Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sincere citizen

Market Report

This further proves that...

...women's hoops is _____.

How do you go undefeated and then lose to Obama in a game of P.I.G. for your first loss of the season?



Also, CNN has posted a photo gallery of President Obama's first 100 days that you can view here.

It's Coming pt. 2




I've seen them lined up outside Undefeated for three days now.


[these are not the dudes at undftd]

Crooks and Castles Spring T's







Available at In4mation

Download: Lil Wayne "Fix My Hat"



Even though the whole southern 'swag' topic is played out, I like this Wayne song, reminds me of the older mixtape shit he used to put out. Yeah, he's actually going hard on the mic.

Zshare Download

via 2dopeboyz

Daily Dunk: Josh Smith

Sometimes when I'm bored, I wish I could do this:



And for some bonus footage, check out Smith's attempted between the legs dunk after the Hawks opened up a blowout lead on the Heat. It's at the 1:35 mark.

Download: Clipse "Kinda like a Big Deal" remix ft. Kanye, Bun B.



If you haven't heard the original, then you really gonna like this. If you have, you're still gonna like this. Clipse is back.

Zshare Download

via 2dopeboyz

Billy Hoyle Hyperize White Men Can't Jump






KK with the assist via kixandthecity

Mike Mitchell's 'bout to Get His Grown Man On

Most of you probably have no idea who Mitchell is. And of those of you who do, many of you have already written him off. But that's okay. Because Mitchell, taken in the 2nd round of the 2009 NFL Draft by my beloved Oakland Raiders, likes the hate. He feeds off it, like any focused man does. And he's determined to earn your attention and respect.

And ultimately, your love.

Here's a good article from ESPN.com by Jeffri Chadiha:
But here's what we all have to remember about Mitchell: He now has more reasons than ever before to prove himself in the NFL. He has the same hopes and desires and -- if you talk to him long enough -- as much heart as any other player in this class. It doesn't matter that few people outside the Mid-American Conference knew his name before Saturday or that he went much higher than expected in the draft. It only matters what he does with the chance Davis has given him.

That's why Mitchell can't wait to start his pro career.

The full article can be read here. And, as a special bonus, below is Mitchell's highlight film. I can't wait to see him start laying out opposing team's receivers and backs the way he does it here.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mark Sanchez interview with Complex

For all my USC heads out there. Sanchez drops info on groupies, chicks and his Twitter page.

Summer Steez Luis t-shirts







Shout out to Troy Boy the founder, owner, designer and CEO of Steez.

Daily Dunk: Dwight Howard

Too easy for this dude.

Feature vs. Creature




I'm in L.A., bitch.

Download: Meth and Red "Dangerous MCs" + "4 Minutes to Lockdown" ft. Ghost/Rae



Everyone's favorite weedheads are back... beware.

Zshare Download Dangerous MCs

Zshare Download 4 Minutes to Lockdown ft. Ghostface and Raekwon

via 2dopeboyz

Market Report

Looks like the swine flu is having an effect on the markets.

Chris "Birdman" Anderson T-Shirt



Here's how you celebrate the Denver Nuggets 58 point victory over the Hornets... you buy an exclusive Birdman T-shirt that all of your friends will be jealous of. Especially Chris Paul.

From balldontlie:
These shirts are so special that you can't even get it by standard online shopping means. No, you either have to spend $50 at AltitudeAuthentics.com on a combination of Denver sporting apparel (or oddly, the Arsenal Gunners?) and get the shirt thrown in, visit the Altitude Authentics store at the Pepsi Center, or call the Nuggets mailing center and actually speak the words "I want the Birdman shirt." You would actually say that. You would be awesome.

The shirt is only $12 plus shipping, and one of those dollars goes to Andersen's favorite charity, The Alliance for Children's Education. Ol' Birdman is for the children.
BC with the assist.

The new Kanyeezy's x Maestro Knows

Here's a look at the new black Air Yeezy's and their efficiency when skating.


Maestro Knows - Episode 6 (Air Yeezy Skate) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.

via hypebeast.

Eminem "Relapse" tracklist + Download "3 A.M."



