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.

Malinda Wins 2009 Summer Tournament of Champions!

In a 5 hour 37 minute long match that saw chips flying back and forth between the 9 Tournament of Champions players...it was Malinda "Nemesis" Cardenas who was the only one with chips left on the felt at the end of this 2009 Summer TOC!

This is Malinda's fourth TOC Ticket win however, her first TOC Championship. Congratulations Nemesis!

It was a strange TOC which had for the first time not one....but two forfeits including the session point leader ("Matusow" and "Chaser"). These adjustments took out over 14,000 chips off of the table and reduced the TOC from 2 tables down to 1.

The TOC blind levels are set at 30 minutes and start at a low low 10/20 which as the lowest chips stack over 200 times the big blind to start the match. So there was plenty of early back and forth as players were testing the waters....and some matchups took shape including Bud "Monster" vs Mike "Blind Me Down" and "Karaoke" Phil vs Greg "NewLife". The forfeit of "Matusow" placed Mark "Verbal" in the number one chip spot at the start of the TOC, however he was closely followed by several CPL Members.

After the first set of blinds were over and we entered the first break, all 9 members were remaining and "Nemesis", "Karaoke", and "NewLife" had begun collecting chips to take early leads.

3 hours into the match and the first casualty appeared to be Bud "Monster" as he was the short stack entering into the TOC and was all in vs "Blind Me Down", and pushed all in with AJ on a board of 8-5-3 and got a caller in "Blind Me Down" who was holding 5-3 for two pair. However, that shrank up fast as another 8 on the turn conterfeited "Blind Me Down's" pair and the J on the river gave "Monster" the pot and doubled him up to keep him in the match!

This was a critical hand as "Monster" next tangled with Bill "Comeback Kid" and again got won the pot, and the TOC saw the first player knocked out as "Comeback" went out in 9th place. Suddenly, "Monster" was in great shape with a mound of chips in front of him.

Out in 8th was Wanda "Wicked1". "Wicked1" had seen a gradual decline in her chip stack throughout the match and really didn't get anything going during this TOC.

Out in 7th was Mark "Verbal". "Verbal" went up against "Karaoke" with Big Slick on a Q high board to get snap called by "Karaoke" holding AQ. No K for "Verbal" on the Turn or River and "Verbal" exists the TOC early (is this the return of the second seed curse that Mark broke in 2008?).

We were then on the money bubble with 6 players remaining....both "Blind Me Down" and Scott "Hollywood" were the short stacks and were eyeing each other hand after hand to see who would go down first.

They both held on round after round however the blinds would eventually require one of them to push and "Hollywood" would be the one to blink as he went out in 6th place tangling against "NewLife".

Then another big change in the chips happened as "Monster" went out in 5th after seeing his massive chip stack wander away to "Nemesis", "NewLife", and "Karaoke" hand after hand after hand...with the last of it going to "NewLife". A great match for "Monster" who finished 6 spots above his seeding!!

With four players remaining....we entered the ticket bubble.

"NewLife" had about 22K and "Nemesis" had about 20K. "Karaoke" was left with only 9K, and "Blind Me Down" was severely short stacked with less than 3K. Blinds entered the 500/1000 level and the fireworks began.

"Blind Me Down" was blinded down into 4th place...finally relinquishing his chips to "Karaoke"....in a very long drawn out decision by "Karaoke" after "Blind Me Down" channelled Jamie Gold, advising "Karaoke" to call and even showed "Karaoke" his A before "Karaoke's" decision was made. "Karaoke" went into the tank....and followed his guts to call with middle connectors against "Blind Me Down's" small A. After an 8 hit the turn to pair up "Karaoke". "Blind Me Down" needed a Greestein to continue his TOC...which didn't happen and "Blind Me Down" exited in 4th on the ticket bubble.

The 3 Tournament ticket winners were decided....now the TOC crown was in sight....

