Anyone know where Alli, NJ and IH are???
 

Just hoping they are in the gate for the BC contests.

I can only speak for Alli...the company she works for has expanded and she's buried in work. She hasn't even been on Twitter, except for a personal DM to me. I hope she will join us for the BC, I'll DM her!

I'll be there for the BC. I wanted to take the 6th off, but it's month end and I don't think I'll be able to do that. At least I have job security. :)

Great Alli and having a job at all is more than many can say now. :):$:

I guess I can speak for myself. :)

I would like to play every week because I enjoy this group and this contest. But most weeks I'm fighting the deadline. Like last week.

I loved that you guys picked the Maryland Million card. But here's what happened to me:

At about 9:15am on the east coast last Saturday I got a call from my brother. (I was still asleep.) He said he was sorry to call so early (he knows me well) but he noticed that the sports book at Delaware Park had a bad line in college football on the Rutgers-Michigan State game. Do I want to get there when the sports book opens at 11am and put some money on Rutgers? And will I drive? :eek:

Well, as you can imagine, I thought I was dreaming because no sane person I know would rush out any day of the week to bet on Rutgers in a Big Ten game! But I went because I only got two brothers. :D

We stayed at Delaware Park until 2pm playing the horses and then drove to Harrah's at Chester to check their football lines and play more of the Maryland Million and other tracks. (Note: neither Delaware Park nor Harrah at Chester (harness racing) were running live last Saturday. And in case you were wondering, these two tracks are about 20 minutes apart driving.)

I did have a couple winners at Laurel last Saturday - the most lucrative being the classy 3 year old Monday Morning QB in the Classic. But I handicapped that race about 10 minutes before they left the gate - no way I find Monday Morning QB last Saturday before the deadline set for this contest.

Anyway, I don't see the reason for a deadline in the ROI Contest. As long the race has not been run, what else are we concerned about? But I am not going to argue the point. I am happy you allow me to play when I can meet the conditions! :D

Perhaps I should add that 13.5 point underdog Rutgers won at Michigan State 38-27 last week! :zz:

I kind of agree and disagree with NJ Stinks. While I see no reason for an ROI wager to be in by post time, I think there has to be a deadline in case someone hits a winner early that pays boxcars. I would propose that the ROI contest be closed after one of our players makes an ROI wager. If no one places a bet until the fifth race than all wagers have to be in by the fifth. I can easily close the wagering as the races go off. That would also give our west coast players a little more time in the mornings. However if someone bets race 1 than the original post time applies. As an example Don and I bet race 3 last week. The deadline would be race 3 post time.

NJ and RQ, that's a very interesting question that you raise. As a confirmed tote watcher, I almost always keep a close eye on how the betting is going and only place my real $$ WPS bets during the final minutes to post. That search for betting value is one of the things we lose because of our current ROI rules. Obviously, that doesn't apply nearly as much for exotic bets.

On the other hand, allowing ROI wagers to be placed under the format that RQ has suggested forces the ROI scorer to do a lot of monitoring of when the wagers are actually placed and whether anyone has had one of their ROI races run. I have a lot of faith in the good will of our players and don't think that any of our group would try to game the system. Similarly, I don't think that anyone would use the all too obvious loophole of placing a $1 wager on a horse in race 1 to force the ROI window to close early.

Perhaps at the beginning of our next contest season this is an experiment that is worth a try, especially if RQ is willing to take the slightly extra time to make sure that no wagers are accidentally past posted.

If RQ is up for keeping track of the wagers made just prior to each persons bets we can try it. I think it will drive him crazier than your mega vertical wagers but we have time to discuss. As always we take a week off after BC before we start the new handicapping year.

I'm a little unsure of exactly what we are all talking about but if one of you could put it in senior citizen very simple English, I can cogitate on it much better. :D:confused:

I'm with you Don. I need some more 'splainin'.

I don't understand what you said RQ about the case in which someone hits boxcars early on. Are you saying, the rest of us would just give up at that point and not make any picks?

I don't see why it matters to me, if say I want to play race 9, but don't post until just before that race goes off, but someone else wants to play an earlier race. As long as we both post before our races go off, isn't that what matters?

If we do try this, I would suggest that when we post our picks, we do them all at the same time. I don't think it would be fair to you, RQ, if a person plays 4 races and plays each one right before they go off. That way you wouldn't have to be checking so many post times.

Honestly, I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

I don't look at anybody else's picks except sometimes I check out Roamin42's bet because it's easy to spot and fun to follow. After all we are not playing for real money here - nor would I want to. But I get Real Quiet's point. We want to make sure it's a legit competition.

So please don't change the rules for me. My point was that the deadline knocks me out a lot and has no bearing on my selecting a race later in the card to play in the Contest. RQ gave me a solid reason for having a deadline and that's fine. If nothing else, you now know I don't forget to play. Mostly I just run out of time. :)

If I can be so bold, Cal, RQ's point is I (or any other player) could wait until a late race before posting my picks. But before I do post my picks, I could check all other picks posted already by other players and see if they won anything yet and how much they won. For instance, if Ruffian hits a 30-1 shot and collects $1,240 in the 3rd race, I now know I need to make a bet in the last race that pays at least $1,241 if I want to win the week's ROI Contest.

Like I said above, RQ raised a very good point.

^^^
Well, I see, and that is a good point and it might happen so I guess we're back to square one. I've never seen her hit one quite that big, but I wouldn't be surprised if she or Roamin did it. The rest of us, I think that would be a stretch.:D Although, I guess we all have our moments of grandeur.:rolleyes: