1.Each credit card is different from the next is my experience. Some of major banks that claim to be on your side are full of shit. The only thing they care about is profit, and that means sucking you dry of your cash every chance they get, and inventing ways of getting more of your money. BofA is the devil imo. In this environment, any way of getting your money transported is a plus, but read all the small print on everything so you will know the fees, and not have transactions voided also, cause you...

 

Mission Impossible?

Yes, Pat Riley, the general manager of the Miami Heat. His job is filling out the roster of this team, and his mission is to get 5 to 6 quality NBA rotation players without having to pay them. With an average NBA salary of $5 million per player, he's got about that much TOTAL for about 5 guys.

Here's the Heat's depth chart for all practical purposes so far:

PG-Mario Chalmers/Jason Williams
SG-Duane Wade/Mike Miller
C- Joel Anthony
SF-Lebron James
PF-Chris Bosh

It'll take a while to explain the Miami Heat situation in it's proper detail.

The reason Pat Riley is the most important person in the organization is because he's got to put this team together, and he doesn't have much money by NBA standards to do it with. A general explanation of the NBA Salary Cap System will help people understand the Heat's challenges in putting together a championship team.

Each team has a salary cap of $58,044,000 to spend on player salaries for the 2010-2011 season. I'll spare as many of the gory complexities of the NBA salary cap system because this is a blog, not a book, but what I put down here should suffice to understand what's happening.
James, Wade and Bosh took less than the "max-out" deal, which is what they had coming originally in their contracts. This means they took a pay-cut, offering to work for about $14.5 million this year salary-wise instead of about $16.5 million each. I don't know how they're gonna get the rent paid after this pay-cut, but they'll try.

Mike Miller signed for $4.6 million this year to back up Flash at the shooting guard position. Riley traded away Daequan Cook in June and Michael Beasley last week which clears $3.4 million and $4.5 million of cap space respectively. Riley also waived James Jones in June to open up another $2.8 million for signings.

Now there are exceptions to the cap, such as the Mid-level exception and the Bi-annual exception and Bird Rights, which gives teams more money to spend on free agents, but the Heat didn't qualify for none of these, which would have given them approximately $12 million more to spend on free agents, which could have gotten them a quality free agent or agents (they can split the money between players), and an easy resign for Udonis Haslem under the Bird Rights exception. Still with me?

So how much does Riley have to spend in real terms, who can he get, and what do they need?
After signing Mike Miller, Riley has about $4 million left, plus the league minimum (a little over $1 million a year) for incoming vets.

Players/Prospective Players:

1. Mario Chalmers-PG (signed)
   
2. Duane Wade-SG (signed)
3. Mike Miller-SG (signed)
4. LeBron James-SF (signed)
5. Joel Anthony-C (unsigned will probably sign-backup)
   
6. Da'Sean Butler-(Out until Fall/Winter-Knee)
   
7. Chris Bosh-PF (signed)
8. ?-PG (starter or back-up)
   
9. Udonis Haslem-PF (unsigned)
10. ?-C (starter)
    
11. ?-SF (backup)
    
12. PG-Kenny Hasbrouch (may or may not make team)
    
13. C-Dexter Pittman (may or may not make team)
14. PF-Jarvis Varnado (may or may not make team)

These last 3 guys main job will be collecting splinters if they make the team, and Da'Sean Butler is out until probably Christmas with a torn ACL. So in other words, Miami ain't got much after the big three, and backups Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers.

Question: Can the Heat sign Derek Fisher?

Answer: Probably not. Lakers offered him about $2.5 milion for next season, down from $5.048 million in 2009-2010. He wants $5 million for the next 2 years and the Heat can pay him a max of $3.6 million by adjusting Miller's contract. Plus, Kobe said the Lakers must resign Fisher no matter what. Checkmate.

Question: What about Shaq?

Answer: If Shaq wants to come play for free (about $1 mil a year), he's more than welcome. Crazy as this sounds, Shaq might pull the trigger on the deal to catch Kobe at 5 rings.
Shaq's Message to Kobe.


Question:Udonis Haslem?

Answer: He's got to make a major pay-cut this year (he made $7.1 mil in 2009-2010), but if Riley can back-load his contract, he may stay. He's played in Miami all 7 years he's been in the NBA, so I have to believe he wants to stay, especially on this team. If he can get his money down the road, Riles may convince him to stay.

Conclusion

Pat Riley I believe, will make or break this team's chance at being the dominant team in the NBA. If he gets quality help into Miami, watch out. If not, they'll be another elite team, but a flawed team that will have many challenges to overcome to win a title, and a real underdog to meet expectations, which are nothing short of hosting the Larry O'Brian trophy next June.

My Opinion

Riles has to really put his skills to the test getting some quality players to come play for the Heat on the cheap. If he's smart, he'll have LeBron, Flash, and Chris Bosh waiting at the airport in the limousine for Shaq, and anyone else who wants to come to Miami and check it out. If they all put in serious work recruiting some at least semi-serious players, they can gain real dominance. Something tells me they just don't get it right now. I don't think they realize just how important getting this help really is. They will a year from now is my opinion. Right now, they look like a 60 win team who will need bench support to win it all. They don't have that right now, and they'll need some luck with their signings to get it. We shall see.

[CENTER][SIZE=4][B]WINNER OF THE JUNE 2010 INTERNET TOUGH GUY AWARD GOES TO [U][SIZE=6]THREMP[/SIZE][/U][/B][/SIZE] [IMG]http://www.tzurin.net/media/03112010.jpg[/IMG] :bowdown::hattip::an_dance::an_clap: [/CENTER]

Discussion: [URL="http://forum.sbrforum.com/sportsbooks-amp-industry/518681-downgraded-books.html"]A Response To downgraded books[/URL]

I got mixed emotions on this response, because I agree with half of it. CS reps are "morons" because if they weren't, they'd be managers or have some other job. Plus, it's a boring repetitive job where you work with 98% losing bettors, and at half of those are unpleasant. Smart people don't want that job. Juice is a bit high, but you do get loyalty points unless you're cut-off for winning or steaming. Free payouts are good too, and they get to you fast. This shit is gold in the offshore gambling business. I usually never have a problem with attitudes with sportsbooks because I make it a point to always be nice to them. I've gotten miracles done by being nice to CS reps. I got five figures out of Betcascade AFTER they tanked because I had a really good working relationship with the CS manager. Two years of being very nice paid off nicely. I ended up getting every penny they owed me. I still can't believe it.

[SIZE=2][I][B][URL="http://www.sportsbookreview.com/NewsWire/4061/wsex-confiscates-14-719-casino-winnings-.aspx"]WSEX confiscates $14,719 in casino winnings [/URL][/B]
[B]WSEX (SBR rating C)[/B] cancels $14,719 in Pai Gow winnings. From December 13th to 15th a bettor played 564 hands of Pai Gow, winning $14,719. On December 26th his account was deactivated and WSEX confiscated all winnings. An investigation of the dispute showed that the player found a discernible pattern - WSEX's random number generator was not random. After identifying the pattern, the player bet $100 when he expected to win, and $1 when he expected to lose. When he bet $100 the player won 98.1%...[/SIZE][/I]

This is exactly right, based on my experience.

Second thing is that lines can move extremely fast around post, so that 1.5 may or may not have been available to you, and it could have been available for one minute, or even less, and the other guy just got lucky to get it.

IMO, you are justified to get a little pissed, especially when you first discover this kind of stuff. Who wouldn't be a little upset that they were getting dealt double lines? When I first found out years ago I was being dealt...