2011 Bar Poker in Review

2011 was a year of change in the bar poker industry in the St Cloud area. The year started with hopes high about the second season of the Central MN Poker Players Association and I believe ending on kind of a down note. The year started with a big open event CMPPA at McCann's with real nice attendance with a lot of new members signing up, but in the end I was very disappointed with the CMPPA membership. The organization did manage to grow slightly but not as much as I had hoped. The 2nd annual Jim Wang Memorial Tournament had a small turn out but still managed to raise $1000 for the American Cancer Society. The team event was also a success again this year and the addition of the heads up event was a good thing. For the second year in a row the same player took down the POY for both the CMPPA and the St Cloud Series of Poker events. That is not an easy task, so congratulations to this year winner Amanda Mock. Attendance to the events was very poor throughout the year with many events not even having 50% turnout. This is a discouraging sign for the organization itself. If numbers don't continue to grow it will be difficult to host as many events as in past years. I guess only time will tell. The biggest changes this year was in the actual bar games themselves. My selling out of my poker business to Dustin and the many changes to the people running games has brought about significant changes to the area games. The biggest change is how poor the play has become at so many of the games. For a variety of reasons many of the better players have stopped or cut back on games played. That along with the increase of weak players added to the games has made many not that much fun to play anymore. I have always looked at bar poker as a learning experience to make me a better player but it is hard to keep the interest if you know that whatever you do someone on the table will call and usually many will call. It creates an unrealistic game that doesn't help you to become a better money player. It also doesn't help that the professional tournaments have changed so much. With television you see only the big hands and aggressive play, which leads bar players to think that is how they should play. What they don't see are the 1000's of other hands that were folded leading up to the TV hand. It was very refreshing being able to see all the hands of the November 9 on TV this year. To the average viewer, I am sure it was very boring, but to me it great to see all the back and forth play that leads to those big hands. The other thing that I believe has hurt bar poker locally is the amount of starting chips given at most tournament. Unfortunately, I am big part of the blame for this. The bar owners want people to stay in their bars as long as possible to increase the chances of them selling more drinks and I get that. Giving a bad player more chips just gives them more opportunities to increase their chances of winning hands and the less likely hood of people folding. It takes away the integrity of the game. maybe we need more games with 2000-3000 in starting chips forcing players to use their chips more wisely, but then again maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.

The other big poker story of the year is the end of the big three online poker sites. The demise of Full Tilt Poker should have been the end of the online poker industry but instead may be just the beginning as Nevada has passed legislation to legalize online betting. I am not sure how the whole thing would work, but it almost surely will involve the casino industry. With the mess that our government is in though it seems unlikely that online gaming would be much of a priority to anyone. I have started playing again recently on Lock Poker, but can honestly say that I haven't missed it that much. I prefer the social interaction of live poker and being able to look someone in the face before making decisions. But, when there is nothing else to do it's something.

I hope that the decline of local bar poker doesn't continue into 2012. If it does more bar will stop running games and it will be more difficult to play. I also hope that my passion for poker will return once again. I am trying to regain it.  I hope to see you all on the tables in 2012!

Have a happy holidays and a safe New Year!

Freeloaders!

I was playing in a local bar game recently and the subject came up about people purchasing things at bars that they play at. Here locally we have several players that come play and rarely purchase anything. I have talked with several bar owners about this before and have told them that they should tell this players that they are not welcome in their businesses if they are not going to be customers. The problem is none of the owners will actually follow through with doing this. If I was the owner why would I want someone in my place that could be taking actual customers out of the game and probably out of their business. It seems a losing proposition for them. One player made the comment " well I try and buy something every time, but sometimes I just don't have any money". The answers simple. If you don't intend on purchasing anything when you go to a bar poker game, then just stay home! Come back again when you can be a customer. I have made this statement may times before, but here it is again.

Bar Poker Definition - A bar promotion that an establishment uses to bring in customers to increase revenues.

It's very simple, if the bar is not making any money then there is no reason to run a promotion.
I always try and spend a minimum of $10 per time that I play bar poker. Most bars spend an average of $100 to 150 on bar poker. Most average locally depending on the night 20-40 players. If each of those players only purchased one soda at $2, that means the bar would take in between $40 and $80 losing up to $70 in one night. I don't know too many owners that like to lose money on promotions that they run. If everyone spend $10 then the bar would take in between $200 and 400 in a night. That's better, but when you consider that the bar has many costs such as payroll, cost of goods sold, insurance and licenses & mortgages. It doesn't seem like such a great promotion. I know that many of you that read this blog are not the problem, in fact most of you are why this promotion still works. I just think it time for more players to step up and start giving these freeloaders a hard time, because I don't know about you but I would like to continue to be able to play bar poker. So next time you see someone that hasn't purchased anything speak up and tell them you don't want them to cost you your chance to play the game we love.

Pocket Hearts!

Sunday night I ran poker for the 1st time in a long while. It was actually kind of fun for a change. Sunday is not exactly a quality game and my table was filled with challenges. I continued my aggressive play and did the massive swings for the 1st two hours but did manage to make final table and then go card dead. In a way I was card dead all night but the aggressive play made up for it. They were many interesting things that happened but one stands out to me. A female player that I don't get a chance to play with much made a comment after a hand was over that just stuck with me. She said that she had called my preflop raise because she had a flush draw! LOL! Really! She had a preflop flush draw. I think we all have a preflop flush draw every hand. Sometimes it takes 3 cards sometimes four. LOL! I guess that explains a lot about her poker game. It is probably one of the most over played hand in bar poker. "pocket hearts" Having two suited cards in your hand can sometimes be a good thing but you have to realize that the odds of you hitting a flush preflop are slim. the odds of you getting suited cards are about 23%. the odds of you hitting a flush draw on flop are 11% and then you only have a 33% chance of making the flush. I am not a math expert but it seems that the odds of suited cards preflop making a flush must be under 5%. So to this women I say you keep playing your suited cards and giving me you chips. I'm all for it!

Women in Bar Poker

This past weekend was the last event of the 2011 CMPPA and with the end of the main event it's Player of theYear and the St Cloud Series of Poker Player of the Year honors were given out. Player of the Year is based on outcome of all events in the 2011 season and SCSOP POY is based on 4 events that include Omaha split and a H.O.R.S.E. tournament which is a mixed game event. Both this year were won by one of our female members Amanda Mock. The CMPPA had 6 female members this year out of a total of 46 members. Amanda is a very talented poker player that plays a lot of online poker and very deserving of winning both honors. This has lead me to a question that I feel needs to be discussed. Does a good female poker player have an advantage over her male counterparts?
I believe that they do. Most females play bar poker because they are following someone else that likes to play poker either a spouse or a significant other. Most play very docile and only call. They rarely raise and will fold if you put pressure on them. They do become better as they play more but usually don't change their play much. They are predictable and you usually know where you are in a hand with them. Now, I  know that this is a generalization, but most players believe this to be true. A good female player that plays poker as it should be played with a combination of good play and timely bluffing has an advantage. This is because the average bar poker player will tend to believe this player when they bluff because of their belief that women don't bluff. A good women player then should never show her bluffs, because this may help change the men players that she plays with to realize that they are being outplayed.  So to Amanda I say great job in 2011, but watch out in 2012 as I have just let the cat out of the bag!

CMPPA Main Event

This last weekend was the Main Event and last event of the year for the CMPPA. Up for grabs was the Player of the Year for the CMPPA, the St Cloud Series of Poker Player of the Year and the Main Event Champion. This is our only two day event with 30,000 in chips and one hour blinds. Turn out was good with 30 players making it. Myself and two others had a side bet on who would be 1st out and who would be last man standing. It was looking good for me early as my 1st man out horse lost 18,000 in chips in the 1st half hour, but then doubled up. It only took a little over an hour and one of the others picks were out and I lost on that bet. It always amazes my that you give a bar player more chips and instead of playing longer in a tournament they just bet more to make bigger pots and lose out just as quick. I decided to play the much more aggressive as I have been playing as of late. It sure made for a roller coaster of a day. I was down to as low as 15,000 and up as much as 60,000 by second break at 6 hours into tournament. What usually happens at our longer events happened again this year. Most of the weaker players get knocked out early and you are left with mostly good and tight players. After second break I looked around my table and decided that aggression was going to work well with the players on table, so I opened my game up quite a bit. I was at the time a mid size stack on table. the strategy worked pretty well except for one of the bigger stacks who was on my left was calling most of my raises and then reraising me either on the flop or on the turn costing me chips and forcing me to fold. It was frustrating for me but if I had his stack I would have played the same way and on top of that he was running hot and getting the cards to back it up. At about 9 hours in I raise preflop with A-K clubs and he calls. Flop is 8-7-2 two clubs. I make a good size continuation bet and he reraises and decide it's time to race him with my two overs and flush draw. I move all in and he calls with pocket 6's. A little risky play by him with two overs and the chance that I had an over pair but he had the chips to call. I didn't improve and was out. Looking back I am very happy with my play for the day. I certainly could have tighten up when I had a decent stack at that table but really felt aggressive was the right call. Maybe not as I was now on the rail. There was still 3 hours of play left. Dustin said that he would run until the end of night for me and I went home with 13 players left in tournament. I was expecting there to be anywhere between 8-12 players left when I showed up to run day two. Boy, was I surprised to find only 5 players left. Wow! I asked Dustin why so few and he said that the bigger stacks keep playing big hands against each other and knocking each other out. It created tow big stacks and 3 much smaller stacks. In a way two of the final 5 and money makers had folded their way to the money. It just goes to show how impatient bar players are in long blind level event. There was over 900,000 chips in play and the tournament made it to heads up at 3000-6000 blind level. Heads up lasted about an hour between Dustin Hoff and Amanda Mock. Amanda had a massive chip lead and Dustin was mostly card dead and playing much too passive for heads up. So, Congratulations to Amanda for winning the main event and both player of the year honors. They were well deserved. Which will lead me to my next blog soon about women in bar poker. See you soon!

