Saturday, October 3, 2009 - Roothlus
Man, right now television is on fire. This past Sunday might’ve been the greatest Sunday in all of television history. There were like 8 shows that I wanted to watch: Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy, Bored to Death, Californication, Dexter, Amazing Race (Go Tiffany and Maria!), and Sunday Night Football. It really made my DVR work to it’s limits. It’s so tough to keep up with all of it but I must say after a long Sunday of endless online grinding, it’s so refreshing to have all these shows to watch.
If that’s not enough for you, there’s still Monday and Thursday for some more amazing shows. Two years after the writer’s strike it appears as though television has been restored back to what it used to be, if not better. One show that’s on Monday that I absolutely adore is How I Met Your Mother. The show features Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, and Alyson Hannigan and is about their friend Ted (a previously unknown actor named Josh Radnor) who is shown telling a story to his kids twenty years in the future about how he met their mother. The chemistry between everyone in the show is really great, the character development is superb, and the dialogue is fun and witty. It’s almost like a newer, fresher version of Friends.
In last night’s episode Ted goes on a blind date with a girl who he happened to go on a blind date with seven years before. On the blind date, they realize this after a while and discuss why the first blind date didn’t work. One of the things they discussed was that the girl didn’t even attempt to pick up the check and that irked Ted. This is something that I have had endless discussions about with guys, girls, animals, whoever. It’s a tough situation because some girls expect to not even have to attempt to pay for the meal. Some guys feel the check should be split and some even feel they shouldn’t have to pay at all. There are many different takes on this situation.
Now, I want to bring up a way that will end this discussion and no longer cause the social awkwardness of what was referred to on How I Met Your Mother as “the check dance”. I say we require everyone to play credit card roulette on a date! Yes, CCR! Why you say? Well, CCR is the best way ever to resolve any type of check dispute. Also, it saves time. Instead of the usual bickering and divvying up over who got what, you just throw in your card and whoever gets picked pays. It’s fun! It’s easy! It’s credit card roulette! Now you must be saying, well that’s not very nice to the girl to have to gamble for the bill. Well, there are ways to approach this. You can rig it so you lose or put 3 cards in to her 1 card.
Honestly, if credit card roulette was instituted around the world as a way of figuring out who pays, the human race as a whole would save 10 minutes every time they eat out. Just think how much time that can save in a lifetime! So while yes, sometimes you get footed with the entire bill, there will be weeks, sometimes months where you never pay. Also, it spices up things a little bit and we all could use a little spice in our lives.
I do find it funny just how risk-averse the average person is. If I had never played poker and learned what is considered a good bet, a bad bet, and a neutral bet I probably would be against doing CCR. But thankfully I did play poker and learned how to have a little extra fun. The thing with credit card roulette is, it’s a completely neutral bet. People are scared to pay the entire bill when in reality you are just changing it from paying for a portion of the bill every day to, paying for the entire bill sometimes and nothing the other times.
This is my proposition America! CCR in 2k10! CCR in 2k10!
Hope you enjoyed this rather lighthearted blog and see you guys in Aruba. YEA!!!!!!!
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Aruba, Football, tv
Comments (0)
Sunday, September 27, 2009 - Billy Kopp
Well, the golf has been put on hold a few times due to some rainy days here in the bluegrass state. However, there are a lot of other things going on right now. It was a crazy and exciting weekend as it will be my last here in Kentucky for some time. First I would like to mention my good friend and fellow poker player Doug who was not able to take part in the festivities due to having heart surgery sometime this week. It’s never the same when one of the biggest partiers I know is stuck in a hospital, and we all have to worry about his health. We got word Friday night that things are looking up and can’t wait until he can get back on his feet.
This weekend was a big one in Lexington due to the football game. Kentucky played Louisville which is only about 80 miles from here. This is always a huge and exciting game because many of us at Kentucky have friends from high school who went or go to Louisville. Everyone we know from there came up for the game and was a blast. My friend James from Boston even came down to get a glimpse of what it’s all about here. This is always a huge rivalry in football and basketball. Kentucky was the favorite by almost 14 points and barely sneaked out a victory. We had way too many turnovers but somehow managed to win. This is crucial because the apartment that I rented before I decided to move is on the biggest party street near campus. It’s so wild that I usually watch the game on TV and party with lots of people around here. That may also be due to the fact that in the SEC you can’t purchase alcohol at collegiate sporting events, but that’s debatable! Also, the partying and bar scene is never the same after a loss, so I was glad we managed to get a win my last weekend here.
