Best Sports Betting Sites 2020 - Real Money Sportsbooks

So a lot of you will know that I regularly post guides and tips about match betting, However since the same questions always come up in the comments, I decided to make one big, very thorough Mega Guide in order to eliminate as many doubts as possible for you guys. Like I said before, This guide is a handy way to sort out a month's rent for 5 or 6 hours work, so I really hope it can be of use to someone. Anyway, Here it is:
PART 1: MATCH BETTING EXPLAINED; HOW TO MAKE £500 IN 5/6 HOURS
Having done my research and having been able to turn a really nice profit in such a short time, I wanted to make a short guide to eliminate people's doubts and simplify things a little. Since it really doesn't take a lot of time to hit that £500 profit mark, it's a shame not to try it out. Anyway, Here it goes:
I was sceptical as hell about Match betting because a friend showed me the Facebook groups and it just looked like a giant gambling pyramid scheme. It turns out there is a decent chunk of change to be made from it, you just need to follow the guides and never ever actually gamble with your money.
Never ever Gamble? Yes That's right, you are going to be using Gambling sites to complete the various offers, but the whole idea behind match betting is that every time you "make a bet", you match that same bet on the exchange. So for example, if I bet £10 for Real Madrid to Win on the Bookie Site at odds of 2.5, I then also make a Matched bet on the Exchange (This is a separate site such as Smarkets or Betfair) where I bet for Real Madrid not to win at odds of 2.5 (or as close as I can get to those odds). In this way I am covered in all outcomes, and it allows me to fulfill the requirements of the bookies offer (For example Bet £10 and get £30 in Free bets)
What's the difference between the Bookie Site and the Exchange? On the Exchange Site you are basically being the Bookie and just like a Bookie, you have liability. If I bet £10 and my bet wins at odds of 2.5 then I win £25, so the bookies liability for this bet is £15, the extra money that they would have to give me if I win. There are calculators on the Match betting sites which you can use to calculate what Liability you need to enter on the exchange each time you make your matched bet. There is also software to help you find what games have the closest odds on both the bookies and the exchange, which is very important.
What do I do when I get my free bets? It's the same process again, You find a game that has very close odds on both the bookies and the exchange ( You can do this by eye or by using odds matching software. A good site with this software is called OddsMonkey). Only this time when you use the calculator to work out your liability, you will set it to "Free bets SNR" so it knows you are not using real money. It will tell you how much Liability to use in the exchange and off you go.
How does this make me money? The fact that you have a free bet to use is what makes you money, For example a £30 free bet at odds of 5.5 in the bookies will win you £135 (30x 4.5, because the original free bet stake of £30 is not returned to you). Now let's say that the closest odds I can find in the Exchange for the same game are 6.0, I will need a liability of £112.50 to match my free bet in the bookies ( I use the calculator on oddsmonkey to work this out)
£135- 112.50 = £22.50 in Profit.
Alternatively if my bet on the exchange wins, I will lose the free bet of £30 (but it's not actually a loss to me because It's not real money) and I will win £22.50 on the exchange. Either way, I make a Profit of £22.50
What about providing card details? You can use a separate, virtual bank account for all your match betting, In this way your main banking information is not shared with any of the sites you sign up to. A good one to use is Monzo, the app is easy to use and it only takes 5 minutes to open an account. It's free to open an account and last I checked they actually have a referral scheme where you get £5 if you sign up through a referral link.
Non Referral here: https://monzo.com/
Where can I learn to do it? There are some sites that you have to pay a monthly subscription to but I found one called Team Profit that is free and has a full guide of all the different offers you can complete.
I worked my way down through the list of offers, nice and handy, and having completed 20 offers at 15 minutes per offer, I came out at £470 for 5 hours total of work.
If you are new to this site and are opening a free account I would really appreciate if you use my Referral (£10)
Here is the non referral link to the page with all the offers: https://www.teamprofit.com/welcome-offers-list
TLDR: You do not need to "gamble" to match bet, in fact by definition, the bet you make is "matched" on the exchange, so it is not a gamble in any sense.

PART 2: MAKING £500-£1000 EVERY MONTH.
You may sometimes see people commenting saying they have made a lot more money since finishing the welcome offers, £1000-£1500 a month and such, but never saying exactly how...
Personally I have made a lot more profit every month since I finished the welcome offers, Usually around the £1000 per month mark.
People say that Match betting drys up once you finish the welcome offers but this is simply not true, it's a matter of being more organised and checking your email for new offers, while also checking the Reload Offers section on Team Profit every morning (Takes literally 5 minutes)
Below is an Example from last month where I made £300 in one week. Bare in mind that the amount you make weekly will vary with the amount of sport that is on, but as long as there's sport, you will always be able to earn. This example is simply to show you the potential Match Betting has long after you've completed the Welcome offers:
Here's exactly how I did it:
Coral: Money back as a free bet up to £50 if your team is ahead in the first half but doesn't win the match in the end: Matched 5 Premier League games, 3 were successful. I received three £50 free bets which I matched and turned into £130 profit risk free. £130 in 30 minutes
William Hill: Money Back as Cash if your horse comes 2nd- 2 of the 6 horses I matched came 2nd, I was also able to make a profit by just matching the bets because my odds were higher on the bookies side by using the Happy Hour odds (between 12pm-1pm, 3 horses with enhanced odds) and also the 3 daily bet boosts on Horse raising( to boost my odds on another 3 horses). £20 in 5 minutes
Paddy Power: Money Back up to £10 if Horse comes 2nd 3rd or 4th, Matched the horse with the lowest odds and sure enough it came 3rd, got my £10 free bet. £8 in 3 minutes
Skybet: Money Back as cash up to £10 if Horse comes 2nd 3rd or 4th, Matched the horse with the lowest odds and sure enough it came 3rd, got my £10. £9.50 in 3 minutes
Skybet: Wednesday Super odds: Matched the three super odds on the exchange and due to the difference in odds (If the odds on the bookies are greater than those for same bet on the exchange you are automatically profiting). £10 in 3 minutes
Boylesports: £10 Free bet if your bet loses(Premier League Match): £8 in 3 minutes
Paddy Power 2up: An offer where you get paid out early if your time goes up by 2 goals, the profit varies depending on what the odds on the exchange are when you back the team you orignally lay against, but this offer can make you a lot of profit (You will need to download the team profit calculator app and use the early payout calculator). Last week it Made me £35. £35 in 5 minutes
Novibet: Deposit £100 and get a £50 free bet. Very easy because you just have to deposit the money, get your free bet, withdraw your £100 straight away, then match the free bet on the exchange. £40 in 5 minutes
Coral: Bet 3x £5 in play and get a £5 free bet-Availble everyday. Just match these at half time so the odds are stable, Make sure you also place mug bets every couple of days if you do this one a lot, I would reccomend doing it 5 times a week tops. £20 in 30 minutes
Paddy Powe Skybet Bet clubs: Bet 5x £10 bets in a week to get a £10 free bet with Paddy Power. Bet £25 in a week to get a £5 free bet with Skybet. £10 in 30 minutes

Above you can see the reality of making profit long after you've finished the welcome offers, but it comes down to organisation.
So in Summary, these are my 6 Rules for making a monthly Profit:
(1) Check your email daily for offers, many times bookies will send you personalised offers just for you, and these can be very VERY generous.
(2) Check the Reload Offers section on Team profit every morning to see what offers are available that day.
(3) Offers change all the time- Don't let this put you off. There are always new offers to replace the previous ones. There are also Weekly/Daily offers ( Coral £50 free bet, Paddy power refund if 2nd 3rd 4th, William hill money back if second, Paddy Power 2up, Bet clubs etc) which are constantly available when sport is on.
(4) Make Mug bets ( Explained more in PART 3)
(5) It all adds up. Don't think "It's only a £5 free bet, not worth matching". I get around 15 £5 free bets every week, If I ignored them all I would be down £200 at the end of the month.
(6) Don't spend all day at it. Once you've checked your email and reload offers, you know what offers you need to do that day. Set alarms so you can make your matches before each event starts, but don't spend ages sitting at your computer waiting for "the perfect match", for your own mental health, set a time limit of 1 hour per day at most.

PART 3: FAQ
(1) How much money do you need to put in to start?
When you go onto the offers page on Team Profit after signing up, there is an option to start with £25, £50 or £100. You can select one of those three options And it will show you a different number of offers according to your selection. I started with £100 because I wanted to get things moving a little quicker. I did this so that I would have enough money for liability to do a bigger earning offer at the start. One year later, and having see the potential for profit, I keep around £500 floating between my accounts. This is useful for large sporting events where I may want to do around 10- 15 offers in a short time.
(2) Is it in anyway going to impact my credit score?
Using gambling sites doesn't effect your credit score unless you borrow money to fund it. I do all my match betting through a virtual bank (Monzo) in order to keep that stuff out of my main bank on the off chance that it raises any eyebrows. You'll be using Monzo like a cash card, where you can only spend the money you put into the card. This is why it won't affect your credit score, because you wouldn't be taking out an overdraft or using credit for example.
(3) What is Mug Betting?
Mug Betting is where you make bets that have no relation to any offer or promotion in order to appear like a regular punter. If you are doing a lot of offers on one site, it's a good idea to make mug bets in order to avoid being "gubbed" (Gubbed is a term for when bookies realise you are only taking advantadge of promotions and close your account permanantly). Of course you will also Match these "Mug bets" on the exchange. Make 1-2 Mug bets on Each site every week(On the sites you are using a lot for offers and promotions) in order to ensure your accounts last longer than 1-2 years. I have been matching for well over a year and have never been gubbed. Take the extra couple of minutes to Mug bet, it's worth it.
More on Mug betting here

Ok so that's everything I can think of to share with you guys, The link to sign up to your free Team Profit account is at the bottom of Part 1 of this guide.
TLDR: You do not need to "gamble" to match bet, in fact by definition, the bet you make is "matched" on the exchange, so it is not a gamble in any sense.
I really hope this guide will help someone out because It really is a solid way to sort out a months rent for quite a modest amount of work.
Thanks for Reading.

