First off, Happy New Year! Here’s hoping everyone finds pocket aces in the hole, and two aces on the flop all year!

Second, what’s with the Saddam hanging? For crying out loud, Abraham Zapruder filmed the Kennedy assassination better forty-plus years ago with a Super8 camera. Couldn’t Al-Jazeera have paid for the rights and put a proper camera in the execution chamber? I’m surprised it wasn’t on pay-per-view. Oh well, maybe next time…

Third, I told you so about Frank Gore. I predicted 1200 yards and 10 TDs. He actually produced almost 1700 yards and 9 TDs as the 49ers exceeded all expectations for the year. Kicking the lifeless Broncos to the playoff curb was the highlight of a major rebuilding season for the boys in crimson and gold.

p.s. I got a Joe Montana vintage 1984 jersey for Christmas. I must say I look very studly in it.

Other quick sports notes

- Barry Zito, 7 years, $136M. Excuse me while I teach my son to throw left-handed.

- Raiders are on the clock. My guess is that they’ll fuck up and pick Brady Quinn, who has Rick Mirer/Ron Powlus written all over him. They should pick Adrian Peterson and get a franchise RB, trade Moss and Porter for more picks, and draft nothing but OL and one QB. Then call Denny Green.

My brother-in-law has thrown himself whole-hog into the poker fad, playing a live tournament New Years Day at Garden City, a local card club. The problem is that he sucks at poker. Badly. I’m pretty sure when you play tournaments with 20% vig, combined with a lack of talent and lack of self-awareness, you’re gonna lose money. Well, he dropped $160 yesterday on the entry and finished in the bottom half. Apparently, this has been a fairly frequent occurrence lately (according to my niece and nephew) and my sister seems to be clueless about the implications of it all. Gee, some people really need to curb their gambooooling tendencies…

On the bright side, wifey now realizes that being “ok” at poker translates a lot better financially than “sucking”. She’s pretty sharp though. Today at lunch, she said “That doesn’t mean you can go ape-shit on poker just because Eric [brother-in-law] is worse than you at poker. I know that’s how you think.” Well, she’s right. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Dammit.