Rules are rules … sucky, freakin’ rules.

Sometimes a sportsbook’s rules help us. But more often it seems they don’t.

Everytime one goes against us, it acts as a reminder that the odds are stacked heavily against us.

Take Friday’s Brewers-Tigers tilt in Detroit.

With a pair of starters with hefty ERAs and a hot Prince Fielder, Over 10 seemed like the play.

It was.

Fielder hit a three-run bomb in the first. The Tigers answered with Marcus Thames’ two-run shot in the bottom half of the inning.

By the bottom of the fourth, the teams had combined for 15 hits and 11 runs.

Turn off the TV, boys. This one’s over, right? Wrong.

With the Tigers leading 7-4 in the bottom of the fourth, Mother Nature took a break from Bethpage and showed up in Detroit. Out came the tarps for a rain delay.

With the game not yet official, things looked bleak as the delay reached two hours.

Thankfully, the game would restart around 10:35 p.m. EST. Sweet!

But Mother Nature, like some other women we all know, is a tease. Shortly after Thames put the Tiger comfortably ahead 10-4 in the seventh, she reappeared with more rain.

This time, after a 39-minute delay, the umps had had enough. Game over. Final score: Detroit 10, Milwaukee 4.

While anyone who had Detroit cashed, total players were left to think what could have been. Almost all sportsbooks have a rule requiring games to go nine innings, 8.5 if the home team is leading, for a total bet to be legitimized.

So even though the game was official and the total was eclipsed, no action was constituted on all total bets.

It was a tough pill to swallow.

What other sportsbook rules have you guys run into that have cost and/or helped you? Sharing will only help all of us.

David Payne writes on behalf of Ben Burns.

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