Random Thoughts to Bring in the New Year

As 2009 comes to a close we at CPL Poker Blog and Podcast want to wish you a very happy and prosperous 2010.  Happy New Year!!

We also thought it would be a great time for some random thoughts and reflections on 2009.

The Good - This has to be the blog and podcast.  Readership and listenership is up - a trend, we hope, that continues into 2010 and beyond.  Thank you all for stopping by and listening to the show(s). With that increase came our first unsolicited advertiser (777.com)  - check them out.  It's a nice aggregate site of various poker rooms and casinos with reviews, bonuses, etc.

The Bad - In order of how much they irk me (least to most).  What's with the Bellagio's Five-Star World Poker Classic schedule??  Okay, the tourney takes place in 2010, but they released the schedule today.  ALL of the tournaments are rebuys!!  Seventeen prelim events leading up to the main event and all of them are rebuy events??  Huh? 

"FAIL" - apparently the trend for the kid's these days on the interweb seems to be the use of the word "FAIL" to mean some variation of "didn't go well".  As in, "tried to get in to the midnight showing of Avatar - long lines - FAIL".   If things go really bad you can call it "epic fail" - as in, "I flopped a four flush on an A high board, played it like I had the A. Moved all-in on the river with a massive Q-high only bluff.  Epic Fail - guy snapped called me with his pair of 3s".  Hey, here's some advice - using any variation of the term FAIL in 2010?  Epic Fail.

Pronouncing Tolkien - A Swedish online poker phenom by the name of Isildur1 stormed onto the scene in October.  This has led to innumerable mispronunciations of his name by such folks as Ante Up Podcast, Raw Vegas TV/Wicked Chops, and Mike Matusow (BTW- clean up that foul mouth, Mike, damn).  Each tending to butcher the name by pronouncing it along the lines of:  IZ-ill-der.  My God - do you even watch movies?  Over three years (2001 to 2003) the Lord of the Rings Trilogy racked up 17 Academy Awards and each film ranks between 2nd to 15th in All-Time Worldwide Gross Receipts.  Okay, I can live with some regional dialectic variations in the pronunciation - give me ih-SEAL-door or ee-SILL-dur, or some mash of the two, but NOT -  IZ-ill-der, that's just....Epic Fail.  Now go read Silmarillion as punishment.

The Ugly - Only one thing can go here (and I won't go into too much detail).  At the end of 2008, I set a couple of simple poker goals for 2009 - results-type stuff.  I didn't hit a single one - not one.  Let's hope 2010 is much better - for us all.

2009 CPL Best of Music Podcast Released!

Check out the podcast by clicking on the players on the left!

Episode 68 is the CPL Best of Music 2009 broadcast! 
Mark and Phil count down the top 10 songs played on the CPL Poker Podcasts in 2009! Bumper Music by Stew, Tunnel Music, and IKKI. Follow us on Twitter at CPLPOKERPODCAST! Enjoy!!

MN Poker Game Turns Violent

The Mankato Free Press is reporting today about a weekend home game that didn't go well.

Apparently, J.L. Turner, 47, decided he'd had enough of a polish-named bloke (D. Wojciechowski, 32 years old) and "used a baseball bat to assault" him. Wojciechowski was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital.  No other details are available at this time.


Our only guess here at the CPL is that they decided to try RAZZ for the first time to "mix it up some".  We all know what can happen when the cards start flying in RAZZ.

BREAKING NEWS - 2010 WSOP Schedule Set , No $50K HORSE Event

The WSOP has announced next year's (2010) WSOP schedule.  There are several changes from previous years.

The biggest change may be the elimination of the $50K HORSE event.  It will be replaced with a $50K 8-Game Mixed Event called:  "The Player's Championship".  This will be Event #2 - a 5-day event beginning on May 28.  The game will consist of: Limit Hold'em, OH8, Razz,  Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud H/L, No-Limit Hold'em,  Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball.  The final table will be solely No-Limit Hold'em - and, likely, televised by ESPN. For HORSE purists there will be the usual $1,500 and $3K events along with a new $10K Championship event.

The "stimulus" $1000 tournament idea is back and expanded. Does that mean the economy is in even worse shape???  There will be 4 - $1000 bracelet events in 2010 (and the Ladies and Seniors tournies are also at that level).  A little more opportunity for those of us who don't have the really big bucks to put down on a tournament.

One other tweak is the "big" NL Hold'em event.  Last year they ran a $40K event for the 40th Anniversary of the WSOP and noted that it wouldn't be a recurring event.  Well, Harrah's stuck to their word - 2010's WSOP Event #52 will be a $25K NL Hold'em (six handed) affair.

The full series of tournaments will consist of 57 events again (plus the Ante Up for Africa Charity event) and run from May 28 to July 17 (the final table - with that played out sometime in November).  You can see the full schedule of events here.

Deadline Extended - 2009 Best of Music Survey/Contest - final round

You're in luck if you haven't yet participated in the survey and contest.  We won't be recording the 2009 Best of Music Podcast until this weekend.  So, we've extended the deadline to Friday at 4 pm.

