ns hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. NEW YORK -- Hundreds of Neil (LY-fur) Leifer photographs, including his i

LAS VEGAS -- The Friday Football Showdown -- the $2,000 buy-in contest at the Golden Nugget which is in competition with the more-established Westgate SuperContest and includes college games and over/unders -- is back for a second season and open to the public.Before last year, the Friday Football Showdown, which is hosted by The Las Vegas Sportsline radio show on local ESPN affiliate AM 1100 and has roots dating back to the old Stardust Invitational and Leroys Money Talks Invitational radio contests (which had 16-player fields in a single-elimination tournament format) was open mostly to professional handicappers and touts. Last year, the Golden Nugget and Sportsline crews decided to make it an open contest, with the top eight handicappers from the first half of the season qualifying for the head-to-head tournament to determine the champion.Registration opens at 12 p.m. PT Friday, to coincide with the release of the Golden Nuggets College Football Games of the Year.The Friday Football Showdown attracted an 87-player field in its first open year, which organizers were happy with, and Jonathan Rice took home $118,500 (the $115,500 champions prize, plus $2,000 for making the playoffs and $1,000 for his quarterfinal win) after beating the team of Frank Betti and Anthony Curtis (who collected $38,500 for second plus the $3,000 in prior winnings) in the finals. This year, the goal is to get closer to 200 entries.After we made it open to the public for the first time last year, we went over the rules and wanted to make it more exciting and more fair, said Golden Nugget race and sports book director Tony Miller.Miller said the more exciting rule changes were mostly developed by him and his staff, including his right-hand man Aaron Kessler, along with The Las Vegas Sportsline host Matt Youmans, and include a wild-card chase in Weeks 9 and 10 for those who dont qualify in the first eight weeks, plus a mini-contest over Weeks 15-17. The more fair rules were suggested by contestants last year; those include moving the day that contest lines become available from noon Wednesday to noon Thursday and increasing the money for making the playoffs from $2,000 to $3,000.The moving of the lines from Wednesday to Thursday was because we saw a lot of lines, especially college totals, move a lot, and some players would just be playing the biggest moves, Miller said. Now, you still have 26 hours from noon Thursday until 2 p.m. Friday to put in your plays.Also, last year, if you made the playoffs and got eliminated in the first round, you would only break even, so we agreed that those qualifiers should at least make a profit.Full rules, including tie-breaking procedures that make NFL tie-breaking protocols look simple, are posted on The Las Vegas Sportsline website, but here are the basics:Theres one entry per person and local players or out-of-towners can designate a proxy to put in their weekly plays.All contestants make seven plays against the Golden Nuggets contest lines (again, the full slate of college and pro sides and totals are available, unless a game is off the board and left off of the contest card) during Weeks 1 through 8 of the NFL season (the opening weekend of college games arent included). Each win is worth one point per win, with a half-point per push (there are no 2-point best bets this season).The top-seven records from the first eight weeks advance to the playoffs. The wild-card chase is held in Weeks 9-10, with contestants making nine plays those weeks and the wild-card winner making the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.Playoff contestants will receive $3,000 each and must appear on The Las Vegas Sportsline radio show (2-3 p.m. PT on those Fridays) to announce their plays or designate someone to appear for them. The quarterfinals will be Nov. 18, Nov. 25, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 (winners get an additional $2,000) with the semifinals on Dec. 16 and 23 and the championship match on Dec. 30. A total of $32,000 will be paid out to the winners of the qualifiers and the quarterfinal winners, the remaining prize pool will be split up with 60 percent going to the champion, 25 percent to the second-place finisher and 5 percent each to the semifinal losers.All entrants are eligible to compete in the mini contest in Weeks 15-17 (playing along with the semifinalists and finalists), making seven selections each week. The winner will receive 5 percent of the remaining prize pool (or split among all mini-contest ties).One change the Golden Nugget didnt make is that its returning 100 percent of entry fees as prizes. The Westgate SuperContest has instituted an 8 percent administrative fee off the top of its prize pool this season, and only time will tell if that hurts their number of entries. The South Point has also been working on a 100 percent payback high-end football contest of its own, but no details have been announced as of this time.Keep an eye on ESPN Chalk as we give you the latest news from the Las Vegas football contest scene all the way through the champions being crowned. Shoes NZ 2020 .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. Cheap Shoes NZ . Calgary scored on the first shift, and Michael Cammalleri scored twice as the Flames cruised to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday. https://www.shoesnzonline.com/ . The defending champion beat Gael Monfils of France 7-6 (6), 6-3, while second-seeded Andy Murray of Britain dispatched Edouard Roger-Vasselin, also of France, 6-3, 6-3. Making his first appearance since injuring his wrist a month ago, Del Potro had difficulty with his service games in the first set. Shoes NZ Outlet .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Shoes NZ Sale . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. NEW YORK -- Hundreds of Neil (LY-fur) Leifer photographs, including his iconic images of Muhammad Ali, will be auctioned in New York City.Guernseys is offering 700 lots Friday and Saturday from Leifers personal collection.Leifers photos have been featured on over 200 magazine covers, including Sports Illustrated and Time.The sale includes his famous image of Ali towering over a fallen Sonny Liston during their 1965 heavyweight title bout.Theres also a print of Baltimore Coltts Alan Ameche (uh-MEE-chee) scoring the winning touchdown against the New York Giants in 1958 -- dubbed the greatest football game ever played.ddddddddddddLeifer often swapped prints with other photographers, including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Annie Leibovitz. These also are in the sale.Guernseys says 96 percent of the lots have no minimum reserve. ' ' '