Despite a heavy wind, Aussie Matthew Goggin managed a three-under-par 67 and with that score he has the early lead in Round 1 action at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, which got underway today in Irving, Texas.

“It was pretty brutal out there especially for a new course,” Goggin told reporters. “This is what we got in Australia when I was growing up, a heavy wind with a lot of humidity.”

Tournament: EDS Byron Nelson Championship
Location: TPC Four Seasons Resort
Purse: $6,400,000

Odds to win the EDS Byron Nelson Championship: Matthew Goggin 66/1. Adam Scott is 12/1; Luke Donald is 14/1; and Trevor Immelman is 18/1 odds to win.

The NHL playoffs continue Thursday with two of the four conference semifinals. The first game sees the Philadelphia Flyers cross the border to face the Montreal Canadiens. In the nightcap, the Colorado Avalanche meet the Detroit Red Wings. Montreal and Detroit are the top seeds in the East and West. Odds had yet to be released at press time.

The Canadiens will be the more rested team in their matchup. Philadelphia eliminated Washington Tuesday night in overtime; Montreal’s series with Boston also went the full seven games, but ended a day earlier. The Habs will have captain Saku Koivu available for Game 1; after missing the first five contests against the Bruins with a broken ankle, Koivu contributed three assists in two games.

Detroit will start Chris Osgood in goal against Colorado; Osgood leads all playoff goalies with a .982 save percentage, while Jose Theodore is fourth at .940. The under is a combined 89-70 for these two clubs.

The cell phone giant Nokia announced this week that they are finally going to launch their N-Gage gaming service. This will mark the first mobile phone manufacture to make a large venture into the online mobile gambling sector with expectations of generating over $7 billion in revenue by the end of 2008.

If you want to be one of the first to get your hands on this, you have to get yourself Nokia’s top performing handset, the N95. The service will also be available through the N81, N81 (8Gb), N82 and N95 (8Gb). A little disappointing for all of those who thought this was going to happen also with the iPhone. Apple is still not ready to be your portal to mobile online casinos.

If you don’t have an N95 or one of the variations, don’t worry. Remember back in the 90’s when people said that you would get a brain tumor from your cell phone but now they say it’s all good? Well research now tells us that too much time on your cell phone might not be as great as they now say. If you want more to read up on this issue check it out here.

cell phone gambling

They’re down to the final seven at American Idol 7. As expected, David Archuleta is still in the competition. He’s the prohibitive favorite at 10-11; the only real contender is David Cook at 13-5.

Archuleta has done this kind of thing before, winning Star Search in 2003. Then again, Carly Smithson (10-1) and Kristy Lee Cook (25-1) had professional experience in the music biz before ending up on this showcase of so-called undiscovered talent. David Cook played with the Kansas City indie band Axium from 1999 until their breakup in 2006.

The kicker for the 17-year-old Archuleta is his giggling fan base. The “Arch Angels” are keeping their hero in the competition even after such unforgivable flubs as forgetting the words to “We Can Work It Out” by the Beatles. Richard Rushfield of the Los Angeles Times has his finger on the pulse: “(No) demographic can match the voting power of hysterically excited tween girls.”

Baseball will enjoy another week or so in the spotlight before the crushing weight of the NBA and NHL playoffs siphons off viewers. Meanwhile, the favorites on the World Series futures markets are getting their bats handed to them. The Boston Red Sox (9-2) were swept by the Toronto Blue Jays (25-1). The Detroit Tigers (15-2) started the season with seven straight losses.

Given the way everything is chaotic in the MLB standings these days, it may be difficult to see very far into the future. The Chicago White Sox (35-1) and Kansas City Royals (125-1) were atop the Central Division with five wins and two losses apiece. The New York Mets (6-1) dropped four of their first six games and lost Pedro Martinez for six weeks to a hamstring injury. New York’s fortunes should improve, but what about the White Sox and Royals for the World Series? You never know these days.

Knowing the gambling percentages can help you decide on where the best place to lay down your money for your skill level should be. Casino advantages in the major games stack up this way:

Now that we’re down to the Final Four at the men’s college basketball Tournament, betting on the futures market has to be handled a little differently – almost like handicapping a single game straight up.

Using this approach, the Memphis Tigers are the easy pick at 27-10. The Tigers are favored by two points over UCLA (63-20) in Saturday’s semifinal; since we’re picking straight up to go to the championship game, a 2-point spread is a fair indicator that Memphis has a better chance of advancing. That’s not always the way it happens, of course, but there is a correlation between the pointspread and who wins straight up.

The Tigers would then either face North Carolina (7-4) or Kansas (31-10) in the final. The Heels are 3-point faves in their semifinal, so let’s project them to advance. In a hypothetical Memphis-UNC matchup, Memphis is the easy pick because of the bigger payout in what looks like a toss-up.

I’m still fully convinced the UCLA Bruins are going to win March Madness. But at 3-1 odds? Not convinced enough.

There are better values among the 16 teams still left on the Tournament futures market. Wisconsin is 14-1; the Badgers are third in efficiency, behind the Bruins and ahead of Memphis (13-2). But Wisconsin’s odds (and value) shrunk when Davidson upset Georgetown to earn a Sweet 16 matchup with the Badgers.

Washington State, on the other hand, remains a healthy value pick at 35-1. The Cougars meet UNC (3-1) on Thursday; the Tar Heels are fifth in efficiency, but Washington State is right there in sixth. That suggests a closer contest than the odds do.

If you prefer even longer odds, Davidson (40-1) is certainly capable of beating the Badgers and moving on. With a singular weapon like Stephen Curry, anything is possible for the Wildcats. He’s like  Greek fire on the court.

You can’t go through the supermarket checkout line without bearing witness to the never-ending phenomenon that is Angelina Jolie’s baby bump. Inquiring minds want to know: Is Brangelina preggers? What will the child be named? What about twins?

The  celebrity props list is here to take your bets. Last month, People quoted a “source close to the couple” that claimed another child is on the way. As long as Jolie delivers by the end of the year, we’ve got action.

Unless someone out there has some inside information (literally), it’s all too easy to bet “No” on twins at –300. According to the Rush University Medical Center, 31 twin births occur per 1,000 women in the United States. You likewise might want to steer away from betting on triplets at 200-1; according to Hellin’s Law, you square the odds for each additional child in a multiple birth. That’s roughly one in a thousand for triplets.

You can’t count on many things in a casino. You can count on a long line at the buffet, that’s for sure. The only other thing you’ll always find in Vegas casinos that I can think of are easy chicks.

Now there are varying degrees of easy chicks. You have the professional who will introduce herself to you if you so much as look at her. There is the gold-digger type that looks good and only lurks around the high-stakes areas, looking for a fat cat who might be very generous.

Then there’s the wild and crazy office girl on vacation who wants to have an encounter for the weekend. This type can be anywhere in the casino, and usually has a gaggle of other hens with her, chugging sour apple martinis and dumping quarters into a machine. Whichever you prefer, there’s no shortage of any of them.