Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The 13 handicappers remaining from this year's Challenge field are now at the ready and all set to handicap the final weekend of the regular season, also known as DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, of which its regular-season climax will mark the end of the second critical stage of this year's Bookie Challenge competition. At the conclusion of this upcoming do-or-die weekend, all of the league's participants will stand to learn their respective playoff qualifications for this year's postseason, meaning each handicapper will find out whether he will qualify for the playoffs as a divisional champion, a divisional wild card, the Special Wild card, or as a lowly at-large participant. Above all, however, only one lucky and fortunate handicapper from this year's Challenge field will learn if he'll enter this year's postseason with the "crown jewel" of the competition's playoff qualifications, which is the prime postseason qualification as this year's regular-season champion. That exclusive postseason qualification is extremely valuable because it will allow the winner of the qualification to have scoring adavantages over the rest of the Challenge field in the opening round of the postseason, not to mention that the regular-season champion will also automatically win any tiebreakers should he be involved in any deadlocks in total points throughout the entire postseason. To that regard, and much to the shocking surprises of the league's veteran participants, and with just one week left to handicap in this year's regular season, the present and clear-cut front-runner to capture this year's all-important regular-season championship is Vikings17--as in the rookie Vikings17. Incredibly, as one of two greenhorn entrants in this year's competition, Vikings17 has taken the competition by storm after a mediocre start to his rookie campaign and will enter this year's DOOMSDAY SUNDAY weekend with a 4-point edge over 7mick7 (50 pts vs 46 pts) and an 8-point lead over the Biased Nihilist (50 pts vs 42 pts) as the front-runner to corral this year's regular-season title. Realistically, however, between 7mick7 and the Nihilist, it is the Irish Hustler who has the best chance in the upcoming weekend to turn the tables on Vikings17 and snag the regular-season championhsip away from this year's rookie phenom, but for 7mick7 to even pull off the stunning 11th-hour miracle it is going to necessitate for him to bang out one more 6-point parlay hit on the season and then pray that Vikings17 doesn't connect on a parlay winner of his own. In the case of the Nihilist, it's going to take a handicapping miracle to overtake Vikings17 for the regular-season title. The Nihilist already faces an 8-point deficit to Vikings17 heading into DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, and because Vikings17 stands to win the tiebreaker over the Nihilist should Vikings17 goose egg his outing and they wind up tied in total points, the only way the Nihilist can outscore Vikings17 for the regular-season championship is by also scoring an exact-score hit on top of a PERFECTA outing.

Regardless, even if Vikings17 falls short of producing Bookie Challenge history this upcoming DOOMSDAY SUNDAY by failing to become the first-ever rookie to win an overall regular-season championship, he is still almost guaranteed to at least win this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional title over second-place DawgPound, and it's because he presently holds a nearly insuperable 11-point lead over the Dawg-Day-Afternoon Handicapper as both participants prepare to handicap this year's regular-season finale. Essentially, for DawgPound to usurp Vikings17 for the Run-&-Shoot divisional crown, he'll need for the rookie to goose egg his outing and then he'll have to produce a SUPER PERFECTA weekend, meaning the Dawg will have to land a PERFECTA outing and also a 5-point exact-score hit. The likely scenario is that second-place DawgPound, who presently has a 6-point lead over third-place moemonie, will have to settle for the division's wild card, but even that outcome, no matter how likely probable to happen, is not etched in stone. Just like the odds are high for Vikings17 to prevail and capture a divisional title this upcoming DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, so too are the odds in good favor for both 7mick7 and the Biased Nihilist to each perservere and win respective divisional titles without much resistance. As of right now, in the Red Zone divisional race, 7mick7 holds an 8-point divisional lead--46 pts vs 38 pts--over second-place Hall-of-Fame City Kid, and in turn, the City Kid owns a 6-point edge over last-place dbucc. Therefore, barring any "SUPER PERFECTA" outings by either the City Kid or dbucc, the likeliest scenario to play out in the Red Zone division after the conclusion of DOOMSDAY SUNDAY is that 7mick7 snares the divisional title, the Hall-of-Fame City Kid hangs on to qualify for the postseason as the division's wild card, and dbucc will be left to battle it out for the league's Special Wild Card or enter the postseason as a lowly at-large participant. Incidentally, for those who don't remember the details that pertain to squeezing out the postseason qualification of the competition's Special Wild Card, they will be covered in quick time--or just as soon as the two remaining divisional races are scrutinized, meaning the Corozal and Hail Mary divisional races.