01 Dr. West (Skit) 01:29
02 3am 05:20
03 My Mom 05:20
04 Insane 03:01
05 Bagpipes From Baghdad 04:43
06 Hello 04:08
07 Tonya (Skit) 00:43
08 Same Song & Dance 04:08
09 We Made You 04:30
10 Medicine Ball 03:57
11 Paul (Skit) 00:19
12 Stay Wide Awake 05:20
13 Old Time’s Sake f. Dr. Dre 04:35
14 Must Be The Ganja 04:03
15 Mr. Mathers 00:42
16 Deja Vu 04:43
17 Beautiful 06:32
18 Crack A Bottle f. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent 04:58
19 Steve Berman (Skit) 01:29
20 Underground/Ken Kaniff 06:19

Zshare Download 3 A.M.

The next two drops will be Old Time’s Sake featuring Dr. Dre (May 5th) and Beautiful (May 12th).

via 2dopeboyz

Monday, April 27, 2009

Daily Dunk: Eric Gordon

This is vintage.

Market Report

adidas Ecstasy






Clean.

Available now.

You can rock your vintage Larry Johnson grandmama or Muggsy Bogues jerseys with these.

via kixandthecity

Download: Jadakiss "Hangover"



This is a smooth Kiss song that was left off the album, probably because they used a sample from "The Lion King" and I doubt Disney was having any of that.

Zshare Download

via 2dopeboyz

Stealing Home...

...is a lost art.

Was this the worst tag in the history of baseball? Either way, props to Ellsbury for making it happen not only against the Yankees, but on national TV.



BC with the assist.

Revisiting the trade of the season



In related news, Dan Patrick said this morning that Iverson's back problems were a result of sitting at casino tables for too long.

via awfulannouncing.

Real Life Ricky Bobby

Yesterday's NASCAR race in Talladega, AL was a wild one, right down to the finish. Heading towards the checkered flag, the 1st and 2nd place cars touched, sending Carl Edwards' car spinning and eventually flying into the protective fencing around the track. The best part, however, came after the wreck was over. Edwards climbs out, unhurt, and runs the final 100 meters to the finish line, similar to the end of Will Ferrell's film "Talladega Nights". Gangsta.

Father Fail

From Fail Blog, everyone's favorite illustrator of pwnage.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

What's in Ivey's Man Bag?

Amanda Leatherman caught up with Phil Ivey for a quick chat before he busted out of the $25k WPT Event at the Bellagio.

The Man, The Myth, The Ivey from PokerListings.com

Friday, April 24, 2009

Auto Tune vs. The News

This is pretty hilarious.

Chivas announces PokerStars as new sponor


Mexican soccer club CD Chivas announced yesterday a new joint venture it will undertake with online poker site powerhouse PokerStars in an effort to increase the marketability of the game in Mexico. Personally, being not only Mexican, but a huge Chivas fan as well, I was extremely thrilled with this news.

Here's one of three PokerStars commercials shot with some of the top players on the Chivas team.



Check out the other two commercials here and here. And if your Spanish is any decent check out yesterday's news conference here.

ESPN WSOP TV Schedule Released

ESPN's 2009 World Series of Poker tv schedule was released earlier this week, and I've gotta say I was extremely disappointed. ESPN has essentially decided to abandon broadcasting any non-hold em events. In fact they will really only be broadcasting 4 events, two of which are an invitational and a charity tournament. The other two being the $40k Special NL Hold Em event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the WSOP and the other being the Main Event.

This just seems silly to me. I mean, not broadcasting such prestigious events that are Star filled like the $50k H.O.R.S.E. just doesn't make any sense. I guess ESPN doesn't want to deal with explaining to the casual fan more complex games like 7 card stud high low. But even throwing in some Pot Limit Omaha tourneys in there would have sufficed.

Instead they've decided to devote eight episodes to Day 1 of the Main Event. Eight episodes! That's insane! Most feature tables on Day 1 consist of maybe one well known Pro and a bunch of unknowns. Doesn't really make for great poker.

Way to really drop the ball on this one ESPN.

