During the regular season, the Dallas Mavericks finished in second place in the Southwest Division, and tied with the Lakers for the second best record in the Western Conference. The Miami Heat won the Southwest Division by six games over the Orlando Magic. Miami finished with the second best record in the Eastern Conference; behind only the Chicago Bulls.

The Mavericks were led in the regular season, and have been led in the postseason by Dirk Nowitzki. The 7’0 forward scored 23 points per game, and scored 40+ in two of their postseason games. The Mavericks as a team scored 100.2 points per game during the regular season, while allowing 96. Tyson Chandler had one of his best seasons in the league this year for the Mavericks leading Dallas in rebounding, with just short of 10 per game. Jason Kidd, who is discussing retirement has also had a sensational season, as the team’s point guard. Jason Terry and Shawn Marion have been great role players for the Mavericks; both of whom are former stars.

The Miami Heat come into the game a little stunned by the end of the game four loss. As they did in game two, the Heat lost a lead in the fourth quarter and fell on the wrong side of the result. As the Heat were down 3 late in the game, Dwyane Wade fumbled a late pass away, only to get Mike Miller a desperation three-point attempt. The Heat were led in the regular season by LeBron James and his 26.7 points per game. James “checked out” of game four, and was held almost useless in the game four loss. Dwyane Wade is the emotional leader for the Heat, and the second leading scorer. Lastly, Chris Bosh has been a man child for the Heat this season; leading the team in rebounding. Miami scored 102.1 points per game and allowed 94.6 during the regular season.

This is expected to be an excellent game, with the home team as a very slight favorite. In game four, Dallas was favored by three points, and that is exactly what they won by. On Thursday, Dallas is listed at -1.5, so look for this game to be a very tight game. We like LeBron James to have a much better game five than he did on Tuesday night. WIth that, we are expecting the Miami Heat to win the game and cover the spread.

Regardless, Thursday is a game you must tune into, regardless who you end up betting on. It will be the final home game for Dallas, so you know the stadium will be rocking!

This is the return to the Zuffa fold for Escovedo after being away since losing to Antonio Banuelos by unanimous decision at WEC 23 in August of 2006. He was the first WEC featherweight champ when he won that fight back in 2002, and maintained that title until 2006 when he lost to Urijah Faber. He was then forced out of fighting for two years when a staph infection took a turn for the worst, having complications and leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Since his return to fighting he’s posted an impressive 6-2 record. His opponent Barao on the other hand is just 24, but has 27 pro fights; with his only loss coming in his FIRST fight, in a tough split decision loss to Joao Paulo back in 2005. Barao has been considered one of the most promising up and comers in UFC and is going to be a tough out in this fight against Escovedo.

Renan “Barao” Pegado over Cole Escovedo

Other Previews and Picks for UFC 130

Frank Mir (14-5) vs. Roy “Big Country” Nelson (15-5): Mir, who is the former UFC Heavyweight champion, is looking to make another run at the title in this fight. Mir is an excellent grappler who has worked incredibly hard to improve his striking game. He owns eight submissions and three TKO finishes overall. Mir enters this bout off a TKO victory UFC 119 in September. Nelson is the former IFL Heavyweight champ and and was the winner of season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter. Nelson has strong grappling skills, but has finished eight opponents via TKO and only five by submission.

This is an intriguing match-up between two heavyweights who are looking to get into the heavyweight title picture. This fight will be a close one and the difference will be that Big Country lands the heavier punches and earns a close but unanimous decision.

Nelson -105 over Mir

Travis “Hapa” Browne (10-0-1) vs. Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve (21-4): Browne is coming in off a disappointing draw with Cheick Kongo at UFC 120 in October, but he brings big power with eight TKOs out of his ten career wins. Struve is the tallest fighters on the UFC roster, listed at 6’11, and brings a 5-2 UFC record into this fight. Struve is an excellent finisher with 14 submissions and five knockouts.

