Matthews Makes Run At TOC With Victory During Week 9!!

In what was absolutely the tightest CPL week in CPL history all 11 CPL Members were still 'hanging around' after 2 hours of play and 7 CPL Members were remaining as we went into Level 11 and the CPL Plaque Rounds!  However, the next 24 minutes during levels 11 and 12 would see the fall of 6 of these 7 members as the only Member left standing was Chris Matthews who, more than any other CPL member, really, really needed a great week.  And he delivered even as Chris took several naps during the CPL session! 

Congrats Chris!

 

Congrats also goes out to Voni "The Rookie" as she came in second place during Week 9 and had a great heads up match against Chris which saw the CPL Plaques going back and forth and back and forth.  But in the end Chris had Big Slick and finished off the Rookie!  Congrats to Chris and to Voni!

 

CPL Honorable Mention goes to Blind Me Down Behr who played 3 hands all night, complained about 120 hands that he folded, and somehow took 3rd place.  Go figure.

 

Karaoke Phil's early big stack for the second week in a row was subject to deterioration throughout the match....hmmmm...a trend maybe?  And what about Yours Truly 'Verbal' who continues to go out on the point bubble and now with 2 CPL weeks remaining faces possible elimination from the very CPL TOC that he created? What Up Wit That!  Can he get down to business during the final weeks of the CPL session?  The CPL Point Record (currently held by 'Karaoke' Phil) is within reach for the second session in a row by 'Matusow' Matson!  Jeff would need to take first place during weeks 10 AND week 11 AND needs to have 12 members present during each week to break the record.

 

The CPL auditors have spent hours analyzing the current point standings and with 2 CPL week remaining have informed us that the following 3 CPL Members have CLINCHED a seat at the coveted CPL Tournament of Champions on Saturday November 15th!  Congrats!

Jeff 'Matusow' Matson

Vince 'The Cursed One' Castellanos

Mike 'Blind Me Down' Behr

Quote of the Week:

 

"I throw joke grenades and see if they go off" --Comeback Kid

 

CPL Leaderboard (adjusted totals):

Jeff M	73.20	Clinched TOC Seat
Vince	66.90	Clinched TOC Seat
Mike Behr	65.50	Clinched TOC Seat
Greg	63.60
Malinda	59.20
Phil	55.00
Bill	51.50
Voni	49.40
Mike Bowman	46.70
Mark	41.50
Shane	30.10
Chris	29.10

 

 

CPL Points Awarded During Week 9:

Chris	26.1
Voni	15.4
Mike Behr	11.3
Malinda	9.0
Bill	7.7
Mark	1.0
Phil	1.0
Jeff M	1.0
Mike Bowman	1.0
Shane	1.0
Greg	1.0
Vince	0.0

 

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

Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast

Jeff 'Matusow' Matson Scores Second Victory During CPL Week 8!

In a stunning, stunning week of poker, graciously hosted by Blind Me Down, big stacks dominated the play....but did not guarantee a win.  Karaoke Phil was the first to experience this phenomenom as he amassed a huge stack early on by taking out Voni early and getting hit by about 3 decks certainly helps!  But this Karaoke big stack would not last as he saw it whittled away as the match went on.  Enter Matusow stage right who also obtained a big stack but would struggle during heads up play to close the deal against Blind Me Down.

 

Then you have the 'River Artists' of the evening (Blind Me Down, Verbal) who came back from death several times to finish in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.  The Suck Out standard to win a week at the CPL held up during Week 8 as Verbal sucked out 3 times (Twice against Matusow), but could not achieve the ever-allusive '4th suck out' to take the CPL top spot. 

 

Congratulations to Matusow for an impressive Week 8 and his second win of the Winter Session to claim the top of the CPL Leaderboard!

 

CPL Honorable Mention goes to Bill 'Comeback Kid' Lanoux who didn't play a hand until about 9:30...then 3 hands later went all in and lost. Wow.

 

CPL Leaderboard (adjusted totals) Below:

Jeff M	72.20
Vince	65.90
Greg	62.60
Mike Behr	54.20
Phil	54.00
Malinda	50.20
Mike Bowman	45.70
Bill	43.80
Mark	40.50
Voni	34.00
Shane	29.10
Chris	3.00

 

 

Points Awarded During Week 8:

Jeff M	24.1
Mike Behr	14.3
Mark	10.4
Phil	8.4
Vince	7.1
Greg	1.0
Bill	1.0
Shane	1.0
Mike Bowman	1.0
Voni	1.0
Malinda	0.0
Chris	0.0

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

Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Omaha H/L

Another week has gone by and that means the answer to last weeks hand
and a brand new hand to think about. To recap please read the
previous hand of the week. We were faced with a min. raise from late
position and we called with our trip 4's in hopes that we could beat
at least the late position player. Sadly we couldn't. The cut off
took down the side pot with 7s 9s and the small blind won the main
pot with Ks 6s. Beat by 2 flushes on the river. Rivered again as my
dad would say.

Now, onto this weeks hand. We are going to mix things up a bit this
time with an Omaha H/L hand. I'm going to try and throw a non hold em
hand in every now and then for those that prefer other games. This
hand comes from a $24+2 $4000 guarantee HORSE tournament on Full
Tilt. Typically this tournament will get between 165-200 entries and
pays out to 24. We have made it into the money out of the 167 that
were signed up and the blinds are 1000/2000. We've been in the money
for about 10 minutes of play now and are down to 18 players. Our hero
is in the small blind and posts 500. We are dealt Ah Ac 4d 10c. Under
the gone (big stack at table 22,128) calls the 1000 as does seat 4
(just below average stack 13,454). It folds around to us and we have
7,220 left. Omaha is not our strongest game here and we have a short
stack, but not the shortest at the table. We decide to just call. Big
blind checks and the hand is underway with a pot of 4000 to start.
The flop comes 8c kh 2c. I'm pretty happy about this flop but
concerned about a better low at the table so I just check hoping to
check call this down and hit my nut flush. The big stack under the
gun bets a 1000 and everyone but the big blind calls. Pot is now
7000. Turn is the 2d. This card likely hurt a low draw for someone as
well as us so we check. The big stack bets 2000, seat 4 raises to
4000 and we are left with our decision. We have 5220 left and would
put us on the short stack for the tournament. We have a low draw with
the A 4 and a nut flush draw with the 2 clubs on the board. Its
possible to hit a high club and scoop the pot, hit a low non club and
take the low or hit an ace for a full house and take the high and
possible scoop as well if no one hits the low. Do we shove our chips
in now or wait for a better hand?

Listen to the podcast for our resident Omaha expert Karaoke Phil
describe what he would do and how I probably screwed this hand up
completely from the very start. Wait, that's Mark that will tell you
I screwed it up from the very start as he would NEVER get him self
into these type of situations. Anyway, until next time, enjoy all the
games poker has to offer. Even if you're bad at them.

-Blind Me Down

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.