Tag: world series of poker

cycling, mma, olympic sports, track and field

Monday Myriad, July 7: Meb passed a lot of you

Posted on by Beau Dure

Best and worst in myriad sports this week:

BEST CHARITY RUN

Meb Keflezighi started at the back of the Peachtree Road Race. He couldn’t pass everyone — the top runners were had been done for more than an hour by the time he started — but he reached his goal of passing 25,000 runners.

WORST COMPETITION

We were used to the idea of Ronda Rousey being a better grappler than every woman in MMA. Once she got you in her grasp, you were likely to fall prey to the armbar she honed as an Olympic judo medalist.

In her last two fights, Rousey has faced two accomplished grapplers — Olympic wrestling medalist Sara McMann and jiu-jitsu black belt Alexis Davis. She knocked both of them out in a combined time of 1 minute, 22 seconds. McMann, at least, is a relatively inexperienced MMA fighter. But Davis should have the kickboxing experience to avoid being knocked out in 16 seconds. And really, it was over in about 12.

Unless everyone can quit making excuses and let Rousey face Cris Cyborg, the woman who demolished the game but overwhelmed Gina Carano in the biggest pre-Rousey women’s MMA bout, who’s left to face her?

MOST EXPERIENCED YOUTH OLYMPIAN

The USA is sending 94 people to the Youth Olympic Games. One, table tennis player Lily Zhang, is the first U.S. athlete to have been in the regular old Olympics before she was in the Youth Olympics.

WORST OLYMPIC BIDDING PROCESS

The three finalists for the 2022 Winter Olympics are the only cities still bidding — Beijing, Almaty and Oslo. And you can almost hear the IOC saying, “Please be Oslo, please be Oslo.”

BEST GIF

MOST LEAD-FOOTED SWIMMER

BEST SHOWDOWN

Justin Gatlin needed a world-leading time of 9.80 seconds to beat Tyson Gay (9.93), who was returning from a one-year doping suspension.

Gay got a win on Monday.

BEST RALLY (EXCLUDING WIMBLEDON)

Not “rally” in the sense of a comeback. World League volleyball, USA-Russia.

(Start at 1:25 if you’re not already taken there.)

BIGGEST RECLAMATION PROJECT

MOST DIVERSE COLLECTION OF CELEBRITIES

The World Series of Poker main event is underway.

https://twitter.com/pamelam35/status/486308526004772865

BEST RACE

Jenny Simpson got out in front and nearly stayed there in the 1,500 meters in Paris. The quick tempo wound up dragging five runners under the four-minute mark. The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan posted the top time of the year, Simpson just missed the American record (Mary Slaney, 3:57.12), and fellow American Shannon Rowbury (DUKIE!) set a personal best.

BEST RIVALRY

Kirani James vs LaShawn Merritt, once again. This time in Lausanne. No spoilers. Just watch.

BIGGEST TIE

World League volleyball, Pool A: Brazil, Italy, Iran, Poland. Each team played 12 matches. Brazil’s record: 6-6. Italy’s record: 6-6. Iran’s record: 6-6. Poland’s record: Basic match tells you what it has to be. A four-way tie.

By tiebreakers, it’s Italy, Iran, Brazil, Poland. And that leaves Poland out of the next round. But their fans were still great.

Meanwhile, the USA traveled to Serbia, needing a win to clinch a spot in the final.

BEST ROUNDUPS

The Daily Relay’s Monday Morning Run rounds up the record chases in track and field this year, along with a Tim Howard save. Also in that roundup is the shocking revelation of a massive mistake — when Emma Coburn ran away from an elite field to win the steeplechase in Shanghai, a couple of runners assumed she was just a pacemaker. They didn’t even realize she finished the race, crossing the line and thinking they had finished first and second.

They’re not making that mistake again.

And as always, Ollie Williams’ Frontier Sports roundup is a must-read. The Monday wrap features a lot of cycling (including a third sport for Dutch short-track/long-track speedskater Jorien Ter Mors) and the odd story of a judo athlete who won her appeal against a positive test for cocaine, spurring a new investigation to find out who might have slipped her the powder.

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cycling, mind games

Midweek Myriad: Mind games

Posted on by Beau Dure

You may have noticed from the last post that Sports Myriad has a new contributor from across the pond. Carrie Dunn was part of the legendary crew of Guardian minute-by-minute and over-by-over commentators, though she’s more charitable to Americans than most of them. She’ll write about a lot of sports — darts, cricket, women’s sports — that I’ve wanted to cover at Sports Myriad but haven’t had much of a chance to cover because I’m just not quite as plugged into those sports as I am elsewhere.

We’re also expecting a rugby preview from another contributor soon.

All of which means you should be adding Sports Myriad to your RSS readers if you haven’t already.

A couple of items of interest so far this week, starting with games played with the head rather than hands or feet:

Chess: Vishy Anand has retained the world title, but the man to watch is 19-year-old Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. He is already No. 1 on FIDE’s rating list and is gaining on Garry Kasparov’s all-time high. NYT blogger Dylan Loeb McClain tells us he wins with creativity rather than encyclopedic knowledge of familiar openings. And he already has some celebrity appeal, joining Liv Tyler for some sort of fashion shoot this week.

