Chris Halverson’s Blog

I started a diet on July 7, 2003. As of today I have lost 35 pounds. I’ve gone 217.5 to 182.5 in 6 months. Nice. I did it all with the Atkins diet and so far it’s working well. I want to get down to 175 then I’m onto maintenance mode. I need to start working out though in order to build more muscle and generally get more healthy, but I had to get that weight off.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a diet blog, it was just a milestone mark and it is the end of the year, so it was good timing.

Poker wise? Ug. I knew I shouldn’t have played. It was my wife’s birthday so after dinner and such we were back at home watching TV until 11 or so. I’ve now got a couple of drinks in me (my wife bought an 18 year old scotch, yum!) and I was tired. It was being tired that hurt me the most. I went down $20 for the night, which kinda pissed me off. I had a couple bad beats, but nothing too bad. I just let emotion get in the way. I got beat with the rockets again. Can I ever win with these? Flop and turn put two eights on the board and I kept betting and only had one caller (I was before him in position). River comes a 3 and am thinking my dead man’s hand will be a lock until the guy flips over K8h for three of a kind. I couldn’t believe it. I got a little on tilt after that and got a little too agressive trying to win some back. In the end it cost me. All the while I was feeling tired and knew I shouldn’t be playing, but after I lost a couple of pots I felt that I had to get it back. I deserved to get punished for the way I played.

WSOP marathon on ESPN2 today starting at 2:30 CST (last episode starts at 8:30 CST). I’ll be TiVO’ing these too and building my library.

I’ve got no plans for New Year’s tonight. I’m not going out, but not sure I’ll be able to play as my wife actually sometimes stays up on New Year’s. If so, I’m sure we’ll watch a movie or something and in the end, spending time with my wife is more important than poker.

Have a great New Year’s Eve and be safe!

Let’s just start this entry out with:

• Hand History for Game 306767093 *****
  0.50/1 TEXASHTGAMETABLE (LIMIT) – MON DEC 29 22:24:32 EST 2003
  Table Boys Nite Out (Real Money)—Seat 9 is the button
  Total number of players : 10
  Seat 1: ElyseA ( $13.25)
  Seat 2: afertel ( $33.75)
  Seat 3: ndskykng ( $99.50)
  Seat 4: MARKSKNIGHT ( $29.75)
  Seat 5: gagepro ( $28.75)
  Seat 6: its_wolf ( $29)
  Seat 7: seattlerules ( $59.50)
  Seat 8: chrisdhal1 ( $35)
  Seat 9: jamiesimmons ( $10.25)
  Seat 10: Pokertgr ( $6)
  Pokertgr posts small blind (0.25)
  ElyseA posts big blind (0.50)
  • Dealing down cards **
    Dealt to chrisdhal1 [ Qc, Kc ]
    afertel calls (0.50)
    ndskykng folds.
    MARKSKNIGHT calls (0.50)
    gagepro calls (0.50)
    its_wolf folds.
    seattlerules folds.
    chrisdhal1 calls (0.50)
    jamiesimmons folds.
    Pokertgr calls (0.25)
    ElyseA checks.
  • Dealing Flop ** : [ Ac, Tc, 6d ]
    Pokertgr checks.
    ElyseA checks.
    afertel bets (0.50)
    MARKSKNIGHT calls (0.50)
    gagepro folds.
    chrisdhal1 calls (0.50)
    Pokertgr calls (0.50)
    ElyseA calls (0.50)
  • Dealing Turn ** : [ Jc ]
    Pokertgr checks.
    ElyseA checks.
    afertel bets (1)
    MARKSKNIGHT calls (1)
    chrisdhal1 raises (2) to 2
    Pokertgr folds.
    ElyseA folds.
    afertel calls (1)
    MARKSKNIGHT folds.
  • Dealing River ** : [ Jh ]
    afertel checks.
    chrisdhal1 bets (1)
    afertel calls (1)
  • Summary **
    Main Pot: $11.75 | Rake: $0.75
    Board: [ Ac Tc 6d Jc Jh ]
    ElyseA balance $12.25, lost $1 (folded)
    afertel balance $29.75, lost $4 [ As Kd ] [ two pairs, aces and jacks—As,Ac,Kd,Jc,Jh ]
    ndskykng balance $99.50, didn’t bet (folded)
    MARKSKNIGHT balance $27.75, lost $2 (folded)
    gagepro balance $28.25, lost $0.50 (folded)
    its_wolf balance $29, didn’t bet (folded)
    seattlerules balance $59.50, didn’t bet (folded)
    chrisdhal1 balance $42.75, bet $4, collected $11.75, net +$7.75 [ Qc Kc ] [ Royal Flush—Ac,Kc,Qc,Jc,Tc ]
    jamiesimmons balance $10.25, didn’t bet (folded)
    Pokertgr balance $5, lost $1 (folded)
    

Oh yeah! Of course, I probably didn’t play it totally correctly, but it was still very cool. Two seconds after I posted this I checked out The Fat Guy, and guess what? He got one too!!! Wow!

