Celtic 0-2 Arsenal

Battle of Britain, check. Champions League match, check. England vs Scotland, check.

Certainly fans who have been religiously following football, especially UEFA Champions League football, would simply yawn upon looking at the checklist above. At a glance, they might assume that this is another discussion about another of those dead-rubber matches between Manchester United and Celtic in Champions League group stage encounters in which Manchester United have firmly clinched their spot to the knockout stage of the competition while Celtic is firmly rooted to the bottom of the table without any chances whatsoever to even clinch 3rd place in the group and being demoted to the UEFA Cup. Apologies to the fans who feel offended by this paragraph.

However, this time, the Battle of Britain doesn't involve Manchester United and the stakes are much higher than the previous Battle of Britain matches witnessed by the fans. This is Celtic vs Arsenal, UEFA Champions League play-off round first leg in Parkhead, Glasgow in which the winners of this 2 legged qualifier would clinch a place in this season's edition of the UEFA Champions League and thus bagging a few wads of cash in the process.

Both teams come into this match with sheer optimism. First and foremost, all of us know that in the build-up of this encounter, Arsenal shamed a usually sturdy Everton team in front of their own fans in Goodison Park with a rather obscene scoreline (especially true for Evertoonians) of 6-1, no less. Thus, morale of Arsenal's dressing room is certainly sky-high prior to this.

Celtic's morale is more or less quite high as well. Besides the heroic triumph of Dynamo Moscow in the cold and hostile Russia to snatch an unlikely 2-1 aggregate victory to keep their European hopes alive and book their dates with Arsenal's boys, they also have reently clinched a solid 3-1 victory over Aberdeen in Pittodrie, which is Aberdeen's home stadium.

Well, personally I don't really know why that from the matches of this season so far, I could see that teams are rather homesick, many home teams falter badly in front of their own fans and so away teams usually triumph in hostile stadiums (Just like Celtic's performances in the 2 legs against Dynamo Moscow). I will come back to this argument at the end, as based on the result of today's match, it might be about to happen again (sorry Gooners...)

In this match, Celtic was thoroughly being outplayed by the usual brand of Arsenal's carpet football, which I personally dub as "Pinball Football". I particularly like Andrey Arshavin's performance in this match. He was everywhere on the pitch and was always at the epicenter of any of Arsenal's offensive moves. In short, I would describe his performance as similar to a 100% Juan Roman Riquelme (plus a few notches of pace).

Throughtout the match, Arsenal basically pressed the Scottish side to the limit, it was as if Arsenal was playing in their homeground. But narrow misses were common from van Persie and the rest of Arsenal's firepower.

In 43th minute, Arsenal broke the deadlock through their surprisingly prolific William Gallas (maybe the number 10 on his shirt influences his knack of scoring many goals) albeit with a little fluke. In my opinion, this goal substantiated my claim that Arsenal's play was just like a pinball game. The move started when Arsenal got a free kick around 35 meters from the goal. van Persie would flick the ball a little to Fabregas before the captain dipped a shot on goal, but on the way to goal, the ball struck the back of William Gallas and as a result of the wicked deflection, Artur Boruc (Celtic's GK) dived to the wrong direction and the ball simply whistled to the net beautifully. 1-0 to Arsenal.

The second half was pretty much the same as the first one, with Arsenal playing their "pinball" with Arshavin pulling the strings and distributing the ammunition to van Persie, but the Dutchman kept on missing very slightly to extend Arsenal's lead.

However, in the 71st minute, Arsenal extended their lead when another of the pinball movement occurred, and Gael Clichy launched a searching cross from the left flank and Gary Caldwell, one of the Celtic players tried to clear it away but in the end he made himself look like an Arsenal striker as he simply directed it into his own goal! 2-0 for Arsenal and there was no way back for Celtic, as could be seen from the dejected Tony Mowbray, Celtic's manager.

Celtic tried to grab a goal late in the end, but again, they were so groggy as if they were an away team in the match and simply squandered the good counter.

