LAS VEGAS - AROUND THE WORLD IN YOUR PAJAMAS!!!
If you don’t have money for hotels and airfare, you can stay in your pajamas, check out an online casino, and go 'Around the World'! It’s a basic slot/arcade type game, and looks like the board of the old ‘Chutes and Ladders’ game, just without the ladders. The game uses a wheel with 52 stops, numbers 1 to 49, plus three special stops. So, you spin and guess whether the next number that comes up will be higher or lower. The further you get and the fewer incorrect guesses you make, the more you win. And the payback can up to 105 times your original bet. C’MON ‘Around the World’ with me. NO passport necessary!
COME LIGHT THE MENORAH!!!
For all my Jewish friends that are coming to Vegas for the holidays, and are wondering where to find the appropriate food, gotcha. We’re recommending Siegel’s Bagelmania on the Strip. You can dine in, or, do takeout. They offer a choice of sliced brisket with gravy or a half roast chicken, plus challah rolls, matzo ball soup, potato latkes, green beans and desserts, all for only $29.95. And if you’re looking for some serious sweets, try Pinkbox Doughnuts. They have Hanukkah Jellies that are dusted with confectioners’ sugar and filled with raspberry jelly. Hanukkah Rings are white-frosted vanilla cake doughnuts topped with Hanukkah sprinkles. YUMMMMM!
SportsbookS ONLY!!!
Before we get to the World Cup on Sunday, gotta throw down a play on the Cure Bowl, or the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl if you wanna get technical. Not gonna give you the Sportsbook between Troy and UTSA, but will throw down on the Over/Under total. Right now, we’re looking at 55.5 and we’re gonna go Over, WAY OVER. Why? Because BOTH teams will light up the scoreboard. The Trojans from Alabama have found their offense, scoring 34, 48 and 45 points the last three times out. The Roadrunners from San Antonio are also humming, scoring 44, 51, 41, 34 and 48 since early November. Gonna be fun and gonna be boatload of points!
Then on Saturday, gonna rock Fresno State over Washington State in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. Yea, Jimmy Kimmel has his own bowl. We are checking in with the folks in Albuquerque at the New Mexico Bowl to see if we can rename the game and call it the BENJAMIN ECKSTEIN ECKS & BACON SportsbookS ONLY NEW MEXICO BOWL! You with me?
C’mon over to Qatar for the delicious final between Argentina and France. As you know, we have a big FAT ticket on Argentina to win the Cup at 6/1, and the question is, do I hedge? I asked you all that in the last column when La Albiceleste was playing Croatia, and the overwhelming response was, LET IT RIDE. I did, and we all plumped up the bank account. This time, I’m gonna HEDGE! Let's say my ticket is worth five figures if Argentina wins. Not gonna give out any specifics because you never know who is reading. So, gonna drop half of that on Les Bleus at a pretty sweet price of around +$175/180. Not being a punk with the hedge, but think these two teams are SO evenly matched, that picking a Sportsbook is really tough. Also gonna drop a few pennies on some props. Taking a tie at the end of the 1st half and a tie at the end of 90 minutes.
Benjamin Eckstein is a nationally syndicated sportswriter/oddsmaker. His column, America’s Line, with the Ecks & Bacon appetizer, has run in the New York Daily News and over 100 other papers since 1988. You can follow him online at www.americasline.com. He is beloved by most, when he picks Sportsbooks, and detested by others, when he picks the occasional loser. If you wanna piece of Eck, hit his email... ben@americasline.com.
