Posts by Ashley Johnson6

stormyharbor13 said:I really wish they’d start handing out penalties to those smart-alecks who call people idiots just because they bet at local US sportsbooks.
Why does it even matter where someone places their bets? Of course, good arguments and solid advice are always welcome—but what's with all this condescension toward people just sharing their opinions?

Actually, calling you fools is being generous. Honestly, "complete idiots" might be more accurate... though even that feels like an understatement.

Now the moderator—who happens to bet at the same local shops—is probably going to throw a fit and permaban me just to prove he's some kind of big shot... 🙂

Here you go, buddy—just trying to make your day a little brighter.

Bryan Adams6 said:Just got a notification a week ago saying partial cash outs are finally an option now—used to be you could only take whatever they offered you upfront...

just another way for losers to lose...

If I’ve already placed my bet, why on earth would I want to cash out for some tiny fraction of what it's actually worth right now? Unless we're talking about some massive, life-changing jackpot, this is just something people do when they're too scared to stick it out...

The only time I've ever used the cash out feature was if I realized I messed up a bet or made a total rookie mistake...

and then the house just takes their 10% cut regardless of how you play—that's really the whole game right there...

John Baker said:Parenting is treated like some universal constant that nobody dares to question. People just have kids because that's how the world works. Honestly, how many people can actually give a meaningful answer to why they have children? Most excuses boil down to vague abstractions like "I love kids" (though they usually mean *their* kids), the basic biological urge, or even the ego trip of trying to achieve immortality through genetics...🙄
When you express a negative view to someone with kids, you aren't just sharing an opinion; you're essentially invalidating every sacrifice they've ever made and attacking their core values. People hate that.
I hear these predictable phrases from parents all the time: "Just wait until it's your turn," "You'll see," or "Enjoy your freedom while it lasts." It’s incredibly negative. They rarely talk about how beautiful it actually is.😛
My take? There's definitely a heavy dose of envy toward the freedom people have when they don't carry those responsibilities.
On top of that, there's this constant emphasis on martyrdom. You get lines like, "I sacrificed everything for you," which is just pure manipulation used to demand repayment for a choice they made.
There is so much toxicity baked into the whole concept that I find it impossible to view parenting as anything inherently beautiful.

I have zero desire for children. My partner is more than enough for me. To me, a child would be an optional addition to an existing relationship, not some essential component without which the relationship couldn't function.
I'm certain my partnership would suffer if we went down that road. For us, it's just the two of us plus a cat or a dog, and I'm perfectly happy.😬

People just love to complain, really. There's this pervasive culture of negativity here in the States—if things are going great, people find a reason to whine, and if things are going south, they definitely don't shut up.

That whole habit of judging parenting in front of others is deeply ingrained in our culture, but honestly, it’s just pure nonsense.

Yeah, being a parent is hard—it’s incredibly tough being a mom during those first couple of years—but ask any (mentally stable) woman if she’d want to hit a reset button and go back to her old life... nobody would take that deal.

The beautiful moments far outweigh the "bad" ones, and even those rough patches? In a few decades—actually, in a few weeks for me—we'll be looking back on them with nothing but nostalgia...

Basically, people are just talking trash.

redscout46 said:Hello there.
There’s one thing I just can't wrap my head around lately. Why does our society react with such intense hostility whenever someone dares to mention they don't want children? I brought this up recently during a dinner with some older folks and their circle of friends, and one gentleman looked absolutely horrified, as if I’d admitted to a felony. I mean, how am I even supposed to explain it—that I simply don't want them? (Though, apparently, if you aren't eager to be a parent, you're just being willfully ignorant.)
Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Every time I hear those tired clichés, like "I spent all morning feeding my son with a spoon just to make sure he actually swallowed his food... kids are life's greatest treasure," I feel a physical urge to recoil. To be perfectly honest—though I try not to let the disgust show publicly—I tell people straight up that I value my freedom, that I want to focus on my career, and that I plan to travel with a partner, only to immediately be condescended to with comments like, "Oh, you just don't understand yet..." 🤦
The sheer audacity of it.
What do you all think? Is it really considered "abnormal" to not want to spend your life cleaning up after someone, feeding them smelly mush, and sitting through endless school meetings? Am I asking for too much comfort by choosing not to spend the next twenty years constantly worrying about someone else or draining my bank account on ballet lessons, English tutors, and soccer camps? Am I truly that selfish if I'd rather come home to a tidy apartment, sink into the couch, and enjoy a quiet moment after a long day at work, instead of cooking massive family meals and stepping on Lego bricks every five minutes? 🤣
I don't know what's going on with America lately, but people seem to have completely lost their minds.😵

I'm guessing the 88 in your handle is your birth year...

Just wait a few more years until those hormones and brain chemistry start kicking in and flip your whole perspective upside down. I know you feel like it's impossible right now, but we'll talk in 5-6-7 years...😉

And then you'll realize that everything you mentioned with such disgust is actually a huge joy, not a chore.