Party (well, in this case Empire) has been treating me well again. Played a session in the afternoon (using my last personal day). It was a bit tighter than usual at 50/1, but there were “only” 12,000 or so people online. Ended up 5BB over 1.5 hours. Then I played again that night (when you’re winning it’s hard to stay away!) and was up 20BB over 3 hours. I should have table hopped a bit though. The table I was at was fun, lots of chatter, but there were some decent people there. I was holding my own though and still winning, but I probably could have maximized the winnings at a different table. I’ve got to be more conscience about that. I think I got a little stuck on the fact that a) I was doing OK and b) it was a “fun” table. I took hdouble’s and Iggy’s advice and played any pocket pairs tonight. It worked out pretty well, so I’m definitely adding that to my play. It probably would have been better if I had jumped tables, but the point here is that it worked (as they said it would, I have so much yet to learn…).

Looks like Mean Gene and I both had great weekends. I haven’t played any tournaments yet, and MeanGene probably still understands the odds and such better than I do, but this weekend seems to have proven a revelation for both of us in the ring games.

I’m pretty happy with my recent performance. I know not every session will be profitable, but until I can beat the 50/1 tables consistently (and build a bankroll) there’s no concept of moving up in the limits. While I don’t think I’m going to attempt Poker Oddyssey’s timeline, I may use his bankroll amounts before moving up. I’m about to the point where if I cash out some I can “repay” my original buyin which means I’ll be playing on winnings alone (more or less, close enough anyway :). I may do that just to say that I am doing it that way. The question to the bonus whores out there is: Can you count your bonus as part of your bankroll or should it just be “extra”? It’s not really “earned”, so I’m thinking no. To keep myself honest I’m not going to count it and just have it be available, but not cout it toward the “move to the next level” amount. I want to prove to myself that I can get out of the lowest level and start a move up. I am not saying that I’m ready for the WSOP by any means, but if I don’t set some goals then I’ll never improve. I plan on moving money from Empire to Party soon and hope that Empire comes back to me (I really prefer their color scheme) with another bonus.

Poker Tracker is so cool it’s not even funny. My best hand? KK (+$26.75). Where’s AA? Below A4o! I’ve lost $3.50 on AA. Interesting.

Since I had the day off, I was able to re-watch the WSOP day 1 and day 2 shows on ESPN. Man, watching Phil Hellmuth and Sam Grizzle go at it was great. Grizzle had him on tilt for a while. It was great. He won a couple in a row from Phil (maybe, that’s what they showed anyway) and Phil got all pissed off. Sam was goading him the whole time. They then showed a “introspective” piece on Phil. After watching the “Showdown at the Sands” where they showed them putting the heart monitor on him (with his shirt off) and then showing him meditating and standing over his pool (with his shirt off) in this piece, if I never see Phil topless again it will be too soon. Day 2 was basically “Phil Day” on the WSOP telecast. Day 1 showed Phil Gordon which got me thinking about his previous exploits. If you haven’t read Tiltboys, go do so, it’s great reading.

The wife is busy playing Uru (the next sequel to Myst and Riven) and my son is sick and was either sleeping (thanks to the codeine) or playing Starcraft. What do I do? Sit down, have football on the TV and play poker for 4 hours. How did it go? Well, I came out $75 up for the afternoon! That brings me about $100 for the weekend (at 50/1)! Wow!!!!!

Tonight my wife was tired from working her semi-second (Marshall Fields stock that she took when she was laid off last spring, but keeps now for the discount at Fields and Target) job and getting up at 4am yesterday, then playing Uru until midnight last night, and she has to work tomorrow, so she went to bed at 8:30. So hoping that hdouble’s advice was true (that Sunday night is a fishy night too) I grabbed a glass of scotch and sat down to play. Unfortunately it didn’t prove to be that way for me. I broke even on the one table I stayed at, but after getting disconnected (with Big Slick suited!) and then hopping a couple tables I was down a couple bucks due to the blinds, I didn’t really get beat by anything, but I didn’t really win anything either. The upside was that it didn’t affect my overall total for the weekend and got me some more time at the tables. Right now that is pretty important. I don’t think I played as smart tonight though. I missed out on a number of possible hands due to being too passive. I’d have K8o and fold, then in the end an A high would win with a K on the board. Get pocket sixes in early position, fold, then have another come up on the flop (that’s probably correct though, since I was in early position, right?). Anyway, tonight didn’t go great, but it wasn’t a total loss either. When it’s combined with my great afternoon the day still is great. I’ll take it.

I’m starting to increase my note taking, so hopefully this will be less of an issue (thanks to Iggy for pointing out the 2+2 thread on this subject). At the lower levels there’s so many people coming and going that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of them. For example, I played 300 hands as of 5pm today and there were 70 people who I played against, that’s a lot of turnover. Through this thread I found out what the use of the Poker Tracker “Game Time Window” is used for. Wow! This is powerful! I’m going to change my auto-fetching down quite a bit so that I can get more up to date stats as the game happens. This seems to be very powerful and will hopefully aid in my notetaking and ability to “read” the other people at the table, at least by their habits, in order to improve my odds of winning (anything should help).

