APP League Championship Recap!

Last night was our Finale! The game everyone was fighting for during the season to get to. The top 9 players played in the Championship Free Roll for $385 and a APP League Trophy. All 9 spots were paid and it was great competition all around. After eating awesome spaghetti made by Mrs. Allyson Turner, it was game time and here is how things went down as it was a short tournament for me personally but More on the cash game later.

Jason Courville focused on the game.

Jason Courville had worked a nice stack early in the tournament as everyone started with 15,000 in chips. By the third blind level Jason had a nice stack of about 24-28k but He got involved with the Defending champ and Chip-leader at the time Dustin Norris on a flop with all spades. Jason Flopped the 8 high flush but Dustin woke up with the Nut flush and 4bet shoved. Jason could not get off of his flush and called the all in to get shown the bad news and get knocked out for $50

Matt (Myself) was card dead for the majority of the tournament. He was sporting a short stack and was in the small blind with 4 other players to see a flop and blinds 200 400 8 5 off for $200 and the pot odds he decides to call. The flop came 10 9 7 and Matt decided this was good enough to shove his remaining 7k to steal the 2k pot but it was horrible timing as the BB Travis Calls with 10 7 for two pair and Barbara slow-played KK and also shoved all in with 250 over Matt's shove. Travis called and Barbara got runner runner AA to knock out Matt for $60 plus the $100 he earned for Most Final Tables.

Matt and Jason wait to get their card

After taking the tough loss to Barbara, Travis could not continue his dominance that he had throughout the season as he was yet again outdrawn when Travis was in Mid-late position with 99 and player in Early position raised to 1600 with blinds at 300 600 Hoang Called and Travis 3bet to 4800 to go. T.J. Hebert instantly shoved all in with 8750 and when it got back to Travis he made the call and the race was on. Unfortunately for Travis the A was in the window and 10 came on the turn. Travis couldn't spike the 9 and was out earning $85 plus the $200 he earned for Overall Points and Mixed Game Leader.

Later, Dustin Norris decided to take his chances with A10 as he caught T.J.'s hand in the cookie jar when he shoved with K9, but right behind Dustin, Tommy also shoved with KK and was looking good to triple up as Dustin Called his all in as well. the flop was QJ8 and Tommy was still in the lead, then the A fell and Dustin stole the lead and eventually racked in the chips as well Tommy had the lesser chips and earned $100 for his well fought battle as T.J. brought in $110 for his efforts as well! The defending Champ was knock going out without a fight.

Tommy eyes his opponents as Dustin stacks in chips. Nice smile by dealer Will.

Jimmy contemplating his next move

Jimmy Rogers was playing a very good game but got trapped by Hoang Ho. Hoang was playing mind games with the table the whole tournament and amassed a huge chip stack to help his arsenal. He checked the flop and turn, but the Turn made Hoang's Straight as Jimmy Flopped Top pair. After making a small bet on the river, Jimmy shoved all in and Hoang instantly called showing Jimmy he was beat. Jimmy earned $125 plus the $100 for most cashes for his efforts

Barbara's Chip stack was being diminished and she made a last effort all in with a suited King but could not connect as she was knocked out by Hoang finishing 3rd for $150. The only woman with enough balls to hang with the guys and she put on a great effort this year.

The final 2 in a battle for it all

As we got to heads up. Hoang had a 3.5:1 chip advantage on the defending champ Dustin and he only planned to take more. Hand after hand Hoang added pressure raising and reraising. Dustin got tired of this and shoved all in not looking at his whole cards and being only a portion of Hoang's stack he decided to call. Dustin's 5 3 os seemed to be in bad shape vs. Hoang's 76 suited when the flop paired Hoang and was all over cards but after the turn and river Dustin spiked the straight to double up and stay alive. That did not last long though as 8 hands later Dustin decides to take the same approach and shove in the dark again. This time, Hoang woke up with Pocket Jacks and there was no looking back as Dustin's 10 6 had no chance and completely blanked. Dustin won $185 as Hoang won $385 and the APP 2011 Trophy. Congratulations and it was a pleasure during another successful season!

