f13.net forums - Time to Fiesta!

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April 24, 2024, 11:36:54 PM

we're back, baby

Off to the Fiesta Bowl and then Vegas until Monday.

Go UTES!

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Killer game. Going to a big time bowl is quite an experience. Especially when 5/6 of the people at th game are your fans. Sea of red. Was annoyed by the constant TV time outs though. Utes played the way I thought they would, i.e. DOMINATE. The D-line was the key. Those fat boys kicked some ass.

It's about time someone at a game noticed.

TV-Timeouts have destroyed sports.

I've been to the Orange Bowl a couple times. Bowls are some of the few sporting events I actually enjoy.

The Sugar Bowl a couple of years ago with UGA and FSU was riddled with TV timeouts. What made it worse was that they kept playing the same damn commercials on the jumbotron over and over during those timeouts with the sound jacked up. Not only were the fans being constantly annoying with commercials, but those at the game were too. It was amazingly stupid.

I missed this thread so have a great trip and welcome back!

I gotta ask... what the fuck is up with the Virginia Tech coach's neck? It's... I mean... I... what the fuck?

I think it is an old burn wound that was healed with skin grafts. Someone with more time and google to burn can get a better answer.

Congrats to the Utes. I still say that they are the second best team that A&M played this year. Considering we played OU, the horns, Utah, and Tenn, that is pretty good company.

The Ute OL and DL are what really make that team stand out. Good size and speed is tough to play against. Utah would crush Auburn.

Quote from: Nazrat

Congrats to the Utes. I still say that they are the second best team that A&M played this year. .

Sic em Bears!

Hey, it's not too often I can be happy about my alma mater's football team. Gotta take advantage of the opportunity. :)

(yes, I know baylor's football program still sucks insanely huge donkey dick.)

[gracious]Congrats Abagadro, your boys put a lickin' on my boys. Even if we actually held on to the football and kicked decently, we would have lost by a good two tuchdowns (but it would have looked better in the paper the next day at least). Dave Wynnestadt has his work cut out for him this offseason.

I have to apologize for comparing the Utes to the old Houston/BYU teams, because unlike those teams, the Utes have a very solid defense. Your front 7 was especially excellent. I think the D is the cornerstone of your team, and you are in good stead with the defensive coordinator taking over. [/gracious]

[poor loser] The offense is a little gimmicky though. Like those other teams, it's based on the spread and a gimmik (shovel-option) that will obliterate teams without 6 defenders with covercorner-type speed. Pitt doesn't have that. They got 35 points against the worst pass d in the Big East. If he tries to run that offense in the SEC next year, he will go through about 4 quarterbacks before Halloween. [/poor loser]

[bitter fan] THANK GOD Walt Harris is leaving. The guy can recruit (as the number of NFL draftees in recent years shows) but he can't coach a game for shit (as our record in recent years despite all those draftees shows).

That game was a Walt Harris classic: he insists on sticking with his offense no matter what, because he'd rather lose his way than win any other way. The Utes were blitzing almost every single play. They also had a freshman corner on our best WR. If you could just get Palko some time to throw, the long ball would be available (as the TD and the dropped TD showed). Any high school football coach will tell you to run some screens, a draw or two, and maybe a max-protect pass to force the defense to lay off the blitzing. I don't remember a single draw or max-protect pass. I remember one screen (that gained about 20 yards) late on the third quarter, but that's it. It was still the Harris "block with 5 and run a bunch of slow developing patterns deep" every damn play despite the fact that it wasn't working. It was like watching Spurrier coach the Skins last year.

Thank God they kicked his ass out and brought in a new coach. My apologies to any Stanford fans out there. [/bitter fan]

Again, this is not to say that we would have won. No way, we just lacked the speed of defense to match the Utes' speed on offense. But we could have made it at least respectable, and given the fans the track-meet game that was expected.

Of course, like most Pittsburghers I am a Steeler fan first (as the crowd in Buffalo on Sunday vs the crowd in Tempe on Saturday showed) and they are kicking ass :)

Anyway, congrats Utes and my apologies for the ramble.

On the shuttle pass, that is actually known as the Utah Pass in football circles as it was pioneered in the mid 1950's by Lee Grossman who played for the Utes. Just thought I would throw that out there as useless trivia.

