A Numbers Game | February 16, 2026 | Hour 3

0:00The numbers told the story now is now one of those idiots who believe in analytics. This is a numbers game with Gill Abyssander gone be sinned. It has a numbers game here on these sports betting network happy Monday happy president state everybody out there map around in the desk for Gill be back in a week Kelly Bidlin in here with me as we have gone through just about all the different sports that we can that we can talk about here. I mean golf NASCAR. We talked about the shenanigans over in curling MLB curling the double touching. That's right. Looks like we got people real people real mad about the double touching over there in a over there in curling. There is so someone read this little article. We're going to get to Paul sport. They need to do speed skating on a bigger rank. You know, that's what I think every time I think I think about it or see it. Why are the yeah, I don't need we're not going to start asking questions. What I will say though is somebody is trying to profit off of the what they are calling the massive wave of new fans of curling and someone's trying to get a, someone's trying

1:04to get a funding round to start a curling league. Okay. Okay. In the United States. Well, it is like it's one of the easiest like just in our, you know, you know, when we say we talk about people watching golf, right? And it's like the only sport where people like, oh, I could hit that shot. You know, compared to like, you know, you making a tackle the NFL or something where you just be dead. Like, yeah, if I had enough beers in me at the bar one night playing shuffle board, I'd be like, I could be a great curling. The thing is, is that again, you would have to have the space to do it. You'd have to whatever. I just don't, where is this, where's this happening? This is not happening in removing to the Wilson concept. Yeah, exactly. I know. It's just going to be in all the rich places anyway, which is all the people that curl as it is. So I mean, I don't know why we need a curling league here for everybody, but that is neither here nor there. This is a sport. Everybody is going to be talking about everybody's going to be betting. Let's talk some major league baseball, Paul Spore. Oh, for the first time here in 2020. That's right. So get that coming in from fan graphs, content designer for out of the park baseball as well. Paul, how you doing, buddy?

2:04It's been a while. I'm very well, gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me on. It's great to see all his faces real quick out of the park baseball. What are we talking here? Well, we're talking our OTP 27 edition. We're always a year ahead. We're kind of like the fall games where our number is a year ahead because we're not based on the year. It's the 27th edition, but we just released our trailer on Friday. We are coming out in a couple of weeks mid March. I think March 13th is the day you can get it. Perfect team is what I head up there as the content director. Got tons of new content, tons of new legends that we have licensed. So we're going to have guys like Ty Cobb, Roger's Horn Speed, Roy Campanella, we got their pictures. We can use their faces and likeness in the game. Tons of new features coming for the base game as well. OTP 27 is going to bang next month. So get your pre-order in now. Paul, gonna want to start with you with some awards we were talking about an hour ago. Just MVP, NL MVP, AL MVP, Judge Show Hey, the favorites. I was kind of asking Matt, is there any reason not to put a bed in now on air and Judge

3:06after what we saw a season ago? What do you think about both the MVP races and is there anybody else kind of on that outside that you think you can make a good case for right now? It's tough with the MVP's with Judge and Show Hey right now, but I have a hard time ever put in the six month bed on the super favorites. I don't see the value there. I mean, Show Hey especially minus 125, like no shot, but at least again, some plus money with Judge. So like I get it, but again, it's just not the move for me. I don't want to lock up the money for six months on something that is supposed to be a sure thing when there's no such thing as a certain thing in this game. Even like the path to it for Judge isn't that far fetched, right? If he got hurt, that would not be the craziest thing. And if he misses a chunk of time, boom, the MVP's pretty much gone at that point. So I think it's pretty easy to see how he loses it, even though there's also a lot of ways he wins it. And it's just not going to be the bet for me. So I'm going to look down the board. I'm going to look at somebody like a Jose Ramirez who punches in huge seasons a year in

4:08and a year out and he gets a little bit of the narrative benefit that if he takes that Cleveland team far, you know, gets them into the playoffs, he gets tons of credit for it. Almost exclusively the credit for it. I've never been one that puts the playoffs as part of it in terms of if your team makes it or not. But a lot of voters do. And I think if J. Ram gets them there, he's got a chance. I'm really curious to see how Baltimore revitalizes themselves this year. And if they can have an MVP candidate emerge, whether it's somebody more well-rounded like Gunnar Henderson or just a power monster like Alonzo, if he goes and rips 60 there. And again, let's say judge misses 25, 30 games, that will open the door. So you're not going to get me bet in the favorite in the AL. I'm going to be looking elsewhere in Vlad Jr.'s another one, Gunnar, J. Ram, as I mentioned, get off the board there in the NL. It is kind of Otoni or bus. So I probably wouldn't even venture traveling down the board. If he's healthy, he deserves it every, especially now he's back to full pitching as well with Otoni. So I wouldn't even mess around in the NL personally. Oh, I love you here to hear you and you talk about the Orioles there, Paul.