Only a few hands into the 3 handed match, "NewLife" bet up to 3000 with an A , "Nemesis" re-raised to 6000 with KQ, and "NewLife" called. With a Q high flop, "Nemesis" bet 4500 which prompted an All In by "NewLife" and "Nemesis" went into the tank...."Nemesis" barely had "NewLife" covered...and called staring at the fortune in the pot. "NewLife" would not hit his Ace on the Turn or River and went out in 3rd place.

"Nemesis" now had a massive chip stack at this point and went up against "Karaoke" in heads up play.

And again....only a few hands into heads up play...On a flop of A-Q-10..."Karaoke" shoved with his A-3 only to get snap called by "Nemesis" who had flopped a straight as she held the K-J. A blank on the turn ended it in second place for "Karaoke" and "Nemesis" claimed the TOC crown.

Congratulations to the 2009 Summer Session Tournament Ticket winners Nemesis, Karaoke, and NewLife! Stay tuned for reports on how they do at the Running Aces Midwest Fall Classic as they use their TOC tickets to go for the cash at Running Aces at the end of Sept...

CPL Quote of the Week:

"So is Box the Clown performing at your daughter's party?"--"Karaoke" to "Comeback Kid"

2009 Summer TOC Results

1-Malinda "Nemesis" Cardenas--Ticket Winner

2-"Karaoke" Phil Fuehrer--Ticket Winner

3-Greg "NewLife" Durand--Ticket Winner

4-Mike "Blind Me Down" Behr

5-Bud "Monster" Abbott

6-Scott "Hollywood" Bauer

7-Mark "Verbal" Cardenas

8-Wanda "Wicked1" Bublitz

9-Bill "Comeback Kid" Lanoux

10-Jeff "Matusow" Matson--by forfeit

11-Steve "Chaser" Bennewitz--by forfeit

SCOOP!! - CPLPoker scoops Star Tribune

No, we didn't scoop a poker pot. We scooped our breaking news story (posted just before 2 am on Sunday, Nov. 30) on the financial plight at Running Aces. Since we're a little tighter with the various dealers and casino end of things we reported on dealer work hour reductions and loss of benefits.

It seems that maybe the Strib reads our blog as they posted (sometime around 11:30 pm on Monday, Dec. 1 - that's about 45 hours AFTER our breaking news) this story by reporter Paul Levy including a little more background info and fuller scope of the situation - and, he apparently took most of Monday (or even Sunday) to get the interviews.

Ahh!!! Scooping pots is nice, but this feels much better.

BREAKING NEWS - Running Aces Dealers' hours reduced, benefits cut

The CPL Poker Blog has it from reliable sources that the situation at Running Aces is extremely tough. Apparently, meetings held for dealers on Friday and Saturday (11/28 and 11/29) informed them that most (if not all) of them were having their work hours reduced to part-time. Additionally, benefits were being cut or eliminated for them.

Tough times apparently at Running Aces as new management attempts to right the bottom line. Tougher times still for the dealers - there's a "Merry Christmas" for ya.

It's CPL Poker Blog's hope that the ship is righted (we like the competition the extra card room has created) not only for our own amusement and money-making, but so that their employees can earn a decent living with decent benefits.

Running Aces December Tourney Schedule Available

You can view December's scheduled tournaments at Running Aces Card Room here.

For you OH8 fans, it looks like they've shifted back to the first Sunday of the month.

Also, for you Pai Gow fans - there is No Ante/No Commission play until November 30.

More fun with numbers, or, CPL Poker Blog rising up the charts

Month 2's Google Analytics results are in and we're looking pretty good. Our attempts to broaden out the blog to include Home Poker League Resources, Poker News and things like the Hand of the Week look to be paying off.

As we did last month - here's the map of our site's visits:
Still heavily Midwest, but we're up 13.5% on hits from various cities (59 cities last month to 67 this month), and up 15.6 % on visits (377 to 436). We also saw hits coming from 14 different countries (up from 11).

