Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The second round of this year's Bookie Challenge postseason turned out to be the most suspensefully entertaining round so far in this year's playoffs. The round sparkled with a few brilliant handicapping performances from primarily this year's four divisional-champion qualifiers from the regular season, and as a result, the four front-runners still occuppied the top-four slots of the playoff point standings for a second-straight weekend. However, the round ended with each divisional champion concluding their respective outings this past weekend in totally different places within the top-four slots of the point standings that they were previously in before the start of this past weekend's second round. The top-two scorers for the weekend were Driveline and the Biased Nihilist, both of whom are two heavyweight handicappers in the league who have solid handicapping reputations for being not only two of the competition's most clutch handicappers but also for being two of the competition's elite handicappers. But it was Driveline who got credited for a week-won after he unleashed a super clutch 6-point parlay winner and complemented his big-time parlay hit with three best-bet wins, worth nine total points, and also knocked down a 1-point exact-score hit to finish his outing with 16 total points. More importantly, the "Fisher of Winners" collected his 22nd overall point for this year's postseason and finished his impressive outing with the overall lead in the playoff point standings. The Nihilist ended the weekend in second place in the playoff point standings after he churned out three best bet wins, which was good for nine points, and then capped off his scoring for the weekend with the year's first 2-point exact-score hit, which he won the two extra points for having correctly predicted the exact final score of 27-24 for the game between Kansas City and Buffalo but failed to predict the winning team of the exact score. In all, the Nihilist racked up 11 overall points for this past weekend and finished his outing with 19 overall points accrued in this year's postseason and in second place in the standings, just three points behind Driveline for the overall lead of the playoffs. Sliding down to the third slot of the point standings was Vikings17 after he registered a 2nd-consecutive 9-point outing and concluded his weekend with 18 total points tallied for this year's playoffs. And lastly, 7mick7 experienced the worst dive among the top-four front-runners, dropping down from first place to fourth place in the standings after he scraped out two best-bet wins (worth 6 pts) and also registered a 1-point exact-score hit to end his round with seven total points for the weekend and 17 points overall for this year's postseason. From 7mick7's 4th-place slot in the standings there's a significant drop off in total points as it concerns the next handicapper beneath 7mick7 in the standings, of which the point differential is nine substantial points and of which the deficit belongs to Theopholis after he accrued just his 8th overall point for this year's playoffs.

What is plainly obvious to see after this year's 2nd playoff round went into the competition's record books, is how this year's defending Bookie Challenge champion has continued to exhibit an uncanny and dramatic flair for producing yet another high scoring playoff round, of which his playoff handicapping over the recent years is a proof-positive testament to Driveline's rising stature for being one of the league's top-notch and prolific postseason handicappers. In fact, the void left by Tony Soprano for being the Biased Nihilist's main archrival after he quit the Bookie Challenge competition has been aptly filled by Driveline, who has picked up the mantle left by Soprano in stunning fashion. This past weekend, Driveline banged out his second 6-point parlay hit for a second postseason in a row, and as a result, he's at the precipice of possibly becoming only the second participant, apart from the Nihilist, to possibly win back-to-back overall Bookie Challenge championships, not to forget that he can aslo become only the third handicapper in the history of the competition to seize a third overall Bookie Challenge title. Additionally, what's truly phenomenal is that the "Fisher of Winners" is stringing together competitions, meaning last year's and this years, through his top-two career-high seasons. For example, Driveline is coming off his best-ever handicapping season, in which he set an all-time, single-season record for amassing the highest point total for handicapping a combined regular season and postseason, of which he tallied an otherworldly 100 total points en route to his runaway capture of last year's overall Bookie Challenge championship. He did as much by registering a career-high of four regular-season 6-point parlay hits, and after nailing down another 6-point parlay hit in last year's postseason, he finished last year's competition with five overall 6-point parlay hits. And in this year's competition, if one can believe it, he has incredibly duplicated his career-high parlay hits that he pounded out in last year's contest, as in he has exactly done it again after registering four regu;ar-season 6-point parlay hits and after landing another 6-point parlay hit this past weekend, of which once again he will end a consecutive competition with five overall 6-point parlay hits. Let's face it, that's some damn-good two years of handicapping. However, even though Driveline will head into the next round with a 3-point lead over the 2nd-place Biased Nihilist, a 4-point lead over 3rd-place Vikings17, and a 5-point lead over 4th-place 7mick7, it's going to take an incredibly Herculean stretch of lights-out handicapping by Driveline because his present 3-point lead in the playoff point standings is not what it seems to be. And the main reason why it's not is because, unlike his previous two Championship runs, Driveline's championship run in this postseason is dangerously bereft of any real fire power, or to put it in other words, his handicapping cache is severely depleted at this point of this year's postseason.