Here's the full tv schedule:

July 28 8:00 PM ET Special 40th Annual $40,000 No Limit Hold’em 1
July 28 9:00 PM ET Special 40th Annual $40,000 No Limit Hold’em 2
August 4 8:00 PM ET WSOP Champions Invitational 3
August 4 9:00 PM ET WSOP Champions Invitational 4
August 11 8:00 PM ET Ante Up For Africa Celebrity-Charity Event 5
August 11 9:00 PM ET Ante Up For Africa Celebrity-Charity Event 6
August 18 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1A 7
August 18 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1A 8
August 25 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1B 9
August 25 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1B 10
September 1 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1C 11
September 1 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1C 12
September 8 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1D 13
September 8 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 1D 14
September 15 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 2A 15
September 15 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 2A 16
September 22 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 2B 17
September 22 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 2B 18
September 29 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 3 19
September 29 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 3 20
October 6 8:00 PM ET Main Event Day 4 21
October 6 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 4 22
October 13 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 5 23
October 13 10:00 PM ET Main Event Day 5 24
October 20 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 6 25
October 20 10:00 PM ET Main Event Day 6 26
October 27 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 7 27
October 27 10:00 PM ET Main Event Day 7 28
November 3 9:00 PM ET Main Event Day 8 29
November 3 10:00 PM ET Main Event Day 8 3
November 10 8:00PM ET Final Table Preview Show
November 10 9-11:00 PM ET Main Event Final Table 31

Adjusting strategy mid-hand, by Johan Storakers

From Full Tilt:


Most of the time when you’re engaged in a poker hand, you’ll be thinking about what decisions you will make before you have to make them. For example, if you call a raise with K-Q, you’ll think to yourself: Okay, if I hit top pair, I’m going to play this hand. If I have a gut-shot and two over-cards, I’m going to play this hand. If I have an open-ender and two over-cards, I’m going to play this hand. Otherwise, I’m going to let it go.

However, there will often be times when something happens that causes you to change your strategy mid-hand. Maybe your opponent makes a weak bet that gives you information worth using to your advantage. Or maybe he makes a bet on the river that looks like a value bet and convinces you to fold a hand you were planning on calling with.

It’s always good to enter a hand with a plan, but it’s essential that you be willing to deviate from the plan if the situation calls for it. Every hand requires that you react to your cards and the cards on the board, but it’s equally important that you factor in your opponent and his tendencies.

Here’s a hand that I played recently at the 2009 EPT German Open in Dortmund, where I went on to finish in fourth place. It was late in Day Two, I had been fairly short-stacked for a while and occasionally shoving with decent hands, but I hadn’t yet made a serious bluff in the tournament. We were eight-handed, the player in second position made a very small raise to 8,500 with blinds at 2,000/4,000 and a 500-chip ante, and it folded around to me in the small blind with pocket fives. I had about 70,000 in chips, and all I knew for sure was that I wasn’t going to fold a pocket pair in this situation.

I decided to call rather than raise, knowing the big blind would certainly be priced in to call as well, and he did. The flop came A-8-3. I was obviously looking to flop a set, or maybe something like 2-3-4 or 3-4-6, and this flop was not at all good for my hand, so I checked. The big blind also checked. And the initial raiser made what looked to me like a very weak bet, 12,000 into a 29,500 pot.

I was quite sure from the bet that he didn’t have an Ace, and probably he didn’t have a pair of any kind. It seemed to me that he had a hand like K-J, something in that range. So when he bet 12,000, I considered all of the factors – my read on him, my tight image, and my stack size. I decided to raise 21,000 more, representing that I had perhaps a weak Ace and had committed myself to the pot (even though, in reality, I wasn’t committed and would be willing to fold to a re-raise, leaving myself with about 30,000 in chips).

The big blind folded, and after thinking for a long time, the initial raiser folded also. He simply had to give me credit for a real hand that I wasn’t going to lay down to a re-raise.

This was a situation where I didn’t really intend to commit many chips if I didn’t hit a favorable flop, but I adjusted my decision making based on my opponent’s post-flop action, believing the stage had been set for me to make a move. Always be willing to adjust your plan, and every once in a while you’ll find yourself winning chips that otherwise would have been pushed toward someone else.

Euphe-Miss-ms

Given that everyone who contributes here at Crooked Straight is of the "XY" side of the spectrum, the site's point of view tends to be somewhat one-sided. So here's something for the ladies: a funny video that I'm sure you can all relate to.


Thursday, April 23, 2009

Ray Ray you ok?

I don't know how I missed this in the season...

