THE HEAT IS ON

Tuesday 20th June 2006

It's been a fairly quiet time on the betting front this last few days but as soon as the World Cup group stages are over, we're about to enter my favourite phase of the programme when we start to cash in the £175 of free bets that we have accumulated.

Last time I wrote, that figure was at £170 but I added another fiver today when I got wind of another Skybet unpublicised free fiver offer. So I took a £5 bet on Germany to beat Ecuador today, entered promotional code WC5 in the free bet panel and another £5 free bet magically appeared in my account. Excellent.

The poker account has improved a little as well. I played quite a few hands over the weekend and the account is actually now back in profit with more bonuses ready to be claimed. I'm obviously quite happy about that after the beating I took last week and I'm looking forward to the football quietening down a little so I can play even more.

The second favourites series is about to start winding up now and it's getting quite exciting. There is actually a slm chance that five out of the six second group favourites could come in but more realistically, I think that we will make the target and break even with two romping home or make a small profit on three. It's looking at this stage as though it was a good move to take this bet but we shall see where we stand when the groups are completed on Friday.

What had let us down up to now is the 'dead-cert' series. It's very easy to say that placing a fifty on Sweden to beat Trinidad was not a good move but it's true. I should have kept it to ten or twenty, like I have with all of the other 'dead-cert' bets.

Apart from Brazil v Australia that is, when I won £8.89. However, this was a clawback as I placed £20 on Mexico to beat Angola on Friday night and they completely let me down. But I clawed another £5.71 back last night when Spain beat Tunisia and I am now just waiting for the Germany game to end as that will almost completely cover the Mexico loss.

I think that the 'dead-cert' series is almost at an end now as the knockout rounds will not contain many David v Goliath clashes. If the whole thing turns out a loss because of Sweden v Trinidad, I will simply have to swallow it, learn and move on.

Here's the latest updated standings.

FIRM	DEPOSIT	UNSETTLED BETS	WON/LOST	IN ACCOUNT	FREE BETS
888	214.00		214.00	58.82
LadbrokesPoker	55.93			58.62
Total Bet	125.00	55.00	-70.00		25.00
Paddy Power	20.00		-20.00	10.00
Bet365	50.00	25.00	25.00	16.95	25.00
Victor Chandler	60.00		-60.00		60.00
Betfred	75.00		250.00	42.00
Stan James	55.00		-55.00		25.00
Skybet	15.00		-10.00	11.22	30.00
Coral	30.00	10.00		41.44
UK Betting	90.00	10.00	-20.00	54.60	10.00
TOTAL	789.93	105.00	309.00	293.65	175.00

So overall, I am currently £82.28 down as I have laid out £789.93 and have a total of £707.65 in winnings, unsettled bets and money in the accounts. But there is also £175 of free bets which I should be able to cash in for at least £80. Here's a lowdown of all the unsettled bets.

Group C Arbitrage

£25 - Holland to win Group C @ 7/5 with Total Bet
£10 - Ivory Coast to win Group C @ 8/1 with Paddy Power
£25 - Argentina to win Group C @ 6/5 with Bet 365

Second Favourites series

£10 - Sweden to win Group B @ 2/1 with Coral
£10 - Mexico to win Group D @ 5/4 with UK Betting
£10 - Czech Republic to win Group E @ 7/4 with Total Bet
£10 - Switzerland to win Group G @ 3/1 with Total Bet
£10 - Ukraine to win Group H @ 9/5 with Total Bet

The whole programme is a little more dependant upon the second favourite series than I would have liked but I estimate that whatever happens, we will start to see real-time profit from Saturday when we are in the best position to start cashing in the free bets.

Until tomorrow.

Steve

Feel free to email me if you have any questions about anything I've covered on this page...

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