Running Aces News

The February calendar is out and the biggest news coming from Running Aces Card Room is the addition of the Heartland Poker League (it actually started two weeks ago, but we just noticed).  These $65 ($50+$10+$5) tournaments will be held each Friday at 3 pm.  The season runs for 10 tournaments (7 still remain for this season).  Win the season at the Card Room and you'll earn a seat in the televised National Championship.  Low cost buy-ins for life changing money - worth a shot.

And, if you significant other likes poker (or you're all alone in this world) you might want to mosey down to Running Aces on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) for their "Broken Hearts Tournament".  It's a $65 buy-in and you'll get an extra prize if you lose with the K and Q of hearts.

Treasure Island Updates

The short update is that our own TI (the one in Red Wing - not Las Vegas) has completed a renovation on their non-smoking gaming area.  Already a site with a substantial non-smoking room this looks to be an added benefit for all you non-smokers to head on down there.

More importantly (to us anyway) is the upcoming "Island Poker Tournament".   Treasure Island Resort and Casino will be hosting this on Saturday, February 6 starting at Noon.  The format will be No Limit Texas Hold'em with a $1,000 buy-in and $100 entry fee. Check-in will begin one hour prior to the tournament. To register, call their box office at 1-800-222-7077, extension 2297.

The satellite tournaments will also be No Limit Texas Hold'em with a $200 buy-in and a $20 entry fee. These will be held on February 3 and 4 at 6pm and February 5 at 10am and 6pm. Each one will play down to the top twenty percent, those twenty percent (from each day/session) will return on Saturday for the Main Event.

 

This used to be a WSOP Main Event Tourney - but for whatever reason TI scrapped that idea and has moved into this rendition.   If it's run as it has been in the past each flight (satellite) will be limited to 100 players, with the main tournament consisting of 100 player (the top 20 players from each of the 5 satellites - they usually sell out).  Chips counts will "reset" at the main event.

Payouts go to 15 spots - but if you buy in directly you'll need to finish in the top 11 to make any profit.

Full Tilt Introduces "Rush Poker"

A new type of poker game has hit Full Tilt....if the speed games were not enough action for you....you now have "Rush Poker"!  Check out the video tutorial here!


This new poker format is designed to minimize your wait time between hands and keep you in the action. You’ll join a large player pool and face a different table of opponents every hand you play. When you fold your hand, you’ll be rushed to another table for a new hand right away.


Andy Bloch
"This is what poker should be: a game of action."


From the CPL point of view....this looks awfully interesting....if you like speed tables....you'll really like Rush Poker only on Full Tilt!


Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!

Poker back in Dodge City

Wyatt Earp would be happy.   Gunsmoke fans (and the rest of us) now have another reason - maybe, finally just a reason - to visit Dodge City, Kansas.  The Boot Hill Casino and Resort has opened for business.

Boot Hill sports about 20,000 square feet of gaming space for nearly 600 slot machines and 12 table games tables (apparently including craps).  Dodge City is the milieu that inspired Gunsmoke (which ran on TV for two decades).  It's also the place that the famed Wyatt Earp dealt cards.

This is the first casino to open in Kansas from a 2007 law authorizing a total of four in the state.   A 120+ hotel is planned with an opening slated for 2012.

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.

BREAKING NEWS: UIGEA Postpones Rollout 6 Months

The CPL has just learned that on Friday (11/27/09) the Treasury and Federal Reserve announced that it would postpone implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) for 6 months based on the petition filed by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). This is a big win for poker and may be the first step in allowing legislation to be passed to legalize Online Poker in the USA.


Join the CPL in this fight and become a member today of the Poker Players Alliance.


Read more here on Cardplayer.com.

Breaking News - Minnesota "Poker Player of the Year" created for 2010

The new podcast is out (media player on the left) and we interviewed Phil Mackey, co-founder of both the Minnesota State Poker Tour and Minnesota Poker Magazine.

Phil was very forthcoming in our interview. One item in particular is of note. He "was going to save this for the December issue of Minnesota Poker Magazine," but decided to break the news with your own CPL Poker Podcast that they have created a Minnesota State Poker Player of the Year Competition.

The POY points begin on January 1, 2010. More than 500 poker tournaments have been identified across the state as POY eligible tournaments including the 6 bracelet events that make up the MN State Poker Tour. It is believed that this will be the first time there has ever been a statewide Player of the Year chase in Minnesota.

Says Mackey about the POY chase, "We owe it to players (in Minnesota). Let's find out who the best player is." He mentions such MN heavyweights as, 3 Putts, Brad Berman, and Jeremy Dresch as examples of potential winners.

Curse of the Final Table - or, how doing really well is sometimes all you ever wanted

Since we're on the topic of the WSOP Main Event, we thought we'd talk a little about an oddity we recently encountered. In looking to set up various interviews for the podcast (the player is to the left btw and we'll have Phil Mackey from the Minnesota Poker Tour on the next show) we came across what we are tentatively calling the "Curse of the Final Table". The curse has it that final tabling in the WSOP Main Event but not finishing in the top three may end your poker career.

We heard back from two "almost was's" in the form of Daniel Bergsdorf and Dan Nassif.

Bergsdorf finished 7th in 2005 (Joe Hachem's year) winning $1.3 million dollars in the process. We caught up with Daniel in his native country of Sweden to ask if he'd be interested in being on the podcast. Following his deep run in '05 we found out he had a few more small cashes over the next couple of years, but nothing big. In declining to be interviewed, he let us know that he speaks "terrible English". But the real reason is that he plays "almost no live poker nowadays". Huh?