I am officially leaving on Thursday to live with my friend in Las Vegas until I close on my house there. I have been rushing to get lots of things finished up here in Kentucky before the big move. I’m actually going to the post office right now. I realized that I have lost my passport, great timing About 12 days from now I will be in glorious Aruba taking part in the best poker tournament of the year. I’m going to cut this a big short so I can get some other errands finished as well. I hope all of you are running satellites or steps so that you can win a seat to the Aruba Classic. I would love to meet all of you out there in October. Best of luck!
Billy Kopp
Tags: Aruba, aruba classic, basketball, Football, Golf, Kentucky, las vegas, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Satellites, STEPS
Comments (0)
Saturday, September 26, 2009 - Brandon Cantu
Finally, my favorite time of the year has arrived. This particular time of year in the poker world is filled with travel, layovers in airports, international tournaments, and lots of hotel rooms. Of course to me traveling is one of my favorite things in life, if not the single most important one. However, this time of year also brings about my other passion in life. Perhaps, this passion could almost be referred to as my true life calling – Fantasy Football. At last, football season has finally started again.
First off, I should mention that I had a decent week playing online. I was getting a ton of emails, texts, and twitter messages after I was running bad one day. I even threatened via twitter to quit playing poker forever is this playing kept up. Despite what everyone says, that I run “like god,” I still have terrible weeks. Regardless, a couple days later I ended up winning the Ultimatebet.com $30 NLH w/ re-buys and the Stars $50 NLH w/ re-buys on the same day. That made up for the previous days and brought even more tweets and texts that I am indeed one of the luckiest player on the planet. Hopefully, I will be able to find some time to play online over the next few weeks. I do leave this coming Wednesday for London and running around Europe a bit and then Aruba for the UB Classic, so we will see if I can get some online time in.
Despite how much I love to travel, this is one of the only times you will hear me say that I do not want to leave home. Last night was the start of the NFL football season and the start of my second job, a Fantasy Football General Manager. I live and breathe for Fantasy Football. The last few years I had made some pretty good money playing. This year, I tried to find as many leagues as possible and I have to say, it was a pretty dry year for finding leagues to get in for whatever reason. I was only able to get in four leagues – a $5k, $2k, $200.00 and $200.00. The $5k is league filled with mostly online players, such as the likes of: MrSmokey, “yellowsub”, Big Joe, Christian Harder, Mike “inissint” Glasser, to name a few. The $2k league has a very similar lineup of players. One of the $200.00 leagues is with Matt Brady, Dave Fox and others. The last $200.00 league is with my friends from high school.
I believe that I find my biggest edge in Fantasy Football – even over my Hearts game. I study and review NFL teams, roster moves, upcoming scouting of opponents, the whole gamut. My teams this year are very strong. I am expecting big things this season. I hope that I can remain focused through mid-October with the travel. But, I am ready to go. Bring all these online players on in Fantasy; they don’t know what they are in for.
As I finish writing this, I am getting more and more upset that I am leaving for Europe now. Not only must I continue on my path of becoming the best Fantasy Football GM in history, but I am going to miss Sundays at my house, which are usually filled with online poker, friends, catered food, drinks, pool/hot tub and 4 big screen TVs on the wall for all our viewing pleasure. Oh well, I am going to leave and play hard for UltimateBet.com.
Tags: Aruba, Football, London, Poker Poker Poker, UB Classic
Comments (0)
Saturday, September 19, 2009 - Debo34
and football season is upon us. Of course for me this means Oregon ducks home games. Last Saturday was the home opener in Eugene. The Ducks first game was on the road against Boise State in which not only did Oregon play terrible, but managed to embarrass themselves as well. If you follow football in the slightest then I’m sure you saw what happened after the Ducks 19-8 loss when starting running back Legarrette Blount punched a Boise player after the game and got kicked off the team. Not a great start for the team. So last Saturday was game #2, their home opener in Eugene against Purdue.
Luckily for me the game was a 7:15 start since I had a commitment to do a charity walk in my hometown at noon. The walk was a benefit for ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Twice in a 2 year span I have had a good friend lose their father to this horrible disease, so supporting this cause and raising money for the fight was a no brainer. The turnout was great, the weather was beautiful and a lot of money was raised. There were many teams walking in memory of someone, and I was on “Chucks Crew” walking in the memory of Chuck Bergelin. Here is a photo of myself , my wife Erin, and my good friend Steve, son in law of Chuck Begelin.
