Poker this week, Main Event

I played twice this week though neither of those were the most interesting poker of the week.

I played pot limit Omaha at Snoqualmie on Tuesday. Generally I've found that Omaha games are very profitable. Take all the hold 'em players who look for any excuse to play a hand and love Ace-rag or king-seven and give them four cards and their in heaven. Watch any Omaha game for 15-minute and you'll be amazed at hands people turn over -- 8876, Q973, etc. If you play a decent game, you start out so far ahead of your opponents' average hands that it's easy to make a profit. Of course that's a long term thing and over a short session anything can happen. I started off way ahead when I won a huge pot with full house over full house (rare in hold 'em but common in Omaha). But over the course of the session I lost most of a buy-in. I wasn't very happy with my play -- I bet a couple of times when I checked behind -- but basically I ran bad, making lots of second best hands.

Wednesday I played in my semi-regular home game -- blinds of 10 cents and 20 cents and a $10 buy-in. I got great cards and people made loose calls and I quadrupled my buy-in over 3 hours. We started only five-handed and ended with only four players. I think we were mainly screwing around rather than playing actual poker most of the time.

The real poker highlight of the week was watching the final table of the WSOP main event. For the final nine players at the biggest poker event of the year, there was some amazingly wild and poor play. No doubt Cada and Moon are good players but they made some incredibly terrible plays and got lucky. Cada should have busted several times but won as a 4:1 dog and wound up winning the whole thing. I commented that the only player at the final table who would scare me in my home game is Phil Ivey and stand by that. I think this will be great for poker. Watching the play will further convince casual (bad) poker players that anyone can win the main event. I think we'll see a second poker boom and that's great for regular players.

Super Bore

Is anyone excited about this game, outside of Cardinals and Steelers fans of course.

The Cardinals either got hot at the right time or simply survived among 6 not-so-good NFC teams, one of which had to go to the Super Bowl. In the regular season they were 9-7 and outscored their opponents by 1 point. They made the playoffs by winning their division by default. In the last five weeks of the regular season they were routed by New England, Minnesota, and Philadelphia. And in the NFC finals they got by a Philadelphia team who got every break the last two weeks to sneak into the playoffs.

The Steelers are pretty good and arguably the best team in the NFL. But they're boring.

With neither city being among the dozen largest markets, and I assume Phoenix being relatively low on % of football fans due to transplants, snow birds, and relatively short and horrid tenure of the Cardinals in the city, this is almost guaranteed to be the lowest rated Super Bowl in 20+ years. I guess it could have been worse -- the Titans could be playing the Panthers.

Why I Don't Watch the NBA

or at least don't watch very much.

Tim Donaghy levels some pretty serious allegations at the league about influencing the outcome of games. Donaghy isn't exactly what we'd consider a fine, upstanding citizen and obviously we should believe this just because he says it's true. However one of three things are true:

1. Donaghy's statements are 90% truth. Maybe he doesn't remember details exactly or maybe he exaggerated a bit.
2. There's some basis to what he says -- some conversations between the league and the officials on how to call specific games, some things he was told though perhaps misunderstood -- but the specific examples are made up or speculation.
3. Donaghy made the whole thing up.

David Stern wants you to believe #3. In fact the league's response is to attack Donaghy's character rather than try to defend or interpret the incidents. Does anyone who's watched the NBA really believe option #3 represents reality. While they won't back Donaghy directly (good choice), Phil Jackson and Jeff van Gundy acknowledge they don't believe #3.

We ALL know there different rules for superstars in the NBA. The Piston's "Jordan Rules" was always a double-entendre. Even if the league won't admit it, every TV commentator talks openly about it. The stars get protected -- the fans pay big $ to see them play or watch them on TV and really it's good for the league -- though it's clearly dishonest officiating.

Do I think the NBA is fixed -- predetermined like "pro wrestling"? No. But as far back as the year Jordan retired and the Bulls couldn't get a call, I've wondered if the officiating was totally on the up and up. It's ten+ years and I don't remember the plays, but I remember feeling the Bulls got jobbed. Maybe it's just as subtle as the selection of officials for the game or points of emphasis. Let's say the NBA didn't want the Malone-Stockton Utah Jazz to advance in a playoff series because Salt Lake City is a small city. By assigning referees who call lots of moving screens and let the defense get away with bumping and holding on the pick and roll, they can call the game "fairly" while putting the Jazz at a disadvantage.

