Grinding against the Grain

L'auberge visit and Decent Cash game profit.

2012-02-29T16:12:00.002-06:00

Recently I made a Journey to check out the Poker Room I've been hearing so much about in Lake Charles, LA at the L'auberge du Lac Casino Resort. I heard things like you have to get there early just to sit at a table and that the game is always full. I heard they had a 6 - 12 Limit game and a steady 2-5 NL Holdem game (Which this was true) but when I arrived, I just realized I am not rich enough to be there lol. Basically the Poker Room was about 7 or 8 tables and they had a spread of two 4-8 Limit tables and two 2-5 NL tables. I Put my name on both lists and had an open seat on 4 8 limit. So I sat and played until there was a 2-5 seat to open up and that didn't take very long at all.

When I moved to NL, I only brought $300 on me and Minimum buy in was $200. Looking at the table, the average stack was about $500 and there were two players with $1k+ so I just opted to buy in for All $300 and just try to have a single barrel for the day. I really hate doing that but I also drove two hours to play so I didn't want to just leave because there wasn't a 1 2 NL game that I prefer to play and I've heard that there were some juicy games. Well starting out at this table I realize that it is a must move table but the players were extremely tight and timid and it didn't take long for me to start opening up my game as the standard raise was suprisingly $15-20 to get heads up. I wasn't used to this being that other 2-5 and 5-5 games I've played the standard was $25-40. I was loving it and having my way with the table. I went on a 3 hand heater and basically stacked a guy with KK when he made a weak attempt to bluff me off my hand on a Q high board with both the Flush and Straight were showing but with his cheesy smile and the way he was staring me down, I just had the vibe that he was ACTING strong but actually weak. I made the call and he showed Q5os for top pair and I scooped a nice $280 pot. The next two hands added an additional 80 bucks to my stack then the Table broke to fill the other two NL tables and I had $645 and a decision to just Cash out or sit at one of the tables that I recognized multiple solid players and very little fish. This was aggravating and the Average stack went from $500ish to about $800-$1000. Instead of doing the wise thing and just cashing out and taking the $345 profit, I decided to take my chances and sat next to a guy I know to be pretty loose but also pretty good as well. There were a couple others that were loose and I quickly got a bad end of a hand when my QQ was outdrawn by AQ on a 10J5A8 board then another hand where a guy flopped the straight vs. my top pair top kick. I get down to my initial buy in and floated around that spot when I chose to call a guy who has been raising light and betting hard to steal pots with 76os. There was one other caller in Late position with the Raiser in Middle position and I was in the BB. Flop came J54 with two clubs and I bet about 1/3 the pot and was immediately 3bet by the original raiser. I figured him for something like QJ, J10, J9 at best or even a PP but no set. The guy in late position folds and I flat. The turn card brings the Kc and there is about 165 in the middle while I have 235 behind, I just immediately shove and the dealer takes my chips and starts to count my stack. The original raiser tanks for a bit and then makes the call showing 54 off suit for two pair. I hit a 7 on the river that doesn't help and realize I had the guy covered by about $18 bucks. Take my money then get up from the table looking to cash out. I regret making that move just because I shouldn't have played the hand preflop to begin with. Honestly I shouldn't have even sat at the table since it was a bad decision based off Game Selection in the first place. That is a key component from being a Profitable poker player to a losing poker player....Game Selection.

Well Moving on to Friday for the league game I continued to display my great show of bad luck in the tournament by raising preflop with 66 and getting 3 or 4 callers then with the board falling 874 Thinking I'm good I lead out about half the pot, enough to commit myself, and of course my good pal Luckbox Leprechaun strikes again and shoves all in over me (I have him covered by about 2300). I make the call hoping to spike a 6 or 5 and what does he turn over......65 off suit....beautiful timing sir, and I just simply reply "That's how I roll...." as I burn and turn and burn and River two meaningless cards that dont catch me up. The very next hand I deal, I look at Qd9d and shove all in for about 2350 total and everyone but the big blind folds. He looks at me, laughs, and says, "What do you want me to do Matt??" I told him, "Honestly, I don't even care anymore haha." So he calls and I am delighted to see he holds Qs9s. I sarcastically say, watch the spades come out as I begin to burn and then count out 3 cards for the flop.....(Yes I am the dealer, how sick is that) Flop flips 10 of spade, 8 of spade, 6 of spade....FUUUUUUUUUUUUU I just kind of kill the deck then get up to go get something to drink while everyone busts out laughing. They say I have to atleast finish the hand to make it official so I quickly put the turn and river and write myself down as knocked out. I need to do some serious catching up in the next NL game to get back to contention for the top 9.

Well after that whole episode, I wait and continue to deal until we have enough to start a .50 1.00 cash game and I realize I don't have any cash on me. I am fortunate enough to have a guy willing to let me borrow a little and just pay him back tomorrow when I go to the bank and I buy in for $50.00. At first things start out slow and I scoop a small pot here and there and I am in a good spot at the table with 2 or 3 tight players to my left and a loose cannon directly to my right with the other loose cannons across the table from me. I slowly work my stack up to about $180 flopping Q high flush to beat Mrs. Prissy's 9 high flush on a cooler hand. Flopped a set of 2s to beat KK, Just running good for once and having hands hold up and building my confidence for the night. Then there is a hand that absolutely tilts the other big stack at the table that we were all waiting for. Beau Brewer, the guy I complimented in the past for his reading ability called a huge bet to double up with just a pair of 8s (2nd or 3rd pair) on a Qs 8d 3d board vs. the loose cannon directly to my Right who loves to bluff and make loose calls to tilt the table in his advantage. he showed 7d 2d vs. Beaus Qd 6d and it holds. Well the guys are like awesome play Beau and clowning the loose cannon etc. just giving him a hard time in good humor basically, nothing personal, then you can tell it was about to get to the Super Tilt point, Then another guy grabs a decent pot when he goes all in, then another pot......Then I look at Ac 4s in Late position and a minraised pot with about 3 or 4 callers. The flop falls with I think two clubs and maybe a pair of 4s for me and everyone checks. Turn is another club and everyone checks to the loose cannon who looks at his cards then decides to bet 8 bucks into a pot of about 22. I say let me check and see if I have IT too and look then Raise him to 29 and everyone folds and he starts asking me what do I have, and if I have IT, then calls. the River is yet another Club and gives me the nut flush with no possible straight flush or boat on the board so I know I have the best hand and he bets into me AGAIN. This time $20 and I immediately raise another $20. He has about $85 to $100 after the $40 and is still trying to figure out if I'm bluffing or if I really have it, then he shoves all in on me and I snap call showing my nut flush, He tells me he also had it but smaller then tosses his cards in the muck and gets up. I finish off the night for a profit of about $435 and make up for my trip to L'auberge. It was nice to finally run good for a night again. Need to start making more of a habit of that!

Greed shakes up the APP League (Host anyone?)

2012-02-19T10:50:00.001-06:00

So Recently the APP League that I have been doing has started back up for its 3rd season, and we had to move locations since I have a baby girl on the way and can no longer host the games in my house. The new place I was going to have it was big enough to add an extra table. We worked out all the details for everything to go smoothly and told the hosts exactly how I ran things at my house. There was a championship Freeroll at the end of the season for the top 9 players and each spot would get paid out. The only way I can supply a payout for each spot, as well as pay for the Trophy, snacks and drinks for each game, and Shirts and Card Protectors for the players is if $40 of the $50 buy in goes to the players that night and $10 goes to the Championship FreeRoll money (CFR$). There was a tight management of this money and I kept track of all the things paid for that benefits the group. Personally, I made no profit from doing this and was fine with that, because I enjoyed playing the game and all of the players were happy as well and enjoyed participating in the league. The few that knew they couldn't make it consistently to contend for the Championship didn't show up and it created a Tight nit group....a League.

The person that agreed to host were very kind and understanding, I have also done personal favors for them as well, given free firewood, earned a free night at Isle of Capri Casino in Lake Charles and told them they could have it since I was going back home. General stuff Friends do for each other. They were also kind enough to have personal gifts made for the baby on the way and I was greatly appreciative of that. I also took home their laptop which was from 2000-2003 and did 3 days of work on it to get it running better again and install a poker clock for them to use at the games which was a headache in a half for no charge. But what happened recently just utterly confused me. It's the type of crap that makes you wonder why the hell someone would want to ruin a good thing.

Anyway, Game 1 of the league comes around and I was notified by the host that they would be late but someone would let us in early. I waited outside for an hour, shivering my ass off and annoyed that I had to set everything up to prepare for the game until someone finally showed up. They informed me that Snacks and Drinks (Which consisted of chips and 6 packs of various can drinks) were paid for and as we agreed I would supply them the funds for those drinks via the CFR$. So we get in there and start setting up for the game. Have everything done and have a spectacular Turn out for 30 people! I collected the money, sorted the payouts and placed the money box in a separate room where only I and the Hosts would go in and out. Maxed out attendance and future of a great game! I got a crappy beat when the hosts finally arrived and sit down to take their seats. My flopped set on a K73 board (I had 33) and 3bet the flop to 1800 against a lady who put in a min bet of 800 with a pot of about 2800 and she snap called. Turn seems like a harmless 6 and she checks to me, I bet over half my stack because the 6 created a flush and straight draw and she puts me all in and I call Immediately....what does she reveal.....Pocket 6's...I am just in shock by how ridiculously lucky she got as I initially put her on KQ or KJ at best. But that's how I roll. So All night me and the luck-box ;) that helped me setup were both knocked out midway through the tournament but continued to deal (It was agreed that we would help run things and they just wanted to host, that was fine with me since I started the League). The hosts sat there and played, but occasionally during breaks and just random times I would see the host go in and out of that room, I would think nothing of it. By the time the tournament was over everyone was paid out and we were picking everything up and saying goodbyes, I grabbed the Money box with the CFR$ and headed home. When I arrived home I counted the CFR$ and realized that $20 was missing from it and sent a mass text to about 8 people stating that I will now hold the money on me at all times because it seems $20 has been stolen. Everyone but the host would reply in shock or questioning.

Then about 5 days before Game 2 rolls around, The host says he wants more than just enough for the snacks and drinks. It was requested before the season started but when I explained to them that It was impossible for me to give that, a simple, "that's fine I understand" was stated and I was under the impression that it was done with. Apparently that wasn't the case...There was no consideration to call me and discuss this or even talk to me in person again about it. No It was sent to me a second time as a demand in a text message....as if he was my boss....and It pissed me off to no end. It was about 11:30 at night on a weekday when I noticed the text and called asking was he serious and there is no way I can do it. I told them that if that's what they want I will not be a part of it and it wont be my league, about 3 or 4 days later I went get my stuff which was a peaceful exchange and he had the audacity to say, "When your games get started up whereever they are, give me a call cause we'd still like to play." I just looked at him with this, "Is this guy freaking serious??" look on my face and just nodded my head and got in my truck in drove away. Since then I haven't had much communication with the guy and been in search of finding a host for the league so it wouldn't crumble apart and multiple regulars of the game wanted to keep it going. A great guy and Best Man said we could hold it at his house and that his wife was cool with it. So I'm thinking, Awesome season back on...lets get it!! We have a catch up game and things are back to normal, but an announcement was made that it is only a temporary solution and we have until end of March to find another location because the wife did not agree to the decision of having it in their house. I just kind of Face-palmed and shook my head but glad she was willing to compromise for a few more games.

I also found out that initially the original host was trying to steal players from my league, basically begging them to come play at his house instead. Whats funny is he had no real idea of what he is doing and it just turned into another lil house game but with a $50 buy in he was paying out a spot for every $100 in the prizepool. so the first game he hosted top 7 were paid out of 15! lol I was kind of surprised by this news. I am glad to learn that he has decided to atleast rotate weeks with me and has had a change of heart about that, but the whole situation is unfortunate and just a pain in the ass. I just wish I could understand what kind of chemicals, electric stimulation, or whatever makes a persons brain tick created that random ass scenario to just completely obliterate and corrupt a good thing all for the sake of greed. When getting all my stuff he did want to talk to me and try to work things out, but I told him, "Even if you didn't want the extra money anymore, I know it would still be on your mind and something would continue to come of it the rest of the season. I know you would be unhappy and just don't feel comfortable having it at your house anymore." That's when he asked to continue to be invited and honestly, if money would not have been stolen out of the CFR$ then I would have most likely allowed him back into the league, because overall he is a good guy from what I can tell. Just some people have their flaws I guess.....I know I have mine.

Louisiana has worst drivers, and they are all targeting me.....

2012-02-01T09:34:00.001-06:00

Ok so, I have been having the worst luck driving lately. The most annoying part about it is that it hasn't been my fault in most of the cases. Honestly it goes to show Louisiana has the worst drivers in America as soo many polls, studies, statistics have shown and I hate being a victim of it.

First back in December, there is traffic coming to a stop on the highway so I easily slow to a stop, look in my rear view mirror and notice the guy behind me notices late and slams on his breaks to avoid me. He almost got me but missed...so its all good, I look back to the front of me waiting for traffic to start moving again then I hear BAM! then feel my truck collide with impact and notice another loud BOOOM! sound.....awesome. I get out a bit shaken and realized that the guy in the middle is concussed and can barely move. I ask him if he can move his arms and he does, then ask him if he can feel his legs, he is fine for the most part but his car....not so much. My bumper got the most of the damage on my vehicle but the other two vehicles behind me had to be towed away. Wreck #1 in the books.

A few weeks go buy and I get the new bumper on my truck and think everything's going good when going to work on the highway yet again. have about a car length away from the Truck in front of me with the roads damp, suddenly I see his break lights and immediately slam on my breaks. This doesn't matter as my anti lock breaks kick in and I am in the twilight zone where time just slows down and about 5,000 thoughts are hitting me all at once, but the loudest one that kept repeating to myself as I get closer and closer to the truck is...."Oh Shit......Oh shit.....Oh shit......OH SHIT.....BOOM! It didn't stop there, The SUV behind me also noticed late, but thankfully she didn't just slam on her breaks but also swerved into the middle median to avoid my truck all together. This would have been a much worse wreck and I probably would have been the poor guy in the first wreck if she wouldn't have done this, so I was very Thankful that she reacted in that way......and kind of wish I would have reacted the same. As I am getting out of my truck to make sure everyone is ok, I am thinking to myself, "Just what I need. Another wreck to start my day off right." I Look at the guy's truck and we both assess the damage. My front bumper is a bit dinged up but nothing I can't adjust myself and his truck shows barely any sign of a wreck at all. He confirms that he is OK and the lady that avoided me was already starting to drive off hahaha. A cop pulls along the side and asks us if we need him to stop and we both kind of look at each other, shrug our shoulders, and I said, "No sir, there doesn't seem to be much damage, we should be fine." The cop looks at me then looks at my truck and says...."well get the truck out the road completely." Then drives away. I apologize to the guy and tell him I'm glad he's OK and we both go on our way.

What the idiot in the black truck probably looked like.

Yesterday, I avoided another huge potential wreck because I'm sure some dumb ass was texting and not paying attention to the road on a 2 way single lane road. I am just trying to make it home after a long days work and notice the truck in front of me swerves around the idiot Black Truck veering into our lane. Then I have to swerve even further out of the way to miss him and end up halfway off the road and almost in the ditch. I then turn to get back on the road....going about 35-40mph and swerve into the oncoming traffic and have to immediately get back into my lane....it was another one of those OH SHIT moments with my booty puckering out of nervousness but some how I was able to maintain control of my vehicle the whole time and was a bit shaken out of adrenaline yet again. If one little thing may have went wrong I could have ended up with either a totaled vehicle, serious injury, or both and Thank God that He is watching over me.

This morning was the 4th freaking experience in the matter of a month and a half and yet again, I was not the one at fault. I am just about to get onto the highway (Which also had a wreck due to idiot drivers and made me late for work) and sitting at a red light when I feel my truck pounded from behind and hear WHAM! Yes.....I love it.....I punch my seat in frustration and yell some sort of explicative loudly in my truck then try to collect myself before I go out to talk to the guy. He tells me he's sorry and wasn't paying attention and I am thinking...well it helps to do that once in a while when you're driving huh....and notice that there isn't really much damage to MY BRAND NEW BUMPER. He basically described the same scenario that I went through with the man on the highway but this was totally different since it was a complete stop...not a sudden stop. I just blew it off, look at my bumper and say its fine, don't worry about it. He thanks me and apologizes again and we both get on the highway. So yet again, I am a bit shaken from another stupid fender bender and aggravated that my truck is acting as a wreck magnet all of a sudden. Especially since I need to update the tag and want to pay it off with the upcoming tax return, just being an awesome time for all of this to keep happening out of my control.

Pretty much my reaction after each occurrence.

So drivers.....STOP TEXTING, STOP RUSHING, PAY ATTENTION, AND PLEASE AVOID ME AT ALL COSTS.

Matt S.

When Poker Room Managers wing it.

2012-01-26T13:43:00.001-06:00

Definitely my favorite wtf face, and most popular Jackie Chan Meme

Have you ever experienced a What the F$*% moment at the poker table? Okay let me rephrase that, have you ever witnessed a What the F$@# moment at the poker table vs. a Floor Person's decision on a hand. The gentleman that made the decision was actually very polite and a good floor person for the most part, But in the middle of a cash game hand facing a raise and 3 bet and having 3 players go to the flop. When the dealer burned then place 3 cards down for the flop, apparently one of the cards stuck to the cards and when flipped the stack over I noticed That I hit my set of 9s then when the cards spread out the Dealer reveals the middle card, and then two more cards.....Crap....Just my luck. The Two cards that were obviously not the issue spread out evenly but the other two cards were overlapping and one barely showing the other. I cant recall exactly but I want to say the flop was K 9 4/7. Ok so I'm sitting with a set and not saying a thing and then obviously floor has to be called cause of the mistake. Here's where one of the weirdest decisions I have ever heard comes into play.

The floor person walks up, asks whats going on. The dealer gives the run down as usual and it was detailed exactly as what happened. But instead of staying a smooth understanding process, this guy says...."Well......lets do this. Take the four cards in the flop and put the deck down by the side. Flip the cards over and shuffle them around. The first three you flip over will be your flop." Every one at the table looked at the Floor Person like, Is this guy serious?? I hope he's joking? and the What the F#@% faces were all looking and kind of laughing in disbelief when it was obvious which cards were and issue.

Don't know what the "WTF" face is? Here's some examples:

So If this were me, I would have suggested two things.
A. Just chop the pot and play another hand
B. Play back the events that just happened to determined which cards were meant to be on the flop. So therefore when the burn falls the 1, 2, and 3 card that is placed faced down before being flipped over is the flop cards. When flipped over it is now 4/3, 2, 1 and clearly the card revealed at the end would be the burn card.

Well after hearing the logic of "Well this case atleast two out of the three cards on the flop will be correct." and of course when he did this, my 9 that gave me the set magically disappeared fml. Well the three players (Including myself) disagreed to invest anymore money into this weird ass pot and just decide to chop it three ways and play a normal hand. I mean technically, I guess my plan B and his suggestion would have worked out the same way, but the main focus would be to not affect the Turn and River as well as the 3rd card on the flop. Either that or just pay attention to which cards were stuck. In that case you could determine which of the cards is the exposed Burn card and which belongs in the flop. But I am just a player and don't run the floor obviously. This definitely took the cake as one of the weirdest floor decisions that I would expect to see in a home game or back alley of a bar, but in a well established poker room, this definitely caught me by suprised. Had to get a good laugh out of it either way. The standard ordeal is a premature exposed card or a killing of the deck and usually it is a dealer that makes the error and can be easily fixed.....well with experienced dealers and floor managers. But when something like this happens, how can you not just wing it? honestly, how many decisions were logically thought through and not just a basis of "wingin' it"

Well thought I'd share this WTF moment with everyone.

Matt S.

Spare change for the Homeless and baby news (Non Poker)

2012-01-16T10:11:00.000-06:00

OK so I'll start off this blog by talking about giving to the homeless. I understand that they some how, put themselves in the rough spot that they are in. But, I also understand (or try to atleast) how hard it must be to be stuck in that situation and even harder not to dig yourself into a deeper hole rather than build a ladder (hypothetically speaking) to climb out of the hole. Last week I was filling up my gas tank and a man walked up to me and asked for a dime....."A dime?" I asked him. Thinking to myself, "What does this guy expect to do with a dime?" But then I quickly thought about it and realized that he didn't want to ask for a large amount and at that point ANYTHING would help. I have ran into this situation atleast 2 other times that I can remember in my life. And all three times I was definitely not rich, but atleast in a better situation than they were and felt the need to help them out in some way.

The first time it happened, I was living in Morgan City and just started working for Oceaneering Intl. in 2007 trying to make a name for myself and making just enough to pay the bills while bumming a room out of my cousin's trailer for $200 a month. I was in a crappy state of depression, never had money to actually enjoy myself and lived far enough away from my friends that I barely got any visitors. I went to Walmart for either groceries or what not. As I was leaving, There was this man standing near the exit of the highway in some ripped camouflage pants and a raggedy button up shirt in his late 50s - 60s. It just looked like he was on his last leg, exhausted sitting outside and his sign (Yes on a cardboard box) had good spelling and punctuation and was just asking for something to eat. I had a $5 left in my wallet, rolled down my window and stopped and handed it to him. His pure excitement and gratefulness of me giving him that just hit me. He was saying God bless you over and over with the biggest grin on his face. As I drove away, I was hit with tears running down my face. It was like That situation was put in my life to show me that no matter how hard I think that I have it, There is always someone out there that is going through a harder situation that I am and just made me even more thankful for what I did have even though at the time it was not much.

It just looked like he was on his last leg.

The next situation that I came across, I was going play the May events in 2009 for my first time and have been just playing the cash tables having decent success. I was driving from Destrehan where my father lives and making the journey back and forth each day (For 3-4 days). One of the days when I took the exit by Claiborne near the Superdome, There was this grungy looking young dude who didn't seem like he had a bath in a long time. I am sitting here with money in my pocket heading to risk it on a gamble when this guy is stuck begging outside and I can just feel his desperation. When I buy stuff with cash, I put my spare change in this Coin collector and when full it adds up to about $20 dollars. Well I have been adding change at the time over a course of a month and a half to 2 months and had near $15 bucks just random change. when I got right next to the guy, I rolled my window down half way and told him to put his hands out. He cupped his hands and I grabbed the thing and just dumped the whole thing into his hands and watched his eyes light up as coins started overflowing and falling to the ground out of his hands. Again he was overzealous and thanking me over and over. He was about as excited as I would be if say I won a huge pot at the poker table, if not more excited. I can't say that I know what these guys will do with the money but I do know that they were in desperate need for some help and I can just feel the pain they were going through. I try to put myself in other peoples shoes and know how hard it would be if I were in that situation.

Going back to last week, the guy asking for a dime. He was very polite, made sure he didn't get too close affecting my personal space and even though He probably lied about a bike that he rode, he did have a grungy cell phone that I guess the government apparently gives people now which kind of annoyed me but its whatever. I told him to let me finish pumping my gas and I can see what I can do because I didn't have any cash on me. Again, The coin collector thing was in my truck but all I had in it was about 6.75 in change. He said no problem and just waited patiently. I asked him to move away as I go in my truck and I'll give him some change. and he stepped back a few steps. I finished pumping the gas, opened my truck then grabbed the container. I told him here you go and dumped the Quarters, Nickels and Dimes into his hand and again. That big huge smile came out and he said AWW MAN THANKS GUY! GOD BLESS YOU! And I got in my truck and drove away as he just waved bye. Again, I am sure some how they put themselves in the situation they were in, but I also believe that everyone deserves the chance to get themselves out of it, but I can only do so much to help. I just got a great sense of happiness knowing that I had the ability to make someone's day just a little bit better even through the hardship they are going through at the time.

With the due date just 2 months away, We are getting more excited with the arrival of our little girl, but I am also getting fear built up cause I don't want to be shit deep in debt, but its starting to look that way. I think that is one of my biggest fears is the money situation, but like I posted above I just have to keep my head up and keep working hard to get through it. I guess I'm mostly afraid because I was never big on surprises and the unknown and this is definitely a big UNKNOWN. I just hope everything goes smoothly at the delivery and both the wife and the baby come out healthy. Unfortunately this will probably put a hold on my poker funds for a while as I try to adjust to this new life. But it will be hard as I am so passionate about poker and wont be able to put as much time as I would like (Based strictly off my income) hopefully I will be able to sell some action in some future events to help build my bankroll in some way. Registering for baby stuff was more enjoyable then registering for wedding stuff I guess cause I can imagine playing, holding, feeding (well maybe not feeding right away cause my nipples don't produce milk ;) haha) but I have been waiting for this moment my whole life (For as young of a life it is). I think this is the scariest time of my life even though it is such a big blessing, I am just afraid that I might screw up and want to do the best that I can. I know how bad I run not only in poker but in life in general and I don't want that to affect my little girl as well. I guess all I can say is I try my hardest...