2011 APP League Champ Hoang Ho

California Trip Update (With pictures)

Well it was a pretty productive trip here in Cali as far as work, but there wasn't much of an Entertainment aspect. I did get to eat at a few good places and also went walk by the beach which was interesting seeing some characters but nothing way out of the ordinary compared to a nice stroll on Bourbon St. It felt like I was at the retirement spot for Californians as there wasn't the California babes....Even though I'm married I can still look lol. Mostly Old men with their shirts off, multiple people walking their dogs, and the occasional attractive chick but nothing jaw dropping, sorry guys.

Their Facilities.."had waterfalls, benches, a place to sit and eat their lunches, it was rediculous and I was super jealous"

Erick "Easy E" Velasquez for NavCom. I told him to throw the "west-side" sign, I don't think he was that gangsta.

I went with a master technician who didn't really want to do anything but just go home back to Louisiana right when we got there so unfortunately there was no spectacular stories from bars, Hollywood, no trip to the Commerce. I also didn't really have the funds to play in a session if we would have made a trip to the casino anyway meh. The Facilities at Navcom were really nice and put our office and lab in Lafayette, LA to shame but I guess when you're a division of John Deere then you can have the money to splurge on facilities. Their Company Kitchen was the size of our working facilities and their Bathrooms were made of Marble...from Floor to Ceiling! Oddly enough they had single ply toilet paper, so atleast our office had them beat with that busting out with the Charmin Ultra Strong!! I took some pictures of the outside but didn't get to take a picture of their personal park they had in the middle of the building. had waterfalls, benches, a place to sit and eat their lunches, it was rediculous and I was super jealous, but nothing will compare to the food we have back home. They had no idea what Tony Chachere's was and one guy kept calling crawfish mini-lobsters haha.

There were a bunch of restaurants at the Pier.

Redondo Beach was awesome and there was a Pier with a little boardwalk full of small restaurants and gift shops etc. It was pretty cool. If you continued to walk (there was a street for pedestrians by the beach alongside a street for cyclists, skateboarders, and Rollerbladers) You could see the mountainside in the distance and it looked like something of a Portrait or painting. The weather was nice and sunny with a cool breeze all day and I went dip my foot in the water but it was waaaaaaay too cold for me to even think about going later on in a bathing suit haha but needless to say by the time we got off work each day the sun was setting. Which I'm sure If I wanted to bring a date to the beach during the sunset, I would get laid instantly. It was like a pimp's haven...speaking of pimps there were massage parlors everywhere. Not normal massage parlors, but Thai Massage parlors where I'm pretty sure you can get a nice happy, joyous, excited, climatic ending as well.

The Pier was cool and had some characters haha

I love the view.

Shot of the beach from the road

The walkway along the beach

Torrance, California was a decent suburb of LA where even though they might not be overly friendly if you wave to someone walking on the street or say hello if you walk by them, (they much rather give you a stupid look lol) but when we would go eat, there was exceptional service and the food was pretty good too I might add. Every where you looked, you could find the likes of either a sushi restaurant, Volkswagen hippy van, Mercedes/Lexus luxurious vehicle, Jogger every block, or skateboarder hipster kid. For the most part
I would love to come back and vacation and maybe sight see a bit more sometime in the future and bring someone to enjoy it with me....like the wife and future kid(s) and now have a bit of an idea of what to look for!

