Casino Planet Cash

It looks like the Jets have once again signed a big name superstar who’s trying to prove something coming to the new season.

Yes, LaDainian Tomlinson will be playing for the New York Jets in the 2010 NFL football season. L.T. will be the Jets’ latest high profile superstar, joining the likes of Brett Favre, Bart Scott, Braylon Edwards and Antonio Cromartie who the Jets have signed the last few years, all were looking then to salvage what’s left of their playing days in the Big Apple.

But since LaDainian Tomlinson is joining the very team that ranked first in the league in rushing offense last season, there shouldn’t be any problems for L.T. to get going for New York right? After all, he made a career out of running the ball for years, even winning him the league MVP back in ‘06.

Well, if he was five years younger, there wouldn’t be any problems alright. But at 30, that’s a little hard to say for sure. Still, Tomlinson’s age hasn’t fazed his confidence one bit and he feels his marriage with the New York Jets will equate to a Super Bowl title. He wouldn’t be there if he thought otherwise.

”He wanted to go to a team that he thought had a chance to compete for the championship,” Tomlinson’s agent Tom Condon said in an interview. ”He wanted to go somewhere where he had a chance to have a significant role, and so with the Jets he also was going to be very familiar with the offensive system.”

With the $5.1 million the Jets are paying Tomlinson, he’s got to be ”familiar with the system” alright. The Jets signed Tomlinson to a two-year contract and if it turns out that Tomlinson still got it…

“If this were yesterday what time would it be now?”

Asked Vera of me late last evening. By then most of the clocks in the house had already been readjusted to account for Daylight Savings Time. But still, certain questions remained.

Somehow the day the clocks change always sneaks up on us. In the fall, it’s a pleasant surprise. (A-ha, extra hour of weekend to enjoy!) In the spring, though, when we lose that hour, it always feels like an especially rude theft from our rightfully allotted period of leisure.

And now it’s Monday morning already. Work to do.

Speaking of leisure time, I did get a chance over the last couple of days to sit at the online tables briefly. After a spell of nothing but Rush Poker (pot-limit Omaha) for a few weeks, I’ve moved back over to the ring games for the most part, splitting time between PLO and limit hold’em. I will every now and then jump back into the Rush Poker pool once in a while for a few quick laps, though.

Going back and forth like this highlights a couple of key differences between the formats. One, obviously, is all that rushing that goes on in Rush Poker. No time for nothin’. You do end up logging right about three times as many hands than in the ring games. I say “logging” rather than “playing,” because, well, you aren’t really “playing” a lot of those hands that are whizzing by. You’re folding them and letting others play them. Or quick folding them.

The other big difference is obvious, too — the whole “table image” game-within-the-game that gets mostly lost in Rush Poker, but which is essential in the regular ring games.

I realize going back to the ring games how much I enjoy this aspect of poker. The collecting of clues. The telling of tales. The stuff that happens when we slow down, take a look around the table, and start figgerin’ what it is all these people are up to with their checks and bets and raises. And what it is we are up to, too.

I wish I had more time to reflect on these things. If this were yesterday, there’d be time to do so. But the weekend’s gone and I’ve got to get to work.

The coffers for this column are so dry in the day before Cheltenham that we’re considering recording another cover version of Downtown in the hope of raising some funds.

All the in-running stories from another Sunday of Premier League football plus details of a couple of huge prices backed on Betfair in Serie A matches.

‘The calm before the storm’ is a line that will be spun out time and time again in the couple of days leading up to the Cheltenham Festival. We’ll leave that particular cliché and the hyperbole to others for now and simply concentrate on our three selections for Sunday.

After another winning day for the Placepot team at Wincanton on Friday, we’ll be looking for further success at Sandown on Imperial Cup day…

With Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui no longer part of the Yankees, can these guys return to the World Series this year?

That is the question most Yankee fans are asking themselves as we kick off the brand new 2010 MLB baseball season. Will the key additions of Javier Vasquez and Curtis Granderson be enough to fill the holes Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui left on the roster?

Without a shadow of a doubt, both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui were keys in the Yankees’ World Series run in 2009. Hell, Matsui was the 2009 World Series MVP for crying out loud. Thankfully, the Yankees are deep enough on both offense and with pitching that they can probably afford to lose out on those key elements on their title run heading to the season.

While some will remember Vazquez’s bad first go-around with the New York Yankees, things will be drastically different in that he won’t be counted on to be the ace or even second-best pitcher on the team. He’ll be the fourth starter behind CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Andy Pettitte. There is no questioning Vazquez’s stuff and the second tour on duty with the Bronx Bombers should be a lot smoother.

Granderson can do a lot of things on offense, but would be so much better if he could hit lefties (.210 career batting average). Yet, in a lineup that includes Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Jorge Posada, and newly (re)-acquired Nick Johnson, Granderson will be alright.

And so will the Yankees as they have a great shot to…

The March 2010 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites. In addition to the numerous MMA web sites that publish the Independent World MMA Rankings, you can also access the rankings at any time by going to http://www.independentworldmmarankings.com/.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).

Note: Shane Carwin and Quinton Jackson are temporarily ineligible tobe ranked, due to the fact that they have been inactive for over 12full months, and will regain their eligibility the next time theyfight.

March 2010 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on March 9, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (13-4)
4. Cain Velasquez (7-0)
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1, 1 No Contest)
6. Junior dos Santos (10-1)
7. Brett Rogers (10-1)
8. Alistair Overeem (32-11, 1 No Contest)
9. Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1)
10. Andrei Arlovski (15-7)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (16-0)
2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-4)
3. Rashad Evans (14-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Gegard Mousasi (27-2-1)
6. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3)
8. Dan Henderson (25-7)
9. Thiago Silva (14-2)
10. Vitor Belfort (19-8)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Dan Henderson (25-7)
3. Chael Sonnen (24-10-1)
4. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
5. Nathan Marquardt (29-9-2)
6. Demian Maia (12-1)
7. Jake Shields (24-4-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (17-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Yushin Okami (23-5)
10. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (11-2, 1 No Contest)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (21-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-6)
4. Josh Koscheck (14-4)
5. Paulo Thiago (13-1)
6. Dan Hardy (23-6)
7. Nick Diaz (21-7, 1 No Contest)
8. Matt Hughes (43-7)
9. Paul Daley (23-8-2)
10. Matt Serra (10-6)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (15-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (23-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (19-2)
4. Kenny Florian (12-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-5-2)
6. Gray Maynard (9-0, 1 No Contest)
7. Frankie Edgar (11-1)
8. Diego Sanchez (21-3)
9. Gilbert Melendez (17-2)
10. Joachim Hansen (19-8-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (16-1)
2. Mike Brown (23-5)
3. Urijah Faber (23-3)
4. Hatsu Hioki (20-4-2)
5. Bibiano Fernandes (7-2)
6. Marlon Sandro (15-1)
7. “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (18-3)
8. Raphael Assuncao (14-2)
9. Manny Gamburyan (10-4)
10. Michihiro Omigawa (9-8-1)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-0)
3. Joseph Benavidez (11-1)
3. Miguel Torres (37-2)
5. Masakatsu Ueda (10-0-2)
6. Scott Jorgensen (8-3)
7. Takeya Mizugaki (12-4-2)
8. Damacio Page (12-4)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (13-2)
10. Akitoshi Tamura (14-8-2)

The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

*Editor’s note: Mitch the Intern is an NYU undergrad and a fan of MMA.