Archive for the 'General' Category
Lendl wants Murray focus
Introducing, Team USA’s Next Opponent: Lithuania
The way the USA basketball team has outplayed and outclassed its first three opponents at London Olympics, it seems that no matter who comes out to play against them, there is going to be just one winner. At this stage, the identities of their opponents seem irrelevant, as they are sure to bulldoze everyone if they keep up their current level of play.
Poker: Creatures of Habit
Over 50,000 years ago human beings started a process of domestication, which as led to the way we behave today. That was the start of the conceptual revolution – when humans started to consciously think. Over time we have evolved into creatures of habit. Societal conditioning makes us behave the way our peers and mentors have sub-consciously taught us to behave. We follow patterns in life we have seen to reap rewards for others whilst simultaneously avoiding the holes in the ground that contain shoes of the weak.
Poker online is a microcosm of life and we too are creatures of habit. This is particularly accentuated if you are multi-tabling online or a participant in the world series of poker. You will not consciously keep up with all the action and instead will be working on autopilot. If you are smart and aware enough you can take advantage of this understanding.
The best way to take advantage of this understanding is to take diligent notes. Some of the greatest online wizards in the realm of high stakes poker spend more time on their game than playing their game. This means analysing what they are doing that works and what they are doing that doesn’t work. This study will take them into areas where they analyse what their opponents are doing as well.
These types of players notice creatures of habit, stalk them and slowly eat them alive. They can use data information tools such as Hold Em Manager (HEM) to understand how often a player checks his draws on the turn and check-raises his made hands. They know how often he bluffs the river, how often he calls a three-bet and then fold to a flop c-bet…they know everything about the creatures of habit.
Valencia ready for European glory
Valencia hardly got their preparations for this week’s Europa League clash against Atletico Madrid off to the best start, suffering a heavy 4-0 defeat to Espanyol in La Liga. Unai Emery will be desperately hoping his side can shake off their disappointing recent league form and produce the sort of displays that have helped them reach the final four of this year’s Europa League.
This week’s semi-final first-leg against Atletico will be Valencia’s first in European football since their successful UEFA Cup run in 2003/04; their Betfair Europa League odds are slightly slimmer than the Madrid team’s because of this. The club will be hoping that is a positive omen going into their two-legged semi-final this time, against a side that will be very familiar to them.
Emery knows all the club’s efforts in the tournament this year now rest on these two matches against Atletico, admitting the all-Spanish affair made the tie all the more exciting.
“The upcoming tie against Atlético is giving off wonderful overtones and it represents a chance to reach the Europa League final. For that reason, all of our efforts up until now have been well worth it.”
Adil Rami will once again stand between the opposition attack and the Valencia goal, which is something he has been doing on a consistent basis throughout the last year. The Frenchman has also been a threat at the other end for his side, scoring three goals in Valencia’s last three Europa League matches to take his tally to six in the tournament.
Striker Roberto Soldado has been prolific this season; scoring five goals in the club’s Champions League campaign before they entered the Europa League. The Spaniard will be his side’s biggest threat in the opponents’ area and Atletico will be need to find a way to keep the striker quiet if they are going to succeed and to help Betfair football betting online succeed in their favour.
Manning Signs for Denver
NFL quarterback, Peyton Manning, one of the most sought-after free agents of recent years, has ended the speculation surrounding his future by joining the Denver Broncos. He signs for $96m over five years.
The move, which could be regarded as a surprise, given that Denver are statistically the least successful of the four division winners in the AFC, was masterminded by Broncos’ vice-president, John Elway.
Elway, a Hall of Fame inductee in 2004, presented an oasis of calm to a player who had been beset by phone-calls and media intrusions since leaving the Indianapolis Colts on March 7. “I put myself in his shoes,” Elway said.
“I told Peyton: ‘just take your time. We’re going to do the best that we can. We’re going to be here.’” Elway’s hands-off approach was ultimately rewarded with Manning’s signature on Monday morning.
Manning had been linked with teams ranging from the Miami Dolphins to the Arizona Cardinals and the Washington Redskins. However, he made plain his desire to remain in the AFC, to avoid interfering with his brother’s career in the NFC.
The four-time Most Valuable Player said that playing for Denver is a “now situation” – he is not using the club as a stepping stone to “do something in two years or three years. We’re going to do whatever we can to win right now.”
However, the quarterback admitted that he is not where he “wants to be”, with regards to his physical condition. Manning underwent neck surgery, last year, a development that effectively ended his 13-year spell at the Colts.