BULLISH $SQ $DKNG $BA Option Plays [07/21/2020]

I Tried HBT1 - AMA

Purchased 1g HBT1, a non-excitotoxic high impact AMPAR positive allosteric modulator with negligible agonistic effects, from a reputable vendor. You can read more about it on your own if you're interested. Here are some notes. There's not very much research on it, and my ultimate verdict is that, at the current point in time, despite its robust effects, it is not worth purchasing, as the price per dose is astronomically high, and the investigational TAK-137, which has more animal research behind it, should be more potent, orally active, and affordable, and should be investigated further as a nootropic rather than HBT1.
I tried multiple routes of administration, and found the only ROA which produced any perceivable effects was intranasal. I discussed this with my chemist friend, who told me he believed the peptide-like bonds would be hydrolyzed in the stomach if taken orally, and that the compound is not lipophilic enough to cross the BBB. At a glance, it doesn't resemble any endogenous compound which would be granted entry to the brain by way of a membrane-bound transporter. This supports my experience that with HBT1, intranasal administration is the only ROA worth pursuing, as it should be able to bypass the BBB by way of nerves exposed to the nasal cavity.
I didn't notice much from my initial experiences. I titrated up from a dose of 5mg all the way up to 50mg (intranasally, I tried various doses sublingually/orally to no avail). I then consulted the study and found that, in the presence of 3 millimoles of glutamate, up to 10 micromoles of HBT1 was necessary to achieve a significant effect on Ca2+ influx. The investigational compound TAK-137 appears to be much more potent, being orally active at human equivalent doses of 5mg orally, and has much more animal research behind it.
My money considered wasted at this point, I decided to titrate higher out of sheer curiosity. I highly recommend against this kind of reckless behavior, but I'm relatively experienced with self-experimentation. I would have run tests blinding myself but money was the prohibitive factor here, and my supply was dwindling.
Over the course of 24h, I consumed roughly 500mg of HBT1 intranasally, in increments of 100mg. I also coingested 10mg methylphenidate after several hours of the 400mg dose, which is reckless for most, but I took this compound starting in early childhood so my brain is thoroughly used to it. I dosed 10mg methylphenidate orally with the next dose as well, and redosed 20mg on 2 other occasions totalling 60mg, my prescribed daily dose. After each increment, and after each methylphenidate dose, I tested my digit span using the human benchmark tool. I also tested my reaction time at each dose increment.
While this might be considered reckless, I'm quite experienced with methylphenidate, and I wasn't worried as AMPAR PAMs are known to increase inhibitory signalling as a compensatory mechanism, explaining their anxiolytic effects, and I also coingested a low dose of an NMDA antagonist, 600mg NAC, and Magnesium Malate (as I always do with methylphenidate to prevent tolerance), so I wasn't concerned about excitotoxicity.
The compound has a silicate-like consistency, and intranasal administration without the use of a nasal spray lended to some getting in my lungs, which was not pleasant. It also resulted in a paste-like substance forming in my nasal cavity out of the HBT mixed with my mucous several hours later, which was unpleasant and required flushing my nasal cavity with warm saline after loosening the mucous with NAC, Ginger (pressed against the roof of the mouth), and a warm wash cloth on my face, as well as relying on the decongestant properties of methylphenidate and adding Quercetin and Boswellia.
Now onto the effects.
WOW. When I say wow, I mean wow. I'm simply blown away at the magnitude of effects from something I originally thought was placebo and a waste of money. This blows any nootropic or stimulant I've ever used out of the water. My digit span as measured by humanbenchmark increased from an average of 9 to an average of 12. My reaction time increased from an average of ~325ms to ~190-200ms. Interestingly, the methylphenidate did little to improve my reaction time compared to the HBT alone, and I write the improvement in performance off as negligible (the HBT gave me nearly a 110ms increase at 400mg, while adding methylphenidate only increased my reaction time by roughly 30ms by the time I'd dosed all 60mg, and my final test was actually lower than it was when I tested it at 40mg mph + 400mg HBT).
HBT gave me an extreme increase in visual clarity unlike anything any nootropic or stimulant ever has. It was like switching from a 30fps monitor to a 60 or 120fps monitor. That's the only way I can describe it. Brighter colors were brighter and darker colors were darker, but it was like the "framerate" increase of CDP-Choline times twenty. I can't put into words how much smoother objects appear to move, and how much easier it is to discern their relative velocity. It really does feel like I've been seeing the world at a lower framerate, like I've been taking in less visual information at once. The visual improvement is on par with the auditory improvement from adamantyl-carbonyl-proline, which felt like going from 2D to 3D hearing, and made me aware of the overtones in my voice, as well as the way sounds were bouncing around in my environment. There was a significant auditory improvement from HBT1, but it was nothing compared to the visual improvement. My mental sketchpad was also much more vibrant, and when I was thinking of tasks, I could reach back further in my memory and put together complex tasks more easily. It was like there was less uncertainty with the information and skills in my mind, and I knew exactly what I was capable of. Memories resurfaced from my past rapidly, and I felt a persistent warm, calm, stimulated feeling quite similar to my early experiences with low dose DXM. There is definitely something shared between NMDA antagonists and AMPA PAMs as is said in the literature. It certainly felt like the antidepressant, stimulant effects of NMDA antagonists without the dissociation. Everything felt as if life was a video game. This gave me the idea to start work on my own video game, and putting together the pieces of the workflow was easier than I imagined. I was enveloped by this subtle feeling of nostalgia, similar to the "honeymoon" effects of stimulants. The memory of eating cheese on the beach with my first girlfriend, kneeboarding with my best friend, the time we went to his family's beach house spontaneously and played Magic the Gathering and chugged sugar free monsters in high school flooded my mind. I must note, this wasn't a high, just a content, refreshed feeling. I felt like my old self. It wasn't euphoric, it was just refreshing, like drinking ice cold water after playing a sport under the hot sun.
This next effect of HBT1, the memory enhancement, is what was the deal breaker for me. As an 11 year old on stimulants, I had an incredible memory, one I've wished I could achieve again. HBT1 gave me temporary freedom from the brain fog and mental fatigue that has been plaguing me most of my life that sometimes is lifted by stimulants for a few fleeting moments without any of the antisocial or anxiety-inducing effects, or the dopaminergic rush. I was simply content, clear, and capable. I also couldn't stand the taste of cigarettes and didn't smoke for the entire day. When I was 11, I once memorized 46 digits of pi off a poster in my math teacher's room out of sheer boredom. I often cited this as the peak of my cognitive performance before stress, puberty, and drug use took that away from me. With HBT1, I blew that out of the water. As of now, I am capable of reciting over 120 digits of pi. I memorized all of them in roughly an hour or two on HBT1, and they are still with me today, the day after the experience. I do feel some residual effects of HBT on my consciousness but the magic is gone. I'm simply not as free from my mental shackles, though there is significant enhancement of my vision, just nothing like HBT1 gave me.
So why is my final verdict a no? HBT1 is not efficient at what it does, and it's damn expensive. I insufflated as much powder and money as a cokehead does at a party to achieve these effects, and there's not even been animal research done, so we have no idea what this stuff does in the long run. There is a bit of info on the hydrolyzed metabolites, that is if intranasal HBT1 is metabolized that way, and none of them scream toxicity, but it's still something we don't know the safety on yet, and you would need to ingest huge doses of it through a not-so-healthy route. Ultimately, my verdict is a no, it's not worth $80 for about 2 of these experiences and the potential dangers of it. On the bright side, the preliminary research on TAK-137 seems extremely promising, and it even binds to the same site, termed the "HBT1 site" in the literature. I'm extremely excited for a potentially potent and orally active drug that works the same as HBT1, and I think that is exactly where we should be putting our bets for the next grand nootropic.
TL;DR yeah I'm a reckless idiot and HBT1 is awesome but it's probably not good to do in the long run and absurdly expensive as well as uncomfortable to dose. TAK-137 is what you should have your eyes on in the near future.

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Jul. 22, 2002

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:


1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002
3-4-2002	3-11-2002	3-18-2002	3-25-2002
4-1-2002	4-8-2002	4-15-2002	4-22-2002
4-29-2002	5-6-2002	5-13-2002	5-20-2002
5-27-2002	6-3-2002	6-10-2002	6-17-2002
6-24-2002	7-1-2002	7-8-2002	7-15-2002

WWE hit the reset button again with a new storyline assigning general managers to each brand, and it featured the shocking debut of Eric Bischoff. The new storyline will have Bischoff as the heel GM of Raw, while Stephanie McMahon will be the babyface GM of Smackdown, while Vince McMahon will take more of a backseat role and reduce his TV presence. Of course, just 5 weeks ago, Vince panicked and blew up the existing "feuding GMs" storyline between himself and Ric Flair, so now we're re-starting it with new people I guess. It feels like a last-ditch effort to save the brand extension, which has been an utter flop since day one, with no effort to differentiate the shows and only resulting in diluting the talent and falling ratings.
Bischoff and McMahon struck a secret deal about 10 days prior to his debut. Bischoff had talks with WWE last year about coming in during the original Invasion angle, except they only wanted him to do a one-off match with Vince for the PPV (which Vince would obviously have won), but Bischoff turned down that offer. But this time, they agreed to a more long-term deal. Bischoff didn't know he was going to debut on Raw until just a day or two prior, when Vince called him and told him to be there. The whole thing was kept secret and almost no one other than Vince himself knew about it. This is believed to be a unique contract, in which it's a short-term deal with the option to renew it for longer-term if the angle gets over. His only role is as a television character, it's strictly a performance contract. Bischoff is not going to be a part of management or creative.
When Bischoff walked across the screen in the backstage segment, almost everyone in the company was just as shocked as the viewers at home. Bischoff's debut saw him come out and hug Vince, which Dave thinks about is the dumbest possible way to introduce him. Sure, the Invasion angle is over but WCW's corpse isn't completely cold yet. It's only been a year or so. There is probably still plenty of money to be made in Bischoff as an outsider trying to destroy Vince McMahon and the WWE. But as always, that would involve Vince allowing himself or WWE to look vulnerable against an "outsider" and his utter refusal to do that is a big part of what tanked the Invasion. But that's par for the course. Bischoff cut a promo, giving the fake "WWE version" of the Monday Night Wars history (Dave points out multiple inaccuracies that WWE still clings on today, such as claiming they stole Hulk Hogan from WWF. Of course, Hulk had been in NJPW and hadn't worked for WWF for nearly a year at the time WCW signed him. Things like that.). Dave thinks it became one of those promos full of old stuff or inside references where so much of it is about things that the average fan doesn't know or care about. Dave thinks most of this audience in 2002 isn't familiar with Alundra Blayze, they don't know Raw used to be taped instead of live, and they don't care about 83-week TV ratings streaks (Dave also notes that Bischoff said 84 on this show, which is incorrect). And once again, it became one of those promos talking about how much WWE sucks lately, which is something you don't want to keep pointing out to the fans who are still watching because you just make them feel dumb for supporting something that even the people producing it knows sucks. Shit like that is partly what drove off WCW fans. Bischoff also gloated about almost putting WWE out of business, and to the many guys in the locker room who remember that vividly, it wasn't a joke or a storyline. Those are guys who really were fighting for their job against a guy who really was trying to put them out of business. Bischoff has tremendous heat from the locker room, with a lot of people who worked for him in WCW or who resent him from the WWE side....they don't want Bischoff there.

