Bad Beat on Cancer Event

Last weekend was the 3rd annual Jim Wang Bad Beat on Cancer Charity event sponsored by the CMPPA and McCann's. It was another successful event with almost $1200 raised for the American Cancer Society. Thanks to all that helped make it possible. All the board members of the CMPPA, Wendell at McCann's, Ron Miller and anyone else that donated to the silent auction. We had 65 entries for tournament and almost all donated an extra $5 to the cause. This we added a raffle that was run by Jeff Determan and it raised a nice chunk of change. Thanks Jeff! The big winner was Tannia Peterson that won a one year membership into the CMPPA. Congrats and welcome. CMPPA member Scott Foster was the poker tournament winner getting his 2012 membership paid for and $50 cash. Second was Herman Musil good for $50 cash and $20 Mills Fleet Farm card. Third was Shelly Habiger for $25 cash. Fourth was Dan Ascher and fifth was Matt Wolfe. Congrats to all. I did manage a 6th place bubble boy finish good for a really ugly bowling trophy and a $10 Summerland certificate. I had a really good poker day as I continued my aggressive play and built a nice size stack. It helped a lot because late in the tournament I was mostly card dead and folding. The final table overall was well played except for the women that got 3rd place. She spent the day sucking out and people and then went super tight on the final table. One of the hands involved the second place finisher who was all in on the button for 17,000. Shelly was big blind for 6000 with a really big stack and folded. She shows pocket 3's. We all are shocked. How can you fold a pocket pair heads up on final table for such a little amount. She announces that she is not going to just give her chips away. Now she may not have won the hand, but she had over 2-1 odds to make call and if she takes the guy out I make the prizes so I am not happy. I ask her if she thinks she can fold her way to the win. Others continue to give her a hard time and she does basically fold her way to 3rd and never had a chance to win the tournament. I played all day with the winner Scott and he played a great tournament and deserved to win. We have two up coming events for the CMPPA for February. On Sat. the 11th we will host our 1st ever Women's only open event and then on the 18th is the 1st members only holdem event. Hope to see you all there!

I do also need to apologize about my last post. I didn't realize that the FPN had changed their State Tournaments and now play down to an actual champion. So she actually was the state champion and I stand corrected.

State Champion

This weekend was the 3rd annual Jim Wang Bad Beat on Cancer event. We had 65 people for the tournament and raised close to $1200 for the American Cancer Society. It was a fun event and I even managed to make final table and bubble the prizes, but that another blog. Before I go on with my blog, I am going to make a disclaimer. I am a big fan of the Free Poker Network and what they have created for the MN bar poker players. In no way is this intended to be about their organization. That said here is an incident from the tournament.
I had a really good run in the Charity event this past weekend. I continued with my aggressive play and build a large stack and was able to run most of the table over. It created a lot of tilt by the players on the table. A little later in the tournament when we broke to 2 tables a women from Wilmar was moved to my table across from me. She had clearly been drinking a lot and I immediately started raising her and playing hands she was involved in. She was not very happy about all the raising but that's what I do when I have a big stack. She was wearing a FPN sweatshirt and kept making comments about being a state champion. It was mostly bragging, but a lot had to do with the alcohol. As I stated above I have a lot of respect for the FPN and what they have built, but what does it really mean to be State Champion. The FPN has a system that starts at the local level with a certain amount of weeks of qualifying, then the top person advances to state tournament and the top so many advance to a regional tournament. Ultimately all these tournaments are qualifiers to try and advance to the National event in hope to win cash and or poker tournament buy ins. It's a system that most bar poker leagues use. One of the different things about the FPN is they allow players to win extra chips and to start with double stacks. Now I have played in many poker tournaments at casinos all over the country and I have never played a tournament that some players started with double stacks. It kind of happens in rebuy tournaments but then all players have the option of buying in for the same stack. I find it unfair that you are able to start in any of those tournaments with more chips then others. You are all playing for the same prize, why not start out equal and let the best or luckiest player win. I understand why they are doing it, but don't see it as a fair tournament. Now back to the statement. Now I am very happy for her for making it to the national tournament and having a chance to win a big prize, but you are not a state champion. You are only a national qualifier. These tournaments are not played down to a winner. They are just played until the amount of players left advance. Calling these qualifiers state champions is like calling all the regional winners of a State High School tournament state champions, but they do play it out and declare a real state champion. A poker tournament that you are playing just to qualify requires a totally different strategy then when you try and win it. It's my biggest peeve with the free poker system. We are teaching players to qualify, but not how to win poker tournaments. So, good luck to all you national qualifiers and when you actually win the national event, then I will consider you a FPN champion.

