Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): Granted, every start to a Bookie Challenge competition is always going to be different, but the start of this past weekend's 15th annual Bookie Challenge competition was a downright head-scratcher. No one connected on a 6-point parlay winner, which is an oddity that has only occurred once before in a season opener, in Challenge year #3. In fact, in Challenge year #3's season opener, the lack of any 6-point parlay hits resulted in the lowest scoring total by a Bookie Challenge field to start off a handicapping campaign, of which the disgraceful tally of only 12 overall points scored back then is still an all-time record to this day. This past weekend the Challenge field did manage to score 26 points, but when compared to Challenge year #3, back then exact-score predictions were not yet part of the Bookie Challenge's scoring format. The exact-score predictions were not implemented in the competition until the start of Challenge year #5, but even then only 5-point exact-score selections were the only exact-scores a participant could select. To say the least, it was extremely difficult to score points off exact-score selections for the first seven years in which exact-score predictions were the only exact-score selections available. Subsequently, it wasn't until Challenge year #12 when exact-score predictions worth one point and two points were added to the exact-score prediction worth five points. Accordingly, today's extra scoring through exact-score predictions is probably the reason why this year's Challenge field didn't come close to having the worst point-total start off a season. This past weekend's start to the season was rare in that Vikings17 ended the week as the league's high scorer with five total points scored, of which he was able to tally after he connected on this past Monday night's exact-score final of Minnesota 27-24 over Chicago. Finishing the weekend in second place was Vikings17's son Kr@tos, who managed to hit a best-bet winner and an extremely rare 3-point parlay hit to conclude his outing with four points. Third place in the point standings belonged to two-time Bookie Challenge champion Driveline, who scored a total of three points after he knocked down one best-bet winner and a 2-point exact-score hit. When taking another look at this past weekend's opener, it's easy to see how points off exact-score predictions affected this year's first point standings, not to mention that points off exact-score predictions made for some crooked point totals, of which added to the weird start to the weekend as it concerned the pecking order atop the point standings: Vikings17 five points, Kr@tos four points, and Driveline three points. And yet, those crooked numbers were not the only scoring variables that affected the competition.

There's no better place than to start with Vikings17, for he benefited the most from his exact-score pick. Not for nothing, but heading into this past Monday night's game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, Vikings17 was staring at ending the weekend with a goose egg and possibly a golden goose egg. He had already lost both of his best bets and two out of three parlay picks within his 3-team parlay combo, and if his third parlay pick, the Vikings/Bears game to go over 44 points, fell through--the Purple People Eater was going to plop down a golden goose egg to start off this year's competition. But it's amazing how things fell in place for Vikings17. Much to his dismay, the Bears dominated play for the first three quarters and would begin the 4th quarter with a 17-6 lead over the Vikings. Even worse was that the Bears were looking at kicking a field goal start the 4th quarter and extend their lead to 20-6. But Cairo Santos' 50-yarder was wide right. Interestingly, it's funny how at the time the missed field goal didn't make known its direct impact on the final score of the game, mainly because the 4th quarter had just started and it was too early to work out any scenarios for an exact-score prediction to come to fruition. The truth be told, the missed field goal by Santos probably had Vikings17 pissed off as hell, seeing as he needed the over 44 points to avoid a golden goose egg, never mind that Vikings17 would be thinking about an exact-score winner so early in the quarter. Still, for a participant to nail the exact score of both teams, a lot of things have to go exactly right. Keep in mind, not only did the missed field goal have a hand in Vikings17's exact-score prediction, but also so did a failed two-point conversion by the Vikings AND then later on a successful two-point conversion had to exactly off-set each other for Vikings17's miraculous 5-point exact-score hit to see the light of day (or should that be the darkness of the night?). Regardless, a tremendous comeback by the Vikings in which they scored three 4th-quarter touchdowns and one late TD by the Bears iced the exact-score prdicition for Vikings17, the luckiest Bookie Challenge participant when it comes to banging out the exact-scores by both teams. For the record, the Purple People Eater had become the first participant last season knock down THREE 5-point exact-score winners in last year's competition, not to forget that he started last year's with a 5-point exact-score hit, of which he complemented the exact score with two best-bet winners to end last year's opener with a league leading point total of seven points.

Another participant this past weekend who was saved by the bell, or an exact-score hit, was dbucc, aka the Joker. His exact-score winner came on Thursday night and it was just worth one point after he correctly predicted the Cowboys to score 20 points versus the Eagles, of which was precisely what the Cowboys scored in their 30-20 loss to Philly. If not for that one-point exact-score winner on last Thursday night, the Donald would have goose egged his weekend, because he missed both of his best bets and only connected on one parlay pick within his 3-team parlay combo. In all, 10 exact score points were scored for the weekend, of which five was scored by Vikings17, two by Driveline, and one each by dbucc, jcvike, and the Biased Nihilist. In the case of Driveline, his 2-point exact-score selection marked the second time he connected on an exact-score by both teams but didn't have the winning team of the exact-score. For example, this past Monday night he had predicted Chicago to win by a 27-24 final over Minnesota. As already mentioned, he had to settle for the 2-point variety of his exact-score pick, but surprisingly he is the only handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to have accomplished the feat twice.

