We asked, you answered: bad beats mailbag
People love to share a bad beat story with their fellow gamblers. We have full intentions of bringing back the weekly moose report this fall but to whet our appetite during down season, it made sense to let everyone use this space for therapy and catharsis. Enjoy (but if it brings back a flood of bad memories, I apologize in advance) To protect the identity of those involved, names have been removed however a special thank you to those who submitted their responses because anyone around the business of gambling feels your pain.
Personal Account 1:
Details of this are sketchy at best but Ill never forget stupid feeling of buying something new to replace something you just broke on purpose. I remember a Duke game back in the mid 2000s. My buddy and I were killin our bookie all week. By the time the friday night game came around we decided to just lay it all on the line. We were sure of this Duke game. They had been covering for us all season. We both put 20 units on the game. This was the biggest bet I ever made on College basketball. The game was going along great and Duke had the lead by more than 10 a couple different times. I don’t remember the exact line but its sort of irrelevant to the story you know Im about to tell. As usual the waning minutes of a basketball game things get tight. Back and forth time seems to stand still. Its down to the last 30 seconds and we are covering then we arent. So close….It comes down to the last second shot and we are covering by 3 points. They dribble down step up to the 3 point line this guy plants and gets ready to hurl a 3 pointer that I’m 100% sure is sending me to an excruciating overtime period. For whatever reason a Duke player decides its a good idea to swat at the ball as he is going up for the shot. You guessed it the refs call a foul as he drains the 3 pointer. And 1… Now instead of collecting from the bookie I’m replacing my shattered television. Moose was loose for sure.
Personal Account 2:
Had the under in the January 6th, 2011 game between the Thunder and the Mavs. Some bad beats are just so hilarious that there is nothing to do but laugh, and laugh I did! The under was either 192.5 or 193 (I forgot to be honest, maybe you can check in a database you have), and at 99-92, Kevin Durant was dribbling the clock out over by the Maverick’s bench, when what do we have here???? It’s Rick Carlisle, taking the ball out of Kevin Durant’s hands with time still left on the clock. Steve Javy calls it out of bounds on Durant, so Mavs get the ball back, and Deshawn Stevenson hit a meaningless 3 with no time left. The only way it would have been more amazing…is if I had the over.
Here is video of the Durant/Carlisle interaction –
Don’t have video of the 3 at the end, but it’s in the box score/play-by-play
Personal Account 3:
Without a doubt, Toledo plus 2.5. Unreal!
Personal Account 4:
I was in college in summer of ’99, doing an unpaid internship in Cali, my buddies and I HAD to go to Vegas for one weekend at least. So we went … I had like $50 in my pocket. So I put $20 on a three-team baseball parlay (I know, I know, dumb). First two teams won easy. Third was Cleveland (97 wins, still during their dominant era), take a 7-0 lead with Colon on the hill (4th in Cy Young voting that year). Game wasn’t on at Bally’s so I watched this unravel on the play-by-play ticker in the sportsbook: Boxscore
Personal Account 5:
2008 #2 UCLA v. #7 Stanford men’s bball for the Pac 10 regular season title. Westbrook, Collison, Love vs. the Lopez brothers. I got Stanford at +8. I was so sure on this one that I emptied the account on them, trying to build for the NCAA tourney.
I couldn’t find any good video, but here’s the recap from ESPN.
Stanford was up 12 at half and led until about the 3 minute mark in the 2h. The game went back and forth down the stretch. I kept thinking that I was alright as long as it didn’t get to OT. Stanford went up 2 with about 10 secs left. But Darren Collision hit 2 FTs to send it to OT. Damn, but I’m good as long UCLA doesn’t dominate… Stanford was outscored by 10. The worst part- Stanford hit a shot to cut the lead to 8 with about 5 secs left. Thinking push. Sucks it came to this but I’ll take it. But of course, with the Stanford players essentially walking off the court, UCLA in bounds with a deep pass to Collison who, instead of dribbling out the clock, lays it in with 2 secs left. Game over. Stanford loses by 10.
