The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Sometimes, you don't want to reveal the strength of your hand by raising. On occasion (and I do mean just on occasion), it may be more profitable not to bet into a player but instead deploy a calling and checking strategy, before and after the flop. As a reminder about slow playing your cards, it is always dangerous. Giving your opponent free cards and cheap flops is usually never a good idea. When you pull off a successful slow play, you look like a genius. If you're outdrawn, you look very very stupid (and not to mention broke). There has to be certain criteria to slow play to be successful:

1.There can't be too may people in the pot. If there are six callers and you're looking down at pocket aces, it is too risky your hand will be outdrawn with players looking for flushes or straights or they may get really lucky and hit two pair. The greater the number of people, the less likely your slow play will work. Aim for one person to play against, two at the absolute maximum.
2. You're against a looser opponent. It might be hard to zero in on a particular person, but if a player you're in a hand with is known to check down to the river, what's the point? Your observations about how this person bets (Does he always lead out with a bet after the flop, or does he check? Does he bet out at pots hitting only middle pair or does he only play the nuts?) should help you decide if you shold slow play. Slow playing against an aggressive, loose player who bets into you will be more profitable than a tight player.
3. Your betting pattern. Have you just flat called a few hands prior to your slow play? Or have you always raised a pot before you entered it? Players may become suspicious of your intentions if you simply flat call after raising pot after pot and will simply throw their hand away. If you've been changing it up enough, the other players shouldn't be able to guess the strength of your hand with a simple call.

For arguments sake, let's say you're up against one player, you're the small blind and you flat call with your pocket Kings (one slow play). The big blind checks (you were hoping the big blind might have tried to raise in which case your slow play would have already worked, but it didn't happen here) and the flop comes Queen-King-Six with the Queen and Six both diamonds. You made your set! Do you risk losing with a flush or straight draw by not protecting your hand with a bet? Yes, but that's the gambling aspect of slow playing. You might decide that the texture of the flop is too risky and hence not slow play here. But what you're hoping is you opponent paired up the Queen and will bet or they interpreted your slow play check as a sign of weakness and they will try to steal the pot right there with a bet while they hold nothing. The idea is to have your opponent put the chips in the pot first for you to get paid off. We'll assume you do decide to slow play and so you check (second slow play).

Let's say your opponent now bets 1/2 the pot. Perfect! The fish has taken the bait. Don't call the bet too quickly; allow a few moments to pass before you call your bet. Make it look like you're wondering if your hand will hold up. You don't have to be DeNiro, just stare blankly at the table and then put your chips in. Let's say the next card is a deuce. You check (third slow play). Now here your opponent may try to make another move on you. Let's say he or she bets, you're sitting pretty now as they think you're weak or they're trying to chase you out of the pot. Flat call the bet as previously mentioned.
The river card is the Ace of clubs. Not really a scare card for you, but if you're opponent was holding Jack-Ten they'd have a straight, but the way the betting has gone it's unlikely. It was a good enough play for your opponent to try to win the pot after the flop with their outside straight draw if they held Jack-Ten, but after you called there was no point in betting into you on 4th street, as they could have simply gotten a free card after your check and hope to hit their straight on the river. This card can actually help you too, because if you're opponent holds an Ace they may think they now hold the best hand and will be confident to place bets.

So after the river card, assured you're holding the best hand, you may decide to bet out if this player likes to call down a hand. You don't want it to be too high though to scare them off. Maybe a 1/4 pot-sized bet will do it. Or you may try to check one more time and try to induce a bet from your opponent who may try to steal the pot. Based on your observations about this player, you should have an idea on what the best course of action is. For this example, I'll leave that decision up to you! :)

The Patricks moved to Blackburn Hamlet in January of 1980. After three years on Orient Park, a more permanent location was chosen on Glen Park. Mom made the decision to buy a condo a few months ago and moved out today. I am going to miss the old neighborhood and who knows, maybe heading back to Blackburn might be an option for SBP in the future.

