You’ve heard of Aladdin’s magic lamp. What if rubbing your car brought you a genie? Watch Kaley Cuoco grant the wishes of the Henderson family, which takes them on a journey from medieval times to outer space, with some help from their 2014 RAV4. Toyota’s fourth-generation RAV4 features new styling and a six-speed automatic transmission, among other goodies.

Share your own wish on Twitter and Instagram with #WishGranted and check out Toyota on Facebook.

After uprooting my life and settling down in Paris, I found myself longing for the comforts of home. It’s not enough that I can’t find an authentic Philly Cheesesteak sandwich to save my life, the bars where they show the NBA games are also in short supply.

The only thing I do that’s close to home is playing online poker at portals like http://www.partypoker.fr/. Although my French is very limited, Texas hold ‘em only has one language: the best hand always win. Since online casinos are relatively new in France, I’m pleased to say that I’m winning on a fairly regular basis as my crappy poker face and half assed bluffing doesn’t impede my game in the online scene. My substantial winnings are redirected to my efforts to find a good sports bar where I can watch the Sixers do their thing and finally get another shot at the finals. The amount of time I spend looking for such a bar in Paris is quite extensive and exhausting. The only recompense I get is the thought that I’m earning as I play poker.

I’ve resorted to watching the game at the Moose bar, a Canadian bar I found online near an Odeon and I saw on their website, MooseParis, that they show NBA games. Unfortunately, the NBA playoffs start around the time after the NHL (September) and the flat screens become predominantly filled with live hockey games. Still, you can ask to have at least one of the screens to be on NBA and the bar is probably as close to home as I’ll get around here. I try to watch every game but the wife is giving me curious looks for hanging out at a Canadian bar, way too often. After a disheartening loss to the Celtics last Saturday, I keep asking myself if I should even bother. The Celtics put up a great defense throughout the first half and ended it with a nice 21 point lead. After that, catching up was pretty much a numbers game with Holiday not doing so well. Young did a pretty good job closing the game with 22 points but the tight Celtic defense is what pretty much closed the deal. I still curse the Lakers ever since the 2001 game and I blame them for everything, regardless of how irrelevant the subject is to them. I checked on the Eagles today in the hope that they’re do better than their NBA counterparts and sure enough, they won against the Buccaneers by a hair. Their overall standing in the NFL is not so good either.

So my teams are not doing so well this year. Maybe we’ll do better next time. I’m still as hopeful as ever but I’m not going to spend a lifetime at a Canadian bar in Paris just to wait for it. Maybe I’ll play a couple of hands of poker until then.

I wanted to announce that I started a few new blogs that will be part of THE PASS RUSH community. Before we get to those, I wanted to let everyone in on my Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet. What you’ll get is all fantasy football rankings sorted by position on a single page, much like Yahoo’s big board. It serves as a great print sheet when you’re drafting your fantasy team. If you’re trying to decide between players and need to look up some quick stats, it’s the perfect resource for that. Visit it now.

Another website we just launched is www.nflstartorsit.com. Whenever you’re trying to select your starting lineup or trying to decide which players to start or sit, feel free to send us an email. We’ll post your start/sit question online with our response and other readers can leave their advice as well.

We then rolled out the same idea for those in survivor pools. Need help selecting which team you should take in your NFL survivor pool? Feel free to send us an email and we’ll give you our thoughts while other fans can give theirs. Be sure to check www.survivorpoolpicks.com.

Want to participate in a pick ‘em league? Sign up at THE PASS RUSH.

Bet trading, also called peer-to-peer betting, is like playing video poker online it is a way for individuals to place bets along with other bettors, rather than with an online bet booking site. They do this to have more control over the parameters of the wager and to cut out the middleman, so that even though the site, known as a betting exchange site, takes a commission, the process is quick and often both bettors feel they have an advantage.

How Bet Trading and Bet Exchange Sites Work

Bet exchange sites work sort of like a combination of a typical sports betting site and an auction site where people go online to sell their old items. Through this they can be able to choose what kind of games to play just like online slots, and the extent of amount that they can bet will depend on the player. In the case of bet trading, the object for sale is a particular kind of bet. One bettor posts the odds they want, with the point spread they like and the amount of money they want to risk for whichever side they choose. Other bettors can then go online and choose from the available bets, investing as much as they want in each bet up to what is available, so that one bettor can book an entire bet or can share it with other interested parties. Just like putting Michael Vick on the game who can avoid a 10 yards loss and pick up a 10 yard gain is uncanny.

Why Bet Trading and Bet Exchange Sites Work

Bet trading works for the bettors because it helps them quickly and easily get the bets they are looking for, even if such bets are esoteric or if odds or spread bets on the event are not generally offered. Bet trading works for the online site because it does the work of the site for them. Under normal circumstances, an online sports book would have to find bettors on each side of a wager, or alter the spread or odds to get action on one side or the other. With bet trading, this is not necessary, because each bet finds its own bettors to take opposite sides.

Things to Know About Bet Trading

Remember that a commission will still be charged by the House, so the bet is not completely a bettor to bettor proposition. In fact, technically it is the site that is booking both bets, but the effect is that the bettors seem to be betting directly against each other.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve switched our blogging platform to WordPress, which has a lot more functionality and better comment features.  If you’re a subscriber of our RSS feed, please update your RSS Reader to the new feed.  The address to the new feed is:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/allphiladelphiasports

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