CPL Shut out of Monday Madness...Ventrider Takes First!

With a good showing of 15 players the CPL members came up short on the CPL Monday Madness as the WSPL members walked away with the top 6 of 15 spots!  PL Omaha Hi was not good to the CPL....

Top prize goes to Ventrider as he never looked back once taking the chip lead!

Congrats Ventrider!

Congrats also to Beef2 for a great showing after being down in chips...but hanging on for the 2nd place finish!!

Next week....NLHE!

Verbal Takes Down CPL Week #2

In a wild wild CPL week of poker that saw chip stacks all over the place...after 3 hours and 23 min Verbal was declared the winner over NewLife Durand!

It was a week where we realized that poker is not a friendly game....as jabs and barbs were being thrown all over the place.  It started with a complete bluff...progressed to an award winning act...and finished with a beat from behind.

In the end Verbal went into heads up against NewLife as a serious dog....but after several double ups and a final beat from way behind....Verbal took the number one slot.

CPL Honorable Mention goes to Hollywood for his 3rd place finish!!

CPL Leaderboard (unadjusted)

Points Awarded for Week 2

Shortbus Jo Wins CPL Monday Madness NLHE Match!

Shortbus Jo continues her online domination of the CPL Monday Madness tournaments on Monday Night at 8:30 central.

This week was her speciality...NLHE...and Shortbus took down her opponents one at a time methodically....before pulling out the harsh beats at the end to punish the last few that dared to challenge her.

Congrats ShortbusJo...way to represent for the WSPL!

CPL Honorable mention goes to Mr. Mike for finishing 3rd tonight!

CPL Honorable mention also goes to Lioness for finishing in 4th place!

Way to go CPLers!!

CPL Monday Madness for May 11

Back to the Cadillac of Poker games - NLHE. Tonight's password is "CPL" (without the quotes).

See you at 9:30 pm ET (8:30 CT).

Karaoke Phil Wins Summer Session Week 1!

The 2009 CPL Summer Session is underway with a BANG!

During the Spring Session the CPL witnessed its first Royal Flush....well that 100 year event has happened again!!  Steve "The Chaser" Bennewitz needed help from the turn and the river to score this best of poker hands...congrats Steve on the CPL's 2nd Royal Flush!

Pocket Aces is a great hand to get once during a tournament...getting Pocket Rockets twice in a tournament is fabulous...receiving the Bullets 5 times in one match is unbelievable...however it is what happened this week as Karaoke Phil showed Pocket Aces an amazing 5 times during Week 1 as he marched to victory!  

Heads up play was CPL Director vs CPL Director and hasn't been seen in the CPL in almost a year!  The last time Karaoke and Verbal went head to head it was the Week 2 of the Summer Session 2008...and in that match Verbal came out on top.  During this weeks CPL match, Verbal made a run at Karaoke again after going into heads up short stacked...but in the end couldn't score the knockout punch once Verbal took the chip lead.  It was a marathon heads up play that lasted almost 20 minutes....and an amazing 14 min at the final 3000/6000 blind level!!

Congrats Phil on your week 1 victory!

CPL Honarable Mention goes to Nanoman for returning to the CPL and taking down the 3rd place spot!

CPL Honarable Mention also goes to The Chaser for his Royal Flush during Week 1!

CPL Leaderboard (Unadjusted)

Commerce and Labor Membership 2009 – 2010

HF2370 is being heard on Monday May 11.
Contact these members below to show your SUPPORT for this bill.

MONDAY, May 11, 2009
10:00 AM
*** Note: *** Change in meeting room
Room: 10 State Office Building
Chair: Rep. Joe Atkins
*** Note: *** Change in Agenda
Bill(s) Added
Agenda: HF2370 (Garofalo) Federal internet gambling investigations and enforcement prohibited without prior legislative approval. (Informational only)

Committee Chair

Joe Atkins
503 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4192
E-mail: rep.joe.atkins@house.mn

Vice Chair

Leon Lillie
369 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-1188
E-mail: rep.leon.lillie@house.mn

Lead-GOP

Kurt Zellers
315 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-5502
E-mail: rep.kurt.zellers@house.mn

Sarah Anderson
217 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-5511
E-mail: rep.sarah.anderson@house.mn

Tom Anzelc
417 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4936
E-mail: rep.tom.anzelc@house.mn

Greg Davids
283 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-9278
E-mail: rep.greg.davids@house.mn

Jim Davnie
545 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-0173
E-mail: rep.jim.davnie@house.mn

Patti Fritz
551 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-8237
E-mail: rep.patti.fritz@house.mn

Joe Hoppe
317 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-5066
E-mail: rep.joe.hoppe@house.mn

Larry Hosch
565 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4373
E-mail: rep.larry.hosch@house.mn

Sheldon Johnson
549 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4201
E-mail: rep.sheldon.johnson@house.mn

Kate Knuth
507 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-0141
E-mail: rep.kate.knuth@house.mn

Joe Mullery
367 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4262
E-mail: rep.joe.mullery@house.mn

Mark Murdock
213 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4293
E-mail: rep.mark.murdock@house.mn

Tim Sanders
233 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4226
E-mail: rep.tim.sanders@house.mn

Steve Simon
375 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-9889
E-mail: rep.steve.simon@house.mn

Linda Slocum
501 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-7158
E-mail: rep.linda.slocum@house.mn

Cy Thao
359 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St Paul, MN 55155
651-296-5158
E-mail: rep.cy.thao@house.mn

HF2370 now Bipartisan

DFL State Representative Robin Brown has signed on as a co-author to Republican State Representative Pat Garofalo's bill banning internet gambling investigations and enforcement without prior legislative approval.