I've watched most of the Magic games when I was visiting family in Orlando. And I've checked scores as I've passed by a TV. The one time I actually watched was the last minute of the LA-San Antonio game which solidified my view. It was the game when the San Antonio player was tackled with 1 second to go and prevented from shooting a game-winning or game-tying shot. When many inside and outside the game played it off as "you can't blow the whistle there" or "referees shouldn't decide the game' (ironic) , I wonder how you can honestly let the defense prevent a player from taking a shot.

Did anyone think the Celtics were going to win game 5 yesterday? It may be said half in jest, but with all the hype would the NBA let this be a 5-game series!?!

2007-2008 new TV shows recap

With the TV season nearing a close -- there are a lot of season finales on my TiVo -- it's time to look back on the new shows I noted I'd be watching and see how they turned out.

I watched every episode of Chuck and Monica even watched for a while but I think she quit following when they got backed up on the TiVo. I liked the show a lot and am looking forward to next season. Dirty Sexy Money -- watched bits of a few episodes; never got into it, never taped it, really don't know if it's good or not. Gossip Girl was my favorite new show of the year. It's good, clean trash television a la Melrose Place or Beverly Hills 90210. There's actually a bit of plot but I think this replaces Veronica Mars as the best written show on TV -- great snark, great kids acting like adults and parents acting like kids, a little bit of mystery. I've seen every episode of Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl is no Veronica Mars. But GG season 1 was more enjoyable that VM season 3. It's one of those shows where you look forward to next week's episode.

Pushing Daisies was the best new concept of the season. It's a pity this show got cut short by the writers strike. Like a good cherry pie, the show is a bit sickeningly sweet at times. Monica watched every episode of me with this one too. Worth watching live. We watched the first couple of episodes of Reaper, then several episodes got backed up on our TiVo and eventually they were deleted without being watched. I'm thinking of ordering the DVD to see what I missed and figure out if I should watch next year. Aliens in America met the same fate. It conflicted with Big Bang Theory and got taped on our second TiVo and eventually deleted in favor of poker. AiA was canceled so I'll never know. Back to You was laugh-out-loud funny at times though it went downhill as they replaced the actress playing Gracie just as she became a key character. I'm sorry it won't be back next year but at least it got a full season and some closure. Apparently the ratings were good, but not great, especially after the strike but with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, it was too expensive to produce. Not sure what happened to Return of Jezebel James. The start got delayed and we saw the second episode but never figured out when it was on.

Fall TV

Every fall the networks roll out 40-50 new shows for us (the viewers) to pass judgment on. As a prime time viewer one of the challenges I have is figuring out what's good before you're deep into the season as well as getting hooked on something that's going to die mid year and leave you wanting closure. Sure there some critic reviews, but that's one person's opinion, and I can see promos on TV, but really that's enough to tell me what I won't like (cavemen, really?, uggh) but not what I will. So the critic's season pass on Variety's blog is fantastic.

I stumbled over this from Jon Weisman's Dodgers blog which I read occasionally. They've had eight critics/bloggers watch the previews for the fall season and rate them. This gives a consensus all in one place. Of course most shows are mixed though that's seems dead on as most new shows tend to be "meh" -- not awful, but not must see. The scores for some shows are pretty interesting, for example Private Practice (the Grey's Anatomy spin-off) three critics gave it a thumbs up while four gave it two thumbs down -- like it or hate it.

Best received potential hits -- Chuck (NBC, premiers Monday 8 PM on 9/24), Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, Wednesday 10 PM on 9/26), Gossip Girl (CW, Wednesday 9 PM on 9/19), Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wednesday 8PM on 10/3), The Reaper (CW, Tuesday 9 PM on 9/25), and hey the sit-com may be back Aliens in America (CW, Monday 8:30 on 10/1), Back to You (FOX, Wednesday 8PM), Big Bang Theory (CBS, Monday 8:30 PM on 9/24), Return of Jezebel James (FOX, Wednesday 8:30 in 2008). Of to set my TiVo; setting a season pass on the ones in bold.

See us on TV

It's not quite King of Queens, but Monica and I should be on TV tonight during the Storm-Sparks game at 6:30 Pacific, 9:30 Eastern. The game is on ESPN2 and our seats are dead center court on the same side as the team benches. Usually we're easiest to see clearly when they show the announcers.

Veronica Mars cancelled

Not a surprise, but it's sad to see one of the few good shows on television go away. The season finale, which will technically be a series finale, is a two hour episode next Tuesday.

What is sad is that they couldn't make this decision two months ago when they were still writing/filming so that season 3 could lead to a true series finale that wraps up loose ends. While I believe those involved with the show knew in their heads that season 4 wasn't likely, it sounds like the season finale sets up things for season 4 rather than wrapping up the series.

While the poor ratings make the cancellation somewhat an obvious choice, there's a greater decision by CW what the network wants to stand for and what business plan it has. In the short run, it's all about ratings which convert to advertising dollars. But putting a bunch of trash on television (quick, name a show on CW other than Everybody Hates Chris), especially reality TV with cheap stunts, may give them a ratings boost short term, but in the long run they have inferior knock offs of shows the big 4 networks are doing and those fail. Remember all of the attempts to copy "Friends"; actually you probably don't remember them but there was one on the fall schedule every yea. CW has no "theme" or style other than we show the crap that CBS is too good to show. Despite its stuggles, UPN always had shows that appealed to the black crowd and could market to that demographic. CW used to have young, hip family dramas (with cult followings) but it's killed all of them.

My prediction: in six months, CW is consistently the sixth-highest rated network, is scrambling for mid-season replacements and Dawn Ostroff's job is in real jeopardy.

Other's comments and blogs:
Chicago Tribune

Catching Up

Haven't written anything in a couple of weeks.

One reflection on the trip not related to the scenery. I'm amazed at the Internet connectivity we had on the road. When we travelled across country three years ago, it was mainly hit-or-miss. A few places had Internet hubs in the room and you could check-out a cable to connect and having free WiFi was a big deal. This trip I everywhere we stayed had WiFi, even if they didn't advertise it on their web site. I did in part look for WiFi access, but our priorities were location and hotels that allowed dogs and had free breakfast. WiFi in a hotel has become as common as cable television. That said, we mainly stayed in small towns in 2-star and 3-star hotels. I'm curious what the fancier properties are doing. I always found it ironic than in the "cheap" hotel you get lots for free (breakfast, Internet access, computer room) but the more expensive places want to charge you for everything. Shouldn't it be the other way around.

Veronica Mars is back. I really liked the stand-alone episode format a lot. The season-long or 1/3-season long mysteries were cool with their complexity but it made for a long, drawn out plot. Check it out if you haven't already before they cancel it for good.

I'm sure you've heard about Josh Hancock, the Cardinals pitcher who died in an auto accident Sunday morning. It's always sad when some dies and often called tragic when someone dies young. What happened at Virginia Tech a couple weeks ago was a horrible tragedy. As the details emerge, I'm not sure "tragedy" is really the right word for what happened to Hancock. According to the latest reports, Hancock was plastered (BA of twice the legal limit), speeding, talking on his cell phone, and not wearing a seat belt. He may also have been smoking marijuana. That sounds like a time bomb waiting to go off. I think Darwinism is the word that applies here. I feel for his friends and family for their loss, but really I blame his teammates and the Cardinals organization more than having sympathy for them.

Monica and I went to two local Humane Society auctions the weekend of April 20/21st. Humane Society of King County (which we often call "the Humane Society" had it's annual Tuxes and Tails event on Saturday which was amazing and fancy as always. Sunday we went to the Humane Society aka Happy Paws farm which wasn't so nice. I joked with Monica that we should leave before dinner and I think she was actually ready to go. The more I attend auctions, the more I think about starting an auction consulting business. It's actually sad how poorly thought out some events are.

On TV

At long last, we got to see the episode of King of Queens where Monica and I were extras. We had to race from dinner to see the start of the show. I actually missed the intro, but I'd seen it 10 times already.

While Monica and I had seen the show several times, at least in pieces, we didn't actually see how our scene turned out until it ran on TV. We didn't know we'd be on so much. (We did know we were both in it, but tried to keep some element of surprise.) Monica says "it was weird to see me [Adam] there" and wishes she would have seen more of herself. She wonders why people were watching Carrie and Doug and listening to their boring conversation about how their friends are cheap, when Monica and I are better looking and were having a scintillating conversation :)

It's funny. Probably several million people watched the episode and only a handful knew there was anything different about the people at the table behind the main players in the dinner scene. At least, I hope we looked like normal dinner patrons as that's what we were supposed to be (well, aside from not eating a single bite of food).

