Gambling

As a self-proclaimed novice in the world of gambling, I will say that it is lots of fun. Not the part where you lose all your money, but the action, and possibility of profit makes it pretty damn exciting. My only "official" gambling expedition came during a trip to Reno, Nevada with my buddy Vigilante Steve. More accurately we were staying in Fernley, NV, a "suburb" of Reno (even though its a 30 mile trip through an empty desert). My gambling experience was pretty limited, mostly due to my limited funding. I played some video poker in Fernley, and lost. I played some blackjack at the El Dorado in Reno, and lost. I bet on some college bowl games, and lost. I didn't get into table poker, craps, or roulette. In all honesty my inexperience with these games had as much to do with my non-participation, as my empty wallet did. Even blackjack has a set of unwritten rules that I definately didn't know. On top of that, every games moves quick. Which is a definite plus for the casinos, because many of us who have no experience throw our money away by not keeping up. My biggest complaints are that my damn blackjack dealer didn't speak English very well, and the blue cloud of cigarette smoke made it hard to navigate the casino floor. All in all my favorite gambling experience was the sports book. We made a parlay bet on 6 Bowl games. We lost, early. I can't remember which particular game. The bet taker was very helpful, and pretty laid back. He explained all the different bets, and odds to us, he showed us the different meanings of things up on the board. Some of the info I already knew, but it was good to get the whole picture all at once. I'd love to go back to Nevada (or another legal gambling state) and lose some more money. Hopefully this time it'll take more than 7 minutes.

I hate Chris Paul

I have been outspoken about my biased dislike for Chris Paul. I think he is a loudmouth jerk, who repeatedly screws up in crunch time. Somehow he has blinded all of the world. A recent ESPN Insider column described him with "...tough, technically sound, doesn't make a lot of mistakes and is one of the smartest players in the draft." I disagree with every single statement made there. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Chris Paul is a chump. A very talented, quick, agile, chump with a good jump shot. But he is not smart, and he makes very big mistakes when they matter. He is immature, and I greatly dislike the way he wears his socks. Look at his play in the NCAA tournament. In the game against West Virginia alone he tried to give it away twice. Once with a turnover at the end of regulation, and once by fouling out shortly into overtime. Taron Downey almost saved him, but it wasn't enough. I think Chris Paul will be a moderately successful professional, like Brent Barry or maybe even Andre Miller but any talk of him being worthy of the #1 draft pick is misguided. He will not win the big game, he's a choke artist at heart and he'll be fools gold for any team that picks him.

The Game of Their Lives

A new movie, The Game of Their Lives from the makers of Hoosiers (my favorite all time movie) and Rudy (a movie I still haven't seen) is going to chronicle the improbable success 1950 American World Cup team. The reason this team stands out in history is that they upset World Cup favorite England, 1-0, and then returned home to little or no fanfare. Apparently some newspapers chose to not even report the score because they assumed it was a typo. The movie is only being released in select cities at this point, because it was somewhat low budget, and I'm not sure if they plan to go nationwide. This is one of the more amazing stories in U.S. sports history. Every 4 years it gets a little play when the World Cup is on TV, but its ignored the rest of the time. This victory is possibly more amazing than the defeat of the Russians during the 1980 Olympic Hockey tournament, but in 1950 soccer didn't make the news too often. It was basically a group of semi-pro soccer players that were put together 10 days before the tournament, and had trouble getting uniforms and equipment. Everyone should go see this movie, to get a little soccer history in you, and because it should be pretty good. Anytime England loses in soccer, I laugh a little on the inside. They've given up basic dental hygiene in exchange for soccer excellence and to see them lose in soccer (something they spend much more time and money on), its just funny.