Random Poker Thoughts and More
This will be totally random.
Poker
High Stakes Poker is back. Great show. I watch online. I think I've linked to a blog in the past that always has the youtubes in one place so you can watch the entire show there. I'll look for the link. Got me thinking about these online players vs. the live players. On full display was new school vs. old school.
Take this hand Minieri bets with basically any two, Dwan raises with QJ and Phil Hellmuth in position (the button I think... but 20% I could be remembering wrong and he was out of position in the blinds) folds AQ. This fold seems to tilt him when he discovers he would have won a nice pot off Dwan, and he later blows up playing a starting hand he'd normally never consider that busts him. Somebody needs to take Hellmuth aside and give him a lesson on new school poker.
On http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/ we link to a Daniel Negreanu blog where he discusses new school vs. old school and rips Phil Hellmuth. Anybody else think that Negreanu has way too much to say about Hellmuth all the time. Be it interviews or blog posts or on television he can't stop talking about Hellmuth.
It's now gotten to be that making fun of Hellmuth is the easy joke. It's kind of like lazy writers on Sportscenter fall back on the making fun of soccer joke. There's no thought behind it. Even with the rest of the world picking at the Brat, Negreanu can't seem to stop himself from mentioning Hellmuth at every turn and poking fun of him whenever possible. Is it Jealousy? Man Crush? Or what?
Negreanu's behavior behind the scenes at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship have me questioning his impish playful TV reputation. Truth be told I don't think he's too far from Hellmuth in the Poker Brat category, he just hides it a LITTLE bit better.
TV
-Anybody else see that Education Connection commercial basically played on a loop late night? The one where the waitress raps/sings with what might be an autotuner that is ironically out of tune? Do I have the TV on the background too much if I know all the words to that song? And the silly little hand motions she does.
-Tiger Woods statement. Yawn. The robot is back. You can tell he is terrified but you can also tell he's spitting his apology through his teeth like he's still blaming everybody but himself. People are coming out of the woodwork to get their shots in on Tiger and you wonder if like the Negreanu-Hellmuth thing if its jealousy raising its ugly head or until now everybody in Golf was too worried about tarnishing the golden boy because they had a good thing going, but they privately hated the dude.
Olympics
-U... S... A... I've bitched before about this tired boring chant of dominance we insult the rest of the world with as we kick their asses in every sport possible. Back when the Russians used to give us a run for our money I think I would despise them even more if they endlessly chanted C...C...C... P! I heard a guy in bobsledding with a drum (I think it was bobsledding) who finally did a variation on the chant with some rythym behind it instead of the monotous U... S... A.... That was refreshing. We need an upgrade to our battle cry. Something a little more WhoDat.
-Am I the only idiot that thinks they should add some sports or events to the Winter Olympics? What do they have for team sports? Two man luge--where everybody's related to each other or else it'd be bobsledding for figure skaters? Bobsledding and pairs skating? Yawn, yawn, and yawn. How about we move gym sports that got their start because... it was too cold to play outdoors you know because it was... the winter... to the winter olympics.
Shouldn't they be in the winter olympics too? Yes... I'm talking about Basketball, Volleyball, and underrated Handball. Who cares if there isn't ice, snow, slush, sleet, or risk of death involved. BTW, I also advocated Bandy being added even if only four countries, none of whom are the U.S., are good at it. Team sports are always more compelling especially in underdog movies.
-Is Canada doing the worst job ever of hosting the competition. A cross-country skier breaks four ribs on their course? Not familar with Cross-Country skiing? It's like the fast walking in the summer olympics... basically meaning short of pulling a Martin Grammatica it's impossible to break bones in it. Yet, the world's best female Cross Country skier did because Canada didn't think to cover the ravine at the base of the only slope on the course. Might want to fix that eh? We really want to follow these guys for the future of health coverage?
Then the guy dies in the luge and they blame the racer. As the Georgian Olympic official replied, "You shouldn't die because you made a mistake." No kidding. Also, the jump on the downhill and it's terrible conditions are flinging racers 200 feet through the air like grannys on runaway wheelchairs in San Francisco.
Not to mention the conditions that are terrible in just about every sport from skiing to speedskating (that's indoors there is no excuse for that). Um... Canada get your act together. We expect this in four years when Russia attempts to build a winter resort on the Georgian border (granted is not Chechnya but anybody else questioning this placement) out of nothing, not in Vancover.
-As big as the winter olympics are, the cameras seem to be giving more access to the stadia and it shows you how small these little niche sports are in terms of fan support and communities. It's like a state tournament where all the athletes know each other and each others families. As grand as it used to appear on TV now you get a sense of how little the international sporting community is for say Short Track Speedskating or snowboarding. Kind of weird. I liked it better when I thought everybody hated each other and there was rampant nationalism. I don't like seeing the Chinese cheer for an American, an American cheering for a German, or any of that stuff.
The Olympics are best used as a venting device. Instead of fighting the French because their insufferability has finally gone too far we kick their asses in the pool or the Velodrome. Once the athletes are friendly and NBC does too many stories that endear us to the opposition the venting is less effective. Want less war? Make the Olympics more like it used to be with Professional Wrestling like charactircures of the rest of the world.
