Poker, Football, and everything sports

Even though the NBA Playoffs are still going on, the talk of the town is where will the great Lebron James set up shop next season. Although alot of options have been thrown around, I've narrowed the list down to five, in this weeks installment of 5 random thoughts. Starting at 5 which is the least likely and going down to the most likely, we have....

5.Los Angeles Clippers: Lebron has made it no secret that he really wants to win a championship right now. If that is truly his priority, then the Clippers should be the last place he would look for. The Clippers front office is in shambles, and the fact is he will have a much poorer supporting cast around him. The only thing they have going for them is that they might be the only team that can afford to get Lebron and a guy like Joe Johnson or Chris Bosh. But again, this is a long shot.

4. New Jersey Nets: The same arguement for the Clippers applies for the Nets, who had the worst record in the league this year. However, they do have a few things going for them. They have two great players in Brook Lopez and Devin Harris. They also have the #3 pick in the draft this year, although that might be the worst spot to have considering it seems like a two man race this year between John Wall and Evan Turner. Also, Jay-z, who seems to be a friend of Lebron, is a part owner, and they might be able to pay him the most of any team, with their Russian Billionaire owner. The Nets just might be the darkhorse here, though I still think its a long shot.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers: Delonte West could very well turn out to be the most hated man in Cleveland. If the rumors of his affair with Lebron's mother are true, and many sources say it is, it might be the nail in the coffin for Cleveland. The one factor that can't really be measured here is the fact that Cleveland is his home town. For some, that might override all else. We'll see if James feels that way. I'm not sure that even this video of Cleveland's most famous people singing their hearts out can keep Lebron home.

2. New York Knicks: I never reallllly thought they had a great shot at Lebron, but again after the Delonte Affair the Knicks have a legit shot at him. The one thing I don't really get is people saying he'll be a superstar in New York. He's already the most famous player in basketball and arguably all of sports. How much bigger can he get? But the fact is the Knicks can pay him alot and make him the biggest name in NYC. That might be enough to lure him away.

1. Chicago Bulls: I've thought he was going to the Bulls for a while now. It makes the most sense. This is the best possible team he could go to. They have made the playoffs in the past few years, and have a great combination of young players: Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah, and solid veterans: Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng. With Lebron at the helm, this is his best shot at a title. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, alot of this depends on what happens to Dwayne Wade. Wade is a Chicago native, and I think he wants out of Miami. So the Bulls will likely be at the top of his list. Who will they go after? Only time will tell.

What do you guys think? Is he a lock to go back to Cleveland? Did I leave someone out? Lemme know. Thanks for reading.

So in case you aren't following me on twitter or facebook, I'm realllllllly excited for the world cup coming up. In a couple of weeks I'll be posting my in depth analysis and predictions for it, but for now, I hope this video wets your appetite as much as it has mine. Enjoy.

Well the summer is kicking off right now and that means a few things to alot of people. School is done, its time to go to the beach, and the movie blockbusters are coming out. But for me, it means that the World Series of Poker is starting. It starts next week, and here are a few of my thoughts going into it.

1. Phil Ivey will win his 8th bracelet at least: In case you didn't know, Phil Ivey is the best poker player of all time. He added two bracelets to his resume last year, and there is no reason to believe that he won't continue his success this year. Ivey was just honored by having a poker room at Aria named after him, and that is just the beginning of what I believe will be a great summer for the world's best gambler.

2. Joe Cada will make a Final Table: You know its kind of ridiculous to say this because he won, but I kind of feel bad for Cada. This guy is a sickkkk player, but to the common viewer, and even to some people with poker knowledge, he luck boxed his way to the title. But the guy is great and he will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

3. Attendance in all the tournaments will be down: Its a combination of the economy still being down and the fact that poker, while still popular, is just not as big as it once was. The Main event will still get a shit ton of people, but don't be surprised to see attendance lower then last year.

