My friend Doug Middleton was just out in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker, playing in a few of the smaller events that lead up to the main event.  He played in Event # 32, a $1,500 buy in no limit hold ‘em tournament and Event #36, which was also $1,500 NL.

Event #32, he didn’t fare to well, as he got knocked out on the first day when his pre-flop all in black pocket aces got cracked by red pocket 8s when 4 hearts came on the board.  It didn’t take him long to recover.

 Two days later, he started event #36, and plodded along through day 1, and finished the day still alive, albeit, short stacked at 12,900 in chips, when the leader had about 170,000.  At this point there were 181 players left out of 2,447.  His patience and persistence paid off in the first hand of day two when he doubled up, and continued rolling.  He took a bad beat in the middle of the day, crippling his stack, when his all in preflop AK was out drawn by an AQ.  That’s poker.  But it didn’t stop Doug … he played patiently and continued to survive.  I was following all of the action on worldseriesofpoker.com on Friday night, until about 12:30 am, when the chip count listed on the site inadvertently showed his count at 0.  I thought he was done, so I texted him ”Nice run.  Site shows you just got knocked out.” 

So I woke up the next morning and looked at my phone and saw a text reply from Doug that said, You need to check the site again : )    I quickly booted up my computer to find out that he was at the final table … 7th place in chips out of 9 people remaining!

So later in the afternoon, my other buddy Doug came over, we cracked a few beers, and watched the final table on espn360.com.  Action started at 5pm EST, and Doug patiently folded, folded and folded again.  He played one hand before the first break, and doubled up when his KdQd outdrew a AsJc.  As they were on break, he called me and said he had gotten 7-4 offsuit 4 times, along with 6-3, 5-2, all unplayable hands.   His patience paid off when 4 other guys got knocked out, leaving him still alive with 5 people left, although somewhat short-stacked.

Doug’s final hand came when he tangled with the chip leader, Jesper Hougaard. Hougaard raised preflop to about 70,000, and when the action came to Doug, he pushed all in for his remaining 450,000. My friend and I were on pins and needles as Hougaard waited for a while before finally calling and showing 3d3c. Doug had AhQs, and needed to draw out to survive. Unfortunately, no help came, and Doug finished in 5th, collecting a whopping $177,000. Not a bad payday for 3 days of work!! Hougaard ultimately won the tournament, and the top prize of $610,000.

Congratulations Doug, on a great tournament. It’s obvious you have what it takes to play with the big boys. I guess you are one of them now!

Mindy McCready came out today and said, “She could not refute anything in the story”, in reference to the New York Daily News story about the possible affair between her and Roger Clemens. 

Now there’s a shocker.  Roger Clemens is digging his own grave.  First, he says he never used steroids, and now this.  I tell you what, if this turns out to be true, and he has hidden his affair with McCready from his wife for over 15 years, then who the hell will believe him when he said he never used the juice??  Other than my pet turtle, who will believe anything I tell him, I can’t think of anyone.

I don’t wish bad things on people, well, maybe sometimes I do, but I really hope Clemens gets exposed for what he really is.  A liar.  A fraud.  A celebrity who is trying to use his status to get away with cheating.  Yeah, cheating in both ways:  ‘roids and adultery.   As of now, I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt, but with McCready’s announcement, I have no other choice but to think of Clemens as a fraud.

Time to celebrate!!!  Halfway to 70.  It’s poker night out on the town tonight with the boys!  I’ll keep you all posted on the horrible beat I will take tonight to get knocked out.

I decided to take this Monday off of work, and enjoy a 3 day weekend a the beach in New Smyrna with The Sports Mom and The Sports Baby. Last night, we decided to take the family out to Outback Steakhouse for a nice dinner. It was crowded for a Saturday night, so we ended up sitting in one of the booths near the bar, which are first come, first serve. I didn’t take us 5 minutes to notice a mid-30’s woman sitting alone at the bar with her back faced to us. Or the more appropriate term is her “butt crack” faced to us. Her jeans were halfway down her butt, exposing about 75% of her natural fault line. Wow. Totally unexpected. The Sports Mom and I chuckled a bit about it, and then started conversing about how anyone can show the plumber’s crack without at least feeling a draft.

A few minutes later, a woman that was sitting at the table behind us with her husband and another couple, took it upon herself to let crack woman know she was exposing herself. She even brought her jacket and put it on the back of the chair, as to not embarrass crack woman. Much to our surprise, crack woman said, “I’m quite aware of it. Deal with your own issues. And take your jacket off my chair!” Wow. The nerve of some people. Ms. Crack then proceeded to let the bartender know that it was the most insulting thing anyone had ever done to her in her life. The Sports Mom then told me she overheard the bartender saying, “You know what you should do …” After that, crevice chick proceeded to move all over her stuff, food and drink included, so she would be sitting with her back and arse directy in front of the lady who had approached her. This was ok with us, as we didn’t have to observe the sight anymore. She then moved her jeans farther down her butt to expose almost all of it. I mean it was comical how much we saw. Trash then finished up her meal, gathered her stuff, walked over to the couples’ table and yelled, “Chew your food carefully, you cold hearted bitch!” and proceeded to leave the restaurant. Wow … more class than Britney Spears getting out of her car. Yeah right.

Sports Mom then decided it was her duty to inform the manager of a) what had happened when Ms Trashy was approached by the sympathetic lady, and b) to let her know what the bartender advised her to do. A while later, the manager approached the table behind us and apologized profusely, but did not offer the couples any type of comp. Unbelievable. I’ve decided next time, IF there is a next time, we visit Outback, we’ll sit at a table away from the bar.

Any kind of irony here?  It’s Opening Day!!!  The creation of the Sports Dad’s blog kicks off the same day as our national pastime starts the 2008 season.  Here’s to a great season, with the Braves winning it all, and the time and patience to spend on this blog.