Post #2016 in 2016

Vegas has the real big-money Football Contests —
held each year with the deadline to enter contest
between July & the early-September, and anyone
21 or older can join a contest.
Thousands of people will be vying for the contests'
millions of dollars in prize pools.

The most notable and prestigious prize pool contest
is the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook’s 'SuperContest'
with the largest pot to win, as last season’s winner made
a little shy of $1 million.
Contestants must make 5 picks against the point spread
in each of the 17 weeks of the NFL's regular season.
That contestant with the best cumulative record at
the end of the year wins.
The Supercontest takes a $1,500 entry fee,
& the entry fees go toward contest payouts.
And because of the ever soaring popularity
of the Supercontest, it also determines the
unofficial world champion of sports betting.

Also, Golden Nugget’s 'Friday Football Showdown'
and the William Hill US 'College Pick ‘em Contest'
and the Freemont's weekly ncaa/nfl fb contests.

CONCACAF Gold Cup - Group C
13 July 2017

Kórsou — aka, Curaçao —
isa GoldCup2017 sleeper team.
They just won the CaribbeanCup,
they have multiple Europe-based players,
led by Cuco Martina and Leandro Bacuna.

Tonight Kórsou will play a big match within
the Denver Bronco's stadium, against the
2013 match-fixing (caught red-handed)
El Salvador squad. 

Take Curaçao  to WIN or DRAW
(versus El Salvador to WIN)

^^^
Curaçao, the Dutch islanders, lost their all-star defender
Cuco Martina.
It's been reported that the Southampton right back has
left the national team to complete a club move, ostensibly
within the EPL to rejoin former manager Ronald Koeman
at Everton.  Curaçao's media showed a video of Martina
bidding goodbye to his international teammates...

Thus, the Curaçao play is NO PLAY.

Venus Williams, 5-time Wimbledon champion
(last won it in 2008), was seeded 10th w/ odds
(+1200)
on WTA tennis odds.
She was found at fault for a fatal car accident
earlier this month that left a man dead,
so tennis really should not be her No. 1
priority, good a lawyer to get her off is.

Garbiñe Muguruza Wimbledon odds at start
(+900).
Today vs. Williams she won w/ odds (as fave)
(-118)
 -1.5 sets hit at (+226) !!

The 1st Set winner wins & becomes Champ
99% of the time.  She won the last two games
after it was knotted 5-5 to win the1st Set 7-5,
and won the next 6 games - a total domination
— winning 8 games in a row - & took the title
for her 2nd Gram Slam win in 2 years (FO '16).

Tomorrow's the Men's Champ Match:
W/ Croatian Marin "Cro Cop" Cilic at
(+400) at BookMaker; (+429) at 5D
Vs.
Roger Federer who is the fave at:
-480 = low (Pinnacle & Heritage)
-556 = high (Intertops.com).

The Red Sox are 1 of 8 with runners in scoring position today,
going into the 11th inning (super Sale start blown by Kimbrel),
& Red Sox a mere 2 of 38 (.05%) vs. the Yanks this season.

Bjorn Borg won his 1st (of 5 in-a-row) Wimbeldon in 2003
without dropping a set !!
Federer won his 1st (of 5 in-a-row) in 2003,
and today's win sets the all-time record of 8 trophies won,
and he did not drop a set the entire tournament of 2017:
-2.5 sets (+145)
S.U. (-415)

Vegas had a monsoon warning last night,
and this after 28 straight days of temps at
112 degrees Fahrenheit — with Sumerlin
and Henderson seeing 121 deg.F, so that
any and all victory gardens, what with the
backyard tomatoes, grapes, etc. the most
common, have one and all been dried up
and burnt to death. 

Even palm trees are quite a
few just barely hanging on
for dear life. 

Chris Weidman (+140)
Kelvin Gastelum (-160)

Kelvin Gastelum planning welterweight return
after loss to 'really just too strong' Weidman.

Scott Outrageous Blumstein (S.O.B.)
swiveled his seat towards his cheering section
before pumping his fist and yelling in celebration
after the 11th hand in last night's final table of
The World Series of Poker Main Event in the Rio.