This last point is of some interest. Cities with the most visits were largely the same: Minneapolis and St. Paul led the way again. Circle Pines and Hennepin County moved up a spot with Burnsville replacing Hopkins in the top 5. The item of interest is that Sydney, Australia came in 6th - we're branching out - and, a g'day to all you down under.

On the keyword end of things, our coverage of the area's two biggest card rooms (Canterbury Park and Running Aces) led the way with 19 visits from searches. Add in our various news visits (most often about one of the two card rooms) and you have another 7 visits. Our Home Poker League Resources saw 10 visitors checking us out (with the new "Missouri Chip" getting 6 of them).

This month's stats saw us hit our high water mark for unique visitors in day at 17 - on October 29. We're pretty consistently between 10 and 15 each day. On the browser end of things - over the two full month's of stats - IE leads with 65.56% of visitor browsers, Firefox is at 19.075, 12.30% use Apple's Safari system and Google's new Chrome browser is the choice of 2.71%.

Finally, it pays to give players monikers mimicking pros. We had 7 visits from people looking for either our own league players, people with similar names to our players and those actually looking for Mike Matusow and Phil "Unibomber" Lakk, but finding our versions of them.

Drop us a line if you'd like to see us add features or items - we love hearing from you.

Canterbury Park laying off 60

Canterbury Park announced last Friday that it will complete the layoff of roughly 10 percent of its work force (60 full and part-time positions), by the end of October. Increased competition from the Running Aces card room as well as current economic conditions are forcing the move.

BREAKING NEWS: New Ownership Deal for Running Aces Harness Park

Southwest Casino Corporation representatives announced on Oct. 23 that they have completed a transfer of its ownership interest in North Metro Harness Initiative (Running Aces Harness Park and card room) to Black Diamond Commercial Finance. The move is intended to improve the long-term viability of Running Aces Harness Park, location of Minnesota's newest poker card room in Columbus, MN.

The deal occurred on October 19, when Southwest Casino Corporation transferred its 50% membership interest in Running Aces to Black Diamond.

CPL Poker Blog Site Traffic

Okay, the first month of Google Analytics is in and here are some highlights (this is basically site traffic for those who aren't familiar with "Analytics").

We had 377 visits from 107 unique visitors. This came from 11 countries and 59 cities. Here's the map of the locations our visits came from to us:

As you can see we're pretty heavy on Minnesota, but we're trying to expand and grow. Prelimary numbers from month two seem to bear this out. Our top 5 cities visiting us are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hopkins, Circle Pines and Hennepin County (all here in the Twin Cities).

As for keyword searches the two card rooms we talk about the most (Canterbury Park and Running Aces) lead the way. Searches for Canterbury Park (including their Fall Poker Classic) yielded us 10 visits. Running Aces variants brought in 8. Our Home Poker League resources (which we added well into the month) accounted for 7 visits, with folks looking for various poker definitions brought in 4 more. Finally, the now resurrected Hand of the Week had 2 web searched hits.

Ahh, fun with numbers.

Report from Jeff "Matusow": OH8 Tournament results from Running Aces Card Room

There were 38 starters on four tables. Pay out was to 7 places which surprised me given the low number of entries. The play was pretty bad early on and several players were playing every hand until they either had massive stacks or got knocked out (usually the former than the latter) ANDd I was fairly card dead. At the end of the 1st break I had won just two 1/4 pots (splitting the low both times) and lost another one when I had every out in the world for a scoop or at least 1/2. I think in all three pots I had at least one nut flush draw and straight draw after the turn with the nut low already locked up but couldn't hit. On only one hand did I get in trouble by donking off about 400 chips when I should never have called the flop bet.We returned from break and I had only 2500 chips with blinds of 200/400. I tripled up shortly after that when I flopped a boat out of the big blind and there was no low. I slowly lost chips again but hung around through level six and made the second break. There were only 11 left and we were coming back to blinds of 800/1600 and I only had 4800 left. I work to build my stack up to around 10,000 but then doubled up a short-stack up when he hit a two outer on the river. When we broke for the final table I was down to 7200 (avg. stack was around 18k.) I paid a round of blinds, someone got knocked out, and when I was UTG and the blinds about to reach 1k/2k I picked up A244 with suited A. I raised to 3200 and an awful player called in LP. The blinds folded. I went all-in blind for my last 1600 and he called. I don't remember the exact flop but I know that after the turn I needed a 7 or 8 for a low and half the pot and an A, 4, 5 or diamond for a scoop of the 12,000 chip pot. The river was a ten of clubs and I was out in 9th place -- losing to nothing more than the donkey's 88xx with now low possibility.