-Alright random ramblings over for now...
Poker
High Stakes Poker is back. Great show. I watch online. I think I've linked to a blog in the past that always has the youtubes in one place so you can watch the entire show there. I'll look for the link. Got me thinking about these online players vs. the live players. On full display was new school vs. old school.
Take this hand Minieri bets with basically any two, Dwan raises with QJ and Phil Hellmuth in position (the button I think... but 20% I could be remembering wrong and he was out of position in the blinds) folds AQ. This fold seems to tilt him when he discovers he would have won a nice pot off Dwan, and he later blows up playing a starting hand he'd normally never consider that busts him. Somebody needs to take Hellmuth aside and give him a lesson on new school poker.
On http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/ we link to a Daniel Negreanu blog where he discusses new school vs. old school and rips Phil Hellmuth. Anybody else think that Negreanu has way too much to say about Hellmuth all the time. Be it interviews or blog posts or on television he can't stop talking about Hellmuth.
It's now gotten to be that making fun of Hellmuth is the easy joke. It's kind of like lazy writers on Sportscenter fall back on the making fun of soccer joke. There's no thought behind it. Even with the rest of the world picking at the Brat, Negreanu can't seem to stop himself from mentioning Hellmuth at every turn and poking fun of him whenever possible. Is it Jealousy? Man Crush? Or what?
Negreanu's behavior behind the scenes at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship have me questioning his impish playful TV reputation. Truth be told I don't think he's too far from Hellmuth in the Poker Brat category, he just hides it a LITTLE bit better.
TV
-Anybody else see that Education Connection commercial basically played on a loop late night? The one where the waitress raps/sings with what might be an autotuner that is ironically out of tune? Do I have the TV on the background too much if I know all the words to that song? And the silly little hand motions she does.
-Tiger Woods statement. Yawn. The robot is back. You can tell he is terrified but you can also tell he's spitting his apology through his teeth like he's still blaming everybody but himself. People are coming out of the woodwork to get their shots in on Tiger and you wonder if like the Negreanu-Hellmuth thing if its jealousy raising its ugly head or until now everybody in Golf was too worried about tarnishing the golden boy because they had a good thing going, but they privately hated the dude.
Olympics
-U... S... A... I've bitched before about this tired boring chant of dominance we insult the rest of the world with as we kick their asses in every sport possible. Back when the Russians used to give us a run for our money I think I would despise them even more if they endlessly chanted C...C...C... P! I heard a guy in bobsledding with a drum (I think it was bobsledding) who finally did a variation on the chant with some rythym behind it instead of the monotous U... S... A.... That was refreshing. We need an upgrade to our battle cry. Something a little more WhoDat.
-Am I the only idiot that thinks they should add some sports or events to the Winter Olympics? What do they have for team sports? Two man luge--where everybody's related to each other or else it'd be bobsledding for figure skaters? Bobsledding and pairs skating? Yawn, yawn, and yawn. How about we move gym sports that got their start because... it was too cold to play outdoors you know because it was... the winter... to the winter olympics.
Shouldn't they be in the winter olympics too? Yes... I'm talking about Basketball, Volleyball, and underrated Handball. Who cares if there isn't ice, snow, slush, sleet, or risk of death involved. BTW, I also advocated Bandy being added even if only four countries, none of whom are the U.S., are good at it. Team sports are always more compelling especially in underdog movies.
-Is Canada doing the worst job ever of hosting the competition. A cross-country skier breaks four ribs on their course? Not familar with Cross-Country skiing? It's like the fast walking in the summer olympics... basically meaning short of pulling a Martin Grammatica it's impossible to break bones in it. Yet, the world's best female Cross Country skier did because Canada didn't think to cover the ravine at the base of the only slope on the course. Might want to fix that eh? We really want to follow these guys for the future of health coverage?
Then the guy dies in the luge and they blame the racer. As the Georgian Olympic official replied, "You shouldn't die because you made a mistake." No kidding. Also, the jump on the downhill and it's terrible conditions are flinging racers 200 feet through the air like grannys on runaway wheelchairs in San Francisco.
Not to mention the conditions that are terrible in just about every sport from skiing to speedskating (that's indoors there is no excuse for that). Um... Canada get your act together. We expect this in four years when Russia attempts to build a winter resort on the Georgian border (granted is not Chechnya but anybody else questioning this placement) out of nothing, not in Vancover.
-As big as the winter olympics are, the cameras seem to be giving more access to the stadia and it shows you how small these little niche sports are in terms of fan support and communities. It's like a state tournament where all the athletes know each other and each others families. As grand as it used to appear on TV now you get a sense of how little the international sporting community is for say Short Track Speedskating or snowboarding. Kind of weird. I liked it better when I thought everybody hated each other and there was rampant nationalism. I don't like seeing the Chinese cheer for an American, an American cheering for a German, or any of that stuff.
The Olympics are best used as a venting device. Instead of fighting the French because their insufferability has finally gone too far we kick their asses in the pool or the Velodrome. Once the athletes are friendly and NBC does too many stories that endear us to the opposition the venting is less effective. Want less war? Make the Olympics more like it used to be with Professional Wrestling like charactircures of the rest of the world.
-Alright random ramblings over for now...
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