Getting Jobbed at the Table? Follow this Saintly Advice!

**A "Stronger Squared Poker Analysis" entry**

You're playing that tournament and the hands you see are, at the best, off suit 3-gappers. Hand after hand after hand is 9/5, 7/3, J/4 and maybe a K/3 UTG. Then the UTG (a solid player) makes a min raise which is 2-bet from UTG+1 (who's the tightest rock of a player you've ever seen). It folds to you in the hijack position (2 to the right of the button) and you look down at K/Q suited. Your heart momentarily flutters. "Ahh, FINALLY a decent hand," you say to yourself. "I haven't had a good hand in days - I've got to play this." That's a big mistake. You should fold - yet again - and wait for a hand or good situation - yet again.


Today we live in an age of instant gratification. We can get instant credit, search the web for instant answers and much more. We have little patience for anything that takes time. The average attention span for an adult is about 20 minutes (can you say 30-minute sit com). That's bad if you're a poker player. What you should do is to try and follow the example of St. Monica - the patron Saint of Patience. Years (and I mean years) of prayer, coupled with a strong, well-disciplined internal character, finally led her to convince her husband and son (later to become St. Augustine) to become pious.


Recently, I have been reminded of the value of patience several times when it comes to poker. A couple weeks back I was watching a friend of mine play a 45 person SNG on FullTilt. These pay out the top six. He made the final table (9 players) as the short stack with 7 or 8 times the BB left. He folded. He folded again. He kept folding until he was down to 3 or 4 times the BB when he went all in and doubled up. He went back to folding - living up to his home league nickname "Blind Me Down". He got down to 5 BBs, moved all in and doubled up again. He got into the money. Some more folding took place before another double up (with about 7 BBs) and a card rush propelled him to full victory (and the hefty first place prize for this was no $2.25 tourney).


Later that week I was in the bar poker league I play in. We reached final table (8 players) and I had 4BBs left. I folded and folded and folded. I was able to double up (plus a little extra) once and steal blinds once but pretty much kept folding. I got a little lucky when the big stacks decided to start to take each other on with 5 people left. Next thing I knew (in literally 6 or 7 hands) I was heads up with the chip leader. I was in terrible shape with only about 10% of the chips (about 10K in chips to 110K) and finished in second after two hands of heads up play. But, even in free bar poker, 2nd tends to pay something - 7th or 8th doesn't. I didn't needlessly push or call and was rewarded, just as Blind Me Down got rewarded.


An additional two or three clear examples of the value of patience happened to me or others I was observing since then. It's happened often enough that it seemed like a good time to write about the importance of patience and to reiterate the gem that ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote: "If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much." Or, in poker parlance - a few double ups puts you back into the game. You are never forced to call (or push). And, sometimes, even when the "math" is right or you've FINALLY gotten a hand after being "card-dead" since Air Supply was HOT, your knowledge of the game screams at you to exercise patience (i.e. - "I'm beat, fold and wait") or, at least it should (see the example I led off with at the top).


Saint Augustine learned well from his mother (St. Monica) and wrote that: "Patience is the companion of wisdom." I hope this post reminds you of that truth.
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Karaoke Phil Wins CPL Week 7!

Karaoke Phil stands strong during a marathon 3 hr 30 min Week 7 and outlasted a field of 16 CPL members to take the top spot for the week! A crazy crazy week of poker which saw 3 quads during the night (including quad aces) and on the lower table no-ones hand was safe as runner-runner along with miracle flops were rampant. It was the first win for either of the CPL Directors and a much needed win for Karaoke. The first place points have vaulted him into 5th on the CPL leaderboard. Congrats Karaoke! Coming in 2nd place was James Aguilar! It was another fine performance by James which has moved him into 3rd on the leaderboard, and also makes him the third person to clinch a seat at the coveted TOC! Congrats James!

