LeBron James, Villain

The very first day of our New York trip, my buddy Matt and I dragged our wives to the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue.
For an NBA fan, this place is pretty much Mecca. Jerseys and shorts and hats for every team in the league. All kinds of memorabilia. There was no way I was walking out of that store without buying something.
And you know what I bought? A LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers jersey I found on the discount rack for $30. It was the super-snazzy wine-and-gold road jersey, with the old Cavs logo on the chest. Just a great-looking piece, and an unbelievably good price for an authentic uniform.
What made this garment even more awesome to me is, it felt like I was making a political statement of sorts. Maybe political isn’t quite the right adjective, but I was taking a stand on an issue by buying that jersey. I don’t like that LeBron dissed his home-state fans. That was some mean stuff. And every time I wear that jersey, I’ll remember that it was the one he was always meant to wear.
Yup, I’m definitely chugging the Haterade when it comes to the artist formerly known as King James. I caught the first half of the Heat’s season-opener in Boston, and thoroughly enjoyed watching James, Wade and Bosh stumble around trying to figure out what their roles were as the boos rained down. I’ve also been doing a fair bit of reading on the Heat, and here are some of the more interesting factoids I’ve come across:
-- LeBron had eight turnovers against the Celtics, and nine the following evening against Philadelphia. In 548 career games coming into this season, he’d only had eight-plus turnovers 10 times. Interesting.
-- TNT, which broadcast the Celtics-Heat game, said 7.4 million people tuned in, making it the highest-rated regular season game on cable in NBA history. Interestingly, after Boston and Miami, the highest local ratings came out of Cleveland. Amazing how collective loathing will tend to galvanize people.
-- Cavs owner Dan Gilbert kind of went ballistic post-Decision, firing off an insanely angry letter. He went on ESPN radio after the Celtics game, and dropped this little nugget: "That was sort of a surreal experience . . . I guess they are only going to be 81-1 now.” Bazinga.
-- Bill Simmons caught both of the Heat’s first two games, and his fascinating take on the whole thing was on ESPN.com. Definitely worth a read. Perhaps the most interesting passage:
“The best thing about Pre-Decision LeBron? How he connected with his teammates and fans. He wanted to win, he wanted to have a good time, he wanted to put on a show, he wanted to be liked, and most of all, he wanted to amaze. Watching Post-Decision LeBron talk cryptically about taking mental notes, retweet vicious messages, broach the race card and prance around preseason games with an Eff You edge was like seeing Will Ferrell play a war criminal or something. It just didn't feel right.”
LeBron, if you happen to stumble onto this obscure blog in your cyberspace wanderings, this is why everybody is upset.

