Chris Halverson’s Blog

Well, my first session on Empire went well (plus I love the blue theme). I just couldn’t resist playing after I got it installed and funded, plus my wife went to bed early after a day of having 20 people over for Christmas. I ended up $7.50 for the night (over 1.5 hours at a 50/1 table, so not too bad), about half way through my bonus hands. What could make it even better? First off, I screwed up reading the table (gotta quit watching “Family Guy” while playing). I get dealt pocket 6 in middle position. I call along with 3 others. Flop comes 564. I, of course, zoom in on the set I just flopped and basically space on the straight possibility. I bet and everybody calls. Turn is a 2, I bet and get one caller (the BB). River? Yep, a 3. Have I even seen the fact that I have a straight yet? Nope.I’m still focused on my set. We cap out the round all the while I’m thinking that I’ve totally got it since there were no overcards. Of course, he’s got a 7 and beat my straight by one. Sucked $6 out of me. Five hands later I’m BB and get 79d and eight of us see the flop. Flop comes 977 rainbow. I bet and get 4 callers. Turn is Qd and I bet. One caller, the guy who took my money a few hands ago. I’m getting excited now with my full house. I bet and he calls. River is 8c. I bet, he raises and I get nervous all of a sudden and just call. He had two pair (queens and sevens). I guess I was kind of right in my nervousness, ie. I figured he had at least one Q, and was scared that he had QQ. I probably should have raised instead of called. So I got $4 of my money back. Even more sweet was that he busted out a half hour later. I still played way too many flops (25%), but at least it was a good night.

Thanks to Iggy prompting me again, and since I told my story of woe before, I decided to try the Party/Empire bonus whore thing again. The short answer: It is possible. The long answer follows. What I did was uninstall Party, install Empire, sign up, then reinstall Party. I was able to sign up with the same email address that is tied to my Party account too, so that was a plus. I’m guessing the software does some sort of Windows registry check and if you have one or the other already installed then it prevents you from signing up with the other. That’s the only thing I can figure. I did this on a different machine than my main “playing” machine, so I don’t know what happens to things such as player notes when you uninstall, so do so with caution and don’t complain to me if something hoses up.

The upside to all this is that I’m already bonus whoring. I got the “partytime” bonus at Party and am now a third of the way to collecting my IGGY1 bonus

Nothing new to say. Had a great Christmas Eve with my family last night. Today we have both sides over for lunch. 20 people coming over, oy!

Merry Christmas everybody! Have a safe holiday!

Best line from “Celebrity Poker Showdown” tonight: “Coolio just flopped the nuts.”

Well, I played a bit at Party tonight. Didn’t go overly well, but mental-wise I’ll take it. In fact, maybe I need to start with a “bad” night. I am going to play by the book (”Winning Low Limit Hold ‘Em” by Lee Jones) as much as I can (although I haven’t been able to totally grasp the whole book yet) and try to mentally ride the wave. Keep in mind this is at 50/1, so it’s not big money, but I want to build up the bankroll and losing is not the way to do it. The “mental” thing I have to remember is the variability that can happen over the short term.

I know once I fold I shouldn’t worry about what happens, especially when played correctly, but sometimes it does get frustrating. Example? Dealt 38 UTG and I fold. Board ends up 3T348. At this table there were almost always 6 people seeing the flop. You can see, however, why people at the lower limits may play them even if it’s not “correct”. I think it comes dow to why people play the game. Is for fun or is it to make some money? If for fun, you probably start at the lower limit and just want to play. What’s 50 cents, right? If you don’t play all that often you can look at it as a night out. So what if you lose $25 over the course of a couple hours. If it’s for fun you play, and it’s no fun folding all the time. If, however, you are playing to play “correct”, then it can get frustrating. I know this is nothing new, but now that I’m actually trying to do the right thing it is more frustrating.

I know, I’ve got an idea! I’ll post to RGP and ask if anybody can beat the 50/1 game on Party! Then I’ll jump to 2+2 and do the same thing. I’m sure everybody will be understanding and agree with me.

Lots of good blogging going on lately relating to poker theory, odds, etc. Keep it up people, I’m learning. I liked hdouble’s explanation on probability in ring vs. tournament games. Poker Penguin also has some good discussions on odds and game theory lately. Determining odds quickly is one of the things I really need to work on. I’ve got to take some time and really read (and re-read) Jone’s book and see if I can work my way into Sklansky’s “Hold ‘Em Poker” although when I looked through it when I bought it I was bored and found his writing style to be pretty bad. I’m sure the info is good, and in the end I’ll have to read it and his other books, but in the short term Jones is the one I’m going to