Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The 14th annual Bookie Challenge competition saw its 10-outings of its divisional races kick off with a bang, a very big bang. The main attraction was represented this past weekend by a handicapper who once again went bonkers, as if his performance was on cue. To say the least, it was a record-setting performance. Specifically, the league's hottest handicapper entering this past weekend of handicapping action in the Bookie Challenge competition, a la Blitzkrieg, continued his fascinating season after he knocked down his league-leading fourth 6-point parlay hit of the season and also added a best-bet winner to his scoring tally on this past Sunday. Previous to last Sunday's winners, Blitzkrieg had already won a one-point exact-score prediction on the Thursday night game that kicked off the start of this past weekend. The exact-score winner was one of those rare pick ups for Blitzkrieg in which he predicted Houston to defeat the NY Jets 23-21. Subsequently, however, and by a fortunate twist of fate, the Jets instead won the game by a score of 21-13, of which the 21 points scored by the Jets was correctly predicted by Blitzkrieg even though he had the Texans winning the game. The Snowman then went on to complement his one-point exact-score hit on this past Sunday by nailing down the aforementioned one best-bet winner and the 6-point parlay hit to register eight total points for last weekend. Normally, and just to show how strange the weekend turned out to be, the eight-point outing by Blitzkrieg is an outing usually garnered by producing a PERFECTA outing (two best-bet winners and a 6-pt parlay hit for a total of eight points). Nevertheless, the wacky eight-point gain by Blitzkrieg was good enough for him to earn and be credited with a "week-won", which a "week-won" is handy to have in case he should ever need a top tiebreaker during the remainder of this year's regular season. The "week-won" tiebreaker is the competition's third tiebreaker behind most best-bet wins (#1 tiebreaker) and most parlay wins within one's combined parlay combinations on the season (#2 tiebreaker). All in all, Blitzkrieg's odd-scoring weekend was just the tip of the iceberg, because overall the weekend was jam-packed with a bunch of handicapping hijinks that spawned some freakish scoring outputs.

Almost equally as stunning as was Blitzkrieg's outing this past weekend, were the outings by two rookies--Jets69 and Kr@tos--both of whom are two handicapping newcomers in this year's competition who finally forced the Challenge competition to shine its weekly spotlight on the breakout weekend so far produced by this year's greenhorns. Both Jets69 and Kr@tos tallied respective 7-point outings, with Kr@tos scoring his 7-point outing in typical fashion (one best-bet winner and a 6-point parlay hit). In slight contrast, "Joe Willie" (aka Jets69) scored his seven points on the weekend by being one of the three handicappers who scored a one-point exact-score hit on the past Thursday night that kicked off week #9 (Jets69 predicted the NY Jets to beat the Texans 21-20 and by happenstance the "Green Slime" won the game by a 21-13 final), and then on the ensuing Sunday he unleashed his second 6-point parlay winner of the season to round out his 7-point weekend. When looking at the overall handicapping of this year's five rookies, it's plain to see that Jets69, with two 6-point parlay hits won on the year, can easily be pegged as this year's Rookie of the Year, especially after seeing him this past weekend leap-frog over 7mick7 in the Run-&-Shoot divisional standings. As a result, "Broadway Al" erased a two-point deficit and turned it into a a three-point divisional lead over the competition's defending champion. At this time, Jets69 not only has a 3-point lead over 7mick7 (23 pts vs 20 pts) but he also built an 8-point lead over third-place jcvike28 (23 pts vs 15 pts). Also in the Run-&-Shoot division is another rookie--Realtalkrob--who unfortunately has had nothing to say about his rookie season because it's been a tough greenhorn season. At the present, Realtalkrob is in dead-last place in the division after having compiled just seven points on the season.