As of today, the Sens are undefeated in the pre-season, but I wouldn't get out the champagne just yet. On Sunday, for instance, the Senators beat the Leafs 7-4 but Toronto didn't have Eric Lindros, Jason Allison, Jeff O'Neill or Ed Belfour in the lineup, while the only notable Senator missing was Chris Phillips...On the plus side though, the team is gelling and that's what one of the reasons we have a pre-season in the first place...The Pittsburgh Penguins were a bare bones lineup when they lost to Ottawa on Friday as well, with no Lemieux, Crosby, Palffy or Recchi playing amongst others. Hasek stopped all 19 shots he faced that day but hardly a test of the true firepower the NHL has to offer...Brandon Bochenski is a lock to make the roster and can hopefully continue the chemistry with Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley. As a 7th or 8th round pick back in 2001, this guy just might turn out to be a goldmine...Tough guy Brian McGrattan, with over 500 penalty minutes in the AHL last year (a record), probably won't be dressed up as a regular but will be called upon when need be. This is the sort of player the fans love to get behind and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few McGrattan jerseys in the crowd this year...The other person that should make the team is defenceman Andrej Meszaros. This kid is confident and plays with a little more edge than other camp hopeful Christoph Schubert. He may only be 19 years-old but that's how old Wade Redden was when he played in his first season as an NHLer...The Ottawa Sun had a 20 page pullout about the Senators today, talking mainly about the many changes the team has gone through since the 7 game playoff loss to the Leafs last time there was hockey. As I mentioned before, it all depends on Hasek's health if the team can do well this season. Backup Ray Emery can't be expected to lead the team to the promised land being as inexperienced as he is...Bruce Garrioch, Dean Brown and Gord Wilson were discussing on the Team 1200 on Monday why the Senators lost the playoffs to Toronto last year. They talked about heart, Jacques Martin, etc. but it all boiled down to one thing: Patrick Lalime. He didn't have the form he had in 2002-2003 and as a result, let in too many awful goals. If both teams switched goaltenders, Ottawa would have won hands down...The capacity in the Corel Centre increased from 18,500 to 19,300 or so. Where did they put all those extra seats?...Ottawa had its first pre-season season sellout in history @ Sunday's game. It was never really mentioned in the media the tickets were 1/2 price (not that I'm complaining, that's ideally what the prices should be every game)...Sidney Crosby is expected to play Thursday night in Ottawa for the next pre-season game and Sportsnet wisely decided to bring the cameras and air it on TV. You could be witnessing the final lineup for opening day October 5th (just 8 days away and counting).

Why do we raise in the first place? I talked about playing strong hands and raising pre-flop, but it’s important to know why we do this and how it makes you a better, more successful player.

The main reason for raising is to protect your hand. When you have decent starting hands like pocket Aces or Kings, you don’t want to have everyone at the table call the minimum bet and see a cheap flop where they can catch lucky cards or draws. This is especially true with “calling stations”, usually beginners, who will play any two cards they are dealt. If other players are going to play junk, make them pay for the privilege of doing so. Weed out as many players as you can.

The next reason is to know where you stand. You can usually judge how strong your starting hand is by how many callers or re-raisers there are after your initial raise. For example, if you raise with Ace-Jack, then a second person raises you, then a third person re-raises both of you, with this information you’re probably going to think your Ace-Jack isn’t that strong anymore. More than likely at least one of the two players left in the pot has an Ace with a higher kicker, or is starting with a high pair like Aces, Kings, Queens or Jacks. You’d probably decide to fold (at least I would anyway) and in the process likely saved yourself losing any more chips.

The third reason is to simplify your read of the flop. What do I mean by this? Whenever there are players involved in a pot who called any raises, it usually means they are playing with a pair or two high cards so you can rationalize the types of hands they might be holding. For example, if you raise with Ace-King and you get called, and the flop comes 2-5-King, you can be pretty sure you are ahead with your top pair and top kicker. No one would usually call a raise with King-5, King-deuce, or deuce-5 (if they do, they are horrible players and you should always invite them back to your game), so you don’t have to worry about being beat by two pair. (It’s possible someone called with pocket deuces, fives or Aces in which case you would be beat, but in poker it’s rare you have the nuts at all times anyway so continue to play the hand).

