I don't think any picture has ever made me more jealous

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I believe my inital reaction went something like this....

"That's nice. I hope the little Mountain Dew guzzling sh!t stain gets hit by a bus"

After getting over my little bitter-queen moment though - you really do have to say good for him ... and great for poker when you stop and think about it.

The final two left in the "main event" of the "World Series" consisted of a 21-year-old ... who ... correct me if I'm wrong ... wouldn't even had been allowed to participate in this tournament last year because we live in a disgraceful society that allows way too little freedom to young people.

The 21-year-old defeated someone who earned his way into the "main event" of the "World Series" by taking down a tournament at the intellectual haven better known as the Wheeling Downs dog track.

The Wheeling Downs dog track is three hours from here ... but was my absolute favorite place growing up. I lived about 2 miles from a huge OTB that was built when I was like 9-years-old .. and was supposedly one of the first in the country to take simulcasting from just about everywhere.

Still, I can't tell you how many times on the weekends way back in the day I was able to talk Gramps into taking the 3 hour drive to play the horses from Wheeling instead. They were one of the first to have video replay machines for several tracks - and did so at a time when you couldn't always just get them off of the Internet.

It's pretty sad that such a superior gambling game - and such an awesome sport like horse racing ... can't even remotely compete with Poker and fantasy football at attracting young people.

At least I don't know who the supposed best fantasy football players in the world are off the top of my head. Thanks to ESPN, I can give you the name of about 30 different poker players .. and I don't even like to watch it.

[Travis Stone]

That's what an open buy-in tournament gets you. It's what the NHC should be.

Congrats for him! I hope he buys a Derby winner.

[fpsoxfan]

That's cool! I've played hold'em and I love Black Jack, but I still love the horses more. In fact my wife and I are thousands ahead of Turning Stone Casino and over the years I'm well BEHIND playing the horses, but I'll take horse racing over other forms of gambling any day of the week.

[robfla]

Cada played like a donkey and got lucky several times.


I heard from respectable people that there was a "chop" when it got down to 3-handed so maybe thats part of the reason for the bad plays by Cada at that point.

Amazing that noone sponsored D. Moon whether it by Moon's choice or not.


I plan on playing in the Omaha 8 $1500 event next year, the Main Event is just out of my league at this point. Too much time and too many players to navigate through.

You just can't compare Poker to Horse Racing when it comes to the take-out.

[tector]

I spent all day Wednesday playing poker at the Wynn. I prefer it over betting a lot of racing nowadays, given synthetics, multi-faceted cheating, ridiculous take-outs, and moronic track policies of all kinds. Racing has no one to blame but itself for its current situation.

[tector]

Originally Posted by robfla

I plan on playing in the Omaha 8 $1500 event next year

Of course ESPN won't show it because America is presumed to be too dumb for Omaha.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

That's what an open buy-in tournament gets you. It's what the NHC should be.

The problem with horse racing contests and tournaments is that they give you way too few races ... and it's basically just a matter of who can get the hottest the quickest.

It's not even close to a true test of a players ability.

I'd love to see a tournament created with a big winning prize that attempts to find out who the most complete horse player is.

Over a year...make everyone play the exact same 350 races at a track - go with 10 different tracks in every region of the country - and use a wide variety of races. Everything from Grade 1 stakes to $5,000 maiden claimers. Everything from 2yo's at 4.5fs with all debuters to starter allowance races with old hard hitting horses going long. Everything from dirt, to synthetic, to turf.

When you start talking about having to play the same 3,500 races over an extended period of time .. the luck factor is greatly diminished.

I know a lot of very good handicappers are set up to focus on just one circuit and wouldn't like something like that. A lot of the best ones I know are also specialists and very strong in a few areas .. but have bigtime deficiencies in other areas of their game that they can overcome by simply passing races and sticking to their strength. So, they wouldn't like the format.

But, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If they want to call it the NHC .. they should come up with a demanding format that favors the best all around players.

[robfla]

Originally Posted by tector

Of course ESPN won't show it because America is presumed to be too dumb for Omaha.

I know in the past ESPN has shown the various events including Omaha and HORSE, but a quick scan of the TV schedule looks like the Main Event is the only televised event this year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker...ory?id=3860083


On the subject of Poker, Calder has a great tourney tomorrow. Guaranteed 10k. Buy-in 100. I doubt they'll make a hundred players so there is an immediate edge.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

The problem with horse racing contests and tournaments is that they give you way too few races ... and it's basically just a matter of who can get the hottest the quickest.

It's not even close to a true test of a players ability.

I'd love to see a tournament created with a big winning prize that attempts to find out who the most complete horse player is.

Over a year...make everyone play the exact same 350 races at a track - go with 10 different tracks in every region of the country - and use a wide variety of races. Everything from Grade 1 stakes to $5,000 maiden claimers. Everything from 2yo's at 4.5fs with all debuters to starter allowance races with old hard hitting horses going long. Everything from dirt, to synthetic, to turf.