WATCH: Eric Bischoff debuts in on WWE Raw - 2002

This angle was going to take place regardless, but it's thought that the injury to Kevin Nash may have moved things up a couple of weeks because Vince once again panicked when his plans went down in flames. Nash had surgery last week. Because of the location of the tear, it's not quite as serious as the tear Triple H suffered last year. But Nash is also 10 years older. However, he has vowed to return, noting he doesn't want his career to end like that. With his age and his track record of injuries (this is his 22nd surgery, dating back to his collegiate basketball days), Dave isn't sure how much Nash will be able to offer if/when he returns next year. Also, while nobody wanted Nash to get hurt, the mood in the locker room was said to be much happier this week without him around, as the whole Nash/X-Pac/Shawn/Triple H group isn't very well liked these days (the more things change...)
Speaking of X-Pac, a weird situation with him this week led to him being suspended by WWE. The day of the Raw when Nash tore his quad, X-Pac missed his flight to the show. Why? Well, he was hospitalized earlier that day in Minneapolis. Again, you ask, why? No idea. Sounds like X-Pac sure would like to know also. He called WWE saying he was in the emergency room and had no idea how he got there. He left the ER and made new travel arrangements and he got to Raw 90 minutes before the show started. And then he went out there that night and worked his match (and Dave says looked more impressive than he had in a long time). However, after the match, he still couldn't explain to WWE officials how or why he was in the hospital earlier that day and so they were naturally suspicious. As a result, X-Pac has been suspended and removed from all upcoming bookings until they get a medical report on what the deal is. Dave says X-Pac has been acting out of control for weeks now and it's been well-documented (threatening to quit if match finishes weren't changed week after week). The feeling backstage was that as long as Nash was around to go to bat for him, he was basically protected, but no longer. With Hall fired, Nash out for probably a year, X-Pac suspended, and Hogan a babyface, the feeling within the company is that the NWO angle is dead. Shawn Michaels is still expected to appear at upcoming house shows and Raws in some new role, since much of the advertising for those shows was based around him appearing, but this is probably the end of the road for the NWO. (This kinda flew under the radar, but yeah, X-Pac never wrestled another match in WWE. The match where Nash tore his quad remains to this day the last time X-Pac ever worked a match in a WWE ring. He gets released soon after this and we all know in retrospect that he was dealing with some drug issues throughout this time).
Dave provides some details on Vince Russo's first (and only) creative meeting when he was briefly rehired by WWE last month. Russo apparently proposed a Raw vs. Smackdown feud that would eventually lead to reviving one of them as WCW and reigniting the WCW vs. WWE war. This time, they would have Eric Bischoff leading the WCW side, while Russo suggested Mick Foley as the leader of the WWE side. It was pretty much made clear to Russo during the meeting that if they were to do a Raw vs. Smackdown angle, it would be Stephanie in charge of the WWE side, not Foley, and sure enough, that's what is expected to happen (but without the whole WCW-revival part). Russo's idea was pretty much a combination of the 2001 Invasion angle and the 2000 WCW Bischoff/Russo angle. Dave notes that Russo wanted to essentially start from scratch again, strip everyone of their belts the way they did in 2000, and bring in Bret Hart and Goldberg to be involved as well.
A big recap of UFC's debut show in England, which featured rising star Frank Mir getting beat in what should have been an upset, but word is Mir didn't take the fight seriously and barely trained. As a result, he got murked in the first round. Also, while in England, some people in Tito Ortiz's camp got into a big drunken bar brawl with fellow fighter Lee Murray. Chuck Liddell was somewhere involved too. Anyway, long story short, some people tell the story that Murray knocked Ortiz out. Ortiz denies it (to this day, this is a famous MMA story and both men tell different versions, so depending on who you believe I guess).
TNA's 4th show ended with a strong angle that actually got them some national publicity. It involved Tennessee Titans players Frank Miller and Zach Piller hopping the rail and attacking Jeff Jarrett and some other wrestlers, resulting in a big brawl to end the show. So how much of it was real or shoot? Well, Russo is involved, so who knows. The official story is that Jarrett and Piller were supposed to shove each other from across the rail, but that's it. From NFL sources, Dave has actually heard the same thing. It was supposed to stop at a shoving confrontation, and then Malice would come pull Jarrett away. That was the story as Russo allegedly wrote it. But reportedly, Piller had been drinking and he ended up hopping the rail and straight up overpowered Jarrett like it was nothing and took him down. Whether this was a shoot or a work is still unknown, but it ended up getting them coverage on SportsCenter and Dave says it's possible it was a work that only a few people were in on. If it was a work, nobody else was in on it. Ron Harris, who works backstage, almost rushed to the ring to save Jarrett and Malice (who wasn't supposed to touch the football players) got involved and broke it up quickly. After the show, the players were backstage laughing and joking with Jarrett and Miller has been openly telling people it was all planned and they were told to make it look as real as possible, but it's still unknown if jumping the rail and tackling Jarrett was part of the plan or not. Several other Titans players were at ringside with them and saw it unfold, but mostly didn't get involved. So now after the publicity, TNA is trying to see if they can make a match out of this. Either way, it's starting to feel like an elaborate work that none of the rest of the roster was clued in on, which is exactly the kind of shit Russo used to do constantly in WCW that soured morale among the locker room, and for this to happen on Russo's first night in, with an angle he wrote, sure feels a little familiar.

WATCH: Tennessee Titans/TNA brawl

Puerto Rico's IWA had its most successful show in company history, drawing more than 11,000 fans (without a single WWE name on the card) to see the payoff of an angle with Savio Vega fighting for control of the company. WHO SAID SAVIO AIN'T A DRAW?!
On the other side of things, WWC has postponed its anniversary show from August to September in order to give themselves more time to build up big angles and storylines. Seems like something they probably should have been planning earlier? IWA has become the dominant promotion in Puerto Rico and WWC felt they didn't have the build-up necessary to do a big-money show right now. Especially after this IWA show did such big business, anything less would be an embarrassment.
Bischoff's debut on Raw was a pretty big hit. How big, you ask? During Bischoff's in-ring promo after his debut, Raw added nearly 1.1 million new viewers from the previous segment. Meaning that as soon as Bischoff walked across the screen backstage, tons of wrestling fans started calling their friends telling them, "Holy shit, Eric Bischoff is on Raw, turn it on!" The bad news is that as soon as Bischoff's promo was over, a lot of them tuned right back out, leading to a huge drop-off for the rest of the show. On the flip side, this week's Smackdown, featuring the heavily-hyped return of The Rock ended up being the 7th lowest rated episode of the show in history (4th if you don't count holidays). Rock's not a draw, bet he won't even be in the business in a couple more years.
Kenta Kobashi is finally back in the ring, wrestling undercard prelim tag matches for NOAH. Even though he's in tags and doing limited in-ring work, his knees are said to be already killing him and one of them totally locked up on him after one of his recent matches. But he still hasn't missed any dates.
NJPW announced that Kensuke Sasaki will face Pancrase star Minoru Suzuki at the Tokyo Dome in October. This match was actually planned for the big Tokyo Dome show back in May, but negotiations fell apart because Pancrase didn't like the idea of Suzuki doing a worked pro-wrestling match. Suzuki started his career in NJPW back in 1988 and was being groomed to be a big star for the company, but he quit and joined UWF because he preferred to work shoot-style matches. In 1993, he and a few other guys all started Pancrase, which he's been doing ever since. These days, Suzuki's days of fighting for them at a top level are over and he usually only competes against nobodies or in catch wrestling (grappling and submission only, no striking). Anyway, for those curious, this didn't happen. Not sure why yet, I haven't gotten that far, but Suzuki doesn't return to NJPW until 2003.
Goldberg is said to be leaning very much against going to WWE anytime soon and is instead eyeing his options of working big shows in Japan. He's contemplating an offer to make an appearance at Toryumon's show in Tokyo in September, but only an appearance. He doesn't plan to wrestle until later in the year (don't think the Toryumon appearance happens, but he does end up working a few matches in Japan here soon).
Bret Hart is still hoping to make his scheduled appearance for Jacques Rougeau's upcoming indie show in Montreal. If you recall, Rougeau's big show there last year drew over 11,000 fans and he's got himself another big stadium to fill this year and Bret was expected to be the biggest draw. Whether he'll be healthy enough to make the show, following his recent stroke, remains to be seen but he's determined to try. As of this week, Hart is able to lift his left arm over his head. Just a week ago, he couldn't move it at all. His grip strength is also coming back and he's able to walk short distances. His vocal cords were also damaged but have started strengthening again and he's able to talk again (though he can't cut a wrestling promo yet, Dave says, so he might not be doing much other than coming out and waving to the crowd if he does make it). He's still having some vision problems also, but not too bad all things considered.
Dave says that "no matter what you may hear," a lot of people involved in TNA behind the scenes are very unhappy about Vince Russo being brought in. He also says that a lot of people associate Russo and Ed Ferrara together, but they actually had a major falling out awhile back and hadn't been on speaking terms until now. When it became clear Russo was coming back, Ferrara reached out to Russo and the two sides made up. He goes on record saying for sure that neither Mike Tenay or Bill Behrens are happy about Russo's arrival, among others, but says everyone is being professional.
Notes from TNA Weekly PPV: Crowd of about 1,500, only about half paid. Dave says it was easily the best of the 4 shows they've had so far. About 85% of it was written and booked by Jerry Jarrett and the original writing team before Russo was hired, but Russo did make some changes. Dave says some people are beginning to get tired of Don West on commentary already and he definitely brings a ton of enthusiasm (but nothing else, Dave adds) to the table. During the Ken Shamrock vs. Omori match, the crowd was distracted by one of the cage dancers near the entrance who was apparently showing her ass to the crowd. Former WCW wrestler Crowbar (real name Chris Ford) worked a tag match under the name Tempest and Dave notes that when Ford worked a try-out match for WWE awhile back, he also signed over the name Crowbar to them when he did (guessing Dave is mistaken about this. He never used the name Crowbar in TNA, but he's been using it everywhere else ever since for the last 18 years). Brian Christopher is now going by his real name, Brian Lawler, and cut a promo on Jerry Lawler about being a bad father. It got a lot of heat but now they've made fans want to see a match that they can't deliver. K-Krush faced NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler and got DQ'd. Dave says Krush was absolutely awesome here, actually carrying Sadler to a watchable match. Sadler was awful of course, but the Gayda/Stratus match from Raw was light years worse, so hey, who cares? TNA tried to bring in Hermie's more famous older brother Elliott Sadler, but that fell through because Elliott has some type of affiliation with WWE, though Dave isn't sure what (I did the research and apparently Elliott drove a Summerslam-themed car during a race around this time, so I assume that's it).
More notes from TNA Weekly PPV, since this recap is huge and big, unbroken paragraphs suck: Mark and Jay Brisco worked a brief match until Malice ran in and destroyed everyone (Dave says this was a Russo addition to the show. Dave also says the Briscos will be great some day and notes that on this show, the announcers lied and said both of them are 18, when in fact, Mark Brisco is still 17 and therefore not even allowed to wrestle in many commission states). Former porn star and ECW valet Jasmine St. Claire debuted and gave Jeremy Borash a lap dance, took off her underwear, and was about to strip nude until a big angle stopped it. And yes, in case it wasn't obvious, this was another Russo addition. AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn are the tag team champions and ended up in a big brawl backstage. If you've been paying attention to the show the last 2 weeks, you would have recognized that they were doing a slow build with these two partners having friction, but Russo convinced Jarrett to hurry up and pull the trigger on the split, so here we are. Dave thinks this had no impact at all because it felt completely rushed, the story hadn't progressed far enough yet for these two to already be coming to blows. Another interview with the Dupps saying "shit" repeatedly was, yes, another Russo addition. Try not to cut yourself on all this edginess. Shamrock vs. NOAH star Takao Omori ended in a no contest because of politics. Shamrock was supposed to win clean, but then NOAH decided they didn't want Omori to do a job, so this is what we got. Dave thinks TNA should have said screw them then and just not used Omori because it's not like TNA's fanbase knows who the fuck he is anyway. Omori was said to have been spaced out all day beforehand and looked bad in the match. Crowd didn't care and they pumped in a ton of fake crowd noise for it. Jeff Jarrett ran in and took everyone out with chair shots, including "NWA rep" Harley Race, who ate a brutal unprotected chair shot to the head from Jeff and Dave thinks that's not good for anyone's brain, especially a guy pushing 60. Race was there basically to help Omori since Harley's small promotion in St. Louis has a relationship with NOAH. And finally, the 6-man X-Division #1 contenders match was excellent. Dave thinks WWE really missed the boat on Jerry Lynn and K-Krush. He admits Lynn probably couldn't have ever been a top guy in WWE or anything, but he makes everybody he wrestles look like a million bucks and guys like that are priceless to have on your roster. They also pumped a bunch of crowd noise in for this match, and at one point, the fake crowd noise loop stopped and there was a moment where it went from a loud roaring crowd to dead silence in a blink. Also, a fight in the stands distracted the crowd near the end. But great match otherwise. Show ended with the Titans players angle.
In other news, The Shane Twins have been working as the masked penis wrestlers The Johnsons in TNA but the penis aspect of it has been played down to almost nothing. Upcoming plans were for the team to unmask and revert back to the Shane Twins, but when Russo came aboard, that plan got scrapped and they will remain The Johnsons for now. Because dammit, Russo will get to make penis jokes on TV or he's going to die trying.
Many of the key names in TNA (Shamrock, AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Mike Tenay, among others) have now signed 1-year contracts. Scott Hall was rumored to have also signed a 1-year deal, but Hall is telling people it's not true and he's only committed for 4 more dates. Low-Ki is signed through the end of the year.
At the recent K-1 vs. PRIDE show, there was a huge upset when PRIDE fighter Quinton Jackson knocked out Cyril Abidi, one of the top kickboxers in the world. The "plan" was for Abidi to win and then go on to a bigger money match with Don Frye, but that's what happens when you try to plan things around a shoot.
And I'm sorry, I know this ain't an MMA recap, but this is too good: at the UFC press conference for the UK show this week, Dana White showed up with a bag filled with $250,000 in cash and challenged UK boxing promoter Frank Warren to put up any fighter in his stable and White would find a UFC fighter of the same weight to fight him, winner takes all the money. If you recall, Warren made some statements a few weeks back calling UFC fighters unskilled steroid freaks and claiming that his boxers could beat any of them in a real fight. So Dana showed up with a whole bag of cash, doing Dana things.
Notes from Raw: Vince came out to the NWO music and said that's the last time we'll ever hear it and that the NWO is dead, so as expected, that's it for that gimmick. Tommy Dreamer is back to his old ECW gimmick and is already 1000x more over than the jobber-eating-gross-stuff gimmick WWE gave him. There was a Coach/Booker T segment backstage which is when Eric Bischoff walked through the shot, leaving everybody with their mouths hanging open, and then his promo. Another hype video for Rey Mysterio debuting on Smackdown next week. Former WCW wrestler and recent developmental guy Johnny The Bull made his Raw debut winning the hardcore title, and Dave is baffled how he got the call up because he's one of the worst guys they have in developmental and is nowhere near ready. But it's all about how he looks. Undertaker & Lesnar beat RVD & Flair in the main event and afterward, Lesnar turned on Undertaker in a good angle, though Dave doesn't have high hopes for the inevitable match.