WSOP Main Event Coverage

A big thank you to ESPN for finally covering poker the way it should be. Showing us the ins and outs of final table play including the long heads up play. Both players were deserving of the win heads up and can't find much fault in any of their play. Even though I didn't make it quite to the end when I went to sleep I was pretty sure that Pius Heinz was going to win. So many times on TV we only see the big hands or calls and don't realize all that went into making the calls or folds. I can only hope that more events will be covered like this one. I actually didn't even get bored with all the commentary by the hosts. It must have been quite a job being on TV for that much time. I even have a new found respect for Esfandiari and his reading skills, as most of the time his hand analysis was spot on. As you all know I play a lot of free poker and when you get to heads up in free poker it generally only last a few hands not hours. Chip stacks and blind levels don't allow the kind play that we watched last night. I believe that I will be able to improve my heads up play just from getting the opportunity to watch last night.

Balancing Tables

My last blog about free poker cheating brought about another issue that I felt was worth a discussion.
This is from Facebook by a local player Butch.

When moving players to balance tables TDA rules clearly state that the next big blind gets moved to the worst position. It doesn't give the option of moving any other position like one behind the dealer. All directors need to apply this rule.

Here is actual TDA Rule
In flop and mixed games when balancing tables, the player who will be big blind next will be moved to the worst position, including taking a single big blind when available, even if that means the seat will have the big blind twice. Worst position is never the small blind.

There are several local games that move from the exact table position to the exact table position regardless of where on the table it is, so using this way you could move from small blind to small blind.

I personally use the TDA rule as it is what most Casinos do, but I do see the logic behind the way it does make some sense. I think that the TDA rule takes into account the disadvantage of moving to a new table. You lose any reads you have the players on that table and then move to a table that you don't know anything or will have to take time learning about new players. In fact in free poker games it is not unusual for the player moving to be knocked out soon after the move. It can sometimes be an advantage to make the move. If table had lots of big stacks and you move to a table with smaller stacks. One tournament, I got moved from next big blind to along ways away from big blind and then before I was big blind again I got moved again away from the big blind. I was short stacked at the time and by not paying blinds I was able to limp my way into the money. Not sure I would have made it otherwise.

Free Poker Cheaters

I forgot about daylight savings time and falling back an hour, so I am up an hour too early. I figured I might as well write a new poker blog. I have had the opportunity to play a little more poker as of late. More time to practice my decision to become more aggressive in my poker game. It paid off with a 2nd place finish at the Ultimate last Thursday night. That in its self is a whole other blog that may or may not get written. The big talk the last few times that I have played has been about a local player that was caught cheating a few weeks ago. It really was not a big surprise to me as I have always known him as a cheater; in fact I had given him his last warning about looking at cards when he was not entitled too. Here are a few of the past things that have come up at some of my games. I am not accusing anyone of any of the following things; these are just things that have come up!




The latest- Player sits in the middle of the table and pulls pots into middle and stacks them in piles and then palms a few chips and adds them to their stack. Can easily happen in bar poker as we encourage players in the middle to help keep the games organized to keep flow going.



A player that deals for themselves and then looks ahead to the next card after the flop to make a decision on whether to play or fold. Most likely on draw and a little tougher to get away with, but have caught someone doing it.



A player that splashes the pot when losing a big pot, so that no one will know that the actually shorted the pot when counting out what they owe. This actually happens more than you think, so be watchful. A player can accidentantly do this is confused by the chip values.



Another a little less critical is the player sitting in the middle collecting cards and looking as players muck their hands. They are gaining information that is not available to other players.



Now on to tournament directors. They have the most opportunities and I once again I am not accusing anyone but have heard of this happening.



Adding chips to their stacks during chip up process at breaks. A good tournament director should never let another player help them with this process.



Setting up table with certain players at the beginning of a tournament. I will say that I have put a player occasionally at my table but more for a social aspect rather than to gain an edge in a poker game.



Now what to do with a player that has been caught. In most cases the player will be embarrassed enough not to come back, but not always the case. I believe that the player should be banned from free poker games forever. I think once a cheater always a cheater in games such as poker. How can you ever trust this person again? Now I know that they are exceptions to any rule, but think it should be an individual’s right to decide to let the player continue to play. One such player has recently started playing again locally after taking almost a year off. I find it very difficult to even talk to him. I see him and think what a cheater. I had very little respect for him before incident and have none for him now, so please don't act like I am still your buddy. I never was!



So, bar player, always keep an eye about what’s going on around you at the tables and make sure you let someone know right away if you think someone is cheating

Milacs Casino Trip

Wife and I went to Milacs last night to have a night away and play a little poker. Tournament starts at 6:15. I arrived at 5pm and went and signed up and then hit the slots for a while. Actually had good luck. Move over to poker room at 6:10 and there are not many people around. Soon it's time to start and they only have 7 players. Great! Glad I paid early to beat the rush. Kind of wishing I hadn't signed up so I could back out. Anyway we get started with 8 players and soon the table is a full 10. Play is very loose early with very little preflop raising or much of any folding. Guy to my left is running hot to start tournament and before the first blind level is over he has taken two players out and of course they both rebuy. Which makes no sense in a tournament that is only going to pay 2 or 3 places. A few hands later I raise with AK only to get almost the whole table to call. Flop is all small cards and checked to my. I make a pot sized bet and everyone folds but guy to my left. Turn pairs the board. He checks I check. Flop misses me again (thank God). He bets, I fold he turns over quads. Over the next few blind levels I manage to flop top pair twice with good kickers and bet all the way to the river only to beat by a guy that was chasing a flush draw and catches a straight and another that chases a flush draw to hit an ace on the river to beat my kings. Needless to say it was a fast night for me. Reraised the guy to my left all in with A-10 suited for him to call with pocket 10's and the flop the case 10 to take me out. Then went and played blackjack and slots waiting for a cash game to start. Did pretty well was up about $50 when the announced that the 3-6 game was starting. Now I really don't like playing 3-6 at Milacs but decided to play anyway. It went well early as I was able to several good size pots and was up about $100. Then it begins. I get KK in early position and raise. Everyone but one calls. I bet it hard all the way to river only to lose to 6-2 off that made two pair on the river. Then later I have A-Q suited. I limp in as I know that big blind will raise as he has done every other time. He does. I reraise to make it $9. No one folds. Flop is Q-8-3. I bet. BB raises. I reraise. Now 4 players in the pot. Turn is a A. No flush draws. I check. BB bets I reraise. 3 players now. River is a J. Player that has just called all the way bets out. I call. BB folds. Guy turns over 9-10 off. He put in $36 on a gutshot draw and hits it on the river to win my big pot. It brings me back to about even. I get up and cash out and have learned my lesson. Never again will I play the 3-6 game at Milacs. Might just as well all put in $20 a hand and play showdown. It plays out the same. The thing that irks me is that these guys actually think they are poker players. LOL! So overall I am happy with the trip and had a good time but I might just as well stay home and play free poker as it plays out almost exactly the same.

Fun Aggression

I haven't had much time for poker this summer as I spent most of my time fishing at the lake, but that season is almost to an end so I hope to play a little over the next few months. I did get a chance to play last night and a few weeks ago. I have been experimenting with a new poker style for me. Hyper aggressive during the early stages when the blinds are low and cost benefit is also low. The last two tournaments I have played almost every hand preflop in hopes that the chips I gain will outlast the chips lost by aggressive play. I will say one thing it is a fun way to play and it is easy to put others on tilt when they are not expecting this type of play from you. I actually think the style can work. I just need to tweak it a bit and not play every hand. I like the fact that the other players can not put you on a hand and that you will get a call when you have the best hand. The down side is that players will chase you down farther for more of their chip stacks. Now last night I didn't make it to the first break, but I was happy with my play and actually lost two big pots by getting rivered. The first one I flopped two pair into a guy that had raised preflop. I reraised his continuation bet after the flop but he still called me all the way down with a flush draw but he actually went runner runner for a straight to beat me. The second hand I limped in under the gun blind only to have KK. No one raised and flop came out all low cards. I bet 3 times the pot size to try and get players out, but still got one caller. Turn was a queen so I made another big bet that the player called. River was an ace and of course he was on a nut flush draw the whole way and beat me with a pair of aces. The only good thing was that I never moved all in or I would have been out. I have been following the WSOP lately and it seems that the aggressive players are doing better. Who knows maybe it will work for me!