Manning will wear his trademark no. 18 jersey for Denver, a shirt that was, prior to his arrival, retired. The Broncos took the number out of circulation as a tribute to Frank Tripucka, the team’s first quarterback.
Tribucka was reportedly more than happy to see his bright orange jersey extracted from the Broncos attic, where it has sat since he
left the team in 1963.
For those wanting to bet on NFL these developments are worth noting.
Poker Goes Mobile
You only have to take an attentive tube ride to realise the sheer volume of mobile handsets in the world today. It seems as though anybody and everybody possesses one, and if you have a product to sell to the mass of mobile maniacs, then you have an entrepreneurial dream. Read more
Pot Odds – Immediate Odds
When playing the game of poker there are a myriad of different rules, strategies and tactics to consider. In fact there are so many that you will do well to reduce them in number and concentrate first on a vital few. Ranking high amongst the vital few is the knowledge and understanding of pot odds. There are two types of pot odds: immediate and implied, and this article concentrates on the former. Read more
TCOOP (Turbo Championship of Online Poker)
The poker world just loves an acronym and the latest phrase to be shortened to precisely the right length, so it just rolls off the tongue is the TCOOP. The Turbo Championship of Online Poker is the brainchild of the online giant PokerStars and it spread its inaugural wings at the dawn of 2012.
PokerStars do not do things by half and the first ever TCOOP was no exception. The championship series comprised of no fewer than fifty tournaments, paying out millions of dollars to lucky poker sharks and fish from all around the globe.
The series started back on the 19th January with a $22 NL Hold-em (6-Max) event promising a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000. An incredible 44,787 players entered the event and the final prize pool of $895,740 dwarfed the guarantee. 88Xin88 from Canada took home the first prize of $67,903.56. Fans of Texas Holdem should remember this.
It ended on the 29th January 2012, with the final event, the $215 NL Hold’em (Hyper-Turbo) attracting 2,992 players. It was another huge prize pool of $630,713.60 and the eventual winner KvicKiller, from the Czech Rep, taking home $72,939.62.
Sandwiched in between those two events was every type of poker game you could imagine. TCOOP offered NL Omaha Hi/Lo, PL Draw, PL Omaha, NLHE, Knockout tournaments, Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, HORSE and 8-Game.
The pinnacle of each series is the Main Event and TCOOP was no exception. Event No. 49 was a $700 NLHE tournament with a $1.5 million guarantee and $200,000+ guaranteed to the winner. It was a Mexican who came out on top with David “Betudontbet” Emmons winning $382,855.67 from a total combined prize pool of $2,438,555 created by the 3,667 entrants. The TCOOP experienced was summed up when the Main Event reached heads up and lasted one hand!
Brian team expecting bold show in Jewson Novices Chase
Lucinda Russell could be set to send her very promising novice chaser Bold Sir Brian on the long journey from Britain’s most northerly training centre at Perth & Kinross all the way to Cheltenham for a crack at the prestigious Grade 2 Jewson Novices Chase after seeing her progressive charge saunter to an easy win in the John Smith’s Future Champions’ Novices Chase at Musselburgh on February 11, writes Elliot Slater.
Completing a hattrick of successes this season the gelded son of Brian Boru had to overcome an anxious moment at the 12th fence when Chester Lad fell while still marginally in front, very nearly bringing down Russell’s charge who showed talent in shimmying to the side to avoid the faller. From then on jockey Peter Buchanan had no further worries as Bold Sir Brian continued to jump fluently and with plenty of accuracy, pulling right away from his rivals to score by an impressive 22-lengths from Kate Walton’s decent Stopped Out. Those planning to bet Cheltenham 2012 money will have marked him out as one to watch.
Clearly delighted with the performance of her rising star, Russell is contemplating a bid for the Jewson Novices Chase at Betfair Cheltenham races, a contest that was won by Ferdy Murphy’s Divers last term having scored in the same Musselburgh contest on his previous outing. The Scottish handler will be hoping that lightning strikes twice and Bold Sir Brian, who won at Hexham in early December then at Kelso three weeks later when taking the scalp of the highly touted Lie Forritt, can give a very good account of himself in the ultra-competitive two-mile-five-furlong event.
Bookmakers are divided as to the merit of his Scottish success, some having cut the six-year-old to just 16/1 to win the Cheltenham contest whilst others seem wholly unimpressed and leave him at a very tempting 40/1, a price that could well interest ante-post each-way punters.
The Epic Poker League – Season One
In 2009, Jeffrey Pollack left his role as the Commissioner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to explore other interests. One of these interests was to become the executive chairman for the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), but before the name had slipped from the minds of poker players and into the minds of bull riders he resurfaced in poker in 2010. Read more