4. There will be movement at the top of the of the bracelet board: Right now Phil Hellmuth is on top at 11, with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson hot on his tail with 10, and Erik Seidel next I believe on the active list with 8. Not since Hellmuth one his 11th I believe in 2007 has there been much movement here, but I have a feeling that one of these guys is going to make a move. My money is on Chan or Seidel.

5. The online community will be big this year: This is said every year, but for the most part, online stars haven't had alot of bracelet success in the WSOP. But Sorel Mizzi, who is one of the best online players out there, is on fire this year and 2nd on the Player of the year board. Also, Annette_15 is finally eligible for the WSOP and she will surely make some noise. Expect to see 2 or 3 online stars win bracelets.

Well those are my thoughts. I will be following the WSOP coverage everyday on pokernews.com. Thanks for reading.

This week's installment of 5 random thoughts is in honor of the eagerly anticipiated release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the wii next week. I've always been a huge fan of the Mario franchise , and the first version of the next gen consule did not miss as Super Mario Galaxy was a huge hit. With its release so soon, I thought I would look back on my top 5 Mario games ever.

5. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars(NES): This game isn't as critically accalimed as alot of the Mario titles, but this is easily one of my favorites. It was Nintendo's attempt at a Final Fantasy style RPG for the Mario franchise. This game allowed you to play as Bowser, and it had a throwback to an old childhood favorite, as you did battle with the Axem Rangers, who anyone with a brain could figure out was a shout out to the lovely Power Rangers.

4. Super Mario Galaxy(Wii)- This game was a fantastic opening number for the Wii, as it came strong out of the gates. The most fascinating part of this game is its sense of scale. This is a hugeeeee game. The worlds are ginormous. What hurt Galaxy in the end was its overall lack of extreme difficulty. Of the 120 stars in the game, I would say that I really only struggled to get about 20-30 of them. The rest were pretty mundane. I've heard they have uped the difficulty for hte next one, and I can't wait to see what they've added.

3. Super Smash Bros Melee(GC)- This fantastic adaptation of your classic multi player fighting game is one of the most successful game series of the Mario Brand. Spanning 3 consules, Smash Bros is one of the most popular games of all time. Starting on the N64, where my players of choice was Captain Falcon and Ness. I picked Melee because of the jump it took. The playable characters ballooned from 12 characters in the N64 to 26 on the Game Cube, where you would find me rocking Dr. Mario and Yoshi. And finally to the Wii with Smash Bros Brawl, where I played a number of characters. The great thing about this game is that it really never gets old. With so many options, it is impossible to.

2. Mario Kart 64(N64)- I have an embrarassing confession. I never actually owned Mario Kart 64. I played it a ton at friend's places, but I never owned it. Probably because I was busy dominating at Goldeneye. But this is probably the best racing game of all time. The following games weren't too shabby either. Mario Kart Double Dash for the Gamecube sported a great idea, giving you a vast array of combinations to rock with. And Mario Kart Wii is non stop fun, although the Wii Wheel really sucks. They need to work on that. But to this day, Mario Kart 64 is still a party favorite and will be for years to come.

1. Super Mario 64(N64)- This isn't even close. In my opinion, Super Mario 64 is the best game of all time. When this game came along, it was unique to see any game that was done in 3-d animation. Super Mario did that, and then took it up 40 notches. The graphics in the game were so mindblowing that it was impossible to believe that you were in the mid 1990's. Not to mention that, but incredible controls, and awesome worlds, and what you have is a game that if released today would still be truly unique and amazing. This is easily the best Mario game ever, and it is the golden standard for what all games should be compared to.

In honor of Super Mario Galaxy, here are a couple amazing speed runs of past Mario games that you MUST see if you haven't already.

First, a guy beats Super Mario 3 in 11 minutes!




Then, the most impressive, Super Mario 64 is beaten in a mere 16 minutes.



Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

1. Is Orlando really that good, or is Atlanta that bad: I think its a combination of both, but I'm gonna lean towards the Magic being good. Lets face it, this is the same team that made the NBA Finals last year, except that Turkoglu has been replaced by Vince Carter, and Nelson is playing out of his mind. I think that the Magic will be making the NBA Finals regardless of who wins the other series. They are playing that well right now.