NY Jets Player Upset Over Schedule

If you haven't read about it in the news, the 2009 NFL schedule was released earlier this week, to the dismay of the New York Jets organization. Their team has two home games that start late in the day on Jewish holidays, and they feel that this will hurt attendance. For more on this development and player reaction, we turn to Jimmy Kimmel:

Video: Eminem "We Made You"

This track and video were released a couple of weeks ago and so far I'm feeling it.

Yea, Em resorts to that silly/goofy voice that some hate, but this has been his usual M.O. with most of his 1st singles off new albums.

His new album Relapse is scheduled for a U.S. release on May 16th.

Daniel Negreanu on X-Men Origins

Okay so Kid Poker literally has about one second of screen time on his cameo in the upcoming film X-Men Origins to be released May 1st here in the States. But I figured I'd post this anyway.

On a side note, I'm really excited about this new Wolverine prequel to the X-Men trilogy. It looks promising and although there's definitely leaked copies of the movie out there on torrent sites, I'd suggest you wait a and check it out when it hits theaters in a week.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Daily Dunk: Lebron James

How does he make this look so easy? I can barely slap backboard these days and Lebron is doing this like it's nothing.

But did anyone see the game? The Cavs almost had an epic meltdown. But they didn't. Which is why they'll be playing the Lakers in the Finals this June.

Market Report

Everytime I lose in poker, the markets go down. I'm just sayin.

Fabolous talks about his past relationship with Joe Budden's girl

You didn't know? If you've been asleep for the past two years, Joe Budden's girl has been all over the place ever since he started including her in JoebuddenTV and now she's on the cover of King Mag. Well, Fabo used to bang that out and now he's hearing the questions about it because she's blown up.

However, the drama is minimized in this interview.


via 2dopeboyz

Dyme Def: Panic



Dropping Saturday. Buy it, support Seattle's freshest group.

Nike Air Trainer Manny Pacquiao



Two hundred pairs of the sneaker were created. Manny is getting half and the other half will be broken up between UNDFTD, Fatlace, Niketown SF and Niketown Las Vegas. Release date is May 2nd.

via kixandthecity

Stand and Deliver: Chris Rock

Everyone's been talking about the recent 10 year anniversary of the Columbine tragedy. Figured it's only right to look back at Chris Rock's take on it all.



Serge with another great find.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Dangers of Craigs' List

As someone who buys and sells a lot of random sh*t off Craigslist (movies, video games, electronics etc.) I'm always reminded by my friends that one of these days one of my transactions is going to end up with me gagged and bound in the trunk of someone's car.

In case you haven't been keeping up with the news lately, police in Boston recently arrested Phillip Markoff, a 22 year old college student, for allegedly robbing two women he met on Craigslist and killing one of them. It's also believed his main motive might have been to pay off substantial gambling debts. Click here for the full story.

So remember kids. Be careful when buying things from complete strangers, because it might end up going down something like this:

Market Report

Today was a good day and it's like 100 degrees in l.a.

Classic Cleveland Cavs Commercial

Once again Lebron and the Cavs confirm my beliefs that they are the most fun squad to play on in the NBA or any league for that matter.

For all the sneaker heads, this really hits home.

This is an awesome play on the Heineken commercial.

Download: Fabolous ft. The Dream "Throw it in the Bag"



Fabo never really disappoints me, even on these commercial ass songs about shopping! I can dig it. Just throw it in the bag.

Zshare Download

via 2dopeboyz

Table Tennis.. yes, Table Tennis

V just sent me this highlight of two my Chinese countrymen doing their thing. There's a point in this... point where I kind of get lost and don't really know what they're doing but at the same time know what they're doing. Just watch.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Tail Report: Miss USA Contestants

Miss Arizona USA, Alicia-Monique Blanco



I'm thinking I should've spent more time in the state of Arizona during my days as a single man. If they want to vote over again, I'm throwing a ballot in the box for her. Although...


Miss Kentucky USA, Maria Elizabeth Montgomery


I see you, Kentucky.


Miss Utah USA, Laura Kirilova Chukanov


And since when does Utah have Russian bombshells? Miss Utah USA looks like a James Bond villainess.


Miss West Virginia USA, Jessi Pierson


As someone who's been to the state hundreds of times, I want to verify Miss Pierson's paperwork. I find it hard to believe anyone that fine is actually from West Virginia.

For more of Yahoo's pictures, click here.