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

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

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

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

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

Defense + Rain = Winning

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

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

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

Time to Dominate Fantasy Football!

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

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

Seattle Seagulls
QB Alex Smith 49ers

Touchdown Machine

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

Human Bulldozer

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

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

Spider Man of NFL

Will catch everything Desean won't

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

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

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

Bench

Saints finally have a dependable run game again!

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

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

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



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


Matt Stroud

Fantasy Football, APP League, and dabbling with the GCPC

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