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1978 World Series of Poker

The 1978 World Series of Poker was one for the ages without doubt. Every one of us remembers the 1970's for what they were. Let's just say that the World Series of Poker 1978 were exactly what someone who grew up in the 70's would expect. It really fit the bill for its time.  Things even changed regarding the prize money available. In years past this tournament was a "winner take all" type of deal. In this year's event the money was divided between several different top players on the board, changing the stakes for entering. Despite the fact that this takes away from the champion, it may have helped the tournament. With money available to more than one player, it encourages people to feel like they aren't losing so much if they enter and don't take home first place.

The popularity of the event showed that it was growing at this time. The Main Event, the part of the program that everyone is always waiting for, managed to bring in more than 40 players to the tournament. With these 42 total players, the event had more 400,000 dollars available for prize money.

There was without doubt a sense of drama following this year's tournament. Doyle Brunson had won two grand slams in a row and it looked as if he would be on his way for his third.  Despite the hype behind this tournament, it didn't exactly meet the expectations that everyone was hoping for.

The tournament didn't end up being as advertised. Doyle Brunson never made a heroic attempt towards the top of the poker world for the 3rd time. Most people saw attempts to have Brunson taken off the table by his opponents. None of those players wanted to see Brunson in the final group of players, where he had dominated in years past. Brunson was eliminated early, not even making it to the final 5 contestants.

Brunson wasn't the only one ousted. In the last few players there were really none of the favorites to win present. Each of the players that were favored to take it seemed to fall off the map until there were no more former champs present after the opening event. It was all for the underdog in 1978.

The final group included Ken Smith, Jesse Alto, Buc Buchanan, Louis Hunsucker, Crandall Addington and Bobby Baldwin. All of these players were slowly eliminated until just Crandall Addington and Bobby Baldwin stood.

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Each of these players was solid, but there was no clear advantage between them. The tides seemed to turn back and forth throughout each hand and it seemed that each play would go down to the line. Through time Bobby Baldwin made some big moves and upped the level of aggression in his play. With these big moves Bobby Baldwin took the advantage and became the youngest World Series of Poker Champion in history up to that point.

This unexpected outcome typified the whole tournament as Bobby Baldwin pulled out the great victory over Crandall Addington when all was said and done.

About the Author

Riley Simmons writes reviews on various sporting events including the online betting websites. In this piece of write up, the author highlights on various betting odds i.e. online poker, online gambling etc.

To begin with, I am going to assume if you are making a sports wager or betting on a sports game you are doing it somewhere legal (i.e. Las Vegas, or some other place that legally accepts sports wagers). I know that is the only place I make any of my sports wagers. If you are making sports wagers illegally, I'd advise against it, and request that you follow the rules. Enough said about that.

If you are like me, and enjoy making the occasional sports wager (college basketball and college football are my favorite sports to bet on), then you know how hard it is to actually win money. In some cases, it seems like the people that set the sports lines can see into the future and know exactly how many points a team is going to win or lose by. It is uncanny how often a 3 point favorite wins by 4 or loses by 2 - absolutely uncanny. With that being said, however, I would have to guess that if they weren't that good there wouldn't be a market for sports betting - everyone would be winning and those taking the wagers would be out of business.

If you are new to sports betting, one of the first things you will notice are all of the different types of bets you can make. There are the two traditional bets, called the "money line" and the "spread." The money line is a bet where you just pick a team to win. Based on the determined likelihood of that team to win, the odds are adjusted accordingly. For example, a team that is expected to win fairly easily may pay out at odds of 1/10, meaning you would have to pay $10 to win $1. This is perhaps the easiest bet to win, although as you might expect, the payout isn't very good (unless you pick the underdog to win, which in my example would have paid $10 for a $1 bet).

Betting against the spread is probably the most common form of sports betting. In this case, the odds makers attempt to determine a number of points that will make the game fair. This means that a very bad team will get a lot of points "given" to them to make the game more fair. What you are betting on is which team will "beat" the spread. Here's an example: let's say a good team is playing a bad team and the odds makers believe the good team is 15 points better than the bad team. They would set the spread at 15 points, meaning the good team would have to win by 16 or more points for you to win if you bet on them, or the losing team would have to lose by 14 points or less if you bet on them. If the good team wins by 15, it is a tie, and you'd get your money back.

In reality, this makes betting on sports very hard from the get-go, since what the odds makers are trying to do is make every game a coin flip. What I mean is, the goal of the odds makers is to set the line such that each team has an equal chance of "winning" against the spread. The reason for this is so hopefully equal money will be bet on both sides of the game, and the casino can make its money on the fee, or "vig," it charges for each losing bet (typically 10% of every bet). In a perfect world for the casinos they'd have exactly the same amount of money bet on both sides.

As you can imagine, however, the casinos actually don't make that much money if all they are taking from sports bettors is the vig. So they came up with another type of bet called the "parlay." The parlay is a sports bet where you get to pick several teams to cover or win in one bet, where they all have to win. In exchange for all of the teams you pick having to win, you get much better payouts on your bet. For example, if you pick 5 teams in a parlay to cover, the payout is usually in the area of 25/1. This means if you bet $5 on a 5 team parlay, you win $125. Sounds great, right? The problem is, your odds of winning are 3.125% vs. 50% for a straight up bet. But your payout for winning a five team parlay is nowhere near enough to make up for the risk of the parlay.

What this should be telling you is that to be a successful sports bettor, whether in college sports or pro sports, it is much more beneficial to make a bunch of single bets that pay out less than to make a bunch of parlay bets that pay out much more but are much much harder to win. So, the next time you are out in Vegas for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (otherwise known as March Madness), the College Football Bowl Season, or any other time a great sporting event is on, remember to stay away from the parlays if you actually want to win money betting on sports. It will be the best decision you ever made.

Riley Schaffer is an amateur college sports better who wants to help you with analyzing college basketball betting lines so you can have a little fun and make a little money betting on sports.