The next leg would be played in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium with the Scottish side needing to climb a mountain of 2 away goals to clinch a place in the group stage of the Champions League. A tall task as they would have to win by 3 goals at least to really secure a safe passage to the group stage.

However, referring to my earlier mention about teams being homesick so far, I will never rule out the possibility of Arsenal being homesick as well (Note: We have yet to see Arsenal performing competitively in Emirates Stadium this season) and Arsenal would be left chasing for Europa League glory instead of the Champions League glory.

We shall see how it goes in the second leg of this tie, and I am certainly looking forward to it!

Texas Hold'em Poker

Thanks to a nice trip around China a few months ago, I got a perfect introduction from my acquaintances on this wonderful card game. This game is actually one of the many versions of Poker, which is arguably the current most famous type of Poker game of all. This game only gained massive worldwide popularity since around 2004 mainly thanks to the LIVE coverages of big events such as World Poker Tours as well as the extremely prestigious WSOP (World Series of Poker).

To beginners, (pretty much just like where I was at a few months ago) this game might seem like the most difficult game in the world. However, in the actual fact, this game is one of the simplest games in the world, it is also one of the easiest games around that is very easy to grab, master and of course just like any other forms of card games, it is rather easy to get hooked-up on once one has gotten the hang of the game. What makes it a complex and adrenaline pumping game is the sheer unpredictability as well as the very fact that even for seasoned professionals with very many WSOP bracelets (and of course truckloads of money), it is still impossible for them or anyone for that matter to totally master the game 100% and steamroll past all players in the game just like a hot knife slicing through butter. Anyways, in my opinion, it is the same as any other games, the basics are very simple, but it's the strategies and trickery which makes life difficult
for rookies...

Before going on to the rules as well as the progression of a game, it is pertinent for new players to know and if possible memorize the various combination that exist in Texas Hold'em. Players who are familiar with other types of poker (such as Video Poker and Big 25) should be well-versed in reading the five card combination in each hand.

First and foremost, the highest ever rank of a hand combination is the elusive and coveted Royal Flush. This combination is made once a person has 10, J, Q, K, A (suited).
It is almost impossible to obtain this combination and the chances of one getting it is 1 : ~800000. Very very rare indeed.

The second highest combination is the Straight Flush. This is obtained when a player has for example, A, 2, 3, 4, 5 (suited) or 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (suited) and so on and so forth.

The third highest combination is the Four-of-a-Kind. This is obtained when a player has four of the same cards such as AAAA, KKKK, QQQQ, 8888, and so on.

Next is a Full-House, which can be obtained when a player has for example, AAAQQ, 888AA (known as Dead Man's Hand), 66655 and so on.

Next is the flush, which can be obtained when all five cards are of the same suit, such as 387QA (hearts) or 5QJ8A (Spades) and so on.

Next is straight, which is obtained as long as the five cards are all continuous such as A, 2, 3, 4, 5 (any suit) or 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (any suit)

Next is 3-of-a-Kind, the same as the four cards counterpart, just that it involves 3 cards instead of 4. Examples AAA, 888 etc.

Next is 2-Pairs. Examples AA552, KKQQ6, etc etc.

Next is 1-Pair. Examples AA653, QQJ76, etc etc.

The lowest hand is High-Card, which very rarely results in a player winning a pot, but personally I have won pots with this "combination", if I can call it that. High-Card simply means that when the 5 cards offer no combination at all, then the highest card in that hand would determine the value of the hand. For example, A3527 would beat K4378. High Card A beats High Card K in this case.

The rules of the games are very simple. This game is usually played among 9 people at a table, but sometimes there can only be only 5 people or even duels!

Each player would be dealt 2 cards which is referred collectively as the "Hand". Before the first betting round (called the FLOP) begins, 2 players seated side by side have to post bets known as blinds (big blind and small blind respectively. The 2 amounts being bet by the 2 players depend on the stake at that particular table. For example, if the stake of the table is $5/$10 it means that the amount of the blinds are $5 for the small blind and $10 for the big blind. A player besides the small blind poster would get a special chip known as a Dealer Chip (usu. a black chip with a D on it). This person gets to post his/her bet last, just before the small blinder and big blinder makes their own bet. These three chips would go clockwise around the table after a hand has been played and a pot (total amount of money being bet at the table) has been won.