The fourth reason is to isolate opponents. It is much easier to play a hand against one player instead of five. There’s no way you can bluff five opponents that are in a hand; someone has caught something in that situation so you either hit your flop or missed it and you play accordingly. But there’s a good chance if you’re playing against just one opponent, you can try to steal a pot if you didn’t pair up one of your two high cards or get the flush/straight draw you were looking for. Your bluff may not work, but there’s a greater chance of success when trying it against just one player.

The fifth reason is to win the hand right then and there. I tried this just last night: There were two callers with only the blinds left to act and myself, on the dealer button. Seeing that there was already a decent amount of chips to be won, I decided to try a raise with a mediocre hand (Jack-7 suited) and take the pot right there. If I was called, I’d still have a playable hand, and if I was re-raised, I'd throw it away. I raised three times the big blind, and sure enough, everyone folded and I took the chips! It’s gambling, but that’s what poker is all about.

Finally, perhaps the best reason to raise is to build the pot. You want to get paid off for your efforts! Winning chips is what makes you a winner, so when you hold a strong hand, it doesn’t matter much if you’re only winning pint-sized pots. Have the other players donate chips to your cause and crush them with your monster hand!

As I mentioned at the beginning, you don’t want to be too predictable and always raise when you have a good starting hand, mix it up a little and just flat call once in a while. I’ll discuss slow playing in my next column.

After the first slew of NHL pre-season games, there seems to be two constants: lots of goals, and lots of penalties. This is usually when we hear the whining by GMs and coaches (*cough*QUINN*cough*) that all the penalty calls disrupts the flow of the game, and that there's no possible way one team can be the dirty team with twelve penalties while the other team only has one. It's absolutely imperative the NHL stays the course and calls all the obstruction that has hampered the game for the last few years. Eventually the players will adapt and there won't be as nearly as many penalties as before, and we'll have a game without the clutching and grabbing...I had to do a quick double take when I read in The Hockey News the NY Islanders offered G Rick DiPietro a FIFTEEN year contract worth almost SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS!!! Are you frickin' kidding me? Did they learn ANYTHING from the 10-year Yashin deal what a horrible idea that is? And what has DiPietro done to deserve such a huge windfall? Anyway, the contract was pulled because of insurance issues regarding the length of the deal, and a one year contract was signed instead...The only reason I can see why the NHLPA filed a grievance for Keith Tkachuk's suspension from the Blues for being out of shape is to try and save face for the overpriced forward. So there's maybe a 1% doubt now that he didn't really show up in no condition to play, but I'm 99% sure he decided to super-size his meals through the lockout...I'm entering three different hockey pools starting next week, and as always, it's a crapshoot as to who you end up with. The key is finding players that will stay healthy, which is why likely I won't pick guys like Peter Forsberg, Mario Lemieux, Zigmund Palffy or Eric Lindros. I'd stay clear of Russians too, they seem to want to play overseas...Speaking of which, I'm still not certain if Red Wings F Pavel Datsyuk is going to play in the NHL this year or not, but if I were Detroit's GM, I'd try to trade him if he signed. You shouldn't have to force someone to play in the NHL, it should already be a player's dream. If money is all your future star player cares about, where's the character and heart required to lead your team to a championship?...I complained about PPV games the Senators are considering for next year, but at least we still have decent free TV coverage. In Chicago, owner Bill Wirtz blacks out EVERY Black Hawks home game, even if you purchase an NHL centre-ice package. Thanks for showing the fans you want them back, Bill...Back to the further ineptness by the Islanders, they are even more desperate than the NY Rangers offering F Jaromir Jagr the captaincy. F Alexei Yashin has been approached to be the leader for this upcoming season. You can ask Senators' fans how that will turn out...D Jason York opted not to sign a two-way deal to play for Ottawa, and instead sign a contract to play in Switzerland. What would you rather do, help a team win a Stanley Cup or eat Swiss cheese?...F Adam Deadmarsh had a respectable NHL career including winning a Stanley Cup ring, and now it's over because of concussion problems. It all started with a fight he had against Canucks' D Ed Jovanovski in 2000; it was further aggravated by getting hit in the head accidentally by a knee two years later. It's hard to say if his career still would have continued had not the initial fight happened, but that's where his problems first started and it demonstrates that fighting on the ice does indeed hurt and injure players. Yes, you can probably tell I'm in the minority of hockey fans who believes fighting should be banned. It is truly bizarre that bare-knuckled brawling is allowed in a pro-sport (but, I'm just as guilty as any other fan by cheering it on when it happens) ...And to sign off on a lighter note, Roger's local cable TV station will show the Leafs-Senators pre-season game this Sunday. Sweet, my first taste of NHL acion since the lockout! I'll definitely be tuning in.