All the details are explained in our 12/10/09 post.

And, don't forget - we're looking to give away up to $40 in our prize pool (you will need to have a FullTilt poker account as it'll be a transfer) - so, that's just one more reason to participate.

Minnesota State Poker Tour - John Dragich wins Inaugural Event

St. Cloud resident John Dragich, 20, beat a field of 130+ Monday night to win the inaugural event of the Minnesota State Poker tour held at Canterbury Park in Skakopee, MN.

According to MN Poker Magazine, heads up lasted all of one hand. Dragich picked up pocket As to Chase Wood's K/2.  Chase, also 20 years old, who was 3rd in chip count with 18 remaining hit a K high flop.  All the money got into the center and Dragich's aces held on to win. Dragich wins $34,765 and a custom diamond bracelet for his efforts.  Woods picks up $19,866.

Tour co-founder Bryan Mileski, who was chip leader with 18 remaining, busted out in 7th.  The tour picks up again at Grand Casino Mille Lacs in February with a Running Aces stop in April.

Congratulations to Dragich and all the final tablists.

Minnesota State Poker Tour - Final Two Tables Set

There's still plenty of play remaining but the final two tables of the inaugural MN State Poker Tour are set.

Tour co-founder Bryan Mileski leads the remaining field with 203,300 in chips. Kevin Reichel with 200,800; Chase Wood (199,400), John Dragich (185,700) and David Grandstaff (164,800) round out the top 5.  The final 18 are slated to play down to a winner beginning at 5 pm tonight at Canterbury Park (Shakopee).

This kickoff event of the MN State Poker Tour - a $1000 + $100 Main Event - saw 130+ entrants and is  offering a diamond bracelet (from Continental Diamonds) to the winner.  See pics of it here.

The winner of the event is set to take home about $34,000 - and the bracelet.  We'll keep you informed as we learn more. 

2009 Best of Music Survey/Contest - final round

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Ahh, the time has come.  The Round 2 survey is up (Click here to take survey) and ready for you to vote on who will be our Top 10.

And, "YES" - we're still GIVING AWAY $40 as part of this 'Best of"  promo (the prize pool will be FullTilt cash transfers to the winners - so you'll need an account there to qualify for the prize portion).  For those hitting this up for the first time - here's how it works.

You'll see our top 15 songs broken out in groups of three songs each (obviously 5 groups total).  You'll rank the songs #1, #2 and #3 for each group.  There will be two "flight groupings" - rank the songs, we'll then mix them up in a second grouping and you do it again.  Additionally, you'll have a chance to select the song you think will be the ultimate overall #1 selection.  The survey will stay up until 6 pm on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009.

Anyone can rank songs but there's one more hitch to winning any prize money (in addition to needing a FullTilt account) - you'll need to listen to the Best of Show (which should be out right around Christmas time).  We'll only be announcing the winners there and setting the deadline for contacting us back telling us you heard your name on the show and requesting your winnings (we'll give winners several days to listen/contact us).  We'll be giving away 2 - $10 prizes for participating and a $20 prize from the pool of those who successfully picked the eventual winning song.

All songs can be found at GarageBand .  Here are the songs in their Flight 1 Groupings. Song Name (Band Name).  Follow the links below to listen to the songs on GarageBand if you need some refreshing.  Find the survey here.

Flight #1
Group1 - Ex Girlfriends (Suzanne), Machine (Uber Cool Kung Fu), Haircut (Gold Standard)
Group 2 - Eyeliner (Parachutes Fail), These Last Days (Thinland), I'm OK (Uber Cool Kung Fu)
Group 3 - Killer Sea (Stealing Seconds), Sink With Me (Dime Theory), Construct (Little Tin Box)
Group 4 - The Driving Seat (Leslie Rich), Missing (Justin Bell & the Lazy Susan Band), Flicker (Morrisson)
Group 5 - Don't You Need Me (Justin Bell and the Lazy Susan Band , Have a Little Hope (Burgess Norgaard), Life Like This (Crista McCrae)


Flight #2 - we've adjusted the match-ups for this round (rank them one more time and we'll have our top ten):
Group1 - Don't You Need Me (Justin Bell and the Lazy Susan Band), The Driving Seat (Leslie Rich), I'm OK (Uber Cool Kung Fu)
Group 2 - Machine (Uber Cool Kung Fu), Missing (Justin Bell & the Lazy Susan Band), Killer Sea (Stealing Seconds)
Group 3 - Eyeliner (Parachutes Fail),  Have a Little Hope (Burgess Norgaard), Ex Girlfriends (Suzanne) 
Group 4 - Life Like This (Crista McRae), Sink With Me (Dime Theory), These Last Days (Thinland)
Group 5 - Flicker (Morrisson), Construct (Little Tin Box), Haircut (Gold Standard)

Thanks for participating and we hope you like the show.

