We were away on another one of the meaningless activities of the workplace – the offsite. An early morning bus ride reached us to a place somewhere on the Bangalore – Mysore highway, where as we settled down at breakfast, or perhaps a little later, somebody piped up with “Ponting, 50”.
In the mood to needle the group, I said, “oh, cool. He’s going to make a hundred”.
This set in motion a chain of conversations which went like this:
“No way, he is not going to make a 100 – he is struggling.”
“Look, he is a 50+ test average batsman, and those guys get a 100 50% of the time they reach 50”
In hindsight I gave the odds away, and should have alternatively pushed for a 2:1 or even 3:1 bet. But the banter went on.
“Well, that may be true, but he has never gotten a 100 in India.”
“All the more reason, he is a great and is going to set that blip in his record straight.”
Again, that was a pompous thing to say, instead of simply playing along and pushing the odds on that bet to up to maybe 4:1 or 5:1. Instead of pushing the odds on the bet to more favorable levels, I settled for a straight out 1:1 bet for a certain sum of money, which sure enough, I won. Think Ponting made an unbeaten century.
But it was terrible betting on my part, unnecessary one-upmanship and costly in magnitude many times over the size of the bet. So, here’s wishing Punter a great retirement, good betting, and if he decides to talk or write about the game, the betting, here is one reader who promises to be avid. Cheers!
In the mood to needle the group, I said, “oh, cool. He’s going to make a hundred”.
This set in motion a chain of conversations which went like this:
“No way, he is not going to make a 100 – he is struggling.”
“Look, he is a 50+ test average batsman, and those guys get a 100 50% of the time they reach 50”
In hindsight I gave the odds away, and should have alternatively pushed for a 2:1 or even 3:1 bet. But the banter went on.
“Well, that may be true, but he has never gotten a 100 in India.”
“All the more reason, he is a great and is going to set that blip in his record straight.”
Again, that was a pompous thing to say, instead of simply playing along and pushing the odds on that bet to up to maybe 4:1 or 5:1. Instead of pushing the odds on the bet to more favorable levels, I settled for a straight out 1:1 bet for a certain sum of money, which sure enough, I won. Think Ponting made an unbeaten century.
But it was terrible betting on my part, unnecessary one-upmanship and costly in magnitude many times over the size of the bet. So, here’s wishing Punter a great retirement, good betting, and if he decides to talk or write about the game, the betting, here is one reader who promises to be avid. Cheers!