Another youngster, 22-year-old Czech grandmaster Viktor Laznicka won the World Open, a top U.S. event. Lubomir Kavalek takes us through a wide-open game Laznicka won with black.

Poker: Daniel Alaei won the pot-limit Omaha world title for his third World Series of Poker bracelet. (Not this year — only Frank Kassela, who win Player of the Year honors unless one of his pursuers can reach the November Nine, has two bracelets this summer.)

Pros and semi-pros (Kassela is considered semi-pro) have won most of the events this year, but one of the last event winners before the Main Event is a Dutch physicist named Marcel Vonk. Good week for the Netherlands.

Day 1A of the Main Event (the tournament is so large that players start on four different days — 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) featured Chris Moneymaker, the amateur who helped launch the poker boom with his unlikely Main Event win a few years ago, and cross-country skier Petter Northug, perhaps the only World Series of Poker participant whom I saw in a press conference tent in Whistler this year.

My former USA TODAY colleague Gary Mihoces has landed in Vegas and tells us Ray Romano has busted out. He also has details on Phil Hellmuth’s planned MMA-style entrance, featuring Wanderlei Silva, King Mo and the man himself, Bruce Buffer.

ESPN has a video interview with one of its own, former baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser, who comes up with some clever analogies between baseball and poker:

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

Cycling: One day after the cobblestones rattled Lance Armstrong and others, we had a much less eventful day at the Tour de France and the usual first-week sprint finish.

Soccer: Hey, there’s a game on.

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Enjoy the USA-Ghana game for what it is

Posted on by Beau Dure

At some point, it’s just about the game.

If Landon Donovan scores a hat trick in a crushing 5-2 win over Ghana tomorrow, it won’t suddenly fill every MLS stadium and push Fox Soccer Channel’s MLS broadcasts to NFL levels. Nor would a 3-0 loss send U.S. soccer back to 1985. (The year, not the excellent Bowling for Soup song.)

Saturday’s game is a great opportunity for the USA to match its best modern-day World Cup finish (no, I don’t count 1930 as modern-day in this case) and perhaps move on to more. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it’s part of this complete weekend, which includes the return of MLS.

HEADLINES

Poker: Most recent world champions are Ayaz Mahmood (heads-up no-limit hold’em) and Valdemar Kwaysser (pot-limit hold’em). Phil Ivey won his eighth WSOP bracelet in H.O.R.S.E., but he’s not in the H.O.R.S.E. world championship due to end Friday. The tournament of champions starts Sunday with 27 players and will be whittled to a final nine to resume next Sunday.

MMA: Like occasional U.S. wrestling teammate Ben Askren, Joe Warren has won a Bellator tournament. Russia’s Alexander Shlemenko is the middleweight winner. (MMA Fighting Stances)

FRIDAY

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Chile-Spain. Chile has two wins but technically isn’t safe — a loss here and a Swiss win would send us to goal difference (currently Chile +2, Switzerland 0 – so the Swiss would at least tie them with a win and Chile loss), goals scored (Chile 2, Switzerland 1) , then head-to-head (Chile). Not lots. Spain, the pick of many to win it all, would advance with a win or likely by matching Switzerland’s result (points AND goal difference on the day). The other wild-card scenario that would keep Spain out: a loss and a Honduras rout. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Switzerland-Honduras. See above. A rout would clinch Switzerland’s spot, but that’s not their style. Realistically, they need a win plus any of the following: Chile win, Chile-Spain draw, Spain rout. A draw does Switzerland no good unless Spain loses. Honduras needs a rout and a Spain loss. ESPN2/TeleFutura/ESPN3

9 p.m.: MLS, Salt Lake-San Jose. Welcome back to league play with a good one. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

SATURDAY

7 a.m.: Wimbledon, ESPN2, over to NBC at noon

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Uruguay-South Korea. Winner gets USA-Ghana winner. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. ESPN

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, USA-Ghana. No more to say. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should include men’s 400, men’s 400 hurdles, women’s 1,500, women’s 100 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Action sports, Dew Tour Skate Open/ISF World Championships. Shaun White and Ryan Sheckler expected. NBC

7:30 p.m.: MLS, Toronto-Los Angeles. Can the Galaxy keep winning without Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle against the excellent Dwayne De Rosario and the less-excellent rogue’s gallery that fouls effectively? Fox Soccer Channel

10 p.m.: MMA, Strikeforce, featuring Fedor Emelianenko-Fabricio Werdum heavyweight bout. Also a women’s title fight between Cris Cyborg and Jan Finney, a rematch for Cung Le against Scott Smith, and a lightweight bout between Josh Thomson and Pat Healy.