In 3rd place was Malinda "Nemesis" Cardenas. Malinda had a great night of poker and the blinds simply caught up with her to take her out in 3rd. In 4th place was Kenji "Don't Do It" Hang. Kenji was on life support for quite a while at the end of the match...but wouldn't give up his seat until there was only 4 left. In 5th place was Bill "Comeback Kid" Lanoux. Comeback went into complete Blind Me Down mode and found himself not only in the points but all the way to the 5th place spot after putting a big hurt on Jerry. Mark "Verbal" Cardenas was in 6th place. This is Verbal's fifth week in the points out of seven...but can Verbal win a week? In 7th place was Kelli G, who continues to be dangerous with a solid style of poker. In 8th was Mike "Blind Me Down" Behr. This is only the third week in the points for Blind Me Down, who was on a serious slide for the last four weeks. Blind Me Down needed these points with only 4 weeks left in this session.

CPL Quote of the Week:

"Sure, its the only exercise I get." --Comeback Kid, when asked if he would shuffle.

CPL Leaderboard-Adjusted

Points Awarded During Week 7

Monday Madness and Site Numbers (Norman Chad and Two Plus Two Forums)

It's a funny game, but we're playing it tonight at 8:30 pm Central - it's PL HA (Pot Limit Hold 'em and Omaha). Password is: CPL

On to our Sept to Oct site numbers - it's record time. In fact, records abound. Norman Chad gets the two points for the goal, but Two Plus Two poker forums gets the assist.

We did a story on Norman Chad cashing in this year's WSOP (one of the Stud8 tourneys). On ESPN's Main Event coverage on Sept. 22 it was mentioned several times, but with few details. That sent people searching the web for more info and to us and gave us (at the time) records for unique visitors. Then a Two Plus Two poker forum post by someone named abracadabrab on Oct. 14 linking to our story really drove them in. Ultimately, we broke a daily unique visitors record with 62 and a daily visits with 69. Overall, we saw our best month ever with 503 visits from 202 cities (both new records) from 24 countries (a high tie). ESPN coverage appears to be responsible for about 70 visits with Two Plus Two bringing in about 85 more. Here's the map:
Finally, this month saw a first - Minneapolis dropped from it's #1 visit location (a spot it's held since we really kept blog stats - Sept. 08). St. Paul is the new king, followed by Minneapolis and Hennepin County. Circle Pines, Minnesota comes in 4th with S. St. Paul (MN) and Fargo, North Dakota tied for 5th. For our international destinations: Sydney, Australia was in 9th, and London (UK) was tied for 11th.

Tourney Structure Op-Ed

We talked about (on the podcast) and posted about tweaking our blind levels and then Tournament Director Matt Savage opines about Deep Stack Tournaments and tourney structures in this op-ed piece from Poker News. Is he listening to our show? Take a look.

CPL Adopts New Blind Level Structure

As discussed on the latest CPL Poker Podcast....the new blind levels and blind lengths will be as follows starting during Week 7 of the CPL Fall Session.

After much internal discussion regarding the removal of the 150/300 blind level earlier this session...the CPL Directors have opted to add this important mid level back into the CPL. To balance the time added to the tournament by re-adding this blind level...the early blind levels have been reduced in time.

We hope everyone enjoys this newest structure!

The CPL Warm Up Rounds--

10/20--12 min

20/40--12 min

30/60--12 min

BREAK--Race off Red Chips

The CPL Get Busy Rounds--

50/100--16 min

100/200--16 min

150/300--16 min

BREAK--Race off Blue Chips

The CPL Elimination Rounds--

200/400--14 min

300/600--14 min

400/800--14 min

500/1000--14 min

BREAK--Race off Black, then White Chips

The CPL Plaque Rounds--

1000/2000--12 min

2000/4000--Remainder of match

Unabomber Wins Again During CPL Week 6!

Mike "Unabomber" Bowman won his second CPL 1st place title of this Fall Session during Week 6 when he bested a field of 14 members out in the lands of Plymouth. This win not only put Unabomber back on top of the CPL Leaderboard, but also secured Unabomber a seat at the coveted CPL Tournament of Champions in December. This is the earliest anyone has clinched a TOC seat! Congrats Mike!

