Poker Pearl #19

Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke was an online phenom who was too young in 2007 to play in U.S. casinos. So, he went overseas and finished 2nd in the Aussie Millions and raked in $850,000 for doing so. He's now older than 21 and has made deep runs in tournaments here in the states.

Fricke discusses the concept of way ahead or way behind in the Feb.25, 2009, issue of Card Player magazine. What's that mean?

To explain the concept, Fricke gives this example: Suppose you have A-7 and it's folded to you on the button. You raise and the BB calls. The flop is A-6-2, and the BB checks to you. Fricke recommends checking also. Here's why. If the BB has an ace, it is very likely better than yours -- A-3, A-4 or A-5 are the only hands you could beat. If you bet, he will (likely) fold, if he doesn't have an ace. So, the only hands he will (usually) call with are hands better than yours. Fricke also points out another advantage of checking: it makes you a bit more of a "tricky" player.

On a separate note, the scanned cover of the magazine (shown above) is amazing. Click on it to enlarge the image to see what I mean. Whoever designed it makes me jealous.

Odds and ends

Some poker sites have received bad press, but none more than UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. The two have decided to get CEREUS and combined into one network.

Despite how they handled the cheating incidents, I've kept money at Ultimate Bet and play in a lot of their cheap/soft tournaments. Their software is good and so is their connectivity, and I don't play at high enough levels to even imagine anyone would bother to try to cheat me.

I decided to withdraw a chunk of money and was curious how long it would take to get it. NewinNov is currently withdrawing money from Full Tilt Poker and they told him 10 to 15 business days, i.e. from two to three weeks.

I asked for my withdrawal on Friday Feb. 13, the day I left for vacation. When I returned, I had my check (Friday, Feb 20), seven days later. Not bad! The only downside was that they charged me $8. If I wanted a direct bank deposit, it was $25. I wasn't in any hurry, so took the cheaper route. The last time I withdrew money from UB, the process was free (if for an amount of $1,000 or more), so the small fee was disappointing. The check was on a very well-known bank and the payee was listed as a company in Escondido CA. All this was satisfactory for me.

Have you had any trouble getting paid? If so, please comment.

ADDENDUM: Wednesday evening - I just read this on NewinNov's web site:
"Just checked my bank account and have a pending deposit from Full Tilt. Requested on the 17th, received on the 25th so that is 8 calendar days or 6 business days. Much less than 10-15 business days as advertised."


On a different note: I went online to Zazzle and ordered a hoodie and two tee shirts that have MOJO on them. Why not? I'm having fun with the Memphis MOJO shtick. The hoodie actually says "Hardcore Mojo" on it. I wore it to play poker last Saturday night, and during a break, the dealer saw my sweatshirt and asked me, "What's up with the Mojo thing?" I didn't want to go into the blog, the nickname and all that, so I lied and said, "It's the name of a rock group."

I came home and decided to use Mr. Google and see exactly what it did mean. To my surprise, there actually is a rock group named "Hardcore Mojo" and you can hear them if you click here (but don't do it at work -- it plays music whether you want to hear it or not). So, see, I didn't lie to her after all.

I have two new poker books. The first is The Poker Tournament Formula II: Advanced Strategies by Arnold Snyder. His first book was superb, so I'm hoping this one is, too. Maybe I'll do a book review if I get off my lazy butt I get around to it. The second is Pot-Limit Omaha Poker by Jeff Hwang.

I don't know how to play Omaha yet, so why did I guy the book? I want to learn and now that I've paid the money, I'm cheap enough that I'm hoping this will motivate me to learn. Hwang's book is not a starting point, but I'll have to take the first step, then advance to his book. Make sense?

I asked where to start on bastin's blog, and a reader there suggested Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide. This seemed like a good idea, so I took it with me on vacation. It assumes, however, that you already know how to play and its thrust is how to play tournaments. That might be good as step #3, but let's do step #1 and #2, first. I guess I'll check in Super System 2 and see if it's on more of a beginner level. Otherwise, I might go online to the uber-micro levels and just be a donkey grind away and learn by experience. Anyone have any better ideas?

