The Main Event is over……for now.

The WSOP Main Event attracted a little over 6800 players this year, each putting up the 10,000 dollar buy in to play in the best tournament in my opinion, in the world. It took four day 1s just to get the field small enough so they could all play in the same room and then several more days just to get it down to 90 players.

Once it got down to 27 they called it a day and then the marathon day 7 begun. It took FOREVER to get from 27 to 9 players. The added incentive of the huge money was planted in each players mind, 18 tried and failed to make it, however to the 9 that have, they are each guaranteed 900,000 dollars even if they finish 9th.

Heres where I have a problem with this. The new thing they are trying this year makes it so that once the final table of 9 has been reached. The main event will end for now and come back in November where the Final Table can be broadcast in a better way. I do not like this one bit and I have several reasons why.

* Previous main event bracelets now mean more to me than this one. They had to endure 12 hour final tables just days after the previous. Now with players getting four months to rest, they can come back as fresh as possible. It doesnt make it the same. The feeling of the main event being about stamina as a player is now gone. They will come back in November yes, but at what cost? I really hope the main event does not suffer because of this move but I fear that it may.

* Each player now has 4 months to scout out the competition. This is so crucial now in final table play but it means that all previous main event final tables have not had this luxury. I believe because of these reasons this main event cannot be treated the same as lets say Joe Hachems win in 05 or Jamie Golds win in 06 because they did not get the time to rest and to gather intel on the 8 other players.

I hear the WSOP is doing it to increase revenue. It just means the players get taken advantage of again and again. Harrahs already took 13 million in rake for this world series, isnt that enough? Clearly. It isnt. Many pros are less than happy about this move.

What I find worse is that the final heads up battle will start the next day! Yeah just go and take all the buzz and excitement out of the room, kill the final table feel and do it for more broadcasting and money sponsorships. Wonderful …/sarcasm.

I guess once November rolls around we will see the end of the main event and see the success or failure this move brings. I look foward to the final table but wish it could have been done the old way, as do many.

–James–

Yes! No! Yes again!?

The above statement has really summed up the LA Clippers this past week or two, they acquired Baron Davis. Then lost Brand and Maggette. Well if this article is true, they may have just rebounded.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3491156

This article states that Denver Star Marcus Camby was traded to the LA Clippers today for a 2nd round pick. I am stunned and surprised. But the nuggets needed cap room and the Clippers needed to fill the void that Brand had left.

Clippers looked ordinary but this could have changed their fortunes. I expect this to be official shortly, we will see what develops.

–James–

Olympics Basketball Preview

With the Olympics under a month away alot of attention has been brought to Basketball competition and with the increase in skill level from many international teams, this is no longer a one horse race (United States).

At the FIBA Tournament in 06 and to a lesser extent Athens 04 USA Basketball was exposed, with the increase in star players not from the US, It has made each country more competitive and this has made the sport of basketball much better in the long run.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised when in FIBA 06 the final was Spain vs Greece. I liked this, it showed what other countries could do and made Gasol a bigger star than he already was when he was named MVP.

Could this time be the same?

When you look at team USA I like the look of them alot. When looking back at these past tournaments you have to take into account that they DID NOT have Kobe Bryant. This could be a big factor is what happens in Beijing. While Team USA gets better I’m sure alot of other countries improved also. Example being Germany who gains Dirk Nowitzki but also Chris Kaman in the center position as he recently gained German citizenship.

I’d be interested in seeing what others have to say about Beijing 08 in terms of Mens Basketball. I think this could be one of the more closely contested Medal races in quite some time.

Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Lebron James, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams

Hard to bet against this lineup but who knows what can happen next month.

8/8/08 it begins.

–James–

Cowboy Bebop Appreciation

In 2003 I was incredibly pumped up about Wrestlemania XIX (19) and it was only my 3rd PPV I had ever booked on skys box office service. It also happened to be the same day as Armageddon Expo 2003 in aucklands Aotea Centre. Even now when I look back this is one of the most favourite days ive ever had. It was April 12th 2003 and I got up very early to line up for Armageddon, we eventaully got in and had a blast. Its an expo once a year for 3 days where animation guests, sci fi guests, guests from star wars, star trek etc come to meet fans. I really appreciate the work they do to put on a quality show each year.

I got into town at like 7 am and didint leave til 4pm, 8pm that night was the 4 hour Wrestlemania 19, one of the best WM shows ever rated by many fans, was totally enjoyable.

