Mission WSOP

Before the Top 10 list, the charges versus Pacman Jones were dropped.  The original report said he "sucker punched" a stripper when he entered the Body Tap strip club’s office because he was upset that his bracelet and money were stolen.  Now, the charges have been dropped.  Hmmmmm…

I did this a while ago and thought I’d update it:

My Top 10 Top 10 (My Favorite 10 Things At This Very Moment)

10. Sirius
9. Puzzle Quest for Wii 
8. Qdoba 
7. The Wire
6. You Tube
5. Catching up on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ On Demand
4. The Chargers
3. My Blackberry Curve
2. The pickle on the Chic-Fil-A Sandwich
1. Chicken, Egg & Cheese On  A Sunflower Multi-grain Bagel from Chic-Fil-A

I haven’t had a chance to review the details but it seems that Pacman Jones is back in the frying pan for yet another strip club incident.  He is now being accused of punching a stripper?  If this is true, all I can say is what the —-!  Pacman… the Titans need you back… stay out of strip clubs, please!

Finally, a real quick look at what is going to drive me absolutely insane today.  My two socks are different and one sock has more elasticity than the other.  How do I know they are different?  One has ‘HANES’ and the other has ‘Hanes’ written on them.  UGH!!!

Christmas has come and gone and now I’m a rock star thanks to Guitar Heroes.  Actually, I pretty much am finding the game difficult on any level other than Easy.  I am looking forward to spending my gift cards at Borders and Best Buy and will smell much better doing it thanks to some new soap and cologne for Christmas.

My bankroll is stuck in neutral lately and after a 4th place finish in a Stud tournament last night, I’m at $2075.

A message to all of you out there who feel compelled to ask me to stake you… don’t!  If I want to stake you, I will seek you out and do so.  In the mean time, I am losing my patience with all of the requests as of late.  I feel like I’m walking through a village of homeless people every time I sign on to AOL Instant Messenger.

Finally, I was so disappointed recently when Yahoo ran a story featuring the Top 40 Most Interesting Sports Figures of 2007 as voted on by bloggers… but no one asked this blogger to participate!  Sure, I have a readership of maybe 43 but still… I have an opinion and I fit their expectation of being "basically a big city white guy in their 20s and 30s."

So, here is my Top 15:

15 (tie). Randy Moss/Terrell Owens
Two guys who just can’t help you win and are a major distraction are on teams with a combined 28-2 record.  Lucy, you got some ’splainin’ to do!

14. OJ Simpson
The former Heisman winner turned retired bumbling detective. (Hint: OJ, look in the mirror… you’ll find what you are looking for!)  Now, he’s a candidate for America’s Dumbest Criminal with a brief summer news affair where he was caught on tape committing a heist of his own stuff.  Way to go, OJ, we knew you had it in you.

13. Tim Donaghy
In the scandal that just couldn’t get any steam behind it, I still think Tim deserves some kudos for costing (or winning) millions of degenerate gamblers everywhere some dough.

12. Floyd Mayweather
I want to make a joke about Dancing With The Stars but I’m afraid Floyd Mayweather might read this and come to my house at 4 am when I’m sleeping and hurt me real bad.  An MMA run in 2008 could make Floyd a Top 10 candidate for sure. 

11. David Beckham
I had something realy interesting and funny to say about Becks but I’m going to hold out for millions and then totally not deliver.

10. Tony Romo
He went from bumbling the snap in a key playoff game to 13-2 and nailing Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson.  This guy might be my hero.

9. Roger Clemens
He’s retired… no wait… he’s not retired… no wait… he’s retired… no wait… he’s not retired.  Boy, that’s old.  I guess Clemens thought so, too.  Here’s a new suggestion.  He used steroids… no wait… he didn’t use steroids… no wait… he used steroids… no wait… he didn’t use steroids.  If ESPN makes a reality show about this guy I hope I can account for my whereabouts when the program director is found dead.

8. Tom Brady
All he does is win.  And now they give him some real targets to throw to and he makes the game look easier than ever.

7. Barry Bonds
He probably should be higher but eclipsing the home run record was anti-climactic and the rest of the Bonds story is so played.  Although the highlight has to be the 100s of interpretations of the Hank Aaron speech.

6. Bill Belichick
Cheaters never win?  Someone needs to put out an inquiry on this one then!

5. Brett Favre
It’s always big news when you are able to get off my "I hate how overrated this guy is" list.  Somehow Favre put me in my place in 2007.  Has he always been that good and I was just blind to it?  I’m sure he’ll make two or three well-timed choke throws in the playoffs to help me get to a place where I can put him back on that list.

