Quinielas are one of the most easily understandable and profitable wagers that a newcomer to greyhound betting can make. You can make money by deciding to focus on quiniela wagering because you do not need to put up a large amount, and the payoffs are often handsome. A quiniela, also spelled quinella, is a wager that pays off if you correctly select the first two dogs over the finish line, no matter in what order they come across.
Every greyhound track in the country offers quiniela wagering, as it is one of the most popular of bets. It is a wager that allows you to handicap a race giving you some leeway to be wrong. The dog that you think is going to win doesn’t have to, as long as it runs second and is correctly coupled together with the winning greyhound. Conversely, if you pick the right dog as a winner and you have it with the second place dog, you will get paid. Quiniela wagering is offered on just about every race on the card at most dog tracks.
Here are some examples. If you bet a 1-2 quiniela, you win if the race runs 1-2 or 2-1. If you bet a 3-6 quiniela and the race’s order of finish is 3-6 or 6-3, you cash in. The only confusion can come from a dead-heat, when two or more animals are tied at the finish line. If you bet a 1-2 quiniela, and the 1 and 2 greyhounds dead heat for the win, you have a winning ticket. In such a case, it is the first two dogs over the line that determines the winning combination. If the race is a dead heat between the 1 and 4, with the 2 coming in behind them, you do not get paid. The winning quiniela in this scenario is 1-4. In the unusual occurrence of a triple dead heat for the win position, say between the 1, 2, and 3, then 1-2, 1-3, and 2-3 are all good tickets.
Dead heats for place, or the second spot, are a different matter. Let’s say that a race finishes with the 1 dog winning, and the 2 and 3 in a dead heat for second place. The winning quiniela combos will reflect this. They will be 1-2 and 1-3. A rare triple dead heat for place will result in three winning combinations.
Most greyhound tracks have a base of two dollars for their quiniela wager, but will allow patrons to wager one dollar on this bet. In that case, the payoff will be only half of what the two dollar wager’s is. The toteboard, which is a large wall that carries the odds of each dog, has a separate section that shows the quiniela odds. They are also shown on television monitors throughout the facility. In any eight dog race, there are a total of 28 possible quiniela combinations. They are: 1-2-, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 1-7, 1-8, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6, 3-7, 3-8, 4-5, 4-6, 4-7, 4-8, 5-6, 5-7, 5-8, 6-7, 6-8, and 7-8. The payoffs on quinielas usually range from a few dollars to a couple of hundred, with the average quiniela paying about twenty dollars. The higher the odds on the two dogs that comprise the winning selection, the higher the payoff is going to be in most cases. The flip side of that is if you have a pair of favorites coming over the line first and second, the quiniela price will be small.
The attractive thing about quinielas is that one can go to the track and wager for the whole performance on them without risking a large amount of money. There are three different types of strategies for quiniela wagering; keys, boxes, and wheels. Each has an advantage and a risk; which one you decide to employ will depend on your own situation.
The key strategy is very simple. In this situation you choose the dog that you feel has the best chance of running in the top two and take play it with a couple of other greyhounds. If you think the 3 dog is going to win or run second, he is your “key”. If you key it with the 4 and 7, then you will have the 3-4 and 3-7 quinielas sold to you at a cost of $4.00. If you key the 3 with the 1, 4, and 7, this will cost you $6.00; you will receive the 1-3, 3-4, and 3-7 groupings from the teller. To place this bet correctly, simply say to the teller, “Two dollar quiniela key, 3 with the 1, 4, and 7.” The advantage here is that you shell out less to hit the race. The risk is that you can have the right key dog but be left out in the cold if your others do not perform.
A quiniela wheel takes the key idea a bit further, giving you every dog in the race with the one you think is the key. For example, if you walk up to the window and say, “I would like a $2.00 quiniela wheel, wheel the 5,” you would receive the 1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 4-5, 5-6, 5-7, and 5-8 on your ticket. This obviously costs more, at $14.00 a wheel, which is the risk, but it eliminates the chance of your key dog coming in first or second and you still not having a winning ticket {the advantage}. Wheels are especially good plays in races where you like a long shot and feel the favorite is not going to come in, enhancing the chance for a big payoff. However, wheels can also run your bankroll down in a hurry if you are picking poorly!
A great many bettors choose to box dogs in quinielas. If you like the 1, 5, and 6 in a race, but cannot for the life of you decide which the better dog is in that particular contest, you can box them. A 1, 5, and 6 $2.00 quiniela box will give you these combos: 1-5, 1-6, and 5-6 and costs only $6.00. Tell the person at the window, “I’d like a $2.00 quiniela box, 1, 5, and 6.” The more dogs you box, the more the bet will cost. A four dog box requires $12.00; a five dog box goes for $24.00. As you can see, the more dogs that you box, the less cost effective this strategy becomes. It makes little sense to spend more on a race than you will win. However, over the course of a fifteen race performance, if you were to box three greyhounds a race, you would most likely need to only be right three or four times to break even.
Some tracks offer an exotic wager called a Double Quiniela, which is a pair of races, usually later in the performance, in which you need to correctly pick both quinielas. You would buy them both on the same ticket before the first race of the Double Quiniela; if no winner is chosen, half the money goes to those who had one part of the ticket correct, the other half stays in the pot, which can build up to a decent amount from one performance to another.
Quinielas are fun and easy to play, giving you the most bang for your buck during a matinee or night out at the dog track. If you are an experienced handicapper or just out for a good time, quinielas are the way to go to the dogs!
