the score

When you hear the word "pingpong," certain images come to mind: long, green tables in dusty rec halls; black-and-red paddles with worn-down handles; VFWs filled with old men and mothballs. The perception is bland, and also outdated. Which is why David Lowe, founder of Uberpong, is bringing new style to the sport. Read More | Comment »

It's time to set those DVR's, poker fans. Starting Tuesday, July 28, the World Series of Poker returns to ESPN. Coverage of the 2009 WSOP will commence with the special $40,000 buy-in event that commemorated the 40th anniversary of the prestigious tournament. New episodes will continue every Tuesday through November. ESPN limited its television schedule to include only four events this year. These include the Champions Invitational and actor Don Cheadle's Ante Up for Africa event which are sure to provide familiar faces and help increase sagging ratings. Missing from the television lineup this year is the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, which many players consider to be the WSOP's crown jewel. It seems Texas Hold 'em is the only game capable of retaining television viewers. Rounding out the coverage is, of course, the Main Event. ESPN will dedicate an impressive 24 episodes to the Main Event this year. Coverage for that event runs from August 18 through November 10, concluding with the nearly live airing of the final table episode. The eagerly anticipated final table includes top pro, Jeff Shulman, and arguably the game's best, Phil Ivey. Read More | Comment »

Coming off of an already impressive performance at this years World Series of Poker, Phil Ivey has battled through a field of 6,494 players to reach the final table of the 2009 Main Event. Having already won two bracelets this year, Ivey entered Day 8 in fourth chip position. After struggling throughout the day and losing half of his stack, he was able to fight through and secure a place among the final nine. Every player remaining is guaranteed to win at least $1.2 million, with first place receiving $8.5 million. The much-anticipated action is now set to conclude in November. Last year, in an attempt to increase a dwindling poker interest, the World Series of Poker decided to experiment with the format of the Main Event. Rather than play out the tournament as it had the previous 38 years, the WSOP introduced a four-month hiatus between the bulk of the tournament and the final table. Last year, eight days of physical, mental, and emotional stamina did produce a world champion. Instead the players played down to the final table then took months off before resuming play in the fall. The group was aptly christened the “November Nine.” The primary reason for the change was to help the players at the final table secure endorsement deals not unlike NASCAR racers. ESPN also hoped to increase ratings by having the tournament conclude in a nearly live format rather than a four-month tape delay where the results were known beforehand. But in the end, no recognizable face or “television personality” emerged from the field in 2008. As a result ESPN’s ratings showed no increase. The decision was then made to reduce television coverage from about a dozen events in years past to only four this year. Furthermore, with the exception of the typical gambling website, the players failed to receive any additional endorsements. One player even resorted to try to sell himself as a sitting billboard to the highest bidder on eBay. Nonetheless, the WSOP decided to stick with the format again this year. Read More | Comment »

Man, Hasbro is not making any friends these days. On the heels of the legendary game maker's lawsuit over net application Scrabulous – which resulted in the wildly popular Scrabble knockoff getting knocked off the Facebook site – Hasbro has now announced a radical revamping of its classic board game, Clue. In an ill-advised effort to reflect changing times, Hasbro has re-situated the game to "take place at a modern mansion – at a party of the rich and famous," according to a recent NPR piece. It's also scrapped Col. Mustard's military career and made him a retired football player, introduced new rooms, like (egads!) a spa, and dumped the lead pipe for the more family-friendly likes of an axe. Yup … an axe. No, it makes sense. I mean, really, why give kids a fun, sweetly fuddy-duddy game – one that puts murder at a gentle remove by placing it in another era of scullery maids and secret passageways – when instead you can make a buck by mashing MTV Cribs and torture porn? Way to be hip to the times, Hasbro. Read More | Comment »

The Austin Chronicle's Chrontourage and La Zona Rosa Backstage Bar (612 W. Fourth) are teaming up to host this superbadass Ping-Pong tournament celebrating the release of Balls of Fury starring the one and only Christopher Walken. The action takes place Thursday, August 23rd with registration starting at 6pm (21 and older) and the first serve at 7pm. All entrants will receive a free pass for two to see an advance screening of Balls of Fury. The Backstage Bar will also be running some drink specials including $2 domestics and $3 wells. Did I mention that there is absolutely no charge to sign up for this tourney? That's right, it's totally free, which leaves more disposable income to spend at the bar, or the concession stand during the flick.

For a rundown on the awesome prize packages … Read More | Comment »

   It was midway through the third quarter of a very interesting Nebraska-at-Oklahoma State football game this past Saturday when I received a phone call from my friend Brent.
   “You’ll never believe what’s just happened,” he said, and I could tell from the excitement in his voice that, for once, it had nothing to do with women. “I just won 1,500 bucks.”
   “What did you do,” I asked. “Buy a scratch-off lottery ticket?”
   “No,” he replied. “There is no lottery in Mississippi. The Republicans would never allow it.”
   I remembered at once that my friend had recently moved to a state controlled by some of the most wicked white men gathered in a single area since the fall of Nazi Germany.
   “I was playing a trivia game at my new favorite bar,” he continued. “You know those machines that allow you to play against other people? Well, it turns out that on some of 'em, you can play against people in other bars, in other states. I got in a game that offered cash prizes and actually won.” Read More | Comment »

   I must destroy Happy Jack.
   I am a sporting man, a gambler, and man of leisure. I am a gentleman.
   All the same, I must destroy Happy Jack.
   The game is shuffleboard, an elegant game played by proud warriors in bars all across this land, and, perhaps not so surprisingly, on the lido deck of many a luxury liner cruising the high seas.
   Happy Jack, the King of the Shuffleboard Table, has been in my nightmares, waking me up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat lining my tired brow, haunting me with visions of horrible and painful defeat.
   “Heh, heh,” his raspy laugh taunts me. “Way too hard!”
   And it’s true. The man is right. I’ve thrown the weight off the end of the board, yet again sealing my fate.
   I am a loser. Read More | Comment »

Ah, the Chronicle-Fadó Adult Spelling Bee. This Austin Public Library fundraiser comes around every fall, and the Chronicle proofreaders scramble to compile a new list of words tricky enough to stump the eerily smart hordes who show up and whose spelling abilities always belie the incredible amount of beer they’re drinking.

Even more strange than the size of the bee's audience and its general level of revelry and mayhem – I remember last year in particular watching a guy and two girls who, when they weren’t cheering, were joyously ballroom-dancing with each other at the back of the crowd – is the frenetic energy of all the people in charge as they run back and forth between the stage and their stacks of Merriam-Webster's.

This year's bee is Thursday, October 26 at Fadó with registration from 4:30pm-6. For more ... Read More | Comment »

   Bar games, pub games, or parlor games – call them what you will, but there is no denying that Americans love sporting action when they drink.
   And I can’t blame them. I’m one of them.
   So pour me another one, barkeep, and rack 'em because this week we’re playing the king-daddy of all bar games: pool.
   Pool, or “pocket billiards,” is a vague subclassification of the broader category of billiards. All such table games are thought to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick-and-ball games.
   I learn this from Harry Murdoch, a mean mother of a pool player, on a Saturday night at Click’s on East Oltorf. Click’s is one of many pool halls in town, and my being in this particular one probably has more to do with the fine Vietnamese food down the road at Hai Ky as it does with the pool hall itself.
   Not to take anything away from the fine folks at Click’s. Heck, if I hadn’t dropped in, I wouldn’t have met Harry.
   You know him. His type, anyway. Tall and rangy, walking with a slow and leisurely gait, he walks in the front door after stubbing out a Pall Mall, carrying his own pool cue in a small case. Read More | 1 Comment »