I guess that's all for now.

Matt Stroud

Event One of the Southern Million Dollar Heater was Sick!

2012-01-09T12:32:00.000-06:00

So I made the Journey Saturday to Biloxi, MS to take a shot at the 200k Gauranteed tournament. Feeling Confident and hoping for some run good to make a deep run. I learned that Day 1A already pretty much met the Gaurantee with 681 Entrants and they were expecting to crush it by Day 1B. Well they did, and then some. It doubled as another 772 players entered the next day and there were fish swimming everywhere at the tables hoping to get Lucky and enjoyed Gambling for fun.... so basically the typical players you love making money off of. That's if you are running well that is. And this weekend, was not one of those weekends for me one bit.

In the Tournament I lasted for 4 breaks and had the pleasure of some Laggro donk snapcalling my all in with K7 suited vs. my KJ in the SB and then flopping his flush draw and turning the flush to knock me out right before the Break and crush my hopes of making that deep run. I posted updates on my twitter Account @acadianapkrplyr so go follow me for future tournaments.

Well then shit got stupid. I talked myself into taking a stab at 1 2 5 plo that was running in the tournament room and sat with 320. I worked it up to $838 waiting for a poker buddy to finish his SNG. I was feeling super confident as these PLO players were just calling me down as I held the nuts or close to it each time I bet and I felted two different players who rebought in for more. Once my friend was done we went look for some supper and decided to eat at the HardRock since the line for the buffet was just painstakingly long and I felt the pits of my stomach rumbling in hunger. After we finished our supper I made the mistake of going to the restroom and be pleasured by the graceful sound of a man yakking in the Sink the whole time I was at the urinal almost losing it at one point and hoping I would finish soon so I could get the hell out of there. All I could here is HOOOOAAAARRRGHGBLBHFRAR, HUUAARGHGBALRRAAAH, Repeat 10x.
I tried to warn my buddy not to go in there because its no pretty sight or sound, but he insisted he had to go and even watched the guy after he finished his theatrics once he was done expelling his insides.

When we got back to the poker room he was starting to head home and I noticed they took my chips off the table and turned the 1-2-5 PLO into a 2-5-10 PLO game so I went searching for a 1-2 NL game and ended up losing a couple buy ins to basically put me back on square one of where I was at after I lost out of the Tournament. at about 1 AM I got with Mr. Bill Phillips of gulfcoastpoker.net and he let me crash in his room and we shot the shit about random topics before we were both exhausted and couldn't talk anymore.

When I headed towards the Cash tables the next morning I was searching for PLO mainly 1-2 but without any running, I put my name on 1-2 NL and 2-5 NL. They called my name for 2-5 and the beginning of being trolled by the Pokergods Began. Its like they were trying to get me to lose to either 3, 2, or 1 outs the rest of the day and it was just brutal. One of the main things I hate about the Beau Rivage cash games is there is no limit to what the players can buy in for, so if you don't have deep pockets you have next to no chance of being able to compete with taking the swings of poker. So if you start to run bad and take a tough beat, or 2 in a row for that matter, you are screwed and leave yourself shaking your head. First, I buy in for 350 and there is a straddle for 10 and myself along with 3 others see the flop which comes K86 and I have Kc9c goes check, bet 25, I raise to 75, fold, fold, Call from the guy who bet 25.
$195 in the pot and turn falls a 3 rainbow board. He checks, I bet $140 and he raises me basically putting me to a decision of all in or fold. So I shove and of course he turns over K3 for two pair and I don't catch up.
I rebuy in for $500 and about 5 hands later I have $480ish when a guy with about 1200 straddles for 10, I am on the button and look down at A10 os. Someone raises to $40, I flat along with 2 others and there is $160 in the pot. Flop falls A 10 5 and I have top 2. Straddle checks, another player checks, raisor pre bets $100, I opt to flat again with 2 others to act behind me, straddle guy calls and other player folds. There is now $460 in the pot and I have $340 left and the turn comes an ugly Kh. Asian guy bets $300 but I still think he has AQ or AJ and I shove all in. Well of course guy who straddled reraises over the top and gets the raiser to fold and shows QJ. I am just speechless, annoyed, and wondering why this dumb crap always happens to me. I go back regretting I didn't just open Jam the flop, but that is such a scared way to play it I didn't want to go that route.

Well I am fortunate enough to have both Ross Leitz and Blake B buy pieces of action for the $550 nooner which only had 156 runners and I was also gonna watch a bit of day 2 of the 200k gaurantee as I had a number of poker buddies still in and chasing the money. Well I show up late and quickly double up my stack but of course the trolling of the pokergods continued as this one guy just had my number. I first had to lay down top pair with QJ on a Q95 board where I raised pre bet flop and he raised me then on turn put me all in. Then about 2 revolutions later I'm UTG and limp with JJ and the same guy raises 1,100 with blinds at 100 200 25 ante. I have 9.8k and this bet just looks like a small to mid PP to me so I jam and he snap calls and shows AA.....FML I am out after about 3 hours in the $550.

My last shot at anything I was going to play a $100 SNG where first gets $550 and 2nd $350 and we all did a $20 last longer. Before I registered for the $550 Bill told me the SNGs have been really easy and I took his word for it. Well this was during event 1 of course and when I go sit down. Here comes Jerry Monroe that won the IP Biloxi WSOP Circuit main, a guy that cashed 6 out of 7 SNGs last night while I was playing cash, and Andy Moon, a very talented young grinder out of the Acadiana Area. Needless to say there was maybe 2 fish at the table and the rest were pretty solid players. I started out great doubling through one of the fish when he shoved a pair of Aces no kicker on a AK10 board (I had K10) and knocked him out. Then I won a nice pot with AA and in no time had 5700 as the starting stack was 2000. I get AA once again when my stack is at 4600 and there is a raise to 450, then a reraise to 1100 by Monroe. I chose to flat as I put him on KK, QQ, JJ and know he will pay me off with the right flop so no need to rush it pre. A guy behind me with like 400 left throws his chips in there and the original raiser folds. Flop comes QJ5 and Monroe shoves and I snap call and show AA, he sighs and shows KK and turn is the 8, river 6...baby stack had 6 5 and triples up. This will come back to haunt me but I now have 8400ish. Instead of just going walk away and eating Lunch or something I choose to continue to play like a dumbass. What happens?? well I guess the Pokergods find out how good I'm running and decide to show up and start trolling again. the 2nd largest stack decided he was going to start reraising me every time I raised. So when I looked at AJos and raise my standard 425 with blinds at 100 200 and he did his standard reraise to 775, I reraised to 2000 and he shoved and I snapped called, He showed KJ os and dont worry flop comes Jd8d5d neither of us have a diamond. Turn is a blank, Im almost clear, then here it comes Kd on river to rob me of what I deserve and blasts my stack down to 3500. I lose another pot and get down to 2650 and another gets knocked out so there is 5 left and I have 2nd smallest stack. I shove first hand and collect blinds. next hand I'm UTG+2 and look at 1010 and shove again, guy who cracked me with KJ shoves all in, then SB shoves all in. The Button shows KK and the SB shows AK and I ask the dealer for the 10 to save my ass. Right in the window the 10 rears its ugly head!! I'm saved and looking like I will be able to get this thing again. Until the Case freaking K hits the turn and laughs in my face and says...yea right dude, get the hell out of Biloxi.

Yet again, I am down to $0 thanks to running like absolute dogshit at the worst times. Looks like its back to the drawing board as my New Years Goal of $5000 profit is now in the back burners as I start the year out in the negatives.....awesome.

GL to the rest of you.
Matt Stroud

Things have been BUSY

2012-01-05T11:17:00.001-06:00

I am finally getting around to updating this thing. I have been stupid Busy with both work and making sure the upcoming League is gonna be set up since we are moving locations. Also I have been working with a good friend of mine Mike Silvas and we have been creating a website for Acadiana Poker Players. We just put the site live to try and get some input from our poker friends to see if we can improve the site in anyway and fix some bugs that may currently exist. To go along with the website and APP League (Season 3 already. Unbelievable) I have created a new Card Protector that will sell for $6 a piece. I think it is a great price since most Card protectors run for about $10-20 bucks that are custom made. This card protector is made of Ceramic and is between 43-45mm in Diameter so it is bigger than a standard poker chip and smaller than a dealer button. I chose the Octagon shape to specifically differ and avoid any chance of Dumb Dealers or Poker Players from getting it confused with one of the two.

How do you like the design?

The company that is making it for me is a great poker chip company based out of Georgia I believe. He has mostly been doing this by word of mouth but hopefully he will agree to advertise on our website www.acadianapokerplayers.com be cause he always does a great job from my experience so far. I bought some ceramic poker chips from him as well as I always wanted a nice set of my own and he sure did not disappoint me. Thank you Steve Petusky as I hope to do future business with you as well as bring you much more future business!

The T-shirt situation has been a bit of a pain in the butt because I am still searching for a company that will provide good pricing and Design for when I create them. The previous company I was going to was charging me different prices almost every time I went there and I had to continue to bring my original receipt to prove the price that I paid before. They also messed up on printing my last batch of shirts, took their time to respond to my emails and phone calls, and always were very disorganized when I went to their business to pick up the shirts. I was tired of the headache so I decided to look for another company/person to do this and still have not found any luck. If you have someone in mind that can help me out please let them or me know so I can get this stuff done!

I Want to thank the following guys for helping in preparation for the website, league, etc. and also want to help bring attention to some of my friends who are looking for players in games they want to have as well. Thanks Linden and Barbara Comeaux, Jimmy "Luckbox Leprechaun" Rogers, and Tommy Hebert for helping in preparing the upcoming year for season 3 of APP League! Can't wait to win the trophy this year as I blew it the two previous years haha. Thanks alot for Mike Silvas in putting up with my continuous questions about the website and patiently putting up with me. I am looking forward to doing business with you and hopefully it goes great (He wants this blog to go to the website btw so if we ever get to that point I hope you continue to follow!) I am currently looking for players that would be interested in blogging on the website as well, so If you would like to give me a shout here or on my Facebook and let me know what you would want to blog about! And even though I hate to admit it. Thanks Mike Fontenot for sharing thoughts on things others are afraid to input on. You have helped make multiple adjustments that I have overlooked in the league. now we can just work on communication hahaha.

I didn't have much of a New Years Celebration as work wore me out. I went back and forth from Lafayette, LA to Port Fourchon, LA working on a big project for work about 5 times over the past 2 weeks and was on call for the Christmas Holidays. So when it came time for the New Year's "Celebration" I was just exhausted and went to sleep at 10pm haha. I went have supper with the wife at Chili's and also watched a movie on bluray before hitting the bed so it was a little something. New Years Day I hit up New Orleans with my buddy Tommy who suprised me with Last Minute Saints Tickets and even though the wife and mom was pretty pissed at me for not spending the holiday with them (I'm such a horrible guy) I think it was still worth it and fun as it was the first Saints game I have been to since 2008 and watched them destroy Carolina 45-17! My favorite part was when the whole crowd simultaneous chanted WHO DAT WHO DAT WHO DAT SAY THEY GON' BEAT DEM SAINTS" three times before the kickoff to start the game! I wish I would have been prepared cause I would have been yelling my lungs out with them. The amount of charactors that go to Saints games are hilarious from a Saints cow, to a Saints Halo character (Video game), to the Saints boxer and Saints' wise men, to the personalities of the long time season ticket holders that surround you in the 600 levels. I love every minute of it and would eat their $9 Jambalaya til there is no tomorrow but only buying the $8.50 beer if I'm dying of thirst haha.

After getting home and getting chewed out a bit more from the wife, The next day I wanted to treat her to a date. Well that turned into her wanting to go get some new shoes she needed. Then THAT turned into me getting the last minute urge to go bring her car shopping since hers was going to crap and we still owed a good amount on the vehicle. She intentionally wanted the Kia Soul....yes the hamster car (See commercial below) and I did my research and was prepared to go to war with the Salesmen but I knew that Tommy (My best man and long time friend) brought his mom to the dealership across the street of her house and she got them an awesome Brand New Nissan Rogue top notch for a stupid Deal....Like unbelievable. So I called her and asked her if she can help "work her magic" for us and told her the details of what we were looking for etc. Well that completely U-Turned and they brought us two options which were both Brand New that fit our Price Range.

We could choose between a Nissan Altima (which my wife owned a previous older model before) or the new Nissan Versa SL with all kinds of cool additions so we test drove it, liked the size, the specs (Bluetooth, Ipod hookup, 30-38 mpg city/hwy, etc) and Decided on this one. So Tommy's mom who the dealers and her know each other on first name basis with all the deals they have worked with each other whether it be with friends, family, or personally have started their wages. First it was the trade in Value for the junky 2005 Ford Taurus. I was expecting between 1200-1500....nope 2000 and that was on the first offer haha my jaw dropped. Next they showed us that they dropped the sticker price of the car from 18750ish to 16995. I was trying to get this lower but all they could offer was a $150 credit which we put towards a window tint we are going get done at the end of the week. The deal was almost done. I was getting second thoughts and Tommy's Mom smacked me back in reality and told me to relax, I'm getting a really great deal and its better than what we had, just enjoy it! I am so glad she was there to help us and we owe her big now cause we couldn't have got it by ourselves. I have a talent of getting screwed by car dealers but Mr. Skyler Vaughn and Mgr Greg Leblanc at JP Thibodaux were top class and very helpful and friendly throughout the process!!

Proud New owner of the 2012 Nissan Versa SL

I will wrap this up with some New Years Resolutions. Since I have finally come to understanding with bankroll management I believe I can try to work on obtaining a profit this year instead of either breaking even or being slightly in the negatives. Here are a few Life and Poker related Resolutions I have in mind.

1. Find a church and start to Attend Regularly. (God is Important in my life)
2. Continue to stick to what I learned from many great players around the Gulf Coast and extremely grateful they shared their advice with me!
3. Obtain a profit of $5,000 or more for the year!

I think number three is extremely doable and I hope to make it more but I want to start small and work my way up! Going to start that off with the $200k GTD at the Beau Rivage this weekend so hopefully I will bring good news!

-Matt Stroud

Built my biggest cash game pot ever!

2011-12-23T23:34:00.004-06:00

I go to Shorty's Casino tonight since its the last 12 days of Christmas promotion where they were giving out awesome prizes by drawing players names. Things that were given away are TVs, Ipads, Poker Chip Sets, cash prizes and the grand prize was a 4 wheeler. Well I didn't win any of that but did sit down in the 5 5 NL Game that I am still thinking about so I will write this quick blog to get it off my mind.

I buy in for $285 and there are some very LAG players in this game that also call very light. In other words I was loving the easy money at the table. I played a semi loose game but mostly had position on the very LAG players that would straddle every time and only bet when I connected. I worked my initial buyin up to $728 quickly. When this hand came....The biggest pot I was ever involved in. A guy that has DEEP pockets and loves to gamble at the table had been running over the players raising pre flop and just betting players off their hand. So when he raised his straddle from $10 to 30, Me and about 5 others call and there is $240 in the pot before we even see a flop. I am holding Jc7c and know that at best he raised with 2 overs but he has been raising really light the whole time. Flop comes 10s 9d 8s! Jackpot, I flop the straight and the original preflop raiser Bets $75. I raise to $150 thinking it will get us heads up and then suprisingly it goes Call, Call, Call, Fold and Call.....wow There is now almost $1000 in the pot and I have $530 behind. Turn is the 4d giving another flush draw to the board and I know I have to get this pot NOW so I shove all in. One guy contemplates....shakes his head, then throws his cards in the muck. The other guy is in the tank when the original raiser says I CALL out of turn....I think to myself...there is NO WAY he has the higher straight..I'm thinking flush draw at best or maybe 2 pair and just playing like an idiot. Well the guy who is in the tank says you call too?? they tell him he's not committed to it yet since he said it out of turn, The guy in the tank finally calls for $465 and then out of turn original raiser Calls also....wowowowowow wtf? I know I have the best hand. The guy who made the call first says he has a set and shows 88. The other one...the original raiser....the out of turn caller.....he hides his card, and like a donk Calls off most his stack on a draw, as I suspected. (He isn't the type to slow roll if you don't slow roll him.) I beg the Dealer to put a 2c to just end the hand and let me take down the biggest pot I have ever been involved in.....I say one last time...... Deuce of clubs please!!

The river?....

Queen of diamonds and Original Raiser says WOO HOO SEND IT MY WAY BABY!! and turns over Jd 10d and I just watch my biggest profit ever slip through my finger tips to a crappy suck out on the river. I'm not too pissed off only being in the game for $285....I just wish I could have held. At least I know in the long run I will win that pot more often then not.

Odds of each player winning                  Flop            Turn
Me with flopped straight                         41%             48%
Guy with set 88                                        30%            21.5%
Guy with Flush and open ended draw      6%            20.5%

^Approximately, had chances for chopped pot^

So yea....thanks poker gods.Instead of going home with a nice $2,500ish I leave with -285...sigh. Show me some love next time as these moments don't happen often.

Last Day In New Orleans! Unbelievable Game! and stupid long grind before heading home.

2011-12-22T14:40:00.000-06:00

This is it. The game I have been waiting for all season, but before I even get to sniff the excitement, The record breaking numbers, the nonstop chatter and yelling, and the feeling of losing my voice for 3 days straight, I had to wait for my crew to arrive in New Orleans and around the Mercedes Benz Superdome. So what better way to kill time then to go grind 1 2 until they get into town.

I bought in for $150 and played with about 3 guys at the table earlier in the week and the rest, well, they were enjoying themselves, I'll just say that. I make some decent pots, double up once and hover around $350-500 when my friend finally starts to text me. I take a hit and get knocked down to about $80 when they were just pulling into the parking lot by the dome and I knew I wasn't going to end this session a loser and also promised some of the guys drinks since I was having a good trip. So I added $200 to my arsenal and continued to grind. I fought my way back to about $500 when I got involved in a good pot to out bluff this woman who was playing extremely timid the whole time we were at the table and she had about $330 in front of her at the time.

I had raised in Mid Pos with KhJh to $12 (My standard raise that would get multiple callers) Timid lady, Old man who called my all in light, and newer guy who played pretty good and great psychological player called. Flop Fell QJ8 and good player and myself check and the Timid lady bets $15 into a $50 pot. Old man calls, Good player calls, then I reraise to $60 thinking this would be the perfect squeeze to represent the flopped straight. Timid lady contemplates and nervous about committing the chips...(So I smell blood) and then calls. The other 2 players fold. The Turn comes a 10 with a rainbow board and I have a feeling she either has AK, AQ, KQ, or even as strong as two pair, but I don't see her being that afraid of me with a set. but then again its a very wet board and I am showing aggression so I can understand if she did. I bet $80 into a pot of about $210 and is a little bit under half her stack, but still pot committing her if she calls. She squirms, winces, peaks at her cards one last time, then throws her hand in the muck. I play for about 3 more revolutions before finally getting up from the table with a nice +200ish profit then go meet my friends at Walkons down Poydras St.

It was PACKED in this place, and pretty much everywhere we went.

As I am walking down Poydras from Harrah's Casino, The closer I get to the SuperDome, the more waves and flashes of people wearing Red are passing me by. I am loving the sight. Just the fact that so many Ragin Cajun fans are invading New Orleans for such an awesome event has me invigorated! There was a $10 charge to just get into Walk Ons but they also gave a $10 voucher for food or drinks so It wasnt that bad, just more to assure that you are going in there to buy something and not just use the bathroom. Well you could barely walk the place was flooded with Cajun fans, ESPN 1420 was doing their radio show inside and Everyone was having MORE than a good time before the game. I sat down with the guys, told everyone to order some beer and was just in time to order food with everyone else. The table had 3 draft taps that we could choose from and it charged by the ounce. So I told my buddies that I will put a $100 limit on 5 of us (The ones that wanted to drink) and we all got a glass, the waitress turned on the tap and we started filling up! It was pretty cool. We even created our own mixed brew that Jacob Viator and Brandon Menard named my creation the Hazel Moon! There was a tap for Blue Moon, a tap for Abita Purple Haze, and a tap for some other weird beer I never heard of and no one drank. Well at first I got just Blue Moon and the other guys and Tommy's Lady got Purple Haze. Then I remembered when my friend from Baton Rouge brought me to this place where they mixed Purple Haze with Andy Gator. It really wasnt that bad and got me feeling good quickly. So I got to thinking, and then the alcoholic light bulb lit and I said. What if I put half Blue Moon and Half Purple Haze. They were reluctant to try it but I went for it and It was amazingly good! just the right amount of Orange and just the right amount of Raspberry! I felt like the freaking Willy Wonka of Beer!! I said this is great, but its nothing without a name so we started brain storming. Blue Haze...nah, Purple Moon...nah, Indigo Harvest....close...getting warmer, Hazel Moon! Perfect. So yes, I recommend you go try that beer and Represent the new mix of deliciousness!!

We get our food and I asked for no red onions and instead get a Mountain of fried onions, laugh of how that happened, and devoured it since I didn't eat anything before hand since the previous night! I didn't wanna die of a heart attack, I guess cause I knew what the game had in store? so I ate most of it and barely any fries. We wrapped up, filled up one more time, paid for the food and drinks and bought a guy a beer for saving my buddies ass when he dropped his ticket in the bathroom. Cajun Nation watches out for each other. Waitress told the guy to sell it (Obviously from New Orleans) and the guy remembered walking into the bathroom after Jacob and Tommy and was nice enough to ask us what row we were on etc. to make sure we didn't drop our ticket. We were extremely grateful of his kindness, and he asked us to meet him across the street where a little tailgating party was going on so he can change his shirt and we met him after playing frogger from all the vehicles and congratulated him with his beer.


Standing on the balcony walkway near the SuperDome!

We made our way to Championship Square, where all UL fans were having a Tailgating party equipped with 8$ canned beer and a band for your enjoyment. When we arrive, It was unspeakable to how many people were there having a good time and reppin' the Ragin' Cajuns (so I will let the pictures speak for themselves. UL's Cajun Field's Max Capacity is 31,000. We eclipsed that number twice in the history of the program and it was due to the part that smaller state schools brought huge number of fans thinking they can upset us. One accomplished that feat (McNeese in 2007 attend. 33,828) but the other didn't come close (Southern in 2009 attend. 41,357) I would say both crowds had about 60% Cajun fans, But tonight, the ratio of Ragin' Cajun fans vs. SDSU fans had to have been 95:5. One of the records that were broken were the Attendance record thanks to the 40,000 fans (I predicted 35k) sporting that Ragin' Cajun Vermillion and White. The previous record was about 31,000 and this year the total attendance was 42,841 and after 41 years of waiting for this day, you could hear it everywhere, you could see it everywhere, It was such an awesome experience.

First arriving at Champion Square

The walk way up to the dome

We decide to walk into the dome cause the beer lines were ridiculous and we could barely hear ourselves talk. Once we get in, The team is already warming up, the crowd is already rowdy and not even half of them are in their seats, and the band is doing a great job pumping everyone up for game time. Our seats were 6 rows up from the feild and right on the Goal Line and there was a Microphone for espn right in front of our section (I was thinking it was for the band but noticed every chant we yelled you could hear perfectly in the broadcast). By Half Time I could barely yell but that wasn't going to stop me and I am pretty sure that the other 39,999 fans were thinking the same thing. The game started at 8pm so this was a late one and The game went down to the wire. I saw the Receivers make some of the craziest catches I have ever seen, Just left my jaw dropped for a couple of them, The one that took the cake was this amazing catch by Daryl Surgent (Who also had an awesome Punt Return for TD earlier in the first half)

If you thought that was Pass interference (Which it was, but who cares right?) then you should have seen the 2 in a row when Gauthier tossed it up for L. Green in the endzone and the SDSU corner basically dry humped him for both plays and got no call from the refs. It was sick how one sided so many calls were going all game, but the Cajuns didn't stop, They wanted it more. UL jumped to a 19-3 lead early. The fans were raging, the players were confident, and strength coach Whitt's head was dripping with blood from headbutting players like a boss. The Cajuns wanted it more. SDSU drove down and fought back and pulled within 2 points to get the score 17-19, but the Cajuns answered when Gauthier threw a quick pass across to allow Lawson to get his second score of the night and go along with his 193 yard performance. If you watch closely after this TD you will see me clapping my ass off when they go to the fans haha, 5 seconds of fame! Then SDSU came fighting back with 2 minutes left. Our secondary dropped about 5 or 6 interceptions all game and had trouble stopping the pass all together, but what they did do was hold the Leading rusher of the nation, Ronnie Hillman who averaged 139yds per game to only 55yds on 23 carries! An amazing job by the defense to shutdown their number one weapon and another huge key to the victory! But that didn't stop the insistent Aztecs to picking apart our secondary and Again, Scoring and making a field goal to take the lead with only :35 seconds left and The Cajuns having No time outs left 30-29. So many people thought the game was over (alot of the Cajun fans, and almost all of the SDSU fans. But for the fans that witnessed The greatest comeback in Cajun history, for the players that held on to the rope until the whistle ended the game, for those that believed until there was 00:00 time left on that clock, They knew the Cajuns had it in them, and that it was gonna be a fight until the finish.

