There are a few things in the sports and non-sports world that have caught my attention in recent weeks.

The World Series of Poker and Emerald Downs are a couple of them, as well as the impending divorce of reality TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin.

Unbelievable.

How can Jon and Kate be getting divorced? Everything in their lives seemed so normal, besides the constant filming of their day-to-day activities and the fact that they had six babies at one time. Who saw that one coming, besides everybody?

I have enough trouble changing diapers for my 3-month-old baby Whitney. I couldn’t even imagine changing diapers for six kids, while making sure my hair and tan looked good for the cameras, all while getting verbally beaten-down by my wife.

But onto less important stuff, mainly gambling.

My lifelong goal of playing at the World Series of Poker Main Event came to a crashing end last weekend when I failed to earn a free trip to Las Vegas, along with the $10,000 entry fee into the Main Event. It would have been the Cinderella of all Cinderella stories.

But it just wasn’t meant to be. I actually won a 400-person satellite tournament, which advanced me into another 600-person post-satellite tournament before going all-in with pocket jacks only to have another guy call me with pocket kings.

So I will have to spend another year watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN and not be able to represent Federal Way in Vegas. I have come to the conclusion that I either have to earn my way into the World Series by winning a free satellite or get a higher-paying job.

But Federal Way has been represented very well during the 57-event World Series of Poker, which started at the Rio All-Suites Casino in Vegas on May 27.

Federal Way’s own Kate Nguyen finished in 171st place and won $3,204 in a $1,500 buy-in no limit Texas hold’em event on June 13 and Terry Ding finished in 288th place in the fourth event of the World Series of Pocker on June 3. Ding won $2,921 in the $1,000 buy-in, no-limit event.

I also recently figured out that Emerald Downs is another good place to get my gambling fix. The Auburn horse-racing track is especially fun to visit on a Friday night, mainly because they serve $1.50 Budweisers.

My wife and I made a trip out to Emerald Downs last Friday with a few other couples and had a blast. You can have a good time without spending a lot of money because you can bet $2 on a race and still have a rooting interest.

And, unlike going to a Mariners’ or Seahawks’ game, you can actually get a burger and beer at a reasonable price.

I did have a minor problem, however, at the betting window. After enjoying a few of the $1.50 Buds, I went up to make a wager on a race and was trying to act a little cooler than I really am.

My goal was to rattle off a long-winded bet that included the word “box” and “exacta” and was looking to spend a whopping $4.

After telling the lady at the betting booth the exact thing I wanted to do with my money in my best “horse-racing expert” voice, she promptly told me that I owed $24. At this point, I should have told her that I only wanted to spend $4 on the race. But that isn’t what I did because that would have been admitting that I had no idea what I was doing when I walked up to the window. And that just isn’t my style.

So I reached into my wallet and pulled out $24 and handed it to the lady and proceeded back to our table with my tail between my legs. And the race went just as I thought it wouldn’t. Even with the 50 different combinations that would have won me some money, none of them came in and I was out $24 or 16 beers.

After that debacle, I stuck with the $2 to win bet the rest of the night. Those $1.50 Buds were a lot more important than trying to be cool at the betting window.