SUNDAY

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Germany-England. Just a bit of history here. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should have a healthy dose of live field events and taped track events. ESPN

2 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, women’s final. ESPN2

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, Argentina-Mexico. For Spanish-speaking U.S. viewers, this is the non-USA game of the tournament. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Includes men’s and women’s 200 finals, plus men’s 1,500 and 110 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, men’s final. Universal Sports

5 p.m.: MLS, Seattle-Philadelphia. ESPN2

6 p.m.: WPS, Bay Area-New Jersey (Gold Pride-Sky Blue). Front-runners break in new stadium against defending champs. FSC/WPS online

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Softball: Well, it’s still an Olympic sport to us. The World Championships are in progress in Venezuela. USA opened with 1-0 win over China and will continue pool play against New Zealand (Friday), Venezuela (Friday), Botswana (yes, really — Saturday), rival Australia (Sunday), Dominican Republic (Monday) and Czech Republic (Monday). Japan and Canada are in the other pool. Live stats at USA Softball.
  • Water polo: Women’s World League Super Final starts Monday in SoCal.
  • More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, U.S. Rowing championships.

MORE MYRIAD

  • USA Track and Field Championships: Webcasting when not on TV.
  • World Series of Poker: How to follow.
  • College World Series (NCAA baseball): UCLA, TCU, South Carolina and Clemson remaining. ESPN/2/3 splitting coverage.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Plenty of Wimbledon matches, Australian Rules football and poker, plus World Cup and college baseball simulcasts.
  • Tennis Channel: Wimbledon analysis and classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and triathlon.
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cycling, mma, olympic sports, tennis, track and field

Monday Myriad: World Series of Poker schedules around World Cup?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Perhaps this is a coincidence, but the World Series of Poker has put its two big events on either side of the World Cup.

The main event, the $10,000 no-limit hold-em tournament that will run ad infinitum on ESPN in months to come, starts July 5 but takes a day off July 11, coinciding with the World Cup final. The field is whittled down from several thousand to nine the rest of the week.

Before the World Cup, we get the Poker Players’ Championship, which is designed to be a more complete test of poker skills. The $50,000 buy-in and the rotation of eight diverse poker variants is supposed to intimidate the amateurs who flock to the main event, leaving only the poker pros with reason to feel confident — and perhaps enough of a rep to attract sponsors who make the $50,000 check a little less painful to write.

In the past couple of years, they’ve used a H.O.R.S.E. tournament (not a basketball shooting competition but a rotation of five games) as the big test for the pros, but they found that ESPN wasn’t interested in televising several obscure, difficult-to-explain games. The compromise: Rotate through eight games but then stick to no-limit hold-em for the final table.

The other events will feature a mix of poker pros, Internet gamers, random amateurs and occasional celebrities. (One early sighting: UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture.)

Options for following the 57 official games plus the “Ante Up for Africa” championship:

– Official site: Commentary focuses on big-name pros and celebrities until each event gets to a manageable two or three tables, and then it’s more tightly focused on each hand.

– ESPN: The broadcaster that has paved the way for other broadcasters to show nonstop poker has a blog and other updates.

– Twitter: My list includes the official WSOP feed and Poker News, plus notable players Doyle Brunson (venerable veteran), Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker, thoughtful ambassador for the game), Vanessa Rousso (Duke alum with lots of sponsors) and Annie Duke (Celebrity Apprentice winner — I don’t accept the decision to give the title to Joan Rivers).

Headlines from the other Myriad sports this weekend:

– Cycling: Ivan Basso, back from his doping suspension, cruised to victory at the Giro d’Italia. World champion Cadel Evans made a break for it in a final mountain stage but couldn’t reach the podium. David Arroyo, one of the underdogs who broke away on The Day The Peloton Said “Oops!”, finished second.

– MMA: Rashad Evans took down Rampage Jackson at UFC 114, bringing at least a temporary conclusion to a nasty trash-talking battle. Michael Bisping showed some class and poise in a win over Dan Miller in the co-main event. The other three main-card fights were surprising. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira labored past fill-in fighter Jason Brilz for a controversial split decision win, English prospect John Hathaway outperformed veteran Diego Sanchez, and Chicago cop Mike Russow overcame his love handles and 2 1/2 rounds of being tagged in the face to knock out previously unbeaten Todd Duffee with one punch.

– Track and field: American record in the high jump for Chaunte Howard Lowe, who cleared6-8 1/4 in miserable conditions at an obscure meet in Germany. Bryan Clay won the decathlon at the Hypo Combined Events Meeting in Austria.

– Beach volleyball: Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser keep rolling on the FIVB circuit, winning in Poland. Brazilians Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca won the women’s event in South Korea over Americans Angie Akers and Tyra Turner, with Jen Kessy and April Ross unusually dropped to bronze.

– Tennis: Justine Henin’s comeback hit a bump today at the French Open with a loss to Samantha Stosur. Americans have had a rough time — Venus Williams, Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers are all out. Robby Ginepri upset his way to the fourth round before falling to third seed Novak Djokovic.

– English soccer: Millwall, known for harboring American players and ill-tempered fans, won promotion back to the Championship.

– Judo: Remember the name Kayla Harrison. The 19-year-old won her first World Cup gold and third World Cup medal of the year.

– Weightlifting: We rise for American records — Kendrick Harris lifted 203kg in the clean-and-jerk.

– More Oly sports: Shooting gold and bronze for Olympic multimedalist Matt Emmons, plus three U.S. rowing medals. Check  the USOC’s Olympic Sports Scene.

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