Boulders Tap House

My wife and I went to the new restaurant in town last night. Boulders Tap House opened up on Monday in the old Timberlodge building. Their premise is a burger and wing joint with 41 different tap beers. They have lots of TV's and are going for a Buffalo Wild Wings kind of feel. What surprised me the most was how little of a change that was made from the old Timberlodge. They kept most of the interior layout and just added new carpet and seating. It looks good and I am sure will do very well. We tried a couple of different beers and both were excellent. The burger was very good and was about normal price for the area. We also tried a couple of orders of boneless wings and I thought they were a little small. We tried two different sauces that were higher up on their hot scale. Both were good but not really very hot which was ok by me. The only bad thing was there was a hair in my wings and when I showed the server she apologized and that was it. I didn't see any managers running around and the table next to use had some kind of problem too and received something free. The place is owned by the same company that owns Grizzlys and I think that Grizzlys has better burgers. I am sure that I will go back to this restaurant but it's not as good as I had hoped. If they have a great happy hour once they are through there opening stage that would help with me decision to return more often. You will ahve to give it a try and let me know what you think.

SOPA

Yesterday was the big Internet push about the proposed government bills SOPA & PIPA to restrict Americans access to certain Internet sites. A lot of this comes from the music industry wanting to stop the illegal downloading of their products costing them millions of dollars. I do get that. The problem is the bill goes much deeper then just the music industry and is certainly a 1st amendment issue. Part of the issue is who is at fault with such sites. Let's start with online gambling. If it is illegal in MN to play online poker and I make the decision to play on a site. Is it the sites fault for allowing me to play or is it my fault for doing something that I think maybe illegal. The same applies to online music sites that allow people to upload and download songs or movies. Are they to blame for setting up the site or are you for using the site. I think it is hard to differentiate. These bills certainly would affect many other sites that are not doing anything wrong. Imange not being able to use Wikipedia just because they have information on them about a site deemed illegal by our government. All seach engines such as Goggle would also be affected because they lead us to these sites. Now I don't claim to understand how the whole bills would work but this Brit has very good explaination of why we should be worried. Here is a youyube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

With all that our government has on its plate, don't they have better things to worry about then censoring the internet, such as trying to figure out a way to get sales taxes out all the internet sales. That makes a lot more sense to me. It's just not fair that an internet company can sell products and not pay any sales taxes and the CMPPA which is basically a non profit business has to pay sales tax on every membership collected. I try with this blog to stay out of politics but felt that this was a big enough issue to bring it up. Take all the information available and make your own decision.

Ultimate Wednesday

I finally had time to go and play poker again last night. My only option on Wed. is the Ultimate Sports Bar. Not my favorite place to play, mostly because the drinks are so high. I continued my very aggressive play. I folded 3 times preflop in the 1st hour. What I really like about this play is it puts people on tilt when you turn over your hand and rake a pot. For the first time in a long time I was running very hot. Ended the 1st break 1000 ahead and except for losing one big hand played very solid. They were several very predictable players on my table, so it make playing much easier. The hand that really made my stack was about half way through the 2nd hour. I had A-7 in the big blind. It was raised maybe 4 times the big blind by a player that either had two big cards or a bigger pair, so I was going to play carefully. Ended up with another caller. Flop was 7-6-3 two suited cards. I check and orginal bettor puts out a less then pot size bet. I am thinking he has an over pair to me, but he would also make a continuation bet with A-K, so I call. Player behind me raises all in. Bettor folds. I think about it for a while. I can't really figure what he could have. A small set maybe. I don't think he has 4-5. I decide to call which puts me all in. I think he has A-7 like me or maybe something like A-6 or K-7. He turns up 3-6 offsuit for two pair. LOL! He limped in per flop with 3-6 off and then called the raise. I'm in trouble. Turn is a another 3 giving him a full house. River is a 7 giving me a bigger full house. I hit my two outer. That stuff doesn't usually happen to me, but I will take it when it does. I then went on a streak of calling all ins with the worst hand and keep winning. Where is the big buy tournament when this happens. Make the final table. Now down to 4 players and they are paying 3 spots. I am small blind with Q-4 suited when big blind raises. I call thinking that the big blind would also call because he usually does and he was short stacked. Flop is Q-4-8. I bet out. I get reraised a lot. I am 99% sure that I have the best hand. He must have AA or KK. There is an outside chance he has a set but I think AA or KK. This player and I have about the same size stack and we are way ahead of the other two players. I am supposed to move all in at this point and he would have to call. I look at the other stacks. One player is very short. I will call him cheater Mike. I am deciding what I should do and then realize if I move all in and win or even if I lose it's going to put cheater Mike into the money. I decide to fold because I don't want him to fold his way into the cash. I say fold and turn up my two pair. Other player turns up KK and says how can you fold. I then tell him the only reason was so that cheater Mike would not make the money and he laughs and says I understand totally. A few hands later cheater Mike goes out in 4th place and I make the money. I end up going out in 3rd. If I had won the hand with 2 pair I probably would have won tournament, but you know what. I am ok with that.