Full Tilt Poker in the News

There has been several articles as of late about Full Tilt Poker. The first is a Poker News article calling Full Tilt a ponzi scheme. Here is a link. http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/09/u-s-attorney-claims-full-till-poker-a-ponzi-scheme-lederer-f-11058.htm This article makes the whole thing look very fishy. They owed 390 million in payouts to players but only had 60 million in the bank. Did they see this coming and take as much money out as possible or was it just a poorly run company with owners that were used to big paydays. The 3 owners that were added to this suit are very well known in the poker world and well respected. I hope that they will do the right thing and try and make amends. My guess is for now they are stuck in silence because of pending trials or lawsuits. Did they actually know what was going on at Full Tilt? We may never even know. As someone who has been involved in a messy lawsuit, the only real winners are the lawyers that will make a lot trying to sort it out. The big loser continues to be the people that put there faith in playing the game that they love along with some of their hard earned money. I personally am out about $25. Small change in the whole scheme of 390 million and am sure that I got more then $25 of entertainment value from their site. Here is another link to a blog by someone that I respect talking about the above article. I think he has a real perspective on the whole mess. http://pablosplace.com/2011/09/21/the-full-ponzi-poker-scheme/

Next I would like to give my opinions on the state of the Epic Poker League. They have recently announced a deal to be on CBS, which in this current online poker situation is quite a feat. But, it seems all they are doing is getting negative publicity by almost weekly banning players from playing their events. Every professional poker player has some sort of skeleton in their closet. If you ban them all who will be left for us to watch. I have no interest in supporting their endeavor or plan on watching until they get their act together and figure what they are going to stand for. Here is their article on current suspensions http://www.epicpoker.com/news/blog-pages/2011/09/standards-and-conduct-lederer-ferguson.aspx. I thought in America you were innocent until proven guilty. I guess not!

Road to Milacs Finals

Yesterday was the road to milacs finals. I dealt most of the way and it was a very sick tournament. My table was relativly tight except when they did get into a hand it seemed to be a big one. Early on there was a raise by one player, a reraise by another and then an all in by another. the first bettor jumped out ocf his chair to the the all in, so I was pretty sure he had queens. He finally folded after much debate. Then it got to the reraiser, who is a player that could have reraised with about anything. About this time the all in guy starts in on the guy to fold because he is behind trying to say I got aces. After a long debate he folds and shows queens. The all in guy turns over KK, so he had the best hand by far and had both QQ's almost drawing dead and he is talking them out of calling him. If that's me I want a call from both and a chance to triple up. He makes a lame excuse about now wanting to see a flop with Kings. Wow! Really dude you have the second best hand and you don't want to get as many chips as possible. Big surprise that you didn't finish in a top spot. A little later we are on the payout bubble and my freind Dustin moves all in preflop, which on the bubble is strange move unless you have a big hand and just want to take down blinds. He ends up getting a call by Aces and then rivers a queen to win a big hand. The very next hand someone else moves all in with a big bet and Dustin calls for all his chips and turns over aces. The other guy has kings and rivers a king to take Dustin out on the bubble. It was to of the sickest rivers in row I have ever seen. This was a major hand as the guy that won the hand ended up winning the tournament. It was a fun day, except I didn't get to spend the day at the lake!

Weekend in Byron!

Went to Rochester this weekend to help Kara and Kenny move into their new house. It is a very nice place in Byron about 8 miles east of Rochester. It has all the important stuff. Local schools. grocery store, Dairy Queen and of course a bowling center. Saturday was spent painting and moving. I painted the downstairs bathroom and ceiling and no I am not a professional painter. Made several trips from their old apartment and was able to get most of the big stuff moved thanks to Kyle's help. It went well except for the fact they are on the third floor and there is no elevator. Let's just say I got plenty of exercise. That night was the local street dance in  the parking lot of the bowling center featuring Hair Ball. We hung out at the house and had a few cocktails, watched the Vikings game, before walking over. It was only a couple blocks behind their house the only problem was there was no direct path, so being the smart and already drinking people we decided we could cut across. Needless to say, it was quite a trip, over the river and through the woods comes to mind, walking through fields and heavy woods and across railroad tracks, but we did make it. It was a fun time listening to all the songs of my younger days and drinking $4 double Barcardi's. It was a big turn out and well put on by the center. Hats off to them and we will be back again next year! The one thing about going to Kara's house is that we get 4 dogs together and it makes for very little sleep. Between barking and dogs jumping on me in the night Deb and I didn't get much sleep. It was a long trip home on Sunday as Deb and I were both too tried to drive but we did make. Was in bed by 8pm and got a good nights sleep. Damn I'm getting old! Congrats to Kara and Kenny on their new adventure. Hope to be able to visit again soon.

Pain in the ass!

So, it's been quite the last few days. I worked a long shift on Saturday only to find out that someone had hacked into my e-mail and facebook accounts and changed passwords and chatted with people as me trying to personal info from them. They also managed to get into my sisters account. I spent some time on Sunday fixing my account only to find them changed again on Saturday night. It really sucks because I like my e-mail address but if this continues I am going to have to shut down both accounts!
Then today I get a call that the Ultimate Sports that was to host the Road to Milacs qualifying tournament on Saturday is canceling due to they want to book fantasy football drafts. It really pisses me off that this is the second time he has done this and believe me it will be the last! Called McCann's to have it there and they have a car show that day so no go. It looks as if we will have it at the Clearwater Legion, but I hate to give them business as they just canceled the Sunday game even when they have been getting 30-40 players a week. What other promo can they run and get that many weekly regular customers. Most places would jump at that kind of attendance!

How do you really feel!

My wife recently read my blog about Granite Bowl closing and told me that I kind of sugar coated it and should really say what I really think, so here goes. The Granite Bowl was build back in 1939 and was run by me for 10 years. Yes, I did have 3 other partners but none of them were day to day operation managers. Before me was the Higgins family. They ran it for over 40 years. It was run as a family owned business for most of those 50 years. Then it is sold to the current owner, that believed that I had no idea what I was doing. Even though sales went from 250,000 a year to well over a million during my tenure. When I purchased GB it's sales were 90% from league and tournament bowling. When sold it was 40% league and 60% open bowling. I worked very hard to get the college and high school age customers to come to the center. These are the people that had discretionary income to spend and would spend money on food and beverage as well as bowling. The 1st thing that current owner did was to drive away most of the 60% of open play which in turn drove down food and beverage sales. Now if you read any industry magazine open play is the future of the industry and most proprietors are working to bring this customer in and he was driving them away. So, it's no surprise to me to find him in his current situation. Now if you read the article that was posted in the local paper http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110818/BUSINESS/108170047/Owners-merge-bowling-centers-Southway-St-Cloud-s-lone-center you would think that his current move was for the good of the bowlers when in reality it was maybe his only way to not have to file bankruptcy. Now the real question is why would my brother actually lease his business to a man that couldn't make GB work. Even though South is a nicer center its location is not near as good as GB. The old adage is Location, Location, Location. GB is a much easier center to get people to come because of this. The cold hard fact is my brother could care less about the bowlers of St Cloud attested by the fact that since I have left both centers they have been in a tail spin and South has been allowed to fall into a dirty mess and  has been losing money every year. They are just waiting for debt to be paid off enough to sell to anyone and get the hell out. So, by leasing to the GB owner they can get money to payoff what they owe and the bonus is if it losses money it would come from someone other them. The loser of this is the bowlers of St Cloud. They are losing the best location for a bowling center and local landmark. They have an owner that is headed for bankruptcy and another that could care less about them. The winner is Great River Bowl which has continued to do things the right way with a combination of bowling, food and beverage. The only problem is if you live anywhere south of division it is a long way to Sartell to bowl and you pass many other entertainment options to get there. What really could happen is the closing of GB is opening the chances of Brunswick coming into town and create a bowling entertainment center. They have done all the work and have a model already drawn up for here. I would recommend the old Sam's Club or Walmart buildings. Great location with lots of parking. For the morons at South quit screwing with the customers and get out if you don't care!

Post 200

Well, I have now reached another milestone post! Number 200. What to blog about? I think it will be another poker post. Last weekend was the 1st ever CMPPA Heads Up Event. Even though I had to work I was able to play a couple of matches. It was interesting watching heads up matches. Most bar players have very little experience in heads up play and it really showed. Many matches were over in a hand or two. The blind structure allowed you play good poker for 1/2 hour and then it turned into an all in fest. There was also matches that went the distance as tight players waited for big hands. Note to all you tight players, any two cards can be good in heads up. It's not about the cards It's about out playing the other player. Yes, you do still have to get lucky and win your coin flips but in general the more aggressive will win heads up. My hand of the day was in my final match against a good player. I had A-J hearts and was not the dealer. Player limped and I raised. He called. Flop is J-10-3 two hearts. I check he moves all in I call. He turns over QQ. Even though he has a pair bigger then me I am still a 51-49 favorite. The turn is an ace to give me two pair and a 82-8 lead. Turn is the only queen he can hit to take me out. LOL! We should have been all in preflop but he chose to slow play his QQ and it almost cost him. Better luck next time to me.

