Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The Bookie Challenge handicapping veterans should already know how important the Thanksgiving day outing is, the rookies probably not so much. Surely, however, the rookies must have read enough to know the Turkey Shoot extravaganza is a dual-outing in which two full sets of weekly selections are required to be posted, one set on Thanksgiving day and one set for the remaining games on the holiday weekend. But what this year's rookies haven't yet learned about the Thanksgiving day outing for the Challenge field is that for a lucky few, Thursday's outing can turn out to be game-changers for the greenhorn's respective seasons. Contrarily speaking, Thanksgiving day can also turn out to be a bust for not only most of the league's handicappers, but it also could be catastrophic for unsuspecting rookies who haven't yet been through a Turkey Shootout on Thanksgiving day. Without question, the respective Bookie Challenge seasons of most of the handicappers within the Challenge field during a Thanksgiving outing can sometimes turn around the fortunes of a handful of participants, for either to the good or to the bad. To say the least, this year's Thanksgiving day outings had the most dramatic effects upon every divisional point standing in the league, to include two devastating lead changes that ranked as the most bizarre divisional lead changes in the history of the Bookie Challenge's Turkey-day spectacles. Leading the individual scoring for this year's Thanksgiving day affair were a wily veteran in jcvike28 (21 pts tallied!) and two newbies who are simultaneously in a handicapping bare-knuckles match for this year's Rookie of the Year award, so to speak, of whom the two newcomers were Kr@tos (9 pts) and Jets69 (9 pts also). Other decent outings included Driveline (6 pts), Vkings17 (also 6 pts), and dbucc (5 pts). But it was jcvike28--El Duque!--who hogged the spot light and in the process broke two major all-time records for scoring on a Thanksgiving day event.

Former Bookie Challenge champions, Driveline and the Biased Nihilist, both weighed in on the scoring outburst by jcvike, with Driveline saying "That's the most points I've seen anyone hit in one day....I think" and the Nihilist saying about the historic outing that "God bless, America! I must have called Jarred [jcvike28] about a 100 times on Thursday and each time I had to say 'you won this prop pick and you won that prop pick!', and then at the end of the last game on Thanksgiving day I told him 'you hit a one-point exact-score prediction too!'". As it concerned Driveline's query, as to whether it was the highest score in a single outing that he had ever seen before--well--he was mistaken. What's funny is that Driveline is the handicapper that holds the most all-time points scored in a single outing/weekend, and today he still does hold the all-time record. He established the otherworldly scoring feat in the last playoff round of the competition held in Challenge year #9, at which time he accrued an ungodly point total of 27 points to win his first-ever Bookie Challenge championship in dramatic fashion. However, jcvike on this past Thanksgiving day shattered the all-time record for scoring on a Thanksgiving day, as his unbelievable performance resulted in a 21-point scoring barrage, the likes of which has never been seen before on a Thanksgiving day in the history of the competition.

Just in last year's competition, the Hall-of-Fame City Kid, who was a rookie at the time, set the previous all-time scoring record for a Thanksgiving outing after he racked up 14 total points for his Turkey-day debut. But "El Duque" obliterated that scoring record after he unleashed his 21-point stunner this past Thursday. Furthermore, and just to put his phenomenal scoring feat into its proper perspective, the Biased Nihilist (jcvike's father) had held the all-time record for scoring for an entire Thanksgiving weekend, of which--ready for this?--he had accrued 21 POINTS for the entire Thanksgiving weekend that was held in Challenge year #7! In other words, jcvike tied the Nihilist's dual-outing record of 21 points he had set in Challenge year #7, but El Duque tied the Nihilist's all-time mark in just ONE DAY--or in this year's Thanksgiving day outing and didn't set the all-time record for an entire Turkey Shoot weekend. Of course, jcvike has another full set of weekly picks to make for the end of this holiday weekend, so in all likelihood he will break the all-time scoring record for an entire Turkey Shoot weekend. Regardless, jcvike did set a new Thanksgiving day scoring record, of which the previous record was 14 points that was set in last year's Thanksgiving day outing by then-rookie HOF City Kid.

