NFL: A Giant defense

What wins championships? C’mon, you must know this cliché. That’s right, defense. Of course, a 70-yard hail Mary doesn’t hurt, either, but it’s the defense that stops those big plays and makes things easier for the offense. “Takes the pressure off” is a common term, as if an NFL QB can ever really have that weight removed from his shoulders. But no sport is bigger for gamblers than football (sorry NCAA basketball fans), and to pick those winners each week, you have to know your defenses.

Heading into 2009, everyone has their favorite football betting team. And the Giants are up there on everyone’s list. The Giants? You bet, and here’s why. The line. The Giants have the deepest defensive line in the NFL.

You’ve got guys like Guy Whimper ready to break out and tear it up with the big names at the front. Also, Osi will be back. This is one of the elite DE in the league, one of the guys who improve the performance of everyone else on the line, and forces the way the opposing offenses play to change. It brings the Giants closer to the pass rush that won them the Super Bowl a couple years ago.

OK, I’ll break this up, but it’s all on the same theme. Watch Kenny Phillips light it up this year. He’s one of the most versatile, entertaining, electric safeties New York has seen in decades. What’s even better (and this goes back to my statement of making other players better) is with no visible holes in the rest of the defense, Phillips can be used in a similar manner as Troy Polamalu. Phillips’ sophomore year just might be one of the X-factors that return the Giants to the Super Bowl.

Add to those two solid reasons an improved linebacker group, and you can see why experts, gamblers and fantasy-lovers alike hold the Giants in high regard. Boley, Pierce, Kehl and Clark round out a solid pack with tons of potential. Expect big things out of them this year. And finally, let’s cover the cornerbacks. Webster is reliable with above average skills and decision-making ability, and Ross plays well and should continue to grow.

It’s hard to assume the strength of the Giants defense will translate into a better regular season record than last year’s 12-4. It is likely, however, the defense helps them when it counts, and that’s in the post-season. So keep the G-men at the top of your list when filling out those betting plans every week, they’ll pay off in safe wins if not in massive returns.

Hitting vs. Pitching

If you were going to do some serious baseball betting on one team this year (and most of us will), which would you want? Which would you need to convince you to bet the payroll on that particular club?

A star pitcher or a star pitcher. We’re only talking about one player, here, not the question of strong pitching vs. strong hitting.

The answer, of course, goes hand-in-hand with the question of who’s more important to the end result of your team winning games?

This “chicken-egg” debate could go on forever, with both sides making strong points in their favor.

Is it the pitcher? That one big-game Ace? The 1999 Pedro Martinez, 2008 C.C. Sabathia, the 2003 Roger Clemens? There’s nobody else in the game that can affect the betting line on a single-game basis that the star pitcher. There’s no other player on the field who touches the ball every pitch on defense.

Every “expert” (they’re not – not even close) on television and Major League Baseball will tell you good pitching wins ballgames (something I’ll dispute in a minute), so wouldn’t that mean the star pitcher is the most valuable? He arguably has five times as much influence on a single game as a star hitter does.

Also worth mentioning, pitching – good pitching – can help control your defense and the other team’s hitting. They can have a major impact on where the other team hits the ball, i.e. double plays, left side of the infield, etc… How many teams have won a championship without a star pitcher?

Now let’s jump onto the other side of the fence. A star hitter is out there, presumably, every day, not every fifth day. He gets 4-5 chances a game to drastically and dramatically change the score. A pitcher is only out there once out of every five games.

I’d also dispute the blanket statement that good pitching beats good hitting. This is just not true. It’s an easy line for lazy sports broadcasters to throw out there because they heard their predecessors beat the public into the ground with it. Why? Because they themselves had to fill 4-hours of on-air time a game with useless filler.

The Chicago White Sox had a combined 932 OPS vs. Greg Maddux. Roger Clemens had a 4.89 ERA vs. the Mets, Albert Pujols has a 925 OPS against Roy Oswalt, a 1.006 OPS vs. Ben Sheets, 913 vs. Carlos Zambrano, etc…

And if good pitching always prevailed, MLB Odds say that Johan Santana would have a perfect career record. Until that happens, I’m betting on Pujols.

Barry Greenstein Biography

Barry Greenstein was born in Chicago in 1954 and stayed in Chicago for most of his life. He attended Bogan High School which he graduated from and then moved onto the University of Illinois where he finished with a bachelor degree in Computer Science. After his schooling Barry started working with Symantec where he worked until he was thirty-six and which point he retired to become a professional poker player. Greenstein learned how to play poker at a young age with his father, but was a late bloomer when it came to making the move to become professional.

Barry is known as the Robin Hood of Poker because he donates a lot of his poker winnings to charities. He takes from the rich and gives to the needy and this makes him a modern day robin hood which has earned the respect of many poker players and fans around the world. Not many poker player would even consider donating there winnings to charity, but Barry had no intentions not to donate most of his winnings.

Throughout Barry’s career he has won three WSOP bracelets and two WPT titles. He has also won money thirty-seven times in WSOP events plus another five times on the WPT. Barry has also own titles in two special WPT events which were the Father & Sons Tournament and the WPT Poker by the Book. Barry has been just starting to heat up lately as well and finished second place in 2008 for the WSOP Player of the Year finishing just behind the winner Erick Lindgren. He managed to finish second in the standings for best player of the year by winning money in six events including one bracelet in a Razz tournament.

