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.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, January 20, 2012
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.
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