Continuing from my "Know what you want to hold and what you want to fold" article, I want to talk specifically about not being predictable with your raises and calls, and demonstrate that your instincts can provide the best course of action for you to follow. My experience here came from playing in the Ottawa Sun poker tournament back in May of this year, and there were two hands that I played that taught me about listening to your gut instinct: one good, one bad. Each one will demonstrate to you why you shouldn't always play by the book when deciding which pots you want to try to enter and win. Let's start with the bad one first.
It was a full table (nine people, including myself), which generally means you should only play strong starting hands. I was two players away from the dealer button. One or two callers had called the big blind and then it came to me. I looked down to Ace-Seven unsuited. Normally, this is an automatic fold for me, as it's too likely someone is playing an Ace with a higher kicker at a table this size. But the possibility occurred to me that since no one had raised, it was unlikely someone was holding Ace-King at this point, and I can probably see the flop for cheap with my ace high being a decent hand in this situation. The problem though, is that I didn't listen to my "inner-monologue". It was burned into my head you must always fold Ace-Seven at such a large table. I didn't have as much experience to realize that in late position, with only a caller or two, this actually might be a hand to call with or maybe even try a raise. But, I ended up folding. The next two players folded their hands and both the small and big blinds were in without raising. And guess what the flop was? x-7-7. I would have made three of a kind with the best kicker possible, and would have won a decent-sized pot. I rolled my eyes at my total distrust of my instincts. But I learned something here and it helped me later on.
At this point now, I'm somewhat just below the average stack size at a full table of nine players. The first person to act folded, and then something interesting happened. This elderly lady, I would guess in her 60s or maybe 70s, decided she was going to play. She hadn't yet entered any pots since she moved to our table but when she decided to take a shot at it, everyone sure knew about it. Grabbing a fistful of chips, she pounded her hand solidly against the table three times and announced, "Raise!" and threw her chips in the middle. Wow, she meant business! The dealer hastily counted her chips and she had tripled or quadrupled the big blind. The next three or four players folded and then it came to me: I had Ace-Queen offsuit. With just one raiser, I would normally call, but after those theatrics, I thought twice about it. This quiet old lady, who hadn't played one hand, was now staring everyone down, almost daring us to try and play. I put her on Ace-King, pocket Kings or some other high pair, and although Ace-Queen usually merits a call, not this time. I fold. One player called her. I can't remember exactly what the flop was but it missed my Ace and Queen and was all low cards. After the flop, she immediately returned to her stack, and just like the first time, slammed her fist three times against the table with her mittful of chips and announced, "Bet!" and then rudely splashed the pot. The other player folded without much hesitation. I tried to entice her to show us what she had but this lady ignored me as she collected her chips and proclaimed loudly to the dealer "Thank you!" I will never know what her hand was, but if she was bluffing she certainly would have showed us to rub it in. But I don't think so. She had a monster hand and milked it for all it was worth. If she was bluffing, hey, I have to thank her for being so bold, because since no Ace or Queen hit the flop, I would have folded and lost had I decided to call her pre-flop bet anyway.
So what am I trying to say here? A theory is just a theory; listen to your instincts to tell you if you should put it into practice, and I'm certain you'll enjoy more success than not.