Big mouth

Two of my best friends showed me this deal they played at the local bridge club this past weekend (low cards are approximate where immaterial):

                ♠ K
                ♥ 2
                ♦ A K 6 5
                ♣ A K Q J 10 7 2
♠ A 4 3                        ♠ J 9 8 7 6
♥ A Q 9 8 3                    ♥ 10 7 5
♦ Q 10 4 3                     ♦ 9 2
♣ 4                            ♣ 9 8 3
                ♠ Q 10 5 2
                ♥ K J 6 4
                ♦ J 8 7
                ♣ 6 5

West opened 1♥ and Richard (North) bid 3♥, asking for a heart stopper. Mary (South) bid 3NT, ending the auction.

West led the ♦3 -- a sneak attack! The 5 was played from dummy, East played the 9 and Mary won the jack. She advanced the ♦8 at trick two, covered with the 10 and won with the ace.

Declarer now began to run clubs. West leaned over to show his hand to the dummy and said, "I get the last three tricks." You're not really supposed to say things like this, but it was certainly true that East's hand was irrelevant, so West wasn't doing anything to help him -- in fact, he now drew a roadmap for South.

This was the position with one club to cash:

                ♠ K
                ♥ 2
                ♦ K 6
                ♣ 2
♠ A                       ♠ J 9 8
♥ A Q                     ♥ 10 7
♦ Q 4                     ♦ --
♣ --                      ♣ --
                ♠ Q 10
                ♥ K J 4
                ♦ --
                ♣ --

When the last club was played, South discarded a low heart, but what was West to do? If he discarded a diamond, both of dummy's diamonds would be good. If he discarded the ♠A, dummy's king would be high. So, he discarded the ♥Q. It was easy now for Mary to play a major suit, endplaying West. At trick 12, he had to lead from the ♦Q 4 to dummy's ♦K 6 -- making five.

There are two points of interest. The first is that the hand plays itself. Mary didn't have to count West's hand. She had only to keep an eye on the two major-suit aces and the diamond suit. Also, notice that she discarded the blocking ♦7 on the run of the clubs. That simplified things in that she didn't have to worry about what to save in her hand.

I do give South one slight charge. She could have saved the ♦K 5 in the dummy (instead of K-6). It's always more satisfying to win the 4 with the 5 for maximum style points.

When the sun goes down, the shutter button does, too

If you go to Key West FL, watching the sunset at Mallory Square is required by law; anyone failing to do so goes straight to jail. I didn't want that to happen, so I watched the sunset like all the other tourists. Of course I had my two cameras handy.


Saturday evening (and Monday), the sky was clear. I got photos with vivid orange colors as you see above. (Photos are high resolution, so you can click to enlarge them.)


On Sunday, there were storm clouds. I whipped out my trusty point-and-shoot camera, and used the preset for sunset. Those two things changed the color of the light to blue and purple as in this photo (above).



You can see the storm clouds in this image and the other purple photo below.


If you live in an area of the world where it is cold right now, is it cruel of me to show these shots that I took while (ahem) I was in shorts and a tee shirt?


This last one will make a nice masthead for my blog, ya?

MOJO on vacation

I'm leaving Friday (Feb. 13) and going to Miami, then on to Key West FL. I'll be back on Friday evening, Feb. 20.

Yes, I have the batteries for my camera charged up. My goal is to get (at least) one amazing sunset.

Deep stack works for me

I haven't been playing in online tournaments much lately other than the Monday night Tuckfard Open, but I saw a new one tonight that was called Deep Stacks. It was a $15+$1.5 on Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker. Sometimes they call these things "deep" but the blind structure is atrocious, so I checked. The levels were 12 minutes, the blinds started at 5/10 and you began with a stack or 5,000! A great tournament for a nit like me!

You would think with chip stacks this deep, it would be hard to stack players, but look at this next image below. He went all in with big slick. Thank you sir, thank you very much.



Then the battle of the blinds. This guy decided to give me all his chips. He had top pair with a ♥3 kicker. A ♥3! Folks, I'm not making this stuff up! (Ok, he did have a redraw to a straight, but who's counting.)


Later on, a short stack came over the top of me with A-J. Puh-leeze! My 9-9 was good for another chip-up.


Yes, I was winning my races and abusing the donkeys. That's what you have to do to go deep. But I was playing some good poker, too, I think.

Playing the nit: On one hand, the tightest guy at the table made a raise 4 times the BB. It folded around to me, and I had A-K in the big blind. I just folded. That might sound too conservative, but there's no way I'm better than a coin flip. I might have called, but I'm out of position for the whole deal, so, nope, not this time. Some players will not agree, but my stack was in good shape and so why race (or worse)?

