OK, I will concede that the Survivor reality series is kind of a sport. There are physical challenges, winners and losers, rules, and hot babes in short shorts. Just like the NFL.

Betting on Survivor also happens to be one of the biggest hits on the entertainment futures market. The latest series is called Survivor: Micronesia – Fans vs. Favorites, and we were three episodes in at press time. As you may have guessed, this one pits “fans” of the show against former fan-favorite contestants. You can bet on either a fan (-110) or a favorite (-130) to emerge the sole survivor. I’m wondering if CBS had it in their minds that they wanted a fan to win when they were handpicking 10 of them out of the 800 applicants.

You can also bet on male (+150) or female (-200). You can find charts of voting histories on the Web to guide your handicapping.

If you’re sitting at a bar this weekend, and something hot and sexy slides next to you and whispers “So Giggs marked the ton-up,” you’ve hit the jackpot. Trust me on this one.

Not that you need to know Ryan Giggs from a hole in the ground to place a bet on this Saturday’s English Premiership matchup at Old Trafford between Manchester United (Giggs is their captain) and Newcastle United. There are several ways to bet; for example, Man Utd are –700 favorites. Or they can lay a goal, and then you have Man Utd –1 (–140).

The classic soccer bet is the three-way result, where you can also bet on the two teams to draw. For the above matchup, Man Utd is –225, Newcastle is +650, and the draw is at +280. Now Giggs and the Red Devils are a lot less chalky for a match they really should win at home.

Most casino games are guessing games. When it comes to blackjack this is false, there is a strategy when it comes to this game. With a mathematically optimal strategy, it will maximize your wins and lessen your losses.

To understand basic strategy, you have to start thinking like a professional gambler, which means you have to understand the concept of “blackjack odds.” A professional gambler makes his or her living by always thinking in terms of odds and only betting when the odds are favorable. If you make decisions based on hunches, you may win some hands, but more often than not you will loose in the long run. There is only one correct decision for any given play, and that decision is based solely on the math.

When it comes to basic strategy here’s and example; when my hand totals 14, and the dealer shows a 10 upcard, blackjack strategy says to hit. Mathematically that is the correct play. Sometimes if you will hit that 14 and draw an 8, 9, or 10 and bust. Then the dealer will turn over his hole card, a 6, and you will realize that if you would have stood on your 14, the dealer would have had to hit his total of 16, and he would have busted with that 10. So, making the “mathematically correct” play, you lost a hind you would have won if you had violated basic strategy. As you can see, you may lose if you take a hit, but odds are against you if you take a stand.

blackjack

The rich keep getting richer. Shaquille O’Neal just rejoined the Western Conference; he was nearly followed by Jason Kidd, who was on his way back to the Dallas Mavericks in a multiplayer trade Wednesday before Devean George exercised his Early Bird rights and killed the deal. If the stars keep trying to go West, this midseason report card will need an upgrade.

New Orleans: A+
L.A. Lakers: A+
Phoenix: A
Utah: A
Denver: A
Dallas: A-
San Antonio: A-
Houston: B+
Golden State: B-
Portland: C+
Sacramento: D
L.A. Clippers: F
Memphis: Satisfactory
Seattle: Satisfactory
Minnesota: Satisfactory

We all know about sports doping. Well, welcome to the next frontier; brain doping. People in a range of fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in this modern life.

Despite its side effects, classical musicians, academics, corporate executives, and even professional poker players have embraced these drugs to clarify their minds, improve concentration or control their emotions.

“There isn’t any question about it – they made me a much better player,” said Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the narcolepsy pill Provigil and the attention deficit drug Adderall with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.

The drugs improved his concentration during high-stakes tournaments, he said, allowing him to better track all the action at his table.

“Poker is the sort of game that a lot of people can play well sporadically, but tournaments are mostly won by people who can play close to their best at all times,” Phillips said. “It requires significant mental effort to play in top form fro 12 hours a day, five days in a row.”

However because these drugs are so new their physiological effects on the brain are well understood the drugs haven’t been tested extensively on healthy people. People who take the drugs say that they aren’t giving them an unfair advantage, but merely allow them to make the most of their hard earned skills.

In an article published last week in the journal Nature, Morein-Zamir and Barbara J. Sahakian, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge say that clear guidelines are needed to decide what is fair. It may be reasonable to ban the drugs in competitive situations, such as taking the SAT. However in other cases, they wrote, people such as airport screeners, air-traffic controllers or combat soldiers might be encouraged to take them.

The NFL season is over. Which means it’s the perfect time to bet on the NFL.

Smart shoppers buy clothes out of season and gas when the price is down, not when the tank is nearly empty. The same quest for value applies to the futures markets for football and baseball. This is when bettors have the least information about what might happen during the 2008 campaign. It’s not easy handicapping a team when everyone’s on the golf course, but those soft lines can make the risk of working with unknowns worth taking.

The early bird usually gets the pointspread, too. The open is when a betting line is at its most vulnerable; the spread is a stab (albeit an educated one) at guessing which number will prompt the betting public to balance the action. If you see an opening line that you suspect will move in a specific direction, bet the appropriate side early and enjoy the ride.