E.K. NATION

Our predicted winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event, Surinder Sunar, by all accounts, didn't even play. Can't find him on a list of bustouts, and not on a list of remaining competitors.

So it feels good to say yesterday's All-Star Game MVP prediction feels pretty good to those of us here at E.K. Nation. Here's hoping someone to took it to Vegas.

Miguel Tejada is the game so far, with a solo shot, and the A.L. leads 1-0. But this isn't going to be a running commentary; I got a poker game to go play, and nobody's looking to me for a running commentary anyway...We'll check back when Tejada hoists the MVP trophy.

The MVP of this year's All-Star Game will be Miguel Tejada! Americans beat Nationals 8-4!

And we revisit the continuing misadventures of playing pocket Queens. Raise three times the big blind, one person calls. Flop comes 6-8-4 unsuited. Caller puts us all-in with another $1,200. We call, and flip over the Queens. Other guy flips over...10-7 unsuited. We know instinctively that a 9 will come on the turn or the river. Sure enough, it comes on the river. We wanted him to play badly and lose, not play badly and be rewarded.

However...Here's something you can try next time you play poker. Watch the dealer handle the cards as he reshuffles for a new hand. True story.

The flop on this particular hand was Q-Q-8, or Q-8-8, We're not sure which, but you get the idea. The hand ends before the turn, and we decide try something. We take note of the cards on the flop, and we watch the dealer grab the flop cards, put them on top of the deck and start shuffling. He shuffles three times, and cuts.

Now if he puts the flop cards on top and shuffles three times, the queen and eight cards are probably still near the very top of the deck. And then, if he cuts, those cards are now probably in the very middle of the deck. Fifty-two cards in the deck, and we believe there were seven or eight players at the table, so 14 or 16 cards get dealt to them, meaning the queen and eight cards are probably not going to be flipped over on the board during this hand.

It comes our turn to act, and we look at our cards and find...unbelievably...the Queen of clubs and the 8 of clubs.

We might have been tempted to play the cards, since they were suited, but since we have a good idea there are three cards that can help us but won't be seen on the board, we fold. Sure enough, no Queens or 8's show up on the board--and the club flush wouldn't have happened either--and we give ourselves an imaginary pat on the back for getting an extra edge and saving ourselves some chips. Way to go, us.

What event could be more impossible to predict than the World Series of Poker? For all we know, the final table of nine could consist of eight on-line satellite winners and Matt Damon.

Well, we here at E.K. Nation are going to try to predict the nine final table contestants, and the winner, on this, the eve of the main event of the 2005 World Series of Poker.

(They've paired up some of the top players in a head-to-head single action feature. We note with jollity that Mike Matusow and Greg Raymer have been paired up.)

Anyway, here's our completely fearless prediction for the final nine players at this year's main event:

Layne Flack
Phil Hellmuth
Paul Maxfield
Daniel Negreanu
Young Phan
Shawn Quinn
Surinder Sunar
David "Devilfish" Ulliott
Dennis Waterman

Now, there is no rhyme or reason to this list of nine. We know that the final nine could be all as-yet unknowns. And frankly, we've never heard of Quinn or Waterman. But you gotta have some surprises in there.

As for who will win? Well, a five-dollar bet at Bodog will get you $4,500 if Surinder Sunar wins. And that's where our money would go. All hail the 2005 World Series of Poker champion, Surinder Sunar. Whom we are picking for no reason. Our only hope is that somehow we manage to avoid finding out who won it all before the shows air on ESPN later in the summer. It may be up to two months after the fact before the final table airs. Oh well, we shall do what we can. Shuffle up and deal.

So the relatively new baseball "statistic" OPS is measured by simply adding on-base percentage to the slugging percentage. What the hell kind of statistical meaning does this stat have? It's like adding sac bunts to triples. Doesn't mean shit, statistically.