There is a lot of countries missing though: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Sweden, UK, USA, just to name a few.

@btb88.com

What is the reason for the above mentioned countries being restricted ? What is the modus operandi here ? Just thinking about how this works in practice. You open a gambling site and then someone must tell you, to not accept customers from certain jurisdictions. A lawyer ? Isle of Man Gambling Commission ?

Thanks for uploading the videos for the tournament @Steamtyme, very interesting. I am no expert or pro, but here are some comments:

This hand - what was your thinking here ? What did you put Iv4n on ? I like the play, but river bet size was a bit too high imo, for what you were trying to achieve. A straight will always call you and you will lose. Pair of Q's or 9's will probably call you. Lower pairs and busted straight draws will not call you for 295. I think something around 100 would have been better, since you lose less against straight/QQ/99, but will make it more likely to get called from 77/66.

In the very next hand, with 83s, you immediately pre-selected fold - I wouldn't do that. If two players just call, you can invest 10 chips here imo and check the flop. Just like it was here.

The next hand then, is the one we talked about, but I still don't remember, what I had there, maybe KQ.

I like that fold here very much, although a lot of people would say, that it's a bad decision. Same here.

Here I would have re-raised to isolate figment and only play against him. After he checked to you on the flop, just make a continuation bet, play the button.

This fold I don't know - you could just go all-in here as small stack with ~10BB.

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has been cancelled.

This is really early tbh, still two months to go. And I think being mainly a TV event, the EBU could have come up with some other format or ideas, where a live performance isn't necessary, but people still can vote for their favourite song. Anyway, what can you do

Lets see, if some countries will send the same entry next year. Monitoring the odds, some countries might think twice about that

Blind levels changed too, no ? Was 10 minutes last Sunday iirc.


I am definitely in for some side bet too. I am fine with any of you guys holding the funds, don't think we need some external escrow (yet^^). Just PM the address to send to.

And he will go to the Colts. One year, $25mln guaranteed. Not bad, lets see how he will do there. Jags seem to be in rebuild mode (again ), but with the Titans and Texans this division is not easy, though wide open.


I read they do actually plan with Stidham, but I wouldn't be shocked, if Belichick comes up with someone completely different and surprising. I just don't know who it might be.

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On another note, I was really surprised to see Jason Witten being signed by the Raiders. Dude played for the Cowboys all of his life and already retired in 2018 to work for ESPN. Then came out of retirement to play for another year in Dallas and now he still continues to play - but left the Cowboys. Glad he is out of the NFC East, but it's a strange move somehow.

I have seen quite a lot of borderline markets in the past (when will Zsa Zsa Garbor die), but in these desperate times for bookmakers and punters, I am actually waiting for the first bookmaker to pull the trigger and do the immoral thing.

Monitoring how the gambling addicts are now trying their luck with football in Russia/Turkey or are desperately looking for some table-tennis experts, I would think, that they wouldn't refrain from betting on over/under new Covid-19 cases per day in a particular country or even death tolls

Too bad, but not that bad. I think we will see the domestic leagues, CL and EL deep into June and the summer will be packed with all kind of other sports and the Olympics possibly. The best thing though is, getting rid of that stupid Nations League for the foreseeable future.

It's now just about surviving the next weeks without any sports. After that, good grief, we will have sports all around the clock.

Phew, what a shocker. Never thought, this would really happen. I remember how sad I was, when Eli Manning was benched, because it was the start of the end of him (and meant his incredible consecutive starts streak came to an end too). His official retirement last season was not that hard to swallow for me, because I was prepared and tbh he just didn't have it anymore and it was time to move on.
Feeling sorry for the Pats Nation and can imagine what the fans go through now. Such a legend. I started following the NFL only in 2003 and there always was the Patriots with Brady as their goat QB being glued together. Will be really strange to have the Pats without him.

But otoh I am also curious to see what NE can do without him and what Brady can do with another team.

I think this is the same in every country. You have a hardcore community, that can't wait for May every year and then you have some hype in different countries, which have good songs for that year and where people are anticipating a good result. I remember the Lena-hype in Germany in 2010, when everyone was going crazy and that poor girl was all over the media. Nowadays there is very little hype, because people already expect Germany to finish outside Top20 due to not being able to send/select good entries to ESC (for whatever reasons).

I can imagine there being some hype in for example Lithuania (@LTU_btc may confirm), Bulgaria, Iceland, Russia etc. for this year, but outside of the hardcore fans, people in countries like Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria couldn't care less I think.

