December 15th Tournament

Hello, everybody!

It's going to feel like a lifetime by the time we shuffle up and deal on the 15th of December for the last event of the 2006 season.

Friday, the 15th of December, is the date of the tournament. The location is Jon Shilling's house in North Fargo at 3508 N Elm St. $40 is the buy-in and be there by 6:30!! Cards will be in the air at 7:00 sharp. We probably only have room for 30-33 people, but we may be able to make room for more. I don't necessarily expect this many, but it's up in the air as this is the first tournament of this size we will have back in a house setting since this spring. Please RSVP if you can. I plan to bring snacks and beverages and Jon plans to have some as well.

This is the last tournament that you will be able to receive points before the Points Championship Freeroll the weekend of the 7th of January. If you are close to the bubble, either the 6 that are barely in, or those that could pass them, make an effort to come as a good showing here, can win your way into what amounts to a $75 buy-in tournament!!

Hope to see everybody there!!!


Corey Eslinger

Coming Down

Well, I think I'm officially coming down from the win. I finally got one under my belt after so many tries, and well, now it's time to start trying more, lol. Still bouncing around which 'Bucks' tournament to participate in. The big-boy tournament in Bismarck for $200 with all the DPT final table participants, or the Bucks tournament in Fargo that same weekend.

Pros and Cons to both, from distance to travel, structure, opponents, prestige, reward, etc.

However, regardless of which one these I decide to play, the dates of the next tournaments are pretty much set in stone - at least the weekends of.

December 15th or 17th will be the final $40 tournament, and the last to receive points, of the 2006 DRP year. Either Friday night or a Sunday afternoon for this tournament. It sounds like Jon Shilling will be hosting the event, and I'm working out the details with him currently. All top 16 will come back on the weekend of the 7th of January to participate in the freeroll. Check the standings for your position, and what you might have to do to make it!

The first tournament of the 2007 season will be the weekend of the 21st in January. I was shooting for the 28th, but the Dead Money Open is already scheduled for that weekend, and too many of our group would be interested in playing that. Also, having our tournament the week before, would allow some to treat it as a satellite for that tournament as well.

We hope to have the December tournament at a house in town, and I will be providing a few 'extra' refreshments for everybody. We will be scheduling a cash game after the main tournament, and I hope to have the tournament on Saturday and we can have a little bit more of a party. So whether or not you'd like to participate in the tournament, stop by an hour or two after start time and meet your fellow poker players!

Talk to ya all soon!!

1st Annual Playmaker's Classic at the Venue

Starting this past Saturday at 1:00, 203 people ponied up $150, either directly or through satellites, for the First Annual Playmaker's Classic at the Venue. Mitch Schock of the Dakota Poker Tour and who cashed in 29th position at this year's WSOP Main Event, was the director of the event. With 1 hr blinds and a very liberal blind structure, it allowed for a very, very nice amount of play during the tournament. 9 rounds were to be played on each day - turned out only 8 would be played on day 2, but first things first. I'll give a little bit of chronological order as best as I can remember the events of this past weekend, along with the names, and how they occurred.