5:09I mean, some some Orioles love, all kinds of Orioles bets for me in the account so far. We got the Dodgers at plus 230, the very, very short shot to win it all. Then we jumped to 10 to one on the Yankees, 13 to one on the Mariners, 14 on the Phillies and J's and Mets and 15 to one or longer on everybody else. Obviously, like the Dodgers, obviously it's a team that everybody is going to like. I mean, there's, it's very hard to not like the Dodgers, but is there a team that you're kind of heading into the season that you're like, you know what? I like this team, I think better than the market does. Yeah, I think if we jump off of the teams from last year there, like you said, Dodgers, Yankees at the top, but then even Mariners, Blue Jays, who were finals and semi-finalists last year, move away from that group because that group is obvious. They make sense. You want to get a bet in on them. I got no problem with any of it, but they're not the ones that are going to move the needle. That next group starts to really appeal to me. This might counter some of the Baltimore love that I gave and I apologize for that, but it's a hell of a division and that Boston Red Sox team is loaded for bear.

6:10They have got so much talent that they could make two, three more trades and barely cut into their prospect talent. The problem is right now, it's like, I don't even know what they do. Like they got Roman Anthony or Jaren Durant, D.H.ing when any of them would be a starting center fielder on so many teams and they're sitting there plus 1500 to win it. I think they had a great off season there in the mix. This brave team remains too talented to just sit idly by, although they did lose Schwombok and now Hurston Walgrap, so I'm a little less on that. I wrote that one down initially when I was talking with Kelly about coming on, but I have faded on the braves a little bit. If they move down the board, if they get into the Astros territory, which is plus 2200 on draft Kings, I start to like that a little bit more. They are the horror movie villain. You cannot kill this Astros team. I think they had a wonderful off season for a team that is still kind of straddling the line of like, do we keep going or do we start rebuilding? They brought in some younger pieces. They got Tutsuya Imi. I really think the Astros are still in the mix and then I got to say my tigers, not just because I'm not biased, not because I'm a biased homer, but because they had a really

7:11good off season. They had a terrible fumble with the arbitration stuff with Schumel. That was so beyond stew, but it's unbelievable, but thankfully it didn't hurt them. He got his money. They brought in Framber. They're going with in-house improvements for the offense, but I think if those don't come through, if Colt Keith isn't better, if Spencer Trunkelson isn't better, if we don't see like a Kevin McGonagall come up and dominate, I think they'll make the offensive trades in season. So I think the tigers are in the mix too, and we'll cap it off with the Orioles, who I did mention with some of their individual player props, I love what they did. Again, the East is really, really difficult, but I think the Red Sox and the Orioles are the teams I would go to over the Jay's and Yankees because I'd rather go for a little bit of the bigger money, and I think that's a wide open fight really between all five teams. I didn't say the race because I don't only think they're in their World Series candidates, but that East is going to be so tough. So give me the guys there a little bit more down the board like the Red Sox and the O's. Yeah, Paul. And no, we'll jump in with you, talk each one of these divisions before we get the season started. And I guess I'll separate the ALEs now for this question.

8:12But man, we got a lot of bunched odds and a lot of these divisions. Who's one of the, one of the non favorites in these other divisions that you think we should be keeping our eye on? We got tigers favorites for the central. You got mariners in the West and then the NL Mets. Other favorites in the East comes a favorites in the central and the Dodgers massive favorites in the NLS. I'm really keen on the Reds again. I was last year, too, and they kind of got out of the gate stumbling. And I was like, man, maybe they just don't have that juice. Then they closed strong, made the playoffs. They were the sacrificial lamb for the Dodgers, of course, but I think they can come back even stronger this year, Terry Francona at the helm and a lot of talent on that team. They have a chance to have two mega aces at the top with green and chase burns, if burns develops. And then Nick Wadulla right there, who could be basically a fringe ace himself. And then that's Andrew Abbott and Brady Singer at the four five. That's a hell of a four five. So if things are working out with their health, their rotation becomes something to fear. When usually when you're talking red, you're talking offense because of that ballpark,

9:14because of some of the big bats that they've had come through and that they still have right now. But really, I think it's their pitching that could bridge this gap and make them a favorite out there in the NL central. Cubs, I think are very much in the mix. And I understand that same with the Brewers. It won't be easy for the Reds, but they're third on the board when you're talking about odds for the central. And I think that's the team that I'd be looking at the Reds. All right, Paul, we got a couple of minutes left here. People are going to start to be doing their baseball drafts here pretty soon from a fantasy perspective. Who are some guy? We know, we know the top names. Who are some, who are three or four guys that you have your eye on that they should be looking at towards those middle rounds? Well, I'm going to go with one that is a little bit further down the board now just because of the great move that Tigers made last week to get Justin Verlander, but I love Troy Melton. And I still think he'll get his opportunities. The Verlander news again does kind of push him back. I think he's now probably the seventh guy, but young Troy Melton, I think has legitimately ace upside, maybe not in 2026, but like over the course of time, I think it can be a true stud. So I'm sticking with him.