The 25-year-old poker amateur poker player from
Morristown, Nah Joisey should have concealed the
fact that he pulled off  the most massive bluff ever
against Dan Ott, but his emotions wouldn’t let him.

Not winning any of the first 10 pots in 3-handed play
and seeing his lead dwindle, Blumstein reasserted
himself with an ALL-IN, putting Ott in a decision for
all of his chips.

Blumstein held only King-high on reveal of all the
community cards, but his aggression forced Ott to
surrender whilst holding a pair of crazy 8's.

“Before today started, (Ott’s Poker coach) Doug Polk
came up to me and was ribbing me saying he wasn’t
seeing much bluffing going on, so I had to put that to
rest pretty fast,” Blumstein said.
“ I told him, ‘Be careful what you wish for !!’ ”

And that was only the start to a night full of Blumstein
tormenting fellow finalists Ott and Benjamin Pollak.
The rock-solid BLUFF OF AGES cleft
the mediocre luck he was having...
and set him off on a path of total dominance
that lasted the entire 7-hour duration
of the 10th session of the
$10,000 buy-in event
that had started w/ 7,221 players.

It all ended w/ S.O.B. Blumstein claiming the
World Championship Bracelet. 
As it was handed over to him, he broke down pretty hard
and he started to cry.



Some  dudes made the case on Thursday and Friday that
the biggest factor in S.O.B. Blumstein’s success was just
good fortune at the right time.
But on Saturday Night he showed he could play cards
just as well as he could catch them.

“I’m really happy with how I played tonight,” Blumstein said.
“With only 24 hours of turnaround time for preparation,
it wasn’t easy... two seperate full-blown massage treatments."


Blumstein defeated Ott heads-up for the title.
Ott started their one-on-one battle at a large
but not insurmountable disadvantage,
232, 000,000 chips to 128 million,
until Blumstein quickly picked up
5-in-a-row pots
to keep the pressure on HIGH.

After a couple hours, Ott was down
to a miniscule 32 million dollars in chips.


He then came from behind to win an all-in encounter
with a King-9 against Blumstein’s pocket 6's.

But Blumstein returned the favor the next hand.
Holding Ace-2 offsuit,
he forced the still short-stacked Ott into an ALL-IN
with Ace-8 suited.  
Ott had better than a 93.2% chance to win the hand
when the 1st 4 community cards came out Jack-6-5-7,
but 1 of 3 remaining 2's in the deck
spiked on the river
to give Blumstein a pair and the WINNING HAND.
Blumstein collapsed and fell down and rolled all around
the ground by the rail that was just in front of
his friends and family that were right there watching.

“A normally inconsequential deuce just changed my life,”
S.O.B Blumenstein cried.


Ott, who earned $47 million for 2nd place, took the beat in stride.
“I didn’t expect to lose,” he said. “The run-out was pretty good for me.
I always know there was a small chance, though.
I was winning all-ins before that, though, so
I can’t really complain about any damn River.”

Ott had survived 3 all-ins during 3-handed play
— including 2 where he had the worse starting hand —
but appeared a bit outmatched when taking on
the S.O.B. Blumenstein heads-up.

Blumenstein attributed his success to a late-night training session
with some of his poker-playing friends from Nah Joisey on Friday
plus years of honing his craft thru online-poker playing & betting.

His move to go and play poker non-stop
was a decision his parents predictably weren’t at all sold on.
“There obviously were a couple times where my parents
wanted me to do something else and I understood,” S.O.B. said.
“And they understood that I didn’t want to listen to them.”

His parents eventually came around, and were on hand to
support Blumstein in the stands throughout the final table.

His 1st breakthrough came last summer
— he skipped the WSOP Main Event —
and went instead to play in a much smaller tournament
— more suited to his bankroll —
a $560 buy-in at the Borgota in Atlantic City.
Luckily, he took 1st place
worth $199,854,
and this score is what allowed him to travel to Vegas
and anti-up into the WSOP,
and fulfill a dream he had had to play in the WSOP this year, 2017.

“The world is a funny place and funny things happen here, and my
story is a pretty interesting one I think,” S.O.B. Blumstein said.
“For it to end & climax in this fashion
[becoming a multi-millionaire !!!]
is something I never thought possible.”