It was a crazy night of early technical difficulties with the tournament clock...and a mishap with the chip counts gave everyone an extra 300 in chips about 30 min into the match! This is what happens when we let Greg count out the chips! In the end all was set right and the match continued! The rough start was definitely felt later in the match as 7 CPL Members remained as we entered the CPL Plaque Rounds!! Wow! But once the 1000/2000 blind level started up...the folks started falling....

Making a fine finish in 2nd place was James, who was incredibly steady throughout the whole match until heads up...where he was went into heads up even up with Unabomber and was quickly disposed of to give Unabomber the win. However another great finish by James!

Greg NewLife Durand finished 3rd. This finish also secures NewLife a seat at the TOC in December! Both NewLife and Unabomber share 4 wins out of the first 6 weeks of play. Quite the domination so far!

In fourth was Mark Wittig who made his CPL debut in fine, fine fashion...staying the course and playing a conservative style of poker which did well for him until the blinds caught up with him. Welcome to the CPL Mark!

Congrats to Verbal, Comeback Kid, and Karaoke Phil for also making it into the CPL points for the week!

CPL Quote of the week:

"3 white chips, 5 black, 10 blue, and 20 Red...3000!"

--Greg "NewLife" Durand making the case to the CPL Director that his chip count was accurate. (he is actually 300 short...missing 3 black chips)

CPL Leaderboard--ADJUSTED

(This is the first week of the adjusted leaderboard...everyones worst 3 scores are removed from the total)

CPL Points Awarded During Week 6

FullTilt Updates Interesting

FullTilt's latest software update has some notable additions.

Most interesting to the CPL Director's is the institution of 7-Game Mixed tournaments (MTT and SNG). Karaoke has already partaken in a couple of these - taking down a $10 SNG and getting sucked out on in a $24 MTT (finishing 44 of 197). The games include the standard HORSE games - though the order is different - with NL HE and PL OH added in to the mix.

Secondly, there is a new Cashout Tournament option - half of the entry fee goes to a standard payout structure with the other half going to the "cashout" pool. At any time a player may cashout 10% to 100% of their stack. So, for example, if you entered a $10 tourney - $5 of that would go to the prize pool and the other $5 to the cashout. If you cashed out after the first hand (say you weren't in the blinds and didn't bet - so you have your full stack) you would get $5 back (your cash out half). Karaoke tried one of these and it seems cashouts came in two varieties: a) those who were severely shortstacked and preferred to get something back and quit rather than try to fight on and b) those who had significantly increased their stacks then cashed out their buy-in and "freerolled" for the rest of the tourney. An interesting twist that will require further analysis.

Lastly: You've seen it on High Stakes Poker and PAD, now you two may "run it twice". That's the scenario where you get all the money in before the river and both remaining players agree to run the board twice. It's usually done with hands that are coin flips and tends to produce a chopped pot - basically a little insurance-type thing. It's fairly limited in scope right now as it's being tested but should be in wider circulation soon.

Andy Bloch Interview Part II and Charity Events

The second part of our interview with Andy Bloch will air on our next podcast - due out the evening of 10/16. Take a listen (player located at the left) - part I is currently up and ready for your listening enjoyment.

Also, Andy has been working with a couple of charities and we'd like to pass on that info. He just finished playing in the Habitat for Humanity Poker Tournament in El Dorado County, CA - you can learn more about that and donate here.

MSCharitypoker.org is hosting another tourney (with Andy Bloch) in November. This one will be in Westchester, NY on Saturday, November 7th at T&J Villaggio Trattoria. Good Luck to all the players moving "all in to find a cure."

Breaking News - Minnesota State Poker Tour Announced

The Minnesota State Poker Tour has been created by Bryan Mileski and Phil Mackey and will feature a series of 6 $1100 buy-in diamond bracelet tournaments. The idea is to provide more affordable prestige tournaments (hence the bracelets) while still having large fields and big payouts.

The structures are also very deep stack. The main event tournaments will see players starting with 15,000 in chips and blind levels that are 50 minutes long.

While the "Tour" doesn't fully begin until February 2010, with an event scheduled for Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Onamia, a "launch" event is planned for December at Canterbury Park. Other locations being slated for the tour include Running Aces, Northern Lights (Walker), Jackpot Junction (Morton) and Grand Casino Hinckley.

