Photo courtesy The BCLC

When you think of great poker players, the names Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson are names that come up and there are some good Canadians too like Daniel Negreanu.

But just like Steve Nash to the NBA, British Columbia has made a contribution to the game of poker.

Brad "Yukon" Booth is a regular on television poker appearing on the Game Show Network's High Stakes and NBC Poker After Dark's second season.

Currently, Booth is taking part in the Coast to Coast Poker Championship at the River Rock Casino.

Here is an abridged version of Booth's poker origins:

Beyond Robson: "How did you get started playing poker?"

Brad Booth: "When I was a kid my father used to take me to my grandpa's, who was a barber. He said, 'Play on your own,' so they'd give me some cards and chips and I'd be off in the corner when my grandpa had customers."

"I learned how to shuffle and chip tricks and I learned the basic probability of poker."

Photo courtesy of Arne Gulstene.

I remember how excited I was when I learned that sports talk radio was coming to Vancouver.

It's hard to believe that the TEAM 1040 has been on the air for seven years.

Before that, the only form of sports talk radio came on CKNW 980 and it happened in the evenings, when I was away from the radio.

But with the all new TEAM 1040 taking over the station once known as 1040 Kicks CKXY, it was 24/7 and I was in Heaven.

Thanks for breaking the silence of my office during the day.

Thanks for showing me that Jim Rome was more than just the guy that pissed off Jim Everett back in the nineties--he was actually a good host.

Thank you Sherminator and B-Mac for talking more than just local sports. I love hearing about my Lions, Giants and Canucks, but I also like hearing about things like March Madness as well.

The first time I saw something Parkour-related was when I watched Casino Royale and Daniel Craig (James Bond) chased a villain through a construction site, up a frame of a building and across steel girders.

But just what is Parkour? A discipline that originates from France says Parkour instructor Rene Scavington.

Derived from the French term for obstacle course, "parcours du combatant", Parkour was pretty much started by a man named David Belle.

One of the benefits of listening to sports talk radio is that you hear about breaking news shortly after it breaks.

Although what I heard today shocked me and compares with the Roberto Luongo trade, it wasn't as uplifting -- Vancouver Canucks GM Dave Nonis was fired.

Hearing calls for Nonis' head is nothing new; the same degenerates who call in with "Fire Dave Nonis" takes think that Luongo's wife doesn't like it here and that we should trade old Louie.

Makes perfect sense, why would a woman endure a difficult pregnancy amongst her family in Florida when she can be by her lonesome in Vancouver? But I digress.

The Vancouver Canucks didn't really give reasons besides the standard, "It's not acceptable to our fans or to us as owners that our team isn't in the playoffs, yadda, yadda, yadda."

Yes, Nonis was not owner Francesco Aquilini's man and he (with hindsight being 20/20) hamstrung the team with long-term deals to Naslund and Morrison but the thinking was he was going to make a splash this offseason.

The firing also raises more questions:

I really hate it when my teams lose and although I have a side to cheer for in almost every sport, few compare to my hometown Canucks.

Forget the late season collapse, it's worse when you see other Canadian cities enjoying NHL playoff fever whilst we drown in our sorrows.

Believe it or not, I even saw a chalkboard at a local restaurant that said, "Go Flames Go!"

Correct me if I'm wrong but fans in the Bronx don't cheer for the Red Sox if the Yankees don't make the postseason do they?

When, where and why the Canucks missed the playoffs has been analyzed already and we are a few games into the playoffs so why not reminisce about better times?

I know it's been hard to watch Canucks games lately.

Roberto Luongo has seen his defensemen play like the ones I see when I play floor hockey and the team is in danger of missing the playoffs for the second time in three years.

But if you're a fan like me, hope springs eternal and until the headline, "Canucks out of playoffs" graces the cover of the sports page, I'm keeping the faith.

Even if you don't think the Ca-knuckle Heads will get an invite to the big dance, there is incentive to at least watch the final two Sportsnet Pacific (S-Pac) games against the Flames (tonight) and the Avs (Tuesday).

As Dave Roberts mentioned in an earlier post, Sportsnet's Jim Hughson will be doing his last Canuck play-by-play calls on the S-Pac.