Live poker is fun

Poker-wise, I’m rolling pretty well right now.
Since returning from New York City three weeks ago (travel blog coming up, I promise), I’m up $650 on PokerStars. I’ve gone back to my roots, playing fewer multi-table tournaments in favour of good old-fashioned sit-n-gos – of both the nine-player and 27-player variety. And frankly, I’m crushing ‘em.
Thus, I was full of confidence on Saturday night when I went to a live charity tournament. I’m not generally a big fan of charity events – unless I really buy into the cause – because they typically take half the prize pool. I hate to go all Grinch here, but it’s honestly not a great poker investment. But I went to this tourney, which was in support of a women’s hockey team, because a friend of a friend was involved. And I was kind of craving some live poker.
Organization-wise, this tournament was kind of a gong show. The tourney director obviously wasn’t a hardcore poker player. She’d raise the blinds at random times – they were supposed to be half-hour levels, but then she’d bump them up after five minutes because “the tournament is running too long, and there’s still too many players in.” LOL.
More concerning to me is that the buy-in was $50, there were 55 players, and the total payout was only $850 – $500 for first, $200 for second, $100 for third and $50 for fourth. That means the hockey team kept two-thirds of the prize pool, rather than the traditional 50 per cent. Nothing worth griping about. Just sayin’.
At any rate, I discovered that there’s a tradeoff for the team taking most of the prize pool – the vast majority of the people there weren’t poker players. Or at least, not experienced poker players.
At my six-handed starting table, there wasn’t a single tight-aggressive player among them. Everyone was uber-passive, whether loose or tight. There was a ton of preflop limping, and no one bet – and I mean ever – unless they had at least top pair. No creativity at all, plenty of calling stations obviously, but it was kind of fun to play a tournament where there’s not a single tough decision to make. No one’s putting pressure on you. They might as well have been playing with their cards face-up. It was a very relaxing, fun atmosphere.
That said, for the first four hours, I never had an above-average stack. I won a few pots, lost a few, saw a ton of flops, but just couldn’t make any hands. I was pretty content to play mistake-free, small-ball poker against my table full of calling stations.
I managed to grind my way to the final three tables, making a couple of hands at opportune times to stay out of the danger zone. Then, with the blinds 200-400, I shoved in middle position for 3,300 with JJ. The big blind, who had a slightly smaller stack than me, made an utterly inexplicable call with Q8 offsuit. Then the flop came down 988. Of course. But the turn was a 10, and the river was a 7 to make me a glorious straight.
A couple hands later, my buddy Neil moved to our table. Neil’s nickname is “The Gouger” for his penchant for constantly raising the price of poker with aggressive raises, and he had easily the largest stack in the tournament. I was in the big blind at 300-600 when he raised from the small blind to 1800. I looked down at Ac7c, and just knew I had the best hand. I shoved for 5,500 total, which actually gave him pretty compelling odds to call at 2-to-1. But I managed to talk him out of it, and he told me he laid down QdJd. I told him I had AQ. LOL once again.
Immediately after that hand, we moved to the eight-handed final table. The blinds were 500-1000, and I started with 7,500, which was actually about average. I quickly had 1,500 carved out of my stack by the blinds, but at that point I went all short-stack ninja. I must have moved all in at least a half-dozen times without a showdown, managing to actually increase my stack as we burst the money bubble to four players.
At that point, the short stack moved in on the button, and I called from the small blind with A7. He showed A5, but hit his 5 on the turn, crippling me to 2,000. For you mathematicians in the crowd, that’s two big blinds.
Then, something wild happened. The very next hand, I picked up JJ in the small blind, and doubled up against the big blind’s 76 offsuit. Then I picked up KsJs on the button, and doubled against the big blind’s J4. After a successful blind-stealing shove, I doubled through Neil, flopping a set with 99 against his KJ. And just like that, I was the chip leader. Madness.
After the player to my left busted in fourth place, we negotiated a chop. The three of us were guaranteed $250, with an extra $50 left to the winner. I ended up getting to heads-up with Neil, but with the blinds at 2000-4000, we only had about six big blinds apiece. He ended up winning when his QdTd out-raced my 55.
This tournament wasn’t the WSOP by any means, but it was a blast. Good camaraderie, good food, and it helps when you leave with an extra $250 in your jeans. I also felt like I played pretty well. There’s no way to put this without sounding arrogant, but it felt kind of funny to be in a spot where I was so much better than my opponents. More than anything, the result is just another confidence-builder.
My main online bankroll is currently at $5,650. Poker is fun again.

I'm still alive

If you're one of my five loyal readers, I'm sure you've been devastated at my utter neglect of this blog over the last few weeks. My humblest apologies for that. I've simply been too busy since returning from vacation, and it's been hard to get back into the swing of blogging.
Here's the Cliff's Notes on what's been going on lately.
-- I mentioned in my last post that my wife and I were headed to New York City for a week. That trip happened, and it was amazing. I intend to blog about it in detail in the very near future.
-- My fantasy football team has been struggling, so I made a blockbuster deal with the future in mind. I swapped Randy Moss and Antonio Gates to a front-runner for a trio of premium draft picks in 2011. That's the beauty of a keeper league - you can pull the plug on the current season and become a major contender the next year.
-- I'm playing some pretty freaking solid poker right now. I'm up a modest amount (about $250), and I could be ahead even more if a couple cards had fallen differently. I went deep in a couple of massive MTTs, but didn't make it into the seriously large money. But the more important thing is, I'm playing with a ton of confidence, blending aggression with patience, and I'm feeling on the verge of a monster run.
Bankroll = $5,250