Those who swept the Triple Crown split the $10,000 based on the number of shares they had.

     Hui went into the Belmont as one of 14 people still eligible for a share of the $10,000. Those 14 players had 70 shares between them, with five shares already to Hui's credit, meaning a sixth share in the Belmont would have been worth a minimum of $714.28 to him even if the other 13 players were all right as well.

     But a funny thing happened considering the Derby and Preakness winners both hit the tri: Only two of the 14 people hit the Belmont. Most picked Revolutionary, two picked Orb, and nobody picked either winner Palace Malice or runner-up Oxbow.

     The top three finishers in the Belmont Stakes had more than 50% of the show pool among them, but only 14.3% of TwinSpires.com SHOWdown players survived. It lifted Hui's payout from a minimum $753.28 (including the $39 for his show bet) to $6,705.67.

    I talked in this blog about the strategy going into the last race: better to go for the surer thing and cash for less or go for the home run. As it turned out, betting the favorite was a bonanza, but it's not as if most people were going for gusto on horses like Frac Daddy. Indeed, the most popular pick to show was second choice Revolutionary. It makes sense given the running style that even if you thought he wouldn't win, he'd be closing. He never fired, though, and the TwinSpires.com SHOWdown dreams of many players went up in smoke.

     So there was no $1-million winner again this year, but that two players won thousands of dollars on a 3-race show parlay is still pretty cool.