Snow Day?

Today's newsletter is coming in late because I seriously doubt anyone's playing today and the Tourney Odds take FOREVER to update.

Also it was a really quiet night last night?

Most of the teams scheduled for today either moved up to last night or bumped to Friday, which is a built-in snow day for just this scenario. There's some hold-outs, but I would put the over/under on games played today at something under 10. I asked someone in the know and they put the line at 5.

In Texas Hold'em, there's a very rare situation where the correct move is to fold pocket Aces pre-flop, and not just because you think you always lose with them.

You have to be in tournament play--and late in tournament play. Say you're at a final table or in any situation where out-lasting one more person will increase your winnings significantly (the difference between 4th and 5th at the World Series of Poker Main Event this year was $3M vs. $2.5M). So you're surviving with the short stack, let's say you have 2,000 chips and someone with 50,000 chips goes all-in, then someone with 50,100 chips goes all-in. You should fold, regardless of your hand, because even if you win, you're still the tiny stack. But if you fold, you will be virtually guaranteed to move up a spot in the money.

It's a similar idea in Final Jeopardy! If you're in third with those numbers, you should wager $0 and write a funny answer.

In a similar vein, sometimes you should lose a basketball game, because Heal Points.

The Heal Points giveth and the Heal Points taketh away.

This is a hypothetical, much like folding those pocket aces, that rarely comes into play.

Here's the Heal Points prior to entering the Winthrop/Waterville game.

Because Madison beat Winthrop, they get help points from Winthrop winning a game and those help points are more than the value of winless Waterville.

Winthrop goes from 108.025 to 108.580, a gain of 0.555. But Madison gains 1.173 and they leapfrog Winthrop.

Some people hate this, but I think it's awesome. Every single game on the schedule matters. A game between 2 winless teams in B North might flip the seeding in C South, which is weird, but every game matters.

Lawrence's Maddie Provost scored her 1,000th career point last night in a win over Messalonskee. She's a junior and I think we have an early front-runner for Miss Basketball next year.

Elsewhere

Jameson Fitzpatrick scored 20 off the bench as Cheverus locked up the 1 seed in AA South...Carter Ulmer had 13 as Erskine upset Lincoln Academy...Fryeburg got 16 from Hugo Delgado and snapped GNG's 5 game winning streak...Bingham Abbott's 24 & 14 led Monmouth to a win over Hall-Dale...Pine Tree's Collin Verrill dropped 26 on Wiscasset...Taylor Varney's 21 helped St. Dom's win their 12th straight...Derek Couture scored 18 for Waterville, but it wasn't enough to beat Winthrop...The Cheverus girls used a 24-1 run to put away Portland. Kylie Lamson led the way with 26...Izzy Morelli's 22 helped GNG crush Fryeburg...NYA's Ella Giguere dropped 28 on OOB...Madeline Hill had 21 as Valley blew out Richmond.

On the podcast, I talked to Dave Albee about his new book on the 50th anniversary of Foxcroft's lone Gold Ball in basketball

Dave was a fledgling sportswriter during that season and has so many stories from that era in Maine high school basketball, including a story of a 6'6" kid wandering into Moody's Diner and the waitress calling legendary coach Art Dyer. And you think teams recruit now. Plus, a consolidation element and a ton more.

This was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to this book and I'm 99% sure this will be a Father's Day gift for my father (he doesn't read the newsletter. I think he gets summaries from my mother).

Smash that subscribe button.

I'm really hoping Dave can get to some tourney games while he's here promoting the book. And it's looking like his beloved Foxcroft Ponies might sneak into the tourney.

Today in "Really? That's where you put the camera?"

This is a pretty great buzzer-beater!

This coach decided that today's practice would be a little different.

This is pretty simple:

Winner get the 1 seed!