I looked for the episode, or our scene, online but don't see it yet. CBS is playing out the string with KoQ, so the don't have full episodes up like most of their shows.

King of Queens Air Date

According to information on CBS.com and elsewhere, Monica's walk on role will be on TV April 9th at 9:30 PM Eastern/Pacific, that's 8:30 for those of you who are slow.

We'll be on the road, so call Monica's cell phone if you want to say "hi" after the show. Remember that we won't have seen it, but we know what happens.

If you have no clue what I'm talking about see my earlier post http://monicaandadam.blogspot.com/2007/01/princess-of-queens.html

Veronica Mars

I hit the nail on the head with the killer and basically with the details. I've unhidden my analsys/prediction in the previous post. Of course there were some key reveals in the final episode so being unspoiled I didn't have everything figured out.

Veronica Mars returns May 1. What will I do for the next two months on Tuesday nights?!?

Veronica Mars: Dean O'Dell's killer

My theory is below, but it's white text on white background so you won't see it until after Tuesday's show It's now after Tuesday. I'm unspoiled, meaning I don't have any inside info though I have seen the previews for next week as well as reading the summary that shows up in TV guides and similar places.






The killer is Tim Foyle. Here's why:

Flow of the show/plot. Finding Mercer, getting him off, and finding he was actually the rapist was a neat twist. But the general M.O. has been to have red herring after red herring only for the criminal to be discovered out of the blue in the last or next-to-last episode. However, the character has been involved as a second tier character throughout the arc. And the key suspects, Mindy O'Dell and Professor Landry in this case, turn out to be possible answers but not guilty in the end. And the guilty party seems like a normal guy but we've gotten a taste of his evil side. Remember the scene where Tim confronts Bonnie at the frat party and flies off the handle. As well, Tim is in the final episode and is breaking into Mars Investigations. Of course, just because they've gone this route before doesn't mean they have to do it again.

Motive. Jealousy/revenge/inferiority complex. On a side, this is where I think Landry falls short. He's already humiliated the dean, why does he want/have to kill him? Tim is pissed that he's no longer Landry's teacher's pet and has been replaced by Veronica. Veronica has also become the dean's buddy. I suspect he saw Veronica's FBI internship application with Landry and the dean's glowing recommendations. He wants to prove he can pull off a crime which shows his true brilliance. Or perhaps his anger at the dean for calling Veronica "the brightest ever" inspires him to kill the dean. He also wants to get Landry, thus framing him for the murder. He already ratted out Landry's affair. And perhaps there's something more we don't know about related to why Tim doesn't like the dean. Or maybe he just figures the dean has so many enemies that they'd never think of Tim.

Details: I can't be coincidence that the fake suicide note is verbatim what Veronica wrote in her perfect murder paper. That makes people likely to have seen the paper the most likely suspects -- Landry, Tim, possibly Mindy. And if Landry and Mindy didn't do it, Tim did. It's also possible someone else saw Veronica's paper, but who and how? I don't believe it actually was posted on the Internet. He's added a twist to make it look like Landry did it and is framing Mindy's ex for it. Landry is too bright to dispose of his clothes where they'd eventually be found. He would have buried or burned them. I have no idea how/why Steve's fingerprints were on the keyboard in the dean's office. Did anyone check WHICH keys they were on? Maybe he and Tim were in on it together? Anyway, I don't have every bit figured out, but I'd be stunned if Tim wasn't behind the murder.

The Best TV show you aren't watching

Veronica Mars got a couple of national mentions in yesterday's newspapers. National advice columnist Amy Dickinson aka Ask Amy mentioned that Veronica Mars was one of her favorite TV shows and Frazz referred to Kristin Bell.

I'll be the first to admit, that as a serial it's hard to start watching in the middle and follow the major mystery. And next Tuesday's episode is the conclusion of a two-parter, so you might really be lost. But check it out Tuesdays at 9PM/8 Central. This season has been down a bit, but the last episode was one of the best. Even if you don't follow everything that's going on, you'll enjoy the dialogue which is perhaps the best written on TV.

As for who killed Dean O'Dell. I think I know, but I'm not saying :). I've also read some interesting theories on the internet that could prove to be right. I'm pretty sure all the key clues are in place already and it's almost as obvious as it seems.

Princess of Queens?

