A little bit of everything in this blog

The race for the nomination of President of the United States of America is really starting to heat up. Super Tuesday is just around the corner and John McCain has emerged as the clear front-runner on the Republican side. Rudy just dropped out of the race. This is no surprise to me. I knew this guy had 0 chance since the beginning and have been telling people that since I heard he was running. I actually thought he was a Democratic about 5 years ago because of how his policies were actually pretty liberal-moderate in New York City. Of course, you can't really being a staunch conservative the Republican party is looking for. What has actually surprised me in this race is that McCain is one of the more historically moderate Republicans in the Congress. Next to Senator Richard Lugar from Indiana, he's one of my favorite Republicans. I do hate his stance on poker/online poker and that's a big deal to me (enough to make me not vote for him), but I can tolerate him. To me, the initial Republican races are a referendum against the current President and his policies and an admission to a failure in the past 8 years by Republicans. McCain is a moderate Republican and every Republican knows this. He has a history of being a uniter and every Republican knows this. The other candidates are polarizers. Republicans are admitting right away in this primary that they want someone that is different from Bush. It's a great step for that party.

On the Democratic side, we have a tight race between Hillary and Obama with Obama pulling off an impressive victory in the South. I'm worried about some of the racism that will take place in this primary after I saw a few stats. The breakdown of age in South Carolina had Obama an impressive winner in every category except voters over the age of 65. Unless there is something I'm missing about the political platforms of these candidates to seniors, it appears the elephant in the room here is race. The breakdown further showed that black candidates over 65 staunchly supporting Obama. This breakdown told me a lot, but I really have hope and promise in the youth of our nation. I don't want to call out seniors for being racist or not voting for someone because of their race, but I don't see any other reason here. I'm pulling for Obama in this race and his endorsements keep piling up while many others in America seem to be getting sick and tired of the Bill and Hillary show.


A Little Poker

I bounced back in poker yesterday with a final table in the Ultimate Bounty that I won the week before. I finished with a 5th place though after an interesting situation came up. A player had been visibly sitting out and he was on the big blind while I was on the small blind. I was in last place with chips and A7 on the small blind. The button raised it up and in this situation, it just appears that it is a steal and I almost have to play it as a blind vs blind battle here. Well I shove and he shows KK and I fail to improve, so it just seemed like an unfortunate situation at the time because if the other guy was sitting out, there is a good chance I just fold and wait to open a pot myself.

LOST (spoiler alert)

The best show on network television returns on Thursday and I couldn't be more excited. I reviewed many of the episodes from Season 2 and 3 and really think Season 4 has a lot in store. Now before I get into any of the details, if you haven't watched this show, go rent and watch the first 8 episodes. If you really hate it at that point, then quit, but I assure you that this show is worth it. The only thing is that you pretty much have to avoid any LOST commercial if you haven't watched it because it will spoil things. Anyway here are some of my predictions for this season:

1. The boat coming to the island will be representatives of the DHARMA initiative or an entity related. I believe that they are trying to take the island over again.

2. Locke will take over some leadership role to fight this boat and control the island.

3. Characters will encounter Michael in the flash forwards. It's common knowledge that Michael will be back on this show and I'm looking forward to see what happened to them when they left the island.

4. Who is in the coffin? I have a logical prediction about the coffin and that is John Locke with everyone else that has already predicted it. It's known on Lostpedia that the newspaper clipping with the obituary that Jack reads in the Season 3 finale has the letters Jo as the initial first name. It also tries to break down the article, but I really don't buy into that because it seems to easy. I do believe though that he could be a character that loses his mind if he leaves the island because of what it has done for him. Since the funeral home appears to be in an inner city urban neighborhood with every single person show including the funeral director being black though, this throws me for a loop. My sleeper pick for the coffin though is Juliet.

5. Mobisodes. This isn't a prediction at all, but I thought the Mobisode 13 that was put out in the offseason was very interesting. You can watch it below. It refers to the very beginning of the series.


Mobisode 13


That clip is so unbelievable I don't even know what to say, but I'm sure it stirs up a lot of questions. I believe it's possible that Jacob could manifest himself as many of the different dead people on the island (Boone, Yemi, Jack's Dad), but that's about as far as I go. "He has work to do" is just a great line and something that Walt also says to John Locke in the Season 3 finale.