There was one participant, Kr@tos, who did not benefit from any exact-score points but was still able to produce a rare outing, one in which he had the temerity to attempt a 3-point parlay combo--and he killed it! Three-team parlay combinations are worth three points if a participant incorporates one or both of his best bets into his parlay combo. This past weekend, Kr@tos took his favorite team, the Vikings, and chose them as a best bet and also selected them in his 3-team parlay comnination--Minnesota -2, TB/Atlanta-Over48 points, and GB -3. Incredibly, he barely missed connecting on his other best bet, Denver -8 over Tennessee, and only because the Broncos won 20-12 and finished with a "push" to the pointspread, otherwise Kr@tos finishes his opener tied with his dad instead of trailing him by one point. The 3-point parlay attempt by Kr@tos begs a question, did he accidentally pick the Vikings in his parlay combination or did he really attempt a genuine 3-point parlay winner? Of course, only he knows the answer, but the 3-point parlay attempt also begs another question--are 3-point parlays an easier way to get more points throughout the course of a season? All things considered, a participant would have to be adept at picking best-bet winners in order to be successful in placing those best=bet winners on a weekly basis in his respective 3-point parlay combinations, right? Well, so far, the Bookie Challenge's ho-hum sample size would beg to differ. For starters, the last time a participant won a 3-point parlay was seven years ago, in Challenge year#7, when ibbil hit one in week #8 of that season. Howver, back then, in Challenge year #7, ibbill was a rookie and he attempted to land a 3-point parlay in his first nine weeks of his greenhorn season, and as alraedy pointed out, he only connected on week #8.

It's a major coincidence that in Challenge year #13 the Hall-of-Fame City Kid nearly did the same as did ibbill when it came to selecting 3-point parlay winners, but HOF City Kid went one better in his rookie year, as in he tried to win a 3-point combo on 16 different weekends, including trying to hit the combo for 15 straight outings (from week #5 through week #18). What made for an extraordinary strategy was that the City Kid attempted his first-ever 3-point parlay in week #2 of his rookie debut, missed it, but in the ensuing weekend, week #3, he connected on a 6-point parlay winner. One would think that after hitting that 6-point parlay in week #3 that the Hall-of-Fame City Kid would have just attempted 6-point parlay hits for the remainder of the year. But no, he didn't despite the fact that he never connected on one 3-point parlay combination--not once! In summary, the City Kid must be shaking his head after seeing Kr@tos connect on his first attempt at a 3-point parlay winner.

• THEOPHOLIS STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS! Leave it to Theopholis to screw up his opening picks for this year's competition. To be fair, Theo probably needs to shake off some of the rust after not participating in last year's competition because of several health issues. This past weekend he forgot that Sunday's posting deadline is 12:30 pm and not 1:00 pm, and as consequence he had all selections disqualified. But hell, it wasn't as if he was coming off a lobotomy and couldn't tell time. In any event, I guess after missing the previous season Theo deserves a mulligan. With that being said, this past Sunday didn't mark the first time Scarface (aka Theo) missed posting a complete set of opening picks for a competition. No, he did it before, back in Challenge year #10, or more specifically after he missed that opening Sunday's posting deadline and had all his picks disqualified, to include both of his preseason Super Bowl picks. Ouch!This time around, he had better hope that those missed Super Bowl selections in this year's competition doesn't come back to bite him in the ass. Then again, Theo has taken all sorts of medications over the last four years that it probably won't matter if he gets bitten in the ass or not.


• WEEKLY TICKER ...............As deft as was Kr@tos season opener in this year's competition, he remains the only active participant to have never won an exact-score prediction of any kind..............This past weekend, three handicappers--jcvike28, the Biased Nihilist, and DawgPound--were all snakebitten when it came to hitting their parlay combinations. Each handicapper missed connecting on their respective 6-point parlay winners by just one game: jcvike28 lost his Detroit +3 pick, while the Nihilist and DawgPound were both derailed by Pittsburgh -3. However, by comparison, three other handicappers had some worst misfortunes after all three lost one game in each of their parlay combos just because one game ended in a "push" to the spread. Jets69 lost his parlay combo when he took Denver -8 over Tennessee and Denver won by 8 pts (20-12), while both Driveline and Blitzkrieg were victimized after they both took new Orleans +7 versus Arizona and Arizona won 20-13. 6-point...................