Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
Ciaran 'Big C' O'Leary (photo courtesy IMPDI)
They’re a crew of veteran professional poker players, well-known at Bay Area casinos and respected by their peers. They scratch and claw in their chosen profession, and all of them crave the spotlight and financial boon that would come with a victory in the main event of the World Series of Poker.
They invited me inside their world as they seek fame and fortune in the world’s biggest tournament.
Here is their story.
SUNDAY MORNING: TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT
Ciaran can’t sit still. While most players sit back in their chairs, he folds one leg up underneath and leans forward, eyes constantly darting from player to player. Examining their hands, their posture, their mannerisms. He sometimes wears sunglasses, and sometimes puts on his headphones, which happen to be playing Kenny Rogers this morning.
He gets up frequently and walks around a bit, such as when the dealers change (every 30 minutes), or if he just needs to stretch his legs.
On the first hand of the day Ciaran is dealt ace-queen. He’s not eager to get involved in anything early in a slower-paced tournament like this, but he plays it and hits a queen on the flop. He gets his opponent to fold, and the guy shows he had pocket eights. Ciaran doesn’t show his hands often, but he flashes the queen to show he’s not trying to bully the table. It might help him steal a pot or two later on.
Ciaran is a little leery of the player directly to his right, a heavyset guy with a baseball cap and dour expression. Ciaran notices that the guy will raise with just about any hand, and he’s hitting cards on the flop, making him dangerous. More on him later.
Ciaran makes a tough laydown, tossing away a good hand, when he is re-raised by a guy in an orange t-shirt. He thinks orange shirt had a low pocket pair and made a set (three of a kind) on the flop, which would have had him dominated.
Later, Ciaran walks over to me and announces that the current hand is going to be a chopped pot. “They both got a queen,” he says. I look at the board, which shows an ace, two queens and another lower pair. Player A bets $1,000. Player B calls. Player A shows jack-queen, player B shows king-queen. They both have a full house. Chopped pot.
He smiles and goes back to his chair. “Now I know that guy had a set. I’m getting my reads.”
---
I walk over to check on Cooper just in time to see him push all in for about $20,000 before the flop, putting his tournament at risk a little over an hour in. His opponent, a guy in a blue-and-white striped shirt, stares down Cooper, talks out loud to himself and agonizes over his decision for about five minutes. Cooper sits there stone faced, sunglasses on, trying to breath.
Finally, striped shirt calls and turns over pocket kings. Cooper stands up and slaps his pocket Aces down on the felt. The hand has gone just how he wanted.
Striped shirt yells “I’m gonna spike a king!” But he doesn’t.
Cooper’s hand holds up and he’s up over $40,000. Ciaran, ever on the move, has wandered over to see the aftermath. He says Cooper’s now a sure bet to survive the day.
---
Bryan’s day is not going as well. He’s down to about $3,000 after chasing a hand he knew he should’ve gotten away from. But he gets lucky and manages to double up when his trip sixes, trailing trip jacks, turns into four of a kind with another six on the river.
|
---
An ESPN crew comes by and asks Ciaran to raise the sleeve of his sweatshirt a bit to show his gold bracelet for the camera. Ciaran complies and pulls up his sleeve with faux reluctance, joking that “Oh, you’ve blown my cover now.”
As the first break nears two hours in, the mood begins to loosen up. Players are starting to talk to each other, ask each other questions, joking and laughing.
This is when Ciaran really goes to work, where he is at his best gathering information by chatting up other players.
Cooper has a way to describe this method: “I’m your best friend, now I’m going to cut your heart out with a butter knife.”
Ciaran strikes up a conversation with the guy in the orange shirt, and eventually, without asking him directly, gets him to volunteer that he did, indeed have a set during their early confrontation. “I know you did,” Ciaran replies.
Inside NBCSports.com |
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