2009 Best of Music Survey/Contest - round 1 advancers

Okay, round 1 is in the books and half of the 2009 songs have been eliminated. Thank you to everyone who participated. These are all Minnesota bands and listed on GarageBand.com. The following songs advance to the Final Round (listed in alphabetical order by song title):


Construct - by Little Tin Box
Don't you need me - by Justin Bell and the Lazy Susan Band
Driving Seat  - by Leslie Rich
Ex Girlfriends - by Suzanne
Eyeliner - by Parachutes Fail 
Flicker - by Morrisson
Haircut - by Gold Standard
Have a Little Hope -  by Burgess Norgaard
I'm Ok -  by Uber Cool Kung Fu
Killer Sea - by Stealing Seconds MN
Life like this - by Crista McRae
Machine - by Uber Cool Kung Fu
Missing  - by Justin Bell and the Lazy Susan Band
Sink with Me - by Dime Theory
These Last Days - by Thinland

We're putting together the next survey (it'll be like the last one, but only half as long obviously).  From that, we'll take the Top 10 songs for our Best of Music Show (due out around Christmas time - give yourself a gift and take a listen).  The round 2 survey should be up about the 9th or so and we'll leave it up for about a week.

If you did Round 1 - do the upcoming round as well for additional entries and more chances to win a piece of the $40 prize pool that we're giving away (again, winners need a Full Tilt account and will receive their winnings via transfer - see the 11/20 post for more details).

The Rookie Gets First Victory During Week 11!

Voni "The Rookie" scored her first victory during the final regular week of the 2009 Fall Session!  It was another Wine Night that has become quite popular at the CPL....and the chips were flyin' pretty fast and there was a good amount of aggression all night long!  The Rookie was the most aggressive during the night....3,4, and 5 betting with monster hands and with complete air made The Rookie a force to be reckoned with....especially once she gathered up a significant chip stack!
In heads up play against Verbal, Voni's aggressive style was almost her downfall.  The Rookie started heads up play with a big chip lead however a few hands into it and Verbal had gained the chip advantage!  Then the Rookie found herself All In and behind Pre-flop with her tournament life on the line.  However great catches was something the Rookie had done all night....and during heads up was no exception.
Congrats to Voni for her win!

Finishing in 3rd was James, who had another great night of poker!  This finish added to his point total nicely and has him seeded in 3rd place for the upcoming CPL Tournament of Champions on 12-12-09.
In 4th was Bill "Comeback Kid".  Comeback had a steady increase in his chip stack all night and it was his highest finish during this Fall Session.  The points were greatly needed for his TOC match.
In 5th was Mark W, who continued his strong play in the league. If a few key hands at the end of the night went differently Mark would have been in great shape to win the week.
Kenji "Don't Do it" Yang finished in 6th hanging on as the short stack at the final table for a while before getting eliminated.
"Heads Up" Kamholz rounded out the points in 7th after surviving a flurry of eliminations before the final table.

A great finishing week for the Fall Session!  Thanks to all of the CPL Members and good luck in the TOC!


CPL Final Leaderboard Fall 2009

Points Awarded During Week 11

NewLife Scores 3rd Victory During Week 10!!

Matching the feat of The Unabomber, Greg NewLife Durand has won his 3rd CPL match of this 2009 Fall Session!  This victory adds even more chips to his TOC coffers and keeps him in contention for the Most Points in one Session record!  Congrats Greg!

Kelli G had a great match and was heads up against NewLife at the end of the tourney!  Unfortunately she was deeply short stacked compared to NewLife and although she stayed alive for a number of hands during the heads up play....she never really mounted a threat to his stack.  In 3rd was Wanda who had a very strong beginning to the evening and saw her chips leave her at the end of the match.  In 4th was Blind Me Down, who was desperate for points before going into the TOC.  In 5th was Verbal...who stayed around and stayed alive and ended in 5th.  In 6th was Kenji "Don't Do It" who had a pretty good outing...Rounding out the CPL Points in 7th was Nick "Headsup"!
Congrats to all of the CPL Point earners!

CPL Quote of the Week:
"I'm glad I'm not hosting after this week!" --Comeback Kid while settling in at Wittig's place


CPL Leaderboard Week 10

CPL Points Awarded Week 10:

Round 1 Deadline EXTENDED to 12-3 - get an entry in for your shot at the $40 prize pool

Our 2009 Best of Music round 1 survey closes at 11:45 pm Central Time - tonight. EXTENDED to 12-3-09 at 8:00pm.
The full details of the survey and contest are in our 11/20 post (below).  You can find the survey here.

In short, we're asking our podcast listeners/blog readers to help select the Top 10 songs played on our CPL Poker Podcast over 2009 (all Minnesota bands).  And, we're giving away a $40 prize pool in the form of transferred money on Full Tilt - so you'll need a Full Tilt account for this part - but anyone can rank the songs.

There'll be a round 2 coming out soon, but don't miss your chance to give your input on round 1 too!!