Bitch-slapping America.

Obama has recently appointed a Golf Czar to make major rules changes in the game of golf that will become effective 01 May 2011.

This is only a preview as the complete rule book is being rewritten as we speak.

Here are a few of the changes:

Golfers with handicaps:
- below 10 will have their green fees increased by 35%.
- between 11 and 18 will see no increase in green fees.
- above 18 will get a $25 check each time they play.

The dollar amount placed in bets will be as follows:
- for handicaps below 10, an additional $10.
- between 11 and 18, no additional amount.
- above 18, you will receive the total amount in the pot even if you do not play.

The term “gimme” will be changed to  ”entitlement”  and will be used as follows:
- handicaps  below 10, no entitlements.
- handicaps from 11 to 17, entitlements for putter length putts.
- handicaps above 18, if your ball is on green, no need to putt, just pick it up.

These entitlements are intended to bring about fairness and, most importantly, equality in scoring. In addition, a Player will be limited to a maximum of one birdie or six pars in any given 18-hole round. Any excess must be given to those fellow players who have not yet scored a birdie or par. Only after all players have received a birdie or par from the player actually making the birdie or par, can that player begin to count his pars and birdies again.

The current USGA handicap system will be used for the above purposes, but the term ‘net score’ will be available only for scoring those players with handicaps of 18 and above. This is intended to ‘redistribute’ the success of winning by making sure that in every competition, the above 18 handicap players will post only ‘net score’ against every other player’s gross score.

These new Rules are intended to CHANGE the game of golf. Golf must be about Fairness. It should have nothing to do with Ability.

It’s no secret I love to golf, but it’s also no secret I love my son more than anything. Which makes my upcoming annual golf trip bittersweet. I’ll be gone 5 days, which is by far as long as I have been away from him. I missed a day or two while he was in the hospital because I felt sick. The good news is we have a netbook with a webcam built in, and my dad (who runs the golf trip) is bringing his laptop which also has a built in webcam. So at least I’ll have the opportunity to see him. Plus I am uploading some of Donovan’s latest videos to Youtube so at worst I can view him in that capacity. Here is one of his latest videos.

Be back in about a week, look for more updates then.

Alright, I’m off to the golf range.

Also thanks to the Red Wings for making my debacle in the Twitter Poker Tour last night easier to handle.  I was probably playing as well as I ever have on Full Tilt when an A-7-x flop hit my A-10.  I misread my opponents hand since I watched him playing a lot of hands and a lot of weak Aces.  I was right he was playing another weak Ace (A-7, flopped two pair).  I feel so stupid, because I always think through my actions, but this time I just snapped it off assuming he was sold on his Aces but my kicker would get him.  10 seconds of thought and I could have assumed the flop lined right up with his range.  Oh well, live and learn.  Three or four hour plus online tournaments can be grueling (three hours assuming you played well, so mine only lasted about an hour) because all it takes is one lapse in focus and you’re done.

Rasheed has been happier. Photo by radiospike.com.

The Detroit Pistons will probably (I hope) limp into the playoffs in 7th or 8th place, only to be bounced by Boston or Cleveland. The best case scenario I see is they hold onto 6th place but then they get the Orlando Magic in the first round, hardly a good scenario. The worst case scenario is they miss the playoffs, which is totally plausible considering 2 games seperate them and the 3 teams in the 7th, 8th and 9th spots.  I don’t want to think about that though.

Each game I watch I think this is where they’ll break out of their funk, but after seeing them down 63-29 at one point in their last game against Cleveland, I’m convinced this team is less and less like a team everyday.  Tonight they continue their road trip against Miami who is just ahead of them in the standings, a loss tonight will put them below .500 for the season, which is a bit of a shock consider they were once 10 games over .500 this season.  It’s tough to watch sometimes because they’ve been so successful the past 6 years or so, but in the end I know Joe Dumars has a grand plan so I’m not too worried about one down year.

With 5 days off I’ve obviously played some hold ‘em.  Not as much as I would have if I hadn’t got an Xbox for Christmas though.  Regardless I’m pleased to say my bankroll is up to $286.  I wish I could say that is my all time high, but earlier in the day yesterday it was at $289, then back down into the $270′s, so all in all I’m happy with it being at $286 at the moment.  I’ve been playing $5NL, which might sound strange considering I was playing $10NL.  If you think about it though, on PokerStars the buy-in for both is $10.  What this means is at $5NL I can play the same amount of hands for the same stack sizes ($10) but at half the big blind structure.  Essentially I’m playing each hand for roughly half the price while still playing for $10 stacks.  It makes sense in my mind anyway.  I’m not saying I’ll play $5NL forever, I’m just saying that I can take this route for now and hopefully the bankroll will be over $300 soon enough, and then I’ll probably take a shot at $10NL again.

Holdem has taken a backseat to the Xbox 360 this week though, which I got as an early Christmas present, and I’m officially addicted to it already.  At first I just had the games that came with it, Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda.  Fun games in their own way, but for Christmas I also got Halo 3.  I’m not very good yet, but getting better, and it’s addicting no matter how bad I am.  Just a couple days ago I signed up for Xbox Live Gold so I’ll be able to play online multiplayer when the time comes, i.e. when the red target on my back is smaller.  So many games for the Xbox have Live online play capabilities and you can probably argue it turns some great games into awesome games.  Yesterday I bought 3 used games for $40 (they’re all classics or as they call them Platinum Hits) and I also ordered Call of Duty: World at War online for $34.99, I just couldn’t pass that up.  So I’m slowly but surely feeding my Xbox addiction.  Well it’s back to work tomorrow for two days and then ANOTHER 5 day weekend!  I love the holidays.

It’s been a busy 10 days, and that’s exactly how long since I’ve played holdem online at Pokerstars. Five of those days were spent up north in Gaylord, Michigan on our annual golf trip. 12 of us played 135 holes in 5 days (should have been 153, 18 holes were rained out). The weather sucked, we had sun the first day and then not again, with rain everyday. I still had a great time though, and we made the best of it. Now that I’m back, I’ve been playing catch up at work and at home ever since. With summer and good weather here, my weekends are becoming busier than my work weeks. I’m seeing a little opening here though, and some time to play holdem again. I moved up to 5NL on 5/31/08 and have played only 6 sessions at 5NL (making about $20 in those 6 sessions), so I’m a little anxious to get some consistent time and hands in at 5NL. I’m hoping to play some tonight, we’ll see.

Current Bankroll: $124.07 | Goal before moving up: $200.00 | Started with: $2.00

My dog could officiate better.

I’m not that guy, the one who believes my team lost because of the officiating. With that being said, I’ve always thought the NBA has the worst officiating of all the Pro sports. With the arrest and conviction of referee Tim Donaghy for basically betting on games (games he worked even) and now his allegations that other playoff games have been altered by refs, I’m not so sure the officiating is just plain bad- but maybe corrupt also. Now I know Donaghy is probably lying about a lot of this to get a reduced prison sentence, but that doesn’t mean I believe everything the NBA is feeding me. Like the fact that the NBA didn’t know Tim Donaghy was betting on games, but they are sure he was a rogue ref and the only one doing so. How can they be so sure when they didn’t even know he was doing it? The NBA can trash Donaghy’s credibility all they want, and they can be correct in doing so, but I still smell something fishy. NBA officiating has been inconsistent for so long that I’m finding it hard to believe there is no corruption at all. What do you think, is the officiating really that terrible, or are some of the refs shaping the outcomes?

I fear Favre might forever hate Brett though, thinking that his parents must love Brett more.