A Perfect Disaster

The year is 2008 the month is February, the day is Sunday. I woke up in the hotel room that day and had one thing on my mind, 19 and 0. Patriot’s nation was in Phoenix Arizona and getting ready to witness history. Just not the type of history they were hoping for. I was among these faithful fans, somehow finding my way to Super Bowl XLII to witness perfection.

The trip started with positive expectations, and old friends who I knew in Arizona. “If the Pats lose this one I’m going to have to move back to Mass after all the talking I’ve done down here,” said Jeff Rebelo, a Former resident of Massachusetts.

Many fans felt the same as Jeff, “it’s in the bag” seemed to be a key phrase of the weekend. Though I never let myself say those words I couldn’t help but think them. However, the underdog story seemed more intriguing to most then the story of a perfect season. “Eighteen and one that’s still a good record,” Giants fans said. We had our phrase they had there’s.

Although it was a New York and Boston rivalry, most Giants fans were good sports as were Patriot’s fans, which proved for a good time. Beer drinking challenges between the two sides were going on in every bar, along with football competitions, and even model shows to see which state had better looking women. In the end it all ended with smiles, except for the actual game of course.

Finally, game day arrived. I felt anxious, excited, nervous, and a little sick from the previous nights activities. Everything was fun and games, until game day. I noticed immediately when I walked outside with my Patriot’s jacket on and heard a big, “YOU SUCK and….. SO DO THE PATS!!!” I smiled and thought o boy I love football.

We decided to go bar hoping for a bit before the game; not for the drinks but more for the atmosphere, and the spectacle of the entire event. What a spectacle it was; they had jugglers on corners, mini beer stand set up in the middle of traffic, the bars had dividers separating the two fan bases leaving room in the middle for unbiased spectators, church fanatics cursing at fans for not being in church, the smell of meat cooking everywhere you turned, and laughter.

Everyone was happy, and excited about what was to come. As I stood looking at the stadium from about a quarter mile away I could not believe were I was, and what I was witnessing. As the time drew closer the stadium began to fill, and the teams arrived.

The pregame introductions where very well put together a video of this follows. Looking back it was a great game. A defensive struggle which is my favorite but not that day, that day I wanted a blow out. However that is not what happened, instead a fourteen point underdog took the greatest offensive to ever play all four quarters.

Tom Brady couldn’t throw the ball without getting smacked down, and Coach Belichick decided to not alter the game plan which may have cost them the game. In the end, David Tyree and his infamous catch will be burned into my mind forever, and as I watched Ellis Hobbs fall down, I sat in my seat knowing what has happened. Yes, I sat down before Buress caught the game winning pass, and didn’t see the catch; Hobbs falling down was enough for me to see what was coming.

Perfection stopped dead in its tracks by the better team on that day. As the game ended the spectacle didn’t seem as fun, nothing did. The only thing I had my mind on, as did many other Patriots fans, was a nice shot of Jameson. The whiskey went down easy, but other than that the lump in my throat stopped food or anything else from going down for the rest of the night.

The next day I went to a pool hall, and awaited my red eye flight. I got to hang out with one of my best friends who I hadn’t seen in years. We played pool and we drank our sorrows away. That day as I played pool with my long lost friend I faced a realization. A classic paradigm shift, which changed the way I have looked at sports, and life since.

I went into the weekend a New England sports fanatic, but that’s not how I left. I left with a new sense of sports, and become a sports fan. I left that trip feeling lucky. I felt lucky that I was able to witness one of the greatest Super Bowls ever played, and that’s not so bad.

Although the Patriots didn’t come out on top; the game itself gave me a new respect for sports in general, and has made me the true sports fan I am today.

New Age of Professional Poker

Money. Some people have it, everyone wants it, and a few people even gamble to get it. Profession on-line poker players are a few of these people.

“It’s not gambling. Well it can be gambling if you’re not good, but poker is a skill sport like baseball, or football. It is an acquired skill you develop through practice and hard work,” said Kush Patel, a professional poker player.

Patel is just one of an entire labor force playing poker on-line to support them. He plays poker (mostly Texas holdem) as a full time job, and makes money like any other full time job. “I play on-line for at least eight hours a day six or seven days a week. While I play, I play sixteen cash games at a time on my double to triple monitor set up,” Said Patel.

At first it seems like an easy job. Get to stay at home; choose your own hours, and you get to play poker. “I hate it” said Patel “its grueling work. Staring at two screens while constantly needing to be aware of ever hand at every table gets exhausting. One mis-click could cost me hundreds of dollars”.

That’s right, a “mis-click”. Which means folding on accident or raising on accident. Basically clicking the wrong button is all it takes to turn a winning day into a losing day.

If that doesn’t sound stressful enough sometimes a forty hour week can turn no profit what so ever. “It’s tough and even if you are the best other people will get lucky. You play the odds, and sometimes the wrong cards just seemed to find their way onto the table,” Said Patel.

Patel learned that first hand just one year ago while playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. “I played for three days and lost with pocket kings to ace king; it was the first time in my life I was upset with the game”.

As I sat in on one of Patel’s poker sessions I found out firsthand how hard managing the tables really are. I wasn’t even able to focus on four tables at a time let alone the sixteen Kush sits in front of every day of his life.

Patel is just the tip of the ice berg. There are literally millions of people that log onto these poker sites everyday to try and win money. However, most just end up giving all their money to players like Kush who do it for a living.

“I’ve been playing online for about five years. I’ve never really won; just throw thirty bucks or so in every once in a while, and it’s usually gone in a week or so,” said Tim Baroni. Baroni is the perfect example of how people like Kush make their money; they beat people who are worse than them, amateurs.