Floating on air: Then on another hand, a different guy raised before the flop. I called from the button with not much (♠9 ♠7). He bet the flop and I called, even though I'd whiffed. He bet the turn, but it smelled like a weak second CB, so I popped it up and he folded like the cheap suit I knew he was.

Here's a shot when we were down to four players:

And this was the final three. I was the short stack with 150K, the other two had around 360K and 400K.


I failed to get a shot of my bust out hand, but I flopped two pair and bet. The villain called with second pair, both hearts with only one heart on the board. A second heart came on the board on fourth street, and I bet big, but he called and hit another heart on the river to get there with a flush. Stuff happens, I'm just sayin'.

Tuckfard recap

Lightning36 has been threatening to come thrash us promising to play in the Tuckfard Open, and tonight he did. If he's been there before, I missed him. The rest of the degenerates usual crowd was there, too. As is par for the course, it was a fun group, about half Canadians and half Americans.

I had pocket aces early, then went card-dead for a long time. It can be frustrating when that happens and I used the "F" word a lot. Yes, I had to fold, fold and fold some more. What F-word did you think I meant? Come on, now.

Katitude took 6th after a bad beat -- her A-A lost to Q-9 (all in pre-flop), and that crippled her stack, and NutzCarson ran out of chips and finished 5th.

When we were down to four players, Muhctim had the big stack, lightning36 was next, SuzyQ500 was in third, and I was the short stack. Muhctim had me all in with A-Q while I had 9-9 -- it's a race! My 9s held up and I finally had some chips to work with. SuzyQ was next to go out making her the official bubble person.

After that I started slinging the chips. Muhctim even said, "I'm getting dizzy," as the chip$ were flying out there like I was a crazy man. I was worried that I would injure my wrist using the mouse like I did.

The blinds were starting to erode lightning's stack and he finally took a stand with A-Q. Lucky for me that I had A-K and also lucky that big slick held up against big chick.

Heads up, I played a big pot with Muhctim when I had A-9 and he had A-8 and my 9 played as a kicker. Things like that show the vagaries of poker. Sure, there's skill involved, but there's luck, too. You have to embrace the randomness, or poker will drive you stark raving mad, I mean just bonkers frustrate you. I don't remember the final hand, but basically I was pretty lucky. Anyway, thanks to lightning36 for slumming with us and congrats to Muhctim who was unlucky not to win.

Poker pearl #18

Should you sometimes limp in with pocket aces or should you always raise? That's a common question and Ed Miller addresses it in the Feb. 11 edition of Card Player Magazine.

(See my scan of the cover of that issue of the magazine shown to the right or you can go to their web site if you click here.)

"Aces are a potent weapon. When you get aces, attack. Bet them. Get value from players with top pair and draws. You'll be surprised at how much you can win with them, even if you don't hit a set.

"If you're a good player with an edge on your opponents, you're almost always better off raising preflop than limping in. Although there are theoretical trade-offs for either decision, in most games, you'll do better by raising simply because you're building bigger pots. Bigger pots mean more money out there to win. I think the balancing considerations just don't matter enough to change it up. Build yourself some nice pots, and the money will come your way."

When a bad beat isn't so bad

When I showed up at the Goldstrike Saturday night, there was a buzz in the air -- the bad beat jackpot had been hit for $158,000!!

For those who don't play often in a casino, let me explain. For every hand played, the casino takes out $1 and it goes into a bad beat drop box. To take the dollar, the pot has to have at least $20 in it. The so-called badbeat jackpot continues to build. To win it, you have to have a certain hand (which varies from casino to casino) that is beat by a better hand. Some casinos say quads have to be beaten. The Goldstrike has theirs higher than that. Quad 10s or better had to be beaten, and that is harder than it sounds. Because of that, the jackpot had built up to around $230,000 at one time.

They also have a mini-bad beat that is 10% of the regular jackpot. I believe it had to be a full-house of aces full of kings (or better) be beaten. When a bad beat or a mini-bad beat happens, the person who suffers the bad beat gets 40% of the jackpot, the person who beat him gets 20%, and the remaining 40% goes to everyone who is playing in the room at the time (not just at that particular table). There's one more thing. The are separate bad best jackpots for each game. That is, hold 'em has its own jackpot, Omaha has its own and stud (which they seldom spread anymore) has one, too.