Gauthier composed, leads his troops onto the field after the ball is returned to the Cajuns 35 yd line. I turn my hat inside out and yell, Remember ULM, Never Give Up!!!" Hear a chant of "Lets Go CAJUNS (clap clap, clap clap clap)" and Join in until the band drowns us out with the fight song and all the fans sing along. Gauthier methodically moves the ball down to the Aztec 40 yd line with only 4 seconds to go. It is time for Mr. Clutch, Baer Nation, Mr. Special Teams to take the feild and put all the weight on his shoulders to carry the team across the finish line. The crowd is quiet, (instead of the 2000 Aztec fans that can barely be heard) and then Yellow flags go flying in the air. Referees announce "Illegal Stemming" trying to get our players to jump off sides and then they move the ball up to the 35 yd line. The Crowd quiets once again, I have my rally cap on, everyone is tense with fear and excitement. and then it happens!

THE CROWD GOES WILD!!! Brett Baer hit his career long 50 yd field goal to win one of the biggest games in Ragin' Cajun football History. It Felt like the saints won the Superbowl vs. the Colts in 2009!!! I am hugging everyone in an arms length radius around me and the crowd is filled with a sense of Euphoria that you knew Bourbon was going to be filled with Ragin' Cajuns for the rest of the night! I didn't want this moment to end, and am so glad that I can say I was a part of that moment, I was there, yelling my ass off. I ended up staying up until 7am losing -300 at the poker table after the game with a few poker buddies but I can not put into words how great this night will be and hopefully this will be just the beginning to a new era of excitement and winning in Cajun Country!

Hope you enjoyed the read!

Matt Stroud

Winter Bayou Poker Classic Day 3 Recap (Another Profitable day)

2011-12-21T10:21:00.001-06:00

Dude looked bad ass. Had to get a picture with him. More details below!

I arrived at Harrah's around the same time as the day before and again just waited around doing nothing for a little while, but today I felt like being a Degen, so I put $180 on 3 card Poker. Got my ass handed to me until he busted the table and nearly myself (Got down to $50) then played the Dealer head up and worked my way back even. Told the dealer it was fun now I'll go try some Mississippi Stud....well that was a mistake and lost it all just in time for the $175 Mega Freeze out into the Main Event. I probably would have sold the Chips cause I was going to the New Orleans Bowl that night.

The structure was pretty fast. Started with 6k in chips after the DTS and blinds went up every 20 minutes. I also had a pretty tough table with Kenny Milam, Bill Phillips, and Danny Dorcey at my table with a couple other aggressive players mixed in. I couldn't get anything going and kept running into AA or KK when trying to double my stack so I was out pretty quickly and down to only $55 of what I brought for the day to allow myself to play. I can't do crap with $55 in the poker room so my only other resort was to hope to get lucky on a damn table game.

Remembering that I profited about $60 on a Roulette machine Yesterday, I decided to put $50 on Roulette and try the same strategy I was using on the machine. I basically bet 2 of the Thirds and 2 of the Rows. they pay 2 to 1 so if I hit both I was getting a nice turnaround for my money and if I only hit one I would only lose a little bit. I was also keeping an eye out for patterns like 6 black in a row or 5 or 6 Even in a row then bet the opposite. I quickly work it up to about $140 and go sit down to make myself comfortable. Well I had to sit right next to some Ghetto woman that took the trolly from the Ghetto to Harrah's who was pretty hilarious to sit next to, but one of those people you didn't want to be on her bad side.

She told me she loved me like 4 times and that I was her good luck charm so I didn't worry about that. It's always refreshing when someone tells you, "Yo wife got her a good man AND A GOOD BABY DADDY!!!" I nearly lost my shit when she said that haha. Her luck would eventually turn, and she would blame it on another ghetto woman that would borrow her phone or beg her for money and would curse her under her breath, Then the person spinning the ball would miss her number like 8 times in a row and she was saying "I'm gonna FIND you making me lose like that, we gonna meet in the parking lot!! Take your foot off that pedal back there, I'm ON TO YOU Mother $*#4#@!!" Everyone else at the table was laughing at her and rolling their eyes. She even went to the bathroom for like 20 minutes and left her purse at the table asking me to watch it.....and of course I did.... She comes back and a guy is standing in her spot and she starts talking the same shit to him as he quietly scoots over hahaha.

Well back to my Roulette degen grind. I am Consistently hitting Both spots and occasionally hitting what I have hunches about! when the 0 came twice, I had felt it was coming and put A $5 chip there. I bet $50 on Red and hit, Bet $50 on Even and hit. After about 4 hours of playing I colored up $510 off of $50 and was almost back even for the day!!

I told my buddy John C what I managed to pull off and he asked, "Time to grind the cash game?" I was reluctant to answer at first but went walk to the Tournament room to see what they had going in there. I didn't really feel like playing a tournament so I replied "Sure why not" And bought into 1 2 with another $200. Of course I went up against a Harrah's Reg who knew all the dealers 3 hands in a row and he happened to have the better hand against me all 3 times, It was annoying but I knew he wasn't the better player than I am so I rebuy for my 300 and this Asian guy Immediately gives me $150 the next hand when he tries to bluff me off my hand on a paired river but I read him for having the flush draw and missing as he bet $100 over betting the pot. I make the call with AJ on 10J5510 board and he shows 88 then mucks.

I later pick up AhKh preflop and raise to 15 sitting with about $550 behind when a guy with $100 re-raises to $35. I figure at best we are racing and I don't mind racing for $100 in this pot so I put him all in and he calls and shows KK.....woops. No worries though, flop falls 543, turn gives me the flush draw as well, River 2 giving me the straight putting me at 650. I shake my head in disbelief and scoop the pot.

From there I pretty much played table captain and got alot of respect when I bet. I moved seats to get position on the reg to my left but after about 30 minutes, he moved seats to get position back on me. I felt like we were mainly competing against each other and the other 7 were just there paying us to watch the show. We got into it and took pots off each other but made most of our money on the others.

I had a good time and cashed out $1025 to get the profit I lost yesterday and had a pretty productive day for getting down so much earlier in the day.

Also I ran into this awesome specimen of a human that I had to get a picture with. He had like this perfect Mohawk Mullet thing going on, and was in a nice suit. I was impressed with his style, and complimented on the dude but had no idea who he was. Well hope you like the picture!

Matt Stroud

Bayou Poker Classic Day 2 Recap

2011-12-19T21:51:00.000-06:00

I got to the Casino at about 1030 am and of course, nothing is going on in the Poker Room, Nothing is going on in the Tournament room, and I don't feel like playing table games, so I go in my truck and take a nap until about 1130. I'm no bum but drove from Destrehan so I wasn't about to go back for just a little while. When I walked back into the Casino I noticed there were about 5 people waiting to start a Satellite so I go run to see what's going on in the Poker room with cash games....pretty much nothing still so I go buy into the Satellite and pick the 9 seat (10 to a table) the buy in was $125 and top 2 got $500 in tourney chips and 50 in cash. It still took a while before the satellite got started, so I went goof off on a Roullette machine and won half the buy in back when I put $25 in and cashed out $85 (Small victory already!)


Noticed some Free advertisement on the way into the Casino.

Initially the Table seemed to be very easy to pick spots and take down pots as it was mostly older gentlemen that are casual players with some pretty solid players mixed in as well. A guy that looked Like Jesus Ferguson's skinny twin brother was pretty much shoving in everyone's blind, and pretty much sucking out when they called.I managed to Knock Out a couple people and double through Jesus twin and then watched him knock two out at the end to get me the chips and cash and tipped the dealer $15 to pretty much free roll tournaments for the day!

I registered for the 1PM $350 buyin tournament and hated my seat draw. First I get my ticket and was placed in the 1 seat and a Super Aggressive player had position on me. As the late registration continued and the players came in late, I had Will "Poker Monkey" Souther (who basically hated the table draw as well and practically busted on purpose -so it seemed that way- to get on another table) Bill Phillips and Danny Dorcey were all to my Right.

I got down to 7000 after losing a few pots then made a really good call against the Super Aggressive player who is friends with Wunstel and Barousse but not sure of his name. He was a Super LAG player but reminded me alot of Bertrand Grospellier. I got in a raising war against him early when I had 22 preflop and didn't want to get it in with such a low pair, so I surrendered when I missed the flop. Then later he minraised preflop (as he did every single hand practically) and since he had position on me and it was folded to me, I flatted. Flop fell 383 and since he has such a wide range I really didnt feel that he hit any of the board so I checked with Q10s and he cbet as I expected. I decided to float to see if I either connect on the turn or if I could out play him on the turn. Turn is the Q and I have a feeling I take the lead and know he is going to continue to be aggressive. I put out a small bet and he raises me again. I'm not sure exactly how strong my queen is here and don't want to shove into a monster so I decide to just flat again. River is a blank and I am liking where I am at, but still unsure of my kicker. With the amount of hands he was raising, it was just highly improbable that he also paired the King with a higher kicker so I was willing to call whatever he bet. I believe he knew what I was thinking and truely put me to the test when he committed himself...and myself with a tournament life decision. I call and have a worse hand and be crippled. shove and lose, or flat, win the pot and get a good portion of chips. Well I make the call and he has A high and My queen is good.

I continue to pick some pots up but not much when I get involved in a huge hand and come out on the wrong end. I raised 2.5 with 8h 6h and got 2 callers (Extremely tight old guy and old guy that has a big cash in a circuit event.) Flop came out As 8d 6d and both players checked to me. I bet 675 into 1250 pot and get shoved on by super tight old guy and I know he has pair aces big kicker. Then the other old man goes into the tank, then with about 9.7k he goes allin over the top and I am thinking I have the best hand for sure as he is probably shoving a strong flush draw here or maybe a pair with nut flush draw. I am now wondering if I should just fold out of fear of being drawn out since its so early in the tournament, or make the call and hope I hold up to basically triple up again in this $340 buyin tourney. Well I make the call after some thought and I see AhJh from the first shover and 7d 5d from the other...and I hate how many outs he has and of course right there on the turn is the 4c giving the old man the straight. I dont fill up and my stack goes from 14.3k to 4.5k. A part of me wishes I would have just folded and waited for a better spot in the tournament but I know to win tournaments you have to win those kind of situations. It is still meddling in my head though.

After the 1st break I didnt last much longer as I get into another raising war with the Super Aggro and open with QcJc and super aggro min 3bets AGAIN and guy who turned straight on me just flats. I shove all in for 4.4k and then Super Aggro SHOVES for 6.7k. I am kind of annoyed but kind of happy because he gets the other guy to fold and what does he show.....Kd10d. I knew he didn't have much, but surprised he didn't give me much respect for a hand as well. It was a virtual Coin flip and I got completely out flopped as board ran out 10 10 9 Q J improving his trips to a straight and sending me to the exit. I didn't feel like investing another 350 into the tournament that ended up with 88 players so I decided to go sit down at the 1 2 NL game instead.

I buy into the game for $200 and get some decent small pots but my first big pot I hit a set with QQ and a guy decided to chase the flush and paid me about Half his stack for $150. I had to have seen AcKs or vice versa about 3 times and all 3 times I won the hand. I couldnt believe it. The session turned out really well and I cashed out $822 for a nice $622 profit. So having a nice profitable session in cash and still having $200 in tourney chips, I let a buddy borrow $125 to play a satellite and then bought into the 5pm $230 Omaha Tournament...which was basically a mistake. I literally played 3 hands in 2 orbits before I was out. First pot I check Called Flop and Turn with 2 flush draws and an inside straight draw and made the 2nd nut flush on the river, Checked it and of course the guy had Nut flush. Next hand I lost a small pot and on the Final hand I had Ad 9s 8s 7d and with blinds at 100 200 I raise to 500 and get 2 callers. I only have 4500 left and we started with 8000. flop falls 7 4 3 and I bet 1k into a 1500 pot.this leaves me with 3500. 1 guy calls and the turn is the 6 giving me open ender for the nuts and still top pair. I shove all in and he calls and shows two pair 8 7 6 2......on a Straight Board....I laugh in disbelief and need an A 10 9 8 or 5 to win the pot, but for some reason I have ran like shit so far when playing Omaha tournaments and completely whiffed as the river paired the 4.

So feeling a little tired, I decide to go back to cash game instead of just calling it a night and finishing with a good profit for the 2nd night in a row. I sit at 1 2 one more time. The first hand I played I get trip nines Ace kicker on the river and get check trapped when a guy played his runner runner boat sneaky and lost over half my first buy in right off the bat.
The last hand I played, I flopped top two with AQ on a Ah Qh 3h board and run into Two Flushes and some dude that reminded me of The Soloist with Jamie Foxx cause he kind of looked and dressed like him in that movie and was saying all kind of crazy shit at the table that gave me some good laughs the whole time. Well I dont Fill up agian. figured out that I actually managed a miniscule profit (Like $50 or 60 bucks) for the Day when I decide to get up from that horrid table. It all went down hill after the Omaha Game though. Well after I get some rest, I have one more full day to grind the tables before one of the Greatest Ragin Cajun's Football games I have ever witnessed to cap off such an awesome week.

To be Continued...

Matt Stroud

Bayou Poker Classic Trip Day 1 Recap

2011-12-19T20:21:00.000-06:00

It finally came time for my Trip to Harrah's Casino for the Winter Bayou Poker Classic and after seeing a bunch of my fellow Acadiana Poker Player friends make some decent cash in tournaments previously in the week I was feeling confident I would have some success of my own. I am glad to say that I only had one day of this whole trip that I ended up in the Negatives and the only reason why is because I stayed up until 7am pretty much just staying even throughout the whole game after watching my Cajuns win a dramatic game at the very end setting the SuperDome into a frenzy. But I will get to that later.

Day 1, 5 pm $230 Buy-in.

I Arrived in New Orleans just in time for the 5 PM tournament. I looked around in the Tournament area and it seemed sparse. After talking with some of the players, I find out that the casino didn't advertise the events much at all. There was a small amount of players in almost every event and the structures of the tournaments really weren't that bad (other than the satellites and nightly's which is normal since they are meant to be quick.) I had bought into this tournament twice as the initial buy in I played horrible, over valuing top pair, having 2nd best in flush vs. flush, not listening to myself when making reads, and just spewing chips. I lost within an hour but it was a Re Entry tournament, so I got up and registered again and refocused and sat at a Table with an Aggro Reg from Shorty's Casino and Wild Bill of GCP. I also find out that there is an idiotic rule of a 1 round penalty if a player exposes their hand, even by accident. Yes so if it happens to get a gust of wind underneath, felt sticks the corner of the card, hits the dealer's hand when going into the muck, poker gods don't care, poker gods make you sit on the rail for a round.

This made me more confident and relaxed and started to play alot better. I stayed patient and picked a few spots to keep a pretty much even stack with what I started with when we moved tables and the Chip Leader came sit at my table. I was card dead for 5 - 6 blind levels and traded 3 1000 chips with the chipleader for some Good Luck chips and got a good laugh out of that. Well Right before the break happened I had about 7,500 in chips and the blinds were 200 400 with a 100 ante and it was folded to me on the button. I shoved 7500 into the blinds and was instantly called by BOTH of them as I say awesome and laugh.
SB shows 10 10, BB turns over AK os and I turn over K7 like a true donk! Before the dealer turns the flop I say "7 7 flop please" and to my amazement the board runs out 7 7 6 5 K and I triple up to 23,700!!

We get down to two tables and guy who limped with a big hand earlier did it again.I have 88 and raise as it folds to the big limper who shoves all in. The way he played it, I figured him for two overs like Ace Face or KQ KJ etc. and it is for 1/3 my stack to knock him out, so I decide to make the call. He shows AJ os and flop falls 33A....shit, no worries though 8 hits the turn to get me the Boat and I am relieved and then the other 8 falls on the river for good measure to knock the guy out.

The next big pot I won involved this very solid old guy who just ran like absolute dog shit at the end of the tournament. 3 pots in a row he got either 2 or 3 outed to cripple his massive stack that he worked up and I got the last bit of it. Old Solid guy limps button, I limp small blind and BB checks. We see a flop that falls 6 8 4 and I lead out 1/4 pot. BB folds and Old solid raises 4000. I think for a bit to try to figure out what he could possibly have and from how he was playing earlier I was thinking A8 or over pair to give him top pair. I call and Turn is the 6 giving me trips and I have a strong feeling I pull ahead right here and decide to trap him. I check and he shoves all in. I make the call after some deliberation and had him covered by about 3000. He flopped the nut straight which caught me by total surprise and I think I make a huge mistake when yet again! the 8 hits the river to give me a full house knocking him out!! I now move up to 56k in chips with about 16 players left.

When we make the Final table, the guy I traded chips with said "Those lucky chips worked out for you huh?" I laughed and said, "It appears that way huh haha" I have to battle Blake Barousse, Corrie "bigslim" Wunstel, and Bill Phillips. Some New York Cash game player and a very timid young guy who was previously the chipleader was begging for a 9 way chop for about $1000 each. I knew Blake doesn't like to chop and Wunstel was also saying no chop. Bill Gets knocked out in 10th when his 99 loses a flip vs. AK GG sir. Then New York cash gamer gets his AA cracked buy a guy's KK and sends him steaming and missing out on the cash since top 5 were getting paid. There were only 48 entrants. As I try to grind to the money, I end up having to make some folds in a couple spots knocking my stack to 26k with blinds at 600 1200 and 100 ante and as we get down to 6 players I continue to try to convince big stack Wunstel and blakeb to chop. Wunstel informs the remaining players that Blake has to get a good share too since he is the backer so I figured 2600 would be good for first place and I was willing to take off 140 of mine since I was short stack to Blake giving him more than the others. They wanted $5000 which I thought was a bit much since we were all deep enough to play it out and 1st and second was $5500 when added together. If anything we were willing to offer them 1st and 4th instead. Then I started giving Blake a guilt trip to just cut me a break this one time since we go back and we agree on $4,600 so my share of the chop along with 3 others was $1,178 as I tipped $8 to the dealers including the two $10 dts for a $28 total tip. Blake got $2,200 and Corrie Got $2,400 and I also paid Blake back $100 for a loan from way back when that he wasn't in a hurry to get back but I had it for him if he needed it.

Original Payout
1st, $3,500
2nd, $2,000
3rd, $1,550
4th, $1,230
5th, $990

Chopped 6 ways
1st Corrie "Big Slim" Wunstel $2400 - $2600??
2nd Blake Barousse $2000-$2200?? whatever they decided
3rd-6th Me and some other guys $1178
It was a perfect start to a great week and I appreciate it big for giving me a break (even though I could have probably min cashed, the extra $200 was even better.

Matt Stroud

Cajuns to New Orleans Bowl, Hudspeth update

2011-12-05T18:18:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything and unfortunately haven't been able to play much poker other than a .25 .50 cash game I hosted and had a bad session when I made 1 wrong decision that took away a profitable night in Omaha. Misread an aggressive opponent and had less outs than I though I would for a huge pot.

If you haven't noticed The UL Ragin' Cajuns accepted an invite to the R&L Carrier's New Orleans Bowl for their first bowl game in 41 years and First official bowl game since the creation of FBS and FCS rather than Div. I and Div II football! This is so awesome as the Cajuns finished the season with an 8-4 record (should have been 9-3 but the refs who officiated the Arizona game was truly giving the wildcats home field advantage by either blowing call after call on the Cajuns or making up bogus calls in key situations of the game to hand them the loss 45-37. If atleast two of those calls were taken back, then The Cajuns would have ended up with the win. But screw it. I can not describe how excited I am for this bowl game and cannot wait to be screaming in the stands. This will practically be a home game for UL as we are expecting atleast 25-30k to go watch the Cajuns take on the recently announced San Diego St. Aztecs who also finished 8-4 in the Mountain West Conference! It will be a really good match-up as they have a beast of a running back who has 1900ish total yards and almost 24 total TD's roughly. So this also means that they must have one hell of an offensive line as well. If you are wondering who the hell San Diego St. is, they recently started gaining more success in football again and some big name football alumni are Marshall Faulk and Kyle Turley, both of which have New Orleans ties.

For everyone who plans to attend, or at-least visit New Orleans, expect to see a sea of RED down Bourbon St. as the weekend approaches for Dec. 17th game! It will be some wild and crazy Cajun fans yelling and screaming for the Ragin' Cajuns on their way to a rapid growth in the UL Athletic community and Their first Cajun Bowl victory!! I expect there to be an awesome New Orleans Saints atmosphere in the Super Dome and if I would make a prediction on the game, I would say UL Ragin' Cajuns 35 San Diego St. Aztecs 32!

Other Sun Belt and Louisiana Match-ups
TCU vs. Louisiana Tech in the Poinsetta Bowl
...La Tech has done great this year but I Don't see them beating TCU
Arkansas St. vs. Northern Illinois in the Godaddy.com Bowl
This is the MAC champ vs. the Sun Belt champ and I think Ryan Aplin is a beast so I'm going with Ark St.
Florida International vs. Marshall in the Beef O' Brady's Bowl
This game is played in Florida so upside to FIU, who was the favorite to win the Sun Belt and Marshall has a good offense but I think FIU is the better team and will have no problem with the Thundering Herd.
LSU vs. Alabama in the BCS Championship
So this is what everyone is waiting for and honestly I think Alabama is extremely hungry for revenge but it wont be easy as LSU has one of the best defenses I have ever seen in college football (But I'm only 26). I am confident to say that Alabama, though it will be another nail biter, Will be Triumphant and piss off alot of Ok St. fans saying, "That should have been us" as the Crimson Tide will be the New #1 and get their revenge!! I can't wait to watch the rematch (The one the LSU Tiger fans didn't want cause honestly they're scared). Alabama FTW! Roll Tide...

So yes, Sunbelt....the conference everyone thinks they can walk allover will be 3-0 in Bowl games and Alabama will be the BCS Champs

More about College football, There have been alot of coaching changes and Rumors around Mississippi. Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt was fired, Southern Miss HC was a huge candidate, with all the controversy wrapped around Penn St., It was rumored Miss St. HC Mullen was a huge candidate for that job with the Nittany Lions but Mullen claimed to never get a call, happy where he is in the Sun Belt (Who would want to leave the best Conference in the Nation for that mess anyway?? Well With so many Job openings around Mississippi, or even the drama starters that wanna mention the job opening at Poo Lane University, There began to have talk with Mark Hudspeth as a huge candidate with all the sudden success he has been having at UL on the FBS level. He has had previous Head Coaching Experience at North Alabama and Delta St. but that is on lower college football levels and not the "Big Stage". Well If you are a Ragin' Cajun Die Hard this is a disaster, soap opera, and heart-breaker all wrapped up in one because We finally have an opportunity to turn the corner, possibly move up to a better conference with all the craziness going on with conference realignments, and be a huge competitor in Louisiana with the other Div I universities (ULM, La Tech, Tulane, LSU) Right now LSU is on top of a Mountain and looking down and laughing at UL with their big hopes, but They will start shitting bricks when we start competing with them athletically soon. By soon I say within 3 or 4 years soon.

Well after about a month of sweating rumors on Message Boards from Arizona, to South Louisiana, to Tennessee (Memphis), to Mississippi, Coach Mark Hudspeth Reassured his Fans and Ragin Cajun Community that he will DEFINITELY be a Ragin Cajun Next year and Scott Farmer, University Athletic Director, stated the goal is to make Hud the Highest paid Coach in Sun Belt Conference! I was so delighted to hear this news and hope Hud continues to Hold on to that Rope that he encouraged all his players, staff, and Fans to hold on to because he is one of the major contributors to the rapid growth of success and support in this community and an abrupt change in coaching position would mean a Train Wreck to the university and the momentum it has going for them. So thank you Coach for choosing Lafayette, LA to start a historical Career and I hope you fulfill every goal and dream you have with the University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. Thank you for seeing the same potential in this Community and Fan base that many of the die hard's shared. Can't wait to see you and the rest of the Team in the SuperDome December 17th!!!