10:14Don't take him off of your sleeper boards, just because of the moves that the Tigers made. No team goes through the season with just five starters. They usually run seven, eight, nine deep and Melton is right there as the sixth guy. So I still really, really like him despite the moves, kind of pushing him down. And then when you're looking for other guys who could break out, you know, Emmett Sheen not getting a lot of run with the Dodgers right now because they've got a million super dooper stars that they're really good, but young and unknown players kind of get lost over. I think Emmett Sheen is a guy like that who could really make a dent for them. We know they manage their pitching very differently where you never know when a guy is going to be going in the bullpen or the rotation outside of their studs. I think Sheen is somebody they could trust this year for a pretty full allotment of innings, say 130 plus, which in fantasy today is very good. I think Quinn Priester is going to back up what he did last year with his breakout with Milwaukee. I really, really like him to be big. I've never been the biggest Shane Bosch guy, but I'll defer to some of my friends in the industry who really like what he's going to be able to do going to Baltimore. So I will give a hat tip there and at least a half nod because again, I respect guys

11:15like Nick Pollock and company who really do like him. And then one more that I think could be nice is Mike Burroughs and Ryan Weiss, two young guys that Houston brought in one from overseas and Burroughs from Pittsburgh. Keep an eye on both of them. Like I said, they're the horror movie villain. You can't kill them. I think they got a lot more pitching than people think this year because they lost from Burr. I think Houston's pitching could be scary solid. He is Paul Spore. Get all of his thoughts on this and more over at fan graphs at Spore on the Twitter machine. Paul, appreciate the time and good luck this year. Thanks so much. Take care guys. You're here because you want an edge. That's what separates listeners from winners, but let's be real mindset alone doesn't get bets home pros win because they've got the tools, the data and the discipline. And now so can you be some programs you access to the same real time insights the sharps use. No secrets. No fluff. Just actionable info that moves markets tap the link and see why serious betters are turning knowledge into profit with Vs in pro.

12:18A numbers game on Vs in the sports betting network. The numbers game here on Vs in the sports betting network. We waste no time heading back out to talk to one of our very own Adam Burke. He is our managing editor over there on Vs in dot com at skating tripods over on the Twitter machine. Adam Burke busy at work as always as we are getting out another guide here tomorrow. Circle back to MLB here in just a second, buddy, but let's start with college basketball. I know you put in the time over there as well and you have a bet here in Syracuse and Duke. Yeah. What's up, boys? It's excited to get that MLB guide out. Like you said, we can talk about that in a few minutes here. But yeah, you know, a lot of one bid leagues tonight, 22 games coming out of one bid leagues, but you do get the ACC and the big 12 here in this ESPN double header beginning with that Syracuse and Duke game and, you know, Duke is playing in a very, very slow pace right now.

13:18They haven't played a game higher than 65 possessions since the early part of January. And while they're really good and they're certainly efficient on both ends of the floor, the slower you play, the more efficiency you have to have, especially when you talk about covering big numbers, like what we have tonight here laying 19 and a half a camera and indoor. So because of the slow pace that Duke is playing with, because I think there's a chance that John Shire, maybe as we go forward here, kind of plays a little bit of load management with his roster. He's already been spreading the playing time around quite a bit. Cameron Boosers, the only guy who plays basically every minute of every game. Maybe you kind of want to hold the freshman back a little bit here and have a little bit more in the tank. Also Duke plays Michigan this weekend in a neutral setting in Washington, DC. I don't think it they're looking to go out there and just go up and down the floor and pummel Syracuse. Syracuse is not a very good team, but I think 19 and a half is too big, given the tempo and kind of the spot here for this game for the blue doubles. Adam, another big one here tonight, late nine o'clock Eastern Houston and Iowa State.

14:19We see Iowa State about a two and a half point favorite one, 33 and a half to one 34 and a half total right now. Where are you looking in this game tonight? Yeah, so Houston is a team that we all know they're very good defensively, right? They're good defensively every single year. They always shine from an efficiency metric standpoint, but they don't make a lot of shots. This is a team that they're offensive efficiency numbers are driven by the fact that they have the lowest turnover percentage in the country. And believe me, that's a good thing. Obviously, right? You want to take care of the basketball. You want to get as many shots as you can. Shot volume is very important, stuff like that. But Houston is a team that doesn't get to the rim very much. They settle for a lot of mid range jumpers, they take a lot of three point shots and they're just a little bit above the national average in terms of three point percentage. I don't like the way that this team plays on offense. And that's been something I've talked about over the years with Calvin Samson, where it's a big reason why they struggle, come NCAA tournament time, where they're playing, you know, offenses that can out efficiency them in these low possession games.

15:21But also, I think it's really tough when you're taking on a team like Iowa State that can shoot the lights out. So I do like the short favorite here, maybe a little bit of Hilton Magic coming for the cyclones tonight, but Houston shot selection just leaves so much to be desired, where in a game, whether or not that much better of the defensive team, I think Iowa State's offensive half court is going to be stronger in this one. They shoot very well from three. They're obviously playing at home with their turnover percentages lower. I like Iowa State tonight later than two and a half. Our very own Adam Burke, managing editor of vason.com. If you have not made it over there, by the way, you can try this out for as little as $9.99 building. I know just want people to know that. So presidential deal. It's a president. I think we run it all week long, all week long, you know what we're going to call it a president's day. So president's day sale over at vason.com, $9.99 for the first month, Adam, we are going to get to the, the major league baseball guide coming out here tomorrow. And it is, look, it's, I know it's a ton of work. We're talking about several different moves.