One night I was there for a mini. One player had A-A, another had K-K. The flop was A-K-x, but the turn was another king. So one player had A-A-A-K-K and another had K-K-K-K-A. I forget what each of them got, but it was around $8,000 and $4,000 and my share (as was all the other persons playing hold 'em) was around $220. Because there had been several mini-bad beats, the main jackpot was down to "only" $158,000.

There are some qualifiers. Both cards in your hand have to play, and there has to be at least $20 in the pot. Also, you can't sit there and discuss it, or that may void the bad beat. After one of these bad beats, you have to wait. Security rolls back the tapes (they have the "eye in the ski" cameras that tape everything) and checks to see that there was no hanky panky. Then there are a million (or maybe even more) forms to be filled out. The time I got my players' share of a mini, they gave me a voucher, and I came back the next day to actually collect (it was late Sunday night and I had to work the next day, so I didn't want to wait around for all the red tape).

Clear as mud?

Anyway, MOJO got the details for all three of my readers about the following hand: It took place Saturday morning around 4 a.m. One guy involved was a part-time dealer, who was off duty and playing -- his name is Jody. I couldn't find out anything about the other guy. They were playing $1/2 no limit hold 'em. Jody had A-A and the other had J-J and they were all in before the flop. The flop was J-J-X, so the one guy had flopped his quads. Then the turn was an ace and the river was another ace for the bad beat.

The quad jacks guy, got $63,400. The quad aces (Jody) got half of that or around $31,700. Because it was late at night, there weren't that many other players, so they each got a nice, juicy $2,180 each. A lady named Robin dealt it and no one seemed to know how much she got tipped.

Why can't I get quad jacks and get them beat? If that happened, I promise I wouldn't whine about a bad beat for at least four weeks (okay, okay -- maybe three).

This was the band that played at the Goldstrike Saturday night:

G-r-r-r

Tonight I was going to play at Harrah's 6 p.m. tournament. I got there a little early and took some photos (see below). When I went inside, I found out the tournament was canceled this week because they just finished the WSOP Circuit Event and they were giving the staff a break.

I decided to go over to the Goldstrike to play some $1/2 NL. When I got there, I got on the waiting list and played some $4/8 Limit while I was waiting. I bought in for $100 and worked it up to $130 when my name was called for the no li. I normally buy in for $200, but decided to just play the chips I already had. I settled in and after an hour, I was about where I started. The game was okay, but not great. There had been one fish had rebought twice and left. I didn't get any of his chip$ -- too bad.

In the key hand of the night for me, I checked my hole cards to see K-K, sweet. I bet $11 and a guy raised to $25. He played loose, but was running hot. In fact, he's the guy who busted the fish by playing J-4 offsuit and catching runner runner. My stack was around $112, so I shoved. I was pretty sure he would call, and if he had A-A, so be it. First he asked for the dealer to count down my stack. Then, he called.

The flop was 4-4-6 rainbow. The turn was some other low card that I don't remember, and the river was another unimportant card. I turned my hand over. Now the other guy looks at the board, studies it for 8 or 10 seconds, and then turns over A-A. Gimme a break.

Now he says, "They can't beat me. They try, but they can't beat me. I'm just unbeatable. It's unbelievable."

This guy couldn't play his way out of a paper bag. He's not a regular, but I've seen him before. He's awful. A complete tourist might not know enough poker etiquette to know he shouldn't slow roll anyone, but this guy has played enough that he should know better. And what is this asking the dealer to count my stack down preflop? He's always calling with A-A. Then the tirade about how he's unbeatable was over the top.

He's really lucky I'm as easy-going as I am. He would have received a good cussing-out from most guys, or maybe even an invitation to step outside.

Below are some of the photos I took at Harrah's Casino tonight (click to enlarge if you wish):

Bridge player wins the Borgata

Steve Weinstein (shown right) is one of the top bridge players in the world. But Steve is also a poker player and he just won the Borgata Winter Poker Open and its cash prize of $658,405. Even if the dollar is weak, that's a lot of mobneys.

It's nice to be able to write about a card player who does so well. But there is something even more important that I can tell you about Steve -- he is a gentleman and a truly nice guy. When I've played against Steve at bridge tournaments over the years, he's always treated me (and others) with respect. Because I play bridge and dabble in poker, it pleases me to see another bridge player do well at poker.

