Rotoworld: Oregon RB LaMichael James and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon among top 10 players who are being overhyped for the 2012 draft.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
The Detroit Red Wings equaled an NHL record with their 20th straight win at home, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 Sunday night on the strength of Johan Franzen's tiebreaking goal early in the third period.
PBT: Boston's Rajon Rondo continues to be named in trade talks, which is madness. The Celtics guard creates offense and makes everyone around him better, which was evident in Sunday's win over the Bulls.
Arc: Syracuse is among a solid group of No. 1 seeds in our latest tournament projections, but the middle of the pack is much more murky.
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.
Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods greeted their Sunday pairing at Pebble Beach with optimism. But the day would end happily only for one.
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.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
July 4 | 3 a.m. ET
Some players to watch
We've got an overview of some of the players to watch at the WSOP here. But it's more of a look at the big names to keep an eye on. But who has been hot at the 2008 WSOP? Here are a few ...
But if you want a good darkhorse candidate, keep an eye on Nenad Medic, a Canadian out of Serbia. Medic won event 1 of the 2008 WSOP, a $10,000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event. His final table competition included Mike Sexton, Kathy Liebert, Andy Bloch, Patrik Antonius and Phil Laak.
Sexton later claimed Medic is "one of the toughest No-Limit Hold'em players" he has ever seen, and Phil Gordon echoed those sentiments on his ESPN podcast.
You saying he's got an ego?
Heard a nice bit of trash talk from Mike Matusow on NBC's Poker After Dark last night. "The Mouth" told the great Phil Hellmuth that he probably had troubles with his home life, spending too much ... errr ... time on himself instead.
"(Hellmuth) goes home and says 'Sorry honey, I'm tired, I already made love to myself three times today,'" said Matusow.
But some good news for Hellmuth
Don't know if you saw it, but there was entertaining bit of video from the NBC National Heads-Up Championship when Internet whiz kid Tom "durrrr" Dwan, sucked out on Hellmuth, then talked trash when the "Poker Brat" whined about it. View the fun, here.
Well Phil, you will be happy to know that Dwan busted out of the main event on Day 1.
July 4 | 1 a.m. ET
The day's roundup (from The Associated Press)
DAY: 1 (Officially known as Day 1A)
BIG NEWS: Play opened in the 39th World Series of Poker main event Thursday, with more than 1,000 players putting down $10,000 each in hopes of making it through a 10-hour day of no-limit Texas Hold ’em.
Flanked by 10 showgirls, Las Vegas icon Wayne Newton delivered the famous order — “Shuffle up and deal!” The UNLV marching band played Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas,” and some players showed up in costumes. One wore a full wizard’s outfit complete with a white, Merlin-esque beard
Famous faces playing on Day 1 included comedian Ray Romano, actors Jason Alexander and Mekhi Phifer and poker pros Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem and Dan Harrington.
STUD OF THE DAY: Joe “The Show” Gualtieri, of Toronto, who saved himself from busting out of the tournament by catching a royal flush, poker’s best hand. Unfortunately, the musician was only able to double his stack from 50 chips to 100, with the blinds at 100 and 200. He was rewarded with a gift certificate for a free massage, which he immediately sold to another player at the table.
BUSTED OUT: Poker pros Freddy Deeb, David Pham, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Eli Elezra.
POKER TALK: Aces cracked: When a player wins a pot against pocket aces, the best starting hand in Texas Hold ’em. Barry Clancy was the first player eliminated from the tournament when he raised all-in with his aces against Rocco Lazazzaro, with the board showing a pair of sixes. Lazazzaro called with a pair of jacks and caught a third jack on the last card, ending Clancy’s tournament.
UP NEXT: On Friday, the second starting group will play 10 hours of poker to prepare for the second round.
HE SAID WHAT?: “Total luck, bro, total luck. No master pokermanship here, right?” — Rocco Lazazzaro, after catching a jack on the final card of his hand to eliminate the first player of the tournament, who held pocket aces.
Editor's note: Reports are that Barry Clancy left without speaking to the media after his bad beat. Can't say that we blame him. Losing with pocket aces on the very first hand in the tournament and blowing off the press? Doesn't exactly make him Barry Bonds.
July 3 | 3 a.m. ET
Poker players young and old, pros and amateurs, sharks and fish, are flocking to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker Main Event, which begins on Thursday at the Rio. They'll be chasing the dream of fame and fortune (last year's winner, an amateur named Jerry Yang, took home $8.25 million).
The field will start off with four Day 1 heats, as the Rio can only handle a max of 3,000 players per day. There were 6,358 entrants last year, down from the record 8,773 in 2006.
Make 'em wait
The big — in fact huge — change to the main event this year is that once the field is whittled down to nine for the final table (expected to happen sometime on July 14 or 15), everyone goes home!
Yep, that's right, the final table will not be played until Nov. 9-10. For marketing purposes, this makes perfect sense. ESPN will start broadcasting the WSOP on July 22, and continue to do so every Tuesday through Nov. 11. This allows ESPN/WSOP to hype the final table as if it were the Super Bowl, and the players get to line up sponsors and promote themselves as if they were the Peyton Manning of poker.
On the negative side, the flow of the tournament is severely changed, players could completely change their styles (and with coaching, their skill level), you could have no-shows (what if someone died?), and perhaps most frightening would be the potential for side deals or other influences from those who might want to control the outcome.
Pro Daniel Negreanu brought up the possibility in a statement after the announcement was made.
Another pro, Todd Brunson, went so far as to say "I am very worried about collusion, which will happen."
Others, like Phil Gordon, are on record as saying the possibility of collusion is no more likely than before, when competitors had mere hours to rest before the final table. Will be interesting to watch, for sure.
How much money does this guy have?
It would be interesting to take a peak at Phil Ivey's bank statement. Rumor has it Ivey, one of the most respected players around, lost $2 million betting on the Lakers to beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Now it didn't seem insane to pick the Lakers heading into that series, but to put that much cash on Kobe Bryant's one-man show makes Charles Barkley seem thrifty.
It's also possible the rumor wasn't true. But then why was the normally stone-faced ace looking so antsy watching Game 3 of the Finals while simultaneously playing in a tournament? (Click here for photos). Certainly appears to have a rooting interest.
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.
NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''
Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
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.
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.