Well that's all I got for now but I'll have another update soon with details on my trip to New Orleans for the Tournaments at Harrah's and of course the New Orleans Bowl!!

Thanks for Reading,
Matt Stroud

Heads up Tourney, Sunday Tourney, and APP domain name purchased!

2011-11-20T19:41:00.001-06:00

Well last week was pretty busy for the most part. I am excited to say that I Purchased the Domain name and web hosting for 2 years for Acadiana Poker players, but I will get to that towards the end of the blog.

Heads Up Tourney
Saturday was my first shot at hosting a Heads up tournament and I found that the structure was great for a little home game but the turnout was kind of disappointing. I had enough room for a 24 person bracket, (Top 8 seeds get 1st round bye) like I talked about in a previous blog. But multiple people were either busy or not interested, so only 9 showed up to play. Had a handful of maybes but they never attended a game at my house before so the ice breaker is always tough, but don't be afraid, I don't bite, and I am not a poker mastermind apparently lol. Well anyway, my match was long and drawn out as I pulled against an opponent who had a similar style of play as me. Solid/Aggressive and we were really cautious of each other and not really getting too crazy. I misplayed one had when I had QQ and raised pre, bet the flop, but let her catch the river for the flush and had to muck, Then later I floated a couple bets on the flop and turn then threw out a bet on the river cause I smelt weakness and was right as I got her to fold with a decent bet. It wasnt towards the end of the match where we actually started showing down hands. The hand that crippled me, I had flopped top pair Kings and bet, she flatted. Turn gave me a K high flush draw as well, but made straight possibilites. I put her on a small flush on the turn when she bet all in, I actually thought I had her covered by more as well so that was a misread on stacks but I liked the spot as it could have went either way. I made the call and she showed the Jhigh straight. I ended up missing my flush to catch up and get shanked from 6250 to about 450.

The next hand I look at didn't really matter because the blinds were 200 400 at that point (We started with 6000 in chips and blinds went up every 12 minutes.) so I told her I'll be all in in the dark and she said well ill call obviously haha. I turned up J6 and she had A9. Right in the window the 9 rears its ugly head, then I miss the turn. Last desperate call I yell JACK and boom there is the Jack!! we laugh and I say can I go 2 in a row??
The next hand I post my 200 and look at Q9 suited and put 900 in the middle. Lets go!! She calls again and shows AJ and says GL...I laugh and say I dont have that much luck lol flop and turn are blanks again, I take a deep breath and yell QUEEN!! Boom Queen appears and I give my signature "Woo Hoo!" at the end of the hand lol. Very Next hand I look at 77 and now have 1800 and starting to creep back in it! She limps and I raise All in going for the trifecta and She calls with Q10 having 2 overs. Flop of course falls J 9 3 bleh. Turn was the 3, and then river crushed my dreams with an 8 giving her the Straight...gg me
She played a good match but ended up placing 4th and we paid out top 3
Congrats to her husband though for winning $300 beating the LuckBox Leprechaun (IDK How he pulled that off lol) It was fun and I'm sure we'll get more interests next time I have it.

Sunday Rebuy Tourney at Shorty's
The Sunday tournament I had mixed feelings about, I was feeling Confident but wasnt sure if I wanted to stay home and be lazy or drive out there and play. I already told a couple friends I was gonna go play so I got dressed and headed out the door. It started out slow and The first hand I actually won was Jack high when a supper aggro ATM was shoving all in every hand (It was unlimited rebuys for the first hour and a half so I was just waiting for big hands or trying to isolate vs. the ATM when I did get hands.) I finally got a hand where I wake up with AA on the bb and watch a waterfall of allins before I even get to act! I was loving it. I put a stack of about 7100 (busted a couple times and double rebought for 6k finally deciding to play patiently) Was in the tournament for $135 overall which isnt bad. Back to the hand there were 3 other players that were all in showing AQ off, 10 3 off (ATM), and K9s (yea idk). Flop was J 7 4 and I was feeling extremely confident as they didn't even connect. Turn and River also missed and I scooped a pot of nearly 30k. The ATM Fed me another 12k in Rebuys then the first break finally hit. I had about 45k and was sitting pretty nice but there was alot of poker to be played. I have been in this position multiple times, usually making the final table as long as nothing stupid happens, like coolers etc. but thats all a part of the game.

Well after the break I am hovering around 35-50k and just card dead, then I get involved in two hands against a guy that is on a stupid heater where won like 7 hands in 2 revolutions. Against me alone, he beat me with KK once and Turns a flush against me as well. Unfortunately I lost about 12k to him with the KK hand where I miss my flush on the river and knew if I hit, he was going to pay me off. I threw a blocker bet on the turn and was suprisingly raised, but only minimum. So at the point on the turn, it cost me 4k to win a pot of about 24k so I'm never folding there to draw out....well I missed Grrr. Then, I raise with Ah 9d as the table tightened up a bit once the ATM got ko'd by someone and got the same guy to call. the board came 9s 5h 4h and I bet out about 1/3 the pot to 3500. I believe the blinds were 500 1000 at this point and I raised 2500 preflop. He flatted and of course the turn is the 7h. He bets 3500 into me and I have the Ah and again he is giving me a good price to draw out. Well the river is a As and he bets 3500 again. It was one of those players that is tight enough to make it hard to take him out and makes it obvious when he has something, but dumb enough to not understand Bet sizing for shit. Well I hated this bet and felt like I had to donate again so pay to see his flush and he shows 10h 8h....bleh NH

I now have 24k and shove all in pre or fold for about 4-5 revolutions and post blinds. My stack hovers around this size when I get dealt Jd 7d in the cutoff and since it was folded to me (or maybe there was a player who limped early that I knew I could get to fold) I shoved all in. Of course, I run into KK, and the lady that beat me heads up...at MY house had it on the button lol. I have the worst timing some times and that is probably where one of my leaks lie sometimes, but I thought it was a good spot. Anyway I get a flush draw on the turn but unable to draw out and just kindly said NH and left to go check on my Fantasy Football scores.

Fantasy Football Update
I pretty much gave up in my $50 Bayou Fantasy Football League, but in Monkey's $100 FFB league I have quietly went on a 3 game win streak and last week earned an extra $25 for getting the most points in one week. BTW Will "PokerMonkey" Souther went on an awesome run at the Venetian in Las Vegas to get 2nd for $15k recently last week so congrats to you Sir!! I have a good shot of making the playoffs in that league as long as my guys stay healthy, I have JUST enough depth to get past a few others in the league but its a real close race and I play my division leader next week, If I beat him I can almost sure myself a Playoff spot with only 2 weeks left to the regular season (FFB Season ends week 13 and playoffs are 14, 15, and 16)
In the BFFL I made a few dumb trades in the very beginning and then the injury bug just kept attacking me for the rest of the year. This week Adrian Peterson and Shonne Greene along with AJ Green graced me with injuries to gaurantee yet another loss putting me at 3-7 lol I love it.

AcadianaPokerPlayers.com coming Soon!
Ok I am really excited and can't wait to start working on the website! My partner and I have some ideas and a layout of what we would like to display on the website but still are in the process of finallizing a look that will be attractive to the viewers eye and wont be too stressful for the reader! I will also have an online store with Shirts, Hoodie (Eventually), Coffee Mug and coozie updated as well, constantly working on shirt designs! The website will mostly consist of:

-Local Casinos in driving distance of Louisiana (5 hours or less)
Occasional Poker Room Reviews outside of driving distance.
-Casino Poker Room Reviews
-Blogs from Louisiana Poker Players
-News updates from Louisiana Poker Players' Success
Occasional random news in the poker world
-Bios of Louisiana Poker Players
-Link to the Facebook group (Just search Acadiana Poker Players)
-Online Store for great Merchandise

If you would like to have your blog on the website please let me know!
If you would like to advertise on the upcoming website please let me know as well!
I will basically be looking or advertisers with anything poker related and will discuss the advertisement package details to those interested. To start they will be very good deals but as the site gets more popular, the prices may go up so get em while you can!

I will set the goal to launch the website by February 1, 2012 so look for a blog soon!

Thanks,
Matt Stroud

Challenging the Big Leagues (took a shot last night)

2011-11-10T12:17:00.001-06:00

OK, so I know I am comfortable playing 1 - 3 NL both financially and mentally. But last night I wanted to play some poker, and was pretty confident in my game lately. So being that it was Wednesday night and that means weekly tournament night at Shorty's, I knew there was at least ONE no limit game going on......And there was....The game I always try to avoid....The game where I have had more horror stories then success stories simply because I am not rolled for this crazy game. The 5 5 NL Holdem game at Shorty's is so juicy, So much money is on the table, but the players are the Loose Aggressive kind that will bet at you just to see you fold. The hands that I saw last night were unspeakable... It wasn't normal poker....not to say the least. This was regulars that knew each other and were making big bets and even bigger calls in BIG pots. The best way I can compare it is....Remember when you first learned what poker is, you had a hand full of change (quarters, dimes, pennies) and you and your friends would get together and just have fun, play around and make some crazy bets on pretty much nothing, but just want to see if you can out bluff one another??? Well yea, Try that but with $5 blinds and $10 straddle and the standard raise varied between $40 - $75.

As I was playing "tight" while watching all these calling stations and LAG Maniacs go at it, I was quietly dodging bullets, over stepping mines, and planting a few booby traps of my own. Of course the very first hand I play was AA on the button where I open to $25 and this was when the game was more of a $5 -5 game and not a $5 5 10 raise 40 game (but I'll get to that later). I get a caller from the BB who is this really old TAG player and some Asian dude in EP. flop comes 10 9 8 and I C-bet to $40 (Bought in for $200 initially and had 180 at this point) BB calls and EP folds. Turn falls an ugly J giving a 4 card straight on the board and I know he hit alot of it but not sure how much. So I check and BB bets $75 and I go in the tank for a while then look at him. He frowns triumphantly with his nose in the air, and waves his hand as if he was dismissing me and says "I got you son, go ahead and lay it down" Usually this is an ACT of strength but I took it as honesty (wont tell you why though, you'll just have to read one of the books on psychology and tells that I suggested in a past blog when I was suggesting Poker Literature ;) ) and showed my AA as I folded. He showed 10d 8d and scooped the pot. I was like NH, hope this isn't a sign lol. Very next hand in Late position alot of people (6 players) limp to see a flop and I have Qs 3s and figure OK lets give it a shot (have 115 behind) flop is Q 3 2!! sweeeet guy in early position bets out $65 into a $35 pot LOL I think it was because there was a flush draw out there and he wanted them out of the way. So I shoved over the top and he instantly called and showed Qc 2c for a cooler. I held and doubled up now with $240

As we continue to play and my stack goes back down to $180, the guy directly to my right has been known to be a super loose aggressive calling station....pretty much what you wanna get involved against when you get a big hand. Well he is in the SB and I am in the BB look down at Ad Qd and people limp as he raises to $50 with about 35 in dead money already in the pot I figure this would be a perfect squeeze play so I shove for $180 to either take the pot right there or go for a double up. Well needless to say he wakes up with AA and happily calls to take my stack. Horrible spot by me lol. This isn't the last time we tango in the blinds.

I felt like a kid in a Candy Store last night.

The next time I am in the BB vs a straddle of $10 and about 4 limpers, super LAG Raises to $95 preflop this time. I look down at QQ and think about re raising but this is a huge bet (I re bought in for $300 and now have about $580 after playing a few hands) I figured to just flat call and hope to spike a queen or give a wet board with good outs. Surprisingly another player flats behind and it is 3 to a flop with about $320 already in the pot. I have about 380 behind and the flop comes K 9 4. I hate this flop and hate it even more when the SB bets out $300. I instantly put him on AA or KK and say NH and fold. Other guy tanks then finally folds and Super LAG laughs and shows his Kd after saying "Pick one" with a smile.

The Final Time we got into it in the blinds (yes 3 times, 3 big hands) I have a stack of about $410 and SB raises to $65, I kinda roll my eyes and look down at......QQ again...wow I KNOW I'm ahead this time and instead of flatting I min raise to try to get him to shove on me preflop. Well he looks at me and says "REALLY?? well I guess you're ahead this time...definitely if you have a pair..." Then he calls the $140, Again it is heads up to the flop, Again the flop comes and it is K 8 6. But I am sticking to my read and put him on the range of 1010 or 99 or just air trying to push me off as he saw me folding often and figured me as a timid player. He bet $300 and I have $270 left. I laugh and told him, "dude if you really got me again then I guess tonight is not my night, so here take my chips." and I made the call. He was like, "wow, you really got QQ again?!?! I turned over my Queens and he kept his hidden. The turn was the Ac completing the flush and giving another over card and I said...well shit I guess you win...he said "Nope, I need to hit your queen"
I laughed and said "Oh, OK" (that means he had J10 and was just trying to push me around). I scooped the pot of $820 and now have a profit of about $320.

Well Like I said earlier they were straddling $10 almost every other hand and they wanted me to join in but I kept refusing. So Super LAG to my right said, What if we do it for one round would you agree to that? I said sure if every one does it I will too. Of course this was during about 2 hours of just getting cold decked and no cards so my $820 stack was decimated to $465 after losing a few pots that were either second best or missing about 11-16 outs twice. Well I was trying to stay patient (Thanks Mike Fontenot fellow APP'er for keeping my head composed as well...he chopped 5 ways in the weekly tournament for a nice $900 profit) and then the mega hand I was waiting for came to reward me of my patience. I folded suited weak aces and weak kings in early and mid position spots 3 times and saw them make the flush for a monster pot but didn't let it get to me, just kind of annoyed that the times that I chose to play I would miss lol. Well I get dealt Ks 9s in Late position and an EP raiser who was playing fairly LAG raised to $20 preflop. it folded to me which I called and 3 others called behind. $105 in the pot and one player behind me) The flop comes 7s 8h 5s giving me a gut-shot straight draw with the flush draw and two overs, but I think I rather see a K hit and not the 9 hit) well it is checked to me and I bet $40 into the $105 pot. A guy behind me calls and the EP raiser calls. The turn is a 4c and it is checked to me again. I bet $140 representing my straight now (But still have a lot of outs vs. a made straight, set, or 2 pair and surprisingly BOTH call. This swells the pot to $645 and I have $235 left. The river gives me my spade but it is the 4s pairing the board. Even though This card was scary, I had committed almost all of my money for this card and if someone called all the way down with 2 pair or a set on the way I played the hand then I was willing to give them my chips but As played I was still representing my straight. I shoved All in and the guy behind tanks for a while again...then finally puts in the $230, and AGAIN the EP raiser Check calls $230 (She has been calling light for the whole night so I wasn't worried about her hand and put the guy behind me on a straight) Guy behind shows his 7 for the straight and before the EP raiser turned over her hand I showed my K9 spades for Second flush and they both shook their heads and threw the cards in the muck! Finally got the taste of a pot over $1k and tipped the dealer a couple redbirds for the gift on the river!!

How I felt after winning that huge pot!

I go order food then come back and play for a few more rounds win a few pots, lose some pots Before I start winding down my game there was a ridiculously huge pot that 2 out of the 3 players had no business being in and basically donated to the guy with a legitimate hand. But its like I said Earlier....This was not normal poker, lol. There was a pre-flop raise of $65 vs a $10 straddle and I was pretty much the only one that didn't call the raise looking at 10 4 off lol. Pretty much every one was licking their chops to this pot that didn't even see a flop yet at about $450. The flop was Q 8 4 with 2 spades and the lady that paid me off earlier was again in EP (She had no since of position and plays often lol) bets $95. 2 fold then it gets to a very aggressive guy to my left who raises to $250 (has about $1150 to start the hand) an older gentleman after him opts to Just call the $300 (has about $1400 to start the hand) and the lady in EP was all in for $245. At this point everyone was huddling around the table as the main pot has now swelled to almost $1200 and the side pot had $110. The turn fell a red K and the Aggressive guy to my left shoved for his remaining $650. This sent the guy in LP in the tank for a good while as this was a huge decision and if he were wrong, he'd be left with about $300-400. They were all regulars and the super aggressive started saying "I got you beat, You should fold." "I don't want your money, Just fold and let me take this pot, I got you beat" "You're gonna regret it if you call, don't do it." IDK if the LP just wanted to gamble or just didn't believe him, but he slowly slid in the $650 for the call and the pot had well over $2500 in it. The river was a club and the Aggressor showed a Set of Queens as the other two mucked their hand!!

I checked my phone and saw it was now almost Midnight.(I arrived at 6:20 and was on call so didnt want to be stuck in a tournament if I got called out) I figured it was time to call it a night even though I wanted to stay at the table cause the game was perfect and I adapted to it well. I was in for $500 and ended up cashing out $1450 and for once I can share a success story and not a horror story from the crazy 5 5 NL game at shorty's that plays like a 5 5 10 and sometimes 5 10 20 game! I could have won my last hand but every one knows the dreaded last hand play so I chose not to get to fancy with 10d 6d even though they were betting crazy and my 10 on the river would have scooped another $500ish. I was very satisfied with my night and hopefully the next time I sit at that game, I will be properly bankrolled to play it, but sometimes you just gotta take shots to get where you want to be.

Hope you enjoyed the read
Matt Stroud

Acadiana Poker Players dominate WSOP Circuit Biloxi!!

2011-11-08T13:45:00.004-06:00

I am so happy for all of the guys who made Final Tables this past week at the WSOP Circuit at IP Casino and Resort. The Cash games were juicy and seeing some nice pictures from friends and their mountains of chips and Benjamins. There were also the great performances put on by some local players and good poker buddies.

First was Mr. Gene Dudek (Gene D) of Houma, LA who started out the avalanche of destruction as he finished 3rd place in Event 2. This was only the start of his phenomenal performance as he also went on to get 3rd place in Event 9 and came even closer to claiming his first Circuit ring in the $1k Event 10, but got 2nd for a nice $20k score. Overall Gene D earned $40,318 in 3 Tournaments and 95 circuit points which could earn him the Casino Champion and automatic Qualification for the Circuit National Championship played in Las Vegas!!

Next in Event 4, a regular at Shorty's Casino, Mr. Casey (Jordan) Andrus of Lafayette, LA placed 5th in Event 4 for a nice score of $3,660

I have already written about Ricky Romero of New Iberia, LA and his first WSOP Circuit Ring he earned for Event 5. What I did not tell you is that he Made another deep run vs. a very talented Final Table in Event 12. He was unable to over come many great pros but had a respectable finish of 6th place to get 5th overall in the Casino points leader board and earned $14,605 for his efforts along with some great hardware to show off!

The very next Day. Event 6 was the Six Handed NL Holdem and another familiar face claimed the title to this event! 21 Year old Caufman Talley III of Lafayette, LA displayed his phenominal aggressive skills as he battled his way through 197 even outlasting pretty tough pros like Mark Rose, BJ McBrayer, and Tim Burt. This is Caufman's 2nd win and 1st WSOP Circuit Ring as well and he earned $14,555 for this Triumphant victory!

You know how I told you about Gene D's dominate performance at this years WSOP Circuit. Well his partner in crime Mr. Bill "Wild Bill" Phillips of New Orleans, LA also did some destruction of his own. First Final Tabling the $1,000 Event 10 and placing 8th. He did not stop there as he continued to steamroll and went on his greatest tournament performance and earned his largest score of his career in the $1,600 Main Event. He almost pulled off the unthinkable and won the Championship and Automatic Qualification of the National Championship but lost a coinflip race Heads Up instead giving him Runner Up and a great story to share with his friends. He netted $73,531 in just 2 tournaments and Also got top 5 in the Casino points Leader board for the Circuit events. I'm pretty sure he will be making the trip to Vegas with Gene D regardless as well!

Jacob Naquin of Houma, LA also had a very impressive run at the Circuit Main Event as he made some spectacular plays and once held the chiplead at the final table! He had 2 unfortunate hands that would later cripple him and then eventually go on to take 3rd place earning a nice score of $50,862. This is the second time Naquin was extremely close to tasting victory only to have the fate of Luck steal it away (First time was Event 43 in Las Vegas for a WSOP Bracelet) but as phenomenal of a poker player he is, the time will soon come for him to be reigned champion! Great show sir.

There were many more Locals that cashed throughout these events, But I also want to congratulate the following for their great efforts!
Blake Barousse - won the opening Nightly event for $2k
Randal Dubois - 28th in Main Event for $3,187

here are some fun hands from the Main Event by Jacob Naquin and Bill Phillips via PokerNews.com
Bill Phillips hands
Jacob Naquin Hands

See you at Harrah's in December!
-Matt Stroud

Poker vs. Ricky Romero! (Congrats on first WSOP Circuit Ring) s/o to Caufman Talley also!

2011-11-03T11:36:00.000-05:00

Ricky Romero

As I often do, I check the results of local tournament circuits and events across the gulf coast. (Mostly Biloxi, MS and along Hwy 90 of Louisiana) Recently I was excited to see a long time poker rival and friend got his first WSOP Circuit Ring at the IP Casino in Biloxi, MS. Ricky Romero (New Iberia, LA) was always a solid poker player with good understanding of the game and even though he wasn't the superstars you would see playing on ESPN or read about in Magazines, he was very patient and picked spots wisely to take advantage of his opponents weaknesses. Romero beat out 160 players in a $345 buy in tournament for a Prize of $12,208 and the Circuit Ring (See picture!)Event 5 Results

I first met Ricky when I was 18. I was going to college at UL and was invited to a Home tournament with a bunch of old guys (ages 40-70) with 2 tables for a $30 buy in. These guys have been friends and playing against each other for a long time and the best part about it was they didn't allow women at their game haha. It was a guys night, talking about guy stuff and not having to worry about offending anyone. They were good people and it was good fun so I started playing there consistently as they had a point system. I never really worried about the points and just wanted to make the money when I played (Didn't play there as often as the others) but Ricky was one of the better players of the group. He was good at getting into his opponents heads and throwing them off their game. I allowed him to do this to me at times but now I don't even pay attention to what he says since I know why he is doing it. Well one day it got down to me and him heads up and every now and then we chop to split first and 2nd place money but I wanted to play him heads up. We were even in chips, but when he asked if I wanted to chop I told him I kinda want to play it out so if I win "I could beat a local poker legend". I said this kind of jokingly but he is a good player and I always love the challenge of beating solid poker players. Romero already had a few cashes from Tournaments at Tunica, MS and also the Seven Clans Tournament at Coushatta in Kinder, LA and also had alot more experience then me but I was still wet behind the ears and like a sponge soaking up as much knowledge as possible (still try to today as the game is always evolving) I go on to beat him in the Heads up match and I think it kind of irked him and that is when our Rivalry began.

Since that day We have always tried to outplay each other at the table no matter where we are at. Whether at a friendly house game, or at the local Casino in the weekly tournaments. We definitely respect each others game but we never back down to a challenge either. We have even shared advice with each other and roomed in Biloxi, MS during a tournament Circuit (when I was being a bum). Ricky is a very humble and friendly guy but he is also very competitive to say the least. I am proud to have gotten to know this man over the years and Since some days he has had my number, and other days I have had his, I am confident that one day, I too will be able to get to the final table of a Circuit event, and one day, I will get that Circuit Ring as well. Seeing Ricky share his story with the regulars yesterday at the weekly tournament at Shorty's Casino was fun to listen to and everyone congratulating him on his victory. He has built up a nice resume in tournament success and hopefully this can lead to even more success, but I can also say that once my Bankroll is in order I hope to be right there with him. All it takes is one big score but it is no easy feat.

Speaking of the Tournament at Shorty's
I went play because I got 10 out of 13 right on the football pick'em contest so I was thinking I had a chance to win some money....well yea I was completely mistaken but In the tournament it started out really slow.
The first table I was at, the best hand I saw was 77 preflop and got no action (thankfully) but there were multiple spots where I bluffed to steal pots to keep me above my starting stack. Even though at one point I got down to 4k (starting stack is 8k) by the First Break and Add on Period, I worked my stack up to 10.7k so after the add on I had 18.7k which was good to do some work with. At the new table I got involved in a hand where I raised in EP with A7 Suited to 1800 at blinds 300 600 (I hate the Wednesday tournament structure btw....way too fast) and get a caller from the SB who usually just plays big cards and doesn't get out of line. the flop comes A Q J and SB checks to me so I continue to bet 2400 and she doesn't take long to call. Then the turn peels off a 7 giving me 2 pair and there is now about 10k in the pot. I think I have the best hand at this point then bet 6k and SB calls again. River is a 5 and she shoves all in. This was an odd play as I put her on something on the flop but I think she would have reraise me sooner with a Set and checked again if she had the straight to let me hang myself....then I look at her and she is just staring at me aggressively. This gave me the feeling that she didn't want a call with the (Act Strong mindset) she was giving me. I made the call and she shows AK for top pair top kicker. she had me covered by 1900 chips and "Couldn't believe I made that call" but I wasn't about to tell her that I picked up the tell on her.