You didn't see it very much, but that shuttle is just one of the triple option the Utes run. Pitt seemed to jump the outside option runners every play so they just dumped it off to the shuttle. It isn't really "gimmiky" in my mind as it is just one part of a very sophisticated triple option that Pitt simply couldn't stop. The thing about that Ute offense is that if you try to take away one thing, it opens up at least two others and they will pound you with it over and over again. Smith was incredible in that game and looked like a pro QB. If he can put on another 30 lbs he will play for a long time on Sunday.

I'm a little disappointed the Utes didn't get a true chance to test their metle. I maintain with all possible objectivity that the Utes could play with any team in the country. They would have to catch a couple of breaks and play their good game to beat an OU or USC or Auburn, but I really don't think they would get blown off the field like many believe. The Utes got called on some chincey penalties in the first half and significantly let up on Pitt in the 4th quarter or that game would have been 49-7 easy.

Oh well. Dream season. Meyer is gone, Smith is going to NFL, Warren is gone, Savoy probably gone, Pouha gone, Scaley gone. Next year its back to mediocrity I'm sure although Wittingham is a great coach and a cool guy (he is a neighbot of mine) so I'm hoping he can at least keep some MWC dominance going.

I can see why Alex Smith is going pro. I'm not a big fan of juniors in the NFL draft, but look at it this way. Smith knows that Meyer was a good coach, so he can attribute part of his success to the coaching. With that coach gone, who knows how much chance Smith will have to strut his stuff or who will be around him. Hell, the new coach might turn down the passing offense. Smith's perceived value is high right now. He's hoping to get in before anyone sees he might not have been that valuable. Smart kid.

Ya, he basically said that if he was going to learn a new offense, he might as well get paid to do it. The new offensive coordinator is from Oregon and he coach David Carr when he was at fresno, so I think that he could have helped Alex with his drop-back passing. But when you just went undefeated, were fourth for the Heisman and are about as high profile as you can get and you are likely losing your top three receivers, probably a good time to bail. Add to that that he is about to recieve his master's degree as a junior and it doesn't make much sense to stay around.

I don't know that I would say the Utes let up. They were still heaving 20 yard passes with 4 minutes in change left on their second-to-last drive. Almost to the point where I thought good sportsmanship would require a visit to Mr Smith's knee after the next pass. If you get to complain about penalties, I should get to complain about the 2 offensive line injuries :p

The thing about the offense is that it opens up your quarterback to a LOT of hard hits against a good, fast defense. It's a good idea, especially since the shovel invites cutbacks and forces the defense to stay honest in a way that your typical option or conventional triple-option doesn't. But like most stretch-style offenses, it is well designed to blow out poor and average teams because they can't match up against it, but I don't think it will do so well against good ones, because fast and physical linemen and backers in your backfield can blow those plays up. There's a reason you don't see elite schools and NFL clubs running offenses this open, especially with fairly slow-developing inside plays.

I said all along you should have gotten to play Auburn, and not only because we match up much better against Va T. You would have had a chance to beat the real Auburn, and certainly would have beaten the Auburn that showed up last night.

Does Smith have the arm strength to be an NFL starter?

More importantly, how was your poker play in Vegas? I haven't been out there in almost a year now, but I did clean up against the locals up at my in-laws by the Seneca Allegeny Casino. Well, as much cleaning as you can do playing 3/6.

Oh ya, I was going to post some of my poker experience.

You are right that really good linebackers could hurt that option and the Utes went up against some defenses that made it tough (the 3-3-5s that a lot of MWC schools play). When that happened, the Utes pounded it up the middle with the run and threw deep. That's why I said it wouldn't matter if you took one thing away, it would open up more. It was a vary multi-faceted attack.

I think Smith's arm can make it in the NFL. He didn't get to use it much because of the offense that they ran 90% of the time. He is an amazing defense reader and smart kid. He is durable too, but needs greater size. I think he will at a minimum have a pretty good career as an NFL backup. If he can put on 30 pounds of muscle and get in the right system, he could be a very good QB and start on Sunday.

On to poker. In Vegas I only got to play for one night so played the 4-8 at the Mandalay where I was staying. I like the room more now that it went non-smoking. The games were typical Vegas games with 2 good players, a maniac or two and 4-5 fish. I was hit hard by the deck early and went up $150 bucks in about 20 minutes before my table broke. I then played with that money for the next six hours going up and down. Finished up 120 after a hot chick (there were two at the table which made it nice when not in the hand) flopped a set of 8s to my Big Slick TP/TK and just called me down all the way down which ate into my winnings, but figured it was time to quit at 2 a.m.

The real wild game was a place down in Arizona that I ended up playing at on New Years Eve. Holy JumpJacking Christ. I have never played in a game like this, even online. It played like the loosest, craziest .5/1 party game you ever sat at, but was a 4/8 with a full kill! It was at an Indian casino just outside of Scotsdale that has a monster 45 table room. Excellent room too. All the tables are wired and when a player leaves they push a button that sends the table number to the floor so they can fill it. Another button calls service and they had great food for dirt cheap.

Anyways, I asked a couple of locals playing at the table and they said every game is like this! It was capped preflop four ways a good chunk of the time. The rest of the time was 7-8 ways for two bets. I of course immediately drop 300 bucks because this is very antitheitcal to my play style which relies on playing big cards for multiple bets and pushing people off hands. My flopped sets go down to rivered flushes with people having raised 83s in early position, etc. etc. I finally get the picture and start building back up. I muck high unsuited cards or at least try to see the flop cheap. I play like TP/GK or even 2 pair is not a very good hand and play them very carefully. I start playing drawing hands and paying bets with poor pot odds but good implied odds as those can explode.

The key hand came like this: I am in LMP with 88. There is this one guy UTG who literally raises every hand and every opportunity. He sat down with 500 bucks in a 4-8 game and seems to think that raising everything all the time is the way to play (he was losing his ass). I have seen him raise 43o UTG and when he doesn't raise it is news on the table. Anyways, he takes it up. There are two callers to me and I call. Another maniac three bets it and then it is capped by the total nut and everyone calls. I think it was 6-7 to the flop for four bets (cap there is 4 for some reason unless headsup in which case it is unlimited). Flop comes down K98 rainbow. I am bery, bery happy. By the time it gets to me it has been bet and raised, so I three bet knowing I'm not getting anyone to fold so it is pure value raise. It is ultimately capped. I'm a bit wary because I've had multiple sets go down to runner runners at this table. The turn comes down a 7d putting two diamonds on the board. A bet is led out and a semi-solid player who had smooth called the prior bets raises. At this point I just know I am behind. I almost three bet knowing the guy who just came to life is on the nut st8, but that I will get everyone to come along and I still have 10 outs, but I just call the two. EVERYONE calls. There are so many bets in now that I have virtually lost count. They play with 1 dollar chips in this game so there is a varitable mountain in the middle. The river card comes down a Kd puting the flush on the board and making my boat. I'm loving it, but have this sneaky suspician that I have the canoe on this hand and am going to get hammered. I decide "fuck it" and that I am going to the felt with this if necessary. There is a lead out and a raise from the usual characters. I 3-bet it and this old cranky broad who had been smooth calling caps it. At this point I think someone has runnered it with K9 as EVERYONE FREAKING CALLS 4 bets on the river. The old broad flips up AQd diamonds for the nut flush and she is thinking she won it. I flip my 8s and everyone else mucks. The semi-solid guy confirmed to me that he only had the st8 and still called the river cap down so I move him from semi-solid column into the "dumbass" column. The dealer turns to me (I'm in the 1 seat) and just says "your rich" as he pushes the monster pot to me. It takes him 4 shoves. I figure it was around a 40BB pot. I said "I thought I was beat" and the old crone says "what could beat you will a full house" and I say "a bigger full house." The concept seems lost on the table.

I took another couple of pots off the uber-nut while waiting for the blinds to come around including one where I had slick and rivered broadway. There were three hearts on the board on the turn and I had the A when a non-heart T came on the river making my st8. I raised his ass anyways and he didn't show after calling me down. That felt very good. When the BB came to me I stacked up my 5 racks of 1s and headed out. Finished up 160 which considering I was 300 down at one point was fine by me.

So if you are in the Phoenix area and want some crazy maniac poker, go out to the Casino River at Indian Bend up the 101.

EDIT: Insert some para. breaks.

Quote from: Abagadro

So if you are in the Phoenix area and want some crazy maniac poker, go out to the Casino River at Indian Bend up the 101.

I believe that's the Casino Arizona at Talking Stick.

Quote from: Abagadro

The key hand came like this: I am in LMP with 88. There is this one guy UTG who literally raises every hand and every opportunity. He sat down with 500 bucks in a 4-8 game and seems to think that raising everything all the time is the way to play (he was losing his ass). I have seen him raise 43o UTG and when he doesn't raise it is news on the table. Anyways, he takes it up. There are two callers to me and I call. Another maniac three bets it and then it is capped by the total nut and everyone calls. I think it was 6-7 to the flop for four bets (cap there is 4 for some reason unless headsup in which case it is unlimited). Flop comes down K98 rainbow....
.....
.......
.........

I wish I understood what you were saying.

Quote from: Shockeye

Quote from: Abagadro

So if you are in the Phoenix area and want some crazy maniac poker, go out to the Casino River at Indian Bend up the 101.

I believe that's the Casino Arizona at Talking Stick.

Goddamn it! I was in Scottsdale in November and never got a chance to play there (drove by it damn near every day I was there). Fucking family wedding with family shit planned EVERY FUCKING DAY. I could have paid for the whole trip in a few hours at CA! Bitter am I.

Quote from: Shockeye

Quote from: Abagadro

I wish I understood what you were saying.

Let me translate.
He was having a drink in a bar at Lampedusa Airport in Italy (airport code: LMP) with Jerry Rice (#88) when a guy walks in with a shotgun and tells everyone to put their hands up. There were 4-8 other people in the bar and the guy collected $500 from them and the till. He tells everyone that he's killed 43 people and not to fuck with him. Jerry flips out like a maniac and jumps the guy. The gun goes off and caps someone, and Jerry gets hit in the nuts. 6 or 7 guys rush him while everyone else calls the cops and 4 seconds later the thief flops to the ground. Then the gay bartender pulls out an antique K98 Mauser rifle. . .

Good story.

Sounds like an awesome game. I love games like that much more than your typical profitable game you see online. It's much more fun to limp in with any pair or suited connector because nobody raises preflop and occasionally winning huge pots with the nuts or near-nuts than it is to grind out fold after fold to win a few moderate expectation top pair + kicker hands.

I love a big, extremely loose/ moderately passive game. It's fun and you make money. The other games allow you to make money, but to me they are usually about as much fun as filling out a tax form after a while. And I could make a lot more money filling out actual tax forms :)

Quote from: sidereal

Brilliant.

Quote from: El Gallo

It's much more fun to limp in with any pair or suited connector because nobody raises preflop and occasionally winning huge pots with the nuts or near-nuts than it is to grind out fold after fold to win a few moderate expectation top pair + kicker hands.

My 2 rules to Poker Fun and Happiness and Occasional Money are:
1. See more flops
2. See fewer turns

Good times. Of course, I'm not responsible if good players raise the fuck out of you pre-flop and/or drop out whenever you stay in post-flop.

The key is to play with no good players, but rather a bunch of guys who play every other hand but never raise preflop and will call almost anything to the river. Good players are no fun to play against, because then you actually have to play well, and playing well is boring :)

Those are indeed the golden games.

In the one I was in, it wasn't the number of players in the hands that threw me at first as I am quite used to the fish schooling. It was the maniac aggression people had playing total crap. Took a while to figure it out after folding some decent but not anywhere near nut hands that turned out would have been winners when it came to me 3-bets on the river.

By the end though, it was fun to know that not only was I the best player at the table, but that no one was even in the same ballpark which almost never happens in my games (there are usually at least 1-3 other solid players).

Quote from: Abagadro

I'm a little disappointed the Utes didn't get a true chance to test their metle. I maintain with all possible objectivity that the Utes could play with any team in the country.

Agreed. I would have loved a USC v. Utes matchup. As oppsoed to the slaughter we got for the national championship.

Worst thing about the bowl games was fucking Auburn going undefeated for the season.

I hate Auburn.

Too bad the Tide sucks. I'm hoping that a Bear Bryant clone is actually being grown in a lab as we speak.