16:22You have to track. What does that mean? What are these rotations going to look like? What does that mean from a win total perspective, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so you and the team put together a ton, I actually reached out to Adam and said, Hey, man, I didn't get the email asking for any help that I missed this email. And he said, no, I didn't want your help. He's like, oh, him and Jensen man, he said, yeah, I don't need your help. He's like, yeah, yeah, no, I don't want your opinion, your opinion sucks. So that's fine. That's fine. You won't find any of my opinions in the, in the guide. But what was the biggest kind of aha thing as you were reading through all of this, whether that be a player, a team, a win total, whatever it was, you were saying, huh, that's, that's interesting to me. Well, I just want to clarify this, first of all, that it's not that I didn't want your help. I didn't really think that a whole lot of people would be thinking baseball already at this time of the year. So I didn't want to ask for best, best bets and kind of build that up. And then all of a sudden, we get three people that send in, you know, a couple of plays each. Look, I, this is a really, really difficult guide to do, not only because of the depth of information. And there's a lot of writing in this guide between myself and Jensen Lewis and some

17:24of their feature articles that we have. But also like, there's no good time to release this guide, you know, I mean, maybe it's a good time right now because we have the winter Olympics basketball is just coming out of the all star break, you know, hockey's in the Olympic break. We haven't gotten into conference tournaments yet and March madness, but our people really thinking baseball, that's the hardest thing about this guide, honestly, for us is trying to figure out when to maximize it, when to put it out because Matt, you know, you're a big baseball guy. You know this as well as I do like, it's hard to bet an over on a season win total on February 16th, because all of a sudden, the picture is going to need Tommy John. And like, how do you replace 180 innings from that guy? So it is a difficult thing to put the guide out this far in advance, but there was one team that really stood out to me from a, you know, offseason standpoint, from a transaction standpoint, because they kind of flew under the radar a little bit for me, but I like what the Texas Rangers have done a lot here. And honestly, one of my bolder takes in this year's MLB guide is, I think the Astros finished with a losing record this season, which is something it hasn't happened

18:25in over a decade. I like the Mariners, and I really like this Rangers team, you know, I was very impressed to see what they did over the course of the off season, some of the dead weight that they kind of put behind them. Tough news with Sebastian Walcott, one of their top prospects who needs surgery, but I think it's a very good rotation. I think this offense is going to be improved. I like Skip Schumacher as a manager was the NL manager of the year a few years ago for the Marlins. I think this Texas team is going to be greatly improved this season. I'm not really locking in overs on season win totals yet, because I want teams to get to the finish light healthy, but over 83 and a half is one of my stronger thoughts right now with the Texas Rangers of terms of season long futures bets. Like it, Adam, I know that is one that Gil put in already was over on the Rangers. He's got two win total bets. That was one of the. I mean, his rotation, DeGromy of Aldi McKenzie Gore, if Jack Lider lives up to his, to his billing or whatever, I mean, that, that the first four year rolling out is, is legit there. Definitely no doubt about it. Adam, what is the team player bet that you and Jensen kind of disagreed on the most?

19:31Yeah, that's a good question. You know, going through the editing process, I'll have to look this all over today. You know, we're going to proof on the guide and like I said, there's a lot of text involved in it. You know, him and I, I think we're probably going to differ on the reds again like we did last season. You know, he was definitely higher on them than I was. And of course, you know, they did sneak their way into the playoffs to 83 and 79, which is one of the worst records to make the playoffs in 2006. But you know, I think that's a team that we're probably going to disagree on a little bit. I will say we are on the same path when you talk about the Houston Astros. Ultimately, it's expecting them to fall back a little bit here. I think we're on different sides with the twins. You know, the twins are a team that I feel like they're kind of in a crossroads. You know, they don't really have a lot of building blocks anymore. The team is kind of up for sale, kind of not, and they brought in some minority interests and all that kind of thing. I just think this team is really bad. And I think that they could wind up being a seller at the trade deadline once again, possibly Pablo Lopez, possibly Joe Ryan.

20:32And going through, I noticed that Jensen was higher on the twins than I was. And maybe it's because they're kind of a scrappier team, you know, kind of more of that athlete's mindset, but from a metric standpoint, there's very little to like. About this team, even though their wind total is very low at 73 and a half. Adam, we look at the, the, the Saiyung award. And obviously there are just two names that really, really stand out on both sides. You have scuba on the AL side, you have schemes on the NL side, but at least some guys out there that could possibly contend with them. Of course, crochet was kind of right there up until the end with scuba. Is there any other name that popped out to you? And you guys, as you were doing the research here on the Saiyung side of things outside of those big names at the top? I mean, again, it's one of those that's really tough, right? Because you got to get these guys healthy through spring training and some of these guys also pitching the World Baseball Classic, which is kind of terrifying when you're going to, you know, invest in some of these awards markets here. Look, I, in kind of going through what I would like to do is kind of find some of the

21:32longer shots and maybe find some plays that kind of increase in equity as the season goes along so that I can maybe find a way to kind of monetize them a little bit as we go forward. I do think Ranger Suarez at 35 to one is really interesting. If he's able to stay healthy, same thing with Dylan Sees now with Toronto at 35 to one. Those are two guys where I think the price points are pretty solid on them. They've got very, very good stuff. Sees has been very durable. Suarez, mostly durable. It's a tough division for both of those guys, but I do think that, you know, you want to look towards some of the guys that are a little bit of the longer shots because this is also a bet on health. You know, you don't want to enter school plus 350 and he makes 18 starts, you know, so for me, I think it's definitely about kind of going a little bit further down the board. Even if the path for those guys to win an award like that is very, very challenging. So again, Adam is on Syracuse and the points. He's going to lay it with Iowa State and of course, the baseball guide does come out tomorrow. So if you're not a decent pro subscriber, go in and do that and support all the work that

