6 Picks, 6 Last Place Finishes

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/030908/mensbb_2008030900275.shtml

I am not good at math, but I think my performance at the track last night might make even the greatest odds maker snap their TI-85 in half. I went to the horse track last night and I bet on six races. In those six races, I picked the last place horse every time. The only issue is that I picked those horses to win. In six picks, I picked the horse that would eventually finish last to win. They weren't even bad picks, a couple of times I picked longer odds, and a couple of times I picked one of the favorites, but every time that horse finished in last place. Even if I did a trifecta, the horse I picked to win would finish last (and once I even had second and third right). Six picks, six horses in dead last.

This is not the first time I have had weird gambling issues. Once, while playing three card poker, I lost four straight hands with a king, a jack, and a four. All four hands, two face cards, four decisive beatings.

I think being a Murphy makes me somehow immune to good luck. Sometimes I wonder if fate has put me in a position where, maybe, I just wasn't meant to have good fortune fall in my lap. Maybe I need to find a way to overcome this dreaded Irish curse and actually put some effort into things and not just rely on luck. I think my performance at the horse track is an excellent analogy for my life: Don't just expect things to happen in your favor, because they probably aren't going to.

I think it's somehow fitting that the story I linked to was about how bad the Georgia basketball team was this year. They were the same team that shocked everyone and won the SEC tournament, even winning two games in one day. Sometimes you need luck on your side, and sometimes you just have to actually outwork everyone, and sometimes, well, you need both. I guess maybe I need to start focusing on the outworking everyone and hope that luck finds its way to me.