WATCH: Rey Mysterio debut vignette

Notes from Smackdown: it was a pretty bad show and for a pretty surprising reason. It was all built around Rock and he was awful. Rather than trying to sell a PPV, he came off like he was trying too hard to be a funny, "cool" guy and became a parody of himself. Dave is a huge Rock fan and thinks it was painful. He did a big in-ring promo segment with rapper Busta Rhymes that was just an elaborate plug for his new Halloween: Resurrection movie ("coming out in July?" Dave asks incredulously and, right, wtf?). Even Rock using Angle's own ankle lock against him at the end of the show looked hilariously fake and Dave has no interest in the Rock/Angle match at Vengeance after this show. Edge & Hogan defending the tag titles was a super heated match and Dave can't understand it. The live crowds are still nuclear hot for Hogan, but it's not translating at all into TV ratings or ticket sales. But man, the people who do buy tickets sure do love him. They seem to be slow-burning a Randy Orton heel turn. The Nidia segment at the buffet was great and Dave thinks they may have stumbled across a pretty great gimmick with her.

WATCH: The Rock & Busta Rhymes Smackdown segment

The crew got a little backstage pep talk before Raw this week, mostly given by the agents (John Laurinaitis, Arn Anderson, and Fit Finlay) as well as Triple H. In particular, Triple H talked about there being too many people in the locker room who think they deserve a push ahead of the newer guys because they've been there longer. He said too many guys are sitting back waiting for someone to give them a push rather than breaking out from the pack and earning the push. He said he got over on his own when management was trying to hold him down after the MSG curtain call incident. Said too many guys are being lazy, playing cards and playing video games backstage rather than watching the matches and learning. He said just because you've had a few good matches on TV doesn't mean you know how to work or deserve a push, and also said everyone needs to work harder at house shows because attendance is down and it was guys like him who worked hard to re-build the company the last time business was down. Needless to say, for a locker room full of people who feel like they bust their asses only to get their legs cut off and hit a glass ceiling (often at the hands of the same guy giving the speech), this went over just about as well as you'd expect with the rest of the locker room. Not that anything Triple H said is wrong. Dave agrees with most of it. But considering who the messenger was, it was not well-received.
Lots of backstage talk about last week's Bradshaw/Trish Stratus vs. Chris Nowinski/Jackie Gayda match, which was among the worst matches anyone has seen in years. Fit Finlay is the usual trainer and agent for the women and usually goes over their matches and spots with them, but in this case, Sgt. Slaughter put together this match. Gayda missed a few spots early in the match and seemed to panic and it all fell apart from there. Backstage, she was fully aware of how bad it was and was said to be extremely upset. There's been talk of sending her down to OVW for more training, but she'll probably still be on TV because she's fresh off winning Tough Enough.
Steve Austin hasn't had any contact with anyone in WWE except for Jack Lanza, who was the agent Austin often worked with for his matches. All that's known now is Austin told Lanza he's still training hard and Lanza felt like he's getting antsy sitting at home and may be ready to return already (I think he's got bigger problems at home). But Austin and Vince still have not spoken and there's still a lot of bad feelings there.
In light of recent events, Dave digs up the transcript from an old Prodigy online chat from 1996, in which Eric Bischoff was asked if he would ever work for Vince McMahon. His response: "I would rather chew off my fingers."
Writer Brian Gewertz reportedly has some heat over Raw's declining ratings. The problem is, no matter who it is (Gewertz, Heyman, Russo, or even Stephanie), the final approval for everything you see on television comes down to Vince McMahon. He deserves the credit when it's good and the blame when it's bad, end of story. It's a common occurrence for Vince to rip up a script and tell the writers to come up with something new, so any bad segment that makes it to TV is on him, and resulting in lots of last minute changes. Some people are even blaming Gewertz for Kevin Nash's recent injury because Gewertz wrote the match into the script the day of the show, so Nash wasn't even aware he was going to be wrestling until a couple hours before they went on the air and I guess he didn't have time to properly stretch and get ready, and ended up tearing his quad 10 seconds in. Same thing with Cena's debut, that was a day-of decision, and luckily Cena was already on the road with the crew working dark matches, so he was available. But again, Dave says you can't blame Gewertz for either of those things because, once again, it's Vince who is constantly changing his mind and forcing last minute rewrites and whatnot every week. How is Gewertz or any other writer supposed to build long-term stories under those conditions? (Man, this sure feels familiar)
Latest on DDP, he and wife Kimberly are planning on moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles to try their hand at acting careers. They've both saved a lot of money from their years in wrestling and can afford to take a chance on this kind of thing I guess. (DDP has done a handful of acting roles, mostly in the mid-00s, but obviously nothing of note. And Kimberly Page did a few movies, including a starring role with DDP in a movie called The Scam Artist that I can't find anywhere, and of course, her most famous role as "chick who's tit fell out" in The 40 Year Old Virgin).
Randy Orton suffered a concussion in a house show match with Batista. Orton was trying to sell a clothesline by flying in the air and taking a big flat back bump, but hit his head on the mat coming down and was knocked unconscious. He should be back in a week or so though, because it's not like concussions are serious injuries or anything. EMT's helped him out of the ring and he walked to the back under his own power but he was knocked clean the fuck out for a bit there.
This week's episode of WWE Confidential featured Big Show and Bradshaw playing a game of HORSE with the winner "getting a shot to sexually harass Linda Miles." So obviously they're out of ideas for this show. (Yeah JBL is on some full-blown Jerry Lawler shit with Miles here).

WATCH: JBL perving on Linda Miles for 5 minutes under the guise of playing basketball

John Cena is still finishing up in OVW and working the upcoming big Six Flags show in Louisville. Despite being a big babyface on TV, he's still a heel in OVW and is playing a gimmick where his main roster success is going to his head.
The New York Daily News ran a story on the "Sex, Lies & Headlocks" book that is coming out soon about Vince McMahon and noted several revelations in the book, such as Vince being paranoid about his office being bugged in 1993 prior to the steroid trial and how he wouldn't sit or talk near windows because he thought the FBI was listening in. It also talked about how Vince gave a job interview to Matt Lauer to host the WBF Bodystars show but didn't think Lauer had the right look, among other things. When asked for comment, WWE responded "No one in WWE has any interest in reading it. No one cares to." Dave says that's 2002 carny talk for, "Can you get us an advance copy?"

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Raw appears to turn a corner (lol no), WWE making major cutbacks and severing developmental ties, TNA also making major budget cuts, WWE Vengeance fallout, and more...

I'm Nick Pollack with the Pitcher List staff. It's Friday, so let's talk all things Fantasy Baseball. AMA.

Poppy Seed Tea Guide - My thoughts and findings after 10 years.