22:35Adam and crew do over there with everything. Buddy, I do appreciate the time and good luck with everything. Absolutely. Guys, have a good one. Yeah. He's talking about the world baseball classic. It is a, so I mentioned Roman Anthony that got, that got picked for the team. The thing that was kind of the hold up and all of that is getting the insurance policy on him because he's only 21 years old and one of the biggest prospects in all of baseball. And so these teams have to get these guys insured in case they get hurt. Yeah. In case they get hurt or hurt. They're like, what is the insurance policy on a dude that's 22 and the one of the biggest prospects in all of baseball, so that was kind of the biggest hold up there with all of that. AFC West. When we come back, a numbers game on FESEN, these sports betting network, a numbers game here on these sports betting network, Matt Brown, Kelly Bidlin, as we get some news here coming out of the poker world. You and I, former poker players, oh man, you know, a lot of people that listen to this play poker.

23:35So that's why I'm bringing this. I was specifically the world series of poker in which they turn curling goats in action right now, by the way. Yeah. We're going out. The Moat guy. I don't know how to say his name, but I know he was the one at Ken Poms, highest rated guys. Yeah. Yeah. He's placed for great Britain. Okay. He's in action right now. But I never even got to finish my Olympics ran from the first segment or didn't finish means Kelly forgot to finish the point. I don't know that I don't know the schedule at all. It's annoying, except for curlings on here every single morning when we've been doing this show. You're trying to fund a league. Apparently. So curling I know when that's on no problem. Everything else, no idea. Poker. What do we get? So they released the main event of the world series of poker schedule. Okay. And so it has come out. So if you're trying to make your way out to Vegas to point the world series of poker, that schedule is out. You can go and you can find it. But they are. Are you still playing? They're leaving it open on the main event, though, that they might go back to the delayed final table. So it is written in the thing that it says that we will have a final table by July the

24:3813th, but it does not say about anything about the conclusion of said final table. When were they doing that? They were pushing that to like November or something like that for a while. They were trying to see if that, you know, helped with ratings and whatnot and stuff like that. And then there was a couple of years in which they did it because the presidential election was kind of like taken up so much oxygen that, you know, they were trying to shift things around all that. It does make me speculate, though, that if they're doing this because of the world cup, because the world cup might be sucking up so much oxygen this summer, but even if they just waited a few weeks, I think the world cup ends in like July. Is it is anyway like it like middle July and end of July or something like that? So maybe it's not necessarily they're going to wait months like they did in past. But maybe it's like a way to few weeks for the world cup to end so that we're not getting basically overshadowed by, you know, the largest sporting event in the world, essentially.

25:39So I'm guessing that there has something maybe to do with the, with the whole world cup stuff when it comes down to doing it. That's a guess. I'm speculating. Great job of finding dates right now. It's fine. I'm just speculating. But I mean, I think that that's a good spec. June 13th group play gets underway and, uh, yeah, this goes on for, wow, until like Joe middle July, right through, yeah, middle July. Yeah. So that would make sense. Then maybe they just delay it a couple of weeks, two or three weeks or something like that. So that you could do the, do you think it matters? Well, maybe they can't get on TV because then the SPN have the world cup because they usually, because the, the final table is a lot is, has been aired live and the SPN still has those rights. Yeah. I'm watching a while. I guess in my opinion, people that are going to watch that are going to watch that no matter what. Yeah. But, but if there's a TV issue, right, it might be a TV issue, then it's, then it's a non-discussion. Yeah. I think it might be a TV issue. But regardless, it does not look. If you happen to make it to the final table, you're guaranteed seven figures anyway.

26:41So you'll probably, whatever, three weeks, it is what it is. Mm-hmm. Now your boss might not like it. Yeah. But, you know, who knows, maybe you won't have a boss by the end of that final table. Yeah. Or maybe you can request an unpaid vacation. I don't really know. I don't really know how it works. Yeah. Whatever it is. Pay them for a vacation. I don't know. You wear your company's patch. Yeah. You know, you're, you're, you're, you've got to be able to make it work. Yeah. You're like, bobs plumbing is like on your thing or whatever and you're like, all right. Well, honestly, like, you know, it's probably a great way of telling how good of a company and boss you work for. If they aren't willing to work around your, work your schedule around that, then, uh, you'd probably have the wrong place anyway. Great. Great point. Great. But do you want to be working there anyway? Work career advice with Kelly. Yeah. But do you want to be working there anyway? They won't let you go play for seven figures. Seven figures. Yeah. How do we tie? How often are you playing these days? You still play once a year. You were doing that for a while, right? I play an event. I don't have an event. You still play an event. One or two a year. Yeah. Okay. But typically the shorter ones, like I try to get in on like the non-min buy-in ones because

27:43those get just so many people and the last couple of years has just been PLO events because they get fewer people as well. Because I mean, it's not that I couldn't, I think the people here would understand if I like did make a final bit like, you know, some of those, some of those even the smaller events go five, six days. Yeah. Man, you know, me and you talked about it with just the, just playing poker in general. It's just something because of that alone, I've lost, I just don't even do anymore, right? It was, it was all the time. And then it was, you know, steady decline and just the idea of chewing up seven hours playing in a cash game at a table or a, you know, got for a bit of tournament. Yes. So you have no idea how long it's going to last, you had no interest. Plus PL, you can just splash around. Yeah. Like, you know, just go in and just, someone's got something always. It's like, I'm going to win or I'm going to lose and I'll know in the next three hours. You know, like basically, like, I'm going to, I'm going to be here for the long haul or I'm going home. Yeah. And I'll know in the next three hours. That's kind of it. I've not played at a World Series event though since I've lived in Las Vegas. So that, that feels, it feels a little odd, it feels like something I should do.

