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The British Open returns to Carnoustie Golf Links this week for the first time since Jean Van de Velde's epic collapse in the 1999 Open. Van de Velde's triple bogey on the 18th hole, when all he needed was a double bogey or better to win the championship, is remembered as one of biggest chokes in golf history.
It's unlikely we'll see another Van de Velde-type meltdown at Carnoustie this year, unless of course Phil Mickelson has what's deemed to be a comfortable lead with only a few holes to go. For Mickelson's sake (and his sanity) he had better hope he got the choking out of his system at last weekend's Scottish Open.
The names Paul Lawrie (who won at Carnoustie in '99) and Van de Velde will likely come up a lot this weekend, but the most talked about golfer no matter how he performs will as usual be Tiger Woods. Tiger has won three British Open titles in his career, including the last two held at St. Andrews in 2005 and Royal Liverpool last year. Woods' first Open championship also came at St. Andrews in 2000, but he may be hard-pressed to add a fourth Open title to his long list of accomplishments at Carnoustie. Dubbed one of the hardest courses in the world, Carnoustie gave Woods fits back in 1999 when he finished at 10-over par, four strokes back of the leaders.
The last person not named Tiger Woods to win the British Open was Todd Hamilton in 2004. Since his improbable win Hamilton hasn't won another tournament and he's failed to even crack the Top 35 in another major. In other words he has almost zero chance of repeating his 2004 magic at Carnoustie. The real challengers to Woods will likely be the usual leaderboard fodder like Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els. Those four have combined to win 10 majors, but only Els has claimed the British Open when he won at Muirfield in 2002. Back in 1999 at Carnoustie, Furyk was the best of the four when he shot an 11-over par to finish five shots back. Els finished eight strokes back at 14-over par, while both Mickelson and Singh missed the cut.
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An American boxing champion that became a congressman, a lawyer who made a fortune on Wall Street, the grandfather of Winston Churchill and a horseman combined to stage the first national meeting nearly 144 years ago.
It was held as an experiment. Well, the experiment, four days at Saratoga Raceway that began Aug. 3, 1863, was a huge success. So much so that the quartet decided to expand the following year and move across the street to construct a bigger track to accommodate larger crowds.
They called it Saratoga Race Course, located in the resort of Saratoga Springs where the first thoroughbred horse race in this country was held in 1847. The principle players were:
William R. Travers, a lawyer named president of the Saratoga Association, who was such a force in racing that the oldest major American thoroughbred race bears his name.
John "Old Smoke" Morrissey, former bare-knuckle champ, gambler and a soon-to-be lawmaker on state and national levels that once was a New York gang member in the 1850s.
Leonard Walter Jerome, flamboyant entrepreneur, father of Churchill's mother and another successful stock speculator known as "the King of Wall Street."
John R. Hunter, whose horses ran on both sides of the Atlantic and co-owned the first winner of the Travers with Travers in 1864 named Kentucky.
The Saratoga meeting originally consisted of four weeks, but subsequently was lengthened another week and finally became a six-week meeting that now ends on Labor Day.
Saratoga Springs, located in upstate New York, was known as The Spa for the mineral springs in the area. And it later became known as the Graveyard of Favorites as well as the Graveyard of Champions.
Some champions that tasted defeat at the hands of unheralded opponents included Man 'o War, Gallant Fox and Secretariat.
Big Red's only loss in 21 races came in 1919 in a sprint on a muddy track to the aptly named Upset, '73 Triple Crown champion Secretariat was surprised by Onion in the Whitney Stakes and another Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox, was defeated by 100-1 shot Jim Dandy in the '30 Travers.
The Jim Dandy later became a stakes race, established in '64 as an appropriate prep for the Travers.
The 36-day meeting that opens July 25 features significant purse increases of more than 13.5 percent, the New York Racing Association announced. That's up from an already industry leading daily average exceeding $678,800 to an expected $771, 535.
Open allowance races at 1 1/8 miles jump $17,000 to $68,000 and purses for open maiden sprints climb $15,000 to $62,000. Overnight stakes rise $10,000 to $75,000.
There will be 47 stakes, included 33 graded races. And 15 stakes are Grade 1 events. In addition, there are seven multi-stakes days, including the track's richest two afternoons.
On July 28, the 80th running of $750,000 Whitney heads four stakes worth more than $1.7 million. On Aug. 25, the 138th Travers, worth $1 million, is the headliner on a four stakes card of more than $1.5 million.
