[SPOARTS!] Comments that don't warrant their own thread

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
A tell to call with Jack high? If that guy has Q7, she loses. I have no idea if she cheated, but that is nonsense.
If you say so. I believe, based on her personal experience in playing against him, that she thought that he thought that he was going to draw a straight flush. Now, as has been pointed out by people who understand poker better than I do, there were multiple outs that would have still beaten her, but my belief is that whatever tell she recognized in his face/body language indicated to her that he wasn't playing for any of those: that he was committed to a straight flush that she knew he couldn't get, because she had the Jack of Clubs.

Like I suggested in the previous post, she wasn't playing the odds, she was playing him.
 
I'm struggling to see it as cheating. It could have mathematically been a horrifically bad call but if people just played the math they wouldn't show poker on TV.

And yes the Jack of Clubs is being understated by many folks. Maybe she overvalued it in her math, but it's a big deal as someone who once got busted on a straight flush I didn't see coming with an ace high flush can attest.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
And yes the Jack of Clubs is being understated by many folks. Maybe she overvalued it in her math, but it's a big deal as someone who once got busted on a straight flush I didn't see coming with an ace high flush can attest.
Yeah, I think there's definitely holes in her skillset as a poker player; just the simple fact that knowing he still could have gotten that straight flush with a six would have put me off. But, like I said, she was playing against dude, not the odds.

Poker is psyops.
 
OK, but that still doesn't make sense. He didn't need a straight flush to beat her. A straight or a flush beats her. There is zero chance she knew he had those exact cards. Also, if he was on a K high starright draw and misses, he beats her. There is literally like 3-4 hands TOTAL she beats there. You can know someone is bluffing and has air, but you still have to have a hand that can beat air, she did not.
 
a pocket face pair would have beat her. I just am not ready to jump from cheating to getting out of a bad call on someone else who was clearly trying to push the pot around themselves. yes, he had like a dozen outs and yet not one of them came through.

did she play other questionable hands to perfection? does it happen at a rate that isn't mathematically explainable? or is everyone fixated on this one hand and some random comment that someone saw her chair move funny.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
... He didn't need a straight flush to beat her. A straight or a flush beats her. There is zero chance she knew he had those exact cards. Also, if he was on a K high starright draw and misses, he beats her. There is literally like 3-4 hands TOTAL she beats there. You can know someone is bluffing and has air, but you still have to have a hand that can beat air, she did not.
Every word of this is true, and makes perfect sense, if you're playing the math. I don't think she was.

Poker's only, like, 25 percent math, IMO. She won that hand off the strength of the other 75 percent.
 
The problem with the hand is multifaceted, but the biggest problem is that even if you know the person is fully bluffing or on a draw, you would never ever call with that hand. If she had AJ I can see calling because she beats all draws and has to fade outs. She could have been drawing dead to MOST draws.
 
The thing is if she was cheating it was still a bad call. In fact we can all say it's such a phenomenally bad call precisely because we all had the benefit of the pocket cams.

So either she's completely dumb, or she knew he was bluffing, but she didn't know how many outs he had. I think we can probably rule cheating out though.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
The problem with the hand is multifaceted, but the biggest problem is that even if you know the person is fully bluffing or on a draw, you would never ever call with that hand. If she had AJ I can see calling because she beats all draws and has to fade outs. She could have been drawing dead to MOST draws.
But that's just it. I believe (and you obviously disagree) that she noticed a tell which, between that, and her previous experience of playing against him, she didn't simply figure out that he was bluffing, I think that she actually correctly guessed what his actual play was. I think that she had a total blind spot to every other draw that could have beaten her, and was locked in on what she guessed (rightly, in hindsight) he was trying to do.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Seems to me as though we are in the same position that we were in forty-eight hours ago. If you saw the look on Garrett's face after that hand, then you know that there was no way in the world that he wasn't going to accuse Robbi of cheating. And I'm pretty sure that the casino has no choice but to investigate any claims of cheating, when that much money is on the line. The only real difference between now and then is that Garrett appears to have prematurely "declared victory," and seems to be citing the fact that the casino is investigating at all as "proof" that cheating actually occurred.

Look, I ain't going nowhere; I damned sure ain't quitting the message board. If, when the smoke clears, I end up looking like an idiot, I'll still be around to take my lumps. Until then, I will carry on believing that I'm right about this.
 
I’ve finally found clarity.

The US Women’s National Team for Worlds will be:

Skye Blakely, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, Shilese Jones and Leeane Wong with Lexi Zeiss as the traveling replacement.

All that blathering before meant nothing. Team was chosen following a selection camp this weekend. Worlds starts in a week.

Noticeably absent is Konnor McClain who won the all-around title at Nationals, but is out due to a back injury.
 
