If you have an enduring home poker league you're going to inevitably hear about other area leagues. Or, sometimes, as was the case with the CPL, you'll have some members who strike out on their own to form a league on a different day or with their own structure. These other leagues offer a great opportunity to add an element of fun and excitement to your own home game via the InterLeague Challenge. This is the live version of the online forum challenges that you sometimes see. For your home game it offers a common "opponent" to go after as you determine which league has the better players. Be sure to set the structure and ground rules for such a match well in advance of game day. Extra fun comes into play if your league's are able to communicate in some way to talk smack before you play.
Here are some examples of the whole idea (including some smack talk) from our own CPL challenge that will be conducted with the West Side Poker League this Saturday. As background, several former CPLers, including the highly successful
"Ninja" Milne and
JP "The Executioner" left to create or join their
WSPL. The idea was put forth to see if the students (that's the WSPL) were now better than the masters (that's us) and a challenge was issued.
We've created a two match challenge - No Limit Hold 'em (played each week by the CPL) and HORSE (played often by the WSPL - though they also play NLHE). Each match has a total value of 100 pts with position finish accounting for number of pts given to a player/league. The league with the most pts will be crowned the winner. And, since it's poker after all - we kept elements that cater to the individual as well as a "team" component. For fans of either the CPL or West Side - here are the team lineups:
HORSE TEAMS
CPL-----------------------------vs.---------------WSPL
Mark "Verbal" Cardenas----------------------Gene Milne
"Karaoke" Phil Fuehrer ----------------------Brad Smith
Mike "Blind Me Down" Behr ------------------Jodi Milne
Pam "Black Widow" Muldoon----------------Brandon Altman
HOLD EM TEAMS
CPL-----------------------------vs.-----------------WSPL
Greg "NewLife" Durand -------------------------Amy Altman
Bill "Comeback Kid" Lanoux --------------------John "JP" Pouliot
Steve "The Chaser" Bennewitz-------------------Larry Delmatio
Mike "Unabomber" Bowman--------------------Victor Bettendorf
Voni "The Rookie" Khang
------------------------Jill Schmidt
Then there's all the pre-match hype that goes into these sorts of championship events (sorta like a UFC vs. Pride event). We've used the end of the last several podcasts to advocate for the CPL, but some emails have been flying around as well - such as:
From Gene: All I want to say is when we kick some CPL butt , "Your going to have to tuck that tail pretty far up the back side" :)
From JP: Is Phil actually playing? I thought he retired, and is now committed to
blowing smoke up the CPL skirts full time on their podcast!
and,
From BMD Behr: I'm actually surprised we're still going through with this game next weekend. I expected the West side guys to have come up with some excuse for not being able to play so as to not be completely humiliated on there own home turf.
So, there you have it. Add some inter league competition to your home poker league to spice up the action, add some camaraderie and create something a little special.
This Hand of the Week sponsored by Mike Behr Photography . For a full audio analysis listen to the 2009 Spring Session, Week 2 podcast. Our hero is in a 45-player, $10 + $1 FullTilt Sit-n-go. It's early in the tourney with blinds at 15/30 (starting stacks of 1500). We're under-the-gun (UTG) with pocket 9s - 9h/9c. We min bet to 60 and get 5 callers including our villain - the small blind (SB) which creates a pot of 330. The flop is Kh/7c/6d. The SB checks. Our Hero bets out 120. Only the SB calls. The pot is now 570. The turn is Js. The SB checks again. Our Hero bets out 240. The SB insta calls. The river is 7h. The SB checks again. What is our move? Check or bet? (open folding is not an option). Get Mark and Phil's commentary and the final answer in the comments!!