After the walk a group of us headed up to see how our beloved Ducks would respond against Purdue. It was an entertaining game with lots of scoring, in which Oregon came out on top 38-36. As in years past the Ducks defense was the same, giving up huge chunks of yardage and big plays. They also did what they normally do in making big plays and scored 2 defensive touchdowns. This is no secret and was expected. What was surprising is how bad the offense looked at times. The offensive line really seemed unable to run block or protect the quarterback which is a huge problem. They seemed out of sync for most of the game besides a few plays. I hope they can turn this around before the next 2 weeks in which they host #18 ranked Utah and # 8 Cal. I can’t wait for these games. Here are a few photos from last week’s game. As you can see were are very close to the action, and from time to time get the visiting players to react, which is always fun. The one to give us the most attention was #5 linebacker Antwon Higgs. We had a good time talking trash back and forth, but of course we kept it clean 
.
Debo
Tags: Debo, Football
Comments (1)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Roothlus
So this past weekend was awesome. So many great things happened and as a whole September is an unreal month. I’d say it ranks up there with the likes of December and June with July an honorable mention. There is so much going on this month: college football, pro football, real football (soccer hehe), new shows on television, the U.S. Open, the VMAs and the weather is still in top form. Oh and Labor Day weekend is definitely one of the best weekends of the year. I mean, the list just goes on and on. There will be no poker in this blog just me discussing the merits football and soccer, my newfound admiration for tennis, but most importantly, Kanye West. I mean, what’s a blog without Kanye freakin’ West!?
I’m really happy to see the NFL back. During the summer months there is this void in any true sports fan’s heart. There needs to be multiple sports going on at once. And for a two month span it’s only baseball. Come on. Baseball?? What a snoozefest. I used to like baseball a long time ago probably before I was enlightened by the internet and my attention span was a bit longer. It’s just so boring pitch to pitch. Yes, there are brief moments of excitement but they are few and far between. As well, it’s the middle of the season and it’s hard to stay interested in something not ending for 100 games. NFL is similar to that but it’s still faster paced and there is excitement on nearly every play not just a couple here and there. While I’m no Nostradamus, I do think Green Bay, Dallas, and the Giants looked excellent in the first week. I thought Minnesota could be great but Favre is a huge asterisk. The ending to the Bengals-Broncos game was incredible and such an unlikely turn of events to end the game. It’s things like these fluke occurrences that make football an incredible sport.
Soccer helps fill that void midway through the summer. While I have said football is a phenomenal sport, soccer is my favorite. The structure of a soccer game is great compared to all the other sports. It’s two 45 minute halves with no commercials with a twenty minute break in between. And these 45 minute halves run straight through. There’s no stop when the ball goes out of bounds or commercial breaks, just injury time, which is a couple of minutes at the end for fouls and other stoppages during the half. Commercial time outs are definitely one of the worst attributes of American sports. Soccer hasn’t succumbed to it yet, even Major League Soccer thankfully. Also, while yes scoring in soccer is few and far between, the buildup to each and every goal is exciting and tense. Because there is less scoring there is also a massive importance on each goal so mistakes can prove to be deadly. On top of all this, the idea of being able to hit a ball with your head is just cool. I love that there are a lot of different leagues going on in a typical soccer season as well. There are each country’s respective leagues and then there’s the Champion’s League, a league for the champions of the individual leagues. There are some other smaller leagues going on as well but thrown in the mix are World Cup qualifiers as if everything else wasn’t enough to keep things interesting. Okay, that’s enough on soccer for now.
I became a new fan of tennis this past week with the U.S. Open. I watched an epic match between two unknowns that ended up being the longest match in U.S. Open history. After that, watching Federer’s unbelievable shot between the legs on Sunday and Del Potro’s unfathomable victory against Federer in the finals Monday was enough to have me hooked. Federer had a SIX YEAR winning streak at the U.S Open spanning forty matches. That’s just unheard of for any sport and to watch the match where someone coming out of nowhere to take the title and break the streak was truly gripping.
Lastly, the best part of the weekend was Kanye West acting like a total goon. I don’t need to go into it because quite frankly, if you haven’t heard what he did this weekend then you must live in a box. I have no idea what could compel him to interrupt Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech which had to be one of her most special moments in her young life. Kanye must think he’s untouchable but if he keeps these antics up he’ll find himself out of the limelight fairly quick. The best part about what he did are these photoshops popping up all over the place having him interrupting different icons and saying another person was better. It’s been dubbed Kanye Gate and quite frankly, it’s hilarious.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this blog and this action-packed weekend as much as I did. Until my next blog, talk to you soon.
–Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Tags: Baseball, Champions League, Football, Kanye West, NFL, Poker Poker Poker, Taylor Swift, Tennis, US Open, VMA's
Comments (1)