Bowne is a tall 6’7”, but will be looking up to the Skyscraper. Struve will be looking to keep Hapa at the end of his long jabs and kicks until taking the fight to the ground. When it ends up on the ground, it’ll be all Struve from there. And should end in the third straight TKO for Struve.

Struve over Browne

Jorge Santiago (23-8) vs. Brian “All American” Stann (10-3): Santiago makes his long awaited return to the UFC after spending over the past four years with Strikeforce, Bodog, and Sengoku; where he earned the Sengoku Middleweight Championship. He has gone an incredibly impressive 11-1 since leaving the UFC back in 2006. Stann on the other hand, is the former WEC Light Heavyweight champion. The All American hits incredibly hard, as was seen in his first round thrashing of Chris Leben at UFC 125.

This is a battle of two different styles here, with the incredible power of Stann against the well-rounded Santiago. Santiago will be trying to get the fight to the ground and avoid Stann’s power, while of coure Stann will do just the opposite. The main thing that Stann has that Santiago doesn’t is the ability for a one-hit knockout. Expect Santiago to try to get it onto the mat as quick as possible, and when he gets it on the mat, Santiago should be able to force a tap from Stann.

Santiago +100 over Stann

Thiago Alves (18-7) vs. Rick “Horror” Story (12-3): Alves was on an impressive seven fight win streak going into his title fight against UFC Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, when he then lost by unanimous decision. He came back after back to back tough losses in December with a very nice unanimous decision win over John Howard. Rick Story has put together a nice five fight streak to get to this point, and has good striking power.

This fight’s going to be a tough fight with Story most likely using a wrestling approach. Alves has struggled with the wrestling approach, which Jon Fitch used to help him beat Alves twice. This is going to put Thiago Alves in a tough spot, and should give Rick “Horror” Story the advantage to knock off Alves.

Story +160 over Alves

This morning’s stream of Quad Jacks radio openly revealed that the next internet gambling companies that may be going down are Bodog and Merge Gaming.  One of the site’s regular hosts, Zekday0, tweeted just minutes ago that “Bodog [is] going to be seized in 2 weeks, Merge 30-60 days. You heard it here FIRST.”

The tweet comes in the wake of Bodog redirecting their .com domain to Bodog.eu and Merge skins like Lock Poker redirecting their .com site to LockPoker.eu – both of which occurred just this week!  These particular moves have been seen by many gaming insiders as a preemptive move to possibly stay one step ahead of the DOJ.

So far, none of the aforementioned sites have been indicted by the USA government, but their counterparts such as Bookmaker and Doyles Room were recently named in a Maryland indictment for being complicit in violating numerous state laws involving payment processing.  Some of their domains have already been seized and sites like Bookmaker.com have already began redirecting traffic to bmaker.ag, a drastic move to ensure their place in the USA market despite being named in the most recent indictment against internet gambling websites.

As of right now, the news is only speculation at the moment, but it could be a very troubling sign for the remaining companies still offering online poker and other gambling services to USA customers.  Since “Black Friday,” 14 online gambling companies have already been named in either federal or state indictments for breaking banking statutes and violating terms laid out in the Wire Act.

The account at the center of all this is Full Tilt’s Bank of Ireland bank account, which will now apparently “free up more than a third of the US$100m to $150m still owed to US players.”  However, it doesn’t look like the cash will be getting released any time soon to those US players who still have their bankrolls housed at FTP.

As you may remember Full Tilt had 9 of its bank accounts seized by the United States Department of Justice on April 15th, 2011, and it was widely reported the sum that was frozen from USA players alone exceeded $100 million alone.  The reports coming out of Ireland and press wires around the world have confirmed this, as well as addressed widespread rumors that owners for the embattled poker room have been actively seeking out anywhere from $150 million to $200 million from investors in exchange for a percentage in the company.