NFL wise, my Vikes showed that they have great talent, but zero coaching. WTF were the Cardinals doing playing like that in the last couple of minutes? Of course, the Vikes should have gone for the field goal on their first possession instead of trying for the touchdown. I still cannot believe it though. Start out 6-0 and not even make the playoffs? sigh Now the Vikes are really no better than the Bengals, Detroit or LA, except that Minnesota has a team and LA doesn’t (sorry, hdouble, it still amazes me that LA doesn’t have a team). My interest in football will now wane until the Super Bowl except to hope that Green Bay loses I’ll still watch it, but I don’t have a vested interest in any particular team so it’s not as much as a draw for me anyway.

Is it advantageous to buy in for a large amount or just do the “recommended” (I’m just talking online for now)? For example, when joining a 50/1 table the default buy in is $25. Is it better to do more if you have it? The reason I ask this is that when I’m looking for a table, I generally avoid tables with a number of people who have a lot more money showing than the default. Since I have no prior knowledge as to whether or not they earned this or if they bought in with it, I err on the side of caution and figure they earned it. If there’s only one person like that, then I may join. If there are 3 or so, then I’ll look for another table. I try to watch an orbit or so in order to see if people look “good” or not, but that’s not always possible due to the large numbers of people playing who will take the seat. I just wonder if I should be worrying about this or not.

Tonight on Party (well, Empire) was a good night. Up $20 over 3 hours at the 50/1 tables. I tried to really “play” tonight. I had the TV down to where I could just barely hear it (I should just turn it off and have some music on my laptop) and paid attention to the game. I started taking some notes on people, which is something new for me. I need to figure out what I should be tracking and such, but at least it’s a start. I also table hopped a bit. Maybe not as much as I should have because the one table I stayed at the most (my last one) is the one I broke even on. I came out ahead on the others. The last table was fun though. For a while, it was pretty tight, maybe only 4 people seeing the flop (this is 50/1 remember) and quite a hands not being played out, many of those were folded before the river. Then it got loose. I was at the table for 2 hours and saw at least 6 people bust out of their $25 buyin. One person bought back in 3 times in one hour. Three times!! There were a couple good people though and they mostly sucked up the fish’s money. The upside is they didn’t get any of my money (I was down $0.75 which is the the two blinds). The downside was that even with the big fish there I wasn’t able to cash in on them, at least at that table.

Keep in mind that I don’t consider myself much more than a fish right now, but at least I’m trying to play things correctly. I was counting bets and quickly trying to figure out some odds and such. I really, really need to work on this as I just can’t seem to do it quickly enough. Most of these games play so quickly that it’s hard to get enough time to do it. When 75% of the people call automatically it doesn’t take long for your turn to come up. Maybe I need to find one of those quick reference charts. I know I had found one somewhere but can’t remember where, anybody know where to find one?

I played more agressively tonight and it appears to have paid off. I play pretty tight, but I also am prone to just check or call instead of bet or raise. I was able to buy a number of pots tonight just by betting and not letting the other people get a free card. I also paid more attention to position and tried to use it to my advantage (and also to determine if I should keep marginal hands). Welcome to Hold ‘Em 101. Sorry for reiterating what everybody already knows, but this is the first time I actually tried to use this information in the way it was intended. The upside was that I was rewarded. It feels good.

Bad beat of the night? Might be part my fault though. I had pocket aces and just called instead of raising (I know, I know…). Flop came 2c9cJh. I bet can got three callers. Turn was a Jd. I bet, and we cap out the round. River was 8d. I bet and was called. I’ve got aces and jacks, and he’s got…yep, trip jacks. He had 6Js. Oh well.

I got Hold Em Poker by Gary Carson for Christmas and have spent as much time as I can over the last couple of days reading it. It’s a great book as far as I can tell. I’ve now got four different books and each one (yes, even Hellmuth’s) offers something to learn. I had been concentrating on the Jones book until I got Carson’s. I think the two of these (and hdouble’s advice to loosen up a little bit) have made me realize some of my pre-flop mistakes. I need some more reading and some help in figuring odds quickly, but I feel more confident in my play and think that I’m making some of the right decisions, at least pre-flop (not that it’s perfect by any means though).

I also registered Poker Tracker. I had used it until I hit the 1000 hand limit. I have been keeping my hand histories while I’ve been playing lately, so I haven’t lost anything by not having them in Poker Tracker. I hope this will help me see trends and be able find some holes in my game, of which there are plenty right now. I love the playback function of the newer versions. It seems that people who have used this really like it. I like all the stats (I’m a stats nut, but have trouble quickly calculating them), but I hope that what really happens is that I’m able to improve my game. One interesting thing already is that my best position is seat 1. My worst is the SB with the BB being second worst. Weird.

I see Poker Odyssey has started a new challenge that he dubs Sophmore Poker. I read about his 5FBRC (or whatever) before, but then he quit updating it. Now he’s back. I plan on tracking this closely and I hope that he updates things often. It’s similar to the OIC, but on a grander scale. I just heard about the OIC a couple of weeks ago and it sounds intriquing too. I just don’t think I would have the time to do it. I wish Odyssey the best of luck!