What are units?

A unit is basically a way of normalizing bet sizes. When I post a bet here, it will have a unit size next to it, rather than a dollar amount. I find it to provide much more information than how much money someone has won. For example, would you rather trail the person that bets $10 units and is up $200 on the year or the player that bets $500 units and is up $1000?

Some common names for unit sizes are dime ($1000), nickel ($500), quarter ($25 or $250) and penny ($100). You'll often read these things on other message boards when posters, usually exaggerating, try to brag about how much money they bet on a particular game.

What do unit sizes mean to me?

My bets are generally between 1x and 5x (or one unit and five units). This is kind of arbitrary and something that just became "the way I do things." Obviously, more units bet mean that I am more confident in a selection. The breakdown is as follows:

1x - A bet that is just messing around, often early in the season. Someone may ask "why do you mess around with bets?" I liken it to gaining information in poker. While I love college football, an early season matchup between UConn and Akron doesn't really excite me. By placing 1x on that game, I pay more attention to it than I ordinarily would. Last year, during college football, I hit 18/32 (56.25%) of my 1x bets. In college basketball, I hit 44/81 (54.32%) of my 1x bets.

2x - A normal bet. Most of my bets come in at this level.
2007-8 Records: NCAAF - 30/47 (63.83%); NCAAB - 54/110 (49.09%)

3x - I am feeling a bit more confident. Usually a couple of these make it onto my card a week.
2007-8 Records: NCAAF - 17/29 (58.62%); NCAAB - 25/40 (62.5%)

4x - I really like this bet. It stood out to me as soon as the lines came out* and almost all of the Covers' posters are on the other side.
2007-8 Records: NCAAF - 11/15 (73.3%); NCAAB - 10/21 (47.62%)

5x - It doesn't get much better than this. Everything that could go right with this bet has. Not only do I think it is great, but Covers' posters hate it, bigbookie at theRx needs it to win, and the important people on RMMB are hammering it.
2007-8 Records: NCAAF - 7/11 (63.64%); NCAAB - 2/4 (50%)

Larger bets - For some reason, in college basketball last year, I felt the need to bump my largest normal bets to 6x instead of 5x. I plan on changing that this fall. There are other times where I have placed larger than average bets, but I plan on cutting those out of my gambling repertoire this year. That said, a 10x play on Kansas in the championship game made my basketball season last year.
2007-8 Records: NCAAF - 3/8 (37.5%); NCAAB - 6/10 (60%)

There are couple of things to note here. Three unit plays and large plays saved my NCAAB season last year. It was a grind, but it was my first full season of playing college hoops. I expect to get better this year. Also, the 2007 college football season was ridiculous with upsets galore. I do not expect that to happen this year and I think my percentages, while still profitable, will not be nearly as high. I did not list my NFL stats because it was a small sample size, but it was not pretty. The NFL is the hardest sport for a contrarian to wager on because Vegas will not set trap lines due to the high volume of action they take. I ended my NFL wagering after Week 9 last year and will not hesitate to do so again if I fail.

On Thursday, I'll look at books at which you should be posted. They are not the ones you've heard of most likely. Next week, I'll try to put up a glossary of gambling terms. Other than that, I'm not sure what else to post before the seasons get started. I am willing to take suggestions, so post them in the comments below.

*As you become a better contrarian, you will be able to find suspect lines simply by looking at them. For example, Stanford +3 vs. Oregon State opening weekend. I know I am going to end up playing that game, I just don't know for how much yet.