Nearly as impressive as Jets69's quick rise to the top of the Run-&-Shoot division is Kr@tos' rise in the fourth-seeded Red Zone division, of which his 7-point outing from this past weekend led to him "making his bones" in the Bookie Challenge, but more importantly, he put himself into serious contention for the Red Zone divisional title. Granted, after this past weekend, TCU (aka Too Tall Tommy) shocked the division by eking out two exact-score hits, one on Thursday night after he predicted Houston's score of 13 points versus the Jets (NY won 23-13) and the other after he pegged the Monday night one-point exact-score hit by having picked Tampa Bay to beat Kansas City 31-30, of which KC won the game 30-24. In all, Too Tall Tommy just scored three overall points over the past weekend, but the three points he tallied were huge, for the point tally took him up to the divisional lead of the Red Zone divisional race. TCU now enjoys a one point lead over both the second-place Hall-of-City Kid and third-place DawgPound, who had entered the past weekend with a slim divisional lead of one point over HOF City Kid and two points over third-place TCU. Kr@tos, in the meantime, had been struggling all season long, but this past weekend his rookie season took a turn for the better. Explicitly, he had entered the weekend in last place of the Red Zone division after having accumulated just seven points on the season. But after connecting on his 7-point outing this past weekend, and even though he managed to finish his outing still in last place in the division--his newly accrued total of 14 points on the season was a major improvement over the seven total points he had tallied on the season before this past weekend had started. As a result, Kr@tos, or the "Greek Mythological Handicapping Beast of the East" (his new Challenge moniker), finished up his weekend trailing divisional leader TCU by just four points, and also trailing both second-place HOF City Kid and third-place DawgPound by just three points. In other words, the Handicapping Beast of the East is now a contender for the first time in his Bookie Challenge career, which is something his father, Vikings17, can be proud of. Speaking of Vikings17, he had a pretty wild-and-crazy weekend of his own.

For starters, before we start showering Vikings17 with all sorts of superlatives, let's keep in mind that the "Purple People Eater" did not have the razzle-dazzle outings that Blitzkrieg, Jets69, TCU, and Kr@tos banged out. More to the point, Vikings17 didn't surpass Blitzkrieg for the Hail Mary divisional lead like Jets69 usurped 7mick7's divisional lead over in the Run-&-Shoot division, nor did Vikings17 score a mere pittance of points but still took the divisional lead over Blitzkrieg in the Hail Mary division as did Too Tall Tommy did after his three-point outing this past weekend catapulted him to the top of the Red Zone divisional race, nor did Vikings17's outing slice Blitzkrieg's divisional lead to just four points as did Kr@tos outing in the Red Zone divisional race in which he pared down TCU's divisional lead to just four points. On the contrary, Vikings17, despite scraping out six points over the past weekend, still terminated his outing in second place in the Hail Mary division and now trails divisional leader Blitzkrieg by a startling margin of 12 points, of which the 12-point deficit is presently the league's largest divisional deficit that is being held by a second-place participant in any of this year's divisional races. No, what Vikings17 pulled off this past weekend was a 6-point miraculous outing that he suspensefully attained after winning five points for predicting this past Monday night's exact-score to the tee in the game between the Buccaneers and the Chiefs. As Vikings17 accurately predicted, the Chiefs defeated the Bucs by a 30-24 final. Unbelievably, the 5-point exact-score pick was the second one that the Purple People Eater landed this season. The first exact-score selection in this year's competition by Vikings17 occurred in the season's opening outing of the Thursday night game between--who else?--but the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. Back then, Vikings17 harbinger had the Chiefs defeating the Ravens' by a 27-20 final. However, back in week #1 of this season, Vikings17 hit both of his best bets and ended his outing with seven total points and he also won the week outright to pocket an important tiebreaker ("week-won"). This past weekend, however, Vikings17 only accrued six points after winning the Jets as a best-bet on the Thursday night game that kicked started this year's NFL season. Regardless of the scoring differentials between the two exact-score outings, Vikings17 tied the all-time record that dbucc had set back in Challenge year #8, when dbucc knocked two 5-point exact-score winners that season, one in week #2 and the other in week #10.