Despite this huge Vegas Victory,
Blumstein doesn’t expect his life to change too much.
Unlike a few of the past WSOP winners, S.O.B's not eager
to pursue even higher buy-in tournaments in Vegas,
nor move up to the even larger cash games —
even though his play to clinch last night's Main Event
showed that he is, after all, capable to win the last pot.

“This is the Holy Grail for me,
and somehow, in my first time ever,
I captured it
— and I’m pretty content with that honestly,”
S.O.B. said.
“But I freakin' love this game
and it’s always going to be a part of me — no matter what.”

FIST on Friday
13-2 (86.7%)
=> makes for quite the Round-robin beauty!
Those 2 losses are understandable,
in that KC is the AL's best 'anti-FIST'
(tho' KC's hit 8 HR's in their last 8 innings of play
including one back-to-back and a back-to-back-back!!)
and Anibal & Santana were both motivated to start out well.

FIST this past Tuesday:
11-4 (73.3%) = not bad.

This past Wednesday's
FIST: 10-5 (for 66.67%).

And this past Thursday's
FIST went an OK 5-4 (55.6%)

FIST the last few doing alright!

1st KILL all the LAWYERS.

Shakespeare wrote,
''The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers,''
stated by person the Butcher (not confused w/ person the Bruiser)
in ''Henry VI,'' Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73.
person the Butcher was a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who figured
that if he disturbed law and order then he could become the king.


 “Why would they need an extra 5% when they spent all that time negotiating for $112 million dollah?” goes Catherina Watters,
a lawyer who represents several players in disability claims
and works pro bono in the concussion case for Steve Smith,
a former NFL running back suffering from ALS.

    “You want my $700,000 [from the common fund],
Chris, have it, choke on it !!” Luckasevic the Lawyer exclaimed.
“Just don’t take 5% of my hard work.
You didn’t put this case together,
you didn’t sign up guys that were truly injured.
You didn’t rep them for 5 1/2 years.
You didn't do the paperwork.
I did that very hard work — so don’t go reaching into my pants.”


Finally, there’s the poaching of clients.
"Never seen poaching like this," goes Luckasevic the Lawyer
and he says it has showcased lawyers at their worst.
An anonymous attorney said it was
“dirty” and a “feeding frenzy” upon all the clients [due to get
some big bucks]...

The 2011 billion-dollar NFL concussion class-action lawsuit
is near a close, but infighting is seriously threatening the
chance players will collect most of the settlement they won.

The suit was originally settled in 2013 for $765 million.
But the federal judge overseeing the case was concerned
that the lawyers' cuts would snatch out most of the loot, so
the amount wouldn’t be enough to provide for the more
than 20,000 ex-NFL players covered under the suit.
After multiple rounds of negotiation, the Judge approved a
revised settlement in 2015 & removed the $765 million cap
on damages, and her new deal is expected to cost the
NFL over $1 billion bucks.

Money from the suit will soon be disbursed, but the wives
of former NFL players are sure that all the lawyers’ fees
will eat up most of the money that was suppose to help
care for their injured husbands, or compensate them for
their husbands' deaths, so they’ve written a letter to the
female judge outlining disputes between them and their
super-high charging legal representation.

Those lawyers representing NFL players complain about
competing attorneys (who are willing to charge them a
lot less per hour billed) are aggressively poaching clients.
Way too many opportunist lawyers, doctors, and some
predatory lenders and other so-called professionals found
a way to butt their way into the case to grab some big cash.


Part of the settlement sets aside a $112.5 million fund
to pay off the attorneys who worked on the case.

But attorneys also have individual retainer agreements
with the plaintiffs they represent, ranging from 15 to 40%
of any and all of their eventual awards. Somewhere around
half of the settlement will be skimmed off solely by lawyers’ fees.


Jason Luckasevic represents about 500 former players,
and it was his lawsuit that kicked off this process in 2011.
One of those players is Fred McNeill, who played for the Vikings,
and died in 2015. His wife, Tia McNeill, signed the letter to the judge,  
and says she doesn’t believe Luckasevic should get 25% of the award
for her husband, on top of what he’ll cash in from the lawyers’ fund.

