LAS VEGAS — KENO!!!
Took a road trip to Vegas back in the day, pre-wife and kids, think it was 1994 or 1995, and stayed at the old Sands Hotel. Yeah, that one. With the circular tower, and Frank Sinatra & the Rat Pack on the billboard. We drove out from New York. It was me and two girls. And YES, we all slept in the same room. And YES, I’m willing to share some details when you come to visit Vegas for my new TV show.
But for now, back to Keno. According to some literature, it was introduced back in the second century BC by Cheung Leung of the Han Dynasty. His wallet was almost empty, he needed money for some war, and knew people were tired of taxes. Cheung came up with a workaround: gambling! Specifically, Keno. It was called the “White Pigeon” because the birds used to fly results to rural locations. Not sure if that’s 100 percent accurate, but certainly kinda cool.
Back then, in 1994-ish, not BC, you would be sitting at the buffet, and these gorgeous ladies would walk by shouting out, KENO! Of course, playing Keno was an afterthought. My first thought was, what time do the Keno girls get off work. Keno is a TOTALLY random game and the odds of hitting all seven numbers are something like 1 in 40,000. Kinda like the odds of me getting a DATE with one of the Keno girls.
So, you’re eating breakfast and looking up at the boards where they post the numbers, and realize winning is not gonna be easy. Did a little digging and found out that the five numbers most often drawn in Video Keno, the “hot numbers,” are 1, 4, 23, 34 and 72. Now, you don’t have to go to a bricks-and-mortar casino, you can just sit back on your couch and play Keno at your favorite online casino. Sadly, NO Keno girls!
ONLY WINNERS!
Gonna tickle Syracuse -1 point over Purdue on Saturday. Orange head coach Dino Babers hasn’t had a solid season since 2018 when ’Cuse posted a 10-3 record. The last three years have been lousy to ugly. It was 5-7 in 2019, 1-10 in 2020 and 5-7 in 2021.
But Dino is loaded this season, with nine returning players on offense and eight on defense. And the returnee we’re looking at is Garrett Shrader at QB. Shrader looks Tom Brady-ish, hitting on 38 of 48 (79.2%) for 523 yards, with five TDs and ZERO INTs. Of course, the Boilermakers will be a much more difficult test, but the Orange have all the the tools to post a sweet W in this spot.
YOU WANNA FIGHT?
Big boxing match coming tomorrow night in Vegas and while we’re not gonna lay $500 to win back $100 on Canelo Alvarez over Gennady Golovkin, there are a couple of props that look tasty. Totally understand that Triple G has one of the most iconic chins in boxing history, having never been knocked down or stopped in a total of 394 fights, 44 as a professional and 350 as an amateur.
But, GGG has had ONLY one fight since December 2020 while Canelo has been busy, fighting four times since 2020. So, we’re looking for Canelo to knock down Triple G.
You can buy GGG to get knocked down in rounds 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 and you’ll put up a Benjamin to win back $275. The other prop is a knockdown in the even rounds, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. Putting up another $100 to win back $275. So, if only one knockdown occurs, you win 75 bucks. If there are two knockdowns, you cash out for $500 and win $300. Worth a shot, huh!
Benjamin Eckstein is a nationally syndicated sportswriter/oddsmaker. His column, America’s Line, with the Ecks & Bacon appetizer, has run in the New York Daily News and over 100 other papers since 1988. You can follow him online at www.americasline.com. He is beloved by most, when he picks winners, and detested by others, when he picks the occasional loser. If you wanna piece of Eck, hit his email... ben@americasline.com.
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