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DISCLAIMER: These picks are for entertainment purposes only. No actual wagering is being performed, which is a good thing when you look at the standings.
We are deep into the wealth destruction phase of this year's game. Our 12 contestants combined to lose over a thousand fake dollars last week, which is even more impressive when you consider:
a) Andrew took the week off,
b) There were no sucker bets out there like "West Virginia -4 vs. Texas Tech", and
c) Kevin only had $99 and change left to lose.
Still, a couple of people found some safe spots and actually earned fake money in Week 8. The Google spreadsheet with the pick-by-pick carnage is available here. And now, the current standings:
- Mike Nascarella, Voodoo Five: $1,113.34
- Chris Lane, VU Hoops: $1,054.98
- WVUIE97, The Smoking Musket: $923.06
- Jamie DeVriend, Voodoo Five: $804.10
- Collin Sherwin, Voodoo Five: $705.82
- Scott, Bearcats Blog: $703.07
- GarySJ, Voodoo Five: $611.35
- John Lamb, Owlsblog: $527.26
- ULismyhothotsex, Card Chronicle, $481.41
- the great gunsby, reader extraordinaire: $216.48
- Andrew Porter, The UConn Blog: $144.57
- Kevin Meacham, The UConn Blog: $0.00
As you might remember from last year, when a player gets down to $0, it's sudden death time! The week after they hit zero, that player must make one (1) fake bet on their own team in that week's game. The bet must win -- no ties are allowed. If the contestant wins that fake bet, they get another $500 to continue to make fake bets in future weeks (although officially they are still -$1000 from the start of the season). If they lose the sudden death bet, they're out of the game.
Of course, UConn had to screw this up by being the only Big East team not playing this week, so Kevin can either pick another Big East game for sudden death, or wait until next week to cast his lot in the UConn/USF game.
Also, anyone under $250 is allowed to ignore the usual rules and move all-in on one game of their choosing. So gunsby and Andrew can do that this week if they want.
BEST BET: Anyone who noticed Stanford was only giving 2.5 points against California. The Big Game or not, that was insanely low and several people jumped all over it. Good move.
WORST BET: There weren't a whole lot of really terrible bets, but a few people took Temple getting 5.5 from Rutgers, ignoring that the Owls beat, without question, the two worst teams in the Big East. Which Rutgers is definitely not. That was a big part of the wealth destruction this week.
MOST DEGENERATE BET: ULismyhothot has pretty much locked this category up forever with his continued bets on Rice, Idaho, Wyoming, et al, most of which fail. It's amazing.