Break-even.

After earning another NOK 30 ($5) after Portugal beat Iran today, I’m now break-even again after Ghana just crushed the Czech Republic. It’s not too bad really, but since I’m going to China on Monday, I’ll lose track of the games - they are played in the late evening and during the night Chinese time - so I think I’ll call it quits, throw in my betting towel and let Hallvard handle the money himself.

Yes, it’s only one and a half day now until I leave the tiny suburb - which Oslo is compared to other capitals around the world - I normally reside in to the multimillion cities of the People’s Republic of China. After my last visit to China I swore that I would buy a PSP to entertain me on the flight if I ever went back there again, but since I’ve spent quite a lot of money on music equipment lately the PSP is not even an option right now. On top of that I rarely travel far, and my iPod is usually more than enough entertainment.

I have, however, bought a couple of new CDs to have some fresh music to listen to during the trip. I didn’t get any recent releases, rather stuff to extend my backlog:

• U2 - The Best of 1990-2000 (my first U2 CD, actually)
• Radiohead - Amnesiac (my current Radiohead collection is a shame)
• Audioslave - Audioslave (the use of Shadow On the Sun in Collateral was brilliant)
• Muse - Absolution (Radiohead-ish pre OK Computer* - gotta like that)
• Weezer - Make Believe (because Beverly Hills and This is Such a Pity are great songs)
• Jack Johnson - Song-A-Longs & Lullabies For The Film Curious George (buy 5 Nice Price CDs and get a discount)
• Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams (completes the collection)

*I can’t honestly say that I’m 100% sure that OK Computer was the album where Yorke and the guys went alt-psy-rock, but I think it was. Might have been the album before that, though. Correct me if I’m wrong. This is what happens when you don’t have a proper backlog!

Money Earned.

It seems like football wasn’t the most interesting thing I could write about, at least if I use the number of comments on the entries as a pointer.

Still, this entry will also be about football, because today I made money for the first time! Yay for me! I placed a reasonable safe bet on Argentina v Serbia & Montenegro, and thanks to Argentina’s victory, I got all the money I spent on previous bets back and even made NOK 20 ($3). Money like that will not make Hallvard rich, but at least he’s not losing any money on me - as of now, that is.

I also planned to place a bet on a draw in the match between The Netherlands and Côte d’Ivoire, but I was a few seconds late. That’s just as well, since The Netherlands won the game and advanced to the Round of 16.

Now I’m heading down to the train station to meet Gine who is shaking her pretty head every time I talk about football. Go figure!

Guru Powers Greatly Exaggerated.

Looks like I caught a bad case of Beginner’s Luck and that my Guru Powers wasn’t really worth anything. Confident that I was onto something, I started to place small bets at Centrebet, and what do you know…

My “safe” bet on Tunisia against Saudi Arabia yesterday (Tunisia to win, 1.70) didn’t exactly work out as the result was a draw. Neither did my not-so-safe bet on the match between Ecuador and Costa Rica today (Costa Rica to win, 4.20) earn me any money because Costa Rica decided to lose by 3 goals. Despite the losses, I don’t sulk, mainly because of two reasons:

1. I spent NOK 50, about $8, on each bet.
2. It’s not my money.

“Not your money”, you ask? Correct. Hallvard and Espen have decided to sponsor my betting through their Centrebet accounts that they don’t really use anymore. Not sure why, but I guess it’s because they want me to get hooked and then start to lend me money at a ridiculous interest rates when I’ve spent all my money on sports betting.

I suspect that Hallvard would do a lot better himself, because he suggested betting on a draw between England and Trinidad & Tobago and with about 10 minutes left to play, the score is still nill nill*.

If you, like me, are stuck at work when the World Cup matches are being played, I certainly recommend The Guardian’s coverage. It doesn’t contain any match statistics and all that, but it’s surprisingly entertaining. From the England v Trinidad & Tobago match in progress now:

60 min: ROONEY HAS KICKED THE BALL He has kicked it. England will win the World Cup now, no worries. That’s right, isn’t it? “I think it’s beyond dispute that Sven is worth every penny of his multi-million pound salary,” suggests Roger Foster. “To turn a team that looks sort of decent on paper into a bunch of totally clueless headless chickens takes a rare sort of talent.”

*But the match ended 2-0 to England.