Thanks to all that keep on reading my Blog! I am going to try and write more often.

The end of another era

It has became public beginning next week the Granite Bowl will be closing it's doors. It's maybe the end of an over 60 year era. I am very proud to have been part of it's existence for over 10 years. I believe that I brought a little life to the place by making it a fun family bowling center over my run there. I do believe that at some point it will be reopened by someone with the right passion for the industry. Bowling is an ever changing business and unfortunately the current owner didn't have the insight to move the center in the correct direction. Too many proprietors today are relying on an old school approach to their businesses and not realizing that the casual customer is the future of their industry. The days of 32 week league bowling season are coming to an end along with bowlers bowling more then one league a week. To get the occasional bowler to come into a center it requires the following:
A clean center including the bathrooms and kitchen area.
Fresh and modern equipment.
Excellent staff that enjoy their jobs.
Well priced bowling, food and beverage prices. It doesn't mean that you have to give it away you just need the customers to feel that they are getting value from their experience 
Thank them for coming. It's a small thing but very important!
Too many owners believe it's a build it and they will come industry, when it is all about customer service. The public has many options for it's recreation dollars you have to make them want to come back!
Did I do everything right during my tenure at the Granite Bowl. Certainly not, but I believe that my family and I gave it our best efforts. A few good things did come from my time at GB. I met many great individuals and developed many new friendships. The CMJTT and SMJTT junior bowling tournaments came into existence and bar poker became a permanent fixture in MN. High School bowling became a bigger program and became a letter sport at Tech high school.
Many people have asked my " why don't you buy the Granite Bowl again" and the answer is it will take a great effort to rebuild the center again and I have already did it once. Now it's someone different turn.
So I say goodbye to an old friend or hopefully until we meet again!

Summer

It has been a great summer so far. I have spent a lot of time at the lake. Fish have been biting most of the summer and the weather has been good most of the time. My daughter got engaged and bought a new house in the town of Byron MN. Went to the Night Ranger, Foreigner, Journey concert with Kara, Kyle, Kenny, Kris and Debbie. A good time was had by all and included a tumble down a few rows and it wasn't even the old couple! LOL! Work has been good and keeping Debbie and I busy but at least we get time at the lake. Debbie is switching from every other weekend to every third. Should be better for her not sure yet how it will all play out for us being off together but we will see. Got a couple of vacations planned including a December Kauai trip for our 50th birthdays with Kara and Kenny and a first for me a spring break cruise to the Mexican Riviera with Kyle and Kris in March. My new chainsaw has gotten quite a workout this summer with all the rain at our lake place trees have been falling a lot on our bluff including the last one that landed on the stairs. Luckily it only took out one 2x4 and it can wait until the mosquito's are gone before I fix it. Also at our house our back yard fence was damaged during the big storm that hit our neighborhood that knocked down 100's of trees. Luckily most of ours survived and I only had to clean up what fell from our neighbors trees. It did take 5 loads to clear it all out, but got some great firewood for fires for next summer. Still don't play much poker and hardly miss it yet. Did go to casino and play one tournament but missed the final table by one spot, but that's good for the run of cards that I had that night. Just started working on the schedule for the 10th season of my Jr bowling tournaments and it looks to be another great season for the youth bowlers of this area with the help of Kara, Royal and Rob. Thanks guys. That's about it for now. I will try and not take a whole month before I blog again.

Boat Week

It has been quite a week. I had 5 days off last weekend starting on Friday, so of course we went to the lake. I needed to get gas for the boats and drove to the Miltona Outpost to get some. On the way back I usually take a back road and what do I see a sign for an auction that is going on the next day. I get back to my place and check it out on my phone only to find out this is a 2 day auction as they have so much stuff. The one thing that we were interested in was a canoe that was was red with a Coke logo on it. We decided to go over and check it out the next day. It ended up being a lot of junk but we did stay for a little while to see how it was going. We really liked the look of the canoe and it was a name brand, so we decided to come back the next day. It started at 10 am but the canoe didn't come up until 2pm. It was a long wait. It ended up selling for $450 which was more then we were willing to spend as we can buy a new one for the same price. Next to auction was a boat and trailer. Bidding started very slow and I looked at my wife and said it would be a good boat for Kyle and up in the air goes her hand. We did end up getting the boat and trailer and it turned out to be nicer then what we expected. It is a 1950's Alumnacraft 14 fter. It is really cool. We decided to keep it for our self to play at the lake. Had a nice time at the lake with good weather and fun fishing and auctioning. Wednesday comes and I am at work and get a call from my wife and she has found another boat that Kara's friend is selling and it is the same boat as the one we bought with trailer and a 20hp motor. Just what I need another boat! The price is right so we decided to take it to a local lake and try out motor and you know it the motor doesn't start. In some ways I am happy it didn't start so now we didn't have to buy it, but it still leaves us with a boat with no motor. Anybody got one for sale. Give me a call.

The end of an era or a new beginning! You decide!

After much deliberation I have decided to sell all my poker equipment to my friend Dustin Hoff. It was a tough decision as poker has played a big part in my life since the night my family back in 2003 was watching the WPT on TV spawning the beginning of free poker in it's current state in MN. I have made many great and lasting friendships that I know will continue well into the future. So what do this mean. I think a new beginning for my poker games with Dustin's youth and enthusiasm. I think the sky's the limit for him. This doesn't mean that you will not see me anymore or have blogs to read. I will still be active in the CMPPA, which I consider my new baby at this time. The growth of it is only just beginning and only the future will tell how big it can get. I will still be running tournaments occasionally for Dustin and consulting with him on his new venture. So, please wish him luck and be patience just as you did with my as I was learning about the free poker world.

Playing Again

This week I was able to play bar poker a few times. It was fun once again. That's a start I guess. Tuesday I got to my first table to see 5 women players out of 9 of us. I was thinking "welcome back Dave" LOL! I played a tight aggressive style and managed to slowly accumulate chips. By the time blinds got bigger I was then able to increase my aggressiveness to take down many pots. My cards for the night were less then stellar but I was able to manage a final table and 5th place finish. Last night I went to McCann's for their game and remembered why I had gotten burnt out on bar poker. So much bad poker all on the same table. An early hand I had 2-4 off suit and a very weak player that only raises with small suited cards made a big raise. I called knowing that I could outplay him. Everyone else folded. Flop gave me a pair of twos. He bets I call. Turn gave me a gut shot with the pair. He bets again and I quickly call. I am thinking he may have a small pair bigger then mine. I decide to make a big bet on the river to get him off his pair. River is a blank. He checks and I decide he will call if I bet so I check and say I got a pair of twos and he mucks his cards. I turn over my 2-4 off and pull in the pot. I very tight playing women says how can you call a raise with 2-4 and I remind her that poker is not about the cards and I was just playing the player and was correct on my judgement. Then things turned for the worst. They was a newer player that I had never played with before and he was playing very tight. A good player raises to 3 times the big blind. I call with pocket 6's. New player reraises. Good player moves all in. I fold and other player calls off all his chips and turns over QQ. Good player has AA. Flop is A-10-3. Turn is a king and of course river is a jack for runner runner straight and a huge pot for the new player. He then all of the sudden gets very aggressive and starts raising almost every pot. A little later I am on button and he is under the gun. Blinds are 200-400. He doubles the blind to 800. There are 4 callers when it gets to me. I have 2-4 off and cam tell that at least the big blind is going to call and probably the small. It is going to be a big pot, so I decide to call and hope for miracle flop. Flop is 2-4-6. Bingo! Guy makes a big bet. Everyone folds to me and I push all in for a lot over to get heads up. Then BB pushes all in too. That can't be good. Raiser call and turns over QQ. Other guy has 3-5 with a flush draw. Turn gives him a straight flush and I am drawing dead and out. Now you could say that I made a bad play with 2-4 off but in that position I would play it the same every time. I did have a few chips left and later moved all in preflop with 7-8 hearts with lots of players in and turned a straight only to have the same guy catch a full house on the river when board pairs. What should I expect from a bar poker game. All the guy has to do is raise 3-4 times the big blind from under the gun with his queens and big blind and I would have folded our junk hands. People just don't get it. Big hands can't be played too slow because they don't always win and the more players in the hand the more likelihood of your big hand not holding up. It's all about odds. Even though you may win a huge pot by slow playing it's not worth the risk! I may need another break again.

