End of the Games and some Poker

So I along with 80% of Canadians (according to polls) watched the final gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada. What a game. Ends in an overtime win for Canada. Two evenly matched teams just like the women's final. Having said all that I actually enjoyed seeing the true amateur athletes win their medals much more. The joy on their faces after all the years of hard work makes the Olympics what is. Don't get me wrong I am a huge hockey fan but these players all go back to their million dollar jobs afterwords while the speed skaters, figure skaters and skiers go back to their real life. That is for them a 9-5 job and massive training afterwords. Sure some get corporate sponsorship but its not like they get rich doing what they love. They do because they love it. That's a huge difference than getting paid millions to play a sport. One thing the Olympics did was bring out the patriotism in this country like I have never seen it before. We have never been a huge flag waving nation but this Olympics seemed to unite the country in support of our athletes. if we gained nothing else from these games this feeling of all being united was worth it.

I played a live tournament on Sunday night with I think about 44 players. I ended up 6th. Two memorable hands that got me to the final table. I got dealt AK in middle position. I raised and got two callers. Flop comes Q,10,6 rainbow. Surprisingly one of the callers bet, I called (it was cheap enough) and the other guy folded. Turn was a lovely Jack. He checked and so did I hoping he would catch up or something. River was a 9 and he went all in. I of course called and won a huge pot. He had King 10. Guess he didn't put me on Big Slick.

The other big hand I was dealt on the button A2 Clubs. I limped in and the flop J 9 8 with 2 clubs. 4 people in the pot and 1 lady makes a less than pot sized bet so I come along and the other 2 fold. Turn is a blank and she makes the same bet. Still cheap enough for me to see another card although I am not a flush chaser but the bet was so small. The river brought me a lovely 5 of Clubs. She immediately pushed all in and I of course called with the Nuts. She was out as I had her covered. She had relatively slow played a flopped straight and under bet a flushy board. Got to the final table and I badly overplayed a high pair to a flopped straight and I was crippled but still a pretty good night

Sunday Morning

Just sitting on my sofa her watching the second last event of the Olympics which is the mens 50 KM ski race. Great to watch and as I type this a Canadian is sitting in 4th place. Should be a good finish.

Of course we are all waiting for the final event the Gold Medal hockey game between the U. S. and Canada. It should be a classic. Even though I of course will be cheering madly for Canada we as fans are the winners. These Olympics have turned out to be a huge success. My oldest son managed to get tickets to the bronze medal game last night and said he will never forget the feeling of being there.

They just announced the flag bearer for Canada for the closing ceremonies and it seems it will be Joannie Rochette (pictured above) the figure skater who got a bronze medal. That of course wasn't the story. Her mom died suddenly just after arriving at the games. A lot of athletes would not have been able to continue but Joannie skated and somehow managed to skate brilliantly and with tears in her eyes took the bronze medal behind the great Korean and Japanese skaters. You couldn't help but get choked up watching her skate so its a great choice.

The puck drops in 30 minutes............

Olympics and Casinos

As I had stated earlier we have the winter Olympics coming here in 2010. I am a big fan of sports of all kinds but not as much Olympic fan as I used to be. I still love the athletes (the ones that are clean) but I think some of the Olympic family needs to rethink things. We have a casino that is located close to one of the Olympic sites and they have been told (according to various media outlets) that during the Olympics they will have to close for 4 weeks minimum. The rational behind this is that they are on the same grounds as one of the Olympic venues. The casino is actually located at the race track which is near the Pacific Coliseum where some events will take place. Now these employees will not have a paycheck for a month unless someone or something intervenes. Hopefully saner heads prevail.

Speaking of casinos I see some of our local ones aren't running as many tournaments as in past. Not sure the rational behind this but I checked the River Rock casino site and they said it was due to construction so I hope that's the case. They no longer have the early bird at 10 AM but are running a noon tournament instead. They also were stating that the poker room wasn't opening until noon most days. Hopefully again this is just a temporary thing.