Friday was the highlight of our trip. Monica got to walk on The King of Queens. We spent the day at Sony Studios and got to see what goes on behind the scenes. Since it's her experience, I'll let her blog about it. My two cents -- it was much better than I expected but I have a feeling she has less air time that we would have hoped. We'll see on April 16th.

Paramount Studios

After our Wednesday adventures, we were hoping this trip wasn't jinxed. Thursday turned out fine. Running on limited sleep, we picked up our cousins Sonny and Sheri and drove to Paramount studios for a tour. We won a VIP tour in an auction last year and were excited to finally be able to redeem it. Paramount used to have tours open to the public but after 9/11/01, they discontinued them. Not sure if they've restarted public tours. Either way, it's pretty exclusive; they had to have our names at the security gate so we could get on the lot. There were only 14 people for the 10 AM tour, split into groups of 6 and 8.

The tour started with some info about the history of Paramount and RKO (?) and we saw us a number of historic photos of Paramount artists. We saw all of the Oscars the studio had won. Then we then got to ride around the lot on a golf cart and see various sound stages and were told what shows were shot where. Trivia tidbit -- Cheers and Fraiser were both filmed in stage 25, also the location for The Lucy Show and Bosom Buddies. However, if a show is off the air, there's nothing to see but a plaque.

We drove by a tree that was used in a few episodes of Brady Bunch. One of the guys on our trip was a huge BB fan and had to have his picture taken several times near the tree. He was so excited, you'd have thought Marsha, Cindy, and Jan had walked by.


Next we got to walk on the set of The Insider. Neither of us have ever watched but if you do you'll recognize it in the picture below. We got it just before the kicked us out so Cojo could film a segment. He's even creepier looking in person than he is in that photo if you can believe that.


Then we went in the back entrance (our guide was great) and into the control room for the Insider to see how they put together various segments of the show and watch the download from New York.

We saw Dr. Phil (the man, not the TV show). He's taller in person. But the highlight for me was getting to walk through the stage where Dirt is being filmed. Dirt is new on FX this season, and has some high-end, hip LA offices and homes. It was something to be able to walk through it all. It does kill the illusion of multiple locations scattered across LA to see them all the sets together. Here's Monica on Lucy Spiller's (Courteney Cox) couch. Watch Tuesdays at 10 PM (9 Central) and for every indoor scene, we've been there.

After the tour we grabbed some lunch in the Paramount cafeteria, where once upon a time the stars ate, then went back to our hotel to crash.

Off to California

Yes, I know the Super Bowl is in Miami.

At an auction last fall, Monica "won" a walk on role on The King of Queens. (I quote "won" because you don't really win an auction; if you get an item it simply means that you bid more than anyone else in the room -- or on the Internet for online auctions -- thought the item was worth.) We're heading to Los Angeles for the weekend so she can make her screen debut. As most of you know, she made her stage debut last spring after similarly winning a walk on role in the local theater's auction gala. But this is National TV so it's an order of magnitude bigger. Since people always ask -- no she won't have a speaking role (SAG rules), she'll just be in the background of a scene or two. From what I hear we'll be at CBS studios in Culver City all day (10-9) on Friday for rehearsal and filming. The studio audience arrives at 5PM and I'm hoping it doesn't take 4 hours to get it right, but we'll see. They do say lots of food and drink are provided. I'm bringing a book all the same. I guess we'll get to see how a TV show comes together. I'd be more excited if it were a show we watched regularly, but Monica is pretty psyched.

We don't know exactly when the show will air. Currently KoQ is scheduled to return to the air on April 9 and we think this is the second episode once they're back from hiatus. But it could be the first or CBS could change their mind. Watch CBS.com and here for updates.

From another auction, we also have a VIP tour of Paramount studios planned for Thursday morning.

More on Monday.

Go Bears!

Bears win, Bears win!

While many people in the Seattle area are bummed about the end of the Seahawks season, you can tell we're not. I thought the game would be a blowout -- and had Tillman made that early interception it might have been -- but the Seahawks played pretty well and sent the game to overtime. There the Seahawks achilles heel -- poor pass defense -- did them in once again.

Bring on the 'aints.

A funny story about the ending of the game. Monica ordered pizza for lunch which arrived just before overtime, so I paused the game on TiVo and was watching the game delayed by about a minute. As the Bears lined up to kick the field goal, I got concerned because the phone wasn't ringing (my dad wasn't calling after the win). Finally as they got ready to snap the ball, the phone rang and we knew the kick was good even before the snap.