Greenstein has already won almost seven million dollars from live tournament play and even more money at the cash tables. Barry plays on www.PokerStars.com often under the alias “barryg1” and has seen some great success playing online whereas some professional poker players couldn’t keep up with the fast paced action. Barry is one of the nicest people you’re going to meet on the poker circuit and he is known to autograph his book for you if you knock him out of any event. The book that Barry wrote was titled “Ace on the River” and it has helped many professional poker players learn how to play poker better.

Barry now lives in California and has two children plus four step children including one step children who Barry taught to play poker. Joe Sebok is one of Barry’s stepson and he is also a PokerStar now and opened up a strategy website with Barry for other up and coming poker players to use. Barry is always giving back to the game whether it’s through teaching other players how to play the game or through donating his winnings to charity. Barry is sure to continue his winning ways throughout the next few years and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win the player of the year very soon.

Phil Ivey Biography

Phil Ivey was born in Riverside, California, but moved to New Jersey at a very young age and grew up in the Jersey area. Phil started playing poker when he was working at a telemarketing firm in Jersey with his co-workers and soon started going to Atlantic City. Ivey had managed to get himself a fake ID so that he could go to Atlantic City and play poker in his teenage years.

Ivey is one of the most well known Poker Stars in the world and also one of the most accomplished poker players in history. Throughout Phil’s career he has won five WSOP bracelets and made thirty money finishes as well in WSOP events. Phil has also won one WPT title and eight final tables which is more then anyone else in WPT events. Phil also has some experience playing in EPT events and he finishes second place in 2006 at an EPT event in Barcelona. The five WSOP bracelets that Phil has won in his career all came within six years from 2000-2005 which goes to show you how quickly he has amassed his bracelets. Most poker players who have played 10-20 years don’t have any bracelets in the WSOP events, but Phil has already won five and should win more before he retires from poker.

Phil has been spending less time playing in tournaments the past couple years and spends more time playing cash games because the money is much better. Phil lives in Vegas now and can often be found at the Bellagio playing in the $4000/$8000 mixed game with other highrollers. Ivey’s biggest win in his career came in a heads-up cash match against Andy Beal in Vegas where he won a total of sixteen million in only three days of poker. The blinds were $25000/$50000 and limit Texas Holdem was the game that was played.

Ivey is also apart of the Full Tilt Team and often plays in the online poker room when he isn’t playing live cash games. There is usually a game every night or so on Full Tilt and Phil is often apart of the game so you can watch him play against other pros online anytime you want at Full Tilt. Phil has also appeared on lots of television shows over the years including Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and many other poker shows. When you have won as much as Phil Ivey has you often get the call to appear on television shows before other players.

Phil is married and currently doesn’t have any children although that might change within a couple years. When Ivey isn’t playing poker he enjoys watching basketball games and his favourite teams are the Lakers and Rockets. Phil also likes playing video games, golfing and betting on prop bets with his friends. There is no doubt that most poker players know exactly who Phil Ivey is and many people want to become the next Ivey. He has had a lot of success in a little amount of time and is now living a great life in Vegas playing poker, golfing and betting with friends.

Mike Matusow Biography

Mike Matusow, of Full Tilt Poker was born in Los Angeles, California and is a professional poker player living in Nevada. During Mike’s childhood he was often bullied and didn’t get along with many other people at school and ended up not even going to college after finishing highschool. Mike tried his hand at becoming an auto mechanic, but he never finished the courses he needed to finish and then ended up having to work with his parents in there furniture store.

Mike realized this wasn’t going to make him enough money and he started gambling to try and earn more money with the money he had made. Mike didn’t fair so well at first when he was playing games in the casino and ended up going to Gambling Anonymous courses to treat his problem. After these early struggles for Mike he found work dealing poker in a casino and learned how to play the game from Steve Samaroff. Matusow continued working as a dealer, but started playing the game when he wasn’t working and eventually made the move to start playing professionally and quit dealing.

Once Mike decided to make the move to play professionally he started making a lot of money at the tables and started entering the big tournaments. Over Mike’s career he has won three WSOP bracelets and finished in the money twenty-five times in his career just in WSOP events alone. This makes Mike one of the most consistent player’s to play the WSOP events and he continues to win to this day which makes me wonder how high his numbers will be once he retires.

Matusow won his first WSOP bracelet in 1999 in the $3500 no limit Holdem event. Since then Mike has won two more bracelets including one in 2002 and just recently in 2008. Mike also plays in the WPT events regularly, but he hasn’t been able to win a championship yet in the WPT. Mike does have four final tables and eight money finishes in his career in the WPT though. Over Mike’s career he has made over seven million dollars in live poker events including over three million in WSOP poker events alone.

Matusow has also been one of the professional poker players that love to play online poker at PokerStars.com and Full Tilt Poker. Mike can often be found playing online poker everyday. He has had streaks where he has won a lot of money and he has had streaks where he has lost a lot of money. Mike does gain a lot of playing experience from playing so much online poker though and has helped him develop one of the best playing styles that is seen today.

Mike Matusow is often called by his nickname “The Mouth” because he is awfully mouthy when he is playing poker and speaks his mind. Mike never backs down from a battle at the poker table and is often noted as being a little to aggressive sometimes when he is playing. You’ll either love or hate Mike, but either way you can’t deny that he is one of the best and most consistent poker players of all time.