As for having kids... man, I don't know... I'm not a woman, I haven't lived it myself, I've just watched from the sidelines—and it sounds incredibly cliché, I know—but there isn't any experience in life that even comes close to it. None.

Walter Edwards said:The game got called off in the 71st minute with the score at 3-0—it was 2-0 at halftime—so that bet is a loss...

http://extratime.ie/newsdesk/article...o-be-replayed/

Thanks for the heads up, 😉

Arthur Howard said:There's a bonus if you play 3 or more parlays from the top five leagues or Champions League.
So I think if you have 3 legs, you get about a 5% boost on the total odds.

Trebles 5% bonus
4-folds 10% bonus
5-folds 10% bonus
6-folds 20% bonus
7-folds 30% bonus
8-folds 40% bonus
9-folds 50% bonus
10-folds 60% bonus
11-folds 70% bonus
12-folds 80% bonus
13-folds 90% bonus
14-folds and up 100% bonus

Heh, honestly... that "bonus" on a 14-fold just covers the gap created by the margin they take—since there's already a 5% juice on individual bets.🤣

Basically, if you're betting at 1.90 odds when the true value is 2 (with a 5% margin), a 14-leg parlay pays out 1:8228, even though realistically it should be closer to 1:16384...

This is just how bookies make their spikes...

Arthur Howard said:SBO is fine, but they can be such a pain sometimes...

My limit for EuroLeague basketball is $60.

I really messed up by signing up for the IMF. I thought I’d get huge limits—that’s what everyone says—but then they give me a $10 max bet on the NHL.

Pinnacle is definitely my top choice. Their only real downsides are the lack of depth and mediocre live betting, but Bet365 handles the live stuff so well that they kind of balance each other out.

If I could just find a book that offers plenty of live ITF matches—and isn't Bet365—that would be perfect.

Wait, isn't the IMF an Asian brokerage agency? How does it make sense for them to have a $10 limit? 😲

and Bet365 has improved so much too, since they're easily the most popular sportsbook in the world—nobody touches them when it comes to live betting.

I agree. This past summer, I built up this massive parlay over several months, and I couldn't figure out why they hadn't limited me yet...

I finally realized why they hadn't restricted my account a few months later—right after I lost almost everything. 🤣

I just stumbled onto something really sketchy...
Basically, I was going through my betting history—just adding some new data—and I noticed that the match I bet on back on December 6th, which was part of the top tier women's league here in the US, was actually POSTPONED (!!!!!)... yet my bet was settled as a loss, and I had a pretty significant live stake on it 😲

I'm looking at Soccerway—it's a solid, reputable site that tracks all kinds of obscure global leagues
.
I'm not quite sure how to verify this fully. I checked the USSF website, but they mostly just deal with the national team... there's no direct contact info or anything useful listed 🤔

If this turns out to be true, then my gut feeling about Bet365 might be right—they sometimes settle live bets on matches that seem incredibly suspicious
.

I know the moderators are probably going to come after me again, but honestly, there have been way too many "friendly" matches lately that seem rigged for the books—some of the stats occurring are just statistically impossible—but anyway, I won't get into that again...

So, can anyone help me figure out this "problem"
?
The match in question was

Angel City FC - Portland Thorns FC

It's weird... the schedule says Dec 6th, but it was postponed...

And yet, I distinctly remember watching it like thirty minutes ago—I recall Angel City FC scoring two quick goals early on, and I placed an over 3.5 first-half goals bet around the 20-minute mark, which I lost...
I even think I remember the final score being 3:0...

🤔🤔🤔

About two years ago, I was running Bet365 and Marathon side-by-side...

Back then, Bet365 had this reputation for being just for casual players—the kind that limits you almost immediately...

But compared to Marathon? They're practically in a different league—honestly, worlds apart. You can actually play seriously on Bet365, whereas at Marathon, you get a few weeks before they spot you and say goodbye...

And you don't even need a winning profile for that to happen. I was basically breaking even—maybe even slightly down—after playing there for about two months, yet they still limited me to $1 bets... mind you, I wasn't breaking any rules, wasn't hunting for errors in the odds, nothing...

I was just following my own system—increasing my stakes a bit more than your average bettor, though I was nowhere near high-roller territory...

When Marathon is such a fantastic platform, have you ever actually wondered why—even though they’re constantly sitting right at the top of those odds comparison lists—serious bettors still tend to drift away from them?

Still...

Colombia +0 at 3.05 on Betfair—expecting a 2-1 win for Brazil... 4/10
It kicks off at 11 PM...

Honestly, this game doesn't really matter—both teams are definitely moving on...
The whole thing with these bets is that Brazil is just underwhelming—I watched them play against Venezuela, and even if one game isn't everything, the truth is they did absolutely nothing... honestly, they probably wouldn't have won, or might have even lost (especially since the coach threw the formation out the window in the 70th minute) if Kennedy hadn't scored a minute later... That was a goal you just don't see every day... truly something special.