In retrospect, Vikings17's 6-point outing over this past weekend didn't get his name on the marquee lights as did Blitzkrieg, Jets69, TCU, and Kr@tos but the outing was a significant one nevertheless. To begin with, Vikings17 is in the same division as Blitzkrieg, of which the irony of it has both handicappers sharing an enviable handicapping trait--they're always in the thick of things. They're both meddlesome handicappers always seemingly are at the top level of competitiveness, always hanging around and ready to pounce. Now granted, the Snowman and his Falcon have had far more years handicapping the Bookie Challenge, of which is many more than just the year and half that Vikings17 has been competing in the Bookie Challenge, but no matter as both handicappers have been proving and are proving that they should be taken seriously. For example, Vikings17 has not been hitting parlays this season as he did in his rookie debut of last season. And yes, he got a bad break at this year's divisional seeding and got seeded with Blitzkrieg in the Hail Mary division and had to immediately face a 10-point deficit to Blitzkrieg for the divisional lead, of which was the league's largest deficit by a second-place divisional counterpart at the start of this year's divisional races. But Vikings17 doesn't know the meaning of the word "quit", so imagine if he threw up his arms in resignation after only hitting a few best bets on the season and doing the heavy lifting by compiling the most exact-score points on the season (12 pts in all)? And to think, he produced six points this past weekend and his deficit to Blitzkrieg only got larger after Blitzkrieg won the week outright with eight total points and now leads the Hail Mary division by 12 points over Vikings17 by a tally of 33 points versus 21 points! Imagine if Vikings17 got dispirited and didn't put his heart into picking winners? But he continues to fight, week in and week out, and if not for the 12 points he has won in exact-score predictions (5pt hits twice, and a 2-point hit in week #6) he'd be in some serious trouble in this year's competition. Take away those 12 points he won off three exact-score hits and he would presently be a devastating 24 points behind Blitzkrieg and tied with nine points apiece with moemonie for second place in the division. Heck, and to his credit, now the rest of the Challenge field is finding out that Vikings17's son is cut from the same cloth, meaning he is a tough competitor--a fighter! The only problem Kr@tos is facing in the Red Zone division is that, although his divisional race is separated from top to bottom by just four points, he's in a tough division because the three handicappers above him are three handicappers hungry to win a Bookie Challenge championship for the first time each.

Something that has to be kept in mind when looking at the battle for the Red Zone divisional title, is that its current divisional leader, Too Tall Tommy, has nearly the same intestinal fortitude as does Vikings17. But, in the case of Too Tall Tommy, he's in the process of reinventing himself in the Bookie Challenge after coming off two of his most disastrous seasons over the span of the last-two seasons, Challenge years' #13 and #12, of which in Challenge year #12 he had his first losing best-bet season (regular season and playoffs combined) and failed to connect on a single 6-point parlay hit for the first time in his six years of handicapping the BC competition. Then, in last year's competition, in Challenge year #13, Too Tall Tommy came off his worst season ever in the previous season (Challenge yr #12) and couldn't find his handicapping mojo for a second-straight season after getting off to a good start in last year's handicapping campaign. Last season, he had a break even best-bet record (18-18-1) but only registered one 6-point parlay hit for the season, and as a consequence, he finished in 4th place (last place) in last year's Run-&-Shoot division and qualified for the postseason with the worst playoff qualification a handicapper can enter a Challenge postseason with--that of a lowly "at-large" participant. In Challenge year #12, he came in last place of the Corozal division and also qualified for the postseason as an "at-large" participant. In fact, things got so bad in last year's competition that TCU bailed out from posting any selections in last year's playoffs. But despite the major slump that TCU has been in over the last two seasons, he's still a fighter, a handicapping survivor so to speak. He wants to get back to his winning ways so badly that he rarely misses an opportunity to post weekly selections, even the exact-score selections. Believe it or not, if not for TCU's one-point exact-score hits, he wouldn't be in first place right now in the Red Zone division (TCU 18 pts, HOF City Kid 17 pts, DawgPound 17 pts, Kr@tos 14 pts). Only two handicappers have tallied four one-point exact-score winners this season, only TCU and rookie Jets69. And although Jets69 owns a 3-point divisional lead over 7mick7 in the Run-&-Shoot division and TCU only owns a one-point divisional edge over both HOF City Kid and DawgPound in the Red Zone division, the way Too Tall Tommy has grabbed his divisional lead is quite the story.

