An absolutely abysmal sports week. Saturday, the Giants coughed up the division title to the hated Doggers. Sunday, the 49ers laid a big frickin’ egg in a primetime stinker against the hated Lambs. Bright side to all this, I can now completely ignore the MLB playoffs since I don’t give a crap about any of the remaining eight teams. The only way I’ll watch any of the playoffs is if the Red Sox make it to a potentially WS clinching game. That way, if they win (haha, fat chance), I can take full credit for lifting the overhyped curse. After all, this was the first year I attended a game at Fenway, and they could win it all… coincidence? I think not.

In fact, if the Sox win the WS this year, I should get a frickin’ parade through the streets for being the good luck charm that freed the entire nation from listening to the same old crap about “No no Nanette” and Babe Ruth and Buckner and Dent. Not only should Boston give me season tickets, but Chicago should be offering me money to attend a game at Chewing Gum Field to lift the curse of the billy goat, Bartman, and Bull Durham. Yeah, that’s it….

I did a stupid thing yesterday. I told my wife about how much money I won playing online poker. Stupid me, I expected praise. Instead, she went BALLISTIC, ranting and raving about how she knows husbands who are compulsive gamblers (true) and how I’m playing with her mom’s money (false) and how I’m gambling the family nest egg (false) and how online gambling is dangerous (kinda true) and how she can’t trust me with money now (false) and yadda yadda yadda… Sigh.

I offered to show her the entire deposit history for all the poker sites, which would show how I’ve never deposited more than $150 at ANY site, and how I’ve withdrawn over $1000 from the various online poker venues, but she refused. I’m not entirely clear on that logic…. Yell at your husband about how much he’s gambling, but refusing to view the proof that he isn’t gambling very much. She calmed down as the night wore on, but I think I’ve opened a can of worms that ain’t gonna be capped very easily. The main problem is that we know some LOSERS who fucked up their family finances with sports gambling, and my wife has been programmed to think that husbands and online gambling are a bad mix.

I tried explaining to her the concept of sports gambling (vigorish = -EV) vs. casino gambling (chance and house advantage = -EV) vs. poker (zero-sum game where skill dictates profit/loss). I tried explaining the difference between games of chance and games of skill. Paradoxically, she thinks that casino games are “safer” than online poker because casinos are brick and mortar even though the brick and mortar was paid for by gamblers who lost. I tried explaining to her about online poker site security, but didn’t have any articles immediately handy. Can any of you help a brother out here and forward links to articles about how secure the major online sites are? (National sources rather than poker sources would be ideal). Thanks in advance for any help here.