Oh boy - Running Aces 10,000 Lakes Poker Tourney more than just the HPT

Oh yeah! This is hot! The 10,000 Lakes Poker Tournament is more than a Heartland Poker Tour event - though that is the capstone. This is Running Aces' counterpart to Canterbury Park's Fall Poker Classic and another example of the benefit to Twin Cities area poker players.

The 10K LPT starts on Nov. 5th with a $200 +$30 NLHE event. All-in-all there will be 10 events plus the HPT Main Event. Events include a "Celebrity" tourney, Ladies-only, Deep Stack, Add-ons, Shorthanded, and...wait for it.....an OH8 tourney - something for everyone. Buy-ins obviously include the popular $200+$30 and $300+$40 but you can also get in for $125+$25, $50+$20 and $50+$15 depending on the tourney (a price range for everyone).

You can check out the full schedule for the 10K LPT at: http://www.runningacesharness.com/gaming/tournament_flyers/HEARTLAND.pdf

Running Aces October Tourney Schedule Up - OH8 Tourney on 10/5

Running Aces has posted their October Calendar for the various poker tournaments. View it here:
http://www.runningacesharness.com/gaming/tournament_calendar_102008.pdf

And, there's some consistency - the monthly OH8 tourney is still on the first Sunday - this time Oct. 5th . Show up and you may see a couple of CPL members playing it this month. CPL Co-Director "Karaoke" Phil Fuehrer has played in the first two and is looking to get in another "practice" session before Canterbury's Fall Poker Classic Event #6 (OH Hi-Lo) on Oct. 15 (though he has a dinner he's supposed to attend which might preclude him from making the 5th). It also looks as if Jeff "Matusow" Matson is planning on being Runnig Aces - and, who knows, there may be others in attendance as well.

Running Aces OH8 tourney day switched

Okay, it's certainly part of the growing pains and getting into a rhythm thing that is occurring over at Running Aces. This time it's the Monthly OH8 (Omaha High Low Split) tourney that started in August. As reported here then this tourney was to be held on the third Sunday of each month.

That lasted the first month. Now, it appears that the OH8 tourney will be the FIRST Sunday of each month. Meaning that it will be offered this Sunday, Sept. 7. Some other tweaks look to be an added 10 minutes per blind level (to 30 minutes each) - at least that's what the web has, but as we've noted previously this is one other area that still has kinks to be worked out. However, if true, it will be a good tweak offering players more play for their entry fee.

Andy Bloch Interview, Karaoke Phil at the State Fair and More!!!

The Andy Bloch interview can now be heard in its entirety. Just listen to the newest podcast release.

Also, Karaoke Phil spent some time at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. You can catch a glimpse of him on the web at:

http://www.livecast.com/live/Default.aspx?dotheimpossible08

Click on "Day 6 of Minnesota Political Theater" and then go to the 8 min 18 sec mark through about 8min 50 sec. You'll see Phil off and on for about 11 or 12 of those 30 seconds (he's the one in the background handing out literature).

Finally, Running Aces has come up with a name for their HPT Tournament in November. Drum roll......it'll be called .....The 10,000 Lakes Poker Championship.