After that I got huge respect from the table and was getting nice hands and picking good spots to work up the CL at my table. But I was also getting tired (For some reason don't play my best after being at work all day) and kind of lost interest and started bleeding off my stack. First made a bad decision to call a super short stack for about 1/10 my stack to try knock out a pretty good opponent. I had 87 and he showed KK and I hit my 7 but nothing more than that. Then an overly aggressive older gentlemen that was wearing multiple women's rings for some odd reason went all in UTG for 12k. I had 37k and put him on a hand like 33-99. I figured QcJc was good enough to make the call and got the others to fold. He turned over 66 and the flop was Ac 10d 9s giving me open ended draw with 2 overs....well I completely miss and more of my chips disappear. At this point I felt like I was just going through the motions and should have like stepped away from the table or stood up and stretched or something to wake my ass up. I guess my head just wasn't into the grind last night. I get 66 in the bb at blinds 1000 2000 with a 200 ante and I have 23k in my stack. It is folded to the SB who raises to 5k (He has 27k in his stack) If I would have really thought about it, Him as well as most others at the table would bet small when they wanted a call and bet big when they didn't. Only 2 people did not do this other than myself at the moment. Well instead I went over the top of him all in since I had 10-11 bbs and figured if he has 2 overs I like this spot. Well he snap called and I knew I was facing an over pair instead. He turns over QQ and there is no 6 to save my life So I collect my things and walk out. I started out playing very well but kind of lost momentum as I felt myself getting fatigued.

I just found out another Poker friend of mine, Mr. Caufman Talley III (Lafayette, LA) just won a Circuit Ring as well in the 6 handed $345 buy in for $14,555!!! Event 7 Results This is Caufman's 2nd Live tournament win and 3rd Final Table. His Live debut was in New Orleans where he played 2 tournaments and final tabled both of them. Only being 21, this kid as well as his poker mentor Blake Barousse have phenomenal poker skills and feared at the table regardless of where they play! This is making me want to be in Biloxi, MS so bad but I must wait until December when I go play the Winter Bayou Classic at Harrahs Casino from Dec. 8 - 18. I am so happy my Acadiana Poker Player buddies are having success in Biloxi and hope they continue to crush!

Caufman Talley III

- Matt Stroud

UL 7-2 Next stop ULM at home! (+179 at 1-3 nl)

2011-10-30T21:35:00.001-05:00

Well unfortunately I reduced my cable plan from cox to save $50 a month with the baby coming in, and this upswing in poker has definitely been helping. But, basic cable SUUUUUCKS and I didn't have any good sports channels so I couldn't watch my Ragin' Cajuns play MT on Cox Sports Network. I thought I had the plan all figured out and was going to go to my buddy Tommy's house and watch it on his Big screen because he was going to rig it up where he put ESPN3.com on there and we just watch it as usual. Well turns out the ESPN network wanted to regionally black the game out to the only area in America that really gave a crap about it and that's where the Sun Belt Conference was....I think it was because It was being televised on another network. I found this crappy information out at about 3pm and the game started at 6:30 pm, so I had to find out a new plan and do it quick. I called the poker room to make sure they had the channel and asked if my buddy wanted to go to the Shorty's Poker Room to watch the game and play some cards. This way I could get paid to watch UL go for their 7th win. He found a babysitter for his little girl and we were off to the Casino!

We get into the room just in time and I ask for them to turn on the game and put my name (and Tommy's name) on the 3 6 12 and 1 3 NL list. There is a new Cashier in her 40s or 50s that acted like she never counted money before in her life (I think she was just extremely nervous...for what idk) so that was annoying. I noticed there are 2 open seats at 3 6 12 limit. I really hate this game but didn't want to be bored out of my mind so I sit down and watch the game. I am absolutely card dead and get 3 big pocket pairs get cracked by sets and after losing $113 I decide not to risk anymore money on this game and cash out like $55 and just wait and see if a 1-3 NL opens up. UL quickly gets up to a 14-0 lead and people in the poker room are surprised The Cajuns are on TV! So far Tommy and myself have opened up the bandwagon even more to the depths of the St. Mary Parish and I am proud to say that I assisted in this. By Half Time the score was UL 21 MT 0 and the Cajuns were rolling and in control on the Blue Raiders home field (which was freezing in Tennessee from what I understood) So I was loving this. Tommy also cashed out being down $60 as we both enjoyed watching the new cashier cash out our chips and recount our money about 3 times. We decide to go play Flop Poker for the hell of it during half time and go back into the poker room to watch the 2nd half of the game. Tommy started out with $80 and I started a little bit later with $50 and we both just win hand after hand, then split pot after pot, and before we knew it, we both won back the money that was lost in 3 6 crap poker.

Alonzo Harris

My buddy Beaver is a Limit poker guru apparently because every time he plays that game he ends up profiting $100-200 and I just don't fathom how he runs so well in the game of bingo haha. I can pull a profit every now and then, but not as consistent as I can in NL Holdem. Well we go get some grub and check the stats of the UL game and find out that Alonzo Harris already has 160 yards and 1 TD. The dude is a Man Child and only a Freshman. He was recruited as a FB and some people were thinking he was going to be put on the defensive side of the ball as a LineBacker but I'm glad they didn't because that would have been stupid in my eyes since we struggled so bad the past few years at RB. Having 2 beastly freshman, and others that are either red shirted or incoming We will be unbelievable on offense for the next few years! BTW Devon Lewis-Buchanon, a senior Linebacker, gave UL their 6th INT for Touchdown of the season which is leading the Nation! Harris finished the game with 189 yds and 2 TDs!

The game starts up again and my buddy and I are still waiting to play NL when we continue to watch the Cajuns Destroy the Blue Raiders. I was loving it and I was loving even more that those everyday LSU fans were cheering on the Cajuns in the poker room and in awe by the dominant performance that was being displayed for everyone tuning in. I also learned that the game was being shown in the Off Track Betting room and one of the bars of the casino as well! Just goes to show that getting wins will fix all the problems an athletic program encounters. UL had the talent for many years with Rickey Bustle. Even though Bustle had a great football mindset, he did not have the motivational speeches, the intense personality, or the high spirit to encourage others to believe in his program. That is what was needed at UL. That is the final piece of the puzzle to Turn this program into a great one that can compete with bigger programs and possibly move up to a more reputable conference! By the end of the 3rd Quarter the score is 38-7 and I am seeing myself standing in the Super Dome for UL's first bowl game since 1970 surrounded by a sea of red. This was the first time UL has gotten 7 wins since 1993. It's such a great time to be a Ragin Cajun.

As the 4th Quarter is about to begin they FINALLY call people to start the 1-3 NL game.I go to the cashier with $165 and as for $40 in white (1 dollar chips) and the rest in Red (5 dollar chips). She proceeds to say "OK so you want a stack of Red $100 and 2 stacks of white $40??" I just looked at her with this face like...you're kidding me right? then basically walk her threw counting the chips to make sure she doesn't short change me. Then she tries to give my buddy an extra $20 when he as for $20 in white and $80 in red lol it was hilarious! There were only 2 people that I recognize (as regulars). The rest are your mediocre poker players (even had a guy call me down with bottom pair for an $80 pot lol) after that hand He was the first fish I wanted to get involved with. Then I noticed a guy over bet a pot where I flopped 2 pair and after I called he froze and checked it down then mucked when I showed....so Fish number 2 targeted. Finally There was a hand where a player raised to $13 (standard raise) and I had position on him and called with 5h 6h and then the BB reraised to $25 (this guy was overly aggressive but with skeptical hands, very readable) The original raiser only had $31 so I called cause he couldn't reraise and the 3 bettor called. with $93 in the pot the flop came Qs 6c 2h and I get this gut feeling that I could be ahead but wasn't 100% sure. Then the 3bettor immediately goes all in. He has an additional $94. He did this multiple times before but didn't have to show and I just had a really good feeling about my hand. Either that I was ahead or that I was going to draw out and improve. I had about $210 at this point and didn't want to risk half of my stack on a hand I was unsure about so I folded and told him I really think I have the best hand. He turns over Ace Jack and the all iner had J 10 so I would have held and won the pot bleh... I just didn't have the right pot odds with my read (I was thinking he had a pp from AA, KK, JJ, 1010, 99. If I would have even put him on 2 overs I wouldn't have been 100% comfortable with my read and sweat out half my stack. I just didn't want to gamble at that point since I was so confident I could out play the opponents on later hands. I made a decision that would help me play profitable in the long run and that is what made me satisfied with my play. I continued to pick good spots and the table was respecting my bets. I ended up cashing out $344 for a profit of $179

There is also a little NFL Pickem Contest that Me and Tommy played and so far we only missed 2 of the games. If you get the most picks right and have the tie breaker, 1st gets $500, 2nd $400, 3rd $300, 4th $200, 5th $100. The best thing about it is all you need is a players card and to be there when they announce the winners. I only would go if I get 10 or more right out of 13 games. and so far I missed the Saints (cause who would have picked St. Louis to win?? seriously) and the Panthers. If the Eagles and Chargers win I will have 11 out of 13 right...but so will Tommy and the tie breaker is guessing the point total for the MNF game. I guessed 48 and Tommy guessed 49 lol so that should be interesting! hopefully I can pull some bonus NFL pickem money as well though!

Geaux Cajuns!!

White out Cajun Field vs. ULM! Hope to see you there!!!

-Matt Stroud

MVP Comeback to cash 2nd in a row!

2011-10-24T08:58:00.001-05:00

After contemplating going play the Louisiana Fall Poker Classic ME in Lake Charles, then backing out for different reasons, I hung out with family during the day. listened to my beloved Cajuns get their second loss of the year vs. WKU on their homecoming (meh 6-2 4-1 on the season), then went to Cypress Bayou to see if there was a 1-3 NL cash game going on. As I expected, with the Bad Beat Jackpot hit Wednesday, it was like a ghost town with only a 3 6 12 bingo game going... I decided to play that for a little while and ended up donating $150 and not winning a single hand so I got another $150 and put it on Pai Gow (the only other game I like to play at the casino) and Hit a straight flush for $250 to put me back even. I played for a little bit longer to try and pull a profit and noticed my seat got cold and lost $80 so I headed home.

After getting an ear full of complaints the next day as I told my wife I was gonna go play the rebuy tournament on Sunday I made my journey to go register and got there just in time. I was actually on the waiting list 7 deep and each table had 11 players (5 tables) but they were short one dealer so we had to wait for their decision to open the table or not. Well an extra dealer was called in and the Poker Room Mgr (Mr. Deon Brent, kudos to him for getting the extra table opened) started giving everyone their chips to get us started and there was 6 tables and an hour away from the break. We started with 8,000 in chips for $75 and nothing really spectacular happened as I won a couple pots, then lost a couple pots to keep me about even of a chip stack. At break I had 9,600 and with the Add on for $50 we got an additional 10k in chips with blinds going to 150 300.

When we get back from the break (19,600) everyone is near even in chips then I get involved in a hand where a semi loose player raised in early position to 550. I called with KJ os and the SB (a solid TAG player) also called for a 3 way pot to see the flop. 1950 in the Pot and the flop comes Kh9h4d. The SB checked in the dark and Early Position also checked. I bet out 1500 and the SB raised to 4000 and Early Position folds. I asked if he checked raised and the early position guy reiterated that it was a checkdark raise so this made me suspicious to the strength of his hand. I was pretty confident I had the best hand and made the call leaving me with 15,050 behind and having my opponent covered by about 2-3k. The turn was a 5c and SB thinks for a while then shoves all in. There was about 9-10k in the pot. I'm not getting pot odds to call, but for some reason I feel like he is trying to push me off of this hand so he can take down the pot. I feel like he has a piece of the flop but I was thinking more like a flush draw as well. I'm kind of annoyed that I have to make this decision so early in the tournament but can't played scared poker and decided to stick with my read. I called and he shows K10 os! the river is an 8h and I hold to double up to 38,500ish

We continue to play and I am winning small pots getting respect from players and work my stack up to about 50k then move tables. The table I move to has 3 other stacks around 30-40k but there are only 3 or 4 decent players that I have to worry about on this table. One player that had a 40k stack just seemed like he was targeting me as every time I raised he would call. I don't know if he just liked playing alot of flops (Which could have been the case, or he just wanted to take my stack and try to intimidate me.) The first 2 times I faced him I semi bluffed and lost small pots then won a small pot against him in the 3rd hand. Next I look down at 55 and blinds are 600 1200. I am in Late position and a player calls in EP (good post flop player) and a woman I wasnt familiar with in MP raised to 3k, I called and EP called as the blinds folded. Pot had 11k in it and I had 45k behind. MP had about 36k and EP had 13k. Flop comes out and I see my 5 in the window and the dealer spreads out 5 4 2! Perfect flop for me in this spot and then the action was just being fed to me. EP shoves all in and MP just calls. She seemed very confident in her hand but I knew I had her crushed so I figured she was going to call if I shoved all in. I shove and she didnt take much time before she decided to call and now there is a main pot of 50k and a side pot of another 50k!. What makes it even better is the 5 comes on the turn to give me quads and I don't have to sweat anymore cards as I have the nuts to rake in the pot of about 100k giving me 120k. I'm in the drivers seat as the next biggest stack is at about 65k.

As we continue to play and I lose a race against a short stack that went all in and also another small pot, I look down at KK with blinds at 1500 3000 and the 2nd CL at the table (Guy that has been targeting me) was in the BB. I have about 95k and action is folded to me so I raise minimum to 6k in MP and everyone folds as the BB called the extra 3k (this was my chance to take his stack). Flop was a bit scary as it was a very sequential board at 7 8 9 and BB checked to me. I decide to bet 11k and after tanking BB goes ALL IN?!?! I was trying to figure out what he could have to do this. The whole time he had monster hands, he was check calling against me and letting me hang myself. I didn't think he had a monster here, I couldn't even put him on 2 pair when calling my raise. I also know he had a piece but I gave him credit for K7s-K9s, A7s-A9s, 66, 1010, JJ. I decide to call after going into the tank for about 3 minutes and he shows A9 of diamonds completely overplaying his top pair and I am semi confident but nervous of the dreaded Ace. Turn is a 6 as I sweat one card. and River is the freaking Ace....I was really annoyed and kinda let out my frustration telling the guy who sucked out "Very Nice Play sir, You are a Genius". He didn't have much of a rebuttal as I think he knew he got lucky on me and took my annoyance like a man, so I give my respects to him for that. Like always when someone holds KK the ugly ace always appears but this couldn't have been at a worse time. This was such a huge pot, I would have been the CL by far leaving everyone else with a fifth of my stack but instead I am stuck with 10k in chips.
I am thinking to myself, why does this always happen to me (Build a monster stack then get obliterated by bad luck) then try to refocus and stay determined to work it back.

So with a measley 10k left and blinds at 1500 3000 and I am UTG. I look down at AsQs and just open shove (which just look like frustration) and everyone folds to the BB to called with KQos. flop is Ah9s7s and I am on my way to double up as the 2s gives me the flush on the river. I have 17k and post my blind. End up folding get down to 16k then steal the blinds on the button. about 6 hands later I steal the blinds again and now have about 25k. I do this for about 3 revolutions and get my stack up to 27k and we move tables again for the last 2 tables. Top 10 pay out and the players decide to do a "double bubble" which I hate but its whatever 12th would get $110 and 11th would get $130. I am determined to make the final table and with blinds at 2000 4000 I steal the blinds one more time and A short stack goes all in on my BB when I look at 1010 and make the call. the short stack has AK and I have him covered by 8k and some how I hold up and knock him out. This puts me at 60kish, I look at 77 and shove all in EP position and a guy who is normally really loose and just a bad player folded AK os pre flop to me which actually surprised me, but it was for more than have his stack to call. I now have about 70k. we get down to 12 people and I have 60k and just going card dead slowly. steal blinds like every other revolution but continue to see my stack dwindle and then FINALLY make the Final Table with 35k left in my stack.

We take a quick break and the CL decides he will take $200 extra of the 10 way chop and 2nd in chips will take $100 extra and everyone will split the rest. BTW, the guy that took that huge pot off me, He had about the same stack I had when we made the final table (rolls eyes) how do you lose that big of a CL in that short amount of time....sigh
This worked out where 1st was $780, 2nd was $680, and 3-10 got $540. I was fine with this since I was on life support and got my $540 for the 2nd time this week. But this one was a bit more of a grind then Weds. IDK what it is but just like Stella got her Groove Back......I got my run good back. (Might be my newly acquired mustache lol)

Thanks for reading!
Matt Stroud

Finally some Run Good! (Bad Beat Jackpot hit at Shorty's)

2011-10-20T10:40:00.002-05:00

After a drought and bubbling (money just within reach) 2 tournaments, I can say that I cashed the weekly tournament at Shorty's Casino last night. I was feeling pretty confident, had the day off, and was contemplating going play the Louisiana Fall Poker Classic at the Isle of Capri in Lake Charles when I decided to just make the 20 minute trip rather than the hour and 20 min trip for virtually the same tournament. Also I believe that Shorty's weekly structure (Even though it is an all in fest towards the end) has a better tournament structure than the one at the Isle. I must admit though that the cash games are alot more profitable at the Isle but Shorty's cash games aren't hard at all as well.

I showed up at around 3:30 cause I had a sick feeling that today was going to hit and Best hopes was that I was going to be at the table. With this hunch of the Bad Beat Jackpot. I put my name on every list (1-3 NL, 3-6-12 Limit) There was a 5-5 game as well but I didn't bring enough cash for this game and wanted to play the tournament. Well they call my name and open a table for limit. I sit with $100 and after about 3 revolutions dont have much action, get down to $75. Then I go on a run and get 3 sets within 30 minutes. One improves to Quad 4s. the Next improves to a Full house 8s full of Aces and finally I get Aces full of 4s to bump me up to $224. I continue to play around. nothing spectacular happens then all of a sudden I hear Loud cheers RIGHT BEHIND ME. The guy sitting exactly behind me has Pocket 3s and I look at the board and see 33977. OK congrats but why is Everyone clapping, then I look at the other guys hand and see 77.......... wowowow this table just opened up like 15 minutes ago and now the $174,766 jackpot has been hit on a runner runner board to give the Loser quad 3s. I tried to get a picture but the floor saw me and said NO PHOTOS! haha so yea but Congrats to MR. Nelton Romero for getting a share of the Bad Beat Jackpot good for just over $5,000. Yea just being at the table when it happened would have gotten you approximately $5241.64 (I'm assuming they took $1k off each person for the next bad beat Jackpot. The Winner of the hand got about $43k and the Loser with Quad 3's got about $81k. This made me wish I showed up at about 4:30 or 5:00 so I could have been a part of that table. but oh well I still profited $100 in limit and was ready to continue my run good. I am happy to say that the winners of the Bad Beat were mostly regulars and well deserved by them. What sucks is they have to start it all the way back around $5k though bleh.

As the tournament started, there were a good amount of players I was familiar with but for the first hour and a half did not really get any playable hands but every time I raised pre or bet postflop I was given respect and worked my stack from 7k to about 11k. I finally pick up a open ended draw against one of the weaker opponents at the table who bet and I reraised, everyone got out of the way and he just called. Turn gave a flush and I put him on top pair so when he checked I bet again and he folded bumping me to 17k. Then a huge hand that started the uphill climb. I was dealt Jc 5c in the BB and a MP and button limped and so did the SB. Flop was J 2 6 with one club and it was checked to the Button who bet 1/2 the pot. SB folded I called and MP called. Turn was the 3c giving me an inside straight draw and a flush draw to go with my Top pair so I bet 1/3 pot and MP callled and Button reraised me almost minimum. There was about 8k in the pot and I had about 12k left so I decided to shove since I had Redraws to get MP off the hand and HE CALLS (which I wasn't expecting) and then Button folded (Put him on top pair top kicker.) MP shows 5s 4s...wtf for the nut straight and got lucky from his donk call on the flop. I had him covered by about 1k and river was a Kc to give me the flush! This propelled me to about 48k. We go on break as the Rebuy / Addon period ends.

A few hands after the break I am UTG and dealt a crappy hand then the dealer announces Misdeal and shows a 9 for the SB giving him 99. When re-dealt I look at AA...Not bad ;)
I opted to raised to 2600 with blinds at 300 600 to make it look like a smaller pair than what it actually was and then to my surprise I get re-raised to 6600 to a decent regular. I was thinking is he capable of folding a huge pp if I shove, if so I want to keep him on the hook. Instead of re-raising (he had about 35k at this point and I could get his whole stack) I opted to just call and let him set his own hook. The flop fell J44 and I am first to act. I bet 6k into a 14k pot and he re-raises all in (I'm guessing he put me on 1010 or QQ) and I call and say if you have JJ NH... He shows KK from what I figured my read was. and I hold up to felt him. I now have about 80k and I flirt around this range for most of the night. I continue to pick spots, lose a couple small pots, win a couple small pots. I get dealt JJ in MP and open for 2200 with blinds at 400 800 and get called by 2 players in the blinds. flop is 7 4 2 and SB checks, BB bets 6000 I am thinking of his range and figure him for just one pair that he is over playing (as he has done many times tonight) so I re-raise to 18,000 for 1/3 of his stack. SB folds and BB calls the extra 12k. I have twice the stack he has. Turn is the 3 and he shoves all in. I really cannot see him calling that much of his stack on just an open ended hand and for some reason I don't see him having a set or 2 pair (He's just that bad to over play one hand) I count out my chips and see that I can make the call and If I'm wrong, still be in good shape with 28k as it would cost me 19k to make the call. There is also about 37k in the pot already so I am almost getting 3:1 odds to make the call and Call. At first he is reluctant and does not want to turn over his hand but shows Q 7 for top pair Queen kicker and I show my JJ. River is a 6 and I hold to knock him out and get up to about 100k.

We move tables and as players dwindled down I knock a couple short stacks out and we are now at 2 tables (Final Table pays 10 spots). I steal blinds. get blinded. waiting for a time to get a good pot. Lose a decent size pot vs. a very aggressive player I have a history playing against and get knocked down again to about 73k. I look at 77 in LP and with blinds at 4k 8k and 500 ante, I choose to go all in and if the blinds wake up with a big hand then so be it, but everyone folds and I add about 14k to my stack. A few hands later I look at Ks Js utg and looking back at this hand I should have just folded Preflop due to my position but something was telling me to played it. But I played this hand bad and it paid off. I limped UTG and a player with 24k goes all in and it cost me 16k to call. For some reason the range I had him was 66-1010 AQ, A10, J10s-KQs with the money already in the pot I had to make a chance at taking this player out as it was 1/3rd my stack so I make the call and to my demise he shows JJ. BLEH. Luckily In the window to greet me was the beautiful K of diamonds to save my ass and knock out yet another player to get us down to 12 and get my stack back up to 100k. we continue to play and we get to the bubble. I watch a guy just bleed off his stack cause of impatience and then we Make the Final table. One guy has about 237k avg is about 110k (I have about 93k) and the short stack had 16k. the blinds were 10k 5k with 1k ante and they ALWAYS want to chop when they get to the final table. Mostly because the structure is poo at the end, mostly because the payouts are extremely top heavy, and mostly because the regulars always end up at the end and want to be friendly, but what they were suggesting was just not what I wanted.

The CL wanted a little extra and I'm fine with that and then someone suggested instead of even $570 for everyone the other 9 give up $70 to the CL...I said no that is way too much and then people were like Fine then we're not chopping and The lady with the super short stack was super tilting because of it. Well we played 2 hands and the 2nd hand the BB was super short stack and SB wakes up with KK to knock her out. The chop 9 ways is now $608. I told everyone I am comfortable with $550 giving CL $58 now that she is gone (Looking back at it I should have said $580 but oh well) and everyone agreed and Short stack rolled her eyes as she collected her money, made some snide remarks then stormed out with her husband (They are very good players btw) But I had to make the best deal for myself If we were going to chop. Essentially the 8 players got 3rd place money and the CL got 2nd place money.

With no chop, 6-10 would have got $230 5th $340 4th $430 3rd $560 2nd $1,210 and 1st $2,230
I think I can outplay most at the Final Table, but the fact that there isn't much reward for 3rd and below really puts no reason to grind it out unless I had the CL.

