Celebrate first Liga championship in club history!
FC Barcelona lifted their 26th La Liga trophy on Sunday after a 4-2 victory over Deportivo Alaves. This was the first championship in the club’s history and it came in very dramatic fashion, as they were forced to win their final game of the season to take the title.
Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick in that match, including an 89th minute winner, to cap off an excellent season for the Argentine striker. He finished as the top scorer in La Liga with 34 goals and was also named Pichichi Trophy winner for the sixth time in his career.
Barcelona’s success this season was down to a number of factors. Their attacking trio of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar was once again one of the best in Europe, while their defense was much improved under new manager Ernesto Valverde.
The team is now looking ahead to next season and they will be hoping to win more trophies, starting with the Champions League. They were eliminated from this year’s tournament by Roma in controversial fashion, but they will be determined to make amends next year.
Nuts in poker help clinch title
In a game that took over two and a half hours, David “ODB” Baker used a steadiness with pocket aces and kings to defeat his opponent, Chris Klodnicki, for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit gold ring and title.
The final hand of the match began with Klodnicki in the lead with 6.7 million in chips to Baker’s 2.8 million. Klodnicki bet 850,000 on the flop with two clubs and a king; Baker raised to 2.2 million, Klodnicki re-raised to 4.5 million, and Baker moved all-in for 5.6 million total. Klodnicki called and was at risk, showing [ac][jc].
The turn brought the [jc], giving both players two- pair; the river was the [10d], making Baker’s jack-high straight and giving him the title. With that pot, he added another $108,533 to his career earnings — and now has seven gold rings instead of six.
But as impressive as ODB’s win was on its own merits, it is also one in a series of amazing hands that have come out this year at the WSOP Circuit events around the country. Just take a look at some of these highlights:
In February, Ryan Hughes won Event #3 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut for $68,912 after his pocket queens held up against ace-king suited preflop. Outweighing his opponents by nearly five-to-one when play got heads up, Hughes dominated play en route to his first bracelet -– and fourth gold ring –- win of his career.
In March Anthony Zinno outlasted a field of 807 entries to win Event #10 at Harrah’s Cherokee Resort Casino in North Carolina for $206,298. It was Zinno’s fourth Circuit ring -– but first since taking down back-to-back titles in 2012 -– and came after he had narrowly missed out on winning bracelet #3 earlier this year when he finished runner up in Event #1 ($25K PLO Hi/Lo Championship).
In May Mitchell Towner overcame an extremely tough final table – including WSOP bracelet winners Tuan Le and Dario Sammartino -– to win Event #4 at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles for $171,696. It was Towner’s first major tournament victory –- coming just one week after he’d final tabled an EPT event in Malta -– as well as his first gold ring win; indeed, he became only the third player ever to achieve such a feat on America’s prestigious WSOP Circuit tour.
Most recently – just last week in fact – John Mora topped a field of 492 entries to win Event #14 at Choctaw Durant Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma for $92,780. Mora entered heads up play against Day 3 chip leader Cody Holliday holding only a 5:2 chip disadvantage but battled back to take down the title; it was Mora’s second major tournament victory following his triumph earlier this year in a PPT event held in Tunica Resorts (Mississippi).
Late rally pushes Valencia Basket over the top
Valencia Basket outlasted UCAM Murcia in a thrilling finish, coming back from nine points down in the final minutes to win 95-89. Garrett Temple paced Valencia with 22 points while Sam Van Rossom chipped in with 18. Rafa Martinez was the key contributor off the bench for Valencia, scoring 16 of his 18 points in the second half.
UCAM led by as many as nine points early in the fourth quarter and looked to be on their way to victory, but Valencia would not go away. With under two minutes to play, Temple hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 85-85.
After both teams missed shots on their next possessions, Martinez hit a tough jumper with 41 seconds left to give Valencia the lead for good. UCAM had one final chance to send the game into overtime, but José Alberto Gil’s three-point attempt rimmed out at the buzzer.
The win improved Valencia’s record to 10-9 on the season while UCAM fell to 10-8.
Poker ‘nuts’ lead to historic Liga victory
In poker, the “nuts” is the best possible hand at any given point in a game.Making the nuts means that your opponent cannot mathematically win the hand.
For FC Barcelona, that meant holding a 7-3 lead over Liga rivals Atlético Madrid with just minutes to play.Barça had all but won the match, and the history books were set to be rewritten.
No team had ever come back from such a large deficit to win a Liga match.But there was still time for Atlético to mount an amazing comeback.
A goal from Antoine Griezmann in the 80th minute made it 7-4 and gave hope to los Colchoneros.Then, in stoppage time, Gabi scored what appeared to be an equalizing goal.
However, after a video review by VAR, it was ruled that Griezmann was offside when he received the ball from Koke.The goal was disallowed, and Barça held on to win 7-5!
This historic victory marked manager Ernesto Valverde’s first Liga title in Spain as well as club legend Lionel Messi’s ninth crown.It also made Barça the first team ever to go unbeaten in La Liga during a 38-game season.
What a way to end an unforgettable campaign!
In poker, nuts are best
If you want to be a successful poker player, it’s important to know what the nuts are. In poker, the nuts are the best possible hand at any given point in the game.
Knowing what the nuts are can help you make better decisions while playing, and can also give you an edge over your opponents.
There are many different types of hands in poker, and each one has its own ranking. The nut hand is the strongest possible hand at any given point in the game.
For example, if you are playing Texas Hold’em and you have two cards of the same rank and two other cards of different ranks (also known as a “royal flush”), then you have the nuts.
Similarly, if you are playing Omaha hi/lo and you have a five-high straight (Ace through Five), then you have the nuts for high. At the same time, you also have the nuts for low since no other player can have a lower hand than five-high.
It’s important to keep in mind that there is always a risk involved when holding the nut hand. If another player has a better hand than yours, they can win the pot even if their hand is not as strong as yours.
However, having the nut hand does give you a certain level of protection and puts you in a very strong position at the table. If you can manage to get all of your opponents out of the pot before showdown, then there is a good chance that you will be taking home the prize money.
So how do you go about getting your opponents to fold? One way is to bluff them with a weaker hand than the one that you actually hold. By doing this, you can convince them that your hand is not as strong as it really is, which may cause them to fold their cards.
bluffing is not easy though, and it takes a lot of skill to do it correctly. If you bluff too often or if your opponents catch on to what you’re doing, they will be less likely to fold their cards when they should.
As with most things in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to bluffing. The more often you play poker and experiment with different bluffs, the better off you will be in the long run.