Ragin Cajuns (In HUD we Trust)..some poker recap as well

I haven't been playing much poker lately due to being busy with work and committing alot of time with Football. I am trying to read articles and keep tracked with players success while I am not able to play. Last time I played in a casino was at shorty's weekly tournament where I annoyingly bubbled 2 away from the money....(So even missed out on the bubble money) when this old regular was just getting lucky on me to go from one chip to taking my stack. First he had 7 5 and put his last chip in when i was in the sb and another small stack shoved (I had 40k and short stack utg had 15k old regular had 5k) blinds were 5k 10k. It was a good structure until the end of the tournament when it just turns into a shovament but I don't think I played bad. Well Old regular's 75 off beats my A 10 suited and the guy with 15k had like a small pp and I couldn't out flop either guy, (Old reg spiked a 5 to win) Then the next hand Old reg had A6 off and I called with K 9 suited....no luck again. finally at blinds of 10 20k I have one big blind and Old reg shoves with A10suited, I wake up with QQ but of course the Ace is in the window and I don't catch up. I wish I ran like gold....but that's how I roll...

I already touched on the APP Championship FreeRoll but didn't discuss the Cash game afterwards. It started out very aggravating as I started catching more hands but just 2nd best. For some reason I was in an aggravated mood the whole time that night and was letting it affect my play for the beginning but finally calmed down after a while and started focusing. I would flop 2 pair when someone flops a flush, straddle and see AK Suited and someone has AA ( put him on JJ-QQ but was a bit off with my read there but wasnt doubting his strength) He raised the straddle to $4.50 as it folded to me I 4bet to $15 ( He has about 180 and I have $80) he says all in as if he didnt want action and I figured Im just worried about two hands so Ill go for it Was in the game for $60) He says...well how much do you want to play for and I was like....I'm fine with just the pot and we agree to keep the $15 bets in the pot for a $32 pot (Blinds were .25 .50) and we ended up splitting as a straight hit the board I made it on the turn then the K on the river gave him the straight as well. We were playing half NLHE half PLO and there were a couple hands where I just got out played by the same guy and even though I put a read on him I didn't follow through and did the opposite. I was so annoyed because the first hand he was talking alot and he check called to the river in Omaha, I had the straight with a flushdraw betting into him. He called then Bets into me All in when the board Paired on the river....Then he started Talking and acting weird....not weird like nervous...but weird like OVER confident Giving me the feeling like he is just makign a play at the pot, but I wasnt 100% sure and was working my stack back so I didnt wanna blow it on a misread. Well I folded and he shows what I put him on the busted flush draw...Then later I flop Top Pair on a low board with my suited connector 9 7 4 rainbow and I bet 1/3 pot and he shoves again....this time I ask him...are you doing that to me again...and he didn't say anything...he was being quiet and hunching over. Showing weakness but I was like wow he might have a monster.........what do I do? out of frustration I call and he shows a set of sevens. I got out played and was annoyed. Told them I was done for the night but being at my place already I couldn't leave and watched them play a few revolutions. I decided to put $60 as my last buy in as there was still alot of money on the table and I know I could get my money back if not more. I start winning pots, playing more focused, and finally at 3am (game started at 1030pm) I broke even cashing out $120.

Now about football. Louisiana Football has been great so far. LSU is undefeated and ranked #1 in the country. (not really a fan but that is impressive, even with all the controversy around Jordan Jefferson). The Saints are doing great and beat 2 really good teams this year and almost got the upper hand on the defending super bowl champs in a shootout. But NO ONE....except for us UL Diehards and the football team itself...expected UL Ragin Cajuns to be 4-1 at this point with their only loss coming to Oklahoma St ranked 8th in the country. All the sports media and even some UL fans picked FIU to win the Sun Belt conference. So after going 2-1 with a nice win over Nicholls St. at home in front of 27,000 fans (Max capacity at Cajun Field is 31,000) UL goes to Miami, FL on FIU pussies campus and debuts the black helmets and black pants for the first time in school history. The players are pumped, the coaches are pumped and the fans are huddled nervously infornt of their computers watching ESPN3.com in anticipation for the game! It was gonna be interesting to see how our offense came out and with Blaine Gautier (has 2 consecutive 300 yd games) earning the QB starting spot it was a great decision as he propelled the offense to beat FIU 36-31 ( FIU was coming off a 3-0 start beating Louisville and Central Florida).

Debuting the Black helmets and pants for the huge upset!

This was a Huge win over Defending SunBelt champs that were getting all kinds of national attention and even some thinking they were going to go undefeated for the year. UL has ended that hype and shut the critics up in One night and Next victim was going to be the other F_U in the FAU Owls. UL has a history of flopping the next week of winning a big game vs. a lesser opponent and FAU also has a history of beating the crap out of the Ragin Cajuns (who hasn't beaten the Owls since 2006 6-0) UL should have beat the Owls last year but Rickey Bustle was seeing the end of his tenure at UL and opted to go for 2 instead of the PAT That would have tied the game and ended up losing by one point when they could not convert the 2 pointer. This year we had Home field advantage, 26,000+ fans in the stands, and a new confidence in the Head Coach Mark Hudspeth and His team who were ready to battle for 4 quarters and not just the first half of the game like last year as we seemed to sputter out towards the end. This was also really evident as FAU's players would drop out with injuries in the 3rd and 4th quarters, our guys were holding up strong and we have not witnessed any major injuries as our guys are just in better shape physically and mentally which has been paying HUGE dividends.

Harry "Power to the" Peoples

The Crowd was pumped up all game and it was an exciting atmosphere!

Harry Peoples has been consistent all year so far and this was definitely his breakout game! He had 12 receptions for 176 yards and helped propel the offense to dominate the FAU defense. He had an awesome one handed catch for about a 30-40 gain late in the 4th quarter to put UL in scoring position to set up the game winning field goal with only 2 seconds left. The Cajuns had a 2 touchdown lead in the fourth quarter and as scores of people started leading the game thinking the game was over, the Owls fought back and had 2 scoring drives to tie it up leaving the Cajuns 1:38 on the clock to answer with no timeouts left. This team has 15-16 Freshman getting quality playing time, so the future is VERY bright for the Ragin Cajuns. If I were you I would start jumping on the bandwagon right now if you're not part of the family already because it is going to be a fun ride and you can expect more dominant years in Cajun Country to come. Next up is Troy at home followed by North Texas at home, If we win these two games at home it will clinch bowl eligibilty and UL could be looking at their first Bowl game in school history of Division I football. Their last bowl game was the Grantland Rice Bowl in 1970 when they lost by 1 point to Tennessee St. as We were called USL at the time. Next week vs. Troy Trojans will be probably the biggest game at home and If UL beats Troy then that can line the Cajuns up perfectly to win their first out right Sun Belt Championship but we are gonna take it one game at a time. Hope to see you guys at the swamp, I'll be the same spot I'm always at...50 yd line in the Red Zone! Geaux Cajuns!!

Matt Stroud