The money mentioned above would be meant to help pay out USA players even faster, especially since there are still 8 other bank accounts that are still seized on Full Tilt’s end.  Unfortunately there have been no takers on this deal and to be honest there’s really no telling how long player funds might start getting dispersed.  On a positive note though, the fact that their largest bank account has now been unfrozen is a good start for those worried about getting their money back.

It will be a waiting game from here on out as executives from sites like PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute and UB.com continue their negotiations with attorneys from the Southern District of New York.  The USA government will be seeking $3 billion in fines for these online poker sites breaking numerous federal banking laws regarding internet gambling.

Carbon Poker’s main affiliate rep, Atil Singh, made a post on PokerAffiliateListings.com that consequently revealed that “the following states will be blocked from signing up for real money play on the network: Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, New York and Washington D.C..”  He went on to say that “existing players from these states will not be affected,” and should it will be business as usual for customers already playing for real money on their site.

The announcement has also been made public on other popular poker media sites and forum boards as well, with many players expressing clear concerns about the safety of their bankrolls on sites like Carbon Poker and other Merge-powered skins.  For the time being it looks as if bigger flagship sites like Carbon Poker aren’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and the website itself is doing everything in its power to stay out of the US government’s crosshairs.

The move to stop new real money players in these 5 locations is obviously a step in the right direction, and since UseMyWallet and Click2Pay have been temporarily disabled to USA customers, Carbon is really only accepting legal deposits from Western Union, making it completely safe to still deposit on their client.

It’s important to note that cashouts have been processed, albeit with much longer cashout times than before with the shutdown of the eWallets mentioned above.  Checks have been sent out to hundreds of thousands of players that have requested them, however, they are taking anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks to get there via FedEx.

Earlier in the day, an indictment was unsealed in the state of Maryland that revealed that a joint sting operation involving Homeland Security, I.C.E., Maryland State Police and workers inside the Internal Revenue Service has uncovered massive banking fraud committed by 10 popular internet gambling websites.

Justice.gov released this on their website naming powerhouses like Bookmaker and Doyles Room as sites that were very much complicit in processing USA player cashouts through 3rd party institutions, something that is clearly against certain state banking laws and the Wire Act.

“It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”

In a more surprising twist to the story, it was also revealed in a 19-page affidavit that Maryland officials – in cooperation with Homeland Security and I.C.E. agents – posed undercover as a payment processor known as Linwood Payment Solutions for nearly TWO YEARS, processing well over 300,000 transactions totaling $33 million!

The full list of sites that were involved in the sting are located below:

Bookmaker.com
2Betsdi.com
Funtimebingo.com
Goldenarchcasino.com
Truepoker.com
Betmaker.com
Betgrandesports.com
Doylesroom.com
Betehorse.com
Beted.com

Miami had a huge lift in the second quarter when Dwayne Wade scored 12 of points in the second period. LeBron James led the Heat with 30 points and 10 rebounds along with three steals and five assists. James had a complete game and contributed in the fourth quarter to allowing the Bulls just two points in the last 7 minutes of play. The Heat started the second half on a hot streak as Udonis Haslem stepped on the court and added 11 points for the team as they shot 50% from the field in that early second half spurt.

Derrick Rose led the bulls with 21 points but had few good looks at the basket and several times had to put up bad shots as the shot clock was ready to sound a violation. He had scored two points in the final frame of the game. Luol Deng contributed 13 points but added only 4 in the final three periods. Joakim Noah grabbed eight rebounds and had nine points which is under his normal production and Taj Gibson score eight points in the final period which was the only spark they seemed to have at the end. Carlos Boozer was poor for the most part of the game as he added seven points and garnered eight rebounds and sat out quite a bit of the final part of the game.

Another good game is on tap but with the game in Miami there are some definite things the Bulls must do to win. They must limit the turnovers and be the first ones back on defense. The Heat loves the transition game and grabs long rebounds and is out of the gate and going to the basket. Noah needs more rebounds to edge out LeBron James. Chris Bosh is soft around the glass and the Bulls can grab and edge in this department. Miami has the best 3 out of 4 players on the floor. The role players have the ability to keep the series close for the Bulls. Korver needs to find his stroke and stick it in for Chicago to win.