Running Aces adds tourneys

Running Aces continues to evolve (though they still have a little work to do) and has added a couple of new tournaments.

The 3rd Sunday of every month will now see a $100 ($80 plus $15 plus $5) OH8 Tournament. The web says 3000 chips starting stack the photocopied handout for the tourney says 5000. Either way, it's 20 minute blind levels and a 3 pm start. And, either way, Karaoke Phil is jazzed up about this one.

Also, on December 11 - there's a $10000 free roll for the top 100 tournament players. Not much about it on the web and the hand out seemed to be a little off as it stated that results from:
Super-Satellite, No-Limit, and Limit tournaments would not count towards points. That doesn't seem to leave much left.

Phil's Adventures at Running Aces - HPT Super Satellite

CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer made the trip to Running Aces on Friday morning to play in the $80 ($68 plus $10 rake plus $2 for dealers) Heartland Poker Tour Super Satellite. The top 20% of winners received entry into the $340 satellite to the main event playing there in November. There were 37 players with 3 “re-entrys” for a total of 40 players and 8 seats to the satellite being given out. Here is a partial report (you’ll need to listen to the next podcast to get the ending):

From Phil
Okay, I show up at 9:45 am (tourney starts at 10:30) and am player number 5 buying in to the tourney – guy behind the counter tells me it’ll possibly just be a single table. Eventually, there are 4 tables. I go play some Pai Glow for 35 minutes (ending up $15).

The tourney starts promptly at 10:30 am. Blinds at 25/50 and we have 5000 in chips. My strategy is to play tight/aggressive for the first 4 levels (up to blinds of 200/400 at level 4).

LEVEL 1: I receive 3 quite playable hands (based on position and table play) including A/K suited (that hits the A on the flop and K on the turn) and pocket Js. I end level 1 with about 6200 chips.

LEVEL 2: I try to play A/9s in position (and one or two other marginal hands – including 8/7s). They pretty much all miss and I end the level with about 5400 chips.

LEVEL 3: Tighten up a little this level and end with 6400 in chips – don’t remember any hands though.

LEVEL 4: The big hand in this level was A/Jo for me in MP. I had about 7500 or so in chips. I thought I had a pretty good read on a guy (he was to my right) that was first into the pot with a limp. I sensed that if he had an A (which I didn’t think he did) it was A/8 or something like that. I thought he may have had a small pair, but more likely something like J/T or 9/8. I raised which got everyone else to fold. He riffled his chips thinking through his next action and then moved all-in for about 3500 more. I insta-called and he tabled K/T suited. I don’t think either one of us hit and I took him out. I ended the level with 13700 in chips.

BREAK – There are 26 players left.

LEVEL 5: Another largely uneventful level and I ended with about 13500 or so chips.

LEVEL 6: Disaster strikes very early in level 6 (even though I told myself to tighten up even a little more since I had a good stack and there are only about 22 players left). I got cocky. Dan Akroyd (okay, not actually Dan, but a guy that seemed to Elwood Blues) came to the table to my immediate left. Folding to one MP limper (a guy that liked to play a lot of hands – loose/aggressive player with bad teeth – I’m thinking meth) and then more folds to me in the SB. I decide to limp with K/Q off. Elwood checks his option. The flop is K/7/5 two hearts. I check (I’m looking to check raise here as I figure meth boy can’t beat K/Q though he’ll bet and the BB likely can’t either). I thought Elwood would check but he bets out 4000 into a pot of 3000 (leaving himself about 3500 behind). The limper folds. I look at Elwood and his remaining stack and he says, “Yup, you can see how committed I am to the pot.” I’m thinking he has a flush draw or hit one of the cards and was pushing. I move all-in on the check-raise. Yes, he was committed to the pot and turns over K/7. I don’t improve and he wins with 2 pair to my pair of Ks. I drop to about 3500 chips.

