The £10 to £10k challenge: It’s going to get interesting
After taking eight bets to get from a tenner to over £30, John Baines's prize pot is starting to swell with a bit more pace and he fancies Porto to do the business on Bet 9
There was always going to be two or more goals in Real Madrid v Manchester City wasn’t there? I certainly thought so enough to make that the eighth bet of my £10 to £10k challenge and backed it up with enough statistics from the past to make it sound like it was definitely going to happen.
When I heard Jose Mourinho had shored things up in midfield by dropping Mesut Ozil and bringing in Michael Essien I was worried that the whole game would become a midfield minefield but by the same gesture I was also encouraged that Roberto Mancini’s selection of the previously untried Matija Nastasic and the previously mobile Maicon would do little to quell Madrid’s marauding attack.
As it was the hosts spurned a catalogue of chances with Joe Hart supreme for 89 minutes and even going into the final twenty with the score at 0-0 I had a funny feeling we were still in for a few netbusters. Five goals duly arrived but it was just Edin Dzeko’s and Marcelo’s I needed to extend my charge on the £10k run and thanks to those two my coffers swelled to £34.98.
Indeed, I’ve worked out that at the current rate of two bets per week I could – and I hasten to add ‘could’ – be up and over £1000 by Christmas, illustrating how quickly things can start progressing as long as I keep picking the right punts.
Champions League Dortmund 1-1 Bayern Munich £150.00 (13/2) Dortmund 1-2 Bayern Munich £160.00 (7/1) Dortmund 0-2 Bayern Munich £175.00 (31/4) Dortmund win £84.00 (16/5) Draw £82.00 (31/10) Bayern Munich win £34.00 (7/10)
It’s at this point that I ask those of you regularly keeping abreast with the fortunes of the £10k challenge for a little bit of patience. Despite me clocking up eight successive succesful bets I’ve only just penetrated the £30 barrier and getting anywhere near £10,000 seems aeons away.
But I told you this was going to take a while and that it wasn’t a get rich quick scheme. In all probability it’ll be a not-get-rich-not-very-quick scheme but either way I’m in it for as long as the betting Gods decide to keep pulling my pud before sticking me onto the bus back to realityville.
At least things will start to get interesting with a bit more velocity from now on though. The nature of the challenge in sticking bets of roughly 1/10 on meant that the early additions to my prize pot were pretty tedious. I went from £10 to £11.80 to £13.22 to £15.66 and similar small incrementals but the more the stake grows the bigger the rewards and if this weekend’s bet comes off I will have moved in and almost out of the thirties in one foul swoop.
Indeed, I’ve worked out that at the current rate of two bets per week I could – and I hasten to add ‘could’ – be up and over £1000 by Christmas, illustrating how quickly things can start progressing as long as I keep picking the right punts.
But if picking the right punts was as easy as it sounds I wouldn’t be here trying to convince you that I know what I’m doing. Anyone who remembers the shambles of the first £10k challenge will need no reminding that I have a proclivity to adroitly pick out anything but the right punts so you’ll have to believe me when I say I genuinely do put in a fair amount of research from leagues around the world to detect what I should and should not go near.
In recent weeks I’ve gone for goals in games rather than results but one result which usually produces a win is Porto at home and this weekend I’ll be putting my faith in the Dragons to continue a formidable run of form at the Estadio do Dragao.
You have to go back almost four years to October 2008 to find the last time the Portuguese giants last lost at home in the league and over that time they’ve clocked up an incredible 42 wins from 53 games on their home patch.
Little Beira-Mar go into the dragons den on Saturday night with Porto 7/50 with bwins 3Way football betting market to record another home victory.
The Liga Zon Sagres champions have again offloaded a host of star names over the summer with Hulk going to Zenit St Petersburg and Alvaro Pereira and Fredy Guarin joining Inter Milan but new Colombian striker Jackson Martinez looks likely to be the next name rolled off the Porto production line after kicking off with two goals in three games.
Vitor Pereira’s men have played once at home this campaign and routed Vioria Guimaraes 4-0 and were impressive in a midweek 2-0 away win against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
After getting promoted to the top division two seasons ago Beira-Mar have struggled manfully down the bottom and have picked up just two points from their last five fixtures. Porto have won the last eight encounters between the pair to the tune of an aggregate 21-1 and the hosts have won the last four fixtures against Beira-Mar at the Dragao 3-0.
All of which leaves me with little hesitation on putting my £34.98 on Porto to win at 7/50 and if this comes in I’ll be almost up to the naughty forty on £39.88 with my mind already made up about where the winnings will be going by Wednesday.
Bet 9: Porto to beat Beira-Mar @ 7/50
Current Balance: £34.98
Potential Balance: £39.88
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