So I ended up with a good profitable night but hopefully next time I will actually be a part of that Bad Beat Jack Pot.

See you on the Felt.
Matt Stroud

The World is a Stage

2011-10-13T14:48:00.000-05:00

The World is a Stage

The world is a stage.

And you are the performer.

Instead of boasts about possessional value

Share the thoughts money can't buy,

but have the ability to make a man rich.
Share the thoughts to change the world.

Help guide the ones blinded by ignorance.

Be the voice for those afraid to speak.

Express yourself like no ones watching
Dancing in the summer sun, midnight rain or morning shower.

The world is a stage,

And you are the performer.
So speak up, act out, and never resist.
Never confine your thoughts. Your progress is limitless.
Don't be subdued to negative thoughts.

Ignore the judgements or mindless retorts,

for they were afraid to stand on that stage

To where you perform your masterful play.

Share the truth and let it be known

and sing your expressions in the most wonderful tone.

The world is a stage,

And you are the performer.

No one can take that away,

So use that expression every day.

Powerful thoughts impact your brain.

Confined in a space prepared to explode.

But the only exit is through your senses.

Whether you speak, act, walk, or stand.

You find each days lesson, dont let it go to waste.

You share your expression and all that remains.

The World is YOUR Stage.
Don't let it go to waste.

- Matt Stroud

I Love being a Ragin Cajun! (5-1 3-0 in SunBelt)

2011-10-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

View of the Student Section

This is such a great time to be a Ragin Cajun fan right now and if you would like to jump on that bandwagon, we got plenty of room. So far UL is leading the SunBelt conference in attendance for football with about 27,000+ fans per game. For all the LSU goons who don't know anything other than the LSU Tigers that might sound like barely anything. But the max capacity for Cajun Field is listed at 31,000 (not counting the grass hills of course). Coach Mark Hudspeth is doing something the past 2 coaches couldn't do over the past 12-15 years, and that is waking up the monster of UL that has been sleeping for far too long. and he has a strong following that believes in everything he is selling, promoting, and teaching. I hope you stay with us for a long time (at least long enough to allow the person to take over your system) and continue to build a franchise. I would love to see us as the next TCU or Boise State. The state of Louisiana needs a competitor for LSU and definitely needs to end the politics involved around it as well.

Saturday was a huge game. The almighty Troy Trojans were coming to the Swamp and this is a must win if the Cajuns wanted to have a chance to win the Sun Belt Championship this year. It is also a goal that Hudspeth wanted to accomplish (win every home game...which is a very possible feat and even much so after this weekend). Troy is always talented and have competed with some big name schools in the past. They beat Oklahoma St. in 2007, Almost beat LSU in 2008 after giving up a 3 score lead in the 4th quarter have been consistently the Sun Belt champs of 2007-2010 and the only time UL beat Troy was in 2005 so yea talk about a key game. What best for me to represent then be my moniker as Waldo. They had 29,755 to watch this game, but only 1 Waldo, I even convinced my sister to be Carmen Sandiego and she turned out looking awesome and represented the character well. So well not many people noticed who she was, but the ones that did were even more excited when they realized they found both of us in the same day! haha.

Carmen Sandiego and Waldo Representing that UL Love!

Javone Lawson with a great TD catch to go along with his 136 yd performance.

As the Cajuns ran out on the field the crowd was electric and yelling on top of their lungs. I think this pumped up the players because they marched down the field and quickly scored to get a 7-0 lead on the Trojans. Next thing you know, Brett the Baer attack was setting up his kick after the score and the crowd was still going wild. Then, Hudspeth pulls a play out of the Sean Payton book. Baer dabbles an onside kick that NO ONE but I think the Cajuns were expecting and We recovered again!! everyone was going crazy and I honestly felt like I was in the Louisiana Superdome. It was ridiculously loud and I could barely hear the person sitting next to me. It is the types of games I love to be at. I just couldn't believe this was coming from our Ragin Cajuns. I always knew what they were capable of, but the fact that it was actually happening was so great to see. It was even better to see that so many people were finally behind them.

I remember how loud we were when there were only 15,000 AT MOST for that freezing cold rainy Kansas St. game that a game winning field goal was kicked to win the game 17-15. You can hear it for yourself on this youtube clip how ecstatic our lowly Cajuns crowd was. I still get chills watching it.

Now amplify that by 5-10x for the whole Troy game this year and you can have your experience. But that is just the first few plays of the game. The Cajuns have a 14-3 lead and there is only :25 seconds left of the half but the Trojans are driving. Then Troy's QB throws it directly to Melvin White who dodges, bobs and weaves for 87 yards to get the 5th and NCAA Leading Interception for Touchdown. This also gives all four of the starting Secondary atleast one Pick 6 which is an amazing feat in itself (Bill Bentley #5 has 2). As I was watching White scamper, looking from left when he caught it to the middle as he broke a tackle and jumped over another, all the way down to the endzone as he did his leap onto the grassy hill I saw beers flying in the air like fireworks, Hands high fiving, people yelling and smiling and knew that this was the night the Ragin Cajuns made their statement. That they will no longer be walked on, talked down on, and can now make a name for themselves. They can now say we are THE University of Louisiana Ragin Cajuns and there is more where this came from so join the bandwagon or get out of the way because we are going to run over anyone who tries to stop us. The fact that this team has 15 Freshman that get an great amount of playing time and next year only 4 starters will be gone on offense and 3 on defense is what makes it so great.

At half time the Lafayette Little League team that was showcased as the Cardiac Cajuns and also the Special Little Leaguers were commemorated and there was an awesome fireworks display to congratulate them on their success throughout the year. Both teams won their regions and had championships of their own.

There was also some idiot who decided it was cool to wear an LSU Tiger purple shirt into the UL student section they call the REDZONE. This poor guy made the mistake of going to the restroom during half time as everyone was sitting down all you hear are boos from the bottom of the feild. As he passed each section more boos would cry out all the way until he left the area and I had the biggest grin on my face. There was University of Louisiana (at Lafayette for you haters) vs. Troy Trojans, He was clearly lost and didn't realize that Tiger Stadium had already destroyed Florida (Congrats to them btw) about 50 miles northeast up I-10 so our loyal student section were pleased to boo him out of the stadium and into that direction. There were no spit, no drinks or food were thrown at him, no curse words to degrade him or his family, just some good fun and ridicule for this guys idiotic decision.

Next thing you know, one of the Green guys were being kicked out because he had put on his mask. How dare you cover your face in a costume. He and the University Police that were escourting him out stopped and everyone started chanting "LET HIM GO!!" The UP got uncomfortable after about 3 minutes of being chanted at and finally told him to go, another round of boos lit the air. It was the most entertaining Half time I have ever experienced haha.

The game got started and the crowd stayed loud. Last week almost a third of the crowd left in the 3rd quarter and it turned out to be a great game until the end. With that known and a special magic in the air (or Maybe it was the fireworks and the 24-3 lead at the half on the reigning SunBelt champs) a majority of the fans stayed and accounted for atleast 3 or 4 false starts by the Troy offensive line due to crowd noise. With next week being Homecoming vs. North Texas, I really hope we can master to sell out and have an even louder crowd vs. the Mean Green (who beat Indiana Hoosiers earlier this year) They are talking trash just like Troy did before Saturday so I guess they will just have to learn the hard way as well. I am on call this week so have to work, wont be able to tail gate as long as I would like but I am definitely not missing this game (a win would make us bowl eligible for the 5th time in 7 years and the first time ANY Sun Belt conference team starts 6-1 for the season) This Season has all kinds of history in the making and I want to be a part of it as much as possible. BTW this 5-1 start is the first time since 1970...that is 41 years...

The Cajuns continued to pound the football and Troy fought back and were able to get a couple scores on the boards but there was no way they could answer the storm in the Swamp that the Cajuns rained down upon them. This team reminds me so much of how the Saints started their climb and like I have said before even down to the Head Coaches is what it resembles. Jerry Baldwin of the Cajuns reminded me of the years with Mike Ditka for the saints. Rickey Bustle of the Cajuns reminded me of Jim Haslett of the Saints (getting us out of the rut and making us a respectable program but still alot of room to improve. With Mark Hudspeth I see him as Sean Payton as he has constructed a great coaching staff, capable of encouraging and maturing his players, rallying the hearts of Acadiana citizens, and giving the success the die hard fans knew what the Cajuns were capable of but just had to figure out how to get it. This is a great Time to be a Cajun and the University itself has so much potential to be a great Institution Athletically and Academically. The Final Score was 31-17 and If you missed it, don't worry, you can watch the replay of the game (The whole game) and hear the crowd and see the atmosphere for yourself. Here's the Link but don't miss next week because it will be just as fun as last! UL Ragin Cajuns vs. Troy Trojans

Matt Stroud

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

2011-10-02T11:44:00.001-05:00

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

APP League Championship Recap!

2011-09-24T13:56:00.001-05:00

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)

2011-09-15T20:13:00.001-05:00

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

2011-09-11T17:33:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-09-06T11:11:00.000-05:00

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

$130 Rebuy Close but no Cigar.

2011-08-31T23:29:00.001-05:00

I ended up playing the $130 w $100 Reentry for the first hour and a half. and possible single or double add-ons at the break. Players started with 5k in chips and re-buys were 3k each if you bust you could double re-buy. blinds started at 25 50 and went up every 30 min and after 16 blind level were every 45 min like yesterday but today there were antes starting at the 8th blind level. Again the structure was not horrendous and gave me enough time to pick spots so I did what I could with what I had to work with. My table was pretty solid to start with no real maniacs but had a few bad players I could capitalize off of. I lost my first Buy in when I raised Pre to 325 at 50 100 with AQ and guy called in the SB called and it was heads up to the flop. I lost a pot previously to this and my stack was about 2650 after the raise. There was 750 in the pot and it fell K 10 5. He checks to me and I decide to shove Thinking its believable and didn't see the point in bleeding away my chips to commit me to the pot anyway. Well this guy tanks for a little bit (this became a trend....annoying trend to say the least) then decides to call with 10 9 off. awesome lol I don't catch up and Double re-buy for 6000.

Later, I get up to about 17,000 when I look down at KK in late position. A solid player that has me covered raises preflop to 1850 with blinds at 300 600 and I think for a bit and make my stand here. I raise to 5850 total everyone folds and the original raiser calls after he asks for a count. Flop is 2 5 2 with two clubs and he checks to me. I announce all in and my voice cracks like a 13 year old just hitting puberty loud enough to echo the room. I laugh and say, "Well I'm pretty sure I'm not getting paid off now thanks to the tell I just obviously gave haha" and everyone at the table laughs about it a bit and he folds and says he has AK. A few hands later I limp with Jd 2d in late position with no callers before me except for this really weak player who I was out playing the whole time. The blinds complete the action and we go to the flop. K J 2 fell and I am pretty pleased with the gift that fell in my lap. But it didn't stop there. One short stack announced All in and the weak opponent Decides to go all-in as well. They were about even with 7.5k each. I go all-in over the top to Isolate the fourth man out which was the SB and after he folds the hands are revealed. First shove has K 10 and Second shove has A Q off. I show my J 2 for two pair and ask for a deuce! Turn was the A giving more outs to both players but the River came a 6 and I knocked two birds with one stone!! This put me at about 34k and avg was around 16-17k. I continue to play solid poker picking my spots well and take my first ever picture of chips and send an update to friends (cause I hate taking pictures of chips...just think its cliche and then i go ahead and do it lol)

My chip stack before I went card dead.

At the second break I am Sitting with just over 42k and the avg is somewhere around 23-24k. I was just trying to focus on my table and the blinds and not really worry about the average stack. I go on a long run of dead cards and lost a few small pots to chip away at my stack. and have about 19k at blinds of 500 1000 with a 100 ante when I finally get a hand I choose to make a stand with but kind of played it bad. It worked out in my favor as I made a little bit more than I would have if I open shove but its whatever. I look at K 9 suited and raise to 3500 and bb (who has been playing alot of hands and called a bluff from me with a pair of 9s on a AA952 board) calls and it is heads up to the flop. The dealer slides out A Q 7 with two hearts and I bet 4500 and he just calls. The turn is the 10c and he checks to me again. I am getting a strong sense of weakness from him and the only chance I have to take this pot is to shove. So I go all in and enter the Twilight zone...I say this for two reasons. 1. because I go into my deep stare like I was looking at Hypnotoad from Futurama and 2. This guy went into the tank for LITERALLY 9 minutes and 30 seconds. He stared at me for 3 minutes, looked at his stack then counted out some chips. then stared at me again then asked me some random question which I forgot because I was in hypnotoad mode. I stayed silent, didn't move didn't say a word (Cause I didn't want my voice to crack again LOL) he finally, FINALLY folded and said he had a huge draw and I went to muck accidentally flipped over the huge bluff and he was just in utter amazement and kind of laughed in disbelief. He said he had a pair of Queens with heart draw and put me on a huge hand but didn't want to miss and be crippled to 3k in chips. I told him I was glad he finally acted cause I felt like I was gonna pass out haha.

Hypnotoad of the show Futurama to the right.
My allin blank stare face to the left (guy in suit)

(Dinner Break...time to get some grub courtesy of Beau Rivage meal ticket which I was surprised to get cause in the past they didn't give these out.)

More blinds, more folding, more antes, try to pick a spot and then fold then I win a decent little pot flopping top pair with KQ and open shoving from the BB to again put me at about 23k Then on the button I look at QJ suited and decide to just limp for 1200 at blinds of 600 1200 with 200 ante. SB and BB both had me covered and BB was the chipleader of the table. Flop comes Q 10 6 rainbow and both players check to me. I decide to bet 2400 thinking they were weak. SB folds but BB raises to 6000. I put him on like a pair of 10s and just sizing me up and playing at me cause he has a stack. I decide to go allin and it is another 12300 over the top and he tanks....this is another long thinker but not nearly as long as the 9 minute debacle I had to sit through. He asks me if I have KQ again and I didnt answer...like usual (hypnotoad mode ftw) He finally calls and shows Qs8s I am feeling confident having him crushed right now. Then the turn is the 4s giving him the flush draw. Now getting a little worried, he utters something like "ooh more outs" then the freaking 5s falls on the river to give him runner runner flush. There were 89 people to start the tournament and after all the rebuys and add ons the total prize pool was about 25-26k. Top 9 got paid and they made a deal to give 10th player $200 (Twenty bucks each) Well that shitty beat knocked me out at 18th. I again make a dinner break and play very good poker just to get teased lol. This time I got my money in way ahead so as long as I keep doing that, in the long run I will be profitable. Overall I was happy with my play, just not so much with the outcome.

I guess I can focus more on fantasy football now and get prepared for the baby's arrival and I'm sure I will be playing from time to time at local casinos but all that is left for now is the APP League schedule and Championship Free Roll. Sorry there couldn't have been more success on the trip but I hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck at the tables.
Matt Stroud

Biloxi....So Far..Not so good...

2011-08-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

Well my poker experience has been minimal do to the sillyness of coolers so far. When we first arrive in Biloxi it was about 8:00 pm and I wanted to play a little bit of 1 2 NL at the IP Casino so I sat down with 140 just to see how I would do. The table played extremely tight passive poker and in about an hour and a half I got up to 260. There was just one semiloose guy and a young guy to my left that thought I was bluffing almost every time I played a hand and made 80 bucks just off him alone. When I won another decent pot and a guy I eventually got mixed up with (I'll call him Mr. Cool, because he was one of those players that thought he was better than everyone else but was the worst at the table.) he seemed interested in calling but mucked and the non believing young guy whispered "I think you were good". Well 2 hands later Mr. Cool is UTG and bets $10 with 2 callers in front of me I am on the button and call with Qs 10s and sb and bb fold. Pot is 43 bucks and flop comes Ah Kd Jh!!! whee flopped broadway. Mr. Cool bets 10 again..I'm thinking he has AA, AK, KK AJ or JJ here or even AQ, QQ bc I raise to 35 and he calls. the other 2 fold.

Pot is $120 and Turn comes 8c Mr. Cool bets $10 again...fucking idiot...and I Bet $100 with $115 left of my stack and he instantly calls. Of course the River pairs the board with the J and he shoves all in with a dumb comment like "I cant let you buy it..." I said dude, nice suck-out and called the all-in that barely had me covered and he shows AJ and says yea I sucked out...

Awesome, that's enough for me for one night.

Well I go swimming and relax until the tournament Today at 4pm for the Half NL and Half PLO and was having a good time. I felt really confident and was ready to play some more cards. Of course I was not aware that My shit luck was going to continue to streak down the street and follow me to Beau Rivage. The structure really wasn't horrible for its price. 30 min blind levels and blinds raising a decent time frame. it started Omaha and every blind revolution it would switch. I was surprised that it wasn't based off blinds but this is how I had my league games setup so I was comfortable with the structure. I limped maybe 2 hands the first PLO round. Mucked all NL holdem then a hand where I was 75% favorite until River slapped me in my face and took over half my stack crushed me on 3rd revolution.

I am dealt JJAhQh and raise it up to 275 to open. get 2 callers. Sb and early position. Flop falls 9d 8h 5h and Sb bets 1/3 pot early pos call and I call with nut flush draw and inside nut straight draw with over pair. Turn 10d giving me the nut straight and SB bet again about 1/3 pot. early pos folds and I announce Pot which is 3475. She thinks for a little while then calls. River.......10 again of course. She looks at her chips and I could read this woman like an open book. She bets 3k of her remaining 5k I have about 4850 left and fold showing her my nut straight and laugh. She shows 10h 10s 9h 6c. I had her crushed the whole way until the river of course.

I kept folding and get blinded down to 2750 when look down at JJ and blinds are 50 100. early pos raise to 550 (?) I shove and then someone shoves behing me......AWESOME lol just didnt stop. early pos folds and guy behind me showed AA. I miss the flop which was 10 high and I would have got it in anyway. Miss the turn which was a blank, I ask the dealer to keep me alive and the river magically appears the Jd giving me the 2 outer. This bumped me back up to 5600.

final hand lost a little bit of chips and my stack is sitting at 4700. I look at AsJsKd8h and raise to 375 with blinds at 75 150. SB is the only caller and there is 900 in the pot. Flop comes AJ6 rainbow and Sb checks to me, I bet 800 and he bets pot. I have 2600ish left so just stick it in and he shows JJ7c3c of course.....
I miss my outs and finish 70 out of 86.

I will play cash game tonight to determine if I even want to attempt the $130 Rebuy tournament tomorrow at noon. But as of what I have seen so far, it hasn't looked too promising. My play has been good, just not the luckiest man in Biloxi to say the least.

Please treat me well poker gods.
Matt Stroud

APP update. Cash game profit

2011-08-27T09:54:00.001-05:00

Me don't think me's ahead, but me has a chance!

Last night was the Last regular season NL Holdem game. I thought I played pretty well and won some decent pots. But just got in a frame of the tournament where I went completely card dead. To start the tournament, I worked my stack to 43k, (start with 15k) and after folding ALOT and losing a couple decent sized pots I was back down to 21.5k with 10 players left. The blinds and antes were slowly chipping at my stack and I was getting nothing to play with, nothing to steal with, and with the players at the table I had to pick my spots cause I had too wide range players directly to my Left. I hated this but its something you have to deal with in poker. My last hand of the tourney the player, directly to my left (I will call him "Luckbox Leprechaun" in this blog) had flat called my preflop raised to 4500 with blinds at 1000 2000 and a 500 ante. We were both in Mid late position and I was first to act. There is 12500 in the pot and flop falls 9 6 3 with one heart. I have Jc10c and we both check to the turn. Turn gives a 8h and I put him on a range of just over cards and wasn't really worried about the suits so I shoved with my open ended draw. I was thinking he had anywhere between AK - KQos and A10 - Q10 suited. My bet was17000 into a pot of 12500 which NORMALLY people would fold this if they had an avg stack of 35-45k. But Luckbox Leprechaun here was CL and the call was about 1/6 of his stack. What makes matters worse is I made the right read.....to an extent....as he says, "You see Matt here's my dilemma" and he turns over KhQh as he debates the call (this is fine in my house as I don't kill the hand like in a casino). I see his hand in my peripherals but make no movement with my body. But once I saw how big his draw was I knew this player was never laying it down and I was screwed. Pretty much just waiting for him to call. I was asking myself....wtf couldn't it have been KQos damn it haha. He calls and the Rainbow river to the pot of gold splashed an A of hearts to destroy what dreams I had of sucking out one of my 10 outs I had that were none heart. Oh well dealt to the players up to 3 handed where they made a deal to split the money and we began a cash game.

I pronounced that it was going to be .25 .50 half no limit holdem half pot limit omaha so I could get some practice for the Tournament in Biloxi.Only one player was kind of annoyed about this so we said she can sit out when Omaha came around but she decided to just go ahead and play (way to be a trooper!) She really
did not play that bad from what I thought and got mixed up in a couple tough hands, Especially for someone who just learned the game but still a good effort on her part (Luckbox Leprechaun's sister, Leprechaunette)

If Leprechaunette looked this good, I'm sure my wife wouldn't have allowed her into our house...sigh

Anyway, I had a decent stance on my Table. Solid TAG player directly to my left, Super LAG after him, Luckbox Leprechaun and Leprechaunette then Semi LAG directly to my right. We started out 7 handed and eventually at the wee hours of the morning (I'm at work on only 2 hours of sleep sheesh) ended the game at 4 handed. I had some very interesting pots and probably one of the biggest pots of the night in Omaha, but felt I played very well in both NL Holdem and PL Omaha tonight. If you recall last time I played a mediocre game in Holdem but I found I just had a perfect strategy against the Super LAG that I was letting him take control of the pot when I had monsters and just really only Reraising when the pot was substantial. There was one No Limit hand that I called a raise with 10h 7h against Super Lag and another opponent and flop fell 10c 7d 4h. I was OOP and checked, LAG Player bets other player calls and I call. turn is the Qh and I check again and Lag player bets about 1/4 the pot. Other player folds and I try to think of how much I could get out of him without scaring him away so I raise to $24 into a $36 pot and he has about $53 left I have him covered. He shoves all in and I instantly call with the flush draw and 2 pair. He asks if I'd like to run it once or twice (which kind of confused me, but I said twice just in case something stupid happened even though I was pretty confident I was ahead) I made the flush on the First series and the Full House on the second series to scoop the whole pot.

There were 3 big Omaha hands that I got involved in. One where I flopped an open ended straight draw and 2nd nut flush draw and turned the 2nd nut flush. The pot on the flop was already about 75-80 bucks (In .25 - .50!!!) and before I could even act, LuckBox Leprechaun shoves all in for just under $40 bucks. I knew he had the Nut flush...I hated that I knew he had the Nut Flush....and hated that I was still enticed to call (I had about 180 in my stack at the time) Calling wouldn't necessarily hurt me but This was a hand where I knew in my gut and my mind I was right but just hated the fact that it was a cooler and donated 38.75 to see it. ....damn rainbows and pots of gold. ;)

The other big hand that I lost, Super LAG caught a 1 outer on the turn where the flop was 9 9 6, I was holding 9 J Q K single suited, Leprechaunette had flopped the full house with 66 and Super Lag had a flush draw JJ A 8 (yea idk). Turn of course is the J giving Super Lag the biggest full house of the 3 of us and I feel like we were chopping when he bet, I just couldn't put him on that....probably for the fact that it was the ONLY card in the deck he could have hit to win the pot and BINGO he got it. He lost a decent sized pot a little bit earlier (See the 10 7 suited hand above) so I didn't give him too much shit for sucking out haha.
I also Later get revenge on the 2nd to last hand of the night in NL Holdem where I flop top 2 with K 9 and turn the 9 for the full house and he says he had AA. I managed to squeeze about 50 in that hand but I think he was trying to Catch up as fast as he could. I'm sure if he would have been thinking clearly and not about the past money lost, he could have gotten away from the hand but hey...to the winner goes the spoils?