Last weekend, TCU only won one of his best bets, but he won two one-point exact-score predictions, the Thursday night game in which he picked Houston to score just 13 points against the NY Jets and then for the Chiefs to score 30 points against the Buccaneers on this past Monday night. Amazingly, in the previous weekend, week #8, TCU ended that weekend with a one-point exact-score winner on the previous Monday night game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants (he correctly picked the Steeler's final score of 26-18 over the Giants). So, to put it in its proper perspective, Too Tall Tommy has become the first handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to win three one-point exact-score winners in a row! Ahh, check that. As unbelievable as it sounds, on this past Thursday (November 7th), in the opening Thursday night game of week #10 (this week) between Cincinnati and Baltimore, Too Tall Tommy did it again. He correctly predicted the Ravens to score 35 points (Balt won 35-34) and knocked down a one-point exact-score selection for the fourth straight exact-score game! Obviously, TCU's four consecutive exact-score winners is the all-time record for most consecutive exact-score picks (4 in a row!). Is he back? Has TCU finally found his handicapping mojo again? Well, put it this way, there are a lot of handicappers who right now don't want to be in the Red Zone division, or who right now want to handicap against TCU, just like nobody right now wants to handicap in the Hail Mary division and go up against Blitzkrieg, the league's hottest handicapper..

• FALCONS, RAMS, AND VIKINGS ARE THE COMMON THREAD OF TEAMS THAT SENT BLITZKRIEG, JETS69, AND KR@TOS TO 6-POINT PARLAY HITS: Winning 6-point parlay combinations is never an easy thing to accomplish, for a handicapper needs some intuitively gut feelings along with a whole lot of luck to have three teams all cover the spread within a parlay combo. Over the previous weekend three handicappers in the Bookie Challenge competition hit paydirt on their respective 6-point parlay combinations and improve each of their chances to possibly win divisional titles in this year's divisional races. The three fortunate handicappers were veteran Blitzkrieg and rookies Jets69 and Kr@tos, each of whom capitalized on three common games among them to pull off their respective parlay winners. Breaking it down as to which common teams the trio selected to win their parlay combinations came down to the Atlanta Falcons, of which were taken by Blitzkrieg and Jets69 within their parlay combos, while the LA Rams was a winning parlay pick that was chosen by Blitzkrieg and Kr@tos. Lastly, the Vikings were chosen by both rookies Jets69 and Kr@tos. In any event, after having parlay victories in the first slate of Sunday afternoon games by the Falcons and the Chargers, and heading into the second slate of games on Sunday afternoon, all Blitzkrieg needed to nail down his fourth 6-point parlay of the season was for the Rams to Cover in Seattle versus the Seahawks. To say the least, the game didn't start on a lovey-dovey note for Blitzkrieg, as the Rams trailed the Seahawks by a 13-3 deficit at the half. Afterward, that is, in the second half, it looked as if it was going to be curtains for the Rams after the Seahawks drove to the Rams' 6-yard-line and looked to take a possible 20-13 lead. The Seahawks were poised to score with 10:59 left to play in regulation, but a Rams' defender, Kamren Kinchins, picked off Geno Smith's pass attempt from the Rams' 6-yard-line into the end zone and rambled 103 yards to give the Rams a 20-13 lead instead of the Seahawks going ahead 20-13. But the Seahawks made a dramatic comeback and tied the Rams at 20 apiece with just 51 seconds left to play in the 4th quarter. However, at the start of overtime, after the Seahawks drove to the Rams' 16-yard-line on their first possession in OT, they faced a 4th-down-and-1 and decided to go for it. Much to the euphoric delight of Blitzkrieg, the Rams stopped the Seahawks and then drove down the field and scored a game-winning TD, a pass of 39 yards from Matthew Stafford to Demarcus Robinson, to give the Rams a suspenseful victory and pointspread cover.

