Here we are.  After more than six weeks and fifteen series, it all comes down to this – Vancouver and Boston, for the Stanley Cup.  Time to see if I’ve learned enough about predicting series outcomes with the Tarot to see how this one is going to end.

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Time for the latest update in my ongoing attempt to predict the outcome of NHL playoff series with Tarot readings.  (I do other things besides this, even though it’s all I seem to be posting about.  My research and home life have indeed both been very busy of late, but not largely with anything post-worthy.  I do have a couple in the pipe that I will try and release later this week.)  I got one of the two series correct (and pretty much exactly correct) but missed the other by a fair margin.  Read on for the details!

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With the first game of the conference finals taking place later this afternoon, now’s a good time to file my Tarot-based predictions for these two series.  I was initially concerned that my desire for a particular outcome might bias my interpretation of these readings, but as it turned out, I don’t think that was much of a problem.  So far I’m 8 for 12 in these playoffs (I would have been 9 or 10 if Game 7 overtimes had gone differently); let’s see if that trend continues!

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With the final game of the second round finishing in exciting fashion last night, I can now post the results of my predictions for those four series.  Overall the Tarot was 3 for 4, a comparable accuracy rate to the first round, though the one incorrect prediction was quite glaringly off.  Still some room for improvement, but I think that the fact that these readings are giving any useful information besides an outcome (which they definitely are in some cases) makes this a worthwhile venture.

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Based on my experience from the first attempt at predicting NHL playoff results with Tarot readings, here are my predictions for the four semi-final series in the second round of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.  All of these readings will have the outcome card that worked well in the first round, and we’ll see if my accuracy improves accordingly.  I’ll draw two cards for each team, placed to either side of the outcome card.  Here we go!
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So now that the first round is over I can review the Tarot-based predictions I made for each series in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In terms of series outcome, these predictions were 5 for 8, which may not sound that great (based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the odds of getting that result by chance are about 1 in 5). But I’m actually reasonably pleased with this outcome, for reasons I’ll explain. As well, though not all of the details that I tried to glean from each reading came to pass, some certainly did. Read on for the full analysis!

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And now, for something completely different.

It occurred to me that I haven’t done anything really odd with Tarot in a while, and with the NHL playoffs about to begin I wondered whether I might be able to offer some predictions concerning the first round, based on a small Tarot reading for each series.  I’ve never tried using the Tarot for this kind of thing, and it may turn out that, like lottery numbers and other such things, the Tarot simply cannot predict sporting outcomes. But I’ll never know unless I try.  In any event this strikes me as a fun little exercise, to maybe illustrate some of the principles I use for extracting information from cards, and who knows, I might actually get some of these right!  For the sake of science and variety I’m going to try a few different spreads (or numbers / arrangements of cards) to see what works well and what doesn’t.

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