New York Mojo and Magic

Earlier this year, tennis legend Andre Agassi remarked that he'd be retiring after this year's US Open.Yesterday marked the beginning of Andre Agassi's "Farewell Tour" at the Open. The Living Agassi and the Leader of the Band (that's a song lyric somewhere I believe...) drew a first round opponent of another Andre... Andre Pavel. Although unseated, Pavel was no slouch. Pavel's backhand shots were very impressive that it would have Rick James jealous. Things didn't look all that stellar to start as Pavel would take the 1st set 7-6.

It seemed as if Pavel would also take the 2nd set as Pavel seemed to win his points more easily than Andre. New York, however, wouldn't let our hero die. Agassi, saying that he was determined to stay the entire 2 weeks of the Open (post-interview), dug down and lit a fire taking the 2nd set tie break.

After the intermission, the camera catches Agassi doing a happy skip. My man Jonny-Mac in the booth makes fun of Pavel taking offense to that and I guess it showed. Maybe, Agassi was winded playing his A+ game just to win a tie-break 2nd set. Whatever it was, it looked dreary as Andre would lose his first two serves and trail 0-4. After this, I jokingly posted on my computer that Pavel wasn't suppose to win. I was about to just switch the channels and decided to hang tough like the NY faithful. Well, the tennis gods must of heard me... After this bleak situation and my praying words, Andre, changes his racket and Pavel appears to get stomach problems affecting his movement. I would assume it was stomach problems because they didn't show Pavel get injuried in any replays. I belive Jonny-Mac makes a great line of an antiacid will be given to Pavel after the next break... Holy smokes, after 5 straight points, Agassi now leads the 3rd set 5-4!! Andre goes on to win the 3rd set in a 8-6 tie-break.

Pavel is obviously frustrated. He kicks the ball after so much heat from the crowd and the crowd gets on him even more. This is something John McEnroe would be proud of along with his killer backhand. I gotta feeling this Pavel could be a great Jonny-Mac to come.

As the tennis gods came to their senses, the New York magic, and Agassi's mojo, there was no way Andre would go out in the first round as Agassi comes back literally from the cliff of Mt. Everest and climbs to the top! If Pete Sampras can go out on top by winning the US Open, I sure hope the magic is still alive for our American hero Andre Agassi to fulfill the same destiny...

I'm in "The Feast of Love"... as a Movie Extra...

As if you thought I'd become a pimp or something and you are thinking, "No way in hell," you would be correct. However, yesterday, I had the opportunity and privilege to be in a few of the shoots and one out of the few 300 hundred backround extras in the upcoming movie, "The Feast of Love."

I heard about this opportunity from one of the production guys that got his car fixed at my father's shop. He had been a repeat customer of my dad's and he knew that Danny (that was his name) had been doing a lot in commercial shoots... Well, this time, Danny had moved up to this "Feast of Love" movie that has stars of Morgan Freeman (who unfortunately MIA yesterday), Selma Blair, and Greg Kinnear (who is quite the stunt driver, read below to find out) to name a few. Danny was in charge of finding extras so by chance, I got to meet him and get a spot as an extra.

Got up at about 4:50am and ended driving about 30 mins to Reed College where the shoot was being held. In the extras' roles, which was compressed with many college students, we are leaving a football game. Some of us are happy that we won (me) and some are bummed out from losing. As we are making our way back to our cars/shuttle buses, somebody playing recreational football, gets a hard attack or some heart failure. They, then rush an old piece of crap Volvo in (I said it was symbolic for a Hurst, the vechicle that usually caries the dead in a casket) and storms off. Greg Kinnear is driving the car, and I am surprised this guy isn't competing against Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr!! Kinnear pushes the Volvo, like a rocket into the streets not before almost hitting some of the students. I had jokingly requested to be almost be run-over by the car to the poeple next, but as faith had it, I was near the front of the line when the Volvo came a-charging!! The first take, I was in the front of the line, and I feel hard on my ass trying to back-peddle and the guy behind me grabbed me as a kept a very good paniced look on my face. Unfortunately, there was only one camera moving around at the time and I believed they missed me and only got the car shoot. I got moved back to the 3rd row after that so I don't know how well that turned out. This was definitely the highlight of the shoot and I'll have to buy a ticket sometime when this movie comes out in 2007 to see if I made the cut...

Fool's Gold: Second Thoughts of the "Golden Boy" Jamie Gold

Stumbling upon an ESPN interview with Jamie Gold, I have to change my congrats to Mr. Gold to a plain ol' quote from my hero Phil Hellmuth: "No Comment..."

Well, ok one comment. After this interview, I must critique Jamie's call of 5.5 million with K-J after only having 1 million invested was a terrible play. I guess he really was playing for anything but first, but since he was such a luckbox, he was unfortunately bound for first...

Golden Main Event for Jamie Gold

For the past three and a half day, Jamie Gold was the chip leader in this year's WSOP Main Event and he would never relinquish that lead going into the final table. During the final table play, he would further seperate himself from his opponents with no body coming near him which ultimately led to his destiny to capture the convenent bracelet. How about that: a guy named "Moneymaker" does the unthinkable and now a guy name "Gold" achieves the same... Maybe I should change my last name to "Plantinum"...

My pick and probably favorite to win the Main Event was seasoned pro Allen Cunningham. Cunningham came into the final table starting out in a distanced 2nd in chips and could never really get over the barrier. From reading Allen's last hand, he pushed all-in for 6.5 million with a pair of 10s, and Gold, only having 1 million in the pot, commits another 5.5 million with only a K-J... (We all know how Phil Hellmuth feels about K-J :-D). I don't know all the details, but I have to say that was a bad call. Allen could have easily had a big pair or AK and out of all the people at the table, Cunningham is the one you don't want to double up. However, since Gold had such a MONSTER chip lead, I can't complete fault the play of calling and it turned out well for Gold as he spiked his King.

Congrats to the final 12 that made a instant million plus and congrats to Jamie Gold, the new "Golden Boy" of poker!

Nice Guys Finish...

We all heard the saying, "Nice guys finish last." Well, try telling that to "The Nicest Guy in Poker" Allen Cunningham. In 2005, not only did Cunningham take home a bracelet, but he also took the prize of becoming WSOP Player of the year. Tonight, but most likely early tomorrow mourning, Allen will have a shot at finishing 1st in the (Big One) WSOP Main Event. Cunningham will enter today's final table 2nd in chips just under 18 million only trailing the chip leader for the past 3 days or so, Jamie Gold (22,650,000 TC). So as other saying goes, "First is the worst (though not true here IMO), second is the best (argueably the best at this final table)," I'm going to go on a bold predictiom on saying that the nice guy will finish first...