Heartland Poker Tour Sale

Yesterday the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) was purchased by Federated Sports & Gambling (FS&G). They are the people that are starting the professional poker league. Here is a link to article.  http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/06/federated-sports-gaming-acquires-heartland-poker-tour-10563.htm
I wish the guys at the Heartland the best of luck in this new endeavor. Even though I don't play any of their events anymore, I will always have a connection to their organization. Years ago when Full Tilt Magazine (FTM) was formed it coincided with the beginning of the HPT. Two of my partners actually appeared on the pilot taping of the HPT when they were deciding on their concept. I also worked on several of the final table tapings, so, the two seemed a perfect fit. A new poker tour and a new magazine all looking for Midwest exposure. I believe that Full Tilt Magazine had a lot to do with the early success of the HPT. The amount of basically free advertising that was given to the HPT was considerable. We shared in each others growth. Unfortunately FTM was unable to survive the change in gambling laws when the government made it harder to get money to gambling sites and most of our advertisers left the US and didn't pay any of their money due to us. If only we had had the finances to survive who knows where it would have taken us today. Anyway on to why I am writing this blog.

I think it is time for the HPT to make a name change. As I was reading above article and looking at the upcoming schedule it becomes quite clear that they are hardly ever actually playing in the heartland anymore. I understand why they have done what they are doing but also believe that they have abandoned their root players. The HPT started mostly in Minnesota casinos and was played by the many great players that this state has to offer. They gave up their time and money to try and win a spot on the TV final table. They followed the Tour religiously. As the Tour grew and moved outside of MN it became clear to the HPT people that they could get bigger tournament fields by leaving the Casinos of MN. The last two years the HPT made an agreement with a small Casino in Mahnomen MN to be the only MN to host an event. This Casino is in the middle of no where and hours away from any metropolitan area. Leading to small turnouts and what I think is probably the end of the HPT in MN. As far as I know there are no scheduled events for MN in the future. As I stated earlier I am very happy for Greg & Todd as they have worked hard to get where they are at today, but they got there on the backs of hard working Minnesotans and now have totally abandoned us. What came out of this was the MN State Poker Tour. A new MN only event tour, but it doesn't have the allure of the HPT and the chance to be on TV. I have a few ideas for them. How about
American Poker Tour
Average Joe Poker Tour
Peoples Poker Tour
I am sure that the people from FS&G will come up with something.
It is a bit hypocritical to call your self the Heartland without actually playing here much anymore.
Here is their upcoming schedule if you feel like traveling.

Dates                                                    Casino                                                    Location
August 8-18, 2011                           Turning Stone                                     Verona, New York
September 16-25, 2011                    Downstream                                       Quapa, Oklahoma
September 23-October 2, 2011        Golden Gates                                      Blackhawk, Colorado
September 30-October 9, 2011       Daytona Beach Kennel Club               Daytona Beach, Florida
October 30-November 6, 2011                                                                    Meskwaki Iowa
November 15-20, 2011                 Soaring Eagle—Championship Open    Mt Pleasant, Michigan
November 28-December 4, 2011 TBA TBA

Fate of CMPPA

As most of you can guess, I am on a break from playing and running poker games. I have been spending time working and going to my lake place and fishing. That doesn't mean that poker has been totally forgotten. The CMPPA was formed last year by myself and a group of other local bar poker enthusiasts and has been semi successful so far. Membership has grown each year. From this has come the CMPPA Bar League. Something I have designed to give my bar players a chance to win bigger money by having a finals at a local Casino. We ran a 24 week season and then concluded a finals in March giving away $2800. We are currently in the second season and it is proceeding well with bar turn outs at all time highs. The problem is that I allowed one other bar to participate and charged them $600 for the 24 weeks. To this date they haven't paid and as of know the CMPPA is covering the money. It is an easy decision on what to do after this 24 weeks is up. I will continue using only my bars with the 3rd promotion and payout less money. Now what to do with other place. They have said that they will pay and I believe that at some point they will, but I hate to see this be the downfall of the CMPPA as an organization. They can't afford to loss the first $600 let alone another for this season that the bar committed to. It is a dilemma. The CMPPA could sue the bar and most likely would get all the money due. We even have a board member that is a lawyer and he constructed a letter to the bar to try and get the money, but all I think it did was piss the guy off. I am not real big on controversy so hopefully he will just pay up and the CMPPA can move or else this maybe the beginning of the end of the CMPPA. Then the next question is what if I don't go back to running or playing poker. How much do I want to be involved in an organization that I am not an active part of. Currently I have a lot of input into what happens in the group could I handle if all the decisions are made by others. There is a lot of uncertainty coming up. Well, maybe It will give me something to blog about!

Fishing Opener

Had a nice time this weekend for fishing opener. As most of you know it rained most of the day on Saturday and I am more of a fair weather fisherman so I did some of the work getting boats ready and took my wife to a few garage sales in the Alex area. Sunday was a beautiful day. I started out early and drove across the lake to a place where the crappies and sunfish usually come in first. Water temp was still low at 50 degrees, so it's a little early for crappies. I did manage to catch a few small sunfish, but at least the sun was shining! Later in the day, Debbie and I took out our new pontoon for it's first fishing trip. It doesn't go very fast, but I think we are going to like it alot. Caught a few more small sunfish and mostly hung out enjoying the sunshine. Tried a little walleye fishing but had no luck. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off and it's supposed to be nice again so maybe next trip. Maybe next time I will remember the camera for pictures.

A day to remember! May Day

May 1st, May Day used to be a day of taking baskets of candy to friends and neighbors homes. As a youngster it was a tradition that I remember well that most kids of today will never know about and now the day will have a new meaning to future generations. I don't usually like to talk of political things here, but with the news of Osama Bin Laden's death I think it ventures a discussion. After almost 10 years of grief the man behind 911 is finally brought to justice and even though it will make many feel better what does it really mean to our country. We still today on May 2nd have high unemployment rates and people still having their homes foreclosed on. Health care is still a mess and most of us still don't know when or how we will be able to retire. The future is still very much up in the air in this country and who knows if any president or congress will be able to fix it. They all seem to be more worried about keeping their jobs by blaming the others then actually fixing our country. I find it ironic that this country was founded by people that left other countries over high taxation only to start a country that now has just what they left for. Now, I am not down playing the US as there is still no where else I would rather live. All you need to do is go a third world country and you will realize how good we really have it here. The future is still very unsure for all of us. Will this death be the beginning of the end of terrorism or just bring on new attacks to our country. I guess only time will tell, for now, all you can say is great job by the military and CIA for bringing down the figure head of terrorism. Hopefully, someday, May Day will get it's meaning back as a day to give thanks for spring not as the day Bin Laden was killed.

Spring is Here!

For me it's official! Spring and summer season has begun. On Monday I went to my lake place and put the dock in. It's a fun and unenjoyable time of the year. The first few trips to the lake are all about work and getting the place ready for the summer. Putting dock and lifts in, cutting fire wood and unwinterizing the RV are always the first on the list. Next trip will be to put boats in and clean up the yard. Next will be all the reeds the get cut off by the ice out that float up to shore will have to be removed. If I am lucky I may even get to go fishing. Now this may sound like whining, but it is what is necessary to do before all that come to visit can come and enjoy our lake place with us. It will be an exciting summer. It looks as we will get a little more time this year as I am hoping to work 4 day weeks all summer which would be a great match to my wife's schedule. So I hope to see many of you at the lake this summer for fishing, beer around the campfire and just a plain old good time!

Poker Boredom

Lately, I have had a hard time caring about playing bar poker. Yesterday was a great example. Found out last minute that I didn't have to work and thought great I will go play the CMPPA event that I thought I would miss. Tournament started and played very tight to start and accumulated almost 5000 in chips and then it began. I started playing or raising almost every hand because I really didn't want to be there anymore. I made a whole lot of bad calls, but it did take a long time to lose all my chips. This is how it has been going. Start like I want to play but soon lose interest. I don't know if it is from my new position at work or just a boredom of dealing with the same predictable people all the time and their poker play. Maybe it's a little both. I think I am going to take some time off and see what happens. Maybe the will to play will return. I just may have to find something else to blog about!

My Take On Black Friday!

As many of you know, I was a former part owner of Full Tilt Magazine. We were forced out of business when Congress passed the banking laws that drove many of the online poker sites such as Party Poker out of the US market. These sites left companies such as ours with accounts receivable that were never paid forcing us to make hard decisions. Now after leaving the industry alone for several years it is once again focusing on online gambling. I guess that I don't really blame them. We have three main online sites that have been making huge amounts of money off of Americans with out giving the government it's share. Can you imagine what would happen if I started a business and didn't pay my taxes. I would be out of business or in jail, so you can't tell me these sites didn't think or know that this was going to happen at some point and time. I would not feel too sorry for them as they may not currently be making any money off of US customers. They still have overseas players and all the money that each players had in the site at the time they were shut down probably millions maybe even billions. I realize that this is about the government getting it share not about me gambling online. What the government fails to realize is the financial impact that this shut down will cause. Every online player that was making a living playing poker is now without a job and even though I disagree that they should be able to make a living without paying taxes as I do. They now don't have an income to spend into the economy paying bills, buying food or going out to eat. I believe that the number of online players that were making a living playing poker is a large number thus the impact to local economies will be felt such as a town losing one of their factories. The other aspect the government didn't think about was how much money these online companies were spending on advertsing, promotions and marketing. That money in turn was being taxed through the companies that were doing business with. Now how about the WSOP effect. If the WSOP losses even 2000 entries that may have come from online sites and I think the number is much higher. This is people going to Las Vegas, staying in hotels, eating at restaurants and cash game players that wouldn't be tipping their dealers. The loss to Vegas could be in the millions. Now there are some businesses that will gain. All these out of work gamblers will be forced to get a job or to start going to casinos or cardrooms and unless they win huge amounts that money will be tax free just as it was online. Unfortunately for causal online players such as myself, I think we are for a long draught of online play unless you want to play for free. My suggestion is come out and join me at a local bar game and drink down a tall one or two  and start having fun playing poker again!