 In a marathon 3hr 26 min match that went till almost 11pm, Greg NewLife Durand not only survived a field of 12 but also battled back and forth in a heads up match against Bud "The Monster" Abbott before claiming victory in a very exciting 2nd Week of the CPL 2009 Spring Session. This weeks match was dominated by River catches (did I mention I went out with pocket 9's as my pair was counterfeited by a River J?) and HUGE swings in the chip stacks by not only the chip leaders...but everyone. In addition, no one wanted to be eliminated and fought to the end if they had a chip and chair. Near the end all remaining players had a chance at the top spot as there were 7 players remaining as we went into the 400-800 blind levels...without a dominating chip leader. As we went into the 500-1000 blind levels there were 5 remaining and there were 3 remaining as we hit the top blind level at 2000-4000. CPL Honorable Mention goes to Mike "Blind Me Down" Behr who came back from 1500 in chips to the chip leader with 10,000....and eventually went out in 3rd place. And hats off to "The Monster" who has had two great starting weeks at the CPL! Way to go Bud! Great match to all! Including Voni, Malinda, and Bill who survived into the points!
Quote of the Week: In describing "The Rookie's" monologue which coxed "NewLife" to call her Pocket Aces: "I haven't seen choreography like that since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer!" --Bill "Comeback Kid" Lanoux UnAdjusted Leaderboard: .bmp)
Points Awarded During Week 2: .bmp)
If you’re going to run a home poker league over a course of time – someone will be interested in knowing who holds various records. You should, then, find some way to keep track of these records if for no other reason than to trot out the fact that you win 85% of the time when you’ve won the first hand of the week (or whatever esoteric stat works for you). Look for a future post to discuss league management software and website – some of which allow for such stat keeping. For now, however, here are some records and all-time leaders from the CPL (which we use an Exel spreadsheet to keep track of). The CPL has finished up two complete seasons (6 sessions total – Spring, Summer and Fall sessions make up a season with each session consisting of, usually, 11 weeks), which, in total make up 77 matches that have been played. And, while there have been tweaks from time to time this is still largely comparing apples to apples (since we’re in charge we’re saying it is exactly like comparing apples to apples). So, here’s a look back at the first two CPL seasons and the CPL record books. Most Points in a Session
Karaoke Phil – 128.8 (Summer, Season I) JP “The Eliminator” – 120.8 (Spring, Season II) Mike “Blind Me Down” – 113.8 (Fall, Season I) Most Regular Sessions (11-weeks) WonKaraoke Phil – Summer, Season I and the recently concluded Fall, Season II (95.4 pts) Mark “Verbal” Cardenas, Blind Me Down Behr, Jeff “Matusow” Matson, and JP “The Elimator” have each won one session. Most “Career” PointsKaraoke Phil – 506.9 Mark “Verbal” Cardenas – 476.5 Malinda “Nemesis” Cardenas – 422.85 Mike “Blind Me Down” Behr – 401.9 Bill “Comeback Kid” Lanoux – 366.2 The following records are based on a minimum of 16 matches played within the CPL: Most Matches PlayedMark “Verbal” Cardenas – 74 Karaoke Phil - 72 Malinda “Nemesis” Cardenas - 70 Career Wins
Karaoke Phil - 11 Mark “Verbal” Cardenas and Malinda “Nemesis” Cardenas tied with – 9 4 players tied at 5 wins each Times in the Points (top half finishes)Mark “Verbal” – 43 Malinda “Nemesis” – 39 Karaoke Phil – 36 Percentage of Time WinningKaraoke Phil – 15.28% (11 of 72 matches) Malinda “Nemesis” 12.86% (9 wins in 70 matches) Mark “Verbal” – 12.16% (9 of 74) Vince “Cursed One” Castellanos – 11.76% (2 of 17 matches) Jeff “Matusow” Matson – 11.63% (5 of 43) NOTE: In seeking to confirm whether a Mike “BMD” win is either a “rare” or “100-year” event we have ascertained that prior to his Season III, Week I win Mike had pulled off the feat 3 other times in 49 matches. That 6.12% winning percentage puts him in 13th place of 14 qualifying CPL players (minimum of 16 matches). However, take a look at who leads the next CPL record. Percentage of the Time in PointsMike “Blind Me Down” – 65.31% (32 times in 49 matches) Jeff “Urkelnator” Kuhlman – 61.54 % (24 of 39) Mark “Verbal” – 58.11% (43 of 74) Malinda “Nemesis” – 55.71% (39 of 70) Steve “The Chaser” Bennewitz – 54.76% (23 of 42) Honorable Mention goes to JP “The Eliminator”, Gene “Ninja” Milne, "Whatever happened to" Damon and Jill “JJ Gold” who, variously, have the percentages to qualify as top record holders in some of the these categories but who have failed to play the required 16 CPL matches to qualify.
