There’s been some confusion over the past couple weeks regarding the availability of hotel rooms for the upcoming Minnesota State Poker Tour event at Grand Casino Mille Lacs.

Because GC Mille Lacs has other events going on all week, they have blocked off a specific amount of rooms for the MSPT.

** When you call to book a room, you MUST ask for the special MSPT rate! Otherwise, you’ll probably be told that hotel rooms are booked. Rates start at $29 early in the week, and during the weekend of February 19-21 the rates go up, but only to $49 and $59.

I have planned my schedule now through the WSOP and have made some interesting choices.  After FTOP’s and Commerce I am thinking about the WPT in Indiana, at least I think it’s in Indiana.  I haven’t spent any time in Indiana, only having been there for refueling stops when flying cross-country.  April I am going to Europe for San Remo and Monte Carlo, then back for the WSOP.  My wife will join me for most of the Europe trip, which will be great, not only for her company, but she has lived in Italy and speaks Italian as well as several other languages fluently.

I am looking forward to heading to California and spending some time at LaserAway, which I helped found several years ago.  I have stepped away from a management role for some time now, but still serve in an advisory capacity.  I am often asked about what it is exactly and will elaborate here and now.  With multiple locations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Carlsbad LaserAway provides minimally invasive cosmetic procedures on a scheduled and walk in basis.  Services like Laser tattoo and hair removal, skin rejuvenation, Thermage, Botox and injectable fillers.  For more information you can visit our website www.laseraway.net .

I am considering spending a little more time working at LaserAway mostly because I miss the work.  Now that I’m traveling a little less and playing online a little more, I have more freedom in my schedule.  I would like to get back to doing some medical work.  We are also considering adding anti-aging medical services and products to our menu.  It seems that the these days more and more people ask about things like what can be done to slow the aging process and feel and look as good as we can for whatever our age happens to be.

While playing poker it is especially easy to get on a poor health path.  Staying up all night and for days at a time, little or no exercise, and poor nutrition combine to provide a severe obstacle.  I experienced this myself, until I began exercising and eating better starting in this past May.  The health dividends are great and I think it helps my poker game as well.

Tried a little experiment last night.

No, it did not envolve my wife, the Adam and Eve diry schoolgirl pack, or copulous amounts of Captain Morgan “Bite”(if you like lime in your Cap’n Coke I suggest give it at least a try, but snobbish me likes the real thing if I can be bothered to quarter them after buying the $.49 pack of citrus at Target).  Since this is was a poker blog you get poker more often than poke her news which if her parents are reading happened just three times over the past 12 years.

Had to test the goods before breeding of course.

Anyhow…   this month is a slight dip back into the playing pool of FPPs, FTPs, and any other acronyms used at the various poker sites for their frequent player points/VIP programs.  My intent is to achieve SilverStar again at Stars, and some variation of Iron Man at Full Tilt (this is split into Bronze, Silver, Gold, IRON MAN *cue Ozzy to jump out of your laptop looking a bit confuzzled asking you to score some Oxycontin while the rest of Black Sabbath starts up the BBBWWWWWOOOOWWWW I. AM. IRON. MAN).  Thanks to the new heroin of poker, Rush Poker is allowing people like myself (low rollers who don’t keep a lot of cash online) to achieve status at their site so I can purchase a couple of college educations from their FTP store.  Saves a lot of trouble scrapping by on ramen noodles and our new peddle-powered cars so that my kids can enjoy the wonders of Anthropology 201:  The Study of Ancient Byzantine Sponges at the college of their choice.

Or that nikon camera might come in handy hitting up the beach for the two weeks during the summer that we can be outside from 1:00-1:15pm without having to wear five layers.  I kid, its actually three weeks and thanks to global warming there’s an extra five minutes of beach volleyball and sand castles.

To the poker!  Ok, I fired up the following to see which would produce the most “points” at the two sites mentioned above in beautiful blue underline because I enjoy both and have friends working there so please support them or you’re responsible for pulling them away from the back row of Mr. Cashman two cent slot machines at the Four Queens as they try to win back their once stable paycheck while double fisting $.99 shrimp cocktails with the pissed off look of someone who just had their puppy kicked.  No pressure.

Full Tilt:  One famous “Rush Poker” table $.25/$.50 blinds (because I’m a BALLER!)
PokerStars:  Eight No Limit Omaha 8 or Better tables with $.25/$.50 blinds and a complete lack of bankroll management since I keep no more than $600 on the site at all times

The play lasted for about ninety minutes as AlCantHang hopped on the girly chat and Twitter with pictures of those delicious TastyKakes only found in the heavily wooded area of Pennsyltucky which made my mind wander back to the greatest convenience store in the world, and also the site where I spent a little time with two police officers and failing horribly to appear sober while slobbering on a freshly made philly cheesesteak after last call at the Boathouse.