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Great race horses worth watching, a list of runners compiled by handicapper/turf writer Greg Melikov that should do well next time out or improve considerably, won five horse races, finished second five times and ran third five times since June 13.
ARLINGTON PARK
Dubuque: Raced sixth early, dropped to seventh 3 ½ lengths behind after a half-mile, angled out for drive, rallied from fifth in stretch to make up more than 3 ¼ lengths and lost by a nose and 1 ¼ lengths at 1 1/16 miles on the turf July 13.
CALDER
Trey: Raced 7 ½ lengths behind in fifth after a quarter-mile, saved ground around turn, rallied from fourth in stretch to make up 5 ½ lengths and finished full of run to gain second by three lengths at 4 ½ furlongs on July 13.
ELLIS PARK
Daring Julie: Trailed by more than 3 ½ lengths in fifth after three-eighths of a mile, maneuvered six wide for drive, rallied from sixth to make up more than 2 ½ lengths and lost by a half-length at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf July 15.
La Bala: Broke from outside post, raced eighth more than 7 ½ lengths behind after a half-mile, moved five wide leaving turn, advanced to fourth in stretch, angled inside of winner, made up 3 ¾ lengths and finished second by three-quarters of a length at 6 ½ furlongs on July 14.
MONMOUTH
Tease: Trailed early, advanced to seventh more than nine lengths behind after a half-mile, rallied from sixth to fourth in stretch, made up nearly fife lengths and finished third beaten a neck and a nose at a mile on July 15.
Lockup: Trailed by more than seven lengths after a half-mile, advanced to fifth in stretch, closed well outside to make up more than five lengths and lost by a half-length at six furlongs on July 15; ran final quarter in 24 4/5.
PHILADELPHIA PARK
Misty Pearl: Chased pace in sixth more than 5 ½ lengths behind after three-eighths of a mile, saved ground through turn, rallied from fifth to make up more than two lengths in stretch and was nosed out at 5 ½ furlongs on July 8.
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The road to Arena Bowl XXI goes through Georgia and San Jose on Saturday, as the Georgia Force host the Columbus Destroyers in the National Conference Championship, while the San Jose Saber CatsChicago Rush in the American Conference Championship.
The Destroyers advanced to the Conference championships after clipping Tampa Bay Storm 56-55 in the opening round and upsetting Dallas Desperados 66-59 in the divisional round. Columbus wasn't supposed to get past Dallas, which entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed after a 15-1 regular season. In fact the Destroyers were a huge 12-point underdog in the game. Columbus pulled off the upset thanks to the stellar play of QB Matt Nagy. In the win Nagy threw for 285 yards with four touchdown passes, while also running in for a score. Damien Groce led all Columbus receivers with eight receptions for 170 yards with a touchdown.
After winning the Southern Division, the Force received a bye in the first round of the playoffs and easily knocked off Philadelphia Soul 65-39 in the divisional round. Georgia QB Chris Greisen torched the Soul for 301 passing yards with seven touchdown passes and a rushing TD.
This will be the third time this season that Georgia and Columbus will be facing each other. Way back in Week 5 the Destroyers edged the Force 62-61 as a 6.5-point home underdog, after Nagy converted a two-point conversion with 14 seconds to go. Nagy had a combined six touchdowns in the win, while Greisen had nine touchdowns and two costly interceptions. In the rematch in Week 14, the Force rumbled past Columbus 54-33 as an 8.5-point home favorite. Greisen outplayed Nagy, throwing six TD passes to Nagy's four.
In the American Conference Championship game, the defending Arena Bowl champs from Chicago will try to snap San Jose's long 11-game winning streak.
Chicago had a bye in the first round of the playoffs and easily got through the Divisional round with a 52-20 drubbing of Los Angeles Avengers as a 10.5-point favorite. An ailing Matt D'Orazio threw three TD passes before sitting out a good chunk of the fourth quarter. Receiver Bobby Sippio was the real star of the game though as he caught two touchdowns passes, ran in for another, and even made a touchdown pass that oddly enough found D'Orazio's hands in the end zone.
The SaberCats also got some rest in the first round thanks to a bye. In the divisional round, San Jose slipped past Colorado Crush 76-67 as a 12-point favorite. SaberCats' quarterback Mark Grieb tied an AFL record with nine touchdown passes, while James Roe was his favorite target on the day with five TD receptions.