A few hand later we’re down to 20 players and we collapse to two tables. Elwood goes to the same table I do by he’s at the other end with his 20K or so chips. I get whittled down to 1500 chips (with blinds at 500/1000) after folding my SB. I keep folding including K/3 suited in EP figuring I have 2 more hands to choose from and then the BB - “I’ll get something better,” I tell myself. I don’t. The BB comes and it’s J/6 off. There’s a raise to 4000 by Elwood and all folds. I can go heads up. I only have 500 left and I’m thinking these might be live cards. I call. He has A/Q. I hit a J while Elwood doesn’t improve and I double up. A few hands later with Elwood in the BB I get K/Q suited. I push all-in for 3000 (first into the pot). Everyone else folds to Elwood who says, “This isn’t a good hand but we gotta knock some people out.” He calls and turns over 10/6. I hits a Q and chip up to 6500. A couple hands later I move all-in with A/Q, get called and double up again. I end the level with 14500 in chips.

LEVEL 7: The missed hand?? I have pocket 9s OTB. UTG bets 3200 (blinds at 800/1600). Elwood – 2 players later – raises all-in for about 6500 (he lost that entire big stack). He gets a smooth call two players later. I’m faced with a bet, a raise and a call. It’s about 6500 to me with 16000 in the pot and I’m at about 14000 chips. I figure I’m screwed – one or both of the other players (UTG and limper will call) and one of them likely has an overpair to me. I fold. Both the other two players do call and table A/K, A/Q and 5/5. Ultimately, I would’ve lost the main pot (a K hit) but my 9s would’ve taken down the side pot.

I do take down a pot later with pocket 4s after a flop of 2/3/7 and end Level 7 with 18500 in chips. There are about 14 players left.

Listen to the Podcast to hear the conclusion to the tournament.

Running aces tourney info

From: Jeff Matson

Here's the tournament info for Running Aces.

look's like Tuesday's tourney is the competition for CP's Wednesday $230. And what's with all the weekday mornings? don't people work around here?

=======================================================
http://www.runningacesharness.com/gaming/tournament_calendar_072008.pdf
=======================================================
Every other Sunday beginning the 13th of July $300+40 buyin NO LIMIT starts at 12:00PM. 10,000 in chips 30 minute rounds starting at blinds 25-50

Also on Sundays Sit N Go tournaments from 2pm - 10pm $60 and $110 buyins. 10 handed $60 start wtih 1000 T chips, $110 start with 1500 T chips. 15 minute blinds starting at 25-50

Monday: Aces cracked from 10am-6pm. $75 and $50 7 card stud.
Monday: Midnight Madness tourney $100+20 buyin starting July 14th. 20 minute rounds 5,000 starting chips blinds start at 25-50. Starts July 14th.

Tuesday: $200+30 buyin No Limit tourney. Stars at 6:30pm This tourney will run every Tuesday.

Wednesday: $80+20 weekly No limit tourney. Starts at Noon. 3,000 starting chips and 20 minute blinds beginning at 25-50. Starts July 9th.

Wednesday: SnG's from 2pm - 10pm see above for structure.

Thursday: $50+10 weekly No limit tourney. Starts at 10:30AM. 3,000 starting chips and 20 minute blinds beginning at 25-50.

Friday: $68+12 No limit tourney. Heartland Poker Tour Super Satellite. Starts at 10:30AM. 5,000 starting chips 20 minute blinds top 20% get seat to main qualifiers on Nov. 7-15. These Super satellites begin July 11th

Saturday: $150+25 weekly No limit tourney. Starts at 10:30AM. 8,000 starting chips and 20 minute blinds. Starting July 12th.

--
CPL Director Mark Cardenas
and
CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer

Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast

Running Aces Card Room Now Open

Well, it actually opens about 9 pm tonight. But, that's tonight!! Your CPL Co-Director Phil stopped out Friday night to take a look. Here's a mini report:

"Looks good. Free parking. Valet parking for $6. Card Player magazine available."

More to certainly come later.