Business Trip to California and Ragin Cajuns 1st Win of Season

Didn't play much poker other than our last Regular Season Game for the APP League. We played 2-7 NL Single Draw and I can admit that I am not familiar with this game at all. Luckily not many others were either which allowed me to make the FT of 12 (which wasnt too hard to do) and Lock up my $100 for most Final Tables of the season. My Fight for Most Overall Points and Mixed Game Point Leader ($100) were crushed when I lost a good size pot for half my stack when someone out bluffed me (Luckbox Leprechaun...who else lol) Then I tried to bluff as well when I raised and got the blinds calling as well as one other person. First person drew 3, Next person drew 2, I drew 1 and the last person drew 1. The SB and BB both check to me and I also pick up that the player behind me didn't get the card they needed to improve (I had 9 7 4 2 ...discarded a Q and got a 7....shit) I decided to shove for my remaining stack and got 2 quick folds then the BB tanks, then ends up calling and shows 9 7 6 3 2. He said he got the 3 and 2 from the discard....Sick. That knocked me out at 7th and Killed my chances at an extra $100 but my spot in the top 9 is clinched so I wasn't stressing. I Do want to Congratulate Travis Creduer for getting the mixed games point leader bonus and Overall Points bonus for $200 to go along with whatever he wins in the Championship FreeRoll, Enjoyed the competition with you all year boss. Also Congrats to LuckBox Leprechaun aka Jimmy Rogers for earning the Most Cashes Bonus $100. Me and Travis had more cashes but since we already won a category he was the runner up as he cashed 6 times out of 18 games and all 6 cashes he finished either 1st or 2nd which is very impressive!

Going to Torrance, California Early Monday and I have to say I'm really excited as I have never been out that way (suburb of Los Angeles). I'm going on Business to the NavCom Technology headquarters where they manufacture the DGPS systems that I work with. I might beg my supervisor to make a 30 min trip to either the Bicycle Casino or The Commerce Casino (Heard that place is awesome) but idk if he will be down to go. I know our hotel that we're staying in will be Awesome and hopefully we will do SOMETHING entertaining because I'm pretty sure he's never been out that way either. But I am bringing my laptop and if I do happen to be lucky enough to go play at the Commerce I will definitely write about it and share my experience with y'all as I have heard there is alot of cash to be won as well as huge selection of games.

When I get home I have decided to host a Heads Up Tournament with 24 people. If I fill up, First will win $600, 2nd $300, 3rd $200 and 4th $100. I think I'll be able to get a good turnout and Hoping for some good competition but I also plan on playing pretty good as this as many don't have much heads up experience that plan on making it. As long as I can avoid a retarded bad beat or 2 I should be able to at least cash this tournament. But I am shooting for the win and adding the money to my tiny bank account.

Fantasy Football finally got under way and I am getting destroyed in one of my leagues but in the other 2 I am holding my own pretty well. I am a bit disappointed that Arian Foster couldn't start week 1 but Cedric Benson was a nice back up, so I can't complain too much.

Defense + Rain = Winning

UL's best kept defensive Secret
#5 Bill "Dwight" Bentley

I know I live in Louisiana but I am NOT an LSU fan. I am actually a University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns fan. I am proud to say that they got their first win of the season yesterday vs. Kent St. Golden Flashes (Whatever the hell a golden flash is.....makes me think of the wrestler Gold Dust having his way with a prostitute.....bad images in my brain, make it stop!) Well for the most part both offenses played horrible last night and the disgusting weather did not help at all but the Cajuns had the lead the whole game and never looked back. At one point there was an hour long rain delay due to lightening and when the game finally got started again the momentum that the Cajuns once had was gone.Well The defense continued to Dominate (Bill Bentley #5 and Derrick Dean #90 had to have hurt 2 players each) and I have to say it was the most impressive Defensive performance I have seen from UL in a long time. Next week Sept. 17th will be their first home game and they are hosting Nicholls St. Colonels which is a FCS school in Thibodaux, LA and I am expecting a Huge crowd. Can't wait to Tailgate as well!! Bringing the Father in law to open his eyes to Cajun Country and hopefully convert him from being a LSWhoo? Tiger fan.

God Bless the American People and our ability to unite through hardship!
Matt Stroud

Time to Dominate Fantasy Football!

So I have recently completed both Fantasy football drafts. I am pretty confident in my teams and sense some weaknesses in some areas of each but Think overall I will be fine and have a good chance at the playoffs as long as the injury bug doesn't haunt me too much.