The Final Big hand of Omaha was a 3 way pot and I have Ad 8d 9s 5h and there was a raise pre-flop to 2.00 with me and 2 other callers. 8.75 in the pot. The flop comes 7d 3d 2c and I have the Nut flush draw with an inside straight draw. It is checked to Solid TAG to my Left who bets 7.50 and Leprechaunette calls As well as myself. Turn is the 10c and there is about 31.50 in the pot. Leprechaunette checks to me and I just got an open ended straight draw to add to my plethora of outs. I am loving this but don't really want to check here and him just shout "Pot" at me again and have to draw making a call for about 1/3 of my stack (have 75ish in my stack he has 58ish) I decide to bet $23.00 and Solid TAG goes in the tank, then finally announces Allin for 36.25 over my bet for 59.25 total. Leprechaunette grumbles and mumbles then finally muck and I am just trying to figure out how the hell I can get away from this or if he could cancel out any of my outs. I put him on a set of 7s for sure and wanted to get the flush draws away but I am pretty sure there is no way he puts me on the straight draws with it. Especially the added draws on the turn. I say Call and he asks Once or twice and I say its pretty much up to you and he says he's cool with twice so we roll the river twice. He shows 4c 3c 3s 6s with a set of 3s and an inside straight draw with the 5. All of my possible outs except the 2d and 10d are good giving me 20 good outs to win this hand! The first river dealt gives me the flush. The next river dealt is a 6 giving me the straight and it propels me to $240 (Unfortunately the cooler hand with King high flush vs. Ace high flush was about 4 revolutions after this but still managed a nice profit)

How I felt when I won that big Omaha pot

I ended up being in the game for $95 and cashing out $220. I tipped the dealer $20 for dealing for us the whole time. I actually did run well for the cash game having a bit of a horseshoe up my ass as well but there were some great plays that I made to maximize my profits and only pulled off a couple bluffs for minimal sized pots. Overall I was happy with my play for the night and the added funds will go nicely for my Biloxi Trip. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck at the tables.
Matt Stroud

Building Anticipation for GCPC and Fantasy Football

2011-08-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

Gulf Coast Poker Championship
Haven't wrote in a while. My break from casinos feels like it is lasting forever when it has only been 2 months. It is getting closer to the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in Biloxi, MS. I am ready to go play and excited to play some Half n Half. I wasn't able to sell all of my action but I have a good portion of it sold. 25% so I will be adjusting the action to 7.5% on just 2 events
Those events are the $230 Half NLHE Half PLO on Tuesday August 30 and the $130 multiple Re Entry on Wednesday August 31. If I have success in those I will most likely extend my stay for one more day to play the $230 1R/1A on Thursday. I don't plan on investing much in re-buys for the multiple reentry tournament but I'm sure there will be players that will be loose cannons that I can build a stack off of. I even convinced a poker buddy to come with me as I got my room for 2 queens since they were out of just 1 King rooms. I much prefer going with someone I can discuss poker with rather than just go to events by myself. The wife will be tagging along as well so she'll most likely be basking in the sun and finding random ways to blow money but as long as she lets me focus in the poker room it will be all good.

APP League
I have to say I am very confident and will be using this Friday's League game (last Texas Holdem regular season game of the year) as practice for the Biloxi Trip. I mostly want to work on my patience and not getting involved in pots that don't have alot of + EV. I don't want to over value my suited connectors and keep pots small that need to be small and maximize pots that need to be huge. If I can accomplish this will playing most pots in position I know I will be able to cruise to success. other than the League game this friday will be the last League game on Sept. 9 which is NL 2-7 Single Draw which should be interesting and the Championship FreeRoll for the top 9 point earners for the year which will be Sept. 23. I am currently in 2nd in points and 6 points behind the first place player. Im gunning for First to earn an extra $200 but as it stands I am lined up to get atleast $100 of the bonus winnings for either Most Final Tables or Most cashes. I am also in the hunt for Mixed games champ in second with 4 points behind. I also added a 24 person Head Up tournament to the schedule just because I have been wanting to play one live and it should be pretty fun. The top 8 players will have a first round Bye. 9-24 will play to advance to the next round. Most likely the top 4 will be paid so it should be a decent prize and good competition. Seeding will be based on the point standings for the APP league.

The seeding will be as follows:
1 vs (16/17)
8 vs (9/24)
6 vs (11/22)
4 vs (13/20)
3 vs (14/19)
5 vs (12/21)
7 vs (10/23)
2 vs (15/18)

I have been playing around with bleaching designs on shirts but only like a couple of them so far So idk how much time or money I will invest as far as that goes. I also want to try spray painting designs but again if it doesn't come out good it won't be worth the investment. Don't want to make Shirts that no one will want to wear. I had a Screen Printing company that would make my previous shirts but they are just completely unorganized, unprofessional. I guess that is what I should expect when dealing with a mom and pop printing company though. The worst part is every time I go to order more shirts they have a different price and its always higher than what it was. I have to bring in the receipt for the previous purchase every-time when proving to them that it isn't the right price. They stay busy as hell but IDK how because there is nothing professional about them and the last batch of shirts they made for me were more on the bleh side.

Fantasy Football
I am so excited about football and sooo happy the football season is back (my wife does not share the mutual feeling...So I plan on torturnig her 4 nights a week for the next 3 months). I missed tailgating the UL Ragin' Cajun games and there has been so much anticipation built up around Coach Hudspeth and the new Recruits it is ridiculous! I expect to see a huge crowd for the first home game and hopefully for the rest of the season.
Last year I said I wasn't going to play Fantasy football for money but instead I got in 2 leagues this year for More money haha. My original league is drafting Sept. 4 right before the NFL season begins and it is a $50 league. I also joined one of Will "Poker Monkey" Souther's $100 leagues which has 16 teams! That draft is Aug 27 and coming up soon! The largest league I've been in previously had 12 teams so the draft should be stupid deep and whoever picks the best 3rd stringers and back up QBs will have the best season! Its all about finding those Hidden Gems. I am still yet to see the payouts in these leagues though but they should be awesome! I'll post my teams once I have drafted. Just in case some of y'all are reading this though I'm not giving away any drafting plans. Just gonna play it by ear and take what everyone gives me lol.

Peace.
Matt Stroud

Weekend Poker rundown

2011-08-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

The Usual suspects of APP

Friday night was our APP league game. 2nd to last NL holdem and 3rd to last game of the season for points. The Championship Freeroll for the top 9 players is towards the end of September and there is a very close race from the players that are in the 6-13 spots. It will be a very exciting last 2 games and I also bought the Trophy which isnt huge but I really like it and is a great conversation piece. Last year I got a plaque but decided to go with the trophy for this year because I think they just look better overall and was about the same price for what I thought was a better product. As far as my play friday night I was not focused at all and pretty much going through the motions. I was tired from work, was still in rush mode for setting up the game, and The Saints first preseason game was on so I was kinda peeping my eyes on that as well. I made a horrible read on an opponent (well I put him on mid PP and was right about that, just not about the strength from the flop) I was holding Q 9 suited in late position and flop came 9 6 2. The bb who is a pretty LAG player bets into the pot and middle pos opponent reraised. I put the mid opp on PP 88 77 etc. and the bb player on straight draw. So thinking Im ahead I shove all in and bb folds. Middle Pos opponent goes in the tank, says something about 36% for a flush draw then flips over top set and calls. I was like wow, didnt put you on that at all and was wondering why he didnt insta-call lol.

Well we set up a cash game 0.25 0.50 NL holdem, I wanted to do half n half but 2 players declined. Everyone bought in for 30-40 and the grind began. I Won a decent pot, then picked a spot where I had middle pair and open ended straight draw. I bet it hard when the straight card came and almost took down the pot but someone just called a 6x bet pre-flop with 6 5 off and turned the low end of the straight. He was about to fold thinking I had the High end but ended up calling and took a hefty chunk of my chips. That's how most of the night went for me. Either picked bad spots and lost pots, won some pots with decent hands, then busted when people caught on me etc.

One hand a player considered was a "Bad play by both players" which was my last hand of the night I was just exhausted, annoyed and overall done after this. I straddled for $1 with $20 behind and the LAG player was in the bb for .50 and he was in the hole for the game but had about $65-70. there were 3 or 4 limpers and LAG bb raises to 5.25. There is 9.25-10.00 in the pot and I have 98 off. I know he is raising with a speculative hand here and figured I can get him off of it by coming over the top. but I didn't have enough to raise a portion of my stack so it was either all in or fold. I opted to go all in for 21.00 total and everyone folded and LAG player goes in the tank. Then a player out of the hand says "OK 2 of you HAVE to put each other on a hand first" I should have just stayed quiet not saying anything but like a dumb ass I chose to play along and put him on KQ or something to that range (A10, KJ, A9s) Since I said that he put me on 88 and gave some goofy logic saying "well I'm behind, I'm down some money and playing catch up, its virtually a coin-flip so I call"...lol
Flop comes out 9s 6d 5h and I have the lead but he still has 2 overs as he shows As 10s and I say give me the 7 just to cushion my lead more.
Turn is the 6s giving him more outs with the flush draw. And I ask again, Give me the damn 7....
River 8s giving me 2 pair but him the flush...and that's how I roll (Rolls eyes)

I just kinda laughed got up, LAG goes into justifying his play and saying it wasn't a bad call, I say yes it was, then Superstar says Y'all both made bad plays and the discussion ensued how I disagreed. You can base an argument on strategy, but when you incorporate results with strategy your logic is flawed. The thing I messed up on was playing into the game by putting him on a range when I should have just sat quietly and waited for him to act. But it wasn't a bad play at all in my opinion.

The next night we played Half NL holdem Half PL Omaha and my friends house in Carencro.
It was 4 of us from last night and 3 new faces I haven't played before. I was spot on with my reads in Omaha but early on picked a couple bad spots in Holdem, made some adjustments and played solid poker after that. I ended up profiting $35 for the night as I let someone borrow $20 of my stack and also cashed out $100. I was in the game for $85 and thought I played pretty well for the most part. I had an interesting Omaha hand Where the friend that was hosting was to my direct right all night and raised preflop to 1.50 I called along with 2 others making it 6 in the pot. flop came 989 and I told him I am only calling cause I like half my hand. Q9 suited 7 2 off, I was in the bb for .50 and needed to call 1.00 more into a pot that was already 3.00 so i figured why not. When I saw the flop i liked what I saw and they did have a possible flush draw as well so he bet 3.00 into a 6.00 pot and I raised pot immediately to get everyone else off their hand. He went into the tank for about 2 minutes then said Pot to me. I start to think about it and the Trip 9s is all I have, it was very possible for him to have A high flush draw with his trips or even flopped a boat with 88 and just didn't like it as I would have to call about 25-30 so i made the lay down and he showed 98 for the boat.

There was another hand where I had A4A8 double suited and hit the flop pretty hard with an inside straight draw and flush draw and guy who went all in asked to go once or twice, so I initially put him on flush draw and said once. He shows TOP SET 99 with no redraw so I need to hit my flush or one of the last 2 aces in the deck. I missed the turn. Then BOINK the Ace on the river!! I also made an interesting play against a player who had AA and not much of a redraw on a 10 4 7 board I was holding a back door flush draw and inside straight draw with top pair. We opted to run it twice as he was ahead statistically but slightly. First I hit the 10 on the turn for trips to take the pot. The next one I hit my runner runner flush! It was gross.

I have to say the best hand of the night goes to Mr.LAG though Beau Brewer. He made a spectacular play on my friend who was hosting in Texas Holdem with a J 8 6 board. There was a raise preflop by Beau and host called. Beau checked on the flop and host bet 2.75 into $4 pot Beau raised to $6. The host went in the tank then 3bet to $20 (when he does this I expect him to win the pot almost 80% of the time if not more because he plays a very solid game). Beau must have had either picked up a tell or had a dead on read on his opponent because without even thinking he announce all in and had the host well covered. I believe the host had about $40-50 behind and Beau had $80-100 after the $20 was in the pot. I was thinking to myself this guy has a monster to snap shove like this and I guess the host was thinking the same thing as he folded but didn't show (I put him on top pair, maybe KJ or AJ but not strong enough to feel confident calling all in). Then Beau turns over 9 8 off for 2nd pair on the biggest bluff of the night!

Pretty much my face after seeing the 9 8 off with a 4bet shove all in

I was literally left speechless after this as it was just a top of the line play and we were playing .25 .50 haha. We kept on giving him shit like where the hell did that come from etc., but some nights He is dead on and playing spectacular poker maximizing his profits consistently while other nights he is completely off his game and struggling to keep a composed head. Once this guy becomes more consistent though, he will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. He finished the game up $240 and I profited a small amount but was down the previous night so it felt like I broke even. the host also broke even for the night as most of the other players all ended up in the negatives. I plan on playing half n half at least once or twice before I go to Biloxi, MS for the GCPC but so far I am really confident in my Omaha game. I just have to make sure I play solid poker and not get involved in pots I don't need to be involved in for holdem.

That was my weekend in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 2

2011-08-10T15:19:00.000-05:00

When you last read, I was explaining the occurences of my first melt down involving my Poker bankroll that did not completely make me broke but put a healthy dent in my Roll. Enough of which would stick to my mind and possibly affect my play leading to the next meltdown that resulted Early this year.

Louisiana State Poker Championships, Isle of Capri Lake Charles
Once again, I regained my confidence, Cashed or Won 4 straight weekly tournaments at the local casino as well as went on a span of either Winning or cashing consecutively in my home game as well from Early January up until Late march. I was close to being back even from what I lost in the time span of October-November 2010 and couldn't wait to continue climbing up the later. I went spend a weekend in Lake Charles for the Louisiana State Poker Championships in the month of April 2011 and pulled of a Nice profit playing the 5 5 NL cash games there but the first day was rocky as I was in the negatives. The following day I had a huge day grinding the cash games from 10 am - 9 pm to pull a $1200 profit, giving me a $400 profit for the weekend. This was a good thing, but again, I felt a need to chase the money I had loss and showed more compulsive tendencies rather than well thought out calculated risks. I was playing in Lake Charles in preparation for the next upcoming Tournament event series in New Orleans, LA in May.

The WSOP Circuit Regional stop Harrah's New Orleans
I was going to make my name here, I was planning to play multiple tournaments and go deep in atleast one. I brought a significant amount of my bankroll to do so and only planned on using half of it. This was another bad idea and lack of discipline managing my bankroll. Especially with the previous occurences I have been having with my brand new habit of chasing my money. The first day I arrived, I went directly to the 1/2 NL table as I never had a losing session (out of about 8 experiences) at Harrahs casino in New Orleans. knowing this I was extremely confident, but needless to say I was about to get the coldest deck I could ask for and definitely the worst timing possible. It started out with my AA getting cracked by KK for a $300 pot leaving me short stacked so I bought in for another $200. I then got involved with a guy who fell in love with his flush draw and shoved the flop when I flopped 2 pair. Naturally the pattern of this trip was I call when way ahead and get drawn out on saying good bye to my chips. I ended the day with a $400 loss and figured I would make up for it on day 2.

I entered the biggest field in a $340 tournament with 676 entrants (I believe Captain Tom Franklin went on to win this event) and was put at the same table as a friend of mine oddly enough. I really liked my table as they were very easy to read. I picked my spots perfectly, avoided players when I had to, got involved with the weak players when I had to, things were going great. got passed the dinner break. Our table broke up and I was moved to a new table on the short stack and the aggressive Chip Lead of the table was to my direct Right. This sucked for me as I had to pick spots to take blinds and rebuild my stack but yet avoid getting derailed by this guy who seemed to almost raise every other hand. The first two times I shoved my 12-17bb stack everyone folded and i raked the antes and blinds. but the last time....the Big Blind decided to wake up with KK and my 10 9 suited didnt touch the flop what so ever. I was out 130-140ish and the top 80 paid.
I still wanted to play though (thinking I can try to atleast get my buyin back....more chasing thoughts) and buy in to a $125 sit n go. I come out 5th when I shove 77 and get called by JJ and get knocked out.

I have $180 left in my wallet and decide to put it down at 1/2 NL again. My table is mostly filled with loose drunks and passive nits. I am doing great and taking advantage of this table. I work my stack up to $735 and did something I told myself I wouldnt do. I gave myself a number to reach before I got up from the table. I was shooting for $800 when 3 hands knocked me down to $320. First, 2 pair lost to a rivered straight. Next, drunk guy was calling with A high and I have JJ on 10 high flop trying to bet him off the hand. Ace hits turn and drunk guy went from talking non stop to immediately quiet (while rotating in circular motions of drunkness of course) then shoves all in.....we both had about $500 and I just rolled my eyes then folded. Very Next hand I am UTG and look down at QQ. the standard raise was $12-15 and I had a very loose image and was raising alot so this passive nit in late position reraised to $40. I go in the tank, try to put her on a hand and figure she thinks im trying to bully the table again so I reraise her to $150 (I now wish I would have just flatted to see the flop and spike the Q because I would have stacked her if I did so.) She immediately goes all in for about $600 and has me covered. If I call this and lose I would be broke and just the way she played it screamed AA or KK here. I go in the tank...I then look at her and she is looking at the felt, not me and I ask her....Do you have Aces or Kings?? and she looks at me and say, "Which one do you want it to be." (I was thinking to myself JJ but I knew I was beat and folded the Queens face up to show her I had a huge hand. She later told me it was Aces and I played with the person back home that was sitting on the left of her that she flashed her cards to. When I brought the story back up again at our local casino she did confirm that it was pocket aces. Back to the cash game I managed to get back to $500 after a couple hours, then at 3 am, my last hand I played was 9d 8d and flop fell 8s 9h 3s. I bet got 2 callers and a drunk rich looking frat kid says "All in" then smirks at his goofy Frat brother who thought he was the comedian of the table. I Called and the other 2 folded. the pot was just over $1000 and the frat boy showed As 5s...I needed to sweat any spade to take down this pot...and of course on the river. the Q of spades slaps me in my face.

Local Casino Tournaments
This was just disgusting and I continued to try to play the local casinos tournaments and cash game but could tell that I was playing bad due to the beats that I have experienced in New Orleans. I wasn't playing my A game and was trying to play through it instead of taking a much needed break. I continued to play once or twice a weak until mid July at casinos when my last straw was 3 horrible cold decks in a row. The First experience seemed like every other pot I was involved I had 2nd best and then left when I misplayed AA in early position against a super aggro rich guy and allowed pocket 8s to see a flop as well because I failed to Reraise everyone else off the hand preflop. Naturally on the flop he gets his 8 and I don't catch up. The next week I play the tournament and flop top 2 pair and lose because someone decided to try and be superman by shoving Ah Qs on a Kh 10d 9h board and I have Ks 9s not going anywhere. The turn and river are running Hearts and I get knocked out because a guy who normally plays super Tight and I put him on AK shoves with Ace high and sucks out. Finally I am getting bad beats and shove my short stack with AK off and get called by 3 4 off and he said he was calling cause 4s having been hitting every flop. This may be true because the dealers are incapable of correctly washing the deck after each hand and of course the 4 hit and I don't catch up. This hurt my roll down to about $400. I was no longer able to play at the casino safely and needed to take a break for multiple reasons but mostly to build my confidence back up.

Since that time I have not been at the casino and been just playing home games and small cash games .25 .50 to try and rebuild as well as putting money to the side. I have learned from my mistakes and trying to practice better bankroll management skills. I have been studying more and more during the days that I do not play. I will do my best to make sure I don't repeat the faults that I have recently because with proper bankroll management I could be sitting on a profit instead of in the negatives for trying to chase my money. I did not respect my limits and showed poor decisions rather than keeping a level head and trying to make the best decisions financially and strategically.Since then, I have noticed a turn around in profits once again and my confidence is beginning to come back.

I hope you can learn from the mistakes that I have made reading this. Success in poker is majorly correlated with the management of your bankroll. The best players in the world could also go broke with poor habits or decisions. Good practice will create more success!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 1

2011-08-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

I'm sure if I put this much effort into anything in life that I would find great success. I would have probably got my degree without losing my scholarship in college (Even though I lost it because I had finished a semester with 11 credits instead of 12 after dropping one class and the administration didn't even give me a chance to take a summer class to regain my scholarship GRRR) I could have maybe started my own business. There are endless possibilities that my mind, hell anyone's mind, is capable of accomplishing but it is just amazing that it depends on how much passion you have in something that you are willing to truly excel in what grasps the majority of your attention. For me its something that its a constant struggle. It is something that I have to try to be successful at with a limited amount of funds to do so, never really having a lot of wealth but working my ass off just to get where I am today.

At the beginning of the year I was doing pretty well at poker but over a course of 2010-2011, I was managing my bankroll horribly. It started with me having success on Full Tilt poker back in February and March of 2010. I did my usual $50 deposit and decided to play a cheap satellite to a $535 tournament (Forgot which one) but there were like 64 people that entered and was a huge overlay, but unfortunately only 1 place was paid for the seat.....well that person was me. I grinded out the win and instead of playing the

How I felt when talking to Full Tilt support when trying to cash out.

tournament, I unreg'd and traded the T$ for about $503.25 real money. I decided to play (Out of my bankroll btw) Six handed 1/2 cap NL poker. I liked this because there was a cap to the size of money you can bet per hand. I believe at 1/2 it was $60-80, 2/4 it was $100-140, and 3/6 was $150-200. I can't remember exactly but I would play 1/2 and got my bankroll up to $860 so I decided to play 2/4 cap and worked it up to $1500. I mainly stayed at 2/4 and played around in 3/6 every now and then until about March I wanted to cash out what I worked up to $2600. I was going to keep the original $500 in the FTP account and cash out $2100 when the cashier and support were making it extremely difficult. They wanted more identification so I provided it with my Driver's License. 2 days later they wanted me to provide monthly billing statements which I questioned at first then provided proof of address and blocked out the rest of the information (Which I saw to be private that wasn't their business) and they said it must be the full document. I wasn't going to choose the wire transfer option because the bank was going to reject the transaction and I would have been out of my money completely. Well during this whole process I was slowly beginning to go on tilt, and ended up staying at the current limits I was at and it was affecting my play. Needless to say by May 2010 I lost what I built up on Full Tilt and this made me feel like shit. I vowed I would never play online poker again. I dabbled in and out of different websites but never for a lot of money and by January 2011 I requested Support closed any accounts I had online and that was that. Luckily I got this done before Black Friday of Online Poker occured!!

When I started playing more live poker, I experienced some success Late August - October 2010. I was cashing my home games and local casino tournaments, went down to Lake Charles and Played the Fall Poker Classic in September and cashed in both events that I played but had to go back to work and missed out on the main event which I was feeling completely confident in playing. I then went to IP Biloxi in October for their WSOP circuit and played in a $235 Mega-satellite. It awarded $2000 in tournament chips and $250 in cash for every 10 players that entered the tournament. There were 86 players that entered and top 8 got this prize. I was once again playing superb poker and my fundamentals were dead on as I was able to make the top 8 and was prepared to free roll for the rest of my weekend. Well I decided to play one more tournament (A $340 buy in) and then play just cash games. I lost the tournament i entered halfway through the field then had minimal success at the cash games finishing -$250 and ended up bringing home $1350 after paying for hotel and expenses as well. This is a pretty good weekend but It also made me get greedy and want more. So I got cocky and made another trip the very next weekend and met up with a couple poker buddies that allowed me to crash in their room. I brought $1000 in cash with me and went back to the 1-2 NL cash game. I would buy in for $200 at a time and had the worst run of luck I have ever witnessed. Got 3 outed twice, was in a huge pot in the lead with a set when someone rivered the flush against me and after 1 more buy in I was busted at 3 a.m.on a Saturday morning. I was playing like a compulsive gambler chasing my money and not like a level headed poker player making calculated risks. I could feel myself getting more and more angry or frustrated but instead of leaving, I stayed and played in hopes that my luck would change. But the fact of the matter is, I didn't want to accept that it wasn't my luck that was bad, it was my mental image. It was my lack of confidence. I was off my game and stayed there dumping my chips until they were all gone. I immediately left without telling the guys bye. I called them about 25 minutes away from home and said sorry but I just had to get out of there. During my 4 hour journey home I was stuck thinking of the stupid actions that I decided to take in blowing my winnings, but didn't have an answer to avoid it from happening again.

My success of 2010 was short lived as I quickly expended the winnings in hopes to jump up in bigger stakes and get a larger bankroll. I was trying to get ahead of myself and instead of thinking rationally and actually taking my time to build my bankroll, I would risk it at every possible chance and would play out of my bankroll trying to beat the fish at the game. Unfortunately, when I would take a bad beat I would not have enough funds to reload and keep playing, thus leaving the game with a loss and another dent to my funds.
I didn't see the pain of this until my next encounter since I began to flirt with going broke while experimenting with my strategy and seeing my balance after paying bills....

Poker Books and Training websites

2011-08-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

I figured This would be a good time to give my thoughts on some really great training tools for poker. If you are serious about your game, you will want to do as much studying, research, and practice as you can in order to be successful.I have read multiple books through my tenure of learning the game and have alot more that I would like to read. The thing I find helpful when reading Poker books is getting other peoples understanding on how they play the game and actually see their explanation or thought process in particular situations or hands vs. tricky or deceptive opponents.