Jim Wang Charity Event

Last weekend was the 2nd annual Jim Wang Memorial Charity event sponsored by the CMPPA. It was a fun day. We managed to raise $1010 for the American Cancer Society. Numbers were down a bit from last year with only 63 players. McCann's once again donated a lunch that was very good and we sold it for $6. We also had a silent auction with people bringing in items. The poker tournament itself was rather secondary on this day, but I think people had a good time. Started with 10,000 in chips with 20 minute blinds. My poker day was rather short as I rivered a flush into a flopped full house to lose a lot of my chip stack. I did mange one double up and then finally pushed in with JJ only to find the big blind with KK. There were several interesting hands, but the one that stands out the most was midway through a table ended up with KK, QQ & JJ all in preflop. The QQ ended up catching a queen to take a big pot. Thanks to all that helped to make this event possible. McCann's Brewpub for thier continued sponsorship of bar poker & the CMPPA. The American Cancer Society for coming on board this year. Ann Kennedy for all her help contacting and promoting the event and all the CMPPA members that help make the event a success!

As many of you already know, I have been given a promotion at work that will be cutting into my playing and running of bar poker games. I will do my best to keep updating my blog as much as possible but it may contain a little less poker then in the past. I hope you continue to check it out as I have had a great time bringing you the stories of my life.

Last Night of Bowling

I got a call earlier this to remind me that it was the last night of league bowling and that it was my wife's and my week to bowl. We rotated every other week on Sunday nights in a mixed league. We missed the last two times of bowling and really thought we were done for the year. Our team won the first half of the season and was in second going into last night. We needed to win all 3 games in order to win both seasons otherwise we would have bowl 3 more games right after our league night ended. I started a little slow leaving and missing a 4 pin early but managed to strike out from the 5th frame to shot a 246 game. The second game I ended up with a 258 game but we lost the game so a rolloff was going to happen after next game. The other couple that bowled the opposite week was also there and we decided to rotate during the roll off and as we discussed it the team that we were to bowl was having a fit about us rotating. I really could care less about bowling the extra 3 games or winning the title that is worth no money at all. Now the 3rd game begins and I have a 504 total and I announce to my teammates that I am going for a 300 and 800 series. I start striking and am very confident. I get the 1st 9 strikes. It is now the 10th frame and I need two strikes for 800 and three for 300. I really want the 800 even more then 300. I get the first strike and make a great shot on the 11th and leave a solid 9 pin. Wow talk about bad luck. No 800, no 300. It would have been a great way to end the bowling season and I am not sure when if ever I will bowl a league again. At least I can leave knowing that the old guy still has it! LOL!

Another Tuesday Night

Once again the poker play at the Clearwater Legion continues to amaze me. Several of the better players have started coming regularly  and it has improved the whole game. More quality players mean more players to take out the weaker ones. Several hands stand out as the really moments of the night. The first was a good player in the big blind with 2-3 off. It is limped to him and he checks. The flop is 2-3-?. BB makes a big bet to try and take the hand down, but gets one caller. Turn is a 3. He moves all in for the rest of his chips and other guy calls and turns over QQ. No preflop raise and just calls all the way to be drawing to a two outer. You already know that the river was a queen otherwise why would I be blogging about it. The next hand happened late in the tournament. I was the small blind and don't even remember what I had. Several players limp in, so I call for half price. BB checks. Flop is K-K-J. BB makes a huge bet. It is very uncharacteristic of him, so I assume he has a king. Everyone folds to him and he shows pocket aces. So in both cases they have played their hands as badly as possible and end up winning the hand to reinforce that in their heads they have played the hands correct. The funny thing is that if they play their hands that way and lose then they are mad because you sucked out on them. Slow play means slow and painful death so why risk it.When you get that big hand which you don't often, why risk it even more by decreasing your odds. More player means more chances to lose.

Player Style #13 The Telephone!

I know you all probably thought I was done with the styles of bar poker players, but this one has come up just lately and I found it so amusing that it needed to be blogged about. This is of course very similar to any two player but this style has been so perfected by one local player that he now has the nick name of Telephone. This style calls with any two cards and continues in the hand on any draw even if it may require runner runner. This player almost never makes it to second break and really rarely makes it to first and has been know to be the first player out on more then one occasion. This player will not fold even if they have only a couple of outs and even if the possibility that they are drawing dead exists. Should they happen to win a few hands early, it just doesn't seem to matter as the continual calling will lead to lose of their chips. All the bar can hope for from this player is that they buy something before they get knocked out! There are no good points to this style except for the fact that you can be home early.

CMPPA Event #2

Yesterday was the second event of the CMPPA 2010 season. I have not been off to the best of starts to the 2011 season, so I wanted to make a good showing. It started strong for me as I got on a table with several strong players and a couple of players that I knew would giving chips away. There were several interesting hands before first break. I did manage to win a few small pots. One hand I rivered a 4 card flush calling bets all the way by a player that I had put on a weak hand and I was correct. He was angry that I had called all the way on the flush draw, but what he didn't realize was that the 4 card flush actually scared me so I checked and then called his bet. If the 4 card flush hadn't of hit, I would have made a big bet on the river that he would have been unable to call with the cards that he was playing. A little bit later I look down to see A-K off suit and raise 6 times the blind to 600 because there were two limpers behind me. It gets to BB and he raises 2000 more. It's a big bet and I decide to let my big slick go as I have him on a big pair. It was a difficult fold but with one behind me I am ok with it. Then the last player to act moves all in for a lot of chips. Now I am really glad that I have folded. The reraiser thinks a long time and then folds his JJ face up. The all in laughs and turns over JJ also. Now I am not sure if I made a good laydown or not. I did manage to get AA 5 times before the second break but really only managed to pick up small pots. As seems to happen to me I went card dead and went out in 12th place. It was a well played event and the final table was fun to watch. Congrats to the winner Tom Wesloch who has put strong hold on player of the year by finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 3 of the first 5 events.

Weekend

Haven't had a lot to blog about as I have not played much poker lately. I had a nice weekend vacation to Lutsen to do a little skiing and remembered that I am just not as young as I used to be. Had a relaxing time even though I managed to wipe out for the first time in several years. Also the weather didn't cooperate the best as it rained all day on Sunday. I did stop at the Black Bear Casino for the first time since they have redone it and it was quite impressive. Tried their buffet and it was one of the best in MN as far as casinos go. Had decided to play a little cash poker and walked over to the room to check it out and found them to have one 2-10 spread game going with 2 on waiting list so figured I didn't have enough time to wait. I went and played blackjack instead and not more then 10 minutes in a roar comes from the poker room as the bad beat goes out with aces full of queens losing to quad queens. $28,000 to the loser, 14,000 to winner and almost 2000 for the table share. Guess I should have gotten there sooner and played poker! It was a wasted trip as I won $100 on blackjack and left the casino a winner. An hour later, I was at the casino in Hinkley and once again wanted to play poker, but not a person in their room, so off to the slots to donate my winnings!

Milacs Finals

Early at the final table with 7 players left at Milcas finals on Sunday an interesting hand took place that myself and another player were probably the only ones to realize what happened. The hand started with a raise by a player that doesn't raise much. The next player a shorter stack moved all in for a little more. The weak player that finished second in the tournament just called and the original raiser calls. All the chips are raked in and both players check down. Cards are turned over and original bettor has A-Q, all in has a jack the highest card on the board, and the other player turns over KK and wins a big pot. Now I now how all these players play and I don't understand why the player with Kings who had the biggest stack wouldn't have pushed all in, because the player with A-Q would have called for sure and he would have won more chips and taken another player out. His mind doesn't think in that kind of terms. If he had played his kings as any other player would play it, he would have taken two players out in a tournament that was paying cash prizes. Effectively, he cost every player that finished after the bad play money. The player that should have been taken out in 7th finished in 3rd, so the play cost the player that did finish in 4th $200. That's not chicken scratch. When I talked to the player that got 3rd and told her what I thought about the hand. She had no idea about what I was talking about and the other players didn't even realize that the donk had cost them money. I know that it pisses me off when cost me money!

