The Good Run Continues...For How Long?

It's an understatement to say that at about 5:00pm GMT yesterday I was very pleased indeed.

Everything came in; even the two games I decided to leave alone, which on the one hand is annoying, but on the other is a very positive indication that the voodoo I use is currently working very well indeed. In case you're worried, it's not actually voodoo and I also don't have a copy of Biff Tannen's sports almanac from 'Back To The Future' - it's a statistically based system that's always evolving and involves a number of failsafes, which is why some events are part of a watching brief.

Only one soccer game of any note today - it's been a while since I got involved in a game in Brazil's Serie A and the game between Avai and Atletico Paranaense (kick off 8:00pm GMT) looks like it might be worth considering. However, I'm going to exercise some caution here as Avai lost at Santos on Thursday evening, which is a similar kind of turnaround to a Premier team playing in the Europa League and then turning out for a Sunday afternoon game. There's also a minor problem with the fact that these two have only played each other once in the Campeonato in Florianopolis (Avai won 2-0 last October) but to be honest Atletico's recent away record in the league is so poor that probably doesn't matter.

The Strategy With No Name is going to make yet another appearance here - Avai or draw at half time is worth dutching (83% of games in the Campeonato at half time have been home/draw at half time), but I'm recommending laying Atletico - even though they won their last away game, they haven't won back to back away games in the league since August 2009. Avai haven't lost consecutive home games since July 2009, I'm going to have a small punt on a straight Avai win.

Couple of college football games later on, my advice is to lay SMU in their game at Texas Tech - Texas Tech has won the last six games between these two and have won the last three in Lubbock by an average of 38 points.

The Easiest Way To Avoid Losing!

Don't strike any bets.

Buoyed by the 0-0 draw between Terek Groznyi and Amkar Perm on Sunday, I totally forgot to commit to Molde and Sandefjord - I managed to get 5:00pm mixed up with 7:00pm, which is pathetic! It goes without saying that the Molde/half time dutch would have worked.

Corinthians beat Atletico Mineiro 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Bruno Cesar; they still hold pole position in Serie A despite a 3-1 defeat at Atletico Goianiense earlier today. So all in all a mostly satisfactory Sunday - apart from the screw up with the Molde game.

I'm only going to recommend one game this weekend because it's my birthday on Saturday and I'm going to have a couple of days off.

The game is Malmo v AIK in the Swedish Allsvenskan on Saturday. A Malmo win can take them within two points of leaders Helsingborg, who lost earlier this evening to BK Hacken in Gothenburg; Malmo haven't lost at home this season, they haven't been behind at half time all season and haven't lost at home to AIK since October 1996. Defending champions AIK have had a terrible start to the season, having lost five of their last seven aways games without scoring in five them: however they've qualified for the third qualifying round of Champions League, they'll play Rosenborg next week.

Malmo or draw or laying an AIK lead at half time might be a good place to start, although the AIK lay is currently priced at 7.4; the current best price for Malmo to win the game is 13/20.

Vakuutus is Finnish for Insurance

Shocker in Finland: KuPS won at HJK Helsinki, Nigerian striker Dickson Nwakaeme scored both goals in a come from behind victory at the Finnair stadium. It was 1-1 at half time: I'd dutched HJK or draw at the half so I was happy with that. I had an insurance bet on draw/KuPS at half time so that paid off too. If Nwakaeme can score two on the road against HJK then he might be worth keeping an eye on in future games.

Valerenga ended up beating Kongsvinger 5-2 but the first half was action packed - two goals in the first four minutes and - to my immense relief - only a late own goal by former Everton, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Charlton goalkeeper Thomas Myhre saved Valerenga's impressive half time record.

The Cardinals beat the Dodgers 2-0 and I managed to back another 'loser' horse yesterday. So that's four in a row now - I'll publish the full results at the end of the month but I'm not going to recommend laying any horses until my results have settled down.

Today's tips in chronological order are:

* Terek Groznyi v Amkar Perm (Russian League 3:45pm GMT): Terek or draw at half time as Terek haven't been behind after the first half and Amkar haven't been in front. I'm also going to be testing a trading strategy based on Under 2.5 goals.

* Molde v Sandefjord (Norwegian Eliteserien 5:00pm GMT): Molde or draw at half time for pretty much the same reason as the Terek game and Molde to win the game if they're winning at half time. Sandefjord have lost all eight of their away games in the league this season but have been level at half time in three of them, hence the caution.

* Corinthians v Atletico Mineiro (Brazilian Serie A 8:00pm GMT): Corinthians have won all their home league games this season, Atletico Mineiro have lost all their away games. Might be worth having a look at Corinthians winning both halves, Corinthians to win the game is what I'm going with.

I'm also looking at a couple of MLB games but if anything worth investigating comes up I'll update this post.