TOP FIVE

Top 5 – Substance abusing athletes

5) Rafael Palmeiro - "Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period."

4) Ben Johnson - One look at the Canadian Olympian before the 100m event in the 1988 Olympics said it all.

3) Darryl Strawberry - It's really sad to see what narcotics have done to a once fine baseball player.

2) Floyd Landis - Last year's Tour de France "winner" is sticking by his claim of innocence despite reports to the contrary.

1) Ricky Williams - The former Heisman Trophy winning RB lives by the "Go Green" motto and he's not even an environmentalist. He recently tested positive again for marijuana use, putting his future in doubt.

 

POKER

High Stakes Poker

The poker boom, which hasn't shown signs of truly busting yet, can be largely credited to television. Channel surf on any given night and it is almost guaranteed that you will be able to find a poker-related show somewhere.

Currently, the show that is all the rage amongst the poker pros is GSN's High Stakes Poker, which is set to debut in September.

In the past buy-in was $100,000, but at a recent taping, buy-in was up to $500,000.

Among the notable pros taking part are Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson and last year's WSOP champ Jamie Gold.

 

SPORTS

Sporting Newsbits for May 25

Hot off the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Oscar De La Hoya pay-per-view event a few weeks back, the hot PPV buy this week is the UFC bout between Chuck Lidell and Quinton Jackson, with Lidell favored at -175.

Jason Giambi's recent comments regarding steroids has him in hot water with the league and with that in mind, check out the Top 5 list.

The NHL's Stanley Cup final begins on Monday with Ottawa travelling to Anaheim. The Ducks are favored at -130 to sip from the mug.

 

FEATURE

With a field of 8,773 and top prize of US$12,000,000, the 2006 World Series of Poker’s Main Event was truly larger than life. When the field was whittled down and the carnage was over, Hollywood agent and virtual long shot Jamie Gold was the cream that rose to the top.

It’s creeping up on this year’s event, which starts on June 1, 2007 in Las Vegas, and sports books are already taking action on who will win the World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em Event.

Jamie Gold won’t be under the radar this year—winning the Main Event will do that to you—and is being listed at +50,000 to repeat as champ.

Poker playing is common amongst the members of the Lederer family and brother Howard and sister Annie (now with the surname Duke) are listed at +25,000 and +50,000 respectively.

The biblical Jesus is known to save and the poker player nicknamed Jesus, aka Chris Ferguson, is listed at +20,000 to take a bracelet in the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.

Greg Raymer is looking to run for Vice President under the Libertarian ticket for 2008, in the meantime, “Fossilman” is listed at +30,000 to take the championship bracelet in 2007.

Read more here.