28:45You know what? It's long overdid. We'll find one this summer. We'll do it. We'll find one this summer. Okay. AFC West is an interesting conversation because this has two different teams that are going to get a lot of, a lot of love and a lot of criticism, depending on which side of the fincher on one team that is going to get a lot of debate because we don't know what's happening at the quarterback position. And then there's the fourth team anyway. So the Raiders, we know what's happening there. They're in a rebuild. They've at least, so they at least know they're in a rebuild. They've started the coaching staff, by the way, they're all, they're hiring all sub 40 guys. So like, this is like the complete opposite. They hire the oldest coach ever and then they're going in everybody. They're hiring sub 40 years old. So at least you're doing the right thing in my opinion, if you're the Raiders, you bring a completely different philosophy. This is a town. This is another one where like zero is missing on the division odds. Oh, yeah. In the division, man, this feels like there's, feels like that every division we talked to talk to talk about, there is one more clear fourth team than there is a top team.

29:46Yes. No, no, no, no, this is absolutely one of those where you, this might be the most obvious fourth place team of any of them. That being said, we are under the assumption that Patrick Holmes is going to be back and the Patrick Holmes is going to be back in at least somewhat the same capacity as the Patrick Holmes we know and love. There is a, I guess there is a world that exists that something could happen in his rehab that he can have a setback that he could have whatever and they decide to shut him down for a few months and maybe he's not back to mid season. And then I guess that changes the conversation decently. Yeah. If he starts the season, I'm not really worried. Yeah. I'm not really worried about it. It's such a smart guy, right? Like, I don't think they're going to do it between him and Andy Reed. They're not going to do anything stupid as far as putting him in positions, you know, outside running, running too much or anything like that. It's going to be easy throw away the ball if you're in trouble, protect yourself. Then the two teams that I was talking about, they're going to have a lot of debate. It's going to be the chargers and the Broncos because you look at the offense for the Broncos,

30:46that's going to be a debate because we know the defense is there, but can this offense take a step forward? Is Bonyx going to be any better? Are they going to need to go out of weapon at receiver? Like, what are they going to do to make sure that this offense doesn't just go basically whole games at a time without showing up? And then on the charger side of things, you get, you get the two offensive linemen back. But the problem is is, yeah, you get all back and later back, but these, uh, the middle was still terrible. So you still probably need one more offensive lineman to go in there to at least get three of five as a strength on the offensive line as opposed to just two of five because at the end of the day is good as great as it is to have two good tackles. If the interior is broken down, then you're not going to be able to run the ball and even if they can get pressure off the middle, that's still bad for a quarterback. And so probably need to fix at least one spot on the interior and then they need a wide receiver one because Quentin Johnson has proven that he can't do that. And and Maconkey's just a two and that's fine. Like, you have an awesome two. But he's a two. He's not a one. And so they need a one and and I think they need a one pretty badly.

31:48So I think there's like, there's some pretty decent question marks while the odds are short on all three of these teams to win the division. The odds are fairly short on all three of these teams to, to make some hay in the conference in the Super Bowl as well. There are there are glaring questions though about all three. Yeah, I think it's fascinating because there is like we play a whole game. If I had to make a bet right now, I don't know where I'd go back. I really don't. If anything, I probably just take the longer number with the Broncos of those three teams. I think they're I think they're the team that I've got. And how do you put this? I think the least amount of questions as far as them hitting their floor. I don't know if I because of the defense. Yeah, because of the defense, they ate a lot of what we saw a year ago, right? Botanix and his legs. I think he's good enough. And with that defense, I think that they're, I think they're going to be pretty rock solid for what? What do we want to say? Eight, nine wins, something like that. I don't know if I see them return to the NAFC championship game though. Right? I don't know if I believe in that. I think if you're a believer, your believer in the ceilings of the chargers and chiefs

32:49a lot more than the Broncos. Yeah. I think the deal with the chargers is you love the quarterback. You would love the quarterback with the chiefs if we knew he was healthy, but we don't know that. So there, but plus 175 on both of those. It's two 10 on the Broncos. And the worst part about it is the thing that you are not completely comfortable about is the quarterback position because the offensive line is very, very good. The defense is very, very good. You at least have Cortland, Cortland Sutton and Troy Flankin and all these different dudes are they mean probably wouldn't hurt to add another receiver, but I don't think it's completely completely necessary. But that does fall on Botanix shoulders. And I think that's the reason why they're the third shot here. There's quarterback. Do you think you'll have a bet in this division period once we get win totals out like where are you later? I really don't. I think Chargers, chiefs Broncos, I think it's going to be a competitive division race. I don't know that I believe in any of the three of them to clear their win total that much that I'm going to be involved. If for whatever reason we get positive news on the chiefs and the chargers numbers starts to drift, then I can, I can see myself on the charger so long as they do in the offseason