In many ways, Dan Nassif was the first Dennis Phillips - A regular guy (in this case an advertising sales exec) from St. Louis, MO who had a great run. Dan busted out in 9th in 2006 (Jamie Gold's big run) to earn $1.5 million. How has Dan done since in live tournament play and the WSOP? About nothing. We caught up with Mr. Nassif who last played live poker at the 2007 WSOP (no cashes). Apparently he's "just been playing online and haven't done that very much either. I have been busy with other things." Other things??

What?? What is going on here? These guys are in their prime (Bergsdorf is now in his early 30s and Nassif his late 30s). They both clearly have talent and gotten so close to the golden fruit. And, they both garnered life changing winnings (and experience) that gave them ample bankrolls to play and prosper.

Yet, they both have quit - at least quit any semblance of "serious" play. Is it a fluke? A pattern? We're calling it a curse for now, but we'll provide an update one way or the other if we learn more about it. One thing is for sure - the CPL Directors are committed to turning "pro" should they ever score a $1+ million pay-day.

WSOP Main Event

Congratulations (we suppose) to Joe Cada for taking down the WSOP Main Event. We at the CPL believe it's his high water mark (even though he's now the youngest champ ever at 21) and that we'll not hear much more from him over the next 50 years.

However, it's a good time to revisit our series on the "Best Damn WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s". This link here is our final "redux" entry but is has additional links to the other several posts on the topic.

Happy Anniversary Deadwood, SD

It was 20 years ago this month (that's November 1989 for the math challenged) that casino gambling was legalized in Deadwood, SD. For the geographically challenged, Deadwood is on the far Western border of South Dakota - you know, more or less, "nowhere". Come to think of it, maybe all of South Dakota is, more or less, "nowhere". Just a little humor there SD - we Minnesotans usually pick on Iowa, but I thought I'd give them a little break. Many consider the legalization as having "saved" the area - the industry now brings in about $1 billion a year.

We pass on "Happy Anniversary" congratulations to Deadwood's casinos. The CPL is quite fond of Deadwood and its numerous casinos. In fact, Karaoke played his first two live tournaments there during a trip in August 2006. He played at both Cadillac Jack's and the Silverado - almost cashing in one of them.

FullTilt Makes the World Right Again

Karaoke attempted to play the FTOPS Warm Up event this past Sunday but could not get into the Full Tilt server until he had been blinded out of the tournament (in about 18500th position of the 43,000 that had signed up). Seating took about 15 minutes to complete (before the tourney actually started) with Karaoke attempting to log in about 5 minutes into the beginning of the seating time. For the next 90 or so minutes he repeatedly attempted to log in - only to go through cycles of "connected", "trying again", "connected", "trying again".

On Monday he fired off an email to Full Tilt support letting them know of the problems he had the day before. He was quite polite (no, really, polite - actually only requesting "at least a partial refund" of the 1100 FullTilt points he had used to sign up for the tourney).

Yesterday he received a response in which Full Tilt acknowledged "unexpected connection and lag issues for some players" on Nov. 1. Their review of his account showed "you were affected by the connection and lag issues." They then credited his account with 5.50 T$ (Tourney Dollars) - the full value equivalent of 1100 FTP (FullTilt Points). That's probably a wee bit nicer than giving back the actual FTPs.

FullTilt makes good on tech issues from their end and makes the world right again. The CPL thanks and congratulates Full Tilt Poker for doing the right thing.

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.

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.

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.

BREAKING NEWS - Pitbull Poker loses its bark?

It is being reported that struggling online poker/gaming site Pitbull Poker has not only shut down but that its Directors have been arrested in Costa Rica.

We have logged into Pitbull to check out the scene. Everything appears to be up and running until you get into the site a little. As you try to get into the Poker Room you find that no tables will load and one's account information (available money, player points, etc.) also does not load.
Apparently PokerScout is also showing that there have been "0" players in the last 24 hours.

On the other hand - the "Casino" portion of the site still appears to be fully functional - so you can keep playing blackjack and casino war if you want. Karaoke, though, is thinking he won't ever see the $40 he has there, but since that was an increase from the free $10 he was given when he signed up it's not a loss of any kind. Pitbull did, however, have a very cool logo and tag line:

Pitbull Poker - Sit Stay Play

BREAKING NEWS: UB and Absolute Poker scandal results

Nearly two years after the "super user" account scandal rocked Ultimate Bet, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission - the tribal entity that oversees many online poker rooms - issued a report on it's findings. The full 11 page report can be found here.

In all, UB was fined $1.5 million and has refunded more than $22 million "to players adversely affected the cheating incidences."

This follows the report on Absolute Poker (who was fined $500,000) can be found here, from earlier this year.

Free Poker Network / CPL kudos

Kudos to "Comeback Kid" Bill Lanoux. It looks like he took down session 2 (second 8-week half of the season) at Erik's Bar in the FreePokerNetwork League (FPN). That allows him to skip regions and go straight to the state tourney where several seats to Vegas (where the championship tourney will give away several seats to the Heartland Poker Tour's season opening tourney at the Red Rock Casino) will be handed out. Wanda "Wicked1" Bublitz looks to have squeaked into the regional tourney where she'll play along side Karaoke Phil who took 4th in session 1 (top 6 qualified to regions), but slipped in session 2 to 10th/11th.

And, speaking of Karaoke Phil, regions may be moot. He was finally able to use his online token in a 10 player SNG satellite for an online seat to the Vegas give away this Sunday. Except for a 10 - 15 hand lull in the middle of the tourney Karaoke dominated the field (60% of the chips with 4 players left and 88% of the chips with 3 players remaining). There were 38 runners signed up for the Sunday tourney and Karaoke thinks it will be about 50 total come tourney time. The winner will get a Vegas seat at the Nationals Championship with 2nd place receiving an Ipod Nano.

Nice job CPLers.

Also, look for our docu-series "Suck Out!" to continue this weekend!!!