The Bulls are +5 for Game 3 and our pick is for them to cover the spread even on the road.

Hero Poker, which is a Merge-powered skin, was becoming a very popular hit with members at TwoPlusTwo and other big-time poker forums.  The site had been spiking with great traffic, solid customer service response times and some very unique freerolls they were offering to all their new customers.

The site’s outspoken CEO David Jung also was a breathe of fresh air in terms of transparency with the room, frequently communicating with members on any poker forum that the room had sponsorships on and not being afraid to answer tough questions about the online poker climate here in the USA and what it meant for it’s future around the world.

However, in his announcement that was made in a post this morning at Donkdown.com, Mr. Jung commented that him and his team are “not operating Hero as an upgraded affiliate or fly-by-night skin. To that end, independent of the Merge Network, we have decided to stop servicing new US players and instead focus on upgrading our overall boutique service and general security of all our players. Our player base will continue to be part of the Merge Network and Merge Network maintains our full confidence and support in all aspects.”

His statement, while truthful and straightforward, should be taken as a warning that Merge Gaming may be thinking twice about accepting USA players – especially in the wake of Black Friday.

Sportsbook.com and PlayersOnly, which were both very popular Merge skins, recently shut down a few weeks ago due to mounting pressure from it’s executives to pull out of the US market.

With Hero Poker now closing its doors to the same US demographic, one has to wonder when it’s much larger and more popular sites might be leaving the market here in the United States….

Yes, we’re talking about YOU Carbon Poker and Lock Poker

Since the online poker room has seen such an increase in online poker players they are now going to increase the guaranteed prize pool for the weekly Sunday Guaranteed tournament. The tournament currently has a buy-in of $109 and featured prizepool of $50,000 guaranteed.

However, as of earlier this week, the site announced it will be upping its $50K guarantee and is doubling it to make it $100K in guaranteed cash for their most popular MTT!

The poker room is offering players a chance to win their seat to the tournament by participating in the 100 Seats to the $100k Freeroll. Players simply earn 250 VIP points from the start of Sunday until the free roll starts on the Saturday before the tournament at 3 PM est. Once the VIP points have been earned players can visit the Player Admin and select the “100 Seats to 100K” option. Players can then register for the tournament and hopefully win a seat to the big Sunday$100K.

Because Carbon Poker has seen such an increase in poker traffic – around 23% since Black Friday – they have been able to increase the guarantees on dozens of different tournaments similar to this one, especially at mid-stakes levels.  We’re looking forward to what else Carbon has in store for players, especially since they have become on of the “go to” websites for online poker players here in the USA as well.

Speaking with renowned host Marco Valerio and Mike’s brother Scott on the QJ poker broadcast this afternoon, “the Mouth” himself announced that people who have funds on Full Tilt Poker “will get paid.”

Going into it further, he said he would welcome buying players funds at a discounted rate because that’s how confident he is that players will get their cash and he would stand to make a nice profit on it in the process.

Due to restrictions being placed on fellow Full Tilt employees like himself, he wasn’t able to delve into the matter any further, stating that “legal reasons” prevent him from saying anything else about the situation regarding the embattled poker website.

In a truly emotional rant, Matusow went on to blast Party Poker rep Tony Guoga aka Tony G, who also made an appearance earlier on the show, stating that “Tony G is only out for himself and to boost Party Poker…for his own selfish reasons.”

Guoga, who of course is a big part of Party Poker and also owns a majority stake in PokerNews.com, went on the Quad Jacks program to berate Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson for not informing the public of what is truly going on within the company and to answer rumors about Full Tilt being partially for sale for $200 million.

It is not actually known or confirmed if the story about the company being for sale has any weight to it, but it seems Tony G does have a contact that confirmed with him that Tilt reps are scrambling to get a cash injection to pay off USA players who have had funds frozen in their account since “Black Friday.”