Education is our Friend

You will notice that since the Poker Boom of 2003, there are multiple poker books that hit the shelves whether it be mathematical to psychological, you have to weed the good material from the bad. It is also important to find which books compliment your style of play so it will be incorporated in your game with a smoother transition rather than trying to understand the methods of LAG (Loose Aggressive) if you're a TAG (Tight Aggressive) player or vice versa because your thought process on many things will contrast and you may not agree that it is the best line to take in situations. Poker in general is read dependent, player dependent, stack dependent, etc. so its hard to play a single hand correctly the exact same way EVERY TIME. If you do this you need to stop because it is basically making you an open book to those that are observant at the table. With that said you will not be able to maximize your profits on key hands or key situations. If you want to be successful in poker, you must be deceptive.

Anyway, here are a few suggestions that I think are great Poker reads for your collection to Learning more about the game you love to play.

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Vol. 1 and 2
Authors: Eric (Rizen) Lynch, Jon (PearlJammer) Turner, Jon (Apestyles) Van Fleet

These books are very well written and the commentary and explanation on their play of key hands in tournaments they have won are very helpful as they discuss betting patterns, pot sizing, and pot odds/implied odds. None of the books I will suggest are for the beginners who are trying to learn the game as it may be a bit over their head but if you play a TAG style then you may find that you can correlate this perfectly into your style of play.

Kill Everyone: Advanced Strategies for No-limit Hold'em Poker Tournaments and Sit-n-go's
Authors: Lee Nelson, Tysen Streib, Steven Heston, Joe Hachem (Foreword), Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier

This book is very intense and fun to read. It has a strong understanding for the mathematics of the game and exploits weaknesses in passive opponents. It is a great read for the Super LAG player and even good for someone who is trying to disect the brain of a Loose Aggressive Maniac at the table. If you plan on incorporating this into your game I would say enjoy the ride because there is alot of varience involved.

Read'em and Reap: A career FBI agent's guide to decoding poker tells
Authors: Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins, Phil Hellmuth

Now everyone has heard of the book Mike Caro's Book of Tells. I have read this book and there is some good content. A much shorter Read though is the one I have mentioned here. It has Some really great insight on subliminal tells a player may not realize they are revealing. Joe Navarro is the Ex FBI agent and he has some interesting information I have used at the table and is dead on, You can even practice by watching some players at the WSOP making these tells and get a read on what they might have. If you haven't noticed they have been having a section during the WSOP Broadcasts with him explaining what he is witnessing on the players body language. The best part I like about this book is that he expresses the signs as either "Strong/weak" "confident/nervous". The really talented players will give off reverse tells so the Author stresses to be wary of this.

Another very useful tool I have found that is free is Cardplayer Poker School
There is an unlimited amount of Articles and Videos that discuss multiple strategies about the game. You can also quiz yourself after viewing, reviewing, and studying each section of this awesome tool. It gets explanations from many great Live and Online pros each having their own twists of situations they have experienced through their years of play at the table. Other than that the best way to gain knowledge is by playing as much as you can and analyzing your own play as well as discussing poker with a group of friends or mentors as much as possible.

I didn't put the most obvious books like Doyle Brunson's Super Systems, Harrington on Holdem, etc because I believe these are Hidden Gems that have alot of great poker intel and may be unfamiliar to most.

If you have any suggestions of Books or websites that have helped you in your journey to success let me hear it!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

A Father in the Making!

2011-07-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

My beautiful wife and current pregger

There are some things people wait their whole life for. There was 3 main things that I wanted to accomplish and I thank God I have all three. I always wanted to own a house, have a beautiful wife, and children of my own that will love me unconditionally. In 2009 I got a House that I saved up for and worked hard for, even grinding 3 6 12 limit and 1 2 nl holdem cash games for the deposit. It was a nervous time but something I always wanted and worked so hard to get. Scratched that off the bucket list.

I was also dating this wonderful woman that would not move in with me unless we were married or engaged. Well the thing she didn't realize was I was going to ask her to be my wife eventually just didn't exactly know when I wanted to do it. Well I dropped the bomb on her and that's when we started looking for houses. She moved in with me, her parents completely disapproved and disowned her, we worked through the struggles and hardships and our relationship grew stronger and on March 5, 2011 we got married. Scratch number two off the list.

Now I have wonderful dogs, and a pet snake Ive been having since I was 18, but these are not kids. Even though the movie Marley and me almost brings me to tears every-time I watch it, still nothing compares to having your own child, taking care of them, seeing them smile and laugh and being able to play or cheer them on through each life accomplishment that they succeed in. We had picked out names long before we were even trying to conceive and loved taking care of our friends kids, sisters children, etc. But it was just our time to have our own. So I told her to just let it happen and enjoy our lives and when God decides it is ready we will be blessed. Days would go by, I would sing this song to myself when I got the job done, I just had sex!, and the waiting continued.

About 2 weeks ago, I am going hardcore on Call of Duty: Black Ops. getting head shots left and right, throwing grenades, blowing people up, running up behind people and back stabbing. Slowly my wife walks out of the bedroom and grabs the remote and presses 'Mute'. I look at her like, "I'm working hear!!!" In my best New York attitude. and she bats her eyes and says, "I just took a pregnancy test..." I am like...OK....and??. She finishes "It says We're Pregnant!!!" My eyes got wide and being the skeptic I am I

No this is not the actual test that would be creepy.

say....I don't believe you, show me proof hahaha. She shows me and I say....go take another one just to make sure! she does and its the same result! the next day she goes get blood work done and they confirm that she is in fact pregnant and has been for about a month or so. We were initially going to wait after the first trimester was complete as this is the stage where the most complications occur but neither of us could wait as we were built with anticipation to spread the good news!!

I was going to wait until my wife was ready to reveal the news but I provided some subtle hints just to ease my mind. Well she has officially spread the news so Just pray that everything goes smoothly for us. I can't wait to see what the little alien nugget looks like and meet him/her. I am mostly Scared, Excited, Curious, Relieved (that my baby batter is healthy LOL) but I can't wait to start a new chapter in my life.

Thanks,
Matt Stroud

Adding cushion to the Lead!

2011-07-30T12:22:00.002-05:00

Last night we played 7 card Stud and had 17 players. It was a small buyin, but most of the players are just trying to accumulate points to make it into the Final 9. I'm playing for the bonus money as I am pretty much set for the Final 9 but can get $200 extra if I stay on top the leaderboards. The structure was pretty tough because it wasn't really fast paced, but you started with 50 big bets and if you played too many hands and didn't win many, chances are you were going to get eliminated quickly. So being selective is very important. I was happy with my play pretty much the whole night picking spots to be aggressive and though its not my best game I was familiar with it and was confident. That Confidence turned into a second place finish as we did a chip count chop at the end and the CL had a 3:1 chip lead advantage on me knocking out 3rd and 4th place simultaneously.

I have to give props to my boy Mike Silvas for pretty much Folding his way to the money as he was dealt shit cards all night but stayed patient enough to get 4th as the top 5 got paid. This poor guy seemed to have had to bring in almost every hand, it was sick. There was a streak where he posted the bring-in atleast 6 or 7 times in a row. As bad as I felt for him, it was pretty freaking funny. Towards the end of the tourney I was waking up with monsters in my bring-in, with Buried pairs, 3 card flushes and 3 card straights. Like I said before, I was feeling confident but then the words cash games was fluttering in the air and I wanted to jump in the action rather than fight for an Extra $20 for first. So I took $100 and the winner won $120 in a Chip Count Chop and we started a 7 handed .25 .50 cash game.

There were three guys already playing around and one guy just crushed the other two and as the new cash game started he was sitting with about $60-70 while everyone else bought in for $20-35. I had the 3 crazies to my right and the 3 solid Tight players to my left so I liked my spot at the table. It was also a bunch of my league players so we all pretty much have ideas of how we play so it makes it an even better game. The guy with $60-70 was up to his normal shit, 3betting, shoving on dry boards, He is a pretty good cash game player but has a wide open range so its really hard to place him on a hand, its either monster or air. well tonight it was air apparently as the Tilt monster got a hold of him after a couple of beats and he just couldn't catch up for the rest of the night. I made a hero call against the guy that I chopped heads up with and of course get rewarded by him catching one of his 6 outs on the turn.

I was in mid late position with 6c 5c and player in early position raised to 1.50 got a caller then a re-raise to $4 I am next to act and call knowing there will be atleast 2 more callers and I have $21 left behind. If I hit my hand it is well disguised and I can win a huge pot. Well the Button calls and the original Raiser and caller also call the $4 and there is $20 in the pot. Flop comes 6s 3d 3h and I am pretty sure I'm the only person to connect on that flop and the action is checked to the 3bettor who goes all in and has almost everyone covered. He has been playing pretty crazy loose and saying how he wanted to go and showing loose hands after scooping pots so I don't put him on much, but also give the possibility for 77-1010. But then he starts talking. Almost too much...Like he didn't want anyone to call. So then I started feeling more confident in my hand again. I figured he has 2 overs at best and just trying to take the pot down so if I hold I can win this knowing no one else will call as they were showing no interest and getting ready to fold their hands or not paying much attention to his actions. (I use alot of psychology in my reads and it usually helps. There is so much information a person's body gives off it's ridiculous) I call and show my hand and the villain flips over Ah Js. Before I can even Congratulate myself on making a good call, I burn then Turn, and the Jh appears to laugh at my face and stack me.

When I go back to watch them play I see The original villain has already lost the chips that I gave to him and working on losing the rest. I'm thinking to myself, "Man why did I have to lose that pot lol." It also made me want to jump back into the game because the money was flying and the action was good. I scrapped up another $20 and said OK last one. I started out pretty good winning a couple small pots then bluff off a portion of my stack when I just knew I messed up against an opponent that also makes good reads. I was chewing gum and while I was playing, I was chewing kind of fast and talking being relaxed, but in this hand I felt my jaw chewing a little bit slower and I think he picked up on this since I barreled 3 times for him to just smooth call with top pair weak kicker. It was my mistake and I don't normally chew gum but it was delicious and my breath was reeking so I had to freshen it up a bit heh. Well a few hands later I get locked up in a pot against the same player who made a good read on me. With the standard raise at about 3-4x preflop, he bets out 7x, for some reason this just yelled small pocket pair to me and he didn't want to play it. I look down at 10 8 suited and wanted to represent a bigger hand. I have $14 left and opt to shove all in. Everyone folds to him and he is the type of player to know he is behind but call to suck out and it is amazing how often this happens. Well he calls and shows 4 4 so my 10 8 suited is in good shape to draw out. Another player utters, "I had 10 9" and the flop falls J 10 9....Thank GOD! I hate when people say they have some of my outs but oh well BOOOOOM thanks for folding haha. the 4s don't catch up and it bumps me back up. I go on to make a small $25 profit in this game as the 5 players that stayed in the early AM all cashed out a profit which doesn't happen too often.

It was a good night of poker, KK AA and other big hands all held up leaving very little room for complaint. Hopefully I can keep this up and keep my confidence strong going into Biloxi, MS because I am due for a huge score!

Matt Stroud

Fantasy Football, APP League, and dabbling with the GCPC

2011-07-26T11:05:00.002-05:00

Phone...Y U NO work??

So The NFL Lockout is finally....FINALLY over and of course and over flow of Fantasy Football drafts are about to begin. I was iffy on deciding to play this year as last year was a crappy year and just missed the playoffs in 2 money leagues (small money) but the shit talking in these leagues were immense and Tilted me like no other. The fact that I had to wait 6 months for my upgrade because I got pissed off and broke my phone because I missed the playoffs in MY OWN LEAGUE was just icing on the cake for the year. It was all the fact that the Fantasy Football rookie of the league made a genius move to grab Deion Branch from the waiver wire when he was acquired by the Patriots, remembering the chemistry Branch and Tom Brady had when they Consistently won Super Bowl after Super Bowl. I give him credit for his impeccable memory but what was worse was his no name team just started going on a tear at the end of the year, and where there is success, there is shit talking. And with the ridiculous amount of shit talking he received earlier in the year by other team owners of the league, he decided to let it all unfold on the Commish who happened to be playing him that week and then continue to rub salt in the wound after he defeated that said Commish (and you can figure out who the commish was.....the guy with the broken phone). Well, needless to say being the poor sport that I am, I immediately gave all commissioner privileges to My best friend and best man since he thought he could be a better commish. I happily obliged and said well here you go buddy I'm done with it. I literally felt like I was a part of the TV Show "The League"

Well, getting antsy about the 2011 football season I joined an enormous 20 man league with way too many people on the roster mainly as far as defense but it's a free league, so I don't really care. But I also started getting on the new commissioner of our league to start rallying the players and to get a draft going. Already, some new changes have been implemented in the league so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I'll be glad I won't have the unnecessary BS of being a commissioner anymore and will just enjoy destroying this years competition. Watch out Bayou Fantasy Football cause the Cleveland Steamers (Cause I usually suck) are gonna wreck shop!!

Well here's My roster for the 20 man Free league I am In. The offense is pretty standard but its the individual Defensive players I have never dealt with before so it should be interesting. I like my team's chances for the most part.

QB Kyle Orton (annoyingly this was auto pick and he's about to be traded from what I hear)
QB Alex Smith 49ers
RB Maurice Jones Drew (another auto pick I showed up a lil late for the draft and would've picked ray rice but he's not bad either)
RB Knowshown Moreno (I think he'll have a breakout year this year)
RB Roy Helu (I like him especially where he's at with Washington)
WR Jeremy Maclin
WR Dwayne Bowe
WR Sidney Rice (The last auto pick I wanted to punch my computer when I saw this)
WR Austin Pettis (another rookie)

Super Sleeper 2011 Roy Helu Jr.

TE Todd Heap
TE Jacob Tamme
K David Akers
Def GB Packers
Def ATL Falcons
2 DT's Ive never heard of

DE Glenn Dorsey

DE Kyle Vanden Bosch
LB Ray Lewis
LB Paul Polzunsky
LB James Laurinitis
LB James Farrior
LB Barrett Ruud
CB Deangello Hall
CB Joe Haden
CB Ronde Barber
SS Kerry Rhodes
SS Earl Thomas
Bench Abram Elam
Bench Ike Taylor

What do you think about the team ( I know I'm weak at QB)

My league game is about to wrap up as we only have about 4 games left of the season that has been going on since January and I am Still at the top of the leader board with 72 points. A buddy of mine is right on my heals with 71 points but hopefully I can keep him at bay. I am kind of proud of this feat as I have been told my home game isn't like the typical home game. All the guys that come play are very competitive and more than capable of winning each night. I can safely say that I have an average of about 18 well rounded poker players that come play and can safely brag that I am atop the leader board. We are all fighting to stay in the top 9 for

APP 2010 Champion Dustin Norris

the most part as this is the Championship Free-roll where all top 9 spots are paid. There are 4 new categories that can also earn $100 each. Mixed Game Point Leader (currently the guy in second) Overall Point Leader (currently me) Most Final Tables (also me) Most cashes (there is a 3 way tie for this and tie breaker is 2nd most FTs) Last year First place of the Championship FreeRoll got the APP plaque and $400 and a big shout out from the guys at www.GulfCoastPoker.net Hopefully this year there will be more money for each spot since there was an average of more players each game but with the $100 added it definitely helps.

GCPC Schedule

If you aren't friends with me on Facebook then you probably haven't noticed that I create Events for upcoming Casino Tournament circuits. The next one in line is Beau Rivage's annual Gulf Coast Poker Championship. This casino hosts multiple tournament circuits with prices affordable to those that want to dabble in large Multi Table Tournaments and even strike some success with a 4 or 5 figure score. They even host the televised WPT Event, the Southern Poker Championship. Players from all over the south gather in Biloxi, MS to play at these events and create some of the juiciest Cash games as well. My plan this year is to play 3 events from Tuesday August 30 until Thursday Sept. 1st. I booked my room for Aug 30 and Aug 31 but the only way I can play all three events is if I sell enough of myself to accommodate for the buy-ins. I have offered to sell 60% or 12 shares for a total of $720. That is $60 for 5% of my action. Alot of people usually put a mark up of about 20-25% but this is my first time doing this so my Mark up is very small at around 9-10% just so I can pay for gas to get out there. So far I have sold 3 of my shares and currently have 9 shares left. If someone is interested I may even offer 2.50% shares at $30 each, but I find that my price is more than affordable. The possibility of gain on income is very high too! The fields should be smaller since its middle of the week tournaments, but 1st place could still be between 10-20k depending on re-buys! So if you have 5% of that action that is $500-$1000 off of $60 bucks. If I am unable to sell all of my action, I will definitely be playing either the $230 Half NLHE/PLO event or the $130 plus $100 Rebuy Event. Either way I will be going into it confident. If you're wondering about the schedule, click on the link under the picture (Left). I Will be keeping updates during the tournaments on my Twitter account @AcadianaPkrPlyr and Hope to see you guys there!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

Perfecting the Poker Face.

2011-07-24T20:50:00.000-05:00

Mastering the Poker Face doesn't happen overnight.

Since the Black Friday of poker hit, it seems all the online obsessed poker players have tried their best to scratch their itch. That means many are beginning to invade casinos but are not accustomed to playing their opponents face to face at a poker table so they give off multiple tells while playing. I find this the perfect opportunity to share my methods of practicing the Perfect Poker Face that will never give off a tell.

Now I wouldn't practice this in public because you don't want to give away all of your secrets. But, I found the best way to practice your poker face is by not reacting to the most intimate moments your body experiences, better known as the orgasm. Yes the Orgasm, this makes your muscles through out your body spazz out so if you can master not showing a tell that you are having the most ultimate climax then you have mastered the poker face. You can ask me, how the hell did you determine this?? Well you know what,...... its not that important, anyway, back on the subject. Here are a few methods you can take in attempting to mastering this feat. If it doesn't happen the first....I'll say month....Do Not get discouraged because Mastering the Poker Face doesn't happen overnight.


"...Make the most boring face on the planet and stare into space."

The first thing I would suggest is practicing by yourself. No not like asking your friend to watch your face the whole time, that is just disturbing and awkward. NO NO what I mean is go into the bathroom or private room with a Lock on the door, Look in the mirror and start working on that poker face. When you feel it (you know that moment) Its game time. Try your hardest to not even wince, just keep the same facial expression you had when you started. Don't you smile, gasp, pant, roll your eyes, hell dont even move. If you do, then you have failed and will have to keep practicing.

Now the next method is practicing with a Partner. Again, don't call a friend and be like, hey I'm working on something with poker come over and give me a hand.....WHOA WHOA no don't do that, I mean like your sexual partner, wife, girlfriend, fiance, boyfriend, husband, cousin (If you're into that kinda thing, but I would not encourage such a thing.) Anyway, First you want to make sure that they consent of the sexual activities, you don't want a lawsuit or jail time on your hands because all you wanted to do was practice an innocent poker face that will earn you substantial amounts of money in the near future. Next, when they're in the mood and want to make the passionate dance that I like to call the hibbity dibbity, Now is your chance. (Ladies this is probably easier, since it is almost second nature, for you....sigh) While you are in the heat of the moment, make the most boring face on the planet and stare into space. So while you're partner is going to town, hooting and hollering, sweating and about to throw out their back, when they look down at you and see your face, if it makes them ask, "Whats wrong, does it not feel good?" or they just get pissed off and get up then chances are You have accomplished your goal and now have a Perfect Poker Face to bring to the tables.

Now after reading this you are probably thinking to yourself, This is GENIUS or what a loser....either way You will be thinking about trying it, but to answer your question, No I have never done this and this is clearly for comical purposes..........or is it?!?

Always remember to work on that Poker Face and watch-out for the soul readers.

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

Biggest Poker Mistake of my Life

2011-07-23T23:57:00.001-05:00

This is an old Facebook note that I wrote after I played a big hand in 5 5 NL @ Shorty's Poker Room from February, 2011:

"
Ok Everyone has done it atleast once whether they admit it or not, but the way it has happened to me is just sickening and I can't get it out of my mind.

I decided to take a chance at 5 5 nl at Shorty's, my local casino's poker room and bought in for 200. This game is very beatable even with the short stack that i bought in for as long as you play smart and pick spots wisely. well 3rd hand into it I look down at 7d7c in late position and I'm munching on my freshly bought shrimp poboy. There are 2 limpers to me and I limp along with 2 others and the sb and bb check to see a flop $35 in the pot

Flop comes *6h 5d 2h* and I am thinking I have an over pair but there is a flush draw on the board. guy UTG bets $20 1 caller, I call, and Button calls. I am thinking there is no way someone has 43 and just slow played the straight. I am guessing someone hit top pair at best and the other 2 are on a flush or straight draw or has middle pair. $115 in the pot I have $165 left.

Turn is the 7h (I hit my set but very cautious about the flush and straight) Guy who bet $20 Bets $100 this time and next guy folds to me, I tank for a bit (still eating my poboy) then Flat hoping to fill up on the river and the button just calls. $415 in the pot. I seriously think someone has the flush and I am behind but if the board pairs I hit my boat and scoop the pot. I have measely $65 left and before they flip the river I'm asking myself why the hell i didnt just shove it all in before the River even fell. (Played this hand horrible)

River is the 3s, Blank for me but it now puts a 4 card straight out there** and the guy who has been betting checks, I check to the button and he tanks for a little while then bets $200, the original better calls. I look at my 77 shake my head then fold it FACE UP. The people at the table immediately look at me confused and say you fold that?? wow? how do you fold that? I said well there is a flush and straight on the board they have to have that. Guy on button says I have a boat and shows 22. I look at him kind of confused. Guy on the other end of the table said, Dude the board is paired!! I stand up and look at the flop closer. The flop is **6d 6h 2h**....... (Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk) I just threw away the winning hand.....FACE UP at that and would have won a nice pot of about $550-600. Instead I get the misery of feeling like an idiot. One of the guys I've played against alot and have history with continuously rubbing it in my face that i folded the winning hand...that was an expensive sandwich....he can't believe I folded that.... I told him I thought it was a 5d not 6d Clearly if I would have noticed that I wouldn't have folded. Guy on the button just shrugs, smiles, and scoops the pot. I dump $300 more on tilt and trying to catch up what I just donated. but end up busting when my Qs 7s flop pair of 7s and flush draw but miss all my outs vs. JJ Definitely one of the most embarassing experiences Since I've been playing this roller coaster game and worst part is I can't get it out my head. IDK what caused me to see a 5 instead of 6 from the get go and thinking I was beat.....but plain and simple it happened. I wish I could go back in time, throw that fucking Shrimp Poboy in the garbage and just sit focused on the game.

Well that's it. That is how I went from potentially being +500 for the day to -500 for the day meh. If I only had a brain...
Enjoy my idiocracy"

Welcome to my blog

2011-07-23T23:53:00.000-05:00

I wanted to start this with a little introduction. I have been playing for about....10 years now that I think about it wow. I grew up playing 5 card draw like everyone else who has ever played poker and dealers choice games with friends for cheap .05 .10 or quarters, you know the fun times. But once I learned about Holdem I immediately caught on, then started organizing games at my apartment with work buddies.

Quickly my group went from 5 guys, to 12, to 20, and more. I would have a friendly $5 nl tourney and when we would win we would think we are bad asses and talk trash to each other you know kind of like Fantasy football but with poker. Then I started learning more about the game, growing interest and seeing friends move up in stakes. This made me want to compete with them but never had the stability or money to fall back on if I took a pitfall. I continued to watch my buddies get more advanced and would cheer them on, but felt like I should be right there by their side, not far behind them cheering them on. So my determination grew.

I created a group called Acadiana Poker Players and invited local buddies that I played multiple home games with. Then I thought about it. I used to hate trying to meet new players or move somewhere and not know where I could go play a game so I figured If I can get people from all over Louisiana to join the group, I would be able to find a game, casino, strategy, etc. with multiple people. I started inviting friends of friends. Then friends of friends of friends and so on and now the group is 160 strong and growing after about 2 years of existence. And that is not counting those not part of the Facebook group alone.
Big names have joined like Eric Cloutier, Blake Barousse, Kevin Eyster, Ben Mintz, Jacob Naquin, Clint Schafer. The list goes on and These are all great guys with even better personalities. I have also met alot of interesting people on my journey to making this group grow and am proud that I can say I have created something people enjoy being a part of.

I have a few goals for next year 2012 that I would like to accomplish and will definitely reach atleast 2 of the 3 or 4 that I have in mind. Well anyway I created this blog to share my experiences and struggles in the Tournaments, Cash games, and just life in general and I hope to catch your eye. Well you can find me mostly at Shorty's Casino at Cypress Bayou but I like to travel from Lake Charles, LA to Biloxi, MS playing along the Gulf Coast so hopefully I will see some of you at the felt!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud