Bill 'Comeback Kid' Crowned CPL Champion Fall 2008!

It was a great Tournament of Champions for the CPL!  10 members went back and forth for over 6 hours before a winner was declared, including an awesome 35 minute heads up finale between Bill 'Comeback Kid' Lanoux and Malinda 'Nemesis' Cardenas for the CPL Championship!

This TOC was filled with interesting twists and turns very similar to the entire 2008 Fall Session.  

First off, we had a massive $3000 bet, courtesy of Mike 'Una-Bomber' Bowman, on the first hand when blinds were only 10/20!!  Then we had an early chip leader by Una-Bomber who just ran over the table for several hours. I lost track of how many pocket pair he showed in the first 2 hours...and the two Ace high flushes helped a bit!

The wealth would also get concentrated as a Big Stack with 'Karaoke' Phil Fuehrer, who was the chip leader starting the TOC.

Early trouble was brewing for Greg 'NewLife' Durand who lost significant chips early...for Mark 'Verbal' Cardenas who was the short stack starting the TOC, and for Voni 'Rookie' Khang who was also short stacked going into the TOC and could not pick up a significant pot early.   

After 3 hours of play and going into level 7, all ten CPL members were still in play.  Then eliminations began....

First victim was Verbal, who was on the big blind with Karaoke limping in the pot.  Verbal hit top pair matching his Q, while Karaoke flopped a made straight.  Well that spelled disaster as Verbal went all in, was insta-called by Karaoke, and the number 10 seeded Verbal's 2008 TOC was done as he went out in 10th.  

Over the next two hours 7 more players would be eliminated.

Next in line was The Rookie, as the blinds got the best of her...and rumors started spreading about how the seeds were all going to come true...

Then going out in 8th was Jeff 'Matusow' Matson who was seeded 3rd going into the TOC.  Matusow was slightly distracted during his TOC as scheduling problems left him trying the 'win big or go home' method.  And go home he did.

Balance of Power on the table then began to shift....

Karaoke Phil was eliminated in 7th place as his significant chip lead kept was not big enough to withstand the number of hands he was in

Mike 'Blind Me Down' Behr went out in 6th place in a fairly normal tournament for Blind Me Down.  He played conservatively, bantered playfully and sometimes aggressively with Vince "The Cursed One" Castellanos and was probably one hand away from making into the points...I mean the money.

Greg 'NewLife' Durand who truly obtained new life by taking The Rookie's chips when he himself was short stacked ended up going out in 5th place.  A great tournament for NewLife who was in serious trouble early and fought back to take 5th! (Plus 16.00 in the scratch off ticket winnings!)

The Una-Bomber went out on in 4th on the CPL Ticket Bubble losing a big hand against Nemesis.  A great first CPL season and a great TOC for the Una-Bomber! 

The Cursed One went out in 3rd place and scored the first of 3 CPL Vouchers to the Running Aces Tournament.  A great match by the 'weakest' player in the CPL who steadily and solidly increased his stack of chips throughout the tournament.  Apparently The Cursed One's pleadings to a higher power worked! Time to become that better person you promised! Congrats Cursed One!

This left Comeback Kid and Nemesis to battle it out heads up.  We initially thought this would be over and done with in short order as the blinds were at level 12 (2000-4000) and Nemesis had a huge chip stack advantage....but that would not be the case.  In the longest running heads up play in CPL history (about 35 minutes) and moving to the never before seen 13th blind level of 3000/6000 the chips moved from Nemesis to Comeback, back to Nemesis, back to Comeback again and finally a Tournament of Champions Champion was crowned.  

Congrats to the three CPL Tournament of Champions Running Aces Tournament Voucher Winners for the 2008 Fall Session!  Now go out and take it down at Running Aces!

1-Bill 'Comeback Kid' Lanoux

2-Malinda 'Nemesis' Cardenas

3-Vince 'Cursed One' Castellanos

One final note....although Verbal went out in a dismal tenth place...after everyone left and the table and chips were put away...Verbal scratched off his two $1 tickets to find a $50.00 winner!  Not bad for going out in tenth place!!

--
CPL Director Mark Cardenas
and
CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer

Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast