Deepstacks Boot Camp + Slam-Dunk Rant = Good Blog

A few weeks back I was in Tampa for a Deepstacks University poker boot camp. It was my first experience at one of these and after all was said and done, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really cool to meet all the students when they first came to the camp and watch them progress over the weekend. It reminded me of what it was like when I was first learning the game. There were some people who played online regularly but felt like something was amiss. Some people who were basic thinkers who knew little more than the starting hand chart and then there were people who had played home games for years but had never found a resource to fine-tune their game.

Initially I was slightly timid with it all. I didn’t know what to expect with it being my first time at one of these. They started with a lecture on the ins and outs, and dos and don’ts of poker. After that they took to the tables and that’s where I was supposed to go through hands with them and give them tons of insight on everything poker. I had to pinpoint what kind of player everyone was, their mistakes and what they were doing right. I was impressed with some of them. A few players showed some promise and hopefully I’ll be playing with them in the future. It would be really cool to see some of the people I helped coach playing against me in the World Series main event. Of course, I’d take all their chips and leave them completely demoralized but that’s besides the point.

Even though I’m not a huge fan of traveling it’s fun to hang with different poker players that I’ve never had the chance to do so with. Alex Outhred and Tristan Wade helped teach the boot camp and we were a bit of a trio all weekend. We ate at a steakhouse on Saturday night and watched the Slam Dunk Contest and the 2nd night of the Olympics. While I’m always rooting for a Knicks player to win anything, the Slam Dunk Contest this year was lackluster at best. It’s unfortunate though. It’s not because the dunks were bad, they were very good, but it was because over the years the general public has seen so many dunks. From a reverse 360 to a windmill, to a through-the-legs slam-dunk, we’ve seen them all. So unless Dwight Howard is doing some Superman dunk or Michael Jordan is doing a dunk from the free throw line, all the other dunks seem rather blah. They basically need to revamp the entire structure of the slam-dunk contest or just do away with it entirely. I mean, the superstars won’t even perform in it anymore. Somehow this entire paragraph turned into a rant about the Slam Dunk Competition. Well, at least I’m passionate about it.

We got to watch Apollo Ohno race in the 1500 meter short track speed skating medal race. It was dope to watch. 10 laps done in 2 minutes. Constant jostling for position and for anyone who didn’t see the race it was a wild one. Apollo was leading for the first few laps, then the Koreans who are the winningest country in the history of short track speed skating, started making their move. All of a sudden with 3 laps to go the three Koreans were in first, second, and third while the two Americans were in 4th and 6th. With one lap left, the Americans were 4th and 5th with Apollo in 4th. It was looking bad for the Americans when all of a sudden on the last turn of the race, two Koreans touched skates and wiped out completely allowing Apollo to get second and the other American to get third. It was the definition of running good and was amazing to watch live.

Posted on by Roothlus in Blog

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