33:51what we believe that they need to do. Well, go out and get one offensive line and go out and get a wide receiver one. And then I, I can buy it, you know, and if that's the, but again, I would need a little bit of drift and Patrick Mahomes leg is going to be the thing that could possibly have that drift. Put a ball in this and we'll come back. Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. College basketball stuff in as well for the thing is sports right now. This has got to be his busiest time of year. I mean, he's not only having to deal with the betting side of things, but also the fantasy side of things because everyone's doing their fantasy baseball is basically almost all preseason stuff and whatever, you know, I mean, the waiver wire thing on in baseball is

34:52a little less impactful than it is like in fantasy football, you know, so it's kind of like, you do a lot of, you do most of your work before the season. That's right. We were talking to the break. Yeah, Paul grind in this time here. So yeah, we will, look, we get into the season. We have him. We're tortured on regularly on this show to everybody that's not new to show you know this. But if you are to torture, we'll have some great plays for us every day. Paul does way more with fantasy, but like from a betting standpoint, now is almost a better time to be talking to him because he does have some eye. And that's the thing is when you're doing the fantasy projections that all ties in to all of the other stuff that you're doing, right? And certainly with season long player props and things like that, those could become really, really evident as well. What are you grinning about? I recognize the carler. Are you? Are you still a couple tweets? No, no, I did confirm that old Bruce moot was the number one. Right. Rated, uh, curler over in Ken Palm and he's in action right now. No, a couple of tweets. I was going to throw this one at you, man. Um, Jack Hannon tweeting in, okay?

35:52Uh, maybe explain to new golf better has betters how dead he's work with all the ties yesterday. If you made a top 10 bet, you didn't win anywhere near what you thought you would, uh, great show. Would you like to try that real quick? Or should we just say tell Jack to go Google it? And well, what I would like to say very, very quickly is if you're in a circle market, they don't dead heat. In an MGM market, they don't dead heat draft Kings now has up a includes ties. Yes. As well. And all of that. Look, there are very few cases where I'm like, don't like cost yourself the, the nickel or the 10 cents or something like that that it costs and play one that, that just pays ties and full. Yeah, it's, uh, we, we've talked about the winner without markets often in real quick dead heat. Whoever many people tie a head of that place, divide your stake by that much and then odds are applied to that. So for example, it's, it's a good conversation. I know some people don't have access to it. Uh, I usually bet all mine where, where ties pay and full like you're talking. It is sometimes we tell people, winner without Scotty market.

36:55You want to take the headache out of the process without much money. We're betting in the placement markets, it really stings. I, I will say Byron Lindicue has put this out there before does a great breakdown on kind of the price differential in which market you should be betting into because of that. I will bet on some of them where the ties do dead heat. And I, in fact, part of my, uh, I had multiple Henley top 20 bets. I will always do that though. Even if I find a better price, I still will bet a chunk at a, at a shop or tie is paying full by big one of my big, Henley one. So got dead heated. So I, I feel you, Jack, it sucks. One of the worst things in betting. It definitely does. And listen, here's the most of the time it's like I lost money on that bet and the deal most of the time, it's, it's only like 10 cents and I mean, you know, I know you're going, I know you sit there and you're looking like, oh, it's 235, but it's two, there's two 25 over here. Why would I pay the 230? It's like, man, I'll pay the 10 cents and I have to deal with it just like, if it's that close, you're not even thinking about it. 15 cents, whatever. So like, I don't, yeah, I don't think about it at all.

37:56Guys, uh, we mentioned it several times here, but you can get going over at visa.com for as little as 999 for the first month, dip your toe in, you can go and see what we're all about. Visa.com slash subscribe. You get the video feed. You get the AI props. You get the matchup tool. You get the betting splits. And of course, you get the articles breaking down everything going on out there in the sports world every single day from all of our people. We got golf. We got hockey. We got baseball basketball and everything in between. So visa.com slash subscribe for as little as 999 log it. That's right. Log it. James Fessler also, uh, tweeting at me. This is interesting. One thing I did not know about the Olympics. He clearly agrees with me about the Olympic coverage and it being botched at night. Says it might be a reason for this though. Did you know the number of gold medals awarded? So number of events that you get medals in the 24. I don't know if this is up to date. James, you might be screwing me up here. The 24 summer games, 329 gold medals were awarded, okay? In the 26 Olympic games, 116. So far less medals awarded in the winter, winter Olympics.

