A Very Sportsy Weekend

Hey readers,

Lincoln here to ramble on about some of the recent goings on in the world o' sport. If you're here for our Mock Draft be sure to come back soon for revisions and player reports.

Starting in the Association

• I'm sure this will be the expanded upon in an upcoming article, but watching the Mavs/Suns game this weekend was the first time all season I thought the Mavs might not win the Championship. This is NOT because I suddenly think that the Suns are a better a team, exposed the Mavs Achilles Heel, or anything of that sort. I got that feeling because no one wants the Mavs to win. David Stern obviously views Mark Cuban with rancor, and he controls the outcome of NBA games. This may seem incendiary, but if you get beyond a visceral shock to the statement, but the evidence is all around us. David Stern succeeded Larry O'Brien as commish in 1984, MJ's rookie year. Jordan's tongue-out-foul-line-dunks, long shorts, and Nike cross over appeal became the crux of Stern's marketing ideas for the league. Individual players, flash, and commercialism were/are paramount to skill, team work, discipline (on and off the court). Stern makes sure his stars, the few select people he chooses to market the game through, get preferential treatment from officials. In a recent ESPN interview Mark Cuban said he contemplated selling the Mavericks after last seasons NBA Finals, he thought about selling not because he was sad the Mavs lost but because he felt the Mavs were cheated, and cheated because of him. Avery has the team galvanized since last June but as long as Stern thinks his life would be better without Cuban, and as long as he refuses to market the game through an affable superstar because he's white and foreign there will be some small doubt in my mind until the Mavs actually hoist the trophy.
• ABC's and ESPN's coverage of the Mavs/Suns game was horrible. Ridiculous camera angles, the utter refusal to show replays of important/controversial/confusing plays, and the open rooting for Pheonix by commentators.
• The Mavericks would not have won the game anyways, but the officials gave four points to the Suns. GAVE FOUR POINTS TO THE SUNS. Boris Diaw made a baseline three pointer with 5:11 left in the second period. The problem is that before the pass from Steve Nash reached Diaws hands, a whistle was blown for defensive three seconds on Dallas. Dallas defenders stopped, Diaw caught the ball, shot and made the 3. This isn't football, you can't choose if you want to accept the penalty or the result of the play. The whistle blew and the play should have stopped then and there. Then with 1:19 in the third Barbosa makes his first free throw, misses his second but after a late whistle is allowed another after a horrible lane violation is called on Austin Croshere. On the play, Marion and Stoudemire BOTH cleared out making their way back down the court before Croshere took one step backwards for which he was called for a lane violation. These plays did not ultimately effect the outcome of the game but the show that either the official are corrupt or incompetent; either way there is a huge problem. Moving onto the things that will make me happy.
• Can't wait for Kevin Willis time!

College roundball crowned a new champion, well...not really

• This Florida team is really good, and the ultimate team. They feature four starters who should have good NBA's careers, but the sum of their whole was greater than the sum of their parts. The experience these guys gained by winning last year, and then all coming back, playing together for years -- is something that just doesn't happen in college hoops.
• I was the only bully who had Florida winning it all!
• After everyone coming back this year, Florida may be left with 5 new starters AND a new coach, interesting to watch.

BASEBALL SEASON!!!!!

• I'll have a full in depth report on the 07 Rangers very soon.
• I am not as discouraged as most after opening day in Anaheim. Millwood looked pretty good, Mike Wood was really encouraging, and they knocked the ball all over the field for the first 6 innings. They couldn't get the timely hit, which isn't a fault due to lack of skill just lack of luck. The balls they hit found Angel's gloves, what the Halos hit softly found holes and what they hit hard found holes. They hit the ball off the top of the wall and it bounces over, Rangers hit it hard and it is caught by GMJ. Don't fret, if they play like that all year they will win more than they lose.
• K-Rod looked really bad, despite working a scoreless ninth for his first save of the season. His mechanics were all out of whack -- even for him. He was off balance, leaning too far to his left, his front side was flying open way to fast forcing his arm to have to play catch up, he had no confidence in his ridiculous slider (but the threat of it still made him effective with only his fastball) his velocity was down (94-96 v 97-99mph) and his location was off (everything was inside to a right handed hitter.) If he doesn't correct it, he'll get hit around and be on the DL very soon.
• Gil Meche is wearing the number 55, also the dollar amount in millions of the contract he signed this offseason with the Royals. He was very effective in his first start against a very good offensive Red Sox team.
• Ben Sheets and Felix Hernandez dominated, if they stay healthy it won't be the last time I say that this year.
• Alex Gordon made is first major league plate appearance with the bases loaded and Curt Schilling on the mound. Despite the standing ovation he received as he walked up to the plate, he dug in against the future hall of famer and took a fastball on the inside half for strike one. He would then foul off several good pitches from Schill and take a couple nice splitters for balls. He made an out, but he wasn't overwhelmed by the stage, he was focused. This kid has it all, he's going to be a great one. I've never been as impressed by some kid making an out as I was with Gordon.
• Until Josh Hamilton stepped into the batters box, literally seconds after Gordon. Hamilton was once as heralded a prospect as Gordon, but off field issues including substance abuse problems had forced him out of the game from 2003-2005. Despite only playing in a few games in the low levels of the minor leagues the Reds took Hamilton in the Rule 5 draft and will use him as their fourth outfielder. Hamilton lined out to left field but his teammates didn't seem to notice as they all congratulated him when he returned to the dugout. It was the only the second time I've seen 40,000 people give a standing ovation to a guy whose never played in the bigs before.