Depending on the amount of people at your table or tournament, you must already have in your mind an idea of what starting hands you would play or consider playing depending on the action that takes place at the table. To start off, any pair 10 or higher I would probably raise or call a raise with no matter if I'm in early position (one of the first people to start the action, which is not favourable to you since you're acting with little information about the other players' hands) or if I'm at or near the dealer button (last to act, which after observing how the other players have played before you can help you make a better and more-informed decision). Ace-King to Ace-Jack I would play as well. Middle pairs (such as 9s, 8s or 7s) are a bit trickier. If you read your opponent to have an Ace with a high card, you might consider raising or just calling, and depending on the flop either bet out or fold if a bet comes to you. Lower pairs are pretty easy: if you are playing deuces to sixes, you can be cute and try to raise with them and hopefully take the pot right there, but if you're called you're going to fold if you don't make three of a kind on the flop (as T.J. Cloutier would say, "No set, no bet".). It's also not a bad play to fold a low pair, and actually might save you some chips in the long run.
If you're re-raised pre-flop you might have some difficult decisions to make. If you have Ace-Jack for instance, you might be already behind if someone re-raised you with Ace-Queen or Ace-King and you called. If your ace hits, you might be outkicked (your Jack is "outkicked" because their ace is accompanied by a Queen or King, which is higher than your Jack) and are going to lose a lot of chips. If your Jack hits, you might simply be donating money to a pot you're not going to collect if you were raised with pocket Queens, Kings or Aces. Trust your instincts and don't be afraid to throw away good starting hands if you think you're beat.
As the table busts out players, your starting requirements should decrease as good hands become harder and harder to come by. So if you are re-raised and are holding Ace-Jack with 3 people at the table, I would probably call or even re-raise the hand depending on my read and stack at the time. The blinds are probably very high at this point so you need to get your chips in there with good hands before you're blinded out of play.
You don't want to be too predictable with your play either, so you might want to change it up and play cards like suited connectors (two cards succeeding in rank and of the same suit) and hope for straight and flush possibilities. The nice thing about these cards is that if you play 8-9 suited, and you get lucky and the flop comes x-8-8, most players won't think you would have bet with an eight in your hand and you can get well paid off. Keep in mind it probably isn't a good idea to play such cards if you don't have many chips (short stacked), and remember most of the time your flop will miss a straight or flush so get ready to throw them away if someone bets into you.
So, the general rule is the more players, the higher your requirements are to enter a pot. If there are nine players at the table, throw away that Ace-7. If there are 4 people playing, enter a pot with your King-Nine suited. In the end, you need a combination of patience, creativity and luck to be successful.

Suppose a person in middle position raises three times the big blind, which is standard for the table. You're on the button, and you look down to King-Queen suited, a pretty good starting hand. You decide to call. The rest of the table folds and now you're playing heads up.
The flop comes x-x-Q (x=small card). A good flop for you: you have top pair and a strong kicker. Your opponent bets half the pot and you decide to call. The turn is a 4. Your opponent bets out the same amount again, and you call. The river is a ten. Your opponent checks. Should you bet to try to win more chips or just check?
Before you make your decision, imagine you did bet, and then your opponent raised you, maybe even going as far as raising you all-in. Now you're in a tricky situation. Your pair of queens with king kicker doesn't look so good anymore. What if your opponent had initially raised you with pocket kings or aces? What if your opponent raised you with a small or middle pair and made a set? What if you're outkicked; in this case it could only be Ace-Queen but it's still a possibility. All these scenarios mean you end up the loser in the hand. But if you bet and your opponent has a weak hand, more than likely he'll just fold and you haven't made any more money. The only thing you did with this play was jeopardize your stack and winning the pot by giving your opponent the opportunity to move in on you. My advice is to check in this situation. It's just not worth the risk with a simple high pair if your opponent decides to go after more of your chips by going over-the-top of you if you decide to bet again. Why put yourself in a position that requires you to make such a difficult decision? The pot is already a good size and if you're beat, you're beat and you didn't lose any more chips, and if you won, your stack got bigger without endangering your place at the table. Don't get greedy when you can be knocked out from the table with one poorly played hand.