4. Gilbert Arenas
Agent 00… helped his team in the best way he knew how: he got injured and out of their way.  I’m rooting for him though.  Maybe he can go the route of TO and Randy Moss and end up on some juggernaut of a team and we’ll forget all about the mugging and trash talking.  The Celtics could use one more player.

3. Pacman Jones
Made it rain, wrestled and then disappeared into oblivion as he tries to convince the NFL to let him back.  Adam had such a lock on the #1 spot for me that he only slipped two spots when he failed to make the news in the second half of ‘07.  Someone call up Jones and tell him I got a big stack of $1 bills for his 3rd place finish!

2. Michael Vick
Public enemy #1 finishes #2 on my list and in most eyes, Vick equates to a pile of #2.  Now he’s behind bars and fading out of the hot button topics of the public.  This is a good thing as he was a mine waiting to blow up in the face of anyone who stepped out and commented in any way other than Michael Vick should be burned, stoned, hung, shot by firing squad, etc.

1. Jimmy Rollins
Allow me to go local… he told us the Phillies were the team to beat in 2007 and then went out and backed it up by helping the Phillies storm from behind and put a dagger in the heart of millions of Mets fans.  Plus, he was named MVP and had 20 doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases in the same year.  And then there was his biggest feat of 2007: he knocked the Eagles out of the top news spot in Philadelphia and put the Phillies into the spot of team most talked about going into 2008.

After committing to the restart on Thursday, I took Friday and Saturday off to spend some quality time with my girlfriend and clear my head.  As I restart, when I get a few days ahead I am going to start taking a little time off here and there to keep the game fresh and prevent the boredom that can occur which makes me do stupid things.

In my first day back, I added $18 and bumped my total to $152.54.  A little behind where I should be but I’m happy with how I played in my first online foray.  I also played at the lowest level on the site and was able to earn 36x the big bet in about an hour.  If this were a 5/10 game, I would be +360 instead of +18 (although that is a much tougher game).  But, I have realized I can’t push it if I want to do this right and need to grind it out.

Secondly, my poker calendar may slowly fill up as there will be some opportunities to test my poker skills in some fairly big events.  Two of them are online and two are live.

The first online series has already begun and I’m looking at the August 16th Seven Card Stud event on the Full Tilt Online Poker Series as a possible event for me to play in.  The event takes place at 9 pm and top prize is $25,000.  I haven’t decided yet if I was going to play and with my work schedule, it looks like an unlikely event for me.

The other online series is the WCOOP on Poker Stars.  I played in an event last year and just missed the money by 4 places after leading the tournament for about 75% of the first 4 hours before taking two rough beats and getting decimated in chips only to finish close to the bubble.  I’m hoping to play in either the 7-Card Stud event or the Razz event in September. 

Live events upcoming are the Borgata Poker Open in September which is disappointingly Hold’em only.  I doubt this is a tournament I’ll play in but if I go on a hot streak then I’ll be there.  I’m very disappointed in the Borgata’s total abandonment of non-Hold’em games.

The most likely event for me to play in is the Seven Card Stud event at the Taj on September 17th.  I have talked about playing in this event every year for the past 5 years and I never participate (including one year where I actually went to AC and stayed over with the intention on playing ONLY to oversleep after a late night session and not participate).  I think this is the event that I’ll be targeting to play in and hope I stick to my guns and actually participate. 

If I play in any of the events, I will be updating my blog during the events.

Moving away from my life, Michael Vick should be suspended by the end of the week.  I’m surprised it has taken this long.

Pacman Jones is a wrestler… sort of.  Apparently, he can’t be touched or harmed in any way.  TNA has its’ work cut out for them to make this work.

Finally, I haven’t done a Top 10 in a while so after catching a movie with one of my favorite characters of all-time in it, I came up with a list.

Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters Of All-Time

10. Drexl Spivey (True Romance)
Sure, Gary Oldman’s character has a very small part in my favorite movie ever but it is just one of the best performances in one of the most underrated movies of all-time.  It was tough to decide between Oldman’s character and Christopher Walken’s character but Oldman edges Walken out.

9. Teddy KGB (Rounders)
John Malkovich’s underground Russian villain of the greatest poker movie of all-time is absolutely a performance to see for any poker fan.  You play poker with anyone that has seen this movie and they are bound to mimic Malkovich’s Russian accent and one of the many memorable lines that KGB says during the movie.

