Bull's Sports Betting Journal

I am developing a real love-hate relationship with this blog.  I honestly do like having it and maintaining it, but it's also become a slave-driver.  I am up to my eyeballs in work at my day job as well as with maintaining BullsBetting, though, so I don't have time to post as often as I'd like.  Meh!

Well, I am trapped in Las Palmas.  Not stuck but trapped to a certain extent.  I won a couple of big underdog moneylines in there, and I will definitely be meeting rollover.  They have also reduced my online wagering limit to $250, so I still need to make about 14 or 15 bets to meet the rollover.  Being as I am being selective with my picks now, it's going to take a few more weeks.  Add to that the fact that I am deploying on a field exercise (probably no internet access) for 2 weeks in December, and I may well be in Las Palmas until 2007.  Not the optimal outcome, but I will still make money from this chase.

Fortunately they are allowing me to withdraw winnings at no penalty.  They do have a rather stingey withdrawal policy:  1 per month for free, $2,500 max.  Additional withdrawals cost $20.  I have made one, and will wait to make the next, but I may soak up a few fees to get my cash loose.  Hopefully I can get on a losing streak there, too.

In the interim, I have plenty of available cash for rnumerous smaller chases.  Bodog, Skybook and Canbet have all fallen prey to me of late.  I am also maintaining a small balance at SIA, as I can find some arbs there just about every weekend.  Too bad their wagering limits are so low.  Hard to make any money arbing when you are limited to $1100 on one side of the line.  I amhoping to eventually bust that money out and see if they offer me a reload.

Posted by Bullajami at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That about sums it up.  I made two blog posts from work earlier and they were both eaten somewhere in cyberspace, so I am posting yet again.

I went immediately from Bowmans to Las Palmas.  Parked $2,500 in there for $500 at 5X.  The first night I got all the money in on 6 bets - they have a $500 limit on everything but American Football.  I went 5 for 6, missing a bust out by (yet again) one bet.  Since then, it's all gone sour (yet again).  I am up to about $6,500 in my Las Palmas account.

To compound the problem, they lowered my online wagering limit to $250.  No explanation, just lowered.  They also don't answer my e-mails regarding wanting it raised back to the standard.  I'll be getting out of there ASAP, but I have another $5K in bets to make, which is 20 bets, so it'll be a while.

At least I look likely to clear about $375 or so of the bonus.  I am even getting some arbs on NCAAB, so its not all a loss, but my protracted inability to bust out of a book is getting irritating.

And the fitness stats are coming down.  I haven't kept up.  I'm still at about 217 or so.  Some progress, but not as much as I had hoped and planned.  That's life, eh?

Posted by Bullajami at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finished my chase at Bowmans this past weekend.  It was quite an oddysey by the end.  I actually lost money through some bad luck and bad choices, but I learned so much from this chase that I do not consider it money wasted.  Sort of like paying tuition. 

In fact, I learned so much I am planning to write a permanent article for the website.  A "Here's how to piss away a $500 bonus" don't-do-this type guide.  I want to give a recounting of each bet, and why I did what I did, and why that was the right or wrong thing to do in that situation.  I'll tell you flat out I am a little embarassed at some of the positions I put myself in - as I am supposed to be the expert, but I think the readers here and members at BullsBetting (a remarkably overlapping crowd!) respect my candor, so I am going to lay it all out.

Bottom line on the chase:  I deposited $3350 for a $500 15% bonus, incurring a $15,400 wagering requirement.  I finished with $15,822 in my Bowmans account.  I became very concerned at one point that I was going to get stuck - run out of bankroll before I ran out of wagering requirements.  That part is not my fault - I just had a seriously distressing string of prevailing underdogs.

Bowmans allowed me to withdraw all my money over 2 days.  They were weird about it, though.  I couldn't request more than $2,500 at a time.  The first day I requested $2,500 and then submitted a second request for $2,500 and got a message stating I could only request another $1,000.  So I did.  After that I could not request any additional payouts.  The next day (Monday) I requested another $2,500 and got a message stating I could not withdraw any more.  I contacted CS and asked why, and the CS guy apologized and "reset" my account and I was able to withdraw the remainder of my cash in $2,500 increments.  There were no fees for cashing out.  The first $3,500 hit in just a few hours.  I expect to be paid in full by Bowmans by the time I get home this evening to check.  (I am typing this from work, and I don't want to check Neteller from work.)

Bowmans is burned for me, so I plan to move to another book.  Most likely Las Palmas, as I was checking them out last night.

Posted by Bullajami at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)