In general the quality is very poor me thinks. 95% of songs will be forgotten the day after and you rarely have some more well known artists participating. These artists know, how hard it is to get a good result at ESC and it's not worth the risk for them. It can kick-start your career, but for an established artist it's not very appealing to participate. Thus the often poor quality.

But for betting purposes, this is still a great event

Lots of stuff happening already

LB Kyle Van Noy and CB Byron Jones are Dolphins now, Stefon Diggs signed with the Bills, Jimmy Graham from Green Bay to Chicago, Colts traded their first round pick for DeForest Buckner , DeAndre Hopkins signs with the Cardinals , Cowboys tagged Dak and gave Cooper five year deal, OT Conklin goes to Browns (too bad, would have loved to see him with the Giants), OG Glasgow to Broncos, NT Jason Hargrave from Steelers to Eagles.

Hard to keep up with all the news and it's just starting

No, he recommends to go against line movements that happen, when it gets nearer to kick-off. Just trust that the initial odds were more reflecting the reality than what the market/herd thinks and who then pushed the odds accordingly.

Example for better understanding:

Opening odds for home win: 2.00
Odds shortly before kick-off: 2.50

Now according to that user, you should bet (blindly) on that 2.50. The opening line of 2.00 was maybe a bit wrong and sharp bettors opposed it. Fair odds would maybe have been 2.20, but the herd drove it up to 2.50 (=overreaction), trying to join the ride. So this 2.50 carries some value now - maybe

That worked Which leads me to the question: How do you decide what is a free tip and what is a pro/paid pick ? Can we assume the free tips being somehow worse or with less value ? Because you are staking the same on average, so seems to me there is no difference. Or is there some hidden recommendation, to use lower stakes per unit on free tips ?

Is there really such a big difference ? I don't think so.

Now with payment processors it is maybe different, but with exchanges vs. gambling sites, I don't see any differences. It depends on what the people behind those sites are trying to do and what are their longterm plans. And if they are bothered with laws and authorities can get a hold of them, when they break or not follow the laws

There are exchanges and gambling sites that are run anonymously more or less, so forcing them to implement KYC/AML is not easy, if they feel safe and are ok with operating in a grey area.  

Lets assume, there was indeed a difference. You would then have to think about, what customers are trying to achieve by using their service, because there is a big difference imo. When using a payment processor/exchange, you are getting something in return, that has more or less the same value and people are thus more worried with the legitimacy of the site. KYC/AML, like it or not, gives your site just this legitimacy to a certain extent. So to grow and get some market share, implementing KYC/AML will help you. You will lose some customers, who refuse to go through this process, but the majority will swallow it and it gets you a lot of possible customers in the future (because your site is considered legit and people trust you with their money).

In contrast to that, people who use a gambling site, will get nothing in return (just some fun maybe ), they will lose their money sooner or later. This leads to them not being too worried with the legitimacy of the site they are playing at. The gambling site itself doesn't have to worry too much with KYC, because their business is just running fine without KYC/AML.

There is certainly more to it, but in the end it comes down to business decisions, if you are surrendering to the pressure from governments or not.

Meine Aussage zielte eher auf Folgendes ab:

In China war das Problem bereits seit Mitte Dezember bekannt, zumindest bei der KP. Erste Maßnahmen und Aufklärung der Bevölkerung fand dann ab Januar statt iirc. Das Virus hatte also einige Zeit sich unkontrolliert zu verbreiten. Wuhan wurde dann abgeriegelt, aber du hattest immer noch Millionen von Leuten in einem Kessel. China hat 1.4 Milliarden Bevölkerung, die durchaus international reisefreudig sind und die ganzen Wanderarbeiter sind für Chinese New Year nach Hause in ihre Provinzen gereist.
Und trotzdem hast du "nur" 80.000 Fälle und halt leider eine entsprechende Zahl Toter. Aber ich finde das recht wenig, wenn man die Umstände betrachtet und nun, wenn man halt den Berichten Glauben schenken mag, ist der Höhepunkt überschritten und China kann nach und nach wieder in den Alltag einsteigen. Das birgt natürlich das Risiko, dass es erneut zu einer Welle kommt, da die Leute unvorsichtiger werden, aber erstmal ist die Lage dort unter Kontrolle.

So, I have gone through the recap of all songs and here is my Top5 so far (subject to change of course):

Bulgaria
Lithuania
Ireland (sounds way worse live though)
Belgium
Sweden

And my bottom 5:

Czech Republic
Cyprus
San Marino
Latvia
Ukraine

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Iceland I still don't like, but think it's a song that fits ESC-style very well. Same goes for Russia - they are breaking all records view-wise.