You know the NY Rangers are desperate when they ask Jaromir Jagr to captain the team. This guy has no leadership qualities, unless he's providing advice on how to cash a cheque. To his credit though, he turned it down (the captaincy, not the cheque)...Couldn't stop grinning from ear-to-ear when I heard the St Louis Blues suspended Keith Tkachuk for being a bloated, out-of-shape fat guy. Ok, a slight exaggeration, but he did show up to camp reportedly 30 lbs overweight. I've hated this guy ever since he thought he was too good to play for the Winnipeg Jets when they were around and wanted a trade out of there, so he can choke on all those donuts he's been eating for all I care...Eric Lindros might have liked the attention the Toronto media gave him once he signed on with the Leafs, but he was no doubt annoyed when reporters asked him about, gasp, getting bodychecked during practice. Imagine that, a guy is getting hit in a contact sport. Leafs media are no doubt desperate for a story...Speaking of the Big E, who would have thought Rick Nash would be out with an injury first? Luckily Jason Allison made up for that by sitting himself out with a hip flexor...Sportsnet is going to have a 1/2 hour Leafs show Monday to Friday during the entire NHL season. Woo-hoo...Every NHL pre-season game is going to have a shootout regardless of the score. I think introducing the shootout is a great idea. Some people think the game needs to be decided playing 5 on 5, but after regular time and then overtime, if it's so close why not have something exciting for the fans like that to decide a winner? We can still keep the status quo for the playoffs...You think fans aren't pumped for the return of the NHL? Friday night's Calgary vs Edmonton pre-season game was completely sold out, and not even all the star players were dressed to play...Not until I was putting together a hockey pool for my work did I realize Cory Stillman signed with the Carolina Hurricanes. The guy gets 80 points in 2003-2004 and the Lightning decide instead to give Vaclav Prospal another kick at the can in Tampa. He don't get no respect...Apparently Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley are finding great chemistry together and will likely play on the same line. If Martin Havlat can keep his pace playing left wing instead of right, and with Daniel Alfredsson back on D, that would be one sweet power play...The Ottawa Senators are considering pay-per-view games perhaps by next season. If this goes through, all that crap Bettman spewed about being the product more affordable for the average fan, well, it just makes him a liar...Is Sydney Crosby a class act not just on the ice but off it or what? He's cool, composed, articulate and an absolute pleasure when being interviewed by the media. Hopefully the NHL doesn't botch the mainstream potential this kid has.

....but seeing my friend Jennifer's daughter Brittany light up when approached by the Senators' mascot Spartacat, well, it melted my heart. It's really all about the kids, isn't it?

Sometimes when you think you have the nuts, which in poker terminology means you have the best hand possible, really you don't. I came across this when playing online the other day. I was the little blind and had Deuce-Five unsuited, an extremely weak starting hand but called since I already had a bet on the table and no one had raised. There were a total of 5 callers in the hand and the flop came: Deuce Four Five. This was a great flop for me: two pair including top pair. Now because there were four people still in play, I bet out to protect my hand and just take it right there. After my bet, the next player immediately tripled it. All the other players folded. This player hadn't played a hand in some time so I figured he had something. I didn't think he had an overpair because he called and didn't raise pre-flop. It's possible he could have slowed played aces but since the table had plenty of "calling stations", most were wise to raise pre-flop to protect their hands. I figured with the raise, he might have made a straight with Ace-Four or Three-Six, probably suited otherwise not much reason to call in the first place. He might also have held Four-Five suited, with his 2nd pair of fours beating my pair of deuces. He could be making a play at the pot, but with three people yet to make a decision on my initial bet his hand only indicated strength. After a few moments I decided to fold my two pair, and as a courtesy he showed his pocket 4s: he flopped a set and probably wanted to find out if landed a straight on the flop, hence the raise. My point of all this? It's ok to lay down a decent hand when someone raises you. If he was bluffing, so what? You're still at the table with chips. Be careful when calling or re-raising an opponent in this situation, because if your opponent raised you after the flop, more than likely he'll continue to bet strong to the river and you have to decide if it's worth your remaining stack.

Ah yes, the WWE. I have not picked a good time to write about it, as since a strong Wrestlemania show this year, the quality has severely declined…Leave it to WWE creative to drop the biggest money angle they had in Hardy v. Edge since the Invasion storyline of 2002. No one cares anymore, but people might (ahem) forgive if they pull off a show stealer at this Sunday’s Unforgiven…Daniel Puder, the most recent WWE Tough Enough winner, has been shown the door. His 4 year, $250,000 per year contract was obviously only guaranteed for the first year. Another failure by WWE…I tried to watch Raw last night (Sept 12/05) but couldn’t do it after about 20 minutes. I don’t care for Chris Masters and the tag team division is a disaster. I’m just not into the characters and I miss Chris Jericho already…The internet hates Randy Orton, but not this guy. He can work and is great on the mic…Loved the handing of the “retirement fund” cheque to the Undertaker on last week's Smackdown. The only thing missing was a toll free number to make a donation. Can I get a receipt for tax purposes?...Another WWE creative mishandle: Christian. He wasn’t even on the show last week, and now they’ve had to pull his best-selling “Captain Charisma” shirt because they didn’t copyright the slogan. The new shirts WWE want fans to vote on stink. They need to get Christian on a roll and, at the very least, put the U.S. title strap on him before the year’s out. He’s in the top 5 as far as being over with the fans the company has…Smackdown does seem to be picking up steam and may become the show to watch over Raw; a decent show last week with reports last night’s taping was excellent as well. But watching a taped program just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Could you imagine watching a 5 day old NHL game and knowing what the results are?…One thing WWE has done right is put together good DVD collections. I’m looking forward to the Bret Hart as well as the Jake Roberts 3 disc set later this year, who was my favourite performer when I was just a wee lad…How come Bob Holly still has a job? He doesn’t draw money and all he does is injure people…When Raw debuts on the USA network October 3, a “Night of Champions” show is being promoted with Mick Foley, Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan making appearances. Anything but the current product is alright by me…Ok, Kurt Angle is still the man and I like John Cena, they should have a good match at this Sunday's PPV. There, I’m not always this grumpy :)

Training camp opened this week, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t pumped for this season. Canadians will be back in droves, and that’s all who I’ll vouch for...The primary reason why I’ll never take Peter Forsberg in any hockey pools: he’s already injured and will be out for a couple of weeks. This guy is simply too fragile these days. Coupled with his moaning about “maybe” heading to Sweden to finish his career, I’m not ready to hand over the Stanley Cup to the Flyers yet….The Flyers made obvious improvements on D acquiring Rathje and Hatcher, but what about up front? Their top scorer, Recchi, along with Amonte, Roenick, and Leclair in my view have not been adequately replaced...As much as I loved landing Heatley in Ottawa, the bottom line is the season is over for the Sens if Hasek doesn’t perform and we have to rely on Ray Emery for goaltending, who’s coming off a sub-par season in Binghamton…Toronto may just have acquired enough talent to be competitive night in and night out. I say that statement before they signed underachieving Mariusz Czerkawski…Question: If Pittsburgh could barely afford spending $20M before the new CBA, why all of a sudden can they afford a mid-$30M payroll with reduced ticket prices? They still aren’t guaranteed the new arena Mario & Co. have been looking for…If I’m an Eastern Conference team and I’m heading for the playoffs, I’d give L.A. a call and see what they’d want for Jeremy Roenick. I don’t think there’s anything more he’d like to do than stick it to Bobby Clarke and the gang, and he’d have the fire to do it…Speaking of fire, teams are playing with it by signing these star players to long term deals for $6 to $7M a season. If revenues fall below projections so will their cap room which is so vital in the post-CBA NHL…Nice to see Edmonton trade some youth for an established veteran star. Before now it was always the reverse…The Oil must must must must resign Ryan Smyth long-term…If Chicago and Pittsburgh, who were bottom of the barrel squads can now ice a decent team, why can’t the Rangers do the same? That “rebuilding” phrase Glen Sather talks about just doesn’t wash with this guy…The columnist I loathe the most but keep reading: Al Strachan...What is it with Russians holding out and wanting to play outside the NHL? Not interested in playing in the best league in the world? Goodbye and good riddance…Any big-market team fan who thinks the new CBA is unfair and has cost them all their good players, hey, this is the way the rest of us have felt like for a decade…The NHLPA had no business agreeing to an “escrow” fund, where if revenues aren’t met the players have to return some of their salary to the owners. The owners got the cap they wanted; it’s up to them to deal with it from that point on…I have no problems with Todd Bertuzzi returning to the ice to play again. I do have a problem with the NHL continuing to ignore the increasing violence (not necessarily fights) in the league and failing to come up with a strategy to curtail it. The players do not respect each other in the manner they should, and the old school guys who claim the players can police themselves, well, the Moore and Brashear incidents make it clearly evident the status quo does not work…Mark Messier, we are going to miss you. Trent Klatt, you chose the wrong day to announce your retirement.