Happy Anniversary Deadwood, SD

It was 20 years ago this month (that's November 1989 for the math challenged) that casino gambling was legalized in Deadwood, SD. For the geographically challenged, Deadwood is on the far Western border of South Dakota - you know, more or less, "nowhere". Come to think of it, maybe all of South Dakota is, more or less, "nowhere". Just a little humor there SD - we Minnesotans usually pick on Iowa, but I thought I'd give them a little break. Many consider the legalization as having "saved" the area - the industry now brings in about $1 billion a year.

We pass on "Happy Anniversary" congratulations to Deadwood's casinos. The CPL is quite fond of Deadwood and its numerous casinos. In fact, Karaoke played his first two live tournaments there during a trip in August 2006. He played at both Cadillac Jack's and the Silverado - almost cashing in one of them.

New Podcast and Monday Madness 11/09

The newest podcast is up - the 63rd episode of MN's only and longest running poker podcast - includes a review of the WSOP Final Table, and a casino review (Stratosphere in Las Vegas). And, look for an interview with MN Poker magazine's Phil Mackey (and MN Poker Tour founder and KFAN reporter) on the next podcast.

Tonight is also Monday Madness. It's a night for action junkies as we'll be playing PL HA - 8:30 pm Central start time (Private Tourney Tab on Full Tilt). The password is:

CPL

Unabomber Scores 3rd Win During CPL Week 8!

Week 8 of the CPL was not scary because it was a few days before Halloween, or because of all of the great costumes that were worn (see pics below), it was scary because Mike "Unabomber" Bowman won yet another CPL week! This is Unabomber's 3rd win in 8 weeks and makes him a shoe in to break the all time scoring record in the CPL! Unabomber played his normal game of aggression and reckless abandon that has paid off time and time again. The great mask helped too!

Nick "Heads Up" Kamholz again made it to heads up play (his 3rd such feat in 8 weeks) and again Nick found himself ahead in chips going into the heads up play...and again Heads Up saw those chips end up in the hands of his opponent. Always the bridesmaid...never the bride. Heads Up has however clinched a seat in the TOC with his week 8 performance.

James Aguilar finishes in 3rd...another solid performance from James.

Wicked1 finished in 4th...a fine, fine showing for Wanda who is starting to gain footing in this CPL Fall Session.

Mike Behr in 5th...after taking beats by both Unabomber and James...I expect Blind Me Down smashed some pumpkins when he got home.

Voni in 6th...happy to get points...unhappy to lose so many chips to Unabomber.

Bill in 7th...not sure what it is with Comeback Kid and the point bubble these days....

It was a great week and super fun with the costumes!

CPL Leaderboard-Adjusted

CPL Points awarded during Week 8

CPL Halloween Night!!

Your host and dealer for the evening...Dracula!!

Wicked1 and Heads Up deep in thought....

Kelli G (as an old time golfer) and Blind me Down (as a pumpkin)...great costumes!

Roman Mark Wittig relaxes with Newlife after getting knocked out early...

Unabomber giggles maniacally to Verbal...

FullTilt Makes the World Right Again

Karaoke attempted to play the FTOPS Warm Up event this past Sunday but could not get into the Full Tilt server until he had been blinded out of the tournament (in about 18500th position of the 43,000 that had signed up). Seating took about 15 minutes to complete (before the tourney actually started) with Karaoke attempting to log in about 5 minutes into the beginning of the seating time. For the next 90 or so minutes he repeatedly attempted to log in - only to go through cycles of "connected", "trying again", "connected", "trying again".

On Monday he fired off an email to Full Tilt support letting them know of the problems he had the day before. He was quite polite (no, really, polite - actually only requesting "at least a partial refund" of the 1100 FullTilt points he had used to sign up for the tourney).

Yesterday he received a response in which Full Tilt acknowledged "unexpected connection and lag issues for some players" on Nov. 1. Their review of his account showed "you were affected by the connection and lag issues." They then credited his account with 5.50 T$ (Tourney Dollars) - the full value equivalent of 1100 FTP (FullTilt Points). That's probably a wee bit nicer than giving back the actual FTPs.

FullTilt makes good on tech issues from their end and makes the world right again. The CPL thanks and congratulates Full Tilt Poker for doing the right thing.

IRV Victories Celebrated

The CPL is happy for a couple of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) victories here in Minnesota yesterday.

Minneapolis implemented their first election under IRV and it went off quite well - no weeping seniors in the corners of elementary school gymnasiums because they just couldn't get it. We think the official results for the races where IRV needs to be used (those with a top candidate receiving fewer than 50% of votes will be done well before Thanksgiving. The Dec. 21 date that detractors kept throwing out is (and always was) a joke.

And, in the other "Twin" City - St. Paul voters favored a switch over to IRV with the ballot initiative passing 52% to 48% (Karaoke voted FOR the IRV switch). St. Paul voters should get their first taste of IRV in the 2011 elections (City Council).

It's likely that if IRV were in place in 2008 - Michelle Bachman would have lost.

New Podcast Released and Monday Madness PW!!

Click the player at the left for the newest podcast episode (#62).

And, the password for Monday's Full Tilt game is: CPL