Steve was interviewed by Card Player magazine, and you can read about it if you click here.

Poker News Daily has an excellent write-up of his victory, and you can read about it here.

Bluff Magazine's account is available if you click here.

This is the Pocket Fives report.

Some fast facts:
Weinstein is a many-time NABC champion and ranked by the ACBL as a Grand Life Master with more than 14,600 masterpoints.

In international play, he is ranked by the World Bridge Federation as an Open International Master.

In 2006, he finished 2nd in the World Open Pairs held in Verona, Italy.

Most of his success at poker has been in cash games, although he won one of the Poker Stars Sunday 500 tournaments last Fall and was written about online and in the major poker magazines.

His online user name is thorladen.

He is also touted as a super poker teacher/coach. Some of his proteges are well-known online players.

Grizzlies win!

They say third time is a charm, but in my case the fourth time was. I went to see my fourth NBA Memphis Grizzlies game this season -- they lost the first three. Tonight, however, they beat the Houston Rockets and their all-star center Yao Ming. The Grizz were clicking on all cylinders.

Everything goes better with mayo. O.J. Mayo, the rookie from Southern Cal, led the way with 32 points. Yes, I think he's a keeper.


I don't remember who sang the national anthem, but she was good. The attendance was announced at 10,109, but there sure were a lot of empty seats, as you can see in the above image.


The Houston Rockets won the tipoff.


Yao Ming (above) is 7'6" tall and strong looking -- no wonder, he weighs 310 pounds. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the reflections of Brent Barry and Hakim Warrick in the paint.


Rookie out of Kansas Darrell Arthur slams one home for the Grizzlies.


The Grizzlies Dance Team performs.


The Junior Grizzlies Cheer and Dance Team also performed -- adorable.

Ed Schultz: 1949 - 2009

Ed Schultz was one of the good guys. He and I grew up in Illinois and met through bridge. There was a group of good young players who gravitated towards each other. When we were at tournaments, we'd often go out to dinner together and "run the boards." That means we'd go over each deal, usually card by card, and discuss them. There were lots of questions asked: "How did you make 3NT?" or "How did you bid to the 6♥ slam?" Besides the camaraderie, interactions like this elevated our games. We played together, both as partners and teammates. Besides being a terrific player, Ed was a fun guy who kept things on an even keel.

After a few years, I moved to Raleigh NC and didn't see Ed very much. We were both starting careers and only traveled to play bridge in local tournaments. Later, however, when I began going to the national tournaments again, I would run into him. It seemed like every time I went, he was there with another friend of mine, his regular partner Mark Kessler. They frequently won their District's North American Pairs and would go and play. I loved meeting Ed at NABCs. Besides being an old friend, he always had a good bridge story. Although a tough competitor at the table, Ed loved to laugh and see the joy in life.

One year when I saw him at an NABC, he said, "Dave, Dave, come here. I want you to meet Beth Fay." Ed had gotten married! After that, I still saw him at NABCs, but he usually came only for a few days, then returned to his home in Chesterfield MO, a St. Louis suburb. He had a family now, you see.

Some more years went by and I ran into him, again at an NABC. There was bad news -- he had cancer. In the following years, the cancer treatments and surgeries were hell, but Ed never complained. The cancer turned into brain cancer and it is a tough one, but Ed was tough, too. The cancer destroyed his body, but it couldn't destroy his spirit -- he remained cheerful and positive with lots of energy. Even though Ed battled, cancer had the final say in the matter -- Ed died last Friday, Jan. 30.

Ed finished with nearly 7300 masterpoints, but masterpoints were not what motivated him. His love of the game is what drove him. Ed was a University of Illinois alum. He played on the U. of I. football team while in college and was a rabid Illini sports fan.

Here is a bridge deal that Karen Walker gave me permission to use. It involves a deal she played with Ed. I like it because it not only shows the kind of player Ed was, it also shows the kind of person he was.

