Wednesday was another exciting day of sports betting in the Tuley’s Takes home office as we got past “hump day” in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
We also went 2-1 with our best bets for a profit of around 1.79 units. The biggest payoff was also the easiest as the Blackhawks scored 2 goals in the opening 2:47 of their game against the Oilers for our First-Period Over 1.5 -160 bet and then the Flames scored 2 goals in 12:24 for the second leg of our parlay with the Flames-Golden Knights First-Period Over 1.5 -140.
We then hit our CBB best bet as Xavier + 3.5 held on to cover in a 73-71 loss at Seton Hall. We hate to blame the refs, but it sure felt like every call was going against Xavier down the stretch. The Musketeers didn’t get their minor upset, but we held on for the cover.
NBA favorites went 4-2 SU and ATS on night, which was actually a cold night compared to recent results as we’ve been documenting with our nightly recaps. We tried to join the chalk party with a three-team ML parlay but actually found the only two losers on the card with the Lakers and Timberwolves. We only lost 1 unit, but it also reinforced why we’re usually dog-or-pass bettors.
Anyway, let’s wrap up the rest of Wednesday’s betting action, including our daily update of the Super Bowl side and total, and then look for value on the Thursday betting boards. In addition, I went ahead and made Bengals + 4.5 my official Super Bowl LVI pick the other day in case the line dropped, which it did at a few books on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s recaps
NBA: Faves went 4-2 SU and ATS on Wednesday, actually falling to 31-4 SU and 29-5-1 ATS (85.3 percent) the last 5 days. Wednesday's upsets were by the Blazers (+ 9 vs. Lakers) and Kings (+ 7.5 vs. TImberwolves). The Cavaliers (-5.5 vs. Spurs), Bulls (-1.5 at Hornets), Raptors (-10 at Thunder) and Jazz (-1 vs. Warriors) covered as faves. Unders went 4-2.
CBB: On a night when Top 25 teams went 2-4 SU and ATS, SMU (7-point home dog) upset No. 6 Houston 85-83, Oklahoma (3-point home dog) upset No. 9 Texas Tech 70-55, Rutgers (3-point home dog) upset No. 16 Ohio State 66-64 and Seton Hall (3-point home fave) beat No. 25 Xavier 73-71, but did NOT cover.
NHL: Underdogs went 4-2 on Wednesday with upsets by the Coyotes (+ 186 in 5-2 win at the Kraken), Blackhawks (+ 154 in 4-1 win at the Oilers), Stars (-105 in 4-3 win vs. the Predators) and Red Wings (-105 in 6-3 win at the Flyers). Overs went 4-1-1 with push in Flames' 6-0 win vs. Golden Knights.
Super Bowl odds update (10 p.m. PT Wednesday): Rams continue to be consensus 4.5-point favorites vs. the Bengals at the majority of books in Las Vegas with the South Point, William Hill/Caesars and Treasure Island only books down to Rams -4 as of late Wednesday. The Over/Under is still a solid 48.5 in Vegas.
Thursday’s Takes
Clemson + 7.5 vs. Duke: Clemson has been overachieving at 13-9-1 ATS and are 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 games, including a 71-69 loss at Duke as 11.5-point road underdogs. And now they get the Blue Devils at home coming off a loss to Virginia that snapped a 5-game winning streak.
Parlay with Blue Jackets-Sabres First-Period Over 1.5 -145/Devils-Blues First-Period Over 1.5 -145: Let’s try to hit another one of these with the Blue Jackets the league’s top 1P Over team at 30-14 and the Devils, who are still 17-1 with a goal scored in the first 10 minutes despite falling short the other day. Should be plenty of early goals in both games – maybe not as easy as yesterday, but hopefully at least two goals in each. Depending on what odds you get, this should pay around + 1.85.
Super Bowl: Bengals + 4.5. We recommended grabbing the 4.5 the other day in case the line dropped. Now, it’s still possible that as we get closer to gameday that the money does come in on the favored Rams – especially here in Vegas from our California neighbors driving over for our parties and betting action, but it’s no guarantee. We prefer to lock in our Bengals + 4.5 wager now and concentrate on the overflowing menus of prop bets.
Good luck today (and every day!).