Of the two founders, you may recognize Phil Mackey - a radio personality from KFAN (though we're not sure he's actually still on - their poker radio show seems to have died last year in November after 18 episodes and the baseball season has ended for the Twins).

This tour could end up being a great end-of-season prize for home leagues throughout the state with Satellites for each main event priced at $250.

Podcast w/Andy Bloch and CPL Monday Madness!

Episode #60 of the CPL Podcast is in the can and will be up shortly - it includes Part I of the interview with Andy Bloch and a review of Black Bear Casino and Resort in Carlton, MN.

And, we have the next 5 weeks of Monday Madness! all set up. Tomorrow's game will be HOE with an 8:30 pm Central start time - password: CPL.

NewLife Durand Wins Again During CPL Week 5!

Greg NewLife Durand Wins CPL Week 5 during Wine Night with an incredible come from behind heads up victory over Wanda "Wicked1" Bublitz!

In his second victory in the past 3 weeks, which has launched him to the top of the unadjusted CPL Leaderboard, NewLife went heads up against Wicked1 severely outchipped something like 5-1...but after a few quick hands all in and NewLife was back in the thick of it vs Wicked1....and soon after accumulating some chips....took the lead heads up and made quick work of Wicked1 to score his second victory of this Fall Session.

Wicked1 had an incredible night of poker all the way up to the heads up portion....catching straights and flushes at the right time and mowing down one player after another while amassing an incredible chip stack along the way!

Gerry Willy finally made it into the CPL points finding his way to 3rd place. Verbal had the rug pulled out from under him as Wicked1 went runner runner to take him out in 4th place. Nick "Heads Up" Kamholz went out in 5th (his 4th finish in the CPL points out of 5 weeks)...and Mike "Unabomber"Bowman rounded out the CPL points finishing in 6th.

CPL Quote of the Week:

"You know you're in trouble when you have more Missouri Chips than actual chips" --Nick "Heads Up" Kamholz

CPL Leaderboard (Unadjusted)

CPL Points Awarded During Week 5

The Monster wins CPL Week 4!

Bud "The Monster" Abbott takes down CPL Week 4 with an amazing come from behind heads up match in a week where chips were flying from person to person all night long!

Nick Kamholz took 2nd place after having a massive chip lead going into heads up play against Monster, but squandered away chips again and after losing his chip advantage....it ended quickly. This is the 2nd time in 4 weeks that Nick has been heads up with a significant chip lead....both times ending in defeat.

This is why the CPL is announcing that Nick Kamholz will forever be known to the CPL as

Nick "Heads Up" Kamholz.

Kelli G. took 3rd after getting punished early by Verbal...but she never said die...and after battling back...took the 3rd spot.

Greg "NewLife" Durand ended the night in 4th patiently taking shots at pots and slowly building his stack...but it was not his night and he ended in a respectable 4th. His 3rd week in the CPL points out of 4 weeks played.

Sarah Heath (her chips at least) ended the night in the 5th spot as she built a stack early...but after Sarah had to quickly leave the match (she didn't feel well) her stack survived player after player and won 2 All In's....bringing her to the 5th spot.

Rounding out the CPL points was Verbal in sixth place and Kenji finishing in 7th.

After Kenji's pleadings with the dealer to protect him during an all in....the CPL has decided to offer him the following moniker. Kenji will be forever known to the CPL as:

Kenji "Don't Do It" Vang.

CPL Leaderboard (Unadjusted)

CPL Points Awarded During Week 4.

BREAKING NEWS - Pitbull Poker Update

CPL Poker Blog and Podcast has confirmed that Pitbull's Casino operations have now been suspended. This is in addition to the poker section that was disabled last week. The web site is still "up" so to speak, but no games of any sort (even play money) are being offered. Additionally, most of the affiliate sites are either now defunct (Novi Poker, Allin Poker, OnlinePoker66, 5dimes, etc.) are either shut down entirely or have migrated to other poker clients.