38:58And that might be a reason for coverage. Well, yeah. I also don't know if that's a current number or it fits. Well, yeah. It's also because you got, it's kind of like we mentioned before. There's like a trillion swimming events, right? And like a trillion track events and whatever. There's a 100 to 200 to 400 to 800 to what, you know, it says, it's like, although I'm more, I'm surprised about that. I know, I know what you're saying, a million diving events. Well, like we were joking about it last week. There's way more of the sled events than I, than I thought. Well, we find out there's duels. We learned that monobobbs and tools and all that stuff laying on top of each other's slide down. That's right. Luzion away. Double Luzion. Like the short track speed racing skating, speed skating. That's what I was looking for. Like there's more of that. You and I'd be good at the double Luzion might need to take a trip up to Park City and say, I'm not thinking any part of that. See, there is. We'll take a trip up to Park City and see if they'll let us try the double Luzion. I think there's clear, maybe not strategy, but like there's clear what I would consider

39:59personal strategy. I'd rather not be the guy on top because if you get in an accident, you're flying away. I have ridden in a bobsled. Have you? I believe I did when I was very young because up at, well, no, the Olympic bobsled because up at up at Park City, where they train for the winter Olympics and stuff like that. You were invited? No, no. So they still have all the stuff. Oh, just set up for you again, so they have a pro driver. But then you ride in the, in the bobsled or whatever. And by the way, so you sit, it was, so there's just like some guy that like is, is training for the Olympics and then to make a part-time paycheck, I mean, I guess, I mean, I didn't ask him. He was, I didn't ask him what his day job was. I thought, I assume his day job was with the bobsled driver. I don't know. We don't need to go full, like Russia here, where all these guys get pulled, paid like a lot to just focus on their Olympic sports, but that's a little sad that's like a little bit. You have to get in there. And they're like, because there's so much jerking around on the bobsled because every single turn is where they're like, get in there and like, you press your arms out, like you

41:03press your arms out to try to brace yourself as hard as you can so you're pressing your arms and shoulders out the whole time to keep you from like jerking around and the thing and all that. It's, yeah, it was no joke. It was no joke. But it was fun. I've done it. Good times. Modely scary. It goes fast. I'm pretty sure I did that like in Australia when I was like nine years old. Go about a tennis match. So we want to let everyone know about that. That's what you know. Yeah. Kelly and Matt have absolutely nothing. Right. You don't have anything, right? Hey, golf to come this week and be able to be back later of the week. This is a little bit later, ATP Delray Beach. My personal favorite tennis tournament out there. All right. Love the Delray Beach open. Oh boy. Valentin Vashero. Oh, okay. I was going to go with Vashero as well. What do you like? I thought you were going to help correct me. Yeah, Vashero. Now minus 117 versus Alex, Michael center, Michael center, we've, I know him. I've seen his bed. We're betting on Vashero. It doesn't matter who you play. Yeah. This is guilt. It doesn't matter down there in beautiful Delray Beach. I tried to convince him to go to the Delray Beach open. I highly doubt he made his way up there from Miami, but maybe, but maybe Greg Peterson's

42:07fab five Colgate lay in one and a half. The Raiders. I already forgot. The Colgate. Yeah. Something like that. Yes. One of the Raiders. Personally Wagner and Long Island over 134 and a half Drexel and Stony Brook under 133 and a half Tarleton, state lane one and a half points against Abelian Christian, Florida A&M and Alcorn State over 138 and a half go to vson.com for the rest of Greg Peterson's way. And the bonus in the bonus Jose Ramirez MVP on the way out. That's right. Yeah. You threw the Hail Mary right there. Adam Burke kind of agreed with. Yeah. Yeah. We had a lot of going back and forth by the way with the baseball. No, no, a sport that brought him up. They brought up Jose Ramirez. Oh, sport. Yeah. He was catching 19 and a half at Duke tonight at from Adam Burke. And I was state lane two and a half against Houston. We'll get back to, you know, obviously, I've got all bets this week. Yes. And then why have NBA bets when they get, when they get back going, we're just not big college basketball better. Here's the thing. I was just going to say. I don't watch that game tonight. Still don't think I'm going to bet. I think people listeners out there would prefer that I not play pretend that I'm big

43:13college basketball guy and just say, like, hey, listen, let me leave it to the experts. Well, I don't want to play pretend. I don't want you playing pretend about being a NASCAR expert that last week, Matt Brown. Huh? What? I thought, I thought it was really clear as to how I thought about it, but I guess it wasn't. Well, I was saying it on the break to why, man, why Tom check out a winter home. He gave that out on the show last week, right? He did. Why Tom check? NASCAR winner. There we go. He did. He didn't even share a winner. No sweat. He didn't even see it happen. He didn't even see it. But it didn't happen. Because Brian's was out there doing his second job. I love that kid. This is, I was telling him though, I love Daytona 500. Once you know what you're getting into, and I think you've come around on this too, you were angry because you lost a bet. It was more of a joking angry. Yes. You were joking angry. Yes. But like, I love the chaos of it. I, I, and God bless Wyatt and I say, and all the NASCAR fans that sit down for three hours and watch that race, I love jumping in for like 23 minutes of doing exactly what I said I was going to do last week. It's wait till like we're halfway in, wait for that next big wreck, and then I'm going to pick a couple guys and gamble. You know what I didn't, what I didn't mention in that whole little rant was the only

44:16reason that our guy was in front was because there was a prerequisite to that, to that. He only got there because of another or guy though, I, I still forget his name, our guy, host of our host of our, host of our, yeah, host of our key went flying on a fender fender band. It was like, I've never seen more damage done by a fender bender on anywhere. It just track on the freeway. It does let you know about getting propelled in the drag and all the things that because car hit the wall, hit the another car, which shot that car forward and then our guy was toast. Just done. Stick around after this. We got prop points followed by money moves and then Stormy and JVT will be in here for follow the money. Come on.