Fanscape.(Muhammad Ali; World Series of Poker; Babolat's new tennis racquets)

Ali in any format: The Greatest

The footage is old, the faces familiar; the phrases have echoed around the world for 30 years. Seeing Cassius Clay boastfully declare, "I am the greatest!" before toppling Sonny Liston is nothing new. Yet the riveting first hour of Muhammad Ali: The Greatest still has the sting of something fresh, like seeing the whole picture after years of wearing blinders.

Frederick Klein's rarely shown documentary from the 1970s . is getting both a DVD and a limited theatrical release. Ali is less about the fights--shown only in snapshots--than the world they inhabited. Klein's knack was for the indelible image or quote. The 1964-65 black-and-white segment features quick cuts and innovative angles that invigorate scenes showing both the fighter's astonishing physique as he trains and his tireless charm as he clowns with the Beatles. Klein captures Clay's white "syndicate" of backers talking about their fighter in terms that today sound uncomfortably proprietary. Later, Malcolm X articulately explains how Ali's exuberant confidence inspires black people and therefore is dangerous for white people. There are also the musings of forgotten voices such as New York writer and disc jockey Joe Bostic and writer Finley Campbell, who calls Ali "an independent hipster, the jazzman turned boxer."

The second act (in color), Ali's Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman, has its moments but lacks the dramatic momentum of the inspired 1996 film When We Were Kings (also just out on DVD). still, given the choice between today's increasingly irrelevant boxing world and this movie's mix of fisticuffs, human drama and theatrics, there's no question: Ali remains the greatest.

How to ... Play poker with the big boys

Don't deny it. You're tempted. Everywhere you look there is an article about Positively Fifth Street, the story of James McManus going to cover the World Series of Poker for a magazine and playing instead, finishing fifth and winning $247,000 against the world's top pros. You think: "I could do that."

Before you hop that plane to Vegas, you better be ready. Be like Mac--read plenty of poker primers by pros David Sklansky and TJ Cloutier and practice on computer programs for countless hours. Then, when you're going head-tohead with these pros, be ready to ...