Poker

Over the weekend I played in a satellite tournament for the World Series Main Event. The tourney was for frequent players at a major online card room, that we'll call PokerS...No, wait! That's too obvious. How about PStars? It started with everyone recieving 1500 in chips and blinds only at 10/20 with 15 minute levels which provided a lot of play for an online tournament with 1200+ players. Only the top 10 advanced.

With about 200 players left I was sitting on a stack of about 25,000 with blinds in their last minute of the level, 400/800 with a 50 ante. I was in the BB at my table, which was now 8 handed, and picked up Qd-Jh.

It's folded around to the cut off, with about 28,000 in chips, who makes a standard raise, 2,400. The button folds and the small blind, 38k, just calls. My action.

I elect to move all-in here. My thought process:

1. The cut off had been playing pretty aggressively, and raising in an unopened pot from that position made it all the more likely that he would not have a hand capable of calling off nearly all of his chips.
2. The small blind called. He had been playing pretty straightforwardly in the couple hours we had been at the same table. His call told me that he had a marginal hand, he would have raised with a very strong hand, and he wouldn't call a large re-raise.
3. I had been playing with both of these guys for the majority of the tournament, and during that time I had been playing pretty tight. I had been lucky enough to pick up a few hands in key spots and the only ones I had shown down here very strong hands.
4. I hadn't made a big reraise in a while, and when I did I showed Aces.
5. My stack was such that I felt like I needed to make a move, and was willing to gamble. With the payoff scale so top heavy, I felt it was worth making a few moves in order to try and get a mega stack.
6. My opponents stacks were such that they were fairly comfortable where they were. They both had me covered, but not by much and they would in essence be risking their tournament lives to call me.
7. The blinds were about to go up. Making it 2400 a round, meaning my stack would be shrinking soon. And any future moves I might make would more more likely to be called, a situation as potentially profitable as this one, more than likely, would not come up again.
8. I had QJ, which while certainly not a great hand is really only dominated by six hands, and even if the cut off had something like two 10's or AK and called, I felt fine racing at that point in the tourney. This was also a key reason that I moved all in. If my hand was something really horrible, 9-4 off, I may have raised anyway because the situation was ripe for the picking but I doubt I would have pushed everything in. I would have wanted to save some ammo in case one of my opponents came over the top of me, I could muck. But with QJ I would be getting over 2-1 on my all in call if I bet a third of my stack and got pushed back, which would have made folding difficult.

I yell, "Hiedi Ho!" and push my chips into the virtual pot. The cut off thinks for a mintue then calls shows Ad-Kd, small blind gets out of the way. He Hellmuths as the flop comes Queen high and I win a big pot after he can't catch up on the turn or river. His ranting got me thinking about the hand and after analizing my play (which is the #1 reason it is bad to impugn your opponents play. They will think about their play and if it is bad they will correct it, not make the same mistake and cost you $$) I do still think it was correct for the reasons I listed above, which were in my head at the time I made the play. While I was thinking about position, past hands, stack size and future blind levels he was only thinking about his cards, then he cried when he lost a pot he was going to lose 40% of the time. I wound up finishing in 38th place, shy of the pay out on a hand that I will reveal in a future article. If you have any comments or counter arguments on how I played this hand please leave your comments below. I really think that the way to get better is to analyize.