stitchface

get used to it.

I don't understand the interest in Kearns - along with all his injury problems, he has been a huge disappointment. Not that he couldn't turn it around at his age, but he sure doesn't look like a 2005 saver to me.

comparing offensive numbers is pretty unfair considering where Kotsay has played most of his home games. UK has the right idea in going to EQA. I tend to agree that the Cubs have the players in house to help the offense by playing Hairston in LF (he is downright frightening in CF) and moving Walker up in the order. Fontenot could certainly help this team instead of wasting time in AAA as a 26 year old - certainly more than Macias or Wilson. I would like to see a big bat in left with a high obp and some power to bat between Lee and Ramirez and bump Burnitz to #6. I don't know who that is though as most of the names listed as available are not much of an improvement over what the Cubs have. I would hate to see a trade just to see a trade.

Not to mention that rehabbing is now his full-time job!

dirty dirty slide by Lee. He's on the list. Well, further up on the list.

the real test may be when he faces teams and hitters for the second time. a lot of rookies have success based on unfamilarity. remember jeff pico?

http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2004/09/10/news/112new2.txt

http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2004/09/10/news/112new2.txt

If you are following this, the Main Event broadcasts started last week and continue tonight - should get to see the infamous draw on the River tonight. FYI, Mike is in the "casting" commercial they have been running. He is not the guy in the green shirt in front of the screen though. He is the last player they show right after they show the chip stacks.

One other note on the prizes. This being Vegas, the prizes are cash. Mike got a check for $350,000 - handwritten! The rest of his prize money to be shared was doled out as stacks of bills - with no bag or anything. You gotta love old Vegas! It seems that a lot of the guys know each other from the card rooms - Texas Hold 'em is legal in California if you didn't know. Its a game of skill.

Unfortunately, we arrived too late to see any of the action, Raymer cashed out about 30 minutes before we arrived. We did go to Binions though and hung out with Mike. Binions is a classic old-school casino - dark, low ceilings, no pageantry. You can just picture mafioso hanging out in the hallways and backrooms. The tournament at its height apparently took up the whole casino including the sports book. The feature and final table were in a smaller room upstairs. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the whole tournament is the betting - not on your cards but on the players. It seems that almost no one actually walks away with their prize money. This begins with the entrance fee. Raymer apparently raised $8000 of his $10,000 entrance fee online. Therefore, he only collected 20 percent of his $5 million - ONLY $1 million. Mike won his entrance but nevertheless he sold about 30 percent of himself to friends (who paid him prior to the tournament). So, Mike ended up with $350,000 of his $474,000 prize. A $1000 piece of Mike earned you $35000. The really crazy thing is that this doesn't end with the entry fee. Players will sell equity during the tournament. In other words, based on the amount of chips you have and the number of players left, you can sell portions of your profits. Mike estimated he was worth about $700,000 at one point if he could have found buyers. A note on getting to the final table. According to Mike, and he knows what he is talking about, the best poker player in the world has about a 70 percent chance of making the final table once every five years. So, don't expect to see familiar faces there too often! He talked a little bit about the bitching and moaning that too much luck was involved. His opinion was that virtually everyone in the final 30 was a very good player and deserved to be there. Luck plays a big role but very few made it through on luck alone. So shut up and post the entrance fee! A fair amount of camaderie seemed to have developed amongst the final players as well. ESPN will cover the event I think starting in August. Expect to see Mike prominently featured. As last year's "Agony of Defeat" player, his success this year was a great tv story. He hammed it up for the cameras too apparently.

tough break, but that is the problem with being so far down in chips - you are forced all-in if you have a good blind and raymer can afford to risk it. very interesting weekend - I will provide some more commentary when I am less tired.

off to Vegas! Join us if you would like!

WOOHOO!

they are still playing to 9 tonight though, eh?

this is great - in what other sport is "player of the year" announced twenty minutes before midnight? 11:40 PM Daniel Negreanu's "Player of the Year" title is officially announced. As the crowd applauds, Negreanu, who is in attendance, stands up and waves.

Arieh is killing. Mike is trailing badly in chips but needs to survive only one more to play tomorrow. Guy is smart and has a plan - not sure if he can survive from the bottom though.

scary pots now. dozen dozen hoy!

Raymer got taken down for $3 million just before dinner, its evened out a lot. This is commentary from the floor. > It's dinner break; play resumes at 8:15PM > > Chips: 1.52 Million > > Quote: "Big hands, no money" > > QQ against Marcel; flop comes AQ but is all spades so Mike has to go all-in (can't slow-play) > > KK blind vs. blind no action > > AA vs. Harrington's blind; Mike is certain that Harrington will re-raise him LIKE HE HAS EVERY OTHER TIME; this time no action > > The one hand he did win he had 88s vs TT. Flop is 9-high, the other guy has only $600K left so Mike decides to go all-in. The > other guy thinks forever, and mucks TTs. He tells Mike "You gotta show me". Mike, being a nice guy, doesn't know what to do. "You > ain't gonna like it he says" and shows.

14 now left.

latest update - 15 players left - Mike is at 1.5 million - still around the middle of the pack. huge amounts of chips changing hands now. coming off the dinner break shortly.

easy to pick out mike on the video I sent you - only player without sunglasses!

so they're down to 15 then . . .

where did you see that?

next person out the purse bumps from $175 to $275 - so its not $50k a person - its $100k per 2 people. http://www.online-poker-winner.com/world_series_of_poker.html scroll down to see prize money