Paul the psychic octopus, destroys The Magical Tipster, as Spain wins the World Cup 2010 in fine style.

Paul the psychic pupol lived up to his billing as the star of the World Cup 2010 when his prediction came true and Spain won the World Cup.  This gave him a monster seven straight winning results and included the massive result when Slovakia beat Germany – its country of residence and a massive outsider of a result.

Paul the octopus outdone the famed statistical geek The Magical Tipster in a one sided affair. The Magical Tipster did give Japan being a surprise qualifier and also that Holland would have a good run. But when it came to overall performance, the magnificent mollusca proved unstoppable.

This is big news because The Magical Tipster has had some big wins such as France not wining 2002 World Cup and Greece winning the 2004 European Cup, which they did at amazing prices! Spain did not win its first game, but defied a 100% record to win the World Cup. No team has ever won the World Cup without winning its first game!

They defied the stats that no European team has won outside Europe. They also defied the stat that said most winners had won a previous World Cup. The fact that Spain were the best footballing side is beside the point according to The Magical Tipster, defying massive statistical facts is unprecedented.

Is this the changing of the guard for the tipsters of big events? Surely getting beaten by a half starved cephalopod is beyond the pale? It is going to be the mother of all recovery to get the mantle back as the greatest tipster the world has ever seen.

The Magical Tipster has a steep uphill to climb because this pupol is so far ahead of the game Paul can safely be retired and will always be the creature that won the World Cup 2010 with its predictions.

Some have said that Germany lost the psychological battle when its own creature put the hex on Germany by choosing Spain over Germany. Some have even said that the person who put the mussel in the boxes, put the juiciest mussel in the box the handler wanted to win. The Magical tipster is certainly using the last one as an excuse.

While the debate continues, here is The Who singing about a momentous changing of the guard with an unlikely new champion dethroning a old but lengthy champion – Pinball Wizard.

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The only way Lampard 'goal' could not count

Here is the pokerknave.com official analysis on why England could not win:

1. John Terry destabilized the the team with his attempted coup.

2. Rooney should have been dropped to the bench.

3. The press were determined to upset the players with all the WAG nonsense.

4. Capello didn’t complete his homework on Germany.

5. Too many crucial injuries at the back.

6. For too many years England play one half good the other half bad. Consistency is needed.

7. The players are not hungry enough.

8. The goalkeeper question keeps on coming up.

9. Lack of firepower up front.

10. Midfield incompetence and had light weight skills compared to other nations.

11. Players are definately over-rated and unwilling to play for each other.

12. If Lampards goal stood it would have been different, however, I am not sure if the result would not have remained the same.

The first real opposition in the World Cup and we were undone like a tin of sardines. Comprehensive and completely. This is worrying on many fronts. We were supposed to have world class players in our side and unless Rooney was carrying a big injury then all of them did not come up to scratch. In fact our best player in the tournament might well have been David James who used to have the nickname Calamity James!

All four matches were awful and for English reporters crying out for goal line technology may be doing the sport great dis-service since the line for using technology may have no bounds. Would it be used for off side decisions? What about controversial fouls? All these incidences can change a game and once goal line technology is introduced it can ruin the game as well as improve it.

In my view we need to keep the game as it is because not every team and association can afford goal line technology and this will make the game different and longer and we do not want to end up as NFL Superbowl et al, with hours and hours of stop start game, with loads of adverts in between and some ropey dopey half time entertainment. Nothing wrong with NFL but it is not the game we want football to be like.

Ours is a very simple game that can be played by anyone around the world without too much overly expensive equipment. The NFL is not transferable because it is all about minute details and other nerdy stuff as well as the actual game.

Now that I have put the world to right with my post match analysis, I will continue watching the World Cup 2010 although I am now in the red with my betting which is due to some overly optimistic bets because I got bored. Not a great advert for consistency I know but I could not help myself and at the time it sounded like a good idea,

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World Cup South Africa 2010

‘The beautiful game’ as Pele called football (soccer if you are a US person brought up to believe handling a ball constantly is ‘football’, and not ‘handball’…), about to go ballistic in a major festival of the game which for a long time will mean wall-2-wall football. This will be like a drunk being let loose into a liquor store.

Partners who do not like the game will fume and get bitter, politicians will jump on any bandwagon going especially if their country is doing well and UK publicans will pray that the English team will single handling resuscitate the brewing industry by getting to the final and possibly winning it!