  After Blitzkrieg won his 6-point parlay hit in the late games of last Sunday afternoon, both rookies Jets69 and Kr@tos headed into Sunday night's game between the Colts and Vikings with both greenhorn handicappers needing just the Vikings to cover against the Colts so that both rookies could connect on crucial 6-point parlay winners. After the Falcons and Commanders both covered their respective spreads before Sunday night's game, "Broadway Al" was champing at the bit to connect on his second 6-point parlay hit of the year. If it came to pass, Jets69 would climb over 7mick7, this year's defending Bookie Challenge champion, and take the divisional lead by three points over the Mick in the Run-&-Shoot division, a tough division which also has jcvike28 within its divisional ranks. Both 7mick7 and jcvike28 are former Bookie Challenge champions who had the misfortune to be seeded in this year's Run-&-Shoot division and now have to have a rubber-match battle to win a second overall Bookie Challenge championship against each other. But Jets69 had different plans instead of seeing both 7mick7 and jcvike duel it out for this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional crown. By the same token, rookie Kr@tos was looking to win his first-ever 6-point parlay combination and get into serious contention to win the Red Zone divisional race over TCU, HOF City Kid, and DawgPound. But like his real-life friend, Joe Willie (aka Jets69), the Greek Mythological Handicapping Beast of the East also needed the Vikings to come through--and in a worse way. What turned out to be a monumental coincidence, just like Blitzkrieg had to endure an intoxicating comeback by the Rams in OT vs the Seahawks in order to win his parlay combo, so did both Jets69 and Kr@tos need the Vikings to comeback and defeat a game Colts team that held a 7-0 halftime lead over the Vikings. But both rookie handicappers must have each been breathing a big sigh of relief after seeing the Vikings take their-first two possessions in the second half and put up two touchdowns on the board to take a 14-7 lead near the end of the 3rd quarter. Even better for the two rookies, the Vikings would eventually cover their 6-point spread as a favorite over the Colts after going on a 60-yard drive and taking a 21-10 lead with a little over two minutes to play in the game. The Colts would add another field goal to make the final a 21-13 victory by the Vikings, of which they covered the spread by a measly point.



• WEEKLY TICKER .................WILL THEY STAY OR WILL THEY GO? It had to be a given that out of the five rookies who entered this year's competition, it had to be anticipated that not all of the five rookies were going to go head over heels and come to immediately love the Bookie Challenge. As hard as it is to admit, not every greenhorn who tests his respective handicapping wares in the storied Bookie Challenge is going to wholeheartedly embrace and religiously participate in the most intriguing handicapping contest ever created. Simply put, not every newcomer is going to quickly and fully ingratiate themselves with the rest of the handicappers from the Challenge field or with its two administrators. Maybe it's just a problem of not being initially successful in the competition that a rookie would call it quits not even halfway through his inaugural season. Maybe a rookie can't be bothered to grasp pages and pages of the competition's official rules, or just maybe a newbie can't take to the competition hook, line, and sinker. Whatever the reasons, the Bookie Challenge frowns upon anyone who doesn't give the competition and himself a chance to fit in with the special clique of handicappers. At any rate, what we have learned so far from this year's crop of five rookies is that Jets69, Kr@tos (Vikings17's son), and Realtalkrob (recruited by DawgPound) appear to be keepers, maybe regular participants of future Bookie Challenge competitions. Unfortunately, rookie Nelbarada seems to have already thrown in the towel, especially after seeing how he has missed handicapping four weekends this season out of 10 weekends that the Challenge field has handicapped, to include not posting his weekly selections for the last-three weekends in a row. What's perplexing is that the Nihilist, the main administrator of the competition, can't understand why anybody would just piss away $50 if he wasn't intending to at least go the distance and see how a full season of a Bookie Challenge competition plays out. Another handicapper who's on the fence is CAP_ATTACK, a rookie who hasn't posted his weekly selections on two separate outings over the span of the last-four weeks, including this past weekend. But in his case, the Nihilist noticed that CAP_ATTACK logged in to the competition's message board on this past Thursday, just hours before the kickoff of Thursday night's exact-score game between the Bengals and Ravens. The Biased Nihilist is hoping that Nelbarada has a change of heart and comes back to finish out his rookie season, and also the Nihilist is keeping his fingers crossed that CAP_ATTACK hasn't officially called it quits yet. Regardless of what happens, the two rookies should