“Usually people win when the first start playing; they get lucky make bad decisions, and end up winning 100 bucks or so”. “Over time they end up giving me the money or someone else because their luck runs out. Those are the targets, we call them fish,” said Patel.

A Fish is an amateur player who basically loses their money time and time again, and doesn’t understand why. These are the players who fund the professional players allowing the pros to feed themselves and live pretty well.

“I work hard, but yes I also do pretty well for myself,” said Patel. Patel would not go into how much he actually pulls in a year due to certain reasons, but he did divulge it was upwards of six figures a year.

Playing poker is not the only thing these online gurus do; there is a much larger market for good poker players then most people know about.

“I also work for a staking company based out of Seattle Washington which stakes new players in tournaments. If the players win we get half” said Patel. “I also coach players for about 200 dollars an hour”. So, not all the money comes from just playing poker, but more often than not playing the actual game is where these entrepreneurs make most of their money.

At first the word entrepreneur seems a little out of place but after seeing the market that has been created one cannot argue against it. They have taken something that was once only done at casinos and backroom games to the internet.

Entire companies have been started just to tend to the needs of these professionals. Computers have been developed to meet their specific needs, and countless programs which analyze every hand have been developed to show what hands hit more often than others.

Since the new card cameras came to be about six years ago, Texas Hold Em has become a household game. The cameras immediately turned poker into one of the best TV sports to watch; allowing people such as Patel to see how the game is played.

“I got into poker the first year the whole card cameras came out. My poker career kicked off the same as most people; I put some money in online and lost it all immediately”. Said Patel

As the truth with everything else in the world, before one can be good at something you generally start off bad at it. “Yeah it was pretty bad I lost 500 dollars in a matter of minutes. A lot more than watching the pros on TV goes into becoming a good poker player,” said Patel.

Patel like most players dove into the sport before he was ready, and it almost convinced him to never play again. “After I lost my first deposit I figured the game was all luck, and quit for about a year. Then a found a website called 2plus2.com, which is a poker forum where players post about their hands. That website is why I am where I am today.”

Patel then went on to read more poker books and do more research on the sport. He quickly learned of a thing called variance, and how it applies to poker. “Basically, variance is why I win and why I lose. It is my 1 percent advantage in a game with average players. That overtime adds up but in the short run is the reason why I lose,” said Patel.

When Patel sits at a poker table he has a competitive advantage over the other players because he knows the game better. This advantage is small “maybe one or two percent,” said Patel. Over time the one percent advantage adds up, and is the reason Patel is able to make money in the long term.

However in the short term the variance can be quite painful. “Sometimes I will work a 40 hour week and lose three or four thousand dollars. However, if there was no variance then the fish would never win. If the fish never won they wouldn’t play, and I would be out of business,” said Patel.

ME: So what your saying is sometimes losing is a good thing? Patel: No losing is never I good thing I hate losing. Hahaha. It’s just a part of the game that I have to deal with.

Patel has made a great living playing poker, but doesn’t see himself playing for the rest of his life. “I got into it just to make some money and it pretty much took over my life. Unless I make it big I plan on quitting in a year or so and getting back into school,” said Patel.

The on-line poker community continues to grow, and is showing no signs of slowing down. According to Patel almost all professional players get started just as he did, through reading and studying the game. Patel insists he is not some super poker genius, and that anyone who puts the work in could do what he’s doing.

“I’m not saying you’ll get all the breaks all the time, but if you’re willing to do the work that money is out there to be won,” said Patel.

As the industry grows more and more people are looking to get their share of the money. However, becoming a fish and feeding money into the system is a very real outcome. So, before you decide to go all in just remember the player across the table may just have you beat; even if only by one percent.

A Profile of Kush Patel's path

Bruins Slipping

The Hurricanes take the 2-1 series on Jussie Jokinen’s 5th goal of the playoffs. It was a close game the entire way, but the Bruins could not maintain control of the puck coming out of their own end all night and it eventually cost them.

The entire night the Bruins shot themselves in the foot, not being able to bring the puck out of their own zone. It seemed every time they were about to go on the attack they just turned over the puck either in their own zone or in the neutral zone.

The Canes outshot the Bruins 41-23 dominating the Bruins in every zone. The Canes played on the Bruins half of the ice all night dominating the fore-check, an area the Bruins usually win.

The number one seed has put themselves in a virtual must win situation not wanting to fall behind 3-1. With the Sharks already being upset, the Bruins need a win to bolster their confidence and to show the Canes they are the Best team in these playoffs.

The worst thing you can give a weaker team is hope and the Bruins have done that. The Bruins are clearly the better team on paper, but that’s why they play the game and now the Canes have hope. Look for this to be a highly competitive series the rest of the way and count on this one going all seven games.

Celtics Pull Even

The Celtics pulled even with the Magic winning game two of the series in a convincing fashion. On the back of Rajon Rondo’s third triple double of the postseason, and Eddie House’s 31 points the Celtics Rolled to an easy 112-94 win over the Magic.

After getting blown out in the first three quarters of game one, the Celtics picked up right where they left off in game ones fourth showing the same toughness throughout game two. However, this time it wouldn’t be too little too late, but a steady stream of defense followed by a steady stream of points on the offensive end led to the easy victory.

House’s 31 points is a playoff carrier high for the shooter, and showed off exactly what he can do on a hot streak. With Pierce struggling and maybe a little worn down, House’s career night couldn’t have come at a better time.

Not only did House score 31 points, but he also did something that may help the team win this series letting Pierce rest much of the game. With Eddie’s success Doc Rivers was able to rest Pierce who at times just looked worn down.

The rest could end up being exactly what the Doctor ordered and look for him to come out angry and hungry in game three.