When you start talking about having to play the same 3,500 races over an extended period of time .. the luck factor is greatly diminished.

I know a lot of very good handicappers are set up to focus on just one circuit and wouldn't like something like that. A lot of the best ones I know are also specialists and very strong in a few areas .. but have bigtime deficiencies in other areas of their game that they can overcome by simply passing races and sticking to their strength. So, they wouldn't like the format.

But, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If they want to call it the NHC .. they should come up with a demanding format that favors the best all around players.

The Horseplayer World Series does a much better job testing handicapping ability than the NHC in my opinion. The HPWS is all optional races and it's 3 days long rather than 2. They give you 8 tracks to choose from as well.

NT

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Is that the one they have at Penn National or a newer one? I know the one at Penn was called the World Series and was the biggest tourney back in the day.

They had an OTW World Series at OTB's throughout the state of Pennsylvania when I was like 16 and 17.

I won 3 of them by cheating. Two of them in my grandpas name - and one in my older brothers name.

And when I mean cheating ... I mean cheating. I failed with each winning entry at the OTWs final at Penn National race track - but the two or three thousand I made was big enough at the time.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

I wonder if he likes older women...

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I wonder if he likes older men.

[magic_idol]

I'm just trying to win 3 tickets to Vegas on FaceBook & i cant even do that

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

I wonder if he likes older men.

Dibs!

[The Indomitable DrugS]

You can have dibs on him .. I'll take the dibs on the $8 million.

[VOL JACK]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

You can have dibs on him .. I'll take the dibs on the $8 million.

I don't know why u r jealous...you almost won that much this past weekend.

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

The problem with horse racing contests and tournaments is that they give you way too few races ... and it's basically just a matter of who can get the hottest the quickest.

It's not even close to a true test of a players ability.

I'd love to see a tournament created with a big winning prize that attempts to find out who the most complete horse player is.

Over a year...make everyone play the exact same 350 races at a track - go with 10 different tracks in every region of the country - and use a wide variety of races. Everything from Grade 1 stakes to $5,000 maiden claimers. Everything from 2yo's at 4.5fs with all debuters to starter allowance races with old hard hitting horses going long. Everything from dirt, to synthetic, to turf.

When you start talking about having to play the same 3,500 races over an extended period of time .. the luck factor is greatly diminished.

I know a lot of very good handicappers are set up to focus on just one circuit and wouldn't like something like that. A lot of the best ones I know are also specialists and very strong in a few areas .. but have bigtime deficiencies in other areas of their game that they can overcome by simply passing races and sticking to their strength. So, they wouldn't like the format.

But, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If they want to call it the NHC .. they should come up with a demanding format that favors the best all around players.

I would agree...

One player here said they should eliminate the option of knowing where you stand. Those who swoop-in late with the longshot just because they needed a price - did they really out-handicap you?

The whole tournament concept is relatively new in terms of mainstream exposure so there is still time I suppose.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by VOL JACK

I don't know why u r jealous...you almost won that much this past weekend.

I just hope I didn't win a case of HSV this past weekend.

[tector]

Originally Posted by robfla

I know in the past ESPN has shown the various events including Omaha and HORSE, but a quick scan of the TV schedule looks like the Main Event is the only televised event this year.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker...ory?id=3860083


On the subject of Poker, Calder has a great tourney tomorrow. Guaranteed 10k. Buy-in 100. I doubt they'll make a hundred players so there is an immediate edge.

No Omaha or HORSE this year at all, for the reason I stated.

Calder is desperate to promote the place--they blew the opening promotion big time.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Is that the one they have at Penn National or a newer one? I know the one at Penn was called the World Series and was the biggest tourney back in the day.

They had an OTW World Series at OTB's throughout the state of Pennsylvania when I was like 16 and 17.

I won 3 of them by cheating. Two of them in my grandpas name - and one in my older brothers name.

And when I mean cheating ... I mean cheating. I failed with each winning entry at the OTWs final at Penn National race track - but the two or three thousand I made was big enough at the time.

The Horseplayer World Series is at The Orleans. It's a $1,000 buy-in or you can qualify. I played in it last year after qualifying cause I'm too cheap to pay the 1k. The qualifier I won included air and four nights plus free buffets, so it was a sweet deal.

You have 11 bets each day and it's mythical $20 WP wagers. The eight tracks included two that I didn't even look at (Lrl and GG). There are a lot of winter signals that have deep and competitive races (Tam and OP) so it made for a great tournament.

At the NHC we got $5 coupons for lunch at the Food Court but the HPWS had a catered lunch. For someone who misses few meals like myself the latter offered much better options. That being said, the Red Rock is a gorgeous hotel and the stay there was terrific.

NT