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Sunday 25 July 2010

Oh By The Way...Your Coming Second

First blog in a while, and what a way in which to write it, after my abysmal choices in the WSOP i manage to find people worth millions more than me and far smarter than me making equally abysmal choices...Formula one took a strange turn today...it became more open.

The reason for that is simple, its well known that in formula one teams give orders to their drivers, even if the rules ban such a thing from happening its widely understood that it happens anyway.

But the fact stands that their are rules in place that prohibit team orders, so the point is simple, if your going to break this rule, at the very least...dont make it so pathetically obvious, Ferrari today managed to not only do it, not only make it obvious, but also managed to look very foolish in their backtracking after the race

End result? Massa gets completely done over by the very team he's stood by for so many years, Alonso is now Ferrari's golden boy after only half a season, Ferrari takes a $100,000 fine despite the race result still standing, the media are in uproar, the crowd werent exactly happy, and the general concensus is that the viewer feels cheated out of a decent fight. i mean, whats to fight for when the race was decided by the simple words "Alonso is faster. than. you", the most useless attempt at coding the simple words "Get out of the f*cking way!", the appology just made it even more obvious.

Now my personal view matches the sentiments of almost everyone else. I dont have a problem with team orders, as was mentioned when the race was live, team efforts and team choices can trace their routes back to the start of the sport, so to deny it would be to deny a part of the heritage, but if your going to break a rule most teams do anyway (regardless of what they say), at the very least make some codewords up the public cant understand, or say the drivers have a problem! what happened today is not uncommon, its just concealed normally

The Good People Are Just The Bad People Who Don't Get Caught

Now the matter has been forwarded to the world council, who, with infinite power, will provide a suspended three race ban, quickly followed by amended team order rules for 2011, and in the next race alonso will be outqualifyed by massa yet still finish in front

Dont ask me why...i just have a feeling about that one :)

Friday 9 July 2010

WSOP: Day One Aftermath

Right, all of the day one's are now in the books (all four of them :) and its met my expectations rather well, i guessed around 7200 entrants, we got 7319. I expected a $9m top prize, we got $8.94m, so all in all this looks to be the second biggest WSOP ever (even after the gambling laws in america hit us in 2006/2007, its only taken three years to get back on track. So im going to go on record and say we will smash 7500 next year, and possibly break the 8k mark again, we've only done it once before, so it should be fun to watch.

As it turns out though, thats all i managed to get right, as the picks for this year backfired in spectacular fashion!

Pick One: Phil Hellmuth : Predicted Day 7 : Out Day 1
Pick Two: Tom Dwan : Predicted Day 6 : Out Day 1
Pick Three: Annette Obrestad : Predicted Day 6 : Out Day 1
Pick Four: Phil Ivey : Predicted Day 5 : Still In
Pick Five: John Juanda : Predicted Day 4 : Out Day 1
Wildcard One: Simon Trumper : Predicted Day 5 : Out Day 1
Wildcard Two: Daniel Negreanu : Predicted Day 4 : Still In

So yeah, when you see my picks next year, your looking at the seven names not worth betting on! :D

Monday 5 July 2010

WSOP: The Picks

Well seeing as its time for the series main event (as i speak people in Vegas are just waking up to the big day(s)), i will outline my picks for the series, five of them in total, and then two wildcards alongside them. bear in mind that this is NOT to win the tournament (as anyone who picks players to win in something this big is kidding themselves) but merely to do well.

1st: Phil Hellmuth : Now this is probably making people cringe, but hear me out, he's been playing pretty well this year, and true the lack of hold'em events this year may not exactly help, but while he isn't well favoured much, you can usually always expect a deep run in the main event, it'd be nice to see him go deep again Day 7+



2nd: Tom Dwan : Yeah, this is a funny one, but i reckon with him getting as close as he has during this season, along with the sheer fact of the millions he stands to win/lose on sidebets, you watch him make a serious impression Day 6+ or bust in the first two levels