CMPPA Road to Milacs Finals

It was a day to remember at the 1st ever state finals for the CMPPA bar league at Grand Casino Milacs. 20 players playing for $2800 and the $1000 1st prize. For many of the players it was a first to be playing for this type of money. I had expected the play to be very tight at the beginning and was surprised that one table actually started off very aggressive with a couple of players taking big hits early. I knew that the would be dictated by a couple of weaker players and if they managed to get an early stack and that is what happened. They were able to chase and catch a few pots early to get big stacks which allows them to play more hands. More hands more chasing. It was not good for the better players. Many of my pre tournament favorites were knocked out early due to being all in with the best hand only to be beaten on the turn or river. There were more then a fair share of "How do you make that call" quotes! The winner Alicia LaFore got a big stack early and managed it well all day to take down the victory. I am very happy for her. Second was maybe the worst player in the field who had suck out after suck out all day aka Jamie Gold style. It reminds one that poker is as much about luck as it is about skill. It was a fun day and hopefully I will be playing in the next finals in the fall. Here the results. Congrats to all!

1. Alicia LaFore $1000


2. Cliff Jensen 600

3. Karla Stavos 400

4. Jeff Determan 200

5. John Herring Sr 150

6. James Morrighan 100

7. Jason Jurgens 75

8. Rick Antilla 75

9-12 50

Steve Kennedy

Amanda Broadbent

Carlos Neal

Jason Hanson

Stages of a poker tournament

There was so many things that happened in my Saturday bar game last night that I am not sure where to begin. So instead I am going to talk about how most bar players are unable to change their games as a poker tournament changes.

During any poker tournament there are many different stages of the game. There are early stages when the blinds are low and a person can play more hands without risking too much of their chip stack. There are bubble times such as getting into the points or prizes. There are times when tables are full of players and others when you may only have 6 or 7 players. All require a player to change what kind of starting cards to play. Early in a tournament I may play 5-6 suited when faced with a bubble I may fold the hand in the same position. So many bar players are incapable of adjusting to number of players at a table. A marginal hand like A-6 should be played completely different if you have 10 players on a table or 4 players. In a 10 player situation it is a very weak hand, but in a 4 player game it is a very strong starting hand. One requires a fold the other a raise. Do you know which? Last night was a prime example. We got to four handed and all the players were playing very conservative. There was very little raising and almost no calling if someone did raise. It became very clear that whom ever became more aggressive would win the tournament and that is exactly what happened. Blinds are very high at this point in a tournament and you should play more aggressive then you had at any point in the whole tournament. If you run into a big hand, you will almost always be heads up and have live cards. I would rather raise with 2-3 and get called by AK then to raise with A-6 and be called by AK. The 2-3 has better odds to win! So just remember to keep track of how many players are at your table and open your games up as the numbers dwindle. You will get paid in the long road.

Another Friday Night!

It was an interesting Friday night of poker for me. I passed out all the seat cards and went to place the chips and looked around the table and thought " what did I do to piss someone off"! It was possibly the worst table to be playing on. Every chaser and bad player was sitting somewhere on this table. I looked at the one good player and rolled my eyes and said WOW. He got a good laugh at this and off we went. My strategy was simple either win big or be out early. I played almost every hand the first hour preflop and called a few after flop bets. I was actually getting decent cards but nothing was working out for me. I was now getting low on chips maybe 3000 left of 5000 starting stack. Limped as I had been with J-5 off. Most of the table called and then big blind, a guy who thinks he can out play everyone makes a big raise. I call and so does half the other players. Flop is J-3-4. BB checks so I put out 1000. Everyone else folds and he moves all in. Now I know that I am way behind, but decide to call anyway because I have most of my stack already committed. I announce that I am going to call with the worst hand and turn over my J-5. He turns over K-J. The river comes a 5 and I suck out and win. Now I am up to close to 7000 in chips and we are past the break. A lot of the poor players have been knocked off my table and the replacements are much better players. I announce to table that I am now going to tighten up a bit and they all laugh. Then next two hands I have face cards and limp in and table says sure you are going to tighten up. Third hand I look down at KK. Now what I am going to do. I can hardly raise because the way I have been playing it would be a sure tell. So I make a speech about how I am tightening up and limp in again. I am hoping for a raise so I can reraise. Small blind moves all in and then BB calls. I move all in for the rest of my chips and BB calls and has me covered. Flop is K-?-? all diamonds and you know it I don't have a diamond! The other players have A-Q and JJ. Only the J is a diamond. The turn and river both come diamonds without pairing the board and I am out. In the end the limp didn't hurt me because of the other hands had I raised the A-Q would have moved all in and the JJ would have called or moved in, so same outcome. Me on the rail! Tonight is a new night and I am going to try the tight style tonight. I know it's kind of boring but I am ready for a change of pace.

Qualifing Tournament

Yesterday was the first qualifying tournament for the CMPPA. 47 people were eligible by placing in the top 10 over 12 weeks at some of the local bar games. I was very surprised that only 31 showed up with a chance to win $1000. I drew a what I thought to be a very good table. Overall very solid players. I played a bit tighter then my normal bar game really wanting to make the top 10 to advance. After the first hour was down about 2000 in chips but still in good position. It was an interesting hour as players were slow playing all their hands but were getting paid off for doing it. Limping aces or jacks usually is not a good play, but it was getting paid off.  During second hour, I look down to pocket 9's. Player right in front of me raises about 5 times the big blind. I call. Maybe should have reraised but in the end it wouldn't have mattered. Small stack on the table pushes in with just under 3000 more. Initial bettor calls. I think for a while and decide to call for about half my stack in the pot thinking I would probably get a check down. Flop is A-J-J. Not so good. The river is a 9. Bingo! I didn't see any reason to bet, so I check and turn over my full house. All in turns over AA and I was basically drawing dead after the flop.  I did manage a triple up later in tournament, but evey time I raised I seemed to have the second best hand. It was just one of those days. Knocked out around 20th. I took over running tournament and it was an interesting down to the wire drive to the final 10. One of the players had a huge stack with about 8 players to top 10. A friend of this player was spectating and I made a comment to him that the player should get up from table and just fold way to top 10. You get nothing for finishing with more chips in qualifying tournament! He agreed, but said you know that I can't say anything. This player continued to play the same way that I would guess got them the big stack. Called several all ins with what I would call marginal hands and was slowly leaking away chips until stack was one of the shorter ones on table. Then ended up raising a pot, that was then reraised all in by one player and then reraised all in by another player and called with A-Q. Turned over was A-Q, A-K and A-7. A queen comes on the flop and this player is saved by hitting a 3 outer and makes to final 10. After the tournament was over I asked why hadn't you just folded to get to the top 10 especially calling off most of your chips to a raise and a reraise. The answer was they felt that as the big stack it was their obligation to try and take the smaller stacks out. I agree with this to a point, but you have to protect yourself from not making the finals by playing too aggressive. They was nothing to gain in this tournament except to advance to the finals where all the money will be paid. As I will be on the rail watching as this player is playing, maybe I don't know what I am talking about! LOL!

Other Bar Games!

Over the past couple of weeks I have had the chance to go and play some of the other local bar games. It is interesting to see the differences between how people run tournaments. The first one is at a local Veterans Club. They get a big crowd each week as many members play and they give away more cash then most places do. I stopped by to see if the bar had any interest in joining the CMPPA road to Milacs promotion. I started talking to the guy in charge, an older member of the club, I am explaining what the CMPPA was and what it had to offer and he gets mad at me. He wants nothing to do with the organization as it runs tournaments at the same time as he runs a game. Fine I give up and am irritated because there was no reason for so much attitude. I sign up and ask what I do I need to do. Just go sit where ever you want to. Really! So, now I have to pick a table. I should go play with people that I don't know for practice, but decide to pick a table of some of my regular players. Before tournament starts they give this big speech about no swearing at the tables or you will get a 10 minute penalty. We begin and I soon realize that the no swearing rule is about the only one they follow. Rabbit hunting on most hands and wait for players as they are gone from table, but don't swear dammit! I didn't last long as interest waned with the way the game played. I basically played every hand until out and went home to play Twitter Poker Tour. I told someone the next day that we should get 6 players and go each week and give all our chips to one player and the rest go home and split the winnings. That's why you don't let people sit where they want to. Can you imagine how much collusion there would be at the Main Event if you could pick your our starting table!
Next I went to the only place that runs CMPPA games that are not run by me. It was their Free Poker League night and I got there just in time to play. Started with a short stack for being late, but doubled up on first hand with K-Q suited when I flopped 3 queens into pocket kings. Then the very next hand doubled again with AA. I then ran hot all night, making some great plays and some lucky ones to win the tournament. The only thing I saw there that I didn't agree with is when we went tyo final table we just filled into the empty spots and I was able to pick which side of better players I wanted to play on. I believe the only fair way is to redraw for all spots on final table equal to all. Interesting enough by winning I am know qualified for their tournament of champions for a chance at a big tournament entry. Play once and could possibly win the FPN top spot. It's an interesting concept but is it fair to the players that show up each week and spend money at the bar. I spent $6 and won $25 so a profit of $19. I will have to show up for the TOC night I guess!
Sometimes I think I run my games too tight as I follow all the rules of the TDA, but after seeing other places I think it is the only way to do it.