Zero focus, good for writing, bad for poker.  Live and learn on the interwebs folks we’re here for you.

Ok, after ninety minutes of half attention I manage to not blow my meager bankrolls at the respective sites and managed to shuffle cash from one site to the other as par on most nights when I play at both.

PokerStars:  +$42.89
Full Tilt:  -$29.24

Since I do not play NLHE cash games often without being surrounded by the good folks who normally come here, what’s with the new “let’s-limp-aces-and-call-everything” style of play seen at Full Tilt?  The monsters under the bed radar goes way up after a can of Surly Furious and seeing this passive to the extreme play no less than four times in 90 minutes.  While I never played them for stacks, I did crack the aces twice with two pair simply because check-call all the way down is better left for a limit game.  Nonetheless, there were no horrible stackings after being down over a buy-in, I only lost a little less than a buy-in thanks to a flopped set of jacks and someone who just couldn’t fold his/her pocket fours in the last five minutes of the session.

PokerStars went better despite getting stacked five minutes after pouring said beer, and in puke-and-rally form made a decent profit on the night thanks to people who try playing Omaha Hi in a split game.

The important stuff:

Full Tilt:  147.16 FTPs  (last 15 minutes of play was during “Happy Hour” thus points were doubled, would have waited for Happy Hour to start, but sleep is a fun thing to do when your daughter is bound to wake you at 2am to search for her Rainbow Care Bear)
PokerStars:  225.18 VPPs

Note:  PokerStars gives you VPPs to “rank” you in their VIP hierarchy but gives you FPPs at the same rate while multiplied by your “rank”.  Example:  as a “SilverStar” I get a 1.5 multipler so I received *gets calculator* 337.77 FPPs to use in their store last night.

I thought it would be a wash but mutli-tabling still held king over the crack table BUT the risk of ruin is much higher with funds so far spread out, I’ll continue this little experiment throughout the month as time and cookie monster kids permit as there’s a poker game in G-Vegas next month that I will flying out for and need the practice against people who treat chips like lego blocks.

I finally got the opportunity to spend some time yesterday at Treasure Island Casino in Welch, MN. Because they typically host their larger tournaments in the late winter/early spring, it always seems like forever between trips down there.

PMac and I covered the Island Tournament yesterday, a $600+$60 NLHE event won by Dan Dow. Dan’s a young, humble kid who lives near the casino. He and pal Darren Childs (2nd place in POY standings) both made deep runs. Darren finished 4th and is planning a trip to Commerce in the next week. Both these young, talented players anticipate being at Grand Casino Mille Lacs in a couple weeks for the Minnesota State Poker Tour. “I want one of those.” Childs said as he pointed to his wrist, referring to the MSPT bracelet.

Back to TI, the event center they hosted the event in was fantastic. You can see photos in the gallery. The only drawback was that they can only have 10 tables in that event center due to overhead camera constraints. Either way they hosted a fun, exciting tournament. The next one is scheduled for March 6th. That tournament is currently scheduled to be a $1,000 event but they may reduce it to $600 as was yesterday’s. I don’t know if that’s been decided yet.

After the tournament, we had the opportunity to walk through a good part of the casino. They’ve designed parts of the casino similar to the view you would get walking through many casinos in Vegas. Each restaurant or room has its own design, they separate areas of the casino into sections. One flaw from a poker player perspective was that the poker room is really hard to spot unless you know exactly where it is. It’s a nice room once you get there but I’d recommend more signage with arrows for the casual player on a weekend retreat.

BUT, the casino was BUMPIN! It was packed and appeared to have a great night-life. Every single slot machine had a butt in the chair, the blackjack tables were full, there was a live band with many people eating, dancing, etc. They definitely have done a great job of creating an exciting, Vegas-like atmosphere. It was electric!

I can’t speak to if its like that every weekend but it was for sure the place to be on Saturday night.

With a final table appearance at the Island Tournament on Saturday, Darren Childs moved into 2nd place in the 2010 MN Player of the Year race. Nes Coburn also played in the event at Treasure Island, but he did not cash.

The end of December into January is generally considered tournament poker’s offseason, even in Minnesota, where many seasonal players pack the card rooms while the weather is cold.

The “offseason” came to a close on Sunday with Treasure Island holding its first Island Tournament of 2009 — a $660 buy-in event that drew 48 players.

Dan Dow, a 22-year-old who lives right across the street from Treasure Island, used relentless aggression at the final table to power his way to a $9,120 payday.

Dow received some help from the deck on the final hand of heads-up play. Scott Bullock pushed all in on a J-2-7 flop with J-5, and Dow looked him up with 7-5. Of course, Dow spiked another 7 on the river to send Bullock packing.

February Island Tournament Results:

Entrants: 48
Buy-in: $600+$60

[View with PicLens]

 

Welcome to the new-look MNPokerMag.com!