After everyone has been distributed their 2 cards, the first round of betting starts. This is known as The Flop. All players are required to make their bets, either equaling the big blind or raising the stake higher or they can even bet all of the chips they have by going ALL-IN. In any case, other players would have to match the highest amount on the table to keep participating in the hand. If one is not willing to match the highest bet on the table, he/she could FOLD, which means his/her participation in the hand is over and has to wait for the next hand. If for example the highest bet on the table is 1000, and a player only has 300, he can go ALL-In and still participate, but if at the next rounds of betting other players raise the stakes further, and in the end, the aforementioned ALL-IN player wins the pot, he/she would only win the pot just before the bet made once the player has gone ALL-IN. The remaining pot would go to a player who has the
second highest combination.

During the FLOP, 3 of the 5 Community Cards would be dealt, and the next round of betting would promptly start. This second round of betting is known as The Turn. This is exactly the same as the first betting round just that only 1 instead of 3 cards would be revealed. The final round of betting is known as The River, and is more or less the same as The Turn. After all 5 Community Cards have been dealt, and players have finished all the betting rounds, the players still involved in the hand would engage each other in a showdown. Assuming now that only two players, A and B remain in the hand. A's hand is A (heart), A (Spade), while B has King (heart), Jack (diamond).

The community cards are A (diamond), Jack (Spade), 3 (heart), 7 (club), 9 (diamond)

For this case, A's combination is AAA (3 of a kind) while B's combination is (JJ one-Pair). This would mean that A wins this particular pot. Simply, 5 of the 7 cards (hand + community cards) are chosen to determine which combination being possessed by the respective players).

This is just the basics of this wonderful game, there are many many more deeper aspects pertaining to the game on offer, such as the various trickery and strategies and anything along that line.

Personally, I have decided to write my own very simple manual of this game here because I have taken a liking for this game and writing about it would just satisfy me as a fan. One thing I like about this game is that unlike other games such as basketball and football, it is never too late to start picking up the game and even go professional and perhaps eventually be calling the shots at the WSOP Main Event! While in the 2 aforementioned branches of sports, to be a top professional one needs to be training since the tender ages of 5 or even 4 these days while sacrificing other aspects of life such as education. In poker, a 20 year old is able to start learning from scratch and be a professional while still going n with his/her studies, occupation, etc. Anyways, I may comeback with the deeper aspects of the game soon! Hope that this little and simple manual of the game would help new players on picking the game and for that, I am very grateful to have
contributed where I can to this great game!

1st Matchday of BPL 2009-2010

After seemingly an eternal wait through the searing heat of summer
(personally I loathe summer) as well as the sheer boredom of the agony
inducing football off-season, the Beautiful Game's season proper has
finally returned.

On the first matchday of the BPL season, football started rather quite
brightly with goals galore in the matches contested during both of the
days of the matches (Saturday and Sunday). On Saturday, there was a
rather anomalous pattern in the results as almost all the teams
(barring Stoke City and the rather fortunate Chelsea) faltered in
front of their own fans, but order was restored on Sunday as both of
the home teams in the two matches contested that day returned home
(err... they were already at home in the first place actually) with
the full 3 points.

This is crazy

I think this is crazy!

练习汉语

大家好，很长时间没有来在这儿。我很想写东西在这儿。

现在，我很喜欢写汉语文章，因为，我觉得写汉语用电脑很有意思。

最近生活比较好，很多时间玩儿。。 但是我也觉得，现在我有太多时间了，有时候我不知道要做什么。所以。。。

有时候，我玩儿扑克牌跟很多人在很多国家里。我非常高兴因为现在我们都可以用上网，所以我们可以玩儿比如说扑克牌跟很多国家的人。现在世界是很小。。。 在我们爸爸妈妈的事态还没上网，所以，不可以玩儿和聊天儿跟别的国家的人。

好了，我觉得我写了比较多。明天见！