Well, May is ending and we are heading into one of my favorite months... June! Writing here to give a few thoughts on some sports stories and talk about a little poker...imagine that...
1. I'm not sure what is happening with the NBA right now, but I'm starting to lose a little interest. This happened to me last year, I enjoy most of the regular season, the opening rounds and by time the playoffs are over, I actually start liking it less. The main reason is that I just don't think it can compare to the past days when I used to love watching the NBA. These series (usually featuring the Bulls) were amazingly intense and you could just feel the competitiveness. Now, the refs don't allow this whatsoever. I can't even describe how annoyed I am with all of the talk about flagrant fouls. It is just ridiculous how sensitive the refs are, and there have been way too many flagrant and technical fouls called this postseason. Just let the players decide the game, it's getting annoying.
But maybe the refs are actually doing their best, and are just bad. Would it surprise you to know that at least ten of the refs in that are doing NBA games are over 50 years old!? With how fast and athletic the NBA game is, how are people these old supposed to be relied to call games at the highest level? I don't understand how the league can't infuse younger referees that would no doubt be better than these old guys, in order to put a better product out there. On Monday, I was with a couple people that weren't big NBA fans and they were so entirely turned off by the product that they chose to watch a Cubs/Pirates and Monday Night Raw over it. This should not be happening when Conference Finals are going on.
2. With all of that being said, I the NBA players are doing WAY too much complaining about every call. I can't even count how many times I've seen a player complaining about an obvious call. Just stop. Kobe and Dwight Howard have five technicals each this postseason. Is that a joke? That's way too many.
Which brings me to another point. Dwight Howard is really starting to annoy me. He smiles way too much. After Game 2 when Lebron hit that amazing game winning three, at the postgame press conference Dwight Howard was all smiles. He was laughing about Lebron hitting the shot, and didn't even seem to care that much. It's the freaking Eastern Conference Finals!!! Are you serious? In case you didn't know Dwight, if you would have won that game, this series would most likely be over already. Instead, the Lebrons now have a chance to steal this series onc again. Besides him smiling all the time, he seems to ALWAYS be getting tangled up with someone somehow. I think the law off averages prove that you won't be getting tangled up with other players that much, unless you are trying to. So I guess my point of all of this is Dwight quit being dumb and get your team to the finals.
3. Recently, it has been reported that Manny Ramirez is fourth in All-Star voting for NL outfielders. I don't know if this is more sad or funny. ESPN.com ran poll saying "If Manny Ramirez is voted in the starting NL outfield, should he play?" When I checked, 68% of people said NO and 32% said YES. Hmmm. Well I think the answer should definitely be YES. If the fans are dumb enough to vote him in, why not play? Even Joe Torre is saying that he shouldn't play. I don't agree. I'm not a believer in fans voting for all-star teams, but if they get the right, why shouldn't their choices be honored? I don't think he will end up in the top 3, but if he does, he should play if he wants to.
If you don't care about poker, quit reading here....
Memorial Day Poker- Last Monday, me and seven or eight other guys played in a day-long poker cash game in Kewanee. I don't know the exactly how long played but I want to say it was something like 3pm-12am. Yes, there were some breaks in there, but we played most of that time straight, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. There was quite a bit of money on the table (for us), and a good mix of players meant the action was really good. I know it's hard to do with people's schedules but I really wish we could do this more. Most of the time we struggle to get five players, but when we have a full table, it's just way better. You don't have to be playing all the time...sometimes it's just fun to sit and watch other people play big pots.
And there were quite of few of those. I think every player that had their chance to win a monstorous pot. One had stood out for me on t The first one: was between me and Brett Sellers. This player, Tyler raised in early postion (he raised about 75% of the pots on the entire day) Brett called and I did as well with 44. The flop was 4-4-J ... I had hit quads! Naturally it checked all the way around to me, and I did the same. The next card was a King, which happened to make a pair for Brett's KQ in the pocket. He made a large sized bet, which I just called. That was my mistake, had I raised there even with my monster hand, I would have got way more out of Brett there. The river was a 10. Brett bet out his top pair, and I raised him with my four of a kind. He was able to (after quite a bit of thinking) to just call because he was scared of a potential straight. Had I raised him on the turn instead, he might have been putting most of his money in right there. Oh well, still won a nice pot. I felt bad for Brett for about 1.2 minutes, because on the very next hand he got made FOUR OF KIND ACES, and got most of the money back he lost. Poker is a crazy game...
Also, we were able to to get 80 wings, a large pizza, and a family order of cheese sticks from Pizza Hut for $37, which was about $5 per person, also known as amazing. Lucky for us, we had three Pizza Hut employees playing with us who were able to use their half of discount. Hopefully will be able to get another game like this in the near future, but I doubt it...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
And so it begins..
Never in a million years did I think I would have one of these, but I'm going to give it a try. Credit for inspiring me to start this goes 83% to the Sports Guy Bill Simmons and 17 % to my cousin Scott. Reading things they have written in the past has motivated me to put my own thoughts out there. It isn't going to be like most blogs, and I'm not going to bore people with the random uninteresting things I do each day. Instead, I'm going to use this as a place to share my opinions, mostly on sports and things going on in the world. I'll also be posting many of my theories on random things in life. I hope I can get at least a few people to read this, because it will only be fun if people comment/argue about what I write.