For regular visitors of our (old) website, fear not…. You’ll find the same features, photos, Player of the Year standings, blogs, news updates, etc.

The difference, however, is the layout and functionality. Each new post (news, blogs, photo galleries, etc.) will flow from one feed, but each category is sorted in the sidebar to the right.

Plus, the new MNPokerMag.com design allows Bryan and I to maintain the backend of the site without as much hassle. Not to mention, all content is now sorted into specific categories, and each blogger’s content is sortable as well (check out the sidebar on the right).

There will be some growing pains. We’re still in the process of transferring HUNDREDS of photos from the old photo gallery to a newer and better gallery.

Thanks for stopping by, and keep checking back on a daily basis. As we plow ahead in 2010, MNPokerMag will only get bigger and better!

The February issue of Minnesota Poker Magazine is now available!

- Jason Hanson reinvents poker with a game he created and patented.

- Dick Day steps down from his Senate seat to focus on bringing racinos to Minnesota.

- Canterbury Park is getting a face lift – Minnesota Online Rankings -

Player profiles: Andrew Heggem and Everett Carlton

I am back at home after busting out of the Borgata.  I began the second day with 66,600 in chips, which turned out to be an ominous number.  I lost a couple of hands early against short stacks, all in pre-flop calls with KK and AK losing to AK and A 9, and there went half my chips.  I then got lucky in a 6 way limp pot when I cracked aces with deuces, with the deuce coming on the river.  I then lost a big pot with AQ on a QQ 10 flop, and of course he had Q 10.  I guess it was pay back for the win with the deuces.  I then was short but survived for a long while.  A young player with a ton of chips was moved to the table and he was playing 2 out of 3 hands, so when he opened from the cut-off for 3 big blinds, I had about 12 big blinds and looked down at AQ suited and shoved.  He insta-called and of course had AK.  I did flop 4 to a flush, but it turned out to be only a tease, so home I went.

At the risk of being berated by some I will say it again, dollar for dollar it’s hard to find a better value than the events at The Borgata.  I look forward to Tab’s next tournament series with eager anticipation.

This weekend I am headed for the ski slopes with my wife and parents in Western Massachusetts.  It will be my first time skiing in a couple of years and although I can’t wait, I’m hoping to keep all bones and joints intact.  Then it will be time for the Full Tilt FTOP’s, which should keep me pretty busy and allow me to spend the day with my new K9 and the night’s at home with my wife.

My next tournament stop will be Commerce in about ten days, which I am excited about attending.  I have not been on the West Coast much since relocating to New York and will have some time to catch up with friends that I miss.  The list of events at The Commerce should keep me pretty busy, it looks like a great action packed schedule, and with Matt Savage running the events I’m sure they will be excellent.

I keep getting asked about the new tour series being held at The Venetian right smack in the middle of The Commerce series.  Although I like The Venetian poker room, I’m not leaving The Commerce.  The main event also coincides with the WPT Invitational, which is a very fun event and the action at Commerce at that time is quite simply the best anywhere.  For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s hard to explain.  My recommendation is when in Rome, stay in Rome, why go to Venice?

I play in a bar poker league (Free Poker Network) and last night experienced what many would call a cooler. It wasn’t. I was dealt A/K off in the cutoff (one to the right of the button). Blinds were 50/100. Under the gun limped. It was folded to the guy to my right (a loose-aggressive player) who raised to 600 and is henceforth, the Villian. I had about 1650 in chips and smooth called. The small blind called all-in for less (575).

The flop was K/Q/9. The Villian led out for 700 – I went over-the-top with my last 1050. He snap called with J/T and the flopped K-high straight. And, I lost.

We’ve had several conversations within our home league (and on our podcast) as to what constitutes a “cooler”. What I experienced wasn’t a cooler but, here’s the definitive definition of what I would call a “cooler”.

Cooler (koo’lr) – When a player who has an exceptionally strong hand loses a showdown after the following occurs:

1) The hand must progress to at least the turn before any all-in bet (i.e. – no preflop or flop all-in is ever a cooler no matter who is pushing in the chips).

2) The person getting coolered must be actively working to get information on the hand and his/her opponent. This will mean that betting and/or raising is occurring. It is possible for a single round of checking (or limping preflop). This though would be fairly rare and depending on the hands in play the hand could move from “cooler” category to “badly played”.

3) The person getting coolered must be behind, but fully (and pretty legitimately) believe he/she is ahead after 4th street even though that’s not the case (i.e. – that Ace on the river that beats you is just a bad beat).

There you have it. Most everything else is either a poorly played hand (you could’ve done more/something differently to get better information – or had the info and simply refused to fold) or is simply bad timing/bad luck. Frankly, my hand above was probably a little bit of both of these.

Does your definition differ?? Let us know.

Karaoke Phil/MNted