The first draft was Poker Monkey's $100 16 man league with all kinds of crazy scoring rules. The thing I liked about this league though is the points Return men get and alot of people in the draft over looked the value of these players as I was able to snag up a couple names leaving other people thinking, "WTF is he doing" Of course I have never been in a league that started 2 QBs (one is a flex but if you can start em, I have heard that you MUST start one for most points. The QBs in this league do put up huge points and I got left out to dry because I waited too long to get atleast 1 top notch starter and instead got stuck with two flaky scrub QBs but have potential upsides to both of them, So I will make the best of what I got. All the Top notch QBs were gone by the 3 or 4th round and by all I mean top 20 (being a 16 team league.) Even though I was lacking good QBs I feel like I racked up on every other position and even some pretty good depth on bench So overall I should be OK. Here's my starting roster for week 1.

Seattle Seagulls
QB Alex Smith 49ers

Touchdown Machine

RB Arian Foster HOU
RB Peyton Hillis CLE
WR Larry Fitzgerald ARI
WR Dez Bryant DAL (bonus for Return yardage)
TE Vernon Davis 49ers
W/T Jeremy Maclin PHI
W/R Leon Washington SEA (RET)
W/R/T Eric Weems ATL (RET)
Q/W/R/T Andy Dalton CIN
K Dan Carpenter MIA
DEF New Orleans
D Paul Poslunszky LB JAC
D Troy Polumalu S PIT
D Scott Fujita LB CLE

Human Bulldozer

Bench
Steve Breaston WR KC
Roy Helu RB WAS
Anthony Armstrong WR WAS
Jerome Harrison RB DET
Garret Hartley K NO

Hopefully Andy Dalton will be as productive as he was for TCU because with Benson getting as old as he is there wont be much of a ground game. The only way to open it up is if they can produce some kind of passing game. As far as Alex Smith with the 49ers, The addition of Braylon Edwards to go along with Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis is a big help. So hopefully this will bring back the west coast offense and lots of touchdowns in the Faaaaaaaaaabulous land of San Francisco.

Spider Man of NFL

Will catch everything Desean won't

In My local $50 league, The wonderful commish decided it would be a good idea to hold a draft at 10 pm on a weeknight where people have work in the morning. I decided to give him hell for this but was hoping everyone would be semi delirious and would make silly ass picks that I could take advantage of. It is a standard PPR League with a W/T replacing the TE position. You didn't even have to have a TE on your team as it was optional. I had the last pick of the first round and first pick of the 2nd round. I love back to back picks and felt like I got most of the players that I wanted in every round. only part where someone snagged the QB in the first round where I wanted Drew Brees but settled for Matt Ryan later in round 3/4 so it wasn't too bad. I need to redeem myself for last year missing the playoffs and going on a total meltdown LOL so these dudes better be ready. Going change my team name to the Phone Crushers after this blog (Cause I went on life tilt and destroyed my phone when they benched RBs in the NE vs. NYJ game that I needed to catch up to make the playoffs. Here's my starting Roster for week 1. (Hopefully my Rookie RB will do it big thursday night!)

Ryan, Turner, Gonzales better go beast mode this year!

The Phone Crushers
QB Matt Ryan ATL
RB Micheal Turner ATL
RB Mark Ingram NO
WR Andre Johnson HOU
WR Jeremy Maclin PHI
W/T Percy Harvin MIN
K Gostkowski NE
DEF Balt. Ravens

Bench

Saints finally have a dependable run game again!

QB Matt Hasselback TEN
QB Matt Cassell KC
RB Cedric Benson CIN
RB Daniel Thomas MIA
WR Mike Williams SEA
WR Jordy Nelson GB
WR Steve Smith PHI
TE Tony Gonzalez ATL

This man will eat your children...Not one to be F'd with

I have alot of depth on this team IMO just depends on who produces the most points. Only flub I made was drafting Cassell when Ryan's Bye week was week 8 so I had to draft Hassellback to counter this. Sleepers on this team are my 2 rookie Running backs and Steve Smith for his move to Philly from New York. I think Mike Williams with SEA will be a good pick if Whitehurst starts over poo poo Tavaris Jackson.



Time to start dominating these fools!!!! Can't wait for Thursday New Orleans Saints vs. Green Bay Packers
2009 Super Bowl Champs vs. 2010 Champs.


Matt Stroud