Hi all,
To say thank you for all the great advice here, I'm going to put down everything I've found about PST over my 10 years of use. If others want to contribute, or find something that is wrong or shouldn't be in here, I'll be happy to make updates. I won't be discussing or responding to any questions about sourcing.
* DISCLAIMER: While I've run this guide past a medical professional who is a part of the sub, NONE of this should be taken as medical advice. Everything I've put down here is simply my experience as a 10 year user of PST, and 15 year user of opiates and opioids. Remember this: PST is liquid opium - morphine and codeine - drugs that have killed many people. It's not a toy, and it's not a competitive sport, like a 'smoke-a-thon'. If you don't use poppy seeds with intelligence and respect, they can kill you.
I don't use meth, and wouldn't write a guide for it. But speaking as somebody with chronic pain caused by an auto-immune disease, and the failure of doctors to properly support me, I have to look after myself. Many here are in the same boat. I am able to lead a relatively healthy life with PST, so I can attest that there is a legitimate use for it. Please understand that I'm coming from a position of using PST as pain relief. If you're a purely recreational user without pain, understand that because of a number of factors, primarily availability and a wild variation in strength between sources and batches, PST can be incredibly addictive, dangerous, and the odds are against you being able to use it as a purely recreational experience without becoming addicted.
EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT
Not everybody gets the same effect from PST. I personally get euphoria & pain relief, followed by a sustained amount of energy. Others will be sleepy and nodding. Others get varying amounts of itchiness. Some never have a problem urinating, others can't squeeze a drop.
True story: I've met a person who was able to get a HUGE effect from just 2-3 tablespoons worth of the tea that I prepare for myself, when I'd drink 2-3 cups at that strength. Literally a tablespoon of average seeds had them on the ropes. The most important point here is that you can't take what one user advises as gospel.. including me. I'm trying to err well on the side of caution, particularly after seeing what 2% of my dose can do for someone without tolerance. Always stay safe.
TOLERANCE - START SMALL
Every supply will have differences from batch to batch. I've even noticed a difference from the top to the bottom of a large pack due to free opium dust making it's way to the bottom of a pack. If you're not 100% certain you know how strong your seeds are, start VERY small, at perhaps one ounce of seeds. I've had an extremely strong euphoric effect from 1/4 cup of seeds from a new supply combined with a new preparation method, where I was using 2 pounds per dose the previous day. The washing of seeds prior to sale varies, some may not be washed at all. This is the equivalent of taking a pharmaceutical tablet not knowing whether it's 30mg of Codeine, or 80mg of Oxycodone.
Following on from that, keep tolerance in mind, and monitor it as much as you can. While increasing tolerance is a pain in the ass, it does give you something of a buffer if the worst were to happen. A sudden decrease in tolerance can be VERY dangerous if you don't keep it in mind. If you were to use PST on Saturday and Sunday, then abstain during Monday to Friday, your tolerance will drop through the week. For those without solid experience and tolerance, and even experienced users at times, this can be treacherous. Don't use a large dose after even a few days off. Start small.
A great piece of advice is to split up a batch of tea, drinking a small amount, and waiting to see what effect it has. 60-90 minutes will be enough for you to feel the effects. Unless you know your seeds and what you're doing, don't gulp down your entire batch of tea in 30 seconds flat.
DOSE TIMING
If you're only using PST recreationally, I would recommend no more than 1 dose per week. At this level, you may have a chance at keeping this as a recreational thing without it spiraling. But the second you're starting to feel a compulsion to increase the frequency, addiction is at work and you're on the downward slope.
In my position, I regularly use 2 doses per day for pain management. The first is often one larger dose, with 1-2 much smaller follow-up doses to get to where I need to be for pain relief and energy. In the afternoon after work, I'll use medium sized dose to top me up for the rest of the day. As with other painkillers, you will get extra pain relief if you're only spacing doses by a few hours, but if you're trying to get a second buzz for the day, I'd recommend no less than 8 hours between doses, and no more than 2 doses per day. This seems to be the amount of time your body needs to 'reset', it's been my rule of thumb for 15 years, it works for me. Even then, if you follow this daily, it won't take long before you're increasing your dose or needing a day or two off to lower your tolerance.
Something I can say with reasonable certainty is that you can't take an initial dose, then do the same thing again in 2 hours time and expect another buzz. The body doesn't have unlimited chemicals to pump out every time you want to push the button. If I take my first dose of the day and it's weak, I know I can take a second dose which will elevate my energy levels, and that'll get me through the day. But it'll do little else.
It's very important to keep in mind that PST is longer acting than many other forms of pain relief. Some people have said they get a full 24 hour effect from a dose.. I personally get a solid 6-8 hours. If you aren't spacing out your doses enough, you are putting yourself at risk of an overdose. Add in a second dose when the first is still acting on your system, and you're at risk of overdosing. This is common in methadone users, because of the long acting nature of that bastard of a drug.
PREPARATION
Any time I mention how much seed I personally use for a dose, this is NOT a recommended dose for anybody else. This is what I personally use at the 15 year mark to control significant pain. It is a STRONG dose, taken by someone with SIGNIFICANT tolerance and LOTS of experience. The seeds are quite viable, but definitely not 'strong', not even close to some of the pictures I've seen of other sources. As per the story at the beginning, my dose could quite easily kill somebody.
START SMALL or don't start at all.
Most people including myself stick to the bottle method. Some do this on a stove top but I've never tried, so I won't comment there. I personally use either a 1.5, or 2.25 litre Coke bottle and fill with seeds to the bottom edge of the wrap-around label. I use either room temperature Coke Zero / No Sugar (for the high pH), or hot tap water with some sort of flavoring. While I've had many good highs from using cold water or cold Coke, warm/hot liquid does seem to reliably increase the strength. Because of variable seed strength, you may not get a consistently better effect from hot water over cold, but I do think that hot water is the most effective. There has always been some disagreement over whether boiling water destroys the alkaloids, so to err on the side of caution I don't put anything with the seeds that would burn my hand.
The seed-liquid ratio is hard to suggest, but you need to be able to freely shake the bottle without the mixture feeling like a slurry, or worse, wet cement. You need those seeds moving around without clumping up. Generally once I've shaken my bottle, the seeds will settle and there'll be roughly an inch of water above the seed line.
The bottle needs to be shaken hard, for around 1-2 minutes. The objective is to strip as much of the alkaloid on the outside of the seed off as possible, and getting it strained into a cup, without taking so long that the seeds will be to absorb liquid (and alkaloids).
As above, start small, drink 1/4 - 1/3 of your batch and see how you feel in 90 minutes. As you get more experienced you'll know what works.
TASTE
Poppy seed tea tastes like crap. It's hard to compare it to anything, but it should taste earthy, dirty, bitter. I've never met anyone who had anything nice to say about it. I've used sugar-free Coke for mine instead of water for a long time, and only just recently switched to plain water. You can add all sorts of things to make it taste better, fruit juice concentrates, teabags, sugar. Without any flavoring, you should be able to drink it with your nose blocked, unless you have a weak stomach. It's not nice, but no great drug tasted nice.
The bitterness can sometimes indicate that you've made a strong batch, but DON'T put too much faith in that. I've had batches that were incredibly bitter and did nothing, while I got caught out with one that tasted about as strong as a 5th or 6th wash (not that I wash that many times), yet it knocked me on my ass out of nowhere, to the point that I wouldn't have been able to work without being obviously high.
If you've water that is too hot, shaken the bottle for too long, or try to make a batch with yesterday's seeds, you'll get a distinct taste. It's hard to describe, but it tastes.. wrong. You'll notice a slightly fatty texture which is the seed's oils, and a vaguely organic decomposing smell. One smell/taste you can describe is the licorice odor that seeds give off when they've been in a bottle for a few days and started to pressurize the bottle. You'll smell it if you don't dispose of your seeds in 24-36 hours. Obviously these seeds are WELL beyond useless. Also, if you taste or smell anything 'chemical', get rid of the seeds.
COLOR
There are plenty of pictures on this sub showing what the color of good tea looks like. It should be cloudy, possibly with dirt and plant matter, and a beige to dark brown color. Two things to look out for - if it's milky white, that usually means seed oil, you've shaken too long or used water that is too hot. And if the water is completely clear, it's possible the seeds have been completely washed prior to sale (or worse, been used for tea and dried, then resold).
NAUSEA
Some people will experience stomach discomfort or nausea when taking recreational doses. Not all stomachs will thank you for dumping a large amount of foul tasting swill into them. It's worth noting this here, because a little nausea and discomfort isn't always an overdose symptom. You can usually ease the nausea by eating a small meal or a glass of milk prior, or during. Because of the reports of fat being able to increase opiate bioavailability, I would steer clear of really fatty foods here, carbs or protein will be safer.
OVERDOSE
I'm not an expert here, and the onus is on you, the user, to do your research on overdose symptoms before you experiment with ANY drug. But there are a few obvious ones that should never be ignored. Vomiting, slow breathing, reduced heart rate, vomiting, and nodding. If you're not familiar with nodding, it's nodding off to sleep. Think the stereotype of a heroin user in a movie. If your head is dipping, you're finding it hard to keep your eyes open, dropping off to sleep briefly.. you're in dangerous territory.
IMPORTANT: Like any opiate, you should never take PST with any other CNS depressant drug: alcohol, benzodiazepines, other opiates/opioids, or sedatives. They can dramatically increase the likelihood of respiratory depression and OD. In layman's terms, this will likely play out with you nodding, falling asleep, your breathing will slow to the point of stopping completely, and you will die without intervention.
PLEASE - spend 15 minutes looking into opiate/opioid overdose symptoms, and have a plan if you find yourself in trouble. Smart users have Narcan on their possession and somebody available to administer it. A large amount of overdoses happen when the user is alone, with nobody available to step in when things start going wrong.
DISCRETION
It can be difficult (but feasible) to keep preparation secret, if you're in that position. Shaking is noisy, but can be mitigated by wrapping the bottle in a blanket, masking with background noise, etc. Straining a bottle can cause cracking noises from deforming plastic, so my suggestion is not to squeeze the bottle too much. Squeeze out perhaps 10%, then with your hands wrapped around the bottle, you can manipulate the sides to suck in air and return to it's original shape, relatively quietly. If you squeeze to the point that the sides are touching, you'll make all sorts of cracking and snapping noises trying to get air back in so that the last of the liquid can be strained.
I also try to keep the bottle upside down from start to finish, so that the liquids are always toward the exit. If you have to put the bottle down, try to place it with the cap down (and obviously closed). It seems intuitive to have the bottle right way up to refill with air, but this can cause problems getting every last drop out.
The very last of the liquid will come out bubbling. This tells you you're at the end, and it can get a little noisy. When you hear this, squeeze gently or just call it, there's not much coming out at this point.
Poppy seeds are small and get EVERYWHERE. Keep an eye out for them. If they're regularly showing up around a sink, toilet or elsewhere and spotted, they could tip somebody off.
POTENTIATION
There are numerous threads all across the internet with lists of potentiators that can increase the effects of your PST. I personally haven't found anything groundbreaking here. Dosing on an empty stomach is well known and does seem to be quite noticeable over dosing after eating. In my experience, I can only guess that, at best, there might be an extra 5-10% increase up for grabs using common potentiators quoted online, which I don't find very noticeable. If you're using responsibly and have the potentiator on hand, you might find something that works, but generally speaking, there aren't any silver bullets that'll make your PST appreciably stronger. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is purported to keep tolerance from rising, but only if you're using it daily in a therapeutic level, as recommended on the packet.
Grapefruit juice is commonly recommended as a potentiator, and while it doesn't work for me, the medical professional who looked over this guide can attest that it does work. The simplified explanation is that it blocks the livekidney system from filtering the drug at the speed it normally does, thus increasing the amount in your blood. It's also important to note that Grapefruit juice has a wide range of interactions with other medications. It's not uncommon to see a prescription label with a warning not to drink Grapefruit juice while taking the prescribed medication. As with everything here, do your research. Definitely don't jump into potentiators until you're comfortable using PST on it's own.
There are some things that will decrease, or negate the effects of PST. To start with, I get a better result with less liquid used. If you're using larger amounts of seed, you can halve the amount of liquid by splitting the seed between two bottles. Shake the first, strain into the second, strain into a cup. This puts the available alkaloids up for grabs across less area in the stomach. Consuming a large wash, followed by a large second wash, is likely to decrease the intensity.
It's been said that eating a fatty meal after your dose can increase oral absorption of morphine somewhere in the range of +30%. In a thread in this sub, one user reported using peanut butter to achieve this. I'm yet to try this one. There are plenty of threads on potentiation to research if you want to go down this path.
The safest bet is to prepare your tea, drink it, and wait. If you need to, sip some water, but do your best to just let your stomach do it's job without interruption.
CONSTIPATION
Constipation is a big part of opiate use, and it can be quite extreme with PST. I highly recommend the regular use of a gentle stool softener like Coloxal & Senna. Magnesium tablets are well known to have a laxative effect. Coffee has always helped me. My first of the morning generally gets things started. I can't really qualify this, but I've noticed personally that if I don't stay regular, then I won't get as much euphoria and energy from my dose. It's as though there needs to be free bowel space for the body to utilize the drug. YMMV. I personally don't fret if I miss a day, but I will postpone a dose if I haven't moved anything by day 3.
There can be MAJOR consequences to constipation, the most immediate being fecal impaction. Do your research, this is important and if you're using PST regularly, you will have to deal with it.
URINATING
The majority of people I've talked to have had varying degrees of trouble peeing while on PST, mainly on heavier doses. I can't speak for women, but if I have problems (rare these days), one option is to pee with your pants down, at least around your thighs. You want to lose any restriction around your waist. I've also countered the problem by trying to get as far as I can standing, switching to sitting, and keep alternating, and things eventually get moving. There seems to be a mental aspect to this.. it's not something I can explain but I fare better in a private stall over standing next to a co-worker at a urinal. Keeping your mind clear helps.. I've found that sudden changes in thought or little body movements can cause all the pipes to snap shut.
DISPOSAL
Disposing of used seeds can be problematic. I've heard cases of clogged plumbing from washing them down the sink or toilet, and even a case where seeds stuck in the pipe below a sink beginning to sprout through the sink hole. I haven't come up with any good alternative that doesn't leave them out there for someone to find. I personally empty my bottles into a sink with good plumbing and a garbage disposal, with LOTS of running water.
My major problem during much of my time has been that I prefer using Coke over tap water. There's a trap here: rather than using one designated bottle for seed, emptying it of seed, cleaning and re-using it, you just keep using the newly empty bottles of Coke, and get in to a loop where you accumulate a bunch of bottles filled with used seed. In a pinch, it can be hard to get rid of the large amount of seeds, clean the bottles out, and dispose of them discretely. I've been in numerous situations where I've accumulated a pile of full seed bottles and had to think fast in order to keep things secret.
Keep on top of your used seeds regularly, and don't leave them around for someone to find, either in the house, or out in the world. Don't throw bottles full of seed in the garbage, empty them, wash the bottle and put them in the recycling.
Be smart - that last thing anybody should be doing is advertising PST and putting a target on it.
WITHDRAWAL
Everyone is different. Withdrawal can be brutal, or in my most recent case, quite manageable. In my own experience, I know I'll need a few packets of Immodium (Loperamide) to handle the rebound diarrhea that happens when you come out of forced constipation. Exercise helps. Drink plenty of water. The sweats are made worse if you don't shower regularly. I've gotten quite lucky by being on the lower end of the scale here, but some people really suffer. You should consider this when before you decide if you want to try PST. Using it regularly, I guarantee you WILL end up in positions where you have to go through this. It happens in a hundred different ways and it's not a fun way to live if you don't have to.
Protip: If you haven't got Immodium on hand, you can get a similar effect from a few tablespoons of Cornflour mixed with water or milk. It won't help with any other withdrawal symptoms, but it will help with the diarrhea.
SCAMS
Please do your research when buying seeds online, particularly from sites set up specifically to sell poppy seed.
If someone is actively giving you a source for seed, then they'll either be genuine good peoples, which will come across in your messaging with them, or they have a vested interest. They may be legit, but at worst it may be an outright scam taking your money with no product to send, or they're trying to earn commission somehow.
If a source is advertised or communicated here, look for other users with post history that can verify that they got their order and it was good quality.
FINAL THOUGHTS
One last time - PLEASE START SMALL, OR NOT AT ALL. I've spent more time on PST than other painkillers, and I can guarantee you that it WILL end up taking over your life. While I've managed to get through to manageable lifestyle on PST, it didn't come easy. Lots of supply dropout and forced withdrawal. Lots of time grappling with the need for pain relief versus feeling like a piece of shit drug addict. Lots of time considering how it's affected my life's story. The many compromises you need to make in your every day life to accommodate a drug habit.
Don't advertise PST. Don't talk about it freely, unless you're with someone who also uses it. PST flies under the radar in many countries, but it's not completely invisible. This is Fight Club, don't talk about it.
Thanks to everybody here who has contributed to the general body of knowledge.. you've all had a positive impact on my life.
Stay safe and be kind!
\** Note: If the Mods are happy for this post to remain up, I'll try to make a few edits for better reading, and make any changes that other Redditors/Mods thing should be made.*
EDIT 1: Added section on Scams.
EDIT 2: Added warning about CNS depressants to Overdose section. Thanks, Sunscript.