I am amazed that Switzerland seems to be very well liked, also it being non-english. If it was in english, it probably would be huge favourite, but I can't stand that song

Hab bestätigten positiven Fall im Bekanntenkreis. Und jede Menge andere Leute, die anscheinend schon vor Tagen/Wochen erkrankt waren, aber es ohne Test wie eine Grippe auskuriert haben. Einer hat wohl u.a. seine 70-jährige Mutter angesteckt, aber auch sie ist nach ein paar Tagen Bettruhe wieder ok. So ähnlich wie bei theymos halt. Die Dunkelziffer ist sicherlich ein Vielfaches von dem was man so liest/hört und dem man sich auch schwer entziehen kann.

Allgemein ist es mir dann doch zu viel Panikmache. Einerseits sind es die Medien, aber viel schlimmer sind "Online-Communities" (Foren, Twitter, Facebook etc.), die sich gegenseitig hochschaukeln und damit Panik schüren. Da wird jeder noch so kleine Furz dramatisiert, Fall- und Todeszahlen insta-gepostet und irgendwelche Untergangsszenarien heraufbeschworen.

Man sollte das schon ernst nehmen und vor allem Alte und Kranke schützen und ihnen Hilfe anbieten, aber etwas mehr Gelassenheit wäre imo angebracht, die ganze Aufgeregtheit führt ja zu nichts (ausser Panik, die dann Domino-Effekte auslöst, siehe Klopapier-Krise^^). Ich wäre eher für eine Mediensperre Einmal am Abend für 30 Minuten eine Sendung, um die Leute auf dem Laufenden zu halten und wichtige offizielle/politische Anweisungen durchgeben und gut ist.

Und wenn man den Berichten aus China Glaube schenken darf, dann gilt auch in diesem Fall, dass nichts so heiss gegessen wird, wie es gekocht wird.

Would like to see TB in TB^^ They already have an explosive offense and I enjoyed watching them last season. Adding Brady should guarantee them a playoff spot as you said. Their defense could benefit from this move as well, since Brady will allow them more rest than Winston did. I still think Winston is a good QB, but a Bruce Arians offense is probably a bit too much for him and his abilities and confidence.

The Titans locked up Tannehill now, so Brady will at least not go to the Titans. TEN will pay him $118mln on paper for four years, which is insane imo. He is a middle of the pack QB in my book, who just happened to have a very good stretch last season and was also helped by an incredible RB and very good quality around him overall. I guess, this is what you have to pay nowadays, but I don't like that deal. If the team doesn't click after last seasons tremendous achievement, TEN will regret that signing very soon imo. Titans will now tag Henry most likely.

Well, this is something I now disagree with in regards to the topic of this thread

In tennis there is no home advantage apart from the fans when you play in your home country. Even when playing in your country, you most likely have to go all through the stress that comes with NOT being at home with your regular routines. You have the same hassle with getting/flying there, you will live in a hotel etc. as all the other players. It's just the fans - and in this topic it's about additional factors of home advantage.

And for sure, there are players that perform better on hard/clay/grass, but this is not about home advantage - it's just the surface they prefer playing on. You could argue that a lot of european outdoor tournaments are being held on clay and since most european players naturally grow up on clay, this is sort of home advantage then. US players mainly perform poor on clay, because they grow up playing on hardcourts and thus nearly all US tournaments are played on HC. Same for british players and their grass courts. But then again, not all hardcourts are the same and not all clay courts are the same. Even the balls are different, which is something the players always notice (and which amazes me ).

In tennis, you often have players, that do very well in a particular tournament though, that isn't necessarily in their home country. Carlos Moya comes to my mind, who "always" won the ATP event in Umag. Or Alison Riske is always playing Top3 tennis in Shenzhen. These athletes somehow feel at home at these tournament.

Final result for March 15th 2020 edition. Gratz to ceehe, CoinEraser, Iv4n and efialtis.



15. themayorpete
16. HereJohnny


Alright, thanks. Yes, was 10 high flop, I had AQs. Don't remember exactly what I had in that first hand you mentioned, maybe when I watch your clips, I will remember.

I would also welcome rebuy option, good idea.

16 players was quite nice and it was fun. Though the buy-in was low-ish there wasn't any donkey plays and people were playing normal poker. You could feel there was some pride and glory involved apart from the money

Looking forward to the next tournament(s).