 Happy New Year and Welcome to another great CPL poker session! The Spring session of 2009 for the CPL kicked off tonight and after seating 13 members and playing for over 3 hours Mike 'Blind Me Down' Behr took first place in a rare top spot finish for Blind Me Down!
The Spring Session of the CPL is off to an exciting start as we saw Quads AND we saw a straight flush (4th ever in the CPL)! But the really amazing part is that our newest member to the CPL, Bud Abbott, had BOTH of these hands tonight! Talk about getting hit by the deck during your first CPL match! Welcome to the CPL Bud! Congrats on your 4th place finish! Selecting Bud's CPL Moniker is easy after tonights action..... Bud Abbott will forever be known within the CPL circle as Bud "Monster" Abbott. CPL Honorable Mention goes to Pam 'Black Widow' Muldoon who went heads up against Blind Me Down and scored a fabulous 2nd place finish during this first CPL week. Overall a great week of poker like usual....good luck to everyone during the CPL Spring 2009 Session! Quote of the Week: "When I hear this song it reminds me of my mom having an RC and a cigarette" --Bill "Comeback Kid" Lanoux
CPL Points Awarded During Week 1 Mike Behr--30.20 Pam--17.70 Mike Bowman--12.90 Bud--10.30 Bill--8.70 Greg--7.60 Steve--1.0 Malinda--1.0 Voni--1.0 Jeff M-1.0 Phil--1.0 Wanda--1.0 Mark--1.0
--
CPL Director Mark Cardenas
and
CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer
Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast
Okay, we've actually had the month 3 numbers for a little while now. And, yeah, they aren't "up movers" (generally), but we hide nothing here at CPLPoker. Our numbers, not coincidentally, started dropping around Thanksgiving and have largely been down since. These holiday blues for us, we believe, are the results of two things: 1) people being busier and visting less often and 2) your CPL Co-Directors being busier and not posting as much (all of November had 11 posts vs 16 in October - and there were only 2 posts from December 1 to December 27). All that is changing as the Holidays are behind us and were redoubling efforts for 2009 (though we're pretty sure the month 4 numbers will also be down as the recovery is just now beginning). So, on with the show: We're having some issue with uploading the map so, none this month. It shows (or would have) 263 visits from Nov. 16 to Dec. 15 from 57 cities and 13 countries. These are all off the pace of the previous month. The highlight for this month has to be the traffic sources. Last month readers in Sydney Australia put that city #6 on our visitor list. This month we have a non-US city breaking into the top 5. As may forever be the case, Minneapolis and St. Paul led the way again. Our number 3 and 4 spots flip-flopped again with Hennepin County again coming in ahead of Circle Pines. Osseo, MN pushes it's way into a tie for spot #5 with....wait for it.....Givatayim, Israel (yeah, I had to look it up, too). Another report in a couple of weeks - and, more quality posts in the meantime. So, keep on reading.
The CPL's Blind Me Down Mike Behr and Karaoke Phil sat down to the $4K Guarantee HORSE Tournament this evening to slug it out with some of FullTilt's best. There were 199 entrants by the time registration closed. Karaoke went out during RAZZ about 2hr 5 min into the tourney in 56th place outlasting FullTilt pros Diego Cordovez and Adam Schoenfeld. He also assisted in knocking out Esther Rossi (in 96th place). Here are the winning (and losing hands) that busted Rossi (it should be noted that Karaoke also took down a nice pot against her during the Stud level as well-even if it was a bit of a suck out):  As this entry went to posting, Mike "Blind Me Down" Behr had taken some damage during Stud and Stud H/L dropping from about 8K in chips to just under 5K, but pumped it back up and ended the Stud H/L round with 8K once again . He then moved up to nearly 12K during holdem. With 34 players left he stood in 11th. Look for updates in the comments section as they available.
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