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!!