Blackhawks on the Brink

I think that Game 4 of the Blackhawks-Red Wings series was best summed up by a Chicago sports radio talk show host: "What you saw was a young, inexperienced, up-and-coming team play the defending Stanley Cup champions."

It is pretty obvious that Chicago is just not at the level of Detroit ... yet. The Hawks missed on most of their chances, and Detroit once again seemed to score every time there was a Hawks defensive breakdown. Quite impressive. The mark of a championship team.

No, Joel Quenneville, the penalty to Matt Walker was not the "worst call in the history of sports." And it was not the reason the Hawks lost. They went up against a better, more experienced team, they were outplayed, and they lost their cool. The Hawks "rough guy" antics toward the end of the game were embarrassing.

Can the Hawks come back and win three in a row against the Red Wings? Highly improbable. But this year the Hawks achieved much -- probably much more than most expected. The trick, however, will be how they build upon this for next year.

Unfortunately, the Hawks news is the GOOD news in Chicago sports. The White Sox and Cubs? Bah!

BBT4

When you run bad, you run bad. Last night at Riverchasers, I did win a race with 9-9 vs A-K. Unfortunately, it was followed up by losing preflop Q-Q against K-10suited (hit his flush) and preflop Q-Q against A-10 (10 on the flop and a third 10 on the river). No complaints against the players who played these hands, for the circumstances dictated their moves. But it just goes to show that so many things go into winning a tournament. If I was not flushed out with K-10, I would have had a decent stack and everything would have changed. If the 10 doesn't come on the river, I would have doubled up and have been right back in it.

Only four BBT4 tournaments are left. No wins yet. As for the total point standings, I am now just out of the money. Unless I come up big in the next week, this will have been a disappointing end to something that had started so promising.