$SQ $DKNG $BA Options Plays [07/21/2020]

Helpful Baseball Handicapping Factors

*Helpful Baseball Handicapping Stats
We have all looked at a point spread or betting odds on an event and thought why is that team favored or why is the total that high. When betting sports it’s helpful to understand what some of the elements are that go into setting lines and prices. When betting baseball or any sport for that matter, it’s a good idea to consider as many different factors relative to the matchup as possible. However, in order to obtain a real edge you have to find information that may not already be factored into the line/price by the oddsmakers. In baseball, simply knowing the ERA of the two starting pitchers will not give you an edge because it’s likely already factored into the betting odds. You must scratch the surface and dig a little deeper in order to find out why odds are as they appear. This will ultimately help you find “actionable information” to gain an advantage.
With so much to consider, player stats, sabermetrics, team analytics, coaching tendencies and outside influences it’s tough to know where to start and where to end. You must establish a process or checklist of sorts. Below are some important baseball stats to consider, along with other aspects that can influence the betting odds. I should note that what’s listed below is also very likely factored into the betting odds but again it’s helpful knowing what goes into pricing teams.
Pitching
WHIP (Walks + Hits Per Inning) The majority of casual fans focus on ERA too much. It’s important to keep an eye on WHIP, which is the average number of hits and walks a pitcher gives up per inning pitched. The more runners a pitcher allows on base, the more likely it is they will give up a run. Rather than looking at overall ERA, keep an eye on WHIP.
Run Support Average It doesn’t matter how well a pitcher performs if he isn’t getting the run support required to win games. For as enticing as it is to pay close attention to pitcher statistics, run support is a key stat just as important when evaluating pitching matchups.
Strikeouts Per Nine Innings Pitched (K/9) K/9 is a underrated statistics for pitchers because it isn’t always used correctly. Pitcher with a high K/9 will usually thrive against an opponent with poor plate discipline. A team with good plate discipline could make a pitcher that relies heavily on K/9 pay for not relying on its defense.
G/F Rate G/F rate is one of the most useful stats for grading pitching matchups. The G/F ratio measures the tendency of ground balls given up by a pitcher versus the number of fly balls they give up. This statistic is best used in combination with evaluating whether a pitcher is playing in a hitter-friendly park or not. In smaller ballparks that favor the hitters, fly balls can be extremely dangerous. Then maybe add in weather etc and you got something.
Previous Starts Another number worth paying attention to is how the pitchers performed in previous starts. This is true not just for one game prior but for portions of a season at a glance. Sometimes past performance is one of the best indicators of how future performances will be.
Batting
Right/Left Handed Pitching Splits Adjust based on how teams have performed versus either right-handed or left-handed pitchers depending on who is on the mound.
Runs/9 Innings Simple but important, Runs per nine innings is as simple as it gets. How many runs do the teams playing one another average per game? Batting average and on base percentage are important factors but at the end of the day it’s all about production.
OBP (On Base Percentage) It is exactly what it sounds like. OBP is a more accurate representation of a batter's ability to get on base than their batting avg which is what a lot of people focus on. This will give you a percentage of time a batter gets on base compared to how many plate appearances. Walks, hit by pitch, fielder's choice are not normally factored into most hitting stats but they’re included into a batters on base percentage.
SLG% (Slugging Percentage) Slugging percentage is a popular measure of the power of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats but it weighs the type of hit, singles, doubles, triples and homeruns. Unlike batting average, slugging percentage gives more weight to extra-base hits. Plate appearances ending in walks are specifically excluded from this calculation, as an appearance that ends in a walk is not counted as an at bat.
Other Helpful Handicapping Factors
Home/Road Splits As is the case in most team sports, MLB teams tend to perform better at home than on the road. There will always be a couple of teams that perform slightly better on the road and it’s good to know who they are.
Batting Lineups This might be more important than ever before. With teams playing 9 games in 10 days managers must get creative with resting key players and juggling their lineups. Lineups are typically listed 3-4 hours before first pitch and I’ve noticed a lot of Daily Fantasy sites are quick with listing lineups and are good to bookmark. In baseball missing a key player is just as important as other sports.
Also it’s good to know each teams strong side of the plate and the lefty vs righty splits. Teams that have a lot of strong lefty hitters may struggle vs a lefty pitcher but thrive vs a righty and vice versa. Managers tend to play different lineups based on the pitching matching and try to get righty batter vs lefty pitchers and lefty hitters vs righty pitchers. So knowing different teams' strong and weak side and which pitcher they’re facing is absolutely factored into prices on a team.
Bullpens The key with bullpens is usage. If we see a bullpen go through 8 pitchers one night it’s likely the next game the starting pitcher will have to go further into the game than normal. This season is a little different because of the expanded rosters (think each team has 3 or 4 extra players) and will have a few extra arms in the bullpen.
Also if you notice you are losing games late and your research is largely based on starting pitching matchups you should strongly consider betting first 5 inning bets rather than full game.
Weather / BallParks It’s important to understand the impact that weather can have on the games. Not direction, but temperature and humidity all can play a significant factor. It’s better to combine weather with ballpark. Wrigley field is a popular ballpark as it relates to wind direction. As much as I love that trend it’s outdated. Wrigley field put up wind screens in the outfield and now have giant scoreboards that significantly cut down on wind. The Wrigley field system was so strong years ago that it still shows it being a profitable system now even though the edge has been gone for awhile now.
It’s important to know the difference between ballparks, not all stadiums are the same. For example, we are all familiar with Coors field, the thin air at altitude increases the flight of the ball. 1,000ft of altitude = 7ft of extra ball flight Denver elevation is 5,280ft = Roughly 35 extra feet Interesting note about Coors field is when they designed the park they didn’t take the altitude into consideration and balls were flying out of the park, they decided to push the walls back to adjust for it, this ultimately cause the outfield to be wayyy more spaced out and Colorado has led the league in extra base hits because of this change.
Another ballpark that is uniquely related to weather is Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the desert heat. They do have a retractable roof so it’s important to pay attention if they’re playing with it open or closed. One of my previous jobs was to just call the ball parks and asked about the roofs and if it will be open or closed. There are 6 other retractable roof stadiums in baseball besides Chase Field. And when betting totals be aware of the roofs. The Rogers Centre(TOR) SafeCo Field(SEA), Minute Maid Park(HOU), Miller Park(MIL), Marlins Stadium(MIA) and newly added Globe Life Park(TEX)
10 degree increase in temp = 1% increase in extra distance 1mph of wind = 3ft in distance 1in decrease in air pressure = 1.5% increase in distance
When looking at stadiums get familiar with the shapes, some are just giant blocks and the wind doesn’t touch the field, others are more open and act like a wind tunnel. A fly ball pitcher in Cincinnati might struggle more so than in San Diego, Cincinnati has an open field concept and the winds can blow through the field and San Diego is closed in and blocks the wind. Some of the California parks near the coast have a marine layer that dead’s fly balls, all these little things add up to how a team is priced. Below is a really good weather site for baseball that I like to use
Umpires Umps are supposed to call games without bias and with consistency game to game. The reality is, humans have different tendencies and over a large enough sample size it reveals itself. Some umpires may have a small strike zone, which tends to result in tougher, frustrating outings for pitchers. Some umpires have a bigger strike zone, which can force hitters to protect the plate more and swing at bad pitches. Major League umpire Manny Gonzalez umped his first game back in May of 2011. In games where he is the home plate umpire in charge of calling balls and strikes the games have gone over the posted total 57.6% of the time (133-98-19). I’m sure he is calling the game fair with unbiased judgment but his idea of what is a strike might be different in comparison to another umpire. Ron Kulpa has been a major league umpire for roughly 15 years. Kulpa has been the home plate umpire in well over 400 games and the under in his games occur 57% of the time when he is behind home plate, 246-186-25 is Kulpa’s under record. I’m sure both Kulpa and Gonzalez are attempting to call games honest and fair, they just have certain tendencies and over time they become apparent.
Batters know which umps have a small strike zone and they can be more selective and umpires who have larger strike zones the batter has to be more aggressive. Same goes for pitchers, they know which umps will give them the call on the edge of the plate. I personally don’t believe making a wager based solely on who is behind home plate is smart but it’s not a bad idea to be aware of who is. When betting all sports, it’s important to apply as many contributing factors to your decision as possible and umpires are a good contributing factor to apply.

