Tuesday 24 April 2007

The one where you can win $50!

Tuesday 24th April 2007

OWEN – As Jack mentioned we haven’t really been doing anything “crazy” on a daily basis and therefore not living up to our Crazy Punts title. We could relive some of our greatest moments but we’d rather bet on something new and exciting. That’s where you come in.


Poker Heaven have kindly agreed to give $50 to any reader who can come up with a genuinely Crazy Punt. All you have to do is post your idea here and if we blog about it you will get $50 cash into a Poker Heaven account!

A few ground rules.
The punts cannot be illegal. We’re in the UK, so UK law applies.
The punts should not cause any lasting damage to any participant.
We must be able to wager on the outcome of any punt.
The punts should be entertaining and unusual.
The punts should be practical, no elaborate set up or overly costly equipment. We are not going to see who can be the first to reach the moon.

That being said; go crazy! Hopefully you are aware by now that we will bet on anything so let your imaginations run wild. We’ll recreate any prop bet moment you may have had in your past or any that you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to try out on some unsuspecting victim.

A few legalities.
All ideas submitted become the property of me and Jack.
If we carry out your idea and blog about it you will not automatically receive the $50. eg if you suggest we bet on the champions league final ,which we were going to anyway, you will not be eligible for the $50 prize. Try and avoid obvious bets and be more creative.
As the prize money will initially be deposited into PokerHeaven.com all territories that are unable to open an account will not be eligible for the $50 prize, but please still feel free to write in your suggestion.

I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of bets other people can come up with but have to admit a little trepidation knowing the sort of warped minds that are out there.

JACK - All you have to do to enter is post a comment below this entry leaving details on your Crazy Punt and your name. Don't forget to subscribe to this blog so you can see your Crazy Punts in action, and find out who wins - it'll probably be me.


The one with snooker & our first weigh-in

Monday 23rd April 2007

OWEN – Well, we’ve now got a sign up option in the top left of the page. Put your email address and your first name in and we’ll send you a newsletter to let you know of any updates or special punting events you can take part in.

So the London Marathon was finished in 2 hours 7 minutes and 14 seconds for the men and 2 hours 20 minutes 38 seconds for the women. I got the winning lady right, C Zhou, but unfortunately my pick for the men’s pulled out after 18 miles and it was won by M Lel.

With us both getting one right in terms of time and one right with winners (Jack bet against me being right) the marathon turned out to be a bit of a no result for us. Luckily we had a few other bets on that day on various sporting events to give us a bit of a change on our bankrolls.

Firstly, our diet bet. Sunday morning we stepped on the scales to see how much (if any) we had lost. I went first and was pleasantly surprised to have lost 9lbs! I was now a much more svelte 14stone 4lbs, taking me from being technically obese to just being overweight, hardly inspiring terms however I want to look at it.

I am required to lose another 32lbs to be “normal” and this would be my target weight of 12 stones. So if my weight loss continues at the same rate I will reach that in another three and a half weeks. Of course I know that my weight loss will slow down and I’ll be lucky to be losing 2 or 3 lbs a week.

There is a lot in the news just now about diets and size 0 models and it should be noted that losing 9lbs in a week is a lot. The safe level of dieting is round about 1 or 2lbs per week and I am going to manage my diet to be around about that.

I did a food diary and calculated that I have only been eating an average of 550 calories a day! This is ludicrous and can result in some permanent damage if I’m not careful. I wasn’t aware that was how little I was eating as I have breakfast, lunch and dinner and snack in between. To remedy the situation I immediately went out and bought myself a 6” turkey and ham on wheat from Subway.

However as things stand I still have a secret weapon – exercise. So far all my weight loss has been a result of changing my diet. I have not taken up any new sports or played more often and I have not gone running in the mornings to give me that extra boost. Once I have worked out a reasonable diet I will begin getting up earlier and going for what will probably begin as a mild jog and eventually building up to a run.

The weekends other bets comprised of Ronnie O’Sullivan winning his opening match at the World Snooker Championship, which he did and we both had a bet on that. Jack also had a bet on Steve Davis to win his match which was a nail biting 19 frame spectacular that he was slightly unlucky to lose. So, evens for the marathon, and I was £110 up thanks to Ronnie’s win.

JACK – I was concerned by Owen’s incredible 9 pound loss in just one week, and I was quite relieved when I stepped on the scales to see 15 stone 4 lbs, which puts me right behind him, having lost 7 pounds. However, we have both realised that we weren’t really eating enough, so I would predict that future weeks weight loss will be a bit less, hopefully around the 3 pound mark.

I had a healthy bet on Ronnie O’Sullivan to get rid of Ding Junhui in the first round of the Snooker World Championship so after Ronnie took it down by a very comfortable 10-2 margin, I had netted around £175 profit. Unfortunately, Steve Davis failed to beat his good friend John Parrott, and that cost me £90 so I was £85 in snooker profit for the day.

Owen and I have a £100 side bet over the course of the Snooker World Championships to see who can make the most profit from betting. I’ve had an early £110 on Neil Robertson to win the tournament at 20-1, which is fairly optimistic considering he has Ronnie O’Sullivan in the next round if he wins. But I have faith in his abilities, and his odds will plummet if he gets past the Rocket.

I’m going to join a sports centre tonight and start playing a lot of squash and badminton, and I can hopefully convince Owen to play me on the courts for a bit of cash, and anyway, it will benefit both of our weight loss plans.

We’ve been noticeably lacking in crazy bets recently, and we need a helping hand with inspiration so I think we’ll try to get a competition up and running very soon where you readers can help us out with suggesting some crazy activities we can bet on. We have to live up to our Crazy Punts name!

Current Bankrolls

Owen £1,133

Jack £1,215