The general rule regarding parlays is DON'T Parlays generally carry a higher house edge than straight bets, which means you give the book a bigger advantage over you when you play them That, by itself, is reason enough to suppress the misplaced feelings of greed coupled with fear that often lead to betting parlays People think they are risking less with parlays, but they aren't They believe they can win more with parlays, however they cannot The higher win with parlays is far outweighed by the bigger possibility of losing Parlay bettors are in fact risking more, with less probability of collecting A parlay is not a single bet It is two bets -- a one-unit bet using one team and a two-unit bet on the other Which team gets the two-unit bet In point-spread betting at constant money odds, if both teams win or both teams lose it doesn't matter which team gets the double bet When one team wins and one team loses, however, the double bet is presumed to possess been on the loser How smart is that for the bettor Go ahead, create a parlay We'll wait until both games are over, and in case of a split we'll put the double bet on the loser If your bookmaker sold you a parlay with that line, just how many of you'll still make the bet A parlay can be bad money management In a parlay you either bet double on the second team, or nothing on that same team, depending upon if the first game won or lost That adds an element of luck to your betting it doesn't need to be there The skilled handicapper is always seeking to make smart investments He tries to get rid of the result of luck to the best extent possible in order to make his results as predictable as you possibly can Much like every rule, however, you can find exceptions The exception to the rule regarding parlays occurs once the two bets are co-dependent I knew one bookmaker who was taken for tens of thousands because he didn't understand the co-dependency of certain bets He allowed a new player to consistently parlay the first half with the overall game The player parlayed totals by combining the over in the first half with the over in the overall game, and the under in the first half with under in the overall game Both parlays were manufactured in the same game Each time the player won he'd win 26 times his bet Betting 100 on each parlay, if one of them won, the ball player would win 260 and lose 100 on another parlay for a net win of 160 He could never win both parlays If he lost both parlays he would lose 200 At first glance, this were a great chance of the book The normal coin-flip probability of winning one parlay from the two are 50-50 As far as the bookie was concerned the bettor ought to be winning 160 half the time, and losing 200 half enough time The bettor, however, making 500 parlays, was ahead more than 20,000 after 6 months, and the book started to look at what the bettor was doing more carefully The problem for the bookmaker was that both halves of each parlay were co-dependent At the end of the initial half, the bettor was almost never in a 50-50 situation Take the Thursday night game between Utah and Air Force The overall game total was 53 and the first half total was 27 At the end of the initial half, the score was 31-21, for a total of 52 first-half points The first half of one of many parlays, the "over" in the initial half was a winner For the parlay probability to be correct, there should now be a 50-50 possibility of winning the "over" for the overall game Obviously the odds of winning the "over" in the overall game weren't 50-50 but better than 99 in favor of the "over" The player only had a need to win the first 1 / 2 of the parlay to be virtually assured that he would collect 26 times his money instead of just 10 for 11 Before you rush out to try this, be aware that most off-shore books are far too smart to let you parlay first half to game Should https//new88law/ do allow you to do this, start worrying about collecting because that book will soon be taken up to the cleaners There are, however, some less obvious co-dependent parlays that can be made at many books One kind of co-dependent parlay is the parlay of the medial side and total in exactly the same game Any game in which the total is significantly less than double the spread can give you an advantage in parlaying side to total in exactly the same game We've already discussed, in a prior article, how to use these anomalous side and total combinations to hedge each other and boost your win with very little increase in risk This type of bet, however, required that you have an impression privately or the total Parlaying is another solution to boost your potential win on these games, or to create a potential win should you have no opinion There are two games this Saturday that qualify They are Virigina -25 over Duke with a total of 48 �, and Kansas St -24 � vs North Texas with a complete 46 � In the Virginia game, if you were to think that Virginia covers the 25 points, then they must hold Duke to only 11 points or the overall game will go over the total The much more likely it becomes during the game that Virginia covers 25 points, the more likely it becomes that the overall game will review 48 � The wider Virginia's winning margin, the much more likely the game will go over If you want Virginia to cover the spread, and you believe that Duke will not be shut out, then your possibility of winning a parlay on Virginia and the over are greater than the standard 25 Likewise, if the scoring stays low, it really is less likely that Virginia will cover the 25 points Consequently, the probability a parlay of the under with the underdog will win is greater than the normal 25 In case you have no opinion on the overall game, you can parlay the favorite with the "over" and the underdog with the "under" and collect sufficiently often to exceed the losses when both parlays lose In the only other game meeting the qualifications this week -- Friday's game between California -30 against New Mexico State with a complete of 58 -- the under has already won with the underdog for an absolute two-parlay spread The closer the posted total is to the spread privately, the better win-rate will undoubtedly be on the parlay "spread" bet The co-dependency in side to total parlays is not as strong as parlaying first half and game totals if it were, most books would not allow such bets, but you will find a sufficient co-dependency in the games with low totals and high spreads to make the strategy profitable long-term Not all bookmakers will help you to parlay the medial side to the full total in the same game, because an increasing number of are realizing these bets are sometimes co-dependent But, enough books still do allow such bets that you can consider including such bets in your professional betting arsenal If your bookmaker provides "if/reverse" bets, it is possible to replace the parlay bet having an "if/reverse" bet and achieve greater success