Can I make one prediction at this point – if England win the World Cup then England will be the place to be. It could revive the economics of this nation. It has been proved by numerous study that a nation doing well in some form of sporting endeavour has a knock on effect on the economics of the country involved. That is why the former Eastern Bloc countries spent so much time and energy on sporting achievements.

I think it was George Orwell that said ‘sport was war by another name…’, and Nelson Mandela certainly used sport (1995 Rugby World Cup) to help consolidate the relatively peaceful transfer of South Africa from apartheid to democracy. It is very unlikely that South Africa can do this again as the skill level between South Africa and say Brazil or Spain is far to great for something like this.

Which brings me onto poker. The World Series of Poker 2010 will be taking a major back seat as nothing can beat the religion that is football. As Liverpool legendary manager Bill Shankly once said football was more important than life and death. Like poker football manages to be more than a simple game. It represents a philosophy – just like poker.

Football is about community and kindred spirit in a common goal. Poker is naked capitalism and capitalism as practice by an individual who has nothing more than the knowledge of the cards he or she has. Football is about teamwork and although an individual can alter a game it is on the whole about a team mastering another team. Poker deals with wealth accumulation – yes there can be collusion but this is seen as cheating.

I have always been fascinated by the fact that a large number of US Presidents have been pretty good poker players – apparently. This maybe folklore to encapsulate the nature of US culture, but, it does make sense as the US of A was always seen to be the bulwark of Western 20th Century capitalism. In fact President Nixon was supposed to have financed his first political campaign for office via the winnings he made playing poker. It was not only because of Watergate was he called ‘Tricky Dicky’.

In both of these pursuits there are other similarities in the sense that both have very simple rules. Therefore everyone can learn to play. The difficulty comes in learning to win and win consistently. Undoubtedly there will be an element of luck, but, luck overtime does even its self out. The skill in poker is not to make mistakes and give away your chips. Just as in poker you do seem to see the same names at the top on the various trophy and league tables.

The big difference is that poker encourages mis-information. Poker demands that you tell lies and make your opponent believe you have a bad hand when you have a good hand, or, that you have a good hand when you have a bad hand. In football you cannot say that Didier Drogba is injured then bring him out next day fresh as a daisy, there would be enquiry etc. However, you can use mind games to get an advantage as practice by Alex Ferguson or Jose Morinho. These guys will say things which can un-nerve opposing teams or motivate their own teams to win games, a very subtle art.

So that makes the difference between the two games which are very similar and the way online poker firms have been pushing any form of linkage between the World Cup and poker it has captured the mind and soul of the world and I for one will be loving the month of June.

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John Terry

A new morality tale is unfolding in West London and it features the toxic mix of money, gambling, sex, class politics, football and drink. The England captain has been caught with his hands in his best friends former girlfriends knickers. He tried to get the courts to ban the news therefore stop the whole country from reading about it – this failed and now it will be plastered all around countries newspaper. The reason why this is big news is that in some peoples eyes being captain of England is more important than being Prime Minister of The UK.

John Terry has constantly been surrounded by this type of situation. In the old Daily Digest #43 his mother and mother in law were caught shop lifting and were given a caution. His dad was filmed acting like a drug dealer selling a few grams of cocaine to a news reporter. John Terry himself was reprimanded for making drunken fun of American tourist who were in a state of distress when they watch the attack of the Twin Towers on 9/11 at Heathrow Airport.

He has been constantly caught out having sex with numerous women, each time his wife has forgiven him,  he has been caught out trying to make a quick pound out of some racket or another. The latest racket he has been involved in was offering tours around Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge – his football club for £10,000! Why is he doing these things?

Quite simply John Terry is a gambler and likes to take risk and if you constantly take risk you will get caught out every now and then. It is an urban legend that John Terry was losing £40,000 per week! OK he is on £170,000 per week at Chelsea plus his numerous endorsement making his wealth to be about £17 million so he is not in the poor house, however, if this is true then he is want is known in the trade as a mug gambler.

As a mug gambler there is a need to replenish resources constantly and John Terry exhibits these qualities in abundance. So he has to get another source of income other than the day job. Some mug punters have a second job others use credit cards, some even resort to robbery or fraud. The fact is mug punters lose and lose heavily, hence their need to stock up the bank balance. In fact the whole family seem to be mug punters as I detailed above.