Lebron vs. Kobe

You may make the argument for Kobe Bryant to be a better player, but Lebron owns him. 4-1 in the last five contests for the Cavs and Lebron draining a jumper in Kobe's face near the end of the game really made my Sunday aside from the horrible poker day.


Questions

I only saw one question in the comments section, so I encourage people to ask if you have anything you want to be answered in the blog.

Mike Z. asked who are the top 5 poker players both online and live in the world right now?

Great question because it has to be interpreted and then hundreds of qualified players have to be sorted through to really come up with a good answer. Now as a general statement, I believe the quality of play in a live tournament is much lower on average than a buy in of the same level in an online tournament. I've played both and it doesn't even compete. That being said though, I do believe that the top 5 is littered with people you consider primarily live players even though these players also play online a little.

1. Phil Ivey--Arguably the most successful player in the biggest game in the world, but it's impossible to tell who wins the most at that game. He is the best all around player in the game since the passing of Chip Reese has ruled him out. Ivey has 5 WSOP bracelets at age 31 in all games that aren't hold em. On top of that, he has made 7 WPT final tables. He would probably break every tournament record in the book if he cared enough about the victories. What most people don't understand is that he has had all this success playing much fewer tournaments because he wins so much money in cash games that it's almost not worth the day after day grind of tournaments. If there is one player you don't want to be heads up for all the money against, it is Phil Ivey.

2. Daniel Negreanu--His resume speaks for itself here. 3 WSOP bracelets, 2 WPT titles would be enough for any player in his career. That on top of being skilled all around in every poker game and his unbelievable reading abilities make Daniel an easy top 5 candidate. I think his style is one of a kind as well and he can change gears better than anyone. In my only WSOP main event, I remember that after the first day Daniel said that he played almost every hand preflop in order to amass chips. This is not optimal poker strategy by any book, but for that day it really was and he was good enough to recognize it. He has such an edge on everyone post-flop, it's unbelievable. If I ever played him heads up, I would try to do everything I could to get into a race situation.

3. Isaac "WestMenloAA" Baron --This is the best player that you haven't heard of...yet. That's because Isaac isn't 21 yet and can't play in all the events that everyone you see can play in. His online record is simply unreal. Every time I look deep in the Sunday tournaments, he appears to be there. He has a Pro Poll ranking of 1 on Pocket Fives, an online poker ranking. That means that all the top rated players online voted him 1. He seems to go deep in nearly everything and he wins consistently in big cash games. I was not so thrilled to be at his table in Aruba, but I'm glad I got to meet the future of poker there and look forward to hanging with this kid again.

4. Phil Hellmuth--I don't understand his poker style lots of times. It's unconventional, but it works and he uses it perfectly. 11 WSOP bracelets itself, the record should say enough about what this guy does. He is consistently deep in events at every single WSOP. In my opinion, however, he does think that he is better than he really is, but at his best, I believe he is as good as anyone in the world.

5. Chad "lilholdem954" Batista--I got to meet Chad in Indiana and I was impressed. The kid knows what he is talking about when it comes to poker. The reason you don't hear about him is that he rarely plays live. He has won and final tabled several live events though including a WSOP Circuit title in Indiana and a 4th in the 1000 Rebuy WSOP event last summer. On top of that, he is the most profitable multi-table tournament player in the world online. He consistently beats and wins the 100 rebuy on Pokerstars. The 100 rebuy on Pokerstars is the toughest field in any single 300 person tournament in poker. It is the best of the best and the toughest tournament to win online. Chad seems to win this thing every month. His style is different and he always seems to know what he's doing.


There were several other honorable mentions for me including:
1. Roy "The Oracle" Winston--WPT champ at Borgata, seems to cash in every big buy in event he plays. Cashed 4 times at Bellagio WPT NAPC in Dec including a tournament victory. He seems to be playing better than anyone right now.

2. Antonio Esfandiari--He impresses me every single time I see him on TV with his abilities, but I can't reach him into the top 5.

3. Scott "BigRiskky" Clements--2 WSOP bracelets in PL Omaha, A WPT title and winner of the Sunday Million on Pokerstars. I think in 10 years there is a very good chance he has many more major titles.

4. Barry Greenstein--WPT titles and a consistent player in the big game. 2 WSOP bracelets and a WPT title. I think he is up there for sure.




That is all for now. Hope you all enjoyed and keep those questions coming.