The SaberCats and Rush faced off early in the regular season back in Week 2. The Rush edged San Jose 48-45 in that game as a 2-point home underdog. D'Orazio and Sippio were the leaders as usual, with D'Orazio throwing five touchdowns and Sippio catching three of them. Grieg threw for an amazing 346 yards with six touchdowns, but was intercepted twice.
Coincidentally these two teams also faced off in last year's American Conference Championship game, when Chicago clipped San Jose 59-56 on route to winning Arena Bowl XX
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Contrary to what most rookies might think, beating Texas Holdem online is not an easy feat to accomplish. Being a game of small edges and of high luck-induced variance, it's not easy to beat even if someone is playing at a table full off fish.
On top of the fact that in Texas Holdem a rookie will stand a 40-60 chance against a seasoned player, a phenomenon called "schooling" also comes into play. Schooling's basically about the weaker players ganging up on better ones to make their lives miserable.
If you're looking for a game where rookies don't really stand a chance against good players, Omaha might be the game for you. As far as Texas Holdem goes, you can try to outmaneuver your opponents somehow.
Since the only advantage a lucky rookie will get over you is a short-term one, you might want to take the game onto a field where short term advantages do not matter that much. That is exactly why you should play STTs or SNGs. These games are short enough to be worth the time you invest in them, yet they are long enough to kill rookies. Another advantage they have, is the fact that there are only a limited number of players in them (compared to MTTs, which sometimes gather thousands of players) so your chances for victory do not take a serious blow.
Ring games are extremely tricky to beat for good players for other reasons than the ones named above, too.
As I said, the luck factor comes in big in Texas Holdem ring games. Dealing with this luck factor is an issue sometimes not even the best players come prepared for. Good players know, of course, that in order to win at Holdem they need to be on their best game and pray that it is enough to be better than the others and to beat the rake (those who really know their game, have other ways to beat the rake too, like rakeback.
They are aware of the fact that it takes only about a 55-45 edge to be a long-term winner, and as long as they keep pushing that edge by staying on their best games, they should be OK.
This is where the luck factor comes in. It sometimes so happens that our good player experiences a bad-luck streak. Even though he's playing his best, nothing really seems to work out for him.
You should know that even though they push that small edge of theirs, winning Texas Holdem players will still lose about 65-70% of the time. The only thing is, that they lose less than they win in the remaining 30% of cases and they manage to beat the rake too.
Now then, losing 65-70% of the time may not seem like a glamorous way to make money, but when it becomes 90%, the situation becomes downright unbearable.
These are usually the things that push our good player over the edge and send him tilting.
He fails to grasp the idea, that even though he's losing 90% right now, in the future that will go down to about 40% or even less - provided he can stay on his best game and push his edges well.
Instead, our guy decides to compensate for the losses by becoming a 45-55 underdog and playing a bunch of hands like that. Obviously, this is not the way to make money. This is why it's extremely important that you stay in control of your emotions all the time.
Online poker is particularly good at taking you out of your emotional comfort-zone. Learn to control your emotions and learn to deal with the luck factor. It is there, and it won't go away just because you get angry with it.
At the All-Star break, fantasy baseball owners really should be taking stock of their baseball team and evaluating if they have what it takes to make a run for top spot in the second half. If you had any of our fantasy studs over the first half, you're likely in a good spot to challenge for the title. If you had more than one of our duds, then good luck next year.
Fantasy Studs:
Baseball Hitters
Alex Rodriguez - Anyone who passed on A-Rod because they thought he couldn't deliver in New York ended up passing on the top fantasy stud in the first half. If A-Rod can keep mashing through the second half, he could provide enough offense to carry any fantasy team to a title.
Gary Sheffield - Sheffield started out the season ice-cold and hopefully you were smart enough to trade for him while his value was in the toilet. After batting a lowly .200 with two homers in April, Sheffield has hit 19 homers and is on a .342 clip since June.
Matt Holliday - Even before he displayed his hidden power in the Home Run Derby, you should have known the name Matt Holliday. Not only is he second in the NL with a .341 batting average, but he also has 15 dingers and 69 RBI. In a rotisserie league he'll provide everything you need aside from steals.