We'll continue to track this bill and story.

Cognitive Dissonance at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety?? And, Other Recent Gambling News

In late 2007, I was in my second-to-last semester of my Masters Degree. I did a paper on online gambling and was privileged to interview Mark Shields - at the time the Director of Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) - note: he's still at DPS (apparently now the Executive Assistant to the DPS Commissioner). The interview, with his permission, was recorded. Who knew I'd need to reference the thing 18 months later? I can't immediately find the full 25 or minutes, but I do still have the three excerpts I used for a presentation. I've put them (to the best of my memory) in the order they occurred. Here they are (about 30 seconds or so each):

http://la.gg/upl/spirited_debate.wav

http://la.gg/upl/sky_didnt_fall.wav

http://la.gg/upl/regulate_it.wav

As you can hear - Mr. Shields - once head of AGED (through at least mid-year 2008) and now top assistant to the DPS Commish - believes regulation is the way to go. To be fair, he did stress that such a position didn't necessarily reflect his personal morals on gambling, but rather that it was/is futile to try and stop - he spoke of the "genie being out of the bottle" and of the impossibility of trying to recork it. Perhaps his staff position change and the DPS's new tactics are related?? In any event - seems to me to be a full blown case of cognitive dissonance coming from the DPS.

On another rational front - State Representative Pat Garofalo has introduced House File 2370 which would stop DPS from taking their proposed ISP-blocking actions (see our post below from May 2. The bill has had its first reading in the House and was referred to the Commerce and Labor Committee.

Lokimon Takes Monday Madness HA Match On Full Tilt!

In a unique CPL Monday Madness on Full Tilt (always on Monday at 9:30pm eastern in the Private Tourney section) the CPL dabbled in Pot Limit HA!

We had a great turnout with 16 folks signing up!  In the end Lokimon would take 1st place playing his normal uber-conservative style of poker...but he did turn on the agressive jets later in the match.

The tourney went just under 2 hours...and we are happy to report that the CPL fared pretty well with Billy68 taking 3rd place...and 4 of 6 making the final table.

Dudeman1228 fell to the second place finisher from the WSPL Ventrider...in a sick sick two-outer (95.5 to 4.5) that gave Ventrider a bigger Full House....and sent Dudeman to the Observer Rail....

However....Dudeman would be avenged.....

In heads up play that lasted a mere 9 hands....Lokimon tore up Ventrider scoring the pot in 7 of those hands including the finishing blow....top pair over an inside straight draw.  

And Dudeman smiled....

Great tourney to everyone!  

See ya next week for another NLHE match during the CPL Monday Madness!

CPL Monday Madness!! - The HA Edition

This week it's half Hold 'em and half OH - it's HA. The password as always is:

CPL

Join us at 8:30 pm Central - FullTilt - Private Tourney tab.

Karaoke Phil "schools" Poker Pro David Bradley

Seen here - our own Karaoke Phil pushes "very talented Limit Hold ‘em player" and FullTilt poker pro David Bradley off his hand on the semi-bluff in this $3.30 HOSE tournament. Click on the picture to make it larger:

Karaoke finished just outside the money on this one, but bested Bradley again, finishing 18th out of 132 players to David's bust out in 27th.

Karaoke continues his self-exploration in the wake of putting in, arguably, the worst-ever CPL session.

Fwd: URGENT - Minnesota Poker Players Need to Take ACTION!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: PPA Member Alert <email@pokerplayersalliance.org>
Date: Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 8:12 AM
Subject: URGENT - Minnesota Poker Players Need to Take ACTION!
To: Mark Cardenas 

Dear Mark, The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has just learned that Minnesota's Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) served written notice to all Internet service providers (ISPs) forcing them to shut down and block their customers access to online poker sites in the State. The AGED also announced that they will be prohibiting Minnesota poker players from accessing their online poker monetary accounts.  This is an outrageous attack on Internet freedom, personal liberty and the First Amendment.  Please take a moment right now and call, John Willems, Director of AGED (651) 201-7529                AND Governor Tim Pawlenty (651) 296-3391 Tell them: You are a poker player and you vote You strongly oppose their efforts to force ISPs to block your access to poker sites They do not have the right to dictate what you do in the privacy of your own home They do not have the right to withhold your money from you Poker is a game of skill and NOT ILLEGAL in the USA or Minnesota Please abandon this misguided effort to censor the Internet and nullify personal freedoms Your opinion matters. Your calls matter. The rights of Minnesota poker players are under attack. Join the Minnesota PPA Facebook page to get the latest news and start discussing the issue with your fellow players. Our opponents go to government to take our rights from us.  We need to do the same to keep them.  Please call now. (To leave feedback about your call, click here) Proud to play, Matt Werden PPA State Director MN@pokerplayersalliance.org   PPA Facebook | PPA Myspace | PPA YouTube | PPA Twitter | PPA FriendFeed

If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.

--
Mark
cardenas.mark@gmail.com

--
CPL Director's Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer
Follow us on Twitter: CPLPokerPodcast
Check out our Blog at cplpoker.blogspot.com
Listen to our Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast