Double Trouble

Ultimate Poker in another player-friendly promotion, has rolled out something they call "NO-verlay." If any tournament with a guaranteed prize pool, actually meets its guarantee, everyone gets their buy-in refunded.
At first the promotion didn't catch on, only a few tournaments were going freeroll. But as the promotion entered its third week, word spread, players got wise and now every tournament is filling up. The $100 buy-in Sunday tournament was free, the $50 nightly has been free about 8 - 10 days in a row, and the $10 and $20 buy-ins that start later and are accessible to me, have also been free just about every night over the past two weeks.
As you would imagine I have been trying to play as many of these tournaments as possible to maximize my value. At first I wasn't doing very well in these free tournaments, but I've recently hit a string of luck, cashing 3 times in 4 days in the $20 buy-in ($244, $125 and $29) but last night was my biggest score yet.

I started at 9pm with the $10 buy-in $750 GTD Rebuy and Addon. I did not rebuy or add on (because those are not refunded). I got down to a short stack early and decided to shove with A7. I got called by AK and hit two 7s on the flop. A few hands later I shoved A8 suited (still short stacked) and again beat AK, this time with an 8 on the river.
The rest of the way I played good solid poker, took a couple bad beats, got lucky in a couple spots, and ended up winning a very brief heads up match.

In the meantime I was also playing the $500 GTD turbo, $10 buy-in. Blinds go up twice as fast and it pretty much becomes all-in or fold after the first few levels, if you are short stacked. Which I was when I picked up A10. As I tried to click all-in, I got disconnected. I had to reset my router and by the time I did, my A10 had been mucked. That might have been the luckiest thing that happened all night because after that I went on a heater and ended up shipping this one too.

A nice $600 to add to the pile, and I'm hoping to add a few more before this great money giveaway ends.

Mrs. Poop's Short-Term Memory Loss

Mrs. Poop and I were watching a show, ok, it was "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and Kris Jenner was stomping grapes. I made reference to this famous internet video and she laughed hysterically and claimed she never saw it before.



I know I laughed about it and everyone else I know sent it around, but it was in the infancy of the internet before Facebook and twitter so maybe she really never saw it.

But when she said she never saw this clip from Louis CK's sitcom, I knew it wasn't that she hadn't seen them, it was that she had completely forgotten.



Is it really possible she never saw these?

Falling Far Short of the Original, Twice

Reebok is out with a new series of ads based on the famous barbershop scenes from Coming to America. They feature Shaquille O'Neal and Shawn Kemp. This one also stars Allen Iverson.



It's not a very funny homage to Coming to America, nor to the "practice" rant.
But it's out there and I know you rely on me to bring you these things.

Song of the Week

"If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to be Right)" - Luther Ingram
One of the best soul songs of all time. Nothing special here musically, just a guy singing his heart out. Feel his pain.

He's Come A Long Way Baby

Exactly 5 years ago today (I started this post before realizing the date was exact), I posted a classic The Roots song, "What They Do" (SOTW, 3/4/09) and the comments section became a forum to air grievances about their new (at the time) late night talk show, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

I said "The Roots are the house band for the worst late night talk show in the history of the world."
TON said "I just watched Monday's Late Night, and must admit...it was pretty bad. Jimmy Fallon seemed almost too nervous to do it...Did you see the 'lick it for 10' bit? Worst segment I've ever seen on any show."
TallSkott said "Am I the only one who doesn't think Fallon is funny?"

I think we were all correct at the time, segments like "Dance Your Hat and Gloves Off," "Wheel of Carpet Samples" and the aforementioned "Lick It for 10" were goofy ideas that just didn't work.

To their credit, the producers, writers and Fallon himself reimagined the show and started leaning on his strengths and The Roots. The show has had incredible hits with musical-themed segments that are entertaining, funny and go viral very quickly, like the 5 installments of History of Rap with Justin Timberlake.

My favorite recurring gimmick is when they sit down with an artist and play his/her popular song with kids' instruments.
The best was "Call Me Maybe" with Carley Rae Jepsen. But there was also "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke (in which Black Thought spits a verse way doper than the cheesy one TI laid down on the actual recording). And there was also a hip-hop Sesame Street theme with the characters in studio, and Black Thought killing it once again.

The latest of these is a rendition of "Let It Go" with Idina Menzel from "Frozen."



Another recent segment I like that typifies Fallon's strength as a mimic is the hashtags segment in which they asked for viewer submissions of frequently misheard song lyrics, which Fallon then sang.



I was particularly amused by his Mick Jagger impression, "In Yugoslavia, in Yugoslavia you'll never starve."

If they continue to churn out gems like this Fallon could very well go down as a legendary late night host.

And that's something none of us saw coming 5 years ago.

There's a Nicer Way To Say It Than That

At the end of the best bit in the history of late night television, Louis CK's "Everything is Amazing and Nobody's Happy" CK marveled about the speed of a cross-country flight by saying "you watch a movie and take a dump and you're home."
Conan O'Brien, playing the straight man, responded with "there's a nicer way to say it than that."

That line popped into my head when I heard announcer Darryl "Razor" Reaugh describe a goal by Jamie Benn on the Dallas Stars.



"Like poop through a diarrhea-infected goose."

Well, that really gets the point across.