8. Rick Blaine (Casablanca)
Humphrey Bogart is one bad m-f-er in the only love story a guy can get away with saying he likes without being called a wuss. 

7. Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs)
"Are you gonna bark… little doggy… or are you gonna bite?"  Michael Madsen is the highlight of the pre-Pulp Fiction Tarantino film era. 

6. John McClaine (Die Hard)
Hard to believe I still haven’t seen Die Hard 4.  Bruce Willis as McClaine is easily my favorite action sequel-fest character.

5. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (Full Metal Jacket)
The main reason to watch the first half of Full Metal Jacket is R. Lee Ermey’s turn as a ball-breaking drill sergeant who pushes Private Pyle… well, if you haven’t seen it, I am not going to ruin it.

4. Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction)
The baddest of the bad m-f-ers in movie history.  He has a wallet to prove it.  Screw John Travolta, it’s Samuel L. Jackson that makes this movie one of the best dialogue-driven movies of all-time.

3. Roy Hobbs (The Natural)
This movie gets me every time.  I can’t stand when this movie pops on my TV because I can’t turn away.  You have to make me turn it off.  I defy any true baseball fan to not get caught up in this movie and end up rooting for Hobbs to win it all for the New York Knights.  Hell, he made me root for a New York team.

2. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
Christian Bale carries this movie as a businessman by day/psychotic killer by night addicted to 80s music and serial killings.  I’d quote some of the many memorable lines from the movie but since practically the entire movies is on the Internet Movie Database, you can look for yourself.

1. Leon (The Professional)
Assassin turned father-figure turned protector of Matilda, a 12-year-old played by Natalie Portman who loses her family when they are all murdered.  Jean Reno is amazing as the assassin with a heart.  If it weren’t for the chemistry between Reno and Portman, this movie would be ordinary. 

Honorable mentions: Jason Vorhees, Clark Griswold, Hoke Colburn, Private Trip, Private Pyle, Clarence Worley, Alonzo (Training Day), Jesse & Celine (Before Sunrise/Before Sunset), Worm, Knish, Todd Wodds & Reggie Kane (Duets), Tyler Durden, The Joker, Mike McDermott, Boba Fett… too tired to continue but I think you get that I had a long list to pare down to 10.

I have yet to have back-to-back losing days as I added $19.45 to the bankroll and moved the figure to $280.51.  Since July 1st, that was my 5th best day and much needed after my biggest loss the previous day.  I started off the day dropping about $20 in a rash of bad beats when my opponent managed to hit 5 gut shots over the course of 10 hands.  I stepped up to the $1/$2 table and took my biggest risk and quickly won the $20 back and then as the table grew to 7 players, I left as I prefer more short handed games.

Pacman Jones may be joining TNA (the rival wrestling operation competing with WWE).  Sounds right up his alley.

David Beckham continues to be hurt and may not play the next game whenever that is.  You’d think by my blog that I was a big soccer fan but I’m just fascinated with the Beckham invasion and the ineptitude of the LA organization in thinking that Beckham will revolutionize the American game.

On the flip side, Freddie Adu is leaving the US to play in Portugal.  Losing a great American talent such as Freddie Adu seems to me as a bigger deal than it is being made out to be.  Maybe I just don’t understand the game.

It’s been a long night and morning as my day was packed full of work, poker and the occassional check-in to the current goings on in the world.  My WSOP fund is at $182.39, nearly $40 and 6 days aheaad of schedule.  My night of work ended around 10 PM with enough time to head to the DE Poker Room in Newark, DE, touted as "Delaware’s Only Legal Poker Room".  In between a loud bar and a bank with a free Internet cafe, the DE Poker Room runs almost nightly cash games playing low limit Hold’em and dealer’s choice games.  Tonight, I slid into a $2 max bet Dealer’s Choice table where we played mostly Omaha and 7-Card Stud with the occassional slip into Super Hold’em, Pineapple and 5-Card Stud.  We even played a hand of 5-Card Draw.  After a rough beginning, I found myself struggling to stay ahead of the $3-per-30 minute donation expected and ended the 3 hour session at +$2 for the evening.  An interesting table as I was easily the most aggressive player at the table against a group of calling stations with the older women at the table commenting about how "crazy" it was to raise and then instantly calling me down the entire way.  Overall, it was a fun experience because it is such a rarity to get an opportunity to play anything other than Hold’em.  I look forward to next time. 