So let's just get this out there: Driveline's tentative 3-point lead is as precarious a lead as one ever existed. Let's just call his iffy 3-point lead for what it really is, and in words that the Italian handicapper can relate to, as in it's a "fugazi lead". For starters, Driveline has no preseason Super Bowl picks left to fall back on. Secondly, the 3-point playoff lead that Driveline presently possesses, of which is better to have a lead than enter the next round with a deficit, can be easily matched by the Nihilist if he simply knocks down one more best bet winner than Driveline does, and that's because the two best bets that are required to be submitted in the upcoming round are EACH worth THREE points apiece. Then there's a 3-team parlay combination that has to be submitted for the round and it alone is worth THREE points. But the real points that can possibly make or break either handicapper's outing are the boat-load of points that can be won off the six overall propostitional picks that are required to be submitted for each NFL Championship game, of which the realistic possibility exists for any handicapper in the competition to pile up a total of 18 combined prop points for both of the combined games, and that doesn't include extra bonus points that can be tallied for getting any of the six propositional selections exactly right. Let's also not forget that three participants--7mick7, Blitzkrieg, and the Hall-of-Fame City Kid--will enter the next round with all of their respective preseason Super Bowl selections still fully intact. Not for nothing, but if the HOF City Kid gets super fortunate enough and Baltimore ultimately plays San Fransico in this year's Super Bowl, which is a Super Bowl match-up that has a really solid potential to come to fruition, the City Kid could win a total of 15 bonus points if San Francisco defeats Baltimore in this year's grand finale. Let's also not forget that after this upcoming playoff round, the Super Bowl round, or the final round of this year's competition, is also loaded with the huge potential to win a serious amount of points. Therefore, this year's overall Bookie Challenge championship has nobody's name written on it, nor does the 2nd-place prize of the Latinum jackpot. If the truth be told, who will capture this year's overall Bookie Challenge championship and who will pocket the 2nd-place prize of the Latinum jackpot is anybody's guess, of which guarantees that this year's competition is going to end in some high-stakes drama that could possibly lead to the most electrifying and heart-pounding finish to a Bookie Challenge competition.

• DESPITE CHALLENGE FIELD PRODUCING ITS WORST BEST-BET OUTING SINCE WEEK #14, THE FIELD STILL MAINTAINED ITS OVERALL WINNING BEST-BET NUMBERS FOR THE SEASON: If there's one thing that can be said of this year's Challenge field, it is that this year's field has been one of the most resilient groups of handicappers in recent memory. Granted, the field took a collective step backward as it concerns its handicapping of best bets over this past weekend after it registered its worst best-bet outing since week #14 of this year's regular season, of which the field back then faltered mightily with its best bets after it posted a shameful 9-15-0 best-bet tally that resulted in a lowly .375 winning percentage for that particular weekend. But despite this past weekend's deplorabe best-bet outing, the field still managed to maintain its overall best-bet numbers for the season on the winning side of the ledger and finished this past weekend with an overall best-bet record of 307-290-14, of which the best-bet tally factored out to a .514 winning percentage on the season.

There has been no hotter handicapper in the Bookie Challenge competition over the span of the last-three weekends than Driveline, or the Fisher of Winners. He has accrued a total of a league-high 31 overall points on the strength of a week #18 PERFECTA that included a 1-point exact-score hit for a 9-point outing, and after he registered six points in the first round of the postseason, he followed up that 1st round of the postseason with a 16-point scoring outbusrt that was fueled by three best-bet wins worth nine points, a 6-point parlay hit, and another 1-point exact-score winner that culminated his round with 16 overall points. More importantly, he ended last weekend's playoff round with 22 overall points accrued for this year's postseason and the overall lead in the playoff point standings. Along with the Biased Nihilist, who finished this past playoff round in 2nd place and just three points behind Driveline for the overall playoff lead, the two handicappers once again displayed their highly and respective handicapping mettle for being the top-two handicappers in the Bookie Challenge competition. It's a back-and-forth handicapping duel that is sure to provide the competition with intense showdowns for many years to come. But this year's competition has not turned out to be a walk in the park for either handicapper, and they each know they'll have to reach deep down and end their respective seasons with the best of their handicapping A-games if either one of them wants to snatch another overall Bookie Challenge championship.

The noose around Too Tall Tommy's neck got tighter after he nearly bombed on all of his five best bets this past weekend and concluded his outing with a woeful 1-4-0 best-bet tally. With just a league-worst four points garnered in this year's postseason, which is a miserable point total that presently has him in dead-last place in the Challenge's playoff pt. standings, and without any of his preseason Super Bowl picks left to lean on, it appears that Too Tall Tommy and his dreadful handicapping campaign for the 13th annual Bookie Challenge competition is headed to Boot Hill. It's either that or it's going to take an otherworldly handicapping miracle over the final two rounds that remain in this year's postseason for TCU to end in any kind of money. In other words, TCU must win nearly every propositional pick in the upcoming NFL Championship round and then follow it up with a nearly perfect Super Bowl round to pull off the upset of upsets and at least squeeze out the 2nd-place prize of this year's Latinum jackpot.