Imagine being one correct sports bet away from winning $25,000. **video
That is where Covers user mctrap finds himself after correctly selecting 20 consecutive wagers in the free-to-play Streak Survivor contest. Along the way, he has won a hat, a hoodie, and $1,000 cash. One more win and he takes home $25,000. Five more wins and he pockets $100,000.
Mctrap’s sports betting career began in 2008 and it was then that he found Covers and started playing in Covers contests.
“I lived in Vegas for quite a while and did a lot of sports betting there,” mctrap said on Wednesday, the day after winning his 20th survivor pick. “It just became an action thing for me. Once in a while, I would bet some serious money but I didn’t look at it every single day. Two or three times a week I’d put some bets in, just for fun.”
Mctrap is modest about his abilities as a sports bettor but his track record speaks for itself. He has compiled an impressive 1645-1506-76 mark over the last 11 years in the Streak Survivor contest. He’s also had success in the King of Covers NFL contest, finishing in 10th place in the 2014-15 regular-season edition.
“After all these years you kind of know early on what to look for, patterns and so forth,” mctrap said about his sports betting prowess. “I’m not one of these guys who knows all the players or the fantasy stuff. I’m just a situational bettor and look for different patterns.”
His current streak has mostly been comprised of MLB bets — a mix of Overs and sides — with a couple of NBA and WNBA games mixed in. But, like he mentioned, mctrap looks more for patterns and situations than he does a specific league or bet type.
“Our brain is like a pattern-seeking survival machine and the habits are how we ensure that we don’t always have to think too hard about what we’re going to do,” mctrap explained. “We look for familiar situations so I have certain criteria that I look for as far as handicapping habits and I’ve just kind of developed those habits and I rely on those.
“Now, with that being said, I think that this MLB season so far has been, if you look at the right teams and all these home runs that are flying out, you can bet a lot of these Overs in some situations. It’s kind of a little bit of a sweet spot, in my opinion, for streak bettors that want to look for really good Over situations so I try to do that.”
When it comes to choosing a side, mctrap tends to look at teams that are coming off a rest day and even fading teams that have cruised to three of four wins in a row. That situation presented itself on Tuesday night and mctrap pulled the trigger to get his 20th consecutive win by taking Houston on the moneyline against Milwaukee.
“That was interesting and a little scary because the line was dropping towards Milwaukee so I was trying to figure out what was going on,” he explained. “I know Houston has a lot of injuries but I like to bet against teams that have won three, four, or even five games in a row on the run line. And that was Milwaukee and they were playing a different team. And I like to look at how teams do coming off a day off and Houston was, I think, 7-0 with a day off. All the dots were connecting there and I just thought it was too good to pass up, even though Milwaukee has been hot.”
As for what is next pick is going to be? And when?
“There are two different theories here: do you want to take it slow or do you want to ride the momentum?” mctrap said of the pace at which he’s making his picks. “I made that mistake [by slowing down after getting to 15 wins] but I’m still alive and haven’t screwed it up yet. It’s like if you watched that Golden State-Toronto game [Game 5 of the NBA Finals]. Toronto had it in the bag and the coach called timeout, breaks all the momentum, and they lost the game.”
Mctrap didn’t love what he saw on Wednesday’s card, although he did have a lean in the hockey game that, in hindsight, would have made him $25,000 richer this morning.
“It’d be nice to take the hockey game Under 5.5 but I always get screwed in hockey so I’m going to leave that one alone,” he said a few hours before the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup with their 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday evening.”
UPDATE
Mctrap's next pick is in! He is on the Over 11 for Saturday night’s game in Colorado between the Padres and Rockies. And for good reason. Lefty Eric Lauer takes the ball for the Padres and he has a 6.84 ERA on the road, while the Rockies counter with right-hander German Marquez, who has a 5.06 ERA at home. The Over is also 21-14 in 35 games at Coors Field this season. He’s looking for the big payday but is going to be smart about it and says he will hedge about 20 percent, ensuring he walks home with some cash.
“To be honest, I hedged $1,000 last night [on the 20th selection] so that will cut into the hedge on the next pick. But yeah I don’t want to go beyond 20 percent, that’s for sure.”
FOLLOW MCTRAP’S STREAK AT OUR STREAK SURVIVOR HOMEPAGE