    “I feel like we were represented and taken care of,
and now there is contention with this person repping you,”
McNeill says. “This was his case. He filed this for his firm,
so part of me feels bad for him
— but it doesn’t feel 25% bad for him. I’m just being honest.”

For his part, Luckasevic says he’ll only get less than a million dollars
 around $700,000, out of the lawyers’ fund, although he’s put in at
least $1.7 million worth of paper-writing, paper-signing, and
paper-shuffling costs into this case.

“I’ll waive the common benefit money so I can pocket the 25%,” said
Luckasevic, whose fury is mostly directed at [Christopher] Seeger
and the leaders of the case. “What the hell, I have $1.7 million
of my firm’s costs into this case, and I’m gonna get $700,000?”
"Fû¢k that shite."

Under the agreement, Seeger, who only has around 25 clients,
will oversee the distribution of the $112.5 million lawyers’ fund.
He says his firm put in over 21,000 hours of paper-writing,
paper-signing, and paper-shuffling,
and must bill for that at a cost of over $18 million dollars.
That how it goes, you legally-sick-shmoe.

With the 2.6 multiplier for fees and expenses he’s asked for,
his firm stands to grab over $51 million dollars from the fund.

Seeger has also proposed a 5% surcharge on top of all that
— it would come from individual attorneys’ retainer fees,
or the awards for players who are working without an attorney
— to cover future work on the case over the 65-year lifespan
of the settlement.
Other lawyers disagree with that 5% surcharge on top proposal,
and have filed objections to it — the lawyers have all charged
some more big bucks for each and every objection they file(d).

Vegas, The Mirage MGT:
Per The Brit Open:
"Kuchar winning would have been a loser for us,
mid-5-figures. It was a big swing."  

"Spieth was one of the best-case scenarios for us."

Spieth (-200)
Kuchar (+140)
Li (+5000)

///
From The Mirage: PGAChamp odds:
Spieth/McIlroy/D. Johnson all opened at 7/1.
Rahm/Day/Fowler 15/1.

///

There are still numbskulls out ther who think that Books
don't pull for players / teams — b/c Books cannot lose -
because the Books are simply "brokers." <= Silly stupid.

Some silly simplistic shmucks still surface sometimes.

CWS @ CC — set up like a football game:
This is set up like certain matches of rivals,
the (nearly) winless dirty dog takes down
the (nearly) unbeaten traditional rival...

Stats for The Crosstown Cup

Chicago White Sox (38-57) @ Chicago Cubs (51-46) 

Starters:

Gonzalez (always good vs. Cubs): 4-9; 4.89 ERA

Hendricks (just off a DL stint) 4-3; 4.09 ERA

Last 10 Games Played:

Chicago White Sox: 1-9

Chicago Cubs: 8-2

Current odds:
Chicago Cubs: (-260)

Chicago White Sox: (+220)

CWS now up to (+230)

Highest %age of runs via HR in the NL:
1. Milw
2. Cubs
3. LAD
4. SD
5. NYM

Cubs were batting .218 against Miguel Gonzalez;
after today's outing the Cubs are still at .218
but only because of the strong, built-in biases of
the HP-Ump Angel Hernandez who took away 5
strikeouts Gonzalez had with any unbiased ump.

Seeing the game's PitchTrax showed Ump Angel
to be quite the biased p-rick he always has been.
Thus, stats of Gonzalez look far less dominating
than he really was again against the Cubs today.

Still, a (+234) winner is still HUGE in MLB terms.

Davidson (ChiSox) has Trumbo/Stanton-power
as evinced today when he hit a homer out of the park
— it went into a very strong wind and still made it all
the way across Waveland Avenue and onto the roof
of a building across the street, so on a windless day
Davidson's homer had a chance to top 600 feet !!!!!!
With the same strong wind that was blowing in,
instead blowing out, then no doubt he went yard
well over 600 feet

^^^ Forgot to include Judge ^^^ Judge / Stanton / Trumbo power

whew... saw this just in the nick of time dude. thanks
BR needed this last one pretty bad
went triple units on it - cleared 7 units + 3 bet for 10 total unit return

Good for you.  ^^^
But dogs are only HotDogs = (+1000) or more moneylines
in football and basketball — never in baseball (nor hockey).
So just you wait...