Speaking of rookie outings for Thanksgiving days, two rookies this season are in the midst of entertaining the Challenge field with their exclusive knock down drag out brawl for this year's Rookie of the Year award. A third rookie who is still active in this year's competition, Realtalkrob, is not faring too well in his rookie debut of this season. In fact. on almost every weekly set of picks that Realtalrob has made this year, they have been posted by DawgPound on Realtalkrob's behalf. Both rookie handicapper and veteran handicapper are related somehow, but it's unkown by the Nihilist as to how exactly they are related. One thing is perfectly clear, if they keep screwing up any further, for both handicappers were no-shows this past Thanksgiving day, they'll put themselves in such deep holes that they'll never bounce back to be serious contenders in this year's Bookie Challenge competition. It just makes absolutely no sense whatsoever as to why a handicapper, or handicappers in this case, would be so foolish to miss the special holiday outing--especially when there are points galore up for grabs and when also considering how pivotal a Thanksgiving day outing can turn out to be. But as it concerns rookies, as mentioned earlier, the two best rookies in this year's competition--Jets69 and Kr@tos, had outstanding outings in the first leg of this year's Turkey Shoot weekend.

By an extraordinary coincidence, both Jets69 and Kr@tos scored exactly nine points apiece after they handicapped their respective Turkey-day debuts. Now, they didn't break any rookie records or anything like that, but for both greenhorns to have a 9-point outing each on Thanksgiving day has to be considered as having a "pretty damn good" showing. In Kr@tos case, his 9-point outing propelled him to the Red Zone divisional lead over a previously red-hot TCU, who now sees himself trailing Kr@tos by a 3-point margin of 32 points to 29 points. But in the case of "Joe Willie (Jets69) over in the Run-&-Shoot division? There has never been a Thanksgiving-day precedent in which a divisional leader scored nine big-time points on Thanksgiving day but somehow managed to trail his division by five points in the wake of a Turkey-day shootout. But it's true, jcvike28's phenomenal scoring outburst of 21 ridiculous points skyrocketed the former Bookie Challenge champion to a 5-point divisional lead over Jets69 (40 pts to 35 pts) after this year's Thanksgiving-day shootout went into the books.

Granted, there are still six outings left in this year's divisional races, of which a lot can happen in a couple or three weekends in the BC competition, but not like it could happen on a Thanksgiving day outing, especially with the potential to pile on the points because of a bevy of propostional selections hanging in the balance. But jcvike's big day on this past Thursday not only shot him up to a 5-point divisional lead in this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race, but it also boosted him to a one-point lead over Blitzkrieg for this year's regular-season championship, of which everybody in the Bookie Challenge competition should already know that winning the regular-season championship this season also means winning the third-place prize of the Latinum jackpot ($100). Not for nothing, but the the Bookie Challenge competition now has a close race for the regular-season championship, which is fantastic for the competition, especially when seeing that there are already handicapping battles of attrition going on in this year's divisional races, and not to mention the intense "mano-a-mano" skirmish going on for this season's Rookie of the Year honor. Looking ahead, this year's Turkey Shoot extravaganza is not over just yet, as another full set of weekly selections still have to made for the tail end of this year's Turkey Shoot.

• WHAT IS IT WITH THE ROOKIES OF THE COMPETITION AND THEM GUESSING THE LONGEST TOUCHDOWNS ON THANKSGIVING DAYS? Propositional selections can pile up the points in a hurry, but when excluding the preseason selection of the eventual Super Bowl champion, of which the Super-Bowl prop pick, if predicted correctly, can win 10 points for a handicapper, or the largest amount of most propositional points that can be had in a single outing, The second highest a Bookie Challenge handicapper can win off a correctly predicted propositional is that of correctly guessing the propositional pick of for being closest to a game's longest TD, which if a participant comes closest to the yardage of the TD and also correctly picks the team that scores the longest TD, the handicapper stands to win three points, just like any other correctly selected prop pick. However, if a participant predicts the team to score the longest team and also the EXACT yardage of the touchdown, then he'll win an additional 5-point bonus, which when adding the points for the entire pick comes out to eight total points. The propositional selection has only been predicted three times in the history of the Bookie Challenge competition. Two year's ago, in Challenge year #12, DawgPound correctly selected the Philadelphia Eagles to score a 45-yard touchdown in that season's Super Bowl, of which he correctly picked and thus won eight points for that one prop pick. But in the ensuing season, Challenge year #13, rookie Hall-of-Fame City Kid correctly selected San Francisco to score the longest TD, with the TD yardage predicted for a 28-yard touchdown. And lastly, it has already been touched upon how rookie Jets69 won nine points on this past Thanksgiving day. But what has not been mentioned is that he was lucky as hell to just trail the new Run-&-Shoot divisional leader jcvike by just five points (40 pts to 35 pts), because that deficit could have easily turned out to be 10 points if Jets69 didn't predict the Cowboys to score a 23 yard touchdown to get the yardage EXACTLY right so that he won the extra 5-point bonus (prop pick won him 8 total pts, otherwise he would have ended his Turkey-day debut with just four points, which if it had come to pass, it would have left Jets69 in a 10-point deficit to jcvike).


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