Grady Sizemore - Sizemore may very well be the king of rotisserie. Sizemore's average may be a little light for a leadoff man at .280, but he makes up for it by producing in every other fantasy category. Sizemore has some pop in his bat, drives in a lot of runs for a leadoff man and has the wheels to steal.
Russell Martin - Where did this guy come from? Before the season most rankings barely listed Martin as a Top 10 catcher. Martin leads the Dodgers in average, home runs and RBI and he also has 16 stolen bases. For a catcher, that's just nasty.
Baseball Pitchers
Josh Beckett - I avoided drafting Beckett like the plague, and that turned out to be a big mistake. With his blister problems hopefully behind him, Beckett is racking up the wins in Boston while posting a respectable ERA.
Jake Peavy - The Padres' ace likely went much later than he should have in most drafts due to his off-year last season. Anyone who grabbed him is reaping the rewards in the wins, strikeouts and ERA category.
Chris Young - If you missed out on Peavy, hopefully you at least snagged Young. The experts were calling for a third-year breakout from the tall righthander, and they were right.
J.J. Putz - Don't let his performance in the All-Star Game fool you; Putz may be the best closer in the American League right now. With a microscopic ERA of 0.88 and an insane WHIP of 0.59, any lead in the ninth is safe in Seattle right now.
Dan Haren - That Mark Mulder trade is looking pretty good now for A's fans. Haren may not be able to keep his ERA under 2.50 all season, but anything under 3.00 is a rare feat.
Fantasy Duds:
Baseball Hitters
Andruw Jones - Jones finally got over the Mendoza line before the break, but he's still the biggest fantasy bust of the year with his .211 average and 15 home runs. Way to get paid in your free-agent year, Andruw.
Vernon Wells - Wells can't seem to keep it going for more than a few games at a time. He'll need a superb second half to hit his usual solid numbers.
Carlos Delgado - Another usually reliable slugger that has had a hole in his swing most of the season. The power comes and goes, but the average has been out to lunch all season.
Scott Rolen - Anyone that drafted Rolen expecting him to bounce back hopefully waived him for a better third baseman by now. The power has all but disappeared and so has the plate prowess.
Bobby Abreu - Abreu used to be a five-tool fantasy star. This year he goes through hot and cold streaks that leave owners not knowing when to bench him and when to start him.
Baseball Pitchers
Chris Carpenter - Anyone that used a second-round pick on the Cardinals' ace got burned badly when Carpenter went down. He'll be back for the second half, but will he be his old self right away?
Scott Kazmir - Last season Kazmir had a respectable ERA and a pile of strikeouts. The strikeouts are still coming, but a lack of command has raised his ERA by more than a run. Don't even talk about the brutal WHIP.
Ervin Santana - Anyone who (unfortunately) drafted Santana has learned never to start him on the road where his ERA is 8.59.
Dontrelle Willis - An ace with a 4.72 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP? No thanks.
Barry Zito - Another great ace with an even worse 4.90 ERA. The 6-9 record kind of stands out too.
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It looks like most of the top golfers in the world take the week off before the British Open. That's how it looks anyway when you skim over the field for this weekend's John Deere Classic at TPC at Deere Run.
The tournament held in Silvis, Illinois has never been a big draw for the big names, and this year is no exception with big names like Woods, Mickelson and Furyk all taking a pass on the John Deere. There are still a number of recognizable names scattered throughout the field, such as John Daly, Jason Gore, Notah Begay III and Billy Mayfair, but the golf tournament is practically void of any previous winners on the tour this 2007 season. One notable exception is Masters champion Zach Johnson, who could have a clear path to another tournament title this weekend if he brings his "A" game.
Over the past couple of years the John Deere has drawn a lot for attention by giving Michelle Wie a sponsors' exemption into the tournament. After missing the cut in 2005 and dropping out with heat exhaustion in the second round last year, Wie won't be returning to Deere Run this weekend.
One golfer who will be returning is last year's John Deere winner John Senden. At last year's event Senden shot 19 under par to edge J.P. Hayes by one stroke. If bettors want to rely on history when making their pick this weekend, they may want to lay some cash on Hayes instead of Senden.
Not only did Hayes finish as runner-up in this event last season, but he also won it back in 2002. Most other former John Deere champions won't be making the trip back to Deere Run this weekend, as only Steve Jones who won in 1998, and Blaine McCallister who won way back in 1988, are listed among this weekend's field.
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