A person, on condition of anonymity because the Cavs have not announced the agreement,
says 28-year-old free-agent Derrick Rose has actually agreed to sign with Cleveland.

A former league MVP has had multiple knee injuries, and has made many foolish remarks
to the Press that show his major concern being family and money, his selfishness, and his
lack of concern for team-play, will get a one-year contract but only the veteran's minimum
which now stands at $2.1 million per season.

Rose played for the New York Knicks last season and averaged 18 points and 4.4 assists.
His role on the Cavs' team is yet to be determined.  He could be used as a backup or start
depending on what's done w/ Kyrie  who just asked to be a traded.

Rose met with Cav's front office on Monday, after they promoted Koby Altman to be the
full-time general manger after he served as the interim-GM since mid-June.

A Vegas Golden Knights home game seat for the team’s
inaugural season at T-Mobile Arena on StubHub, the online
ticket broker, sellers have been offering tickets to midweek
home games for less than $30.  You can sit in the the upper
deck on Dec. 12 against Carolina for Knights for $27.

Marquee hockey nights like the inaugural home game
Oct. 12, 2017 vs. the Zona Yotes, or later in the homestand
against the likes of the Chicago Blackhawks, will cost a lot
more: $100 for the same upper-deck T-Mobile arena seat.
Best price for the opener is $143,  whereas seats closer to
the ice cost $4,452 and higher !!!  

But for lower-profile weekday games —
like Oct. 12th vs. Buffalo
or Dec. 12th vs. Carolina,
both on Tuesday nights, tickets cost the same
as other league teams in a midmarket, less than $50.

In Chicago, which yet again had the NHL’s best attendance,
more than 20,000 at each & every game, a midweek ticket
for some small-market squad, say Minnesota on Oct. 12th,
is $59, nearly double the price of a Vegas Golden Knights
home game vs. a similar smallish market size, as compared
to a week earlier against the Pens,
the reigning, defending
Stanley Cup Champions,
tickets start at a Hundy.

Knights already snagged 14,000 season-ticket holders —
and those are the ones being offered on StubHub.  
With Vegas' franchise’s launch, the team is selling
season ticket packages for 11 and for 22 games,
but still has not announced its individual-game sales.  
That’s a clear indicator that most of those games will
be sold=out affairs.



NOTE:
StubHub charges a processing-fee for tickets
so you'll pay more than the prices listed below:

Sept. 26th vs. LA Kings, exhibition ($27-$1,000)
Sept. 28th vs. Col Av's, exhibition ($18-$884)
Oct. 1st vs. Sharks, exhibition ** ($21-$1,105)


Oct. 10th vs. Yotes, which is The Vegas
Golden Knights Home Opener ($144-$4,452)
Oct. 13 vs. Red Wings ** ($95-$1,104)
Oct. 15 vs. Boston Bruins ** ($68-$1,219)
Oct. 17 vs. Buffalo Sabres ($33-$1,000)
Oct. 21 vs. St.L Blues ** ($53-$1,060)
Oct. 24 vs. Chicago Hawks ($92-$1,537)
Oct. 27 vs. Colorado Av's ** ($43-$1,000)

Nov. 10th vs. Winni Jets ** ($58-$1,000)
Nov. 19 vs. LA Kings ** ($70-$1,378)
Nov. 24 vs. SJ Sharks ** ($47-$1,060)
Nov. 28 vs. Dallas Stars ($29-$1,000)

Dec. 3rd vs. Arz Yotes ** ($30-$1,000)
Dec. 5 vs. Anaheim Ducks ($36-$1,000)
Dec. 12 vs. Carolina 'Canes ($27-$1,000)
Dec. 14 vs. The Pens ($99-$1,800)

Dec. 16 vs. Fla Panthers ** ($32-$1,000)
Dec. 19 vs. TB Lightning ($26-$1,000)
Dec. 23 vs. Wash Caps ** ($73-$1,166
Dec. 31 vs. Toronto Leafs ** ($107-$2,000)

RISP - 25 July '17

Top teams
1. Stroh's
2. Buccos
3. Tribe
4. Dogahs
5. Twinkies

Worst teams
30. O's (poor BB %age)
29. Rangers (poor BB %age)
28. Royals (poor BB %age)
27. Padres
26. BJ's