Great day for Wretchy

I was out of town and away from the internet since Wednesday night, so I missed the Wretched One's great day on Thursday.

Dan Martin, future World Number One, blew up the poker world on Wednesday, August 27, 2008.

Wretchy made four final tables and took down two legs of the triple crown in one evening. Dan won the FullTiltPoker $35,000 Guarantee for $11360.16, finishing 1st out of 672.

He also won the UltimateBet Sniper 80k Guaranteed on 08-27-2008. Wretchy cashed in the amount of $20000.00 for finishing 1st out of 364.

WRETCHY also final tabled the Absolute Poker $100K Pro Bounty Guaranteed on 08-27-2008. He won $1683.00 for finishing 9th out of 99.

Finally, Wretchy got heads up for the title in the UltimateBet 20K Gtd Deep Stack on 08-27-2008. Dan won $3200.00 for finishing 2nd out of 153.

A fantastic year for most all in one evening. I am really pulling for Wretchy to take down the triple crown. This week is likely to propel him further up the world rankings at pocketfives.com. A great guy and fantastic player, expect great things from Wretchy in the years to come.

Great job sir!

Old School

Mathclub rules!

Mathclub, playing under his screen name of ktpie, won the FullTiltPoker Daily Double - B last night. He won $2335.10 for finishing 1st out of 1229.

Great job! The man can play some serious cards.

Tourney Updates

I was out of the office yesterday, so I missed updating the tourney results of friends from Tuesday night on. Time to make up for that now.

Wretchy final tabled the PokerStars $22+R NL Hold'em on 08-12-2008. He won $4084.50 for finishing 2nd out of 288.


Mathclub aka silverfern made the final table of the Bodog $3K Guaranteed (rebuy) on 08-13-2008. He won $83.20 for finishing 8th out of 126.

Congrats guys!

Wacokidd

Congrats to TheWacoKidd for making the final table of the 100rebuy on Pokerstars last night.

It took a horrible beat to knock him out when his set of Aces was gutshotted on the river.

Either way it was an excellent effort
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Olympics

I don't know a whole lot about swimming. I don't go out of my way to either watch it or do it. In fact, the only time I prefer swimming is when the alternative is drowning. But I do like the Olympics, have ever since I was a little kid and the USA had to sports battles with the evil empire. So last night I found myself watching the finals of the Men's 4 x 100 meter freestyle swimming. The story of Michael Phelps' attempt to make individual history is interesting. He seems like a nice guy and so I tuned in to see if he would be able to continue on his quest.

The announcers led into the race by stating how much of a favorite the French team was, how it would be almost impossible for the Americans or anyone else to win. Then they told how the French captain had said that his team would smash the Americans, that what was they were there for. So I watched hoping he would proven wrong. Sports is one of the great stages for drama no matter the sport. We really don't know what is going to happen. Watching the final leg of the relay, with the French captain in the lead and the American anchor closing was fantastic. The ending was fantastic. Jason Lezak caught the French swimmer and touched the wall in world record time. It was incredible as was the fact that the top five teams broke the old world record. But the part that will stick with me longest is the sight of Michael Phelps standing on the edge of the pool cheering Lezak on down the stretch, quickly looking up at the scoreboard to see who won and then celebrating with unadulterated joy when he saw that his team had won.

It was a great example of why we play games long after we are no longer kids and regardless of the fact that it is for pay or love of the game. I would bet that last night's win was the highlight of his Olympics. I am so glad that I had the chance to see it live without knowing the result ahead of time.

Olympic Gold

I was up late last night/early this morning and watched some of the Women's Olympic Fencing on USA Network. I was surprised how different the competition was from how fencing is portrayed on TV and in films. There was a lot of wild lunging and wild "swings." It was interesting how close each match was. The USA was able to win all three medals, including the first gold of these games.
Also, there was some wild Badminton action in singles action. The court looks so small to hit the shuttlecock into but so large to cover by yourself. The players I saw were making some incredible shots.

Congrats to Chazmental!

Chaz took down the PokerStars $11 $5,000 gtd NLHE MTT last night. He beat out 1376 players, an incredible feat. Chaz took the lead once the tourney was down to the final two tables and never looked back from there. Chaz is a great guy with a wonderful family and he won $1400+ for his effort. Great job sir!

Haapy Birthday to Wretchy

Another birthday today, Dan "Wretchy" Martin turns 22. Wretchy is a great player, fine person and an even better friend. It must be nice to have a beautiful girlfriend and already pwn the world at 22.

Here's to hoping that it is a great day and he gets a lot of cool prizes.

You can read a recent interview of Dan published at PokerWorks.com here

Have a great one sir!

Peace and Love

Congrats to the WacoKidd

Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby final tabled the FullTiltPoker $65,000 yesterday. He won $3320.10 for finishing 7th out of 714. Congrats Waco!

Happy Birthday to a good friend who puts his life on the line everyday to protect the streets of Canton,Ohio, ESS286. Happy Birthday sir! Hope that is a great one.

Wretchy moves up in the rankings

Dan "Wretchy" Martin climbed to number 50 in the most recent rankings of online players at pocketfives on the heels of his great week on the virtual felt. This move up the rankings was fueled by performances like last night's, where Wretchy made the final table of the FullTiltPoker $100,000 Guarantee (Rebuy). He won $9222.50 for finishing 6th out of 627.

Wretchy was featured today in a front page article on pokerworks.com.

It is good to see the rest of the poker world come around to what readers here have known for a long time, the Wretched One can play this game. Congrats sir!

