I'm a sucker for the ESPN 'Streak for the Cash' game. So that's nothing new.

Today's New Thing is how exciting last night was - because I was number three in the world.

For current winning streak, that is.

Unfortunately, my streak ended unceremoniously Wednesday night, and I'm back to 0.

But let me tell you about my longest streak ever.

Here's a quick rundown - The game features a bunch of matchups a day. Tennis, soccer, whatever major sport is in season, and not just wins/losses - there are props in there too, like over/unders for halves of basketball games, which player will score more points - things like that.

I know the game is just a way of making people like me - who otherwise would not be interested in UConn-Georgetown on a Wednesday night - tune in to ESPN2 to watch the game with a heavy rooting interest.

But I'll happily play the role of sucker...because I love the game.

I'm not even heartbroken I lost. It was getting pressure-packed anyway. See, there's a new game every month - so I was running out of February days to get to the longest streak for the month. As you can see in that screen capture above, I was at 17 in a row (third-longest streak out of thousands of players!), which is by far the best I've ever done, but I still needed to get to 24 before the end of the day on Thursday. I think it would have been possible, but very unlikely.

My losing pick was Shabazz Napier of UConn to outscore (or tie in points) Otto Porter, Junior of Georgetown in the first half. Porter had just 1 point. All Napier had to do was score a bucket. He didn't.

Some months I go all out for the total wins number. Some months I try to build a long streak. I had a hard time all this month getting anything going (I was trying for the streak) and then in the last week or so I began hitting everything.

I sometimes think that all I have to do (since most 'longest streaks' are in the 20's) is pick one correct game a day and build a 30-game winning streak one month to win everything. When I lose 6 or 7 in a row it gets disheartening.

But now, after winning 17 straight? You'd better believe I'm back to believing I can pick one correct game a day. Especially with March Madness on the horizon.

A new game begins on Friday. I can't wait.