2. The Celtics will beat the Cavs: Yes I'm saying that now even though the Cavs are currently up by 18. Look at it this way. This is the same Celtics team that made the NBA Finals 2 years ago. I find it hard to believe that Lebron will win a title with the Cavs. Although I will say with the addition of Jamison, this is the best team he has had. But the Celtics are experience, and Rajon Rondo is taking it personal that people have crowned Deron Williams the best point guard of these playoffs.

3. Lakers and Jazz have forever off: Seriously they haven't played in 3 days. WTF the Suns and Spurs have played 2 games since then. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Having said that, the Lakers are the better team here. If the Jazz still had Okur and Kirilenko, they would have a legit shot here. But without them, the Lakers will overpower the Jazz. I think this series ends 4-1.

4. The Suns might be the best team in the West: Sorry Lakers fans, but the Suns scare me right now. They took a Spurs team that alot of people thought would pull the upset, and have beaten them thoroughly in the first two games. Granted, the series doesn't start till the home team loses, but I think the Suns are the vastly superior team here.

5. The Upcoming NBA Draft: Its going to be pretty weak. I don't know how many big foreign players there are, but as far as US players, I don't see much after John Wall and Evan Turner. I guess we will see. I'm very curious to see how my boy Gervis Vasquez from Maryland does. I don't know how well his game is going to transfer to the NBA game, but I'll be pulling for him.

Thats it for me. Had two close calls in the mini ftops today, almost cashing in two of them. Playing the 20 buck rush mini ftops tomorrow at 2. Keep track of my progress at my twitter @tayke2. Thanks for reading.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I haven't been running extremely well on Full Tilt recently, plus I've been busy with Jury Duty. But I'm back and playing well just this morning I shipped the 10 buck heads up for 340 to get me back on track, and the timing couldn't be better, as there are 3 great events coming up on Full Tilt.

The first one is the Mini FTOPS, which starts tomorrow and runs through the following Sunday. I was only able to play one FTOPS event this year, and I made a decent run, cashing for about 350. I will be playing a handful of mini ftops event I believe, starting with tomorrow's 20 buck kick off event. I might also play the 33 buck super turbo in the afternoon. Keep a track of my twitter @tayke2 to find out how I am doing.

Also coming up in the month of June is the eagerly anticipated World Series Of Poker. Now while I doubt I'll be playing in any of the events, Full Tilt runs a couple cool promotions that I love to take part of. One is Fantasy Poker, where you pick 15 pros from a list you are given and assign them to each tournament. The concept is simple, the better your players do, the more points you get. The top 1000 points getters get entry to a freeroll, one of which I was able to win last year from 150 bucks I think. The big prize however, is for the people who make the final tables of the freerolls. Those people are entered into an exclusive freeroll, where the winner gets entry to the 2011 WSOP main event. Last year, I got knocked out around 109th, so hoping I can improve upon that.

Also during the WSOP is the Mini series of Poker, which basically is a series of tournaments that are identical to the WSOP, except that they are 1/100th of the buy in. So if the WSOP is running a 1500 no limit event, FTP is running a 15 buck NL Event. Now the MSOP is big for me because it represents the tournament that got away. Anytime you are talking to a poker player, they all have the "tournament that got away" or the "what could have been tournament". For me, this was the 2008 MSOP main event. 100 dollar buy in, about 5k people, and with 45 left, I was 3rd in chips. I ended up getting all in pre flop with 55 against AK for about half my stack. The flop and turn blanked out, but the river was an ugly King. Had I won the pot, I would have been top 2 with 5 tables left. As it was, I was down to about 20th, and got KOed in 29th, when my 10 10 lost to AJ thanks to a turned Jack. I got about 1500 for that showing, with first getting 73,000 bucks. Still stings today.

When I finalize my schedule, I will post the events here, but as always, @tayke2 on twitter is the easiest way to follow my progress. Tomorrow I will be posting my 2nd installment of "5 random thoughts". Thanks for reading.