NFL & NBA Updated Schedules and Degenerate Gambler DD

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update August 10, 2020

Notes and Highlights of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s Live Update August 10, 2020
Notes by mr_tyler_durden and Daily Update Team
Note: We may need to paraphrase, but the notes are accurate
Watch here:

Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
Facebook: Update (FB Page)

Headlines

35,254 Cases (+275), 775 Deaths (+2) ** Due to a computer glitch the cases numbers is low
New Cases by County: 105x Jefferson, 35x Fayette, 14x Warren, 13x Franklin, 11x Madison, 11x Pulaski, 9x Hardin, 6x Powell, 6x Taylor, 5x Kenton, 4x Adair, 4x Breckinridge, 4x Clinton, 4x Grant, 4x Marion, 3x Jessamine, 3x Knott, 3x Russell, 2x Bourbon, 2x Calloway, 2x Campbell, 2x Larue, 2x Nelson, 2x Perry, 1x Boyd, 1x Casey, 1x Christian, 1x Graves, 1x Grayson, 1x Green, 1x Hart, 1x Hickman, 1x Leslie, 1x Lincoln, 1x Marshall, 1x McCracken, 1x McCreary, 1x Shelby, 1x Spencer, 1x Washington, 1x Wayne, 1x Webster, 1x Woodford
New deaths by county: 98 F Lincoln, 60 F Graves
Our recommendation today is that schools wait to begin in-person classes until September 28th, yes that’s 6 weeks from now, but it’s also 6 weeks from what I hope is the peak of this virus. 6 weeks from the last three weeks where we have been at pretty much all time high, week in and week out, 6 weeks from a time where we had a 6% positivity rate. Let’s face it, we are trying really hard and we have good steps we’ve taken, masks are working, but we do not have control over this virus, and to send tens of thousands of our kids back into in-person classes when we don’t have control of this virus isn’t the right thing to do for our kids.
On a conference call with Governor Cuomo today and through this week I’m going to advocate for, first, the simplest solution: reup that $600 UI benefit, we know how to administer it though we have had some hiccups, it will not create another delay in getting dollars out to people. It will also continue to impact our economy and budget in a positive way. If the federal government is going to do less than that, then we need it, one, to be fully funded by the federal government, if they are going to choose $400 then it needs to all come from there, it needs to be in the same form that the $600 is currently coming from.
Again today our numbers are artificially low due to that computer glitch which is not requiring our epidemiologists to go through duplicate after duplicate after duplicate that have populated our system that we have to get through to provide additional numbers.
La Tasha Buckner: Good afternoon, As the governor said, we are issuing a new order today, effective tomorrow, that will allow bars to reopen and restaurants to reopen at 50% of their capacity. Both bars and restaurants will operate at 50% inside and we want to promote people using that outdoor space and maximizing it. We want to hit a few really important requirements, to keep bars and restaurants open at this capacity and all of these details can be found at our Healthy at Work site, https://healthyatwork.ky.gov. Some of the big points are we want everyone to stay seated, whether in a restaurant or a bar, you should get a table with your group or household, and there should be 6 ft of space between each of those tables. The governor has put up pictures before where we have seen bars shoulder-to-shoulder, that’s exactly what we don’t want to happen again. Plenty of people did it right but we want to make sure that with this fresh start that everyone gets off to the best start and we can keep things open. There’s no congregating at the bar so if a bar or restaurant has a bar-area, service should still be at the tables, no one should be sitting there congregating. The mask order is still in effect for bars and restaurants which means if you are not actively eating or drinking at your table then you should be masked. If you are going to the bathroom, entry, exit, otherwise you should be at your table and enjoying your friends, beverage, and food. All food and drink service should be stopped at 10pm local time and after, the bar and restaurant should close at 11pm. All staff and customers need to wear masks as indicated in our other guidance. By following this we hope that everyone can stay open, and we can all enjoy these great restaurants and bars we have in KY.
What do you expect to get out of the curfew for bars? --- What we see is as the night goes longer, as people have been out longer, that they are less likely to follow the rules and restrictions that that bar is trying to impose. Another thing that we are seeing on the restaurant side is their folks get off and then potentially go to a bar and then bring the virus back to the restaurant. So what we are trying to do is to create 1 time where hopefully people are at their most responsible that folks can get out and enjoy while at the same time can then go home safely. We believe with the rules we have in place that there is an opportunity for our bars to operate responsibly and to try to give them that opportunity of operating responsibly. It’s going to look very different.
Go back to what you mentioned early, when you mentioned double digit counties, there were quite a few unusual ones in there. Why are they suddenly becoming hotspots? -- That’s what we’re seeing nationwide, that we’re seeing more spread in rural America, and rural KY than ever before. We see many cities plateauing, not all of our cities, some of them are rising, and that’s probably because of the number of people that have been exposed to it thus far. Sadly that’s one of the reasons that the virus comes down, not the one that we want here in KY, we want to keep it down. But we are seeing it spread across rural America at a much more significant rate. We are also seeing what you might say are explosions of cases in different areas, a couple of things that we know are contributing: Travel, we’re seeing that especially in rural KY. and then sometimes failure to follow some of the social distancing, and masking. We think we are getting better at that.
Sports are still happening? -- KHSAA is still meeting tomorrow and it looks like the Big 10 might even cancel their season. I do want to not make a false equivalency between a whole school full of kids hours upon end and a one hour tennis match where people are separated. We will learn more from KHSAA, I certainly think there are some fall sports that will be a challenge to hold. I think there should be some consideration with moving them to the spring, that creates some differences, but we may see that on the college level too.
Slides from Update

