track and field

Paralympic poker player cashing in

No, poker hasn’t been added to the Olympics or Paralympics. But a Paralympic veteran is having some success in the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.

Marlon Shirley, two-time gold medalist at 100 meters and a man with an inspiring story of overcoming multiple adversities, is still in the Main Event and is now guaranteed to make at least $41,967 off his $10,000 buy-in.

Shirley is Tweeting under the apropos handle ibtrackin, and he shared the news when UFC announcer Bruce Buffer was ousted on a really unlucky hand. Buffer was full of good cheer as he departed. The $27,519 prize didn’t hurt, but Buffer is a perpetually friendly person.

The Main Event is down to 313 players from the original 7,319 and still includes multiple Mizrachi family members.

cycling

Cycling, poker and unreal time

We’re spoiled today on so many levels. International supply chains bring us all the world’s goods, from Colombian coffee to Vidalia onions. Our TVs brings us crisp images of live events on the other side of the globe. We can listen to new music on our mobile phones. We get 40-50 soccer games on TV a week.

So we shouldn’t have an entitlement mentality about live stuff.

With that disclaimer in mind, I’ve encountered a couple of frustrations in following Myriad sports in the past 24 hours.

In cycling, it’s a frustration of being so close and yet so far to knowing where everyone is in real time. The official Tour de France site has changed little over the past few years, which is itself a bit of an indictment in the fast-changing new media world. Still, the framework is sound — when it works. Today, it didn’t.

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