Introducing moDtheGod and the A-Z challenge!

Okay, here’s my blurb. My name is Dominic (aka moDtheGod) and I founded the Poker Society that brought us all together in Autumn 2004. Although I’ve been out of love with poker for quite some time, I’m still fond of a flutter and I’ve been particularly interested in the nags since about August 2007. I’m still very much learning the game and hopefully, by contributing to this blog, I can keep a record of my success and more importantly, my failures.

I’m primarily going to be having a laugh but I will be logging all my bets from now on in here, horses or otherwise, with as much analysis as I can cram in. Hopefully I’ll learn a few lessons and sharpen up my eye for a nag.

I thought about setting myself a target, something amount to aim for, but then I thought “fuck it”. I’m just going to gamble myself silly and see what happens. I will however be playing an awesome game on the side, which I intend to start right away. I’m going to try and win some money for every letter of the alphabet! As this is a bit of fun, I’m going to treat it as separate from my “real” bets and bankroll.

The rules of the game: I have to win a bet on every letter of the alphabet, starting at ‘A’ and I can’t move on to the next letter until I have had at least one winner. I can place as many bets as I like per letter, but I can’t move away from my current letter until I have a winner. No laying is allowed, only backing. All markets are fair game: a horse whose name begins with the letter, a dog, a Big Brother contestant, a sports team, anything at all. I’ve decided that for people, I’ll use the first letter of their surname, for teams, I’ll go with the common English name (so AS Roma is ‘R’ not ‘A’) and for nags and such, I’ll use the first letter of the name. Of course, I am going to log how many days it takes me to complete the challenge (probably going to take me a year!) and how much I make or indeed, lose.

The obvious starting point for day 1 was a trip to GG.com to get a look at which horses are running, whose name begins with ‘A’. The ones that immediately jumped out at me were Amarillo Slim (for my poker connections), A Bit Chancy (for that is what this bloody game is) and Acertack (a name I was familiar with, but wasn’t sure why).

Turns out that Amarillo Slim is running in the 14:50 at Plumpton and it’s a Maiden. I try to avoid these kinds of races as a rule and looking at the horse, it looks like a complete piece of shit. Tempted to back it for a laugh, but I decline.

Acertack is getting on a bit and always seems to run a place, but even with the useful Sam Thomas booked for this one, it’s going to struggle to beat Massini Sunset, especially with young Charley Huxley, fresh from his Scottish Grand National triumph on Iris De Balme. Explosive Fox would be another to watch in that race.

A Bit Chancy runs in the bumper at Sedgefield, the very last race of the day (20:10) and even though these kinds of races are ridiculous from a betting point of view, I simply HAVE to have half a point each way because of the name. It would be a fabulous way to start the game if A Bit Chancy came in. GAMBOOOOL! The forecast actually has it as a 9/2 2nd fav but the early tissue suggests a much healthier 9.8. I will take the SP as I haven’t a fucking clue what will happen in the market!

My other bet for the day is in the Danish football league. Top of the table side Aalborg Boldspilklub (AaB) travel to Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber, who currently sit =7th in a league of 12. Esbjerg don’t appear to be in great form, having lost their last game to struggling Brondby. The two games before that were single goal victories against the sides who are bottom and 3rd bottom and the game before, they lost to the side who currently sit in =7th alongside them. AaB sit proudly at the top of the table, 4 points clear with a game in hand, although they did lose their last game to the side who are 2nd. That match, which they will be keen to bounce back from, ended a run of 8 unbeaten (7 wins) and their top scorer is just one behind the league’s top scorer. It’s worth noting that 25% of AaB’s away matches end 1-2 and 18.18% of Esbjerg’s home matches end 1-2 so if pushed for a scoreline, I’d plump for Esbjerg 1-2 AaB, but for now I’ll just stick to backing AaB to win at 2.15 (Betdaq).

In fact that sounds so good, I’m going to make it my first real bet :)

A-Z roundup:

20:10 Sedgefield
A Bit Chancy @ SP
½ pt e/w

18:00 Esbjerg v AaB
AaB @ 2.15
2 pts

Total: -3.00 pts

“Real” roundup:

18:00 Esbjerg v AaB
AaB @ 2.15
2 pts

Total: -2.00 pts