Weird Weather

Yesterday it snowed 10" in parts of Texas and here in St Cloud it was a record 49 degrees. I was outside working on my garage in a sweatshirt. Today is going to be another record temp day and then the cold might set in. It's hard to believe that it's January 10th. I'm not complaining but what happened to this being another very snowy year in MN. When I took my dock out on Lake Miltona in the fall the water level was on the low side. If we don't get some snow and or rain soon I might not even be able to land any of my boats. I just feel sorry for businesses that rely on snow. Think about ski places, resorts for fishing or snowmobiling, and people that plow snow for a living. In this tough economic times this maybe what puts them out of business. I have enjoyed the weather but I think the downside  far out ways the plus side of no snow in MN.

Greater MN Traveling Tournament

Back in 1994 I started an annual traveling tournament, that was for friends and family to get together and bowl and have a great time. Over the years it turned into the Greater MN Traveling Tournament. The concept was designed by me and ran most years by myself, my sister and her husband. There have been many a fun times had at these events. The tournament consisted of a singles, double and team event with sign up that day and payout the same day. There have been poker tournaments and much drinking involved with many of these events. 4 years ago when when I got out of the bowling business, I stopped being involved with the events. My brother has continued running the events. No one has ever asked me if it was ok to keep running these events without me or asked about using the name. In fact, I have never been invited to participate. Maybe I am just being a little defensive about the whole thing, but I also started a yearly golf event back in 1991 that has continued on without me also. I just feel that it isn't quite right for these events to continue without at least a name change or to stop say it's the 19th annual when in actuality it's maybe the 4th year in it's current state. I suppose that I could start running my own events again and stop whining about it, but don't really have the interest. It just bothers me that these events continue without even an ounce of thought about where these events came from and if I hadn't started them they wouldn't even be in existence today.

Sad State of Bowling in St Cloud

Sorry to all you poker guys, but this is another bowling post. Another bowling center has closed down in the St Cloud area. It's not much of a surprise to see Vilo Lanes in Waite Park close as it has been on the brink for many years. This leaves 3 center in the area market not including the game room at the college. Great River Bowl, Southway Bowl and El Paso Lanes in St Joe. El Paso even though it has bowling lanes is really a bar that happens to have lanes in it. They are uncared for and haven't been modernized since the 60's. It has a small mix of league bowlers and is rarely open for open bowlers. Southway is the combination of Granite Bowls and from what I hear most league bowlers are waiting for a chance to move to Great River. Great River continues to lead the way with the nicest center in the area, but seems to be spending it's time increasing bar and restaurant business instead of concentrating on it's bowling business. Where does that leave the bowlers of St Cloud. Excuse the language but it seems appropriate here. Shit out of luck! St Cloud which used to be a bowling heaven will soon be a place where no one goes bowling anymore. It's a sad state for our city. Bowling is still one of the most participated in sports and seems to be growing in other areas of the country, so why not here. Lets start with the area USBC board that is full of older single minded individuals that don't really understand the business of bowling. The few good board members are becoming disenfranchised and leaving the board. Leaving the future unclear. The center owners themselves are probably the biggest problem. There is no clear vision to teach the youth about bowling. Youth are the future of the bowling industry and no one here seems to care. I am not saying that there are not youth leagues here in St Cloud it's just that they are creating future league bowlers. At best they are creating once a year bowlers. Now, a person could certainly blame the economy for a lot of the industries problems, but instead of putting blame why not try and find solution.

Happy New Year ALL!