As already mentioned, the Biased Nihilist, who presently sports a 7-point Corozal divisional lead over second-place Theopholis and a 9-point edge over third-place Blitzkrieg, shouldn't have any troubles warding off both divisional counterparts. The Nihilist, however, hasn't been able to fully focus on his handicapping as of late due to some serious health issues that have distracted him on many levels, but he's too good of a handicapper to squander his opportunity to become the first handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to win an unprecedented sixth overall divisional title. Besides, a sadly slumping Theopholis doesn't appear to have much gas left in his tank to seriously pose a threat to thwart the Nihilist's bid to win the Corozal divisional championship. In fact, heading into DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, Theopholis had better hope his 2-point lead over third-place Blitzkrieg (35 pts vs 33 pts) is going to hold up so he can at least eke out the division's wild card. But if he goose eggs his outing and Blitzkrieg wins both of his best bets, Blitzkrieg will easily win the tiebreaker over Theo because of more best bets wins on the season (present totals have Blitzkrieg with 24 best-bet wins vs Theo's 17 best-best tally). The good news for both handicappers is that if neither one connects on a clutch 6-point parlay hit this upcoming DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, in all probability the loser of the Corozal divisional wild card might still be able to qualify for the postseason as the competition's Special Wild Card. But as it stands right now, that is, heading into the regular season's final weekend, Blitzkrieg is currently tied at 33 points with moemonie for the Special Wild Card, and what's more, both Blitzkrieg and moemonie each lead dbucc by just one point for the special playoff qualification. The Special-Wild-Card qualification allows an at-large participant who fails to win a divisional title or a divisional wild card to qualify for the playoffs with the status of a divisional wild card. To win the Special Wild Card a handicapper must have the highest point total among all the at-large participants who failed to qualify as a divisional champion or a divisional wild card.

The last divisional race, that of the Hail Mary division, is going to have this upcoming weekend's most highly contentious finish of all the divisional races, and it promises to be a doozy. In fact, it's the only divisional skirmish on the docket that can be won by any three of its divisional participants. Heading into the final weekend, jcvike28 owns just a 1-point lead over second-place Driveline (37 pts vs 36 pts) for the divisional lead. However, catman23, with 30 points accrued on the season, can conceivably shock both front-runners if he nails a PERFECTA outing and both jcvike and Driveline go scoreless for their respective weekends. Tiebreaker-wise, jcvike presently has the edge in best-wins with 18 overall, and as such, he would easily prevail over Driveline (14 best-bet wins) should the two participants end the regular season deadlocked in total points. But, if by some miracle, catman ends up in a tie in total points with jcvike, there's a good possibility that both handicappers could finish with identical amounts of best-bet wins, of which might necessitate the next tiebreaker, most parlay wins within one's combined parlay combinations, to determine the eventual divisional champion. The thing is, at the present time, both jcvike and catman are tied with 27 parlay wins apiece within their respective parlay combos for the season. If all the aforementioned comes to pass between jcvike and catman, and should any further tiebreakers need to be utilized to break another stalemate, jcvike should come out on top because of his one PERFECTA advantage over the Tomcat from Handicapping Alley. Then again, that advantage will only be contingent on whether catman ties jcvike through a 7-point outing or an 8-point outing (PERFECTA). Either way, come what may as it concerns the highly anticipated suspenseful finish to the Hail Mary divisional race, one thing is for sure, the nail-biting excitement is definitely going to be off the charts.