                  ♠ A 8 5
                  ♥ 9 8 7
                  ♦ J 9 7 4 2
                  ♣ Q 5
♠ J 6 4                        ♠ 10 9 7 3
♥ K 6 5                        ♥ 3 2
♦ 6 5                          ♦ Q 10 8 3
♣ J 9 8 4 2                    ♣ A K 3
                  ♠ K Q 2
                  ♥ A Q J 10 4
                  ♦ A K
                  ♣ 10 7 6

South was the declarer in 4♥. Ed was West and led a low club and East, Karen Walker, won the ♣K and shifted to a low heart. The declarer played low as Ed ducked in tempo -- the ♥7 in dummy won. Declarer advanced the ♣Q won by Karen with the ace. She led another heart and South played the ♥Q. Ed won the king and led a third round, eliminating her chance to ruff a club in dummy. Now, instead of 10 tricks, she only had nine, and the contract failed by one.

The lady who was declarer now began slapping her cards on the table and glaring at Ed. After the deal was over, she snapped, "How could you do that?" She then began telling Ed how his play could have been wrong. Instead of being put off by her rudeness, Ed just smiled and said, "Well, then, I would have looked pretty silly, wouldn't I?"

Somehow, I just know that Ed is looking down and still smiling.

You can read Karen Walker's tribute to Ed if you click here and then click on "Rembering Ed Schultz" (in the upper left-hand corner).

You can read what his Unit's web site said about him if you click here.

It's Saturday: Poker or go see the LA Lakers?

If you're MOJO, the answer to the question in the title is simple: Do both! I scored the basketball tickets in a drawing at work. The Memphis Grizzlies have a young team with a new coach, but they've lost a lot of games. Even so, because we were playing the LA Lakers, the game was a sell-out, although probably one-third of the people were Laker fans!

We were ahead at half-time, but didn't score in the first five minutes of the third quarter while the Lakers couldn't miss. We were taking jumpshots, they were getting points in the paint -- not a good combination. After that, we never really got back in the game. Hey, let's face it -- they're the Lakers and we're the Grizzlies. The final score was 115 to 98 in their favor.

One interesting story line is that our center is Marc Gasol, their center is Pau Gasol. Notice the same last names? Yep, they're brothers, both from Spain. Pau is the older brother, and, as older brothers usually do, he outplayed Marc. He had 25 points and eight rebounds while Marc had 13 points and three rebounds.

After the game I had an itch to play some poker, so headed to the Goldstrike Casino. I called ahead to get on the waiting list for $1/2 no-limit, so when I walked in, I was next up with almost no wait. I bought in for $200 and began my patient game. I picked up J-J on the button and it was raised to $12 with two callers to me. What would you do? I just called and was glad I did when the flop was A-Q-x. There was betting in front of me and I was happy to fold after losing only $12.

The only other significant pot I lost was with A-K. Someone raised to $12 and two other players and I called. The flop was 7-6-2 and it was checked around. The turn was an ace and the guy in first position bet $15. I called and a guy behind me called. I guess you could make a case for raising, but you're either way ahead (of A-Q or A-J etc.) or way behind if he has, for example, A-6. I wouldn't play a raggy ace, but these guys do. The turn was another rag and the same guy bet $45. I almost folded, but finally called and he showed a set of 2s. Everything had aligned to suck me in.

After I had played for an hour or so, there was a commotion at the table next to me. I had folded (what else is new) so jumped up to go over and see what the fuss was all about. This was what I saw: It was a $2/5 NL game and there were two players in the pot. There was around $1300 dollars in the middle, and one of the guys had moved all in for $1750 more. The flop had been 10-5-3 rainbow. The turn was a 6. Yes, someone could have a straight, but no way. There had obviously been betting before the flop and on the flop so no one had low cards. I figured it was set over set for sure. This guy thought forever, and finally called. The first all-in guy turned over a pair of 10s -- yes, top set. The other guy turned over K-K !!! I was flabbergasted -- I'm just sayin. The river was a meaningless card, so this guy lost nearly $2500 with a pair of kings? No way, but it was true. What could he have been thinking? I'm just askin'. The guy who won the big pot, played one more orbit, then racked up and left. I don't blame him; he'd had a pretty good night.

I played until 1 a.m. and then I also racked up with about the same number of chips that I started with. Even though I hadn't won anything, it was worth my time to see the big pot -- why doesn't that ever happen to me?


The Memphis Grizzlies won the tip-off to start the game.


Kobe Bryant shoots a free throw.


Andrew Bynum injured his knee and had to be helped from the court.


The Lakers run their offense.


Lakers' Coach Phil Jackson draws up a play during a timeout.


Even if we lose, I can enjoy the Grizzlies' dance team.


These drummers performed at half-time. Since the movie "Drumline," groups like this have become more and more popular.