If judge is there, bettors beware
Horn’s decision not first to make people furious, or relieved
When the decision was announced for Sugar Ray Leonard-thomas Hearns II, there was pandemonium at the outdoor arena at Caesars Palace.
The fight, for Leonard’s WBC super middleweight title, was scored a draw.
“My co-worker, Lou D’amico, and I crawled under the ring and escaped back to the book through the Italian restaurant’s kitchen,” former Caesars Palace sports book director Vinny Magliulo said. “That was how volatile the crowd was at that decision. Hearns knocked Leonard down twice in the fight, and the bout was declared a draw.
“There was almost a riot with that decision.”
Magliulo, a VSIN host, recounted the June 1989 fight while discussing Jeff Horn’s controversial unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night in Horn’s hometown of Brisbane, Australia. Pacquiao closed as a 7-1 favorite, and Horn was a 5-1 underdog at Wynn Las Vegas.
“As always with boxing, the moral of the story is buyer beware because your wager is at the mercy of the judges,” Magliulo said.
Leonard was a 3-1 favorite for his rematch with Hearns, and Magliulo said most of the wagers were on the underdog at Caesars.
FIGHTS Swedish center Oscar Lindberg to a two-year, $3.4 million contract.
Lindberg, 25, offers similar skills and comes at a much cheaper price than Kruger, who signed a threeyear, $9.25 million extension in March 2016.
The Knights selected the 6-foot-1, 202-pound Lindberg from the New York Rangers in the expansion draft.
Lindberg had eight goals and 20 points in 65 games last season. He missed the first month of the season following offseason hip surgery.
A former second-round pick by Arizona in 2010, Lindberg has 21 goals and 27 assists in 134 NHL games.
The Kruger trade gives the Knights six picks in the 2018 entry draft, including two in the fifth round. They do not have a pick in the third or seventh round.
Kruger forged a reputation as one of the league’s top defensive forwards during his seven seasons. He had five goals and 12 points in 70 regular-season games last season.
Kruger is the second player the Knights traded to the Hurricanes this summer after defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk was dealt June 22.
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @ Davidschoenlvrj on Twitter.
but she started dealing poker after a false cancer diagnosis.
The 40-year-old mother of two dealt the final hand of the Main Event in 2014 when Sweden’s Martin Jacobson won $10 million with a set of 10s, along with Joe Mckeehen’s winning hand in 2015.
Last year, Alcorn was at the final table for Qui Nguyen’s Main Event victory.
More notably, she was in the box on Day 7 for the most famous hand of the tournament, the “Check your privilege” confrontation between Griffin Benger and William Kassouf.
“When I started, I was dealing to those (famous) people and had no idea who they were, which was probably a good thing for my first year,” Alcorn said. “Now, I’ve gotten to know these players on a personal level, and I’m more excited about the big hands or who I’m crushing and not crushing.”
Dealers apply to the WSOP beginning in February and go through an audition process, according to supervisor Kim Smith.
Prospective dealers are required to know all 20 variants spread at the WSOP — not just popular games such as Hold ’em and Omaha — and often work more than 60 hours per week.
“One of the first things I tell poker dealers is it looks a lot easier than it actually is,” Smith said. “Unless you’ve done it, you have no idea what it takes to sit in that box and do what they do.”
Tim Schmecht grew up near Chicago and started dealing charity poker games at age 18. In 2013, he enrolled at the WSOP’S dealer school, and the 28-year-old now travels the WSOP Circuit year-round.
“A lot of my friends and family, a lot of my friends watch poker on TV,
so I’ll tell them I dealt to Phil Ivey a few years ago and I dealt to Phil Hellmuth, and they’ll think that’s really cool,” Schmecht said.
Schmecht, a Las Vegas resident, said he enjoys dealing at the WSOP in the summer because it offers seldom-played games such as Badugi and deuce-to-7.
Schmecht was selected to deal at the final table of the WSOP National Championship in 2015 and is hoping to be chosen for his first Main Event final table this year. ESPN producers decide on the dealers for the final table based on evaluations of their work during the summer.
“It would be nice,” Schmecht said. “It’s one of those things where it’s kind of the highest place you could go as a dealer. It would definitely be an honor.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @ Davidschoenlvrj on Twitter.