Introduce myself/matchbook questions

[FightForCalifornia]

Hey guys, I've been reading this site since the fall of Neteller & Pinnacle to get a bead on what's been going on in the community. I finally decided to sign up to post, so I figured that I would introduce myself:

I'm a student at UC Berkeley, and I've been a die hard WVU fan since the day I was born, and of course now I live and die by the Cal Bears as well. I have gone 161-90 betting on college football over the pat 2 years (~300-600 per game), and I bet almost exclusively on Pinnacle, although I put 1k in an account at Betmaker to clear the huge bonuses that they have there. I follow college football religiously, I have 3 TV's in my room, DIRECTV, and a lot of my best friends here are on the Cal team, and I probably watch 10-15 CFB games a week during the season.


I withdrew all my money via neteller THE DAY BEFORE they closed to US customers, and I was thinking about redepositing a small amount (less than 1k) to bet on March Madness, becuase I watch a ton of Pac-10 and Big-East basketball and have a great grip on those teams. (my knowledge of the rest of CBB = 0)


From reading this forum and covers, I figured my best option was matchbook, but I've heard lots of different opinoins on the best way to fund an account, ranging from "Bank wire is the best" to "Don't ever try Bank wire"


My questions are this:
-how should I fund the account?
-how should I withdraw my money? I have plenty of money in my bank account so I really don't care if it takes 30 days to get my money back, I just want to be assured that I get it. I also deposit and withdraw very infrequently so as long as I get 1 free per month that's more than enough.



Thanks for taking the time to read this, I look forward to posting on this site in the future!

[Dark Horse]

Nice NCAAF record!

I would fedex a cashier's check (if that is an option, of course). Keep it all hidden. Not sure if Matchbook picks up the tab, but if you bet 300-600 per game, does it really matter?

[FightForCalifornia]

I'm talking about CBB though... I bet 300-600 per game in CFB becuase that is where I consider myself to be an 'expert' and I'm betting for serious income, also since I actually have a much deeper knowledge of the game than most bettors as one of my HS coaches who I was close with is now a D-1AA offensive coach, and I almost played D-1 myself.

CBB is just for fun, really $20-$100 at most on games. I know all the players and watch all the games, but my knowledge of basketball is no more than anyone else who played in HS and watches games...

Thus, having to pay $50 or so to get a check is kind of a pain, even though it shouldn't really matter I guess. By the way I'm 7-9 on CBB this year, so I'm not exactly balling out of control, although that's such a small sample size it's hard to draw an real statistically significant conclusions.

[SBR_John]

Welcome to the forum Fight.

How about Western Union? That always works.

[JoshW]

I have found some do Wire Tranfers out that are quite good. You get the money faster, as many checks from payment processors get a hold put on them (or at least in my experience).

I don't think is anything wrong with the above mentioned methods. The costs of ** out are usually not picked up by the book so be careful on that.

[BuddyBear]

Nice to have you around FFC....just out of curiousity, I see why you are a CAl fan...but why WV?

i take it you like CAL tonight?

[FightForCalifornia]

My dad grew up next to WVU, and went to undergrad there along with his brothers... my Grandpa was a Professor there and my Gma worked there as well. I've grown up rooting for WVU my entire life, I have an Aaron Beasley jersey that's like a children's small.

My dad actually got his PhD at Cal, and I go here now as well, so I root for both teams... people always ask me whether I root for one more than the other, but it's hard to say. Obviously I go to all the Cal games (I even flew to Knoxville last year) and have to watch WVU on TV, but I still root hard for both teams. Makes it easy that their unis look the same




"i take it you like CAL tonight?"

Don't get me started on Cal basketball. I watch every WVU game and John Belein is one of the best coaches in the country. Even though they don't have quite that much talent, watching WVU is like poetry in motion.

THEN, I go watch Cal and this is our offense:
dribble around
shoot a bad fadeaway 3 with 20 seconds on the clock
dribble around again
think about passing, but jack up another bad shot
dribble around, throw it out of bounds

Ben Braun makes me want to smash my face into a table. I honestly want Cal to win so badly, that it's almost gotten to the point where I hope we lose 20 games in a row and Braun gets fired... I would never put a dollar on Cal to beat anyone on the basketball court as long as Braun is our coach. We have so much talent and achieve so little, it's absolutely absurd.

UCLA is a very well coached team, they play hard, execute, take great shots and defend better than almost anyone in the country... our only shot in this game is that they overlook us and we come out hot and Ryan plays a great game.




Thanks for the tips about Western Union - however, I was under the impression that they can ask too many questions and deny you sometimes, is that true?

[BuddyBear]

yeah Belien is a very good coach...very much under the rader...not surprising given he is in a conference with Jim Calhouh, Rick Pitino, and Jim Boehmien. But he can coach for sure.....very good X and O's guy. Gets a lot out of his players.

[pags11]

fight,

welcome to SBR...I plan on funding my accounts with cashier's checks next football season...will probably play with 4 books at the most (due to the hassle of funding, where I had up to 7 going at once a year ago during football)...hope you stick around bud...

[FightForCalifornia]

Yeah, I really hope all of this is resolved by next football season... I had 3 accounts this year but honestly all I need is one low juice and I'm set.

[pags11]

yeah fight, I used two for hoops this season, CRIS (for early numbers) and matchbook (for reduced juice...

[FightForCalifornia]

How long has matchbook been around, anyway? I keep hearing about books like pointbet going down and people saying, "oh yeah they've been crappy for years" all of a sudden. Any negative feelings on matchbook at all, or is it pretty solid all around?

[freebie]

nothing negative about matchbook, but now they are in slow pay mode.

[Santo]

Since when? I was paid in <36hrs last week.

[FightForCalifornia]

^^^ That's good to hear then, I will be depositing via Bank Wire later today

[FightForCalifornia]

Deposit done

[pags11]

freebie, are they really?...

[Arilou]

Matchbook is not in slowpay mode. Everything is arriving fast, and I'm so cheap I'm not even paying up for FedEx. The free airmail is fine with me!

[WWTSblows]

I know for non-US accts they are definitely not in slow pay mode and have been paying out netellers within a day. I can't speak for US timeline, since I am keeping money parked there.

[FightForCalifornia]

Anyone know how long it'll take my wire to get there? I did it yesterday afternoon but it wasn't posted until this morning...

[pags11]

arilou,

how long are the regular mailed checks taking?...I will be cashing out after the conference tourneys and was trying to figure a time frame...thanks...

[Ira Wilton]

I have been waiting for a check for 2.5 weeks...I called them last week and they said they sent it.

[FightForCalifornia]

Is that about average? How long are they supposed to take?

[Crayzee]

bro-you get to reno or tahoe atall?
i lived in sf for awhile and spent more time in reno than sf
later i moved to reno for awhile but had to come back east for family reasons
nothings better than playing at the casino imo

[pags11]

what I'm hearing around the industry is about 3 weeks for a check to be mailed regular mail from matchbook...

[FightForCalifornia]

There are plenty of casinos around the Bay Area, that's how I built my bankroll in the first place. The 2-3-5 (no max) game at Lucky Chances is really easy if you've got a solid bankroll and the 15-30 and 30-60 games at the Oaks get really soft late at night as well...