61°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

RJ reporter spends night betting Ukrainian table tennis

The coronavirus pandemic has left sports bettors feeding on crumbs.

Table tennis isn’t steak and lobster, but you can make a meal out of it.

Here’s a log of three hours Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in the rapid-fire world of table tennis betting:

10:15 p.m.: Let’s be clear-headed. I know nothing about table tennis, let alone Russian and Ukrainian table tennis. So I’ll keep my strategy simple: Just bet the underdog. Every match, no analysis, just take the plus price and hope for the best.

My first horse is Sergei Yatsenko, a +250 underdog against Dmytro Khairov in a Setka Cup match in Ukraine. I bet $10 to win $25 on the William Hill app.

I’ve managed to find a live video stream — albeit one that locks up once a minute. Which one of these guys did I bet on? The on-screen graphic is in the Cyrillic alphabet. It takes a few minutes of flipping between the live scoreboard and the stream to figure out which one is my guy.

I like what I see. Yatsenko appears to be in good shape. Khairov is carrying some extra weight, and he has some gray in his hair, plus a bald spot.

Of course, Khairov controls the entire match. When Yatsenko hits into the net for about the millionth time to go down 5-2 in the third set, he lets out a big sigh. Me, too, brother.

Khairov sweeps to an 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 victory, and I’ve started by table tennis career $10 in the hole.

10:45 p.m.: I can’t find a stream for the Moscow Liga Pro matches, so I can only watch the live scoreboard as Dmitrii Redenkov (+240) and Artem Aronov (+220) are quickly dispatched.

I’m 0-3, down $30. A William Hill bettor hit a 10-team table tennis parlay this week to win almost $10,000 using all favorites. I figured that was a freak occurrence, but maybe this sport is more favorite-heavy than I thought.

I forge on.

10:52 p.m.: We’re back to the Setka Cup, and I really need Serhii Semenets to stop the bleeding.

He’s a +190 underdog to Andrii Podolian. Semenets is slight and a little awkward. You wouldn’t want him on your team for a pickup basketball game. Podolian seems fit, muscular, and he romps in the first set.

What have I done? This might have to be a quick night.

But you never count out Serhii Semenets. He rolls in the second set and rips off the last five points to win the third.

11:03 p.m.: Let the record show, at this moment, on March 31, 2020, amid a pandemic, I won my first bet on table tennis. Semenets defeats Podolian 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8.

I am 1-3, but the $19 win means I am down only $11 overall.

11:26 p.m.: Am I a genius? I rack up three more wins and am up $32.50 with a 4-3 record. Table tennis! Let’s go!

12:02 a.m.: Khairov punishes me again, this time beating my hero Semenets in five sets.

Players compete several times a day in these events, and you can see how an attentive viewer could perhaps gain an edge handicapping these individual matchups. Not me, but an attentive viewer.

12:30 a.m.: Sometimes five or six matches are going on at the same time, and it’s difficult to keep track of how I’m doing.

I realize I have inadvertently bet on the same underdog twice. Maybe it’s time to quit, but I am delighted when Maksym Marchuk romps to a straight-set win to cash my double bet.

12:50 a.m.: No more trying to fade Khairov. He steamrolls Podolian, and I have now lost $30 wagering against a 50-something Ukrainian.

1:15 a.m.: Andrii Peretiatko ends my session with a victory at +105.

Final tally: 9-12, but the underdog prices net a profit of $17.50.

I can’t say I’ll be betting Ukrainian table tennis when major American sports return, but there are worse ways for a desperate sports bettor to find some action.

Just don’t bet against Dmytro Khairov.

Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST