World Cup Nonsense

[El Gordo]

Am I the unluckiest punter in the World Cup?

Erm, certainly not, but anyway, almost every bet I touch falls to pieces. I made the mistake of gloating in an early message about having a spread bet on Rooney's playing minutes, where every minute over 99 earns me £1 a minute. OK, so I've done OK on that one. I think I'm about £100 to the good, with more Rooney to come.

But almost nothing else has gone right.

Today was a perfect example. I've become keen on betting on scoring shirt numbers. Well, it's a bit of fun, isn't it? So this afternoon I decided to go high on numbers for the Brazil-Ghana match. Yes, they won 3-0, but the 3 scorers could only muster a total of 27 in shirt numbers, 3 below the magic number. So I went low on the France-Spain game, convinced that this would be a dour affair. By half time, numbers 23 and 21 had made it 1-1, leaving me £14 down with "a whole half" (as it were) to go. Vieira and Zidane threw another £14 on the fire in the second.

I also went 'high' on 2 games which finished 0-0, and another where numbers 3 and 4 were the only scorers. With 30 being the approximate break-even point for each game, you can work it out.

I know, I know, it's all my stupid fault, but I reasoned that some I'd win, some I'd lose, and all would balance itself out. I don't normally gamble much, but I found it was a good way to add a bit of spice to the less fascinating games, and the habit has persisted through the later rounds.

I've had 6 bets on the numbers of corners in games I was about to watch. I won a whopping £1.80 on the first, but lost on the rest.

Yellow and red cards. I've chanced my arm a few times on these bets. 10 points for a yellow, 25 for a red. Break even point usually around 60. All my troubles would be over if I'd had a bet on the Portugal-Holland game. 4 red cards and 16 yellows. But at least I hadn't bet the other way. I have however had a punt on several others with no success at all. I won't punish myself further by listing them.

I've almost stopped caring whether England win the trophy. It's only Rooney's minutes that matter. Forget the result, just get to the final please boys.