Summarized (Full) Notes

Alright, it’s 4 o’clock,
Hello everybody it’s Monday afternoon, we’re going to have our update on COVID, we’re going to talk about schools, our recommendations, and how we move forward. We will talk about some good news, at least on the budget front for this month, but some tough news coming up with we don’t have some action out of DC, talk about guidelines for bars and restaurants where we are going to attempt to provide the types of rules where we can have people coming together safely at one of those places instead of gathering somewhere else, and then Eric Friedlander has a couple of really positive awards from the federal government that have come our way that are going to help us out.
Let me first start by reiterating that we’re still in a really difficult, dangerous place with the virus that is spreading so significantly right now. One of the foremost experts this morning on one of the cable news shows, talking about it raging in the United States. While I believe we have stopped the exponential growth in KY, that these masks are working, we are in, at-best, what I pray is the apex where will be in this virus. In other words if we are doing really well, we are still in one of the most difficult times. And the good news that we reported yesterday was a little more complicated. Yesterday we reported that our total number of cases for last week was almost 300 and a little more than the week before. But today we learned that our IT provider for that system had been updating the way it works over the weekends, and not all the reports had gotten in. This is unacceptable and we will be addressing it with that provider. What it’s going to mean this week is that we will be reporting some numbers that are artificially low. So M, T, W, I will be reporting the numbers as they come in but we will have to revise some of the previous days as more information comes in. What I believe it means is that last week's numbers were closer to the week before. I don't think they were significantly higher, but there weren't 300 lower. So where I believe we are is we have stopped that growth, month after month, but it's something we have to fight for, we have to continue to use the best practices, and ultimately we can’t just stay where we are, we’ve got to start decreasing our cases because otherwise, we are in a place where it could skyrocket again very quickly.
This brings me to a tough, but necessary, recommendation that I made today to our public school systems and I think our private schools were there, too. The reasoning behind our recommendation is important, too. Let me start with, it’s a recommendation that I am having to make as a governor, and as a dad. My son is supposed to start sixth grade, and they would have already started in the district that he’s in here in Frankfort and my daughter needs to get back to in-person classes too. In my very core I want us to get back to in-personal instruction but to ask our teachers, students, and faculty to go in at a time when it’s not safe is something we can’t ask of them and I’m not willing to. I want to go over 4 reasons for the recommendation we are making.
One is, this is where KY is right now, in the past 5-6 weeks we have seen an increase in that plateau that we were at to where we are now with July being our most difficult month. Even if last week’s numbers stay right, 3,797 we think they’re a little more, last week before that 4,106, the week before that high-3,000’s. That means that we have been at a place and time where we’ve almost had 12,000 cases in 3 weeks. That we right now, I pray, will be the highest area that we are ever in in KY. The concept that we would try to resume in-person classes at our peak, instead of during a decline, it’s something that would defy logic. It wouldn’t be safe to do
Second piece is what we're seeing in KY and across the country, an increase in infections in our kids. We have seen it here in KY where I read the kids 5 and under and it’s heartbreaking how much those numbers are increasing, and then I hope you saw this news nationally, 100K kids tested positive in the US in just the last 2 weeks of July. It is a myth that kids can’t get the virus or that they can't spread it. What we’re seeing is an increasing infection rate of our young people and understanding that when they go back into school they can spread this, not only to each other, but also the faculty and other members of the building. And let’s also remember that while there are significantly fewer bad outcomes with kids, there are still bad outcomes. The more we create a situation where it can spread can increase even more than it is right now with our children, is when we expose more children to that risk,
Another thing that we’re seeing is what we’re also seeing is the experience in other states, the same states that rushed to open really fast, and went through some of the largest surges, are also reopening their schools, too, the fastest. Whether it’s a couple of schools in IN, or GA, they’re opening them up for a couple of days, for one week, then shutting them down. That’s something that we can’t walk into, expecting or hoping for. We have to have a plan, and I have to make a recommendation that gives us a real chance of success that you don’t send your kids to school for three days, school shuts down, it takes another week and a half to get distance learning up, you do distance learning for a certain period of time, never knowing when you might get back to in-person classes. This is more disruptive, in our opinion, starting and stopping, than a plan that can have an opportunity for success
Then the last reason, and it’s one that we begged and pleaded on, but continues to be a challenge and that’s that through the week through the month of August- our families continue to go on vacations, to places where the virus is so hot, and while we have put our travel advisory up, and we’ve got those states, we continue to see those families go to the beach, whether it’s in Myrtle Beach or in the Destin area, and every time that happens, you can bring it back to your workplace, which is trying hard to keep it out, your church, or Heaven help us, a school.
So because of that, plus conversations with superintendents who have said that they need to go ahead and make a plan for whether they start with distance learning or whether they alter their calendar, we are making what we believe is a realistic recommendation, which is a tough one, but one that we believe can give us some success. It is one where we won't simply say 2 weeks from now, then delay it 2 weeks from then, and then delay it 2 weeks from then. This would potentially prevent school districts from taking some steps that they can to do the best they can to educate our kids even if it’s remotely during that period.
Our recommendation today is that schools wait to begin in-person classes until September 28th, yes that’s 6 weeks from now, but it’s also 6 weeks from what I hope is the peak of this virus. 6 weeks from the last three weeks where we have been at pretty much all time high, week in and week out, 6 weeks from a time where we had a 6% positivity rate. Let’s face it, we are trying really hard and we have good steps we’ve taken, masks are working, but we do not have control over this virus, and to send tens of thousands of our kids back into in-person classes when we don’t have control of this virus isn’t the right thing to do for our kids. It’s not the right thing to do for that faculty, and it’s not the right thing to recommend as governor. There are some that will, I know that will, say, it’s a decision made by the Governor, it’s a decision being made by the virus. We are living through our pandemic, whether this is our version of the Spanish Flu, or of the plague, if you think about it that way we are pretty blessed compared to what happened then. It’s not going to be easy, lots of sacrifices will be made, and yes, our kids are falling behind. My kids are in that developmental time where they need to be in school. But their overall health and safety, along with that of their teachers and others has to be paramount. We have to have a plan that has an opportunity of working. We are working very closely with the DOE, with our superintendents. I’m trying to provide all the flexibility that I can with the ability for them to bring in small groups of kids in, whether to get chromebooks, or give them instruction on how to use them, to get an idea of what the schedule moving forward if they choose to do that. Flexibility in, they already have this, maybe changing some of the days of the calendar. Right now it would be better if our families did not take vacations during a semester of our school year. That is one where we can eat at certain days that are out there. I’m pretty sure our kids would go to school any day that we asked them right now. So, a tough but necessary step, but I believe we're going to be through this, beginning of next year when the vaccine gets out but until then we’re going to have to make difficult choice after difficult choice to survive. Surviving and protecting each other is what we’re trying to do.
So that is the recommendation being made today, I believe it is the right recommendation, everyone won’t agree with it but my job here is to make the tough calls. To move any politics out of it and just make the right call, as the governor and as a dad.
Slightly better news: our general fund and road fund receipts. The budget of our state is how we pay for our teachers, how we provide those dollars, and how we provide healthcare and that safety net which is so critically needed right now. So in some good news today the state budget director announced KY’s General Fund receipts for July, we run a July 1st- June 30th fiscal year, a total of $905.1M a 7% increase compared to last year when we weren’t dealing with this virus. Collections for the month were surprisingly strong given the slowdown in consumer spending arising from the coronavirus. That is really good news, it suggests that our economy is still afloat but we know what it’s taken to keep it afloat. The first was an investment in the state to respond to the virus, the CARES ACT, while not giving us a lot of flexibility it helped us defray and pay for the new costs. The other is the additional $600 in UI that was provided to the people of Kentucky. All the data that we’ve had shows that the people of KY are doing what we need them to do with those dollars, they are spending them. They are ensuring that they are meeting their families needs, they are providing for themselves, they are helping our economy in so many different areas. And so the federal government is going to have to come to some compromise, and/or the E.O. that the president signed is going to have to be changed in a way that continues some level of that support. Without it, every state is going to be faced with incredible difficulty. The E.O. that was put out by the president, I believe, was an attempt to move forwards. But I will say from a state standpoint that it’s not workable in its current form and hopefully either it will be revised or even better congress will actually come to an agreement.
The first challenge with it is there is only enough money set aside to last for 5 weeks. And states are being asked to enter into agreements that may have to run through the end of the year. The second is there is no guidance on it. We’ll be asked to enter into an agreement where we don’t know what the federal government is going to do because they haven’t given us the full guidance on how it will work. The third is, states are expected to chip in 25% at a time when our budgets are already struggling and if we have to cover the remainder of it through December, we’re looking at a $5B. It would be a much smaller amount for the 5 weeks that the federal government would help and then after that it would become absolutely unsustainable. And the last, is the concern about state laws across the country and what it would take to put something like this in place. If we have to make any changes to our computer system, that was put in 2000, “how things are calculated”, “where dollars are coming from”, it will cause delay in all of it.
On a conference call with Governor Cuomo today and through this week I’m going to advocate for, first, the simplest solution: reup that $600 UI benefit, we know how to administer it though we have had some hiccups, it will not create another delay in getting dollars out to people. It will also continue to impact our economy and budget in a positive way. If the federal government is going to do less than that, then we need it, one, to be fully funded by the federal government, if they are going to choose $400 then it needs to all come from there, it needs to be in the same form that the $600 is currently coming from. If we have to change that system of administration then it’s going to keep people from getting those funds. Listen, when the federal government made the decision earlier it did the right thing and has us in a place where when rebound and our recession doesn’t turn into a long term recession or even depression They’ve created a positive environment that would allow us to bounce back and we cannot abandon that right now. So good news, in this last month of the budget but we need congressional action or a change in that E.O. to move forward. Our future economy absolutely depends on it.
Again today our numbers are artificially low due to that computer glitch which is not requiring our epidemiologists to go through duplicate after duplicate after duplicate that have populated our system that we have to get through to provide additional numbers.
Positive cases today: 275 - This will be revised tomorrow
Probable cases: 2,313
Total confirmed cases: 35,254 - we know that numbers are higher and will change. We know our numbers will be artificially low for the first half of this week.
Children Under 5: 13 Kids. Again, that’s sadly impacted by how the numbers are coming in as well. We probably have more in addition to that.
New cases by county: 105x Jefferson, 35x Fayette, 14x Warren, 13x Franklin, 11x Madison, 11x Pulaski, 9x Hardin, 6x Powell, 6x Taylor, 5x Kenton, 4x Adair, 4x Breckinridge, 4x Clinton, 4x Grant, 4x Marion, 3x Jessamine, 3x Knott, 3x Russell, 2x Bourbon, 2x Calloway, 2x Campbell, 2x Larue, 2x Nelson, 2x Perry, 1x Boyd, 1x Casey, 1x Christian, 1x Graves, 1x Grayson, 1x Green, 1x Hart, 1x Hickman, 1x Leslie, 1x Lincoln, 1x Marshall, 1x McCracken, 1x McCreary, 1x Shelby, 1x Spencer, 1x Washington, 1x Wayne, 1x Webster, 1x Woodford
We are seeing more and more counties that haven’t that many cases
Total tests conducted: 700,417 (PCR: 655,494 , Serology: 44,407)
Positivity Rate: 5.71%
Total hospitalized: 4,024
Currently hospitalized: 641
Total in ICU: 1,267
Currently in ICU: 155
Total recovered: 8,738
New deaths today: 2 - Thankfully these numbers have stayed low and we hope we are getting even better at treating this virus.
Total Deaths: 775
New deaths by county: 98 F Lincoln, 60 F Graves
All losses are a loss for Kentucky. Let’s light those houses up green and let’s ring those bells at 10am. This is a reminder that we are thinking of the Kentuckians we’ve lost, their families, and their communities. It’s the color of compassion and renewal as their souls move from their bodies to a better place.
Racial breakdown of all cases: 77.27% Caucasian, 13.23% Black or African-American, 2.47% Asian, 6.38% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 86.87% non-Hispanic and 13.13% Hispanic
Racial breakdown of all deaths: 81.15% Caucasian, 14.66% Black or African-American, 1.54% Asian, 2.65% Multiracial
Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 96.05% non-Hispanic and 3.95% Hispanic
Long Term Care Facilities: 4 new residents and 5 new staff positive from yesterday, and 5 more deaths, 5 new facilities
- Total facilities: 277
- Total deaths: 492
- Total recovered: 3,270
- Active cases: 372 residents, 229 staff
- Total cases: 2,777 residents, 1,586 staff
Day Care Facilities: 9 new facilities, 7 new staff, 5 new children. 123 facilities, 96 staff, 82 children.
Our Lt Gov will talk about education, then Dr. Stack will speak.
Lt. Gov.:
I’m going to be brave because I have a sleeping baby so I was trying not to wake her up, but nope, she’s waking up! It’s appropriate to have her here with me today because most of you know me as lieutenant governor and the Secretary of Education because that’s my role here in this building, but the important thing is I've spent much more of my career as a teacher and as a school administrator. Remember that I’ve spent much more of my career as a school administrator and as a mom, so the decision today to postpone in-person classes and begin virtually is one that’s not made lightly, and it’s one made as a governor and as a lieutenant governor have made to recommend to superintendents but you’re also talking about parents and you’re talking about someone who’s worked in a school building and who knows what it’s like when the rubber meets the road. More than anything, our educators deserve to return to a place of work that is healthy and safe. It is not fair for all of the requirements that have been placed on our schools, for our teachers to be doing the bulk of that work, in a situation where they could be putting their health at risk. So the responsible thing to do is respect our school employees, our faculty and the families that they go home to every night. I appreciate the fact that our superintendents have been willing to be innovative and respond in a responsible, smart way. We are asking our kids to be innovative so certainly our schools can be as well. As a school administrator, I think about the implementation of the guidelines, and I think about what they looks like for buildings full of 850 kids like mine and what hallways would look like and how we can make that happen, and the truth of the matter is, right now, our best bet, is to give our schools time to prepare, give the virus time to die down a little bit and to make sure again that we respect the folks that wake up every morning to go to work to serve our kids every day and the families that they go home to every night. I want to thank you, Governor, and to all of the superintendents and the teachers who have been a part of this decision making as we’ve taken your advice. We appreciate it, and we will continue to seek it.
Dr. Stack Takes over:
Thank you Governor, Lieutenant Governor. So I've said this before, and I said a couple of weeks ago, I never liked the days we have to tell people what we recommend you don’t do. We really look forward to the days that we can tell you the things you can do. As you've seen me hold up before, and you’ve seen me show some reporter who asked for this from ORR, we don’t get it to them by the morning on Monday, so the request doesn’t have to come through Sunday. In the report here today, they still list (it’s actually dates yesterday but we get it today), we still show 53 of our counties either in the red or yellow zone for the last week, so that means nearly half of the counties in Kentucky are identified as “increased concern” for the federal government. If you’re red, they’re raising an alarm bell and they still recommend substantial intervention steps and so, of course, we have other steps that we have taken here recently. I signed one of those orders today, for the mask mandate, that continues, and the gatherings at less than 10 people, of course there are restrictions on the hospitality industry - restaurants and bars. On that point, people might say, “well, why are you letting them happen?” You know, it’s difficult. Where states haven’t allowed those activities in some measure, people engage in bad behaviors in their own backyards, where tons of people pile in and they’re in an unsupervised environment. Again, it’s a difficult balancing act. We’re trying to balance these things by trying to provide outlets where people can follow these guidelines, the mask requirement, the social distancing, the proper surface and hand hygiene, where people can lower the risk, as much as we reasonably can while allowing people to engage in activities we know are important and that leads to schools. Today, the governor has recommended and Lt. Gov has commented on it, recommending a delayed start to in-person instruction using NTI to start the school year. I was on a call with the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the superintendents, and you know this is tough. We get messages every which direction about teachers who are concerned with going back to school, parents who want their children in school, parents who are concerned about their children going back to school because of the concern of infection that the child may get or bring home. This is really tough but what we have seen has happened when the students come together, athletics, camps, or in school you start to see positivity rates go up very quickly. I think what we have shown in KY and what the Governor showed on the line graph earlier, we’ve had good success so far, interrupting these exponential climbs. So far KY has been hit by this virus, it’s been hit economically, and socially, but as far as loss of life we have done a really fantastic job, all of us, following the guidance, keeping people away from each other, and doing the things we need to do to reduce the risk of the spread of this infection in an unmitigated, uncontrolled manner which cascades out of control alarmingly quickly and creates all sorts of problems that we, thankfully, have not had to experience yet in the state of KY. We will continue to try, I’ll continue to try to find recommendations for the Governor where we can titrate and calibrate these steps. I am very grateful to the Governor, this is not easy, they weigh heavily on myself, I expect on the Governor as well, it’s very very difficult. Our job is to try to mitigate these other damages while still keeping people safe, healthy, well, and alive. For the people most vulnerable in society they have paid, some of them, and others will pay a steep price in terms of loss of life. Thank you for all you do Team KY. This is not an uplifting message from me today but I’m optimistic that we can navigate our way through this, and we’ll be stronger for it in the end. This is our generational challenge. When the plague went through Europe, in the middle ages, it took out 30-50% of all Eurpoeans. Thank goodness we are nowhere near that with this. It is in no small part because we are trying to learn from history and trying to do things today that can have a positive impact and keep people safe.
Gov takes over: we’ll move next to hospitality, restaurants and bars.
For restaurants we really need our institutions to continue to push people outside, maximize your outdoor seating, we’re increasing the capacity again, with a curfew that will be talked about. Please, make sure you are putting as many people outside as you can. And on the bars, there’s gonna be questions on reopening. If we don't, people are pushed towards large house parties, as we have seen in other states, where no rules are followed. Our goal is to have the right, structured rules, where people can have that outlet if they are looking for it but to be in a safe place, and for it to be done in a safe manner. Again this is something that if folks can’t follow then we’ll have to take other steps.
La Tasha Buckner takes over:
Good afternoon, As the governor said, we are issuing a new order today, effective tomorrow, that will allow bars to reopen and restaurants to reopen at 50% of their capacity. Both bars and restaurants will operate at 50% inside and we want to promote people using that outdoor space and maximizing it. We want to hit a few really important requirements, to keep bars and restaurants open at this capacity and all of these details can be found at our Healthy at Work site, https://healthyatwork.ky.gov. Some of the big points are we want everyone to stay seated, whether in a restaurant or a bar, you should get a table with your group or household, and there should be 6 ft of space between each of those tables. The governor has put up pictures before where we have seen bars shoulder-to-shoulder, that’s exactly what we don’t want to happen again. Plenty of people did it right but we want to make sure that with this fresh start that everyone gets off to the best start and we can keep things open. There’s no congregating at the bar so if a bar or restaurant has a bar-area, service should still be at the tables, no one should be sitting there congregating. The mask order is still in effect for bars and restaurants which means if you are not actively eating or drinking at your table then you should be masked. If you are going to the bathroom, entry, exit, otherwise you should be at your table and enjoying your friends, beverage, and food. All food and drink service should be stopped at 10pm local time and after, the bar and restaurant should close at 11pm. All staff and customers need to wear masks as indicated in our other guidance. By following this we hope that everyone can stay open, and we can all enjoy these great restaurants and bars we have in KY thank you.

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