Final Tables for Nuggy and Diss

Tuesday saw continued success at the table for the members of Pocketfives.com.

iLLNuGWichee cashed in several tourneys and final tabled the PokerStars $109+R NL Hold'em [$70,000 guaranteed]. Nuggy won $1643.25 for finishing 9th out of 288.


dissident11 final tabled the UltimateBet Ultra Turbo NLH. He got heads up before the magic ended. Diss won $77.87 for taking 2nd out of 89.

Great job gentlemen! Here's to continued good luck on and off the felt for the both of you.

RIP Skip Caray

I was so saddened by this news of the death of Skip Caray last night.

Skip has been a huge part of my summers for the past 3 decades and was by far my favorite announcer.

He was a fan of the game who respected the game but he didn't think it was the most important thing in the world. Skip was a part of the team and wanted the Braves to win but he was brutally honest about the team's ability during the many years the Braves were so bad that they were never really in the playoff race. Skip always acknowledged good play no matter which jersey the player who made it wore. He was a comfort to listen to when I was going through the process of losing my dad and has seemed like a member of the family for a very long time. He will be sorely missed. Prayers for his family, friends and fans. Braves baseball has lost a great and it will never be the same.


Skip(right) with his Hall of Fame father Harry Caray.

You can read more about Skip at CNN and the Atlanta Journal Constitution

Another great story about Skip from the AJC

My favorite call by Skip.

Awesome day yesterday!

In addition to the tourney that Wretchy won Sunday mentioned below, there were other incredible results for friends of the blog.

Nick "agriffrod" Mitchell won the PokerStars $109+R NL Hold'em [$70,000 guaranteed] on 08-03-2008. He won $62287.50 for finishing 1st out of 846.

dissident11 won the UltimateBet $2.5k Gtd 6 Seated on 08-03-2008. Diss won $606.25 for finishing 1st out of 407.

illnugwichee also won the AP Major tourney yesterday after my bedtime. I don't have the stats for it at the present time but I will update it when they become available.EDIT Nuggy beat 591 players and chopped HU for $20,500. Tourney buy in was $162.00.

agriffrod made the final table of the tourney Wretchy won on FullTiltPoker, the FullTiltPoker $17,500 Guarantee. He made $2213.87 for finishing 6th out of 713.

iLLNuGWichee and Wretchy both made the final table of the FullTiltPoker $22,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) Sunday. Nuggy won $2081.48 for finishing 5th out of 296. Wretchy won $1507.28 for finishing in 6th place.

Awesome job gentlemen. Fantastic work by all of you. Continued success and good luck.

Congrats to Wretchy

Congrats to Dan "Wretchy" Martin for winning the $75 NLHE MTT on FullTiltPoker, $17,500 guaranteed. Wretchy beat out 712 players and won $11,808.28.


Great job as usual.

Nobel Prize winner dies

Russian Author and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn died today at age 89. For those of us old enough to have lived through any part of the Cold War, he was a symbol of the resistance to the oppressive Soviet regime.

You can read more about his life at CNN and NY Times.

ESPN's Sports Reporters

When Dick Schaap was alive, the Sports Reporters was one of my favorites shows. I really looked forward to it every week. The show just isn't anywhere near as enjoyable as it was. I like John Saunders a lot. He isn't the problem now. A big part of it to me is Mike Lupica and Mitch Albom. I find them almost intolerable now. They both have an overwhelming combination of smugness and arrogance that is intolerable. ESPN now usually brings in a couple of clowns to sit in with Lupica if Mitch isn't there. It is almost to the point where I don't want to watch even if I am watching tv when it is on. Maybe I am being too tough on them because the topics they discuss are usually disected by Around the Horn and PTI well before the Sports Reporters airs, and those two shows need to quit covering almost identical topics on a daily basis if the Horn is to survive.

/rant

Good luck at the tables today!

Congrats to the Dissident

Pocketfives legend dissident11 won the UltimateBet NL Holdem on 08-02-2008. For beating out 104 other players, Diss won $283.50. Fantastic job.



Here is to hoping that some of the athletes in Bejing have the courage to speak out against the Chinese government's mistreatment of its citizens during the Olympics.

Law and Order

I have come to realize how great the mini-marathons of Law & Order TNT runs are. I have been with the show since it started and am amazed at how the show has maintained a high level of quality. I am not so enamored of the new prosecutor, but his assistant is great and the new cops are interesting.

Law & Order Criminal Intent is great too and, although it is often the least realistic of the franchise, Law & Order SVU is good more often than not. It won't be too long before there are enough of each series to stock an all Law & Order channel.

Tourney updates!

Last nights cyber action saw some more fantastic results for friends of the blog.

iLLNuGWichee final tabled the PokerStars $109+R NL Hold'em on 07-31-2008. He won $5083.00 for finishing 5th out of 189.

agriffrod final tabled the PokerStars $222.22 NL Hold'em [2X Chance] yesterday. Griff won $2928.02 for 4th out of 110.


Great job guys.

Great weekend on tap!

Can't really go into the details right now but this is looking to be a fantastic weekend. More info later. Peace and love

Danny Way is the Man

Was flipping through the channels last night and came across this jump by Danny Way in the X Games on ESPN. First off, they were starting on a ramp that was a vertical drop of close to seventy feet. That is sick. Then Danny Way had this happen.


I thought he would be lucky to have only a broken leg. He eventually walked off the ramp. Then he did this.



Incredible! I was very impressed with his determination. He got right back on the board and nailed it.