3rd: Annette Obrestad : Now im not happy, its widely understood that i bum off her skills, when she won the WSOPE, i honestly thought europe had a player to break the american stranglehold of bracelet runs, and while she was fairly respectable for the first WSOP she's ever entered (also, becoming a FTP pro so close to the series, work of genius!) she didnt make any massive impression on the series people were expecting, even still, im reckoning a serious showing in the main event Day 6+

4th: Phil Ivey : I shouldnt need to explain this...the fact its Phil Ivey should be enough for anyone! but the fact he's coming off the back of an 8th bracelet, the fact he's made some good money off those bracelet bets, and the fact that HE'S PHIL BLOODY IVEY! mean he's likely to make a repeat performance Day 5+

5th: John Juanda : I honestly cant work out why, but i can see juanda going very deep this year, he's been on form to say the least Day 4+

Wildcard 1: Simon Trumper : Well come on, i have to back somebody from DTD, im almost certian he's playing this event and id bloody love to see him do well, he's got past credentials to back it so if he did go deep, it wouldnt be any fluke Day 5+

Wildcard 2: Daniel Negreanu: The fact ive had to put him down as a wildcard concerns me but he's been having a torrid time as far as i can see, im not sure if its bad play or deckslapping, but either way this just hasnt been his year, the TOC being the one saving grace, id love to see him do well, but im not sure
Day 4+

Saturday 3 July 2010

Magic v Poker...No Wonder They Switch...

Now before i write this i want to point out, i am a massive magic the gathering player, i adore the game for its strategy and fast paced action, but recently ive been thinking, you see alot of world class poker players (david williams and dario mineri to name a few) that have played MTG in the past, become world class, then moved onto poker from there...while as ive done it the other way round (without the world class bit of course)...so i had to think as to why, then it became very obvious

Magic+ : It's very fast paced and can have matches done inside of three minutes, this helps wonders for people just after a small game on the side
Poker- : Quick games? PAH! even with these new hyper turbo crap shoots they can take nearly half an hour, usually around fifteen minutes though

Magic+ : It's one of those games where you can build decks to your own spec's, and it tailors to multiple playing styles, each colour pretty much gives you its own set of styles
Poker- : Styles can be fit into a small amount of sub categories (well, small amount in comparison) and only a few work at the top level if you take out variance, but that said every game has an aspect of luck, regardless of how much skill you put in (and dont get me wrong, i reckon poker is almost 90% skill)

Magic- : You qualify for the pro tour's or even the worlds, congrats, you usually have to get there yourself, get spending money yourself, and while some places are nice, lets be fair, poker has far better locations...which reminds me...
Poker+ : On almost every single major event worth its weight in gold, it's usually got a site backing it with cheap sattelites, which DOES give you money for travel, which DOES give you spending money for the tournament duration (provided you dont spend like a complete prat), and which DOES provide you with some serious locations that even without the poker youd be likely to go to anyway (san remo? thats a massive tourist destination regardless of the poker, chiba in japan however, until the worlds were hosted there this year, i didnt even know it existed!)

Poker+ : Prize money...you do NOT mess with the sheer prize money these events offer, magic's biggest prize barely even makes the buyin for some of poker's world class events (i'm not joking here...the world's main prize is $52,000....but hold on, the players championship, widely considered to be the pro's ultimate accolade...the buyin is $50,000!)
Magic- : Prize money...who are you kidding...only the top events seem to offer money that comes even remotely close to pokers worst prizes (as i speak $52,000 is the top prize for the world's...which equates to £34,216, thats magic's biggest prize, only just ahead of dusk till dawn (nottingham)'s MONTHLY event!)

Poker+ : Sponsorships for the best which can be worth millions per year
Magic- : A pro tour club where the very best can be worth ten's of thousands per year

Poker+ : An online community beyond compare, giving millions in prizes while staying at home
Magic- : A decent online community with smallish prizes, but has no direct links to the outside world, once youve qualifyed for something online, your not given a real life copy of the deck you won with...you have to then buy your own deck AGAIN, last i checked poker doesnt have those problems

Poker+ : Almost completely mainstream, where bluechip sponsors are not far away
Magic- : Very specific to magic players with very little outside attention


Poker 5:2 Magic

I need say no more, its no wonder they switch