McCann's Open

Yesterday, I was playing in the CMPPA McCann's Open event. I was running very good and playing great poker. Got a very weak player next to me and in two hands was able to double up. I used this stack to grow it into a even larger stack by first break. I was able to make a couple of critical lay downs and keep the pressure on the table. Eventually, I did lose a few chips and just before second break I was around 40,000 chips about double the starting stack. I was second chips on table. I was one behind the button and had J-9. I decided to limp in because big blind was a guy that normally checks. He was the chip leader. He decided to raise. It was a pretty big raise, but I instantly put him on an ace. I decided to call. Flop was J-5-5. I check he bets out 6000. I call Turn is a 6. I bet out 10,000 because I am sure that I am ahead. He moves all in. I think about it a little and still think I ahead. I call. He turns over A-6. I was right. He had nothing on the flop and had picked up a pair on the turn. River is a 6 and I am out of the tournament. What a cruel game poker can be. I feel as if I played the whole tournament about as well as I am capable and still am out by second break forced to watch the rest of the day. Later during the second tournament I talk a player into playing and he is on my right. I have hardly played a hand and am big blind with him as small. He makes a big raise. I look down and have JJ, so I reraise. He calls. Flop is 5-6-9. He checks. I move all in and he calls and turns up 6-9. LOL! Out of another tournament. Glad I talked him into playing! Today's a new day anyway!
Had 90 players show up the tournament with many new people. It is amazing when players come from games that don't play by all the TDA rules. They have a real hard time when you actually enforce rules. A couple of times they were almost fights. you have to love free poker!

#12 Tournament Director

Now you may not think of this as a poker style, but it really is. As a tournament director (TD) if you are playing in the tournament and get knocked out early then you are stuck watching the rest of the time. There are many times when this style will lay down the best hand to a big bet because they can't leave if knocked out. It is a tighter style then the player would normally play. All the Tournament Directors that I work with have talked about this many times folding when they know they would have called in a different situation. The other thing that happens when a TD plays is they will get called more often when raising as everyone wants to take out the TD as he must be the expert. The pluses of the style is that you will usually last longer and make points in a points league. The big minus is that you fold to bets that you normally wouldn't allowing players to bluff at you more then they normally would. I will add that I don't believe that a person being paid to run a tournament should play in it and in the early days of MN bar poker I rarely played. The times have changed so much that many times I will spend as much as I making running tournaments. So, I now negotiate that in with the bar when I set up a game.

This style is also closely related to the players that will fold to an all in or large bet based on how much is left in their beverage glass, so I will not discuss this style.

#11 Tight Agressive

Tight aggressive is a style played by many of the better bar poker players. This player doesn't play a lot of hands yet when playing will almost always raise pre flop. Just because this style doesn't play a lot of hands doesn't always mean they are playing big hands. This player uses position and knows a lot about the other styles of players at their table to use their aggression to their advantage. They know when to make a continuation bet and when to get away from their hand. This player will make the points often in a points league and occasionally win tournaments. They are usually towards the top of any points league as long as they attend regularly. The pluses to this style is that they are smart players and know their competition. They know how to calculate odds and use it to their advantage. They tend to make it farther in tournaments because of their style. The only disadvantages to this style is if they are not getting any cards they have a hard time adjusting to play more hands and if a weaker player thinks they are tight to the extreme and always assume that they have a big hand they might not get as much action on their big hands as they would like. This is my prefered style when playing cash tournaments as I don't get a chance to play at Cardrooms or Casinos much, so I am not as fimilar with the other players as I am in bar poker.

#10 Pure Aggression

Pure aggression is a style that you may think is similar to any two player. It is, kind of. The main difference is that a pure aggression player knows when to stop.
This style of player will play any two cards, but will be selective about when they are played. They use position and knows who the players are at their table and how they will react to their aggression. This person raises a lot and will always make a continuation bet. Many times they will make a 3rd bet depending on who is in the hand. But, as soon as they realize that they are not going to win they will let their hand go. They are good at sensing weakness in other players and use it to their advantage. You will rarely see this style in bar poker by a player over 40 or a female. It is generally played by younger players that tend to play a lot of Internet poker. Their attitude is win big or go home early as they will amass a huge stack very early or be one of the first ones knocked out. The pluses of this style is that no one really knows what you are playing and if they are conservative they will fold to you even if they have a strong hand. Also if you get the big stack early you can use it to keep the aggression going to even create a bigger stack. Your style is able to put others on tilt creating play that gets you more action. Another plus is that when you actually do get a big hand you will get paid off as no one will ever believe that you could actually have a hand. The down side is sometimes you will get knocked out early and good players will use your aggression to their advantage by allowing you to bet and then reraising you when they have a big hand. It is also hard for this player to shift gears as the blinds get higher and the poorer players get knocked out making it difficult for this player to win tournaments. I like this style a lot and will use it early in tournaments that start with a bigger chip stack, if the right players are at my table. It has it's risks but if done correctly the rewards far out weigh them.

Nice Hand?

Tuesday night was the last week of our current point session and I have not had the best 12 weeks. I missed a couple of weeks and just have not been playing good poker on Tuesdays as of late. Some has been a lack of patience and some has been the lack of quality to the game. Last week I seemed to get it back a little and finished 2nd and this was enough to move me into contention for the top 10. I just needed a decent point night and I would be in. Tuesday started very interesting as at least 10 new or players that hadn't played in a long time started coming to sign up very early. It looked to be a big attendance night. In the end many of the regulars didn't come so I needed at least a top 5 finish. Things started pretty good. I had a decent table with only a couple of players that I didn't know. I won a few pots and chipped up a little. At first break I was up about 2000 in chips. Blinds were now 100-200 and I looked down to pocket 2's. They are not my favorite starting hand as I have had bad luck with them in the past. With two's I will generally limp in and see a flop and fold if I don't hit and this is how it played out. Flop is 10-10-2. BINGO! I am thinking how can I get the most out of this hand. The player next to me a women that I had never seen bets out 500. I call and so does a couple of others. The turn is an 8 bringing a flush draw. Perfect! The same ladies bets out 1500. I put her on having 3 tens and decide I better try and get her out so I move all in. She counts out her chips and has me covered by 200. She calls. I say I got a full house and turn over my two's. She turns over pocket 10's! LOL! I'm drawing dead and am out of tournament. I can honestly say I didn't see that coming. I don't think that there is any scenario that I don't lose all my chips in this hand. I flop a full house, she flops quads at least the new points season starts again soon.

#9 Drunk Guy (Chick)

It's hard to put this style of player down in bar poker as they are the ones that spend the money to keep the games alive. There are varying types to this style. First there is the guy that's already drunk at the bar and sees there is a poker game and decides to play. These guys are loose cannons because most have not ever played bar poker and know very little etiquette. They tend to be very aggressive and will play any cards and chase all the way and many times call you with nothing because they don't any better. They are usually the first ones out and if you want some of their chips you better play a lot of hands early. If they happen to be catching, don't worry it will be short lived as the alcohol takes away any patience that they may have. They tend to be loud and obnoxious and others at the table will not like it, but once again they probably have spent more then the rest of the table so I don't really care. The next is the tight player that rarely drink and decides to have a few extra. You will notice as they become more intoxicated they will become louder and will be come more aggressive on the table. They may even go as far to tell you that they playing more aggressive because they are drunk. You have to handle this person with a little more care as they know the basics of poker and will fold if they believe they are behind. The last type is the ones that get quieter and even tighter as they drink. They are worried that the alcohol may lead to them doing something wrong and people will judge them by that. This style many times will muck their all in if they are behind because they don't want you to see what they have played. We all need to play intoxicated once in a while just for the fun of it! I have seen just about it all running bar poker from players passing out on the floor, to sleeping on the table, spilling on the tables,cards or chips or puking in the bathroom. So, to all you that play this style, I say thank you and please come again

#8 Any Ace!

Any Ace is just as it sounds. If this player has an ace they are in the hand. They believe the ace is the holy grail of poker. They will call just about any raise with the magical card regardless of what the other card is. Then when they flop another one they are in until the end. Either they will have most of your chips but most likely you will have theirs. In most bar poker games you will run into many tables with multiple any ace players and then it can become difficult to know if you have the best kicker when you also hit your ace and even if you have the best then there is always the possibility that they have two pair. Remember the second card is meaningless to them. They just know they have an ace. There is not much of a plus side to this style. They may hit early in a tournament and accumulate some chips but will be unable to stop playing that ace later and at some point will lose all their chips. A good player just has to wait it out and eventually will have this player out kicked and be able to get their chips. This style can sometimes also be any king too. Then you have even more decisions to make. Do they have an ace or a king and what is their kicker or are they suited to a double suit board. The down side to this style is that most of the time you will be out of the tournament early. So, if you only want to play for a short time this style may be for you.