It's hard to believe that the regular season of the 13th annual Bookie Challenge has finally arrived, but it's here nonetheless and every participant will need to be fully focused because it's not an easy weekend to navigate, especially when many handicappers will need to negotiate the league's Pusillanimous Rule, a one-time and once-a-year rule that was designed to keep front-runners who presently hold advantageous playoff qualifications from duplicating the selections of their nearest pursuers so as to cowardly back into a prime playoff qualification. Above all, DOOMSDAY SUNDAY is the weekend when the rubber meets the road, or in a word, it's SHOWTIME! It's the time for every handicapper to leave his best handicapping game out there, anything less is not going to cut it. And in something that should be needless to say but must be said, is that nobody in the Challenge field should dismiss the possibility of the bizarre taking place on DOOMSDAY SUNDAY. This season has already had its fair share of the bizarre, as is quite evident that a rookie, one who hails by the moniker of the Purple People Eater, can finish the regular season with the all-important regular-season championship in tow, and in the process, can also pocket the third-place price of the Latinum jackpot. To say the least, this year's competition might go down as the most eerie and oddball season ever, and not only for its handicapping twists and turns that have transpired throughout the regular season but also for the inordinate number of human-interest stories that have seen a handful of participants endure some trying times outside of the competition. To better illustrate those "trying times", the list of personal hardships started in the off-season before this year's competition even got underway: Moemonie lost his beloved wife to congestive heart failure; dbucc had to be hospitalized after spitting up blood; Blitzkrieg almost lost his daughter-in-law to a heart attack; 7mick7 had to have a tumor removed once again from his liver, and just recently the Biased Nihilist learned he too has to deal with congestive heart failure. In fact, this kooky season has seen the competition veer off its normal path that for the first time in the history of the competition a weekly review had to be canceled. Yet, despite the abnormal season, the Bookie Challenge will still forge ahead and see its postseason all the way through to its final conclusion, and the way this season has gone so far--there's no telling how this season is going to end.

• THE CHALLENGE FIELD GOES BELLY UP ONE WEEK AHEAD OF DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, BUT STILL MAINTAINS WINNING BEST-BET RECORD FOR THE REGULAR SEASON: For only the fourth time this season, the Challenge field failed to register a 6-point parlay hit, and as a consequence, the field produced its second-worst point total for a weekend on the season, just tallying a meager 11 overall points (the worst point total of 10 pts occurred in wk #7). In addition, the field also matched its season high of five goose eggs for the third time this season, of which the other two times the field laid five goose eggs came back in weeks' #2 and #7. The only good news for the field over the past weekend was that it concluded its outing with a YTD best-bet tally of 232-228-14, which factored out to a winning percentage still above the .500 plateau after it closed its weekend with a .504 winning percentage of its best bets on the season.

For the second time this season, no handicapper in the league is being coined as the WHO'S-HOT-HANDICAPPER for the week because nobody from the Challenge field produced an outing worthy of the designation.

For the most part, this season was turning out to be Theo's best season ever, and along the way it had all the trappings of possibly ending with him knocking down his first-ever Bookie Challenge championship. But unfortunately for Theo, the Biased Nihilist produced another epic comeback, this time around rebounding from being the last-seeded handicapper at this year's divisional seeding and then taking a 7-point Corozal divisional lead with just one week left to handicap in this year's regular season. As a consequence of the Nihilist's incredible handicapping resurgence, Theo will now head into DOOMSDAY SUNDAY with the real possibility to become the second number-one overall top seed from a divisional seeding to not win a divisional title. But let's not hammer the last nails just yet along the edges of Theo's coffin, for he has not officially been eliminated from winning the Corozal divisional championship. All it would take is either a miraculous 7-point weekend or a PERFECTA outing by Theo in tandem with an inopportune goose egg by the Nihilist on DOOMSDAY SUNDAY and Theo can redeem himself in one fell swoop. But it's a tall task to ask of a handicapper who has been suffering over the span of the last-two weeks through his worst handicapping stretch of his season. To be more exact, over the course of the last-three weekends, Theo has only mustered a league-low of one total point. And what makes for a real head-scratcher is that Theopholis laid his second-straight goose egg outing this past weekend, which is a shame when considering that Scarface (aka Theo) was the only participant to have not registered a scoreless outing in this year's competition until he laid his first goose egg two weeks ago, and then inexplicably plopped down another goose egg this past weekend. So yes, Theopholis has one last shot at redemption, one last shot to salvage his once promising season--but can he really summon up the intestinal fortitude to kick start his life-support machine and prevent his season from completely flatlining on DOOMSDAY SUNDAY? Of course, we'll soon find out if Theo has what it will take to pull off the handicapping miracle of all handicapping miracles. If it doesn't pan out for him this DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, Theo can at least comfort himself with one small consolation from this season, of which is that he still owns one of the hardest all-time records to break, and it's an all-time, single-season record that has stood the test of time ever since he achieved the feat back in Challenge year #5, or nine years ago in his sophomore season of his Challenge career. His all-time record for registering three-consecutive 6-point parlay hits will probably be tied one day, but it will probably never be broken. In fact, this season alone, six handicappers had produced back-to-back 6-point parlay hits but none of them were able to knock down that 3rd consecutive 6-point parlay winner: catman23, Vikings17, moemonie, the Nihilist, Driveline, and 7mick7.