Over the course of this week I was able to go on two road trips with my friend Ty. I am extremely thankful to have the opportunity to do stuff like this. The first trip was to Chicago (well technically Oswego and Rosemont) the second to St. Louis. I'm not going to go over everything I did on these trips, but rather some things that I learned or believe to be true after this trip. The list: While it's fun to travel alone so you can listen/sing to your own music, I'll take a ride with someone else anyday. It truly is two different worlds between the town I live in (Kewanee) and the suburbs of Chicago. Tripolee is awesome. So are darts. If you have the right mix of people, you can make whatever you are doing really fun. Just when I thought it was about time to give up on wrestling, I saw an amazing show. I have never had fun playing poker when I've lost, never will (I think this is a good thing). If you put me and Ty together I think we would be unbeatable at poker. Sporting events are way way more enjoyable when my team wins (so glad to snap that six game losing streak). Even when you think you know everything about a person, they can still surprise you (my Grandpa Christakos). And finally, Fukudome can say "hi" in perfect English.
Random Ramblings about Sports:
1. The WWE/ NBA scheduling conflict, and the way Vince McMahon has handled it just cracks me up. He acts like he is mad about it, but in reality this is a gold mine for him. Best quote: "Stan Kronke should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman." With that being said, I am still actually on the Nuggets side on this one. In April when the contract was signed, how in the world were they supposed to know that they would be playing in a Western Conference Final, on that specific day, at home?? They wouldn't have even known that a week ago, because if the Rockets had won, they would have been playing in Houston that day. Regardless, Vince decided to move Raw to the Staples Center, can't wait to see how many rips they get in on Stan and the Nuggets on Monday...
2. Speaking of the Nuggets, two completely insane decisions had to be made by the Detroit Pistons in order for the team they have to be in place. The Iverson/Billups trade was absolutely horredous, even if the Pistons were just trying to dump salary. I don't see Iverson being a Piston for much longer, and Billups may just be playing in the NBA Finals. This wasn't even the dumbest thing done by this franchise. In 2003, they drafted Darko Milicic over Carmelo with the 2nd pick. At the time, I distinctly remember my friend Moises and I talked about how this would be one of the worst draft decisons of all time. Six years later, is there even a doubt? Now, Carmelo is rising to the occasion and has led his team to the Western Conference Finals, and Darko....what team is he on again?
3. Can anyone think of another player in any sport that the league has tried so hard to repair their image than Kobe Bryant? Since his issue of cheating on his wife, the NBA has tried so hard to make Kobe look like a good guy again. I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying it. To me, he just isn't a likeable player, and his own teammates don't even seem to like him. The new "documentary" 'Kobe Doin Work' is an absolute joke. The shooting of that just seemed so fake and forced. It was like they were just feeding us some Kobe propganda or something (stolen from Simmons), but its true. The whole thing was kind of embarassing for everyone involved...
This ended up being pretty long, doubt that continues. Lebron just hit a game winning three....unbelievable! Two amazing series going on in the NBA right now, hard to think about much else, but I still have some sweeping to do from yesterday, anyone have a broom?
Over the course of this week I was able to go on two road trips with my friend Ty. I am extremely thankful to have the opportunity to do stuff like this. The first trip was to Chicago (well technically Oswego and Rosemont) the second to St. Louis. I'm not going to go over everything I did on these trips, but rather some things that I learned or believe to be true after this trip. The list: While it's fun to travel alone so you can listen/sing to your own music, I'll take a ride with someone else anyday. It truly is two different worlds between the town I live in (Kewanee) and the suburbs of Chicago. Tripolee is awesome. So are darts. If you have the right mix of people, you can make whatever you are doing really fun. Just when I thought it was about time to give up on wrestling, I saw an amazing show. I have never had fun playing poker when I've lost, never will (I think this is a good thing). If you put me and Ty together I think we would be unbeatable at poker. Sporting events are way way more enjoyable when my team wins (so glad to snap that six game losing streak). Even when you think you know everything about a person, they can still surprise you (my Grandpa Christakos). And finally, Fukudome can say "hi" in perfect English.
Random Ramblings about Sports:
1. The WWE/ NBA scheduling conflict, and the way Vince McMahon has handled it just cracks me up. He acts like he is mad about it, but in reality this is a gold mine for him. Best quote: "Stan Kronke should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman." With that being said, I am still actually on the Nuggets side on this one. In April when the contract was signed, how in the world were they supposed to know that they would be playing in a Western Conference Final, on that specific day, at home?? They wouldn't have even known that a week ago, because if the Rockets had won, they would have been playing in Houston that day. Regardless, Vince decided to move Raw to the Staples Center, can't wait to see how many rips they get in on Stan and the Nuggets on Monday...
2. Speaking of the Nuggets, two completely insane decisions had to be made by the Detroit Pistons in order for the team they have to be in place. The Iverson/Billups trade was absolutely horredous, even if the Pistons were just trying to dump salary. I don't see Iverson being a Piston for much longer, and Billups may just be playing in the NBA Finals. This wasn't even the dumbest thing done by this franchise. In 2003, they drafted Darko Milicic over Carmelo with the 2nd pick. At the time, I distinctly remember my friend Moises and I talked about how this would be one of the worst draft decisons of all time. Six years later, is there even a doubt? Now, Carmelo is rising to the occasion and has led his team to the Western Conference Finals, and Darko....what team is he on again?
3. Can anyone think of another player in any sport that the league has tried so hard to repair their image than Kobe Bryant? Since his issue of cheating on his wife, the NBA has tried so hard to make Kobe look like a good guy again. I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying it. To me, he just isn't a likeable player, and his own teammates don't even seem to like him. The new "documentary" 'Kobe Doin Work' is an absolute joke. The shooting of that just seemed so fake and forced. It was like they were just feeding us some Kobe propganda or something (stolen from Simmons), but its true. The whole thing was kind of embarassing for everyone involved...
This ended up being pretty long, doubt that continues. Lebron just hit a game winning three....unbelievable! Two amazing series going on in the NBA right now, hard to think about much else, but I still have some sweeping to do from yesterday, anyone have a broom?
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