First, I was able to move from 10,000 to around 15,000 during the first round by making a straight against AK, and winning on a pot that my opponent missed his flush on. During the next 3 hours, very little occurred to me or for me, and I hung right around the 15,000 mark. During the 300/600 round I began to make some good moves and built my stack to around 27,000, but in a short series, and through a course of 4 hands I played, my stack dwindled down to 7,300. First hand, Aaron Dietrich raises to 1800 from late position and I call with KQ on the blind. Flop is 982, and I check raise his 2,400 bet to 8,500. He pushes all-in, and I am forced to muck as he show an A6. Then I proceed to call Steve Madsen's preflop bet with my KJ. We both check the flop, but he calls 3,000 after a J falls on the turn. He checks an A on the river, as do I, and he shows AQ to win about an 11,000 pot. Then the last hand of the round, I limp with AT, and it's folded around to the blinds who call and check. The flop is KT7, as the SB checks dark. The BB also checks and I bet 1,200. The SB goes all-in, enough that it would cause some severe damage. He shows a K4 after I fold. Then the first hand after the break I have J8 in the blind and call Aaron's preflop raise with all intentions of moving all-in after the flop if I catch a piece. Fortunately for me, I don not and I fold myself down to 7,300. By the end of the round I had moved myself back up to around 16,000 by taking many, many pots down without a call. After I got moved to another table, I built my stack thanks to AQ and 66. With AQ, I flopped JT9. There was a preflop raiser that I called, and I now called his post-flop bet. The turn brought a 3rd club and another J. The raiser proceeds to check, and I move all-in for 20,700. He comtemplates, and folds KK face up. My 66 then made a set against an opponent who had a pocket pair that was trying to represent a bigger hand. At the end of day 1, I was sitting with 78,000 even. I had Jareb Raan, Jeb Johnson, Ryan Hanson, Tim Jacobs, and Jon Rubis all joining me into Day 2. At the beginning of Day 2, I caught some early hands, one of them being AA UTG, raising from 3,000 to 13,000 and calling Ryan Hanson's all-in bet of around 35,000. He had KJs, and the QcQs6d flop looked rather good to me, but a Ts on the turn all of a sudden opened a can of worms. Fortunately for me, the Td fell on the river and gave me the pot. I had worked up to 120,000 at the end of this blinds level. During one of the subsequent blind levels I proceeded to dive bomb from 145,000 to 70,000 after I made a full house to quads from the SB to the BB, and then had kicker issues that lost me 50,000. Things began to turn around though with 2 table remaining as I knocked Tim Jacobs with a J6 vs 46, with a 6 on the board, and then eliminated another player as QQ held against K9. A big hand earlier in the round had by QQ against Aaron's QQ around Nick Mertz's AK. Mertz was all-in and was eliminated when his AK failed to catch. With 13 remaining I was now 2nd in chips with around 230,000, and for the first time felt I had a legitimate shot at going deep into the final table.

At the final table, it didn't take me long to get my money in with QQ vs TT preflop and move up to 450,000 in chips. From that point I basically sat back and watched the play. Jon Rubis was very aggresive at the final table and eliminated a player with a straight flush with pocket 5's and then later had 22 run down AA. The player with the AA was eliminated shortly thereafter with A8 vs Rubis' KJ. An A on the flop wasn't enough to hold off runner-runner J's. Jareb Raan was able to double up and survive to aroudn 5th although he had a very quiet final table and came into the final table with under half the average stack in play. The first chink in my armor was losing with AQ vs AT when the AT rivered a straight for a 200,000 pot, and then I lost with AJ vs AA - against Aaron Dietrick, who else. After that hand a was down to 100,000 and doubled right back through Aaron with AJ vs A8. That left me with around 200,000 with 4 remaining. The next big move was by Brad, who raised was reraised by Jon, and then went all-in. Jon called with AQc, as Brad showed JJ. The Jacks held and Aaron had a commanding lead. I went into the tank to figure out how I could possibly overcome a huge deficit. Brad had about 1.5 million, Aaron had around 400K, and I had 220K. It didn't take long as I moved over the top of a 70,000 chip raise by Brad with 55. He called to try to knock me out, based on the number of the chips in the pot, with 97. All blanks gave me the hand and doubled me to 450,000. Next I called a preflop raise by Brad again. This time with AJc, calling it with every intention of moving all-in no matter the flop. The flop came 2c2h3h. Fairly inocuous, but after Brad bet, and I moved all-in, he called with Q3. A 4 on the turn gave me more outs, but it was an A on the river that doubled me up to 900,000. I was able to elimiate Aaron shortly thereafter as my AKc went up against his A4. A 4cJsQc on the flop, a 9d on the turn, but a Jc on the river gave me the nut flush and sent Aaron home. Heads up only lasted 3 hands. On the 3rd hand I min raised with QJh, and Brad called. He bet out at a KJ6 flop for 150,000 and I called, the turn was a blank and he moved all-in and I inst-called being 95% I has ahead. He flipped A7. The river was a blank and that made Corey Eslinger the winner of the Playmaker's Classic at the Venue and a winner of $6,605!!!!

There were many, many people who were rooting for me on Sunday, and I'd like to thank all of them for their support. They know how much it means to me to finally win a tournament like this. Although I'm not a proliferant participant in tournaments around here, they have realized how much it means to me.

Also like to give a personal thanks to Mitch Schock and his tournament structure which allowed me to play some of the best poker I could play and overcome times of adversity and play a great game!!