Has anyone made any money betting on sports steadily throughout the past year? 'cause I did! See how

That said, something deeper changed after they returned home from their disastrous five-game western road trip on December 12th. On that trip they went winless, had a heated team-only meeting, were publicly scorned by their general manager, and lost arguably their two best players (

To the surprise of many, the team opted for the latter.

Mavin, thanks for accepting the friend request.  I have been quietly following your thread.  Its a great read, and very informative.  I am new to this site, but not new to sports betting.  In previous years, I have completely stayed away from betting the NBA, as I could never "figure those guys out".  After following your thread, you give great insight.  I have been using some of your techniques, and applied them to the college games.  I have been noticing that I am much more careful before pulling the trigger, and as a result, am staying away from games that I ordinarily would have played.  Like you say, "the bet you dont lose, is as good as the bet you win".  Again, thanks for the informative thread!! I only wish that I have been following your plays! Oh, well, I will from now on, but the information and insight into your thought process is much more valuable. 

Very generous of you to share your info and time with the rest of us. Thankyou...And I think a very good point you made that a lot of people overlook when handicapping is how the total should be looked at even when only looking to play a side. At least thats how I understood what you were saying. A good example was the ducks game last night. I liked oregon in the beginning but didn't feel too good about the spread dropping to 7.5 so I decided to look at the total instead. And I was very surprised to see it in the low 70's. Had it been higher I most likely would have taken a stab at the over. I like to try and think from the line setters view. And with that said obviously the people who set the lines take in way more info than I on any given game. I thought 35 points or so isn't too far out of reach for either team so why would the experts grade the total at least a full TD lower than what I believe the general betting public would percieve it to be? Maybe because both teams like to run alot thus keeping the clock running? Even with that I thought there was no way possible with these two offenses that neither would reach 35. Even though it looked like bait to take the over there was no way I was taking it under. I was puzzled but I ended with the idea that the oddsmakers obviously weren't expecting both teams to light it up. So for me it came down to who was more likely to put the points on the board. And while K st defense is pretty good it's pee-wee compared to Stanfords' so there was no way in my mind that they could hold the Ducks to a low score. So in the end, the total gave away the side. And I saw some of the survivor leaders were on the under and it made sense but I thought it was very risky. Under the scenario I mentioned above after looking into the total laying 7.5 felt really good. If I would lay 9 or 10 why wouldn't I lay 7.5? Because I initially thought that it was too good to be true. I almost allowed myself to get sucked into what the line was doing instead of just following my gut.

Very generous of you to share your info and time with the rest of us. Thankyou...And I think a very good point you made that a lot of people overlook when handicapping is how the total should be looked at even when only looking to play a side. At least thats how I understood what you were saying. A good example was the ducks game last night. I liked oregon in the beginning but didn't feel too good about the spread dropping to 7.5 so I decided to look at the total instead. And I was very surprised to see it in the low 70's. Had it been higher I most likely would have taken a stab at the over. I like to try and think from the line setters view. And with that said obviously the people who set the lines take in way more info than I on any given game. I thought 35 points or so isn't too far out of reach for either team so why would the experts grade the total at least a full TD lower than what I believe the general betting public would percieve it to be? Maybe because both teams like to run alot thus keeping the clock running? Even with that I thought there was no way possible with these two offenses that neither would reach 35. Even though it looked like bait to take the over there was no way I was taking it under. I was puzzled but I ended with the idea that the oddsmakers obviously weren't expecting both teams to light it up. So for me it came down to who was more likely to put the points on the board. And while K st defense is pretty good it's pee-wee compared to Stanfords' so there was no way in my mind that they could hold the Ducks to a low score. So in the end, the total gave away the side. And I saw some of the survivor leaders were on the under and it made sense but I thought it was very risky. Under the scenario I mentioned above after looking into the total laying 7.5 felt really good. If I would lay 9 or 10 why wouldn't I lay 7.5? Because I initially thought that it was too good to be true. I almost allowed myself to get sucked into what the line was doing instead of just following my gut.

Good stuff in this thread fellow bettors! This is the longest running thread I've seen that hasn't turned into a gongshow of criticism and ridiculousness. Mavin gets a lot of that credit for staying positive even when scrutinized.  

Tonight I'm going to continue to stick with the thread with LAL/LAC u 207, Brook/wsh o182.5 and LAL +5.0 but I am also going to go with my Raps first half ml and first half over. Even before the Raps found their groove they would come out strong and then fall apart down the stretch. Small parlay which is not a fave of Mavins but I"ll be watching and want the increased interest at a minor loss if that is the case. GLTA