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Super late on this because, well, been a helluva week but …

US Women win GOLD at Worlds!!! … as expected.

Even still, cool to see them take home a record-breaking 6th world title in a row.

No Biles. No Lee. No McClain. (no russia).
No Worries.

Carey is some kind of stoic, clockwork terminator. Chiles has that punk rocker’s soul of volts and chaos. Jones moved like silk in water. Wong and Blakely contributed (even if Blakely stumbled off beam in her only appearance. Good experience for the world competition rook).

Team GB used the hometown crowd to … er, vault … past powerhouse China (6th) and pre-tourney darling, heir-apparent Brazil (4th) to take silver.

And Canada, CANADA came out of nowhere to claw their way to a bronze. First Western Hemisphere country other than the US to medal in Worlds … and it’s Canada. Ellie Black earned herself a whole crate of Crown Royal for willing that team to the podium.

Of course, it should have been Brazil. And it probably would have been had Saravia not been hobbled by an ankle injury. Still, two decades of the gymnastics community perched on the cusp of throwing Team Brazil a “Welcome to the Elites” party worthy of Rio Carnival has become exhausting. Andrade is obviously still a force of nature in her own right, but it just feels like Team Brazil is running out of time for their Magnificent 7 moment. Paris 2024 might be it.
 
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And speaking of that force of nature …

Andrade wins the All-Around gold, Brazil’s first World/Olympic AA Gold.

Jones takes silver for the US. Great Britain’s Gadirova (Edit: Jessica for those of you really curious which twin) earns bronze.

Cool fact I learned today: Brazil had no active Olympic Gymnasts when Andrade was born in 1999.

Just when we think we’re out, they pull us back in.
 
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Carey and Chiles went 1-2 on Vault at worlds, with France’s Devillard edging out Ellie Black for bronze. Bit of a redemption moment for Carey who misstepped on the event in the Olympics pushing her out of the medal running, despite having been an early favorite.

This time it was Andrade with the miscue that knocked her out of qualifying.

Jones managed to nab the silver on Uneven Bars, beating out the event’s Olympic Champion Belgium’s Nina Derwael by a razor thin edge.

But neither could come close to the now two-time reigning world champion on the event China’s Wei Xiaoyaun. Pretty impressive stretch for Wei who was an alternate in Tokyo, but has come to dominate the apparatus after really only 2 years on the Senior Circuit. And so far, the only bright spot for China on the women’s side, somewhat mirroring the minor nightmare that was Tokyo for them.
 
Wrapping up Worlds with the final two individual events.

Bit of a wonky day on Balance Beam as the 3 favorites: Adrande, Blakely, and China’s Ou, all fell, opening the door for Watanabe and Miyata to nab Gold and Bronze for Japan, with Ellie Black, having the tournament of her life, bringing home silver.

Blakely was putting on a gold-worthy routine before she fell. Hopefully she takes the experience in stride and builds off it.

On Floor, Britain’s Jessica Gadirova pulled off a slight upset for gold, adding another medal to her all-around bronze and team silver for the hometown crowd.

Chiles put in an electric routine for silver, and kind of weird moment for Carey, her difficulty score was dropped tying her with Adrande for bronze.
 
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Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Super late on this because, well, been a helluva week but …

US Women win GOLD at Worlds!!! … as expected.

Even still, cool to see them take home a record-breaking 6th world title in a row.

No Biles. No Lee. No McClain. (no russia).
No Worries.
This achievement remains wild for those of us who are old enough to remember when the United States never won gold in gymnastics; always bridesmaids, we were.
 
This achievement remains wild for those of us who are old enough to remember when the United States never won gold in gymnastics; always bridesmaids, we were.
And now they’re the Damn Yankees.

Biles, Lee, Carey, Chiles, McClain, Jones. Any one of them would be the top talent in most other countries. But the US can trot out a line-up with one of them designated an alternate.

Only Russia and China can even hope to compete with that depth. Even then, the former is constantly struggling with sanctions, and the latter keeps collapsing in head-to-head meets with the State’s A-Team.

Quite a change from the days of it being Mary Lou Retton and a bunch of girls named Jane (apologies to Julianne McNamara).
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
I remember when I was seventeen, and Kim Zmeskal was America's hope in Barcelona, only for Shannon Miller to steal her thunder, and lead USA to a bronze.
 
Poor Zmeskal, another Karolyi “protege” or victim depending on your angle. Absolutely dominant gymnast at every level, except the Olympics, when most Americans actually pay attention.

Stress fracture doomed her in Barcelona, and an ACL tear kept her out of the Magnificent 7. Karolyi abandoned her the moment she wasn’t one of his champions, the same way he did Moceanu.