realize that the Bookie Challenge is a forgiving competition, for the adage goes like this: "Anything and everything is liable to happen in a few weeks of a Bookie Challenge competition.".........................The Joker (aka dbucc) for unknown reasons just can't seem to find his parlay-hitting game. Last year, dbucc only landed one 6-point parlay for the entire season, of which the lack of parlay winners didn't bode well for him in last year's competition, for he finished in last place of the Red Zone divisional race and was even defeated for the division's wild card by then rookie Hall-of-Fame City Kid. This season so far, dbucc still seems to be mired in a statistical anomaly, of sorts, in which he has been consistently mediocre. Case in point, of the nine weeks that he has handicapped this season, dbucc has posted a weekly 1-1-0 best-bet record and has scored just one point on eight out of the nine weeks he has already handicapped (this upcoming weekend is week #10). Strangely, on the one weekend that dbucc did not register a 1-1-0 best-bet outing, which was back in week #3, he was facing a goose-egg outing, but the Joker happened to end the weekend with "one point" again after having connected on a one-point exact-score hit...........................The Red Zone division, which consists of TCU, HOF City Kid, DawgPound, and Kr@tos is the only division in the Bookie Challenge in which each handicapper within its ranks has scored one 6-point parlay winner each............................Veteran handicapper jcvike28 (the Biased Nihilist's son) finished up week #9 with the league's top best-bet record after going 2-0-0 with his best bets last week and ending his outing with a combined best-bet tally of 14-4-0, which is a record that factors out to a highly impressive .778 winning percentage. Not for nothing, but jcvike28 this season is attempting to corral his first-ever Swami award of his Challengand ended his weekend e career (award honors participant who has the year's top best-bet tally for the regular season and postseason combined).........................One week into this year's divisional races and already there have been two divisional lead changes. Veteran TCU surpassed both DawgPound and the HOF City Kid to take the divisional lead of the Red Zone division, while rookie Jets69 stunned 7mick7 and took over the lead of the Run-&-Shoot division. The takeaway from both the divisional lead changes is that this season's divisional races might turn out like last year's divisional races in which each of the four divisional leaders who came out of last year's divisional seeding went on to lose their respective divisional leads at the end of last year's regular season. Last year was the first time in the history of the Bookie Challenge's 13 competitions that every divisional leader lost his divisional lead in the same regular season. The four divisional lead changes that took place last year was made possible after the Biased Nihilist came back from last place at the start of last year's Corozal divisional race and uprooted Theopholis, who was the overall number-one seed from that year's divisional seeding. That the Nihilist beat the number-one overall top seed to capture the Corozal divisional title last was not a normal occurrence, because number-one top seeds from divisional seedings failed to win their respective divisional championships only twice in the history of the Bookie Challenge's 13 seasons (Challenge yr #13, #1 Top seed Theopholis lost divisional title, and in Challenge year #11 DIRTYBIRDS lost his divisional title. Statistically speaking, however, overall number-one seeds from divisional seedings go on to win their respective divisional crowns 85 percent of the time. It's a glaring statistic that projects well for this year's number-one overall top seed--Blitzkrieg.................................After this past weekend, Vikings17 can puff out his chest after he and his son had their first-ever substantial weekend. To put it differently, Vikings17 tallied six overall points for his outing, while his son Kr@tos had his best rookie outing of this season after amassing seven points for his weekend. This season Vikings17 and Kr@tos made some Challenge history after becoming only the second father-and-son tandem to handicap a Bookie Challenge season. The other father-and-son tandem are the Biased Nihilist and jcvike28, both of whom are former Bookie Challenge champions with the Nihiliust being the only three-time champion among active handicappers in the competition. Also, as impresive as was the combined 13-point outing by Vikings17 and Kr@tos, they'll have their work cut out for them if they ever plan on setting any all-time records by a father-and-son tandem. For example, over the span of the 10 years that both the Nihilist and jcvike have handicapped together, they have each hit 6-point parlay winners on the same weekend on three separate occasins in previous regular seasons (Challenge yr #7 and twice in yr #11), and also in one playoff round. But what is otherworldly is that the daddy and son duo have hit PERFECTA outings on the same weekend in three separate seasons (Challenge yrs' #7, #8, and #10).