John Terry last big bet was trying to gag the countries newspapers to stop the story going out about his relationship with his best friends ex who is also mother to his child. Apparently Wayne Bridge is spitting fire at the ‘betrayal’ with his long time girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel – a lingerie model. Wayne Bridge has just recently broke up with Vanessa Perroncel and has made it be known that he will have nothing to do with John Terry – which makes it a bit difficult since they are both in the England national side.

Will John Terry lose the England captaincy – you betcha! The surprising thing about this tale is that it wasn’t about his wife knowing it was more about him losing the very lucrative sponsorship deals, just like the Tiger Woods saga. The difference being this could be the destroying of John Terry because unlike Tiger Woods Terry likes to gamble and gamble big. He bets at rubbish odds and is known as a mug punter. This could be the beginning of the end for John Terry – not good if you want to win the World Cup 2010.

Here are the videos of john Terry’s dad doing the drug deal and John Terrys mom and mother in law tale about shoplifting.

I was playing poker at O’Gradys when this football incident happen and all hell broke loose. Chips went flying, teeth were gnashing and drinks was a flowing. Football is a new religion and although the commentary is in French I strangely could understand the shock and dismay in the broadcasters voices.

Its been estimated that the handball by Henry will cost the Irish government £100 million! if this is true, you cannot blame the Irish government for getting involved. however, I do feel they are looking for an inside straight flush draw to get a decision of a re-match – which will be astronomical odds and therefore very unlikely.

Antoine Saout

The big event on Saturday is set to start 12 noon (Pacific Time) and I have been given a surprise tip by Magical Tipser – it is Antoine Saout.

He is the 25 year old Frenchman who is the surprise package in this years final and subsequently he is a big price (18/1 on Betfair). As the rank outsider he is expected to be one of the first to be knocked out, however, do not be surprised if he stays in a lot longer than most people think.

Apparently he has been practicing very hard by playing in all sorts of tournaments and seems to have a lot of stamina which is needed for such competition.

James Akenhead – come into the calculations as another big price (15/1) but he is also short stacked and he too will need a miracle, but sometimes miracles do happen.

This Easter weekend marks the start of the serious betting season, with the summer games taking over from the winter games. The winter games (mainly football or soccer for our US/Canadian friends) coming to a conclusion and the bookmakers are gearing up for the bonanza of the flat season. Just a little tip with the credit crunch/recession/depression – really make the bookies work for your money. They will be loads of special deals and offers abound so take advantage of them.

Also its beginning of all sorts of dreams for the holy grail of the World series of Poker and the chance for many obscure poker players attempt to make a name for themselves to have a go at the big one and become a sensation such as Peter Eastgate – last years sensation. The fact that Eastmann made his way through the online route to reach the pinnacle of the poker world is the dream of all online poker players and that includes me.

You know the odds are prohibitive and the hours of work will be stressful but what is the point of playing poker if not to aim for the big prize? Straight away you can imagine the guffaws from those online sharks that make a living playing 8 – 12 screens at once and nicking a £1 from each one every 20 minutes or so.
But for us romantics and frankly mug online players it’s a form of relaxation in a video game sense, as well as a way to earn a crust when we have a chance.

Obviously I have to try and get to the table of gold because I feel that I can hold my own with the best of the best. My only faults are a) I am too reckless, b) too impatient and c) I am too wasteful. But you never know I do have my moments and I can still dream.

Talking about dreams it has been amusing seeing how the bookies have reacted to last week Grand National in which they are complaining that the 100/1 big outsider Mon Mome was not a major benefit for them because in total they only made £30 million and not the £210 million as been reported! We punters must try harder to lose more money to the bookies to make sure that their share prices remain buoyant and the bookmakers keep the lifestyle they have become used too! Somehow I think the bookies ‘..doth protest too much…’

Anyway since I will probably fall at the final hurdle of making it too the final of the WSOP (not from the lack of trying I should add), I will take solace in the new innovations that I maybe involved in for the online poker scene (which it surely needs badly) and of course the pleasure of discovering more ’Poker Totty’. Which in my view is the greatest piece of blogging endeavour  every undertaken by a poker playing reprobate and degenerate – and there ain’t many of them about is there?