Basically, Colombia looks solid so far—while Brazil seems incredibly uninspiring and just totally lacks any punch upfront...

And who actually knows what the lineups will look like... but there's definitely some value on Colombia here!

Yeah, I'm just totally overwhelmed—missing the most obvious stuff right in front of me...
I already deleted my post, mostly so nobody would jump on me for being such an idiot

Taking a break from this for a while

Orleans - Auxerre over 1 (HT) @ 2.35 (bet365) (0-0) 6/10

Basically, Orleans has hit this margin 4 out of 7 times, while Auxerre has done it 7 out of 4 times this season...
That leaves us with about 17% value—given 2.35 against the actual 2—and even after factoring in taxes, I still think there's a decent window here...

Starts at 11 PM, bet365

Argentina-Bolivia 4+ (1st half) @ 6.00 (2-0), 4/10

In their last few games, Argentina has cleared this bar twice—specifically against much tougher sides like Ecuador (5:1 HT) and Peru (4:0 HT)... Bolivia is easily the worst team in the group, maybe even in the whole tournament. I watched them play Peru, and honestly, it’s wild they didn't score at least 3 or 4 goals in the first half; the Peruvians were basically just strolling through the box. If it wasn't for their terrible finishing, they would've absolutely buried them...

The Bolivian keeper was busy making a billion saves—if I remember right, Peru ended up with 12 or 13 shots on target and still only scored once—but the Argentines aren't quite as clueless in front of the net as the Peruvians were, so we might see a blowout again..

I'm not saying it definitely happens—actually, I'm almost expecting a 0:0🤣 just because it wouldn't make any sense, and Thursday is always a day for things that don't make sense..

But that 6.00 odds, given everything I just said, feels a bit too high

Does anyone know the final score for Patriot vs Chicago?

ESPN says it was 1:0 at the whistle—and they're NEVER right...

But then DraftKings marked my over 1 bet as a loss...

I might risk another ban here, but nobody's going to tell me this was legitimate, so here's what happened:

In the 84th minute, a goal goes in and DraftKings reports it... the score stays for one minute, and then suddenly the goal is disallowed (???) and they call the end of the game at 85.24 minutes?!?!?!

🙂

Turns out it was 0:0—ESPN updated their stats...

Whatever, I'm filing a complaint with DraftKings—I won't let them hide behind technicalities

It's only about 25 bucks, but it's the principle of the thing... I'm not letting them rip me off like that

So, this is what we were talking about the other day on that different thread...

Some guy was playing dirty at the New York-Newark halftime—about three minutes before the clock actually ran out.
And if I try to file a complaint now, those bastards over at Bet365 will just say, "No, everything was processed correctly, we aren't responsible for data accuracy," blah blah blah...

Honestly, forget all that nonsense...🙂

I usually just stay away from these friendly matches—they're nothing but a breeding ground for fixed games, with way too many suspicious scorelines and match flows... it's just a headache.

Arthur Howard said:Bet365 gives you a bonus between $5-$20—depending on how much you deposit during the week, from Monday through Sunday.
They drop the bonus on Wednesdays. It’s actually pretty sweet because it adds up to maybe $1,000 in bonuses over the year... which isn't nothing.

(before they ban me for mentioning specific amounts)

I've been consistently—really consistently—ignoring all those inbox messages about bonuses... I haven't used a single one...
but now that you mentioned that amount, I'm seriously tempted to just dive in headfirst... 🤣

just wanted to ask you—it says I have to wager it three times: does that mean I can't withdraw ANYTHING from my account until I do that, or is it just that $5-$20 portion? 🙂

DraftKings are total scammers... absolute trash

A few times now, they've waited until the game is basically over just to decide if they'll actually honor my bet—especially when I'm trying to go way above their pathetic little limits

And of course—I should probably mention—they always seem happy to accept those higher stakes right when the bet is looking like a loser🤣

I'm done with them... won't even step foot near them again, just out of principle

Total crooks

Look, I get where you're coming from, but in cases like this, sticking strictly to the rulebook just doesn't make sense... I honestly don't see the point—these kinds of posts are actually way more useful and informative than 90% of the fluff we see in other threads

I just don't get the rigidness—why the bureaucratic "sorry, our hands are tied, it's the law" attitude?

It’s one thing when people are talking about placing bets, but here we're discussing LIMITS; for heaven's sake, if we can't talk about that, what exactly *can* we talk about?

You're going to drive away all the high-quality members from this forum if you keep pushing this kind of talk—I guarantee it
if that's the goal, then by all means, keep going... you're right on track!

because it's getting damn exhausting

American potatoes, US potatoes 🙏 🤣 I'm broke...
you guys are legends!

btw, Arthur Howard described the situation perfectly...
and I'm pretty sure he was talking about those American potatoes 😉