Throughout the day, I tuned in and out to the hot sports story of the day: Beckham invades the States!  David Beckham, the biggest name in professional soccer, has been lured across the pond by the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS thanks to the allure of trying to put soccer into relevancy into the United States and a hefty paycheck of roughly $32 million over 5 years.  Now Beckham is expected to resurrect a near last place team and a sport we call soccer and he calls football.  Soccer optimists are banking on Beckham revolutionizing the game in the US.  Some analysts expect the sexy Beckham to bring women to soccer.  They fail to realize that most women would rather shell out $4 a week to ogle Beckham’s phsyique caught by paparazzi and displayed in pics in the latest issue of Us or People.  Some think Beckham will bring excitement to the game of soccer.  "Becks" scored 3 goals in 31 appearances with Real Madrid last season and assisted on 10 more, roughly once every other game.  In a sport consistently ripped in the US for it’s lack of excitement, the Beckham effect may be bigger in getting new spectators to watch but will they stay once they realize it is still that game where we watch uninterrupted for about 2 hours and if my team scores once an hour, we’re thrilled.  In my opinion, Beckham will get a lot of attention but the game of soccer will not benefit.  Heck, Beckham gets a good amount of attention now in the US and no one has been going out of their way to catch a Real Madrid game in recent memory in the US.  Time will tell but I’m betting on the Beckham effect to be negligable although it still may draw viewers than the Stanley Cup finals that recently took place.  I’d tell you what you missed but I wasn’t watching either.

Dumbest Person In The World Candidate #1: "Pacman" Jones

Hypothetical situation:  You are a mega-talented football player in college, drafted fifth overall in 2005.  After a solid rookie season and an even better second year.  Do you:

(A) Get arrested for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and then three months later get arrested for assault after spitting on a woman following an altercation at a night club in Tennessee.

(B) Make a speech vowing to never see the inside of a courtroom only to find yourself involved in an incident which includes a strip club, $81,000 of your money, a melee and a triple shooting causing you to get suspended for an entire season from the NFL.

(C) After finding out of your suspension from your livelihood, drive your orange Lamborghini around the suburbs of Tennessee at 8:30 AM.  To ensure that situation is as complicated as possible, you put tags on the car that are not associated with the luxury sports car but rather another one of the vehicles you own causing yet another arrest due to a registration violation.

(D) Allow your legal representative to issue a statement accusing a sheriff’s deputy of targeting you in the aforementioned traffic stop claiming the police where singling you out.

(E) All of the above.

If you picked (E) then you too may one day be nominated for dumbest person in the world.  "Pacman", we’ll miss you… good luck in the CFL.  I hear the strip clubs in Toronto are amazing.

Finally, the WSOP Main Event is down to 112 players.  More of the big names have exited and all of the celebs are gone… even Spidey!!!  And the chip leader is a guy named Dag!?!

Besides Dag, there are still 2 past Main Event winners left (Huck Seed ‘96 and Scotty Nguyen ‘98).  There are still 12 bracelet winners in contention (Seed (4), Nguyen (4), Humberto Brenes (2), Lee Watkinson, Kirk Morrison, Daniel Alaei, Bob Slezak, Diego Cordovez, Alexander Kravchenko, John Spadavecchia, Francois Safieddine and William "Bill" Edler).  Of the 19 bracelets won, 5 were won playing No Limit Hold’em, 4 each in Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo, 2 in Razz and 2-7 Lowball, and 1 in Limit Hold’em and 7-Card Stud.  Three of the bracelet winners accomplished the feat this year: Kravchenko, Edler and Safieddine.

Of the 112 players, more than half have cashed (58 of 112).  Humberto Brenes has cashed the most at 48. In total, the players have collectively cashed 331 times, almost 3 times per player.  Huck Seed and Scotty Nguyen both have cashed 33 times as well.  Rounding out the top 5 cashers are John Spadavecchia with 24 cashes and Chad Brown with 18.  Of the 331 cashes, 32 of them have occurred in the Main Event including 10 players who cashed in 2005’s Main Event.  Brenes again tops the list here with this year’s Main Event going to add to his 6 Main Event cashes including 4th place in 1988.  He did not come the closest though as Julian Gardner lost heads up to Robert Varkonyi in ‘02 and then finished 54th in ‘03 and 32nd in ‘04).

Gus Hansen still remains and is in serious contention.  Lee Watkinson is the pro in the best position sitting at 12th place.  The hottest players coming into the Main Event have to be Jared Hamby, William (Bill) Edler and Kirk Morrison, all currently ranked in the Top 25 in Card Player’s 2007 Player Of The Year rankings.

It should be a fun finish as the field plays down to just 27 on Saturday.