I was still feeling the exciting buzz from wrestlemania, this was at like 12:30am. I tuned into Cartoon Network and went to check out the lineup, It was the AS (Adult Swim) hour with cartoons targeted at Teens and adults. One show in particular caught my eye and I later found out it was named Cowboy Bebop.

It was a really good anime, I’m not sure what hooked me in at first, but I liked the story of bounty hunters scanning the galaxy for their next cash, and their adventures were very funny at times.

I tried to watch as many episodes as I could, whats great about them is that except for 6 or 7 of these episodes they dont connect together much, which means you could watch 5 different ones and not be out of the loop story wise. After a while I knew this was the anime I had to watch. By Christmas I had most of the box set complete and was completely into it. I truly believe this is what caused my love of Jazz music and good anime.

I later found out it was one of the top 5 animes ever made as rated by one of the top anime publishers Newtype USA. It came in at number 2 behind Neon Genesis.

About a year and a half later the movie came out on DVD and I had completed the box set, I fully recommend this series if you are considering getting into anime at all.

After I had become hooked on the series I was super excited for Armageddon 06, where I learned that Steve Blum, the voice of main character Spike would be here, meeting him was highlight of the weekend for me. I also met another woman there, Jennifer Hale. I did not know this at the time but she was the voice of Naomi from Metal Gear Solid, was so glad to meet both of them. To see even how far Jennifer has come since then made me really glad to meet her, she along with Steve were so nice and it really made my day to see them.

It made me think in a way that it all came full circle. I started watching Bebop that day after Armageddon 03 and there I was at Armageddon 06 meeting one of my favourite Voice Actors who was the main character of Bebop.

I wanted to show my appreciation for this series because it was the first anime I watched all the way through and I loved every minute of it. If I didn’t see it on CN 5 years ago maybe things would have been different, I’m glad it turned out like this.

–James–

Free Agency Thoughts

I am a big fan of the NBA, I loved seeing the Celtics get their championship and seeing guys like Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce & Ray Allen get they’re well deserved rings. When it got down to the two of them in the finals (Boston & LA) I was right behind the C’s because I respected Garnett alot and wanted his career to have at least 1 title. He had a tough time being a 1 man show in Minnesota for so long so to see it work for him in Boston was a great thing.

Now that the season is over we get an interesting free agency period. People can change teams quickly and form new winning ways during this time. Alot of interesting deals have been made and I’m going to go through what I think each will spell out in the long run.

June 26th: Bucks acquire Richard Jefferson for Yi Jianlian & Bobby Simmons.

I did not like this at first because I respected Richards game immensely, He had been a longtime servant of Nets baskteball and one of the bright stars with Devin Harris and Vince Carter. This brings a big man in Yi into the mix to go with Harris and Carter, It gives them a big man who is only in his early twenties who can grow and develop. On the other hand the Bucks acquire a much needed SF who can play alongside Michael Redd, these two can really make some noise and now that Sessions is devloping and Bogut has just re-signed with the franchise. Things could be starting to come together for the Bucks, however we will wait and see come October if this happens.

July 9th: Raptors obtain Jermaine O’Neal.

I think this was a nice move for Toronto, It gives them a dominat big man who can play with Chris Bosh and also gets him into a playoff contender. Something that Indiana wasn’t going to be. They had to give up TJ Ford in this trade but I feel the sacrifice will pay off in the long run. If Jermaine can stay injury free, expect something big from Toronto. Meanwhile the Pacers just got a lot worse.

July 9th: Sixers add Elton Brand.

Huge move here for Philidelphia, I had my money on the Clippers re-signing him for a long time, Brand and Baron would have been awesome, and down low with Kaman you had a great front court. We now have a 76’s team that could make a top 4 run in the East with AI version 2 in Igoudala and some nice role players.

The Clippers however just lost of their best player, yes they did add Baron Davis but they lost Maggette AND Brand in order to do so. what looked nice at first has turned bad for the Clippers, I hope they do well but with a Western Conference continuing to get better, Its going to be hard for them to make the 8, that said. Baron did take GS to the 8th seed in 06 and just missed out again in 08.

These are the big movements that caught my eye, There will be some more trades as time goes on no doubt and this year the NBA looks to be heading in a new direction.

Look out for Portland, man they have a team just waiting to explode on the scene. Oden finally playing and with Fernandez just in from Spain, alongside Roy and other young guns. You have a team thats destined for success eventually. If I’m a portland fan id be eagerly awaiting October when this all starts again.

–James–

1st

Wow a lotta blog sites out there! I picked wordpress cuz I had seen some great ones around, and so far so good. Havn’t had one of these in a while but I think they are pretty neat to have and will update it as much as possible.

Should be fun.

–James–