A Nice Bad Beat, Billy Donovan Is Rich, and Roger Clemens Is Hurt

- Now THIS is one sick beat. I've had full houses lose to four-of-a-kinds, but never on the flop!

Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 6 - PLAYER 1 ($515 in chips)
Seat 8 - PLAYER 2 ($403 in chips)
Seat 9 - VILLAIN ($151 in chips)
Seat 1 - HERO ($41 in chips)
PLAYER 2 - Posts small blind $3
VILLAIN - Posts big blind $5
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [9c 9s]
HERO - Raises $10 to $10
PLAYER 1 - Folds
PLAYER 2 - Raises $12 to $15
VILLAIN - Calls $10
HERO - Raises $10 to $20
PLAYER 2 - Calls $5
VILLAIN - Calls $5
*** FLOP *** [5c 5s 9h]
PLAYER 2 - Bets $5
VILLAIN - Calls $5
HERO - Calls $5
*** TURN *** [5c 5s 9h] [Ah]
PLAYER 2 - Bets $10
VILLAIN - Raises $20 to $20
HERO - All-In $16
PLAYER 2 - Folds
VILLAIN - returned ($4) : not called
*** RIVER *** [5c 5s 9h Ah] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO - Shows [9c 9s] (Full house, nines full of fives)
VILLAIN - Shows [5d 5h] (Four of a kind, fives)
VILLAIN Collects $115 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($117) | Rake ($2)
Board [5c 5s 9h Ah 2h]
Seat 1: HERO HI:lost with Full house, nines full of fives [9c 9s - P:9s,B:9h,P:9c,B:5s,B:5c]
Seat 6: PLAYER 1 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: PLAYER 2 (small blind) Folded on the TURN
Seat 9: VILLAIN (big blind) won Total ($115) HI:($115) with Four of a kind, fives [5d 5h - B:5s,P:5h,P:5d,B:5c,B:Ah]

(Names changed to protect the innocent, of course.)

It's a damn good thing that the Hero only had $41 in chips when the hand started. Incidentally, that was his last $41 he had (not just at the table, but at the poker site altogether).

- Poor, poor Billy Donovan. Weeks after supposedly negotiating a contract extension to remain the Florida Gators' head coach, Donovan found 27.5 million reasons to go back on his word and become coach of the Orlando Magic. The best part? Apparently, Donovan "agonized" over the decision to leave Florida, as if it was that hard to accept the $27.5 million contract to jump ship.

(Yeah, I know, I will never be in this position, so I will never know how difficult this decision really was.)

You can stop the argument that you wanted a new challenge, and "the right opportunity" happened to present itself; if by "the right opportunity," of course I mean "exorbitant amounts of money." In fact, the next time a player/coach/exec/etc. says he left one organization for another because of the money will probably be the first to do so. Look, $27.5 million is a ton of money; it'll set you, your wife, your family, her family, and their families for their lives (ok, slight exaggeration). So please stop trying to convince people that you went to Orlando for a challenge; if you wanted a challenge, why not wait for the Bobcats' job to open up?

- As if the Yankees needed any more bad news, their savior, Roger Clemens, will skip his expected start against the Chicago White Sox due to a groin injury. Fear not, Yankee fans! Kei Igawa will most likely take Clemens' spot on Monday. Quoted from the article:

Clemens believes he needs an extra four to five days to recover, keeping him out of the four-game series at Chicago, and that this is not a major injury.

That timeframe would put him in line to face the Pirates in Yankee Stadium next weekend.

I'd be lying if I said I was not laughing when I saw this news. I have a feeling that ESPN won't bother showing Monday's Yankees-White Sox game now. Also, how convenient is it that he now gets to start against a bad Pirates team, instead of a contending team like the White Sox? Hey Roger, why not push back your return against the Royals or Devil Rays.

Oh wait, the Rays might actually beat you.

I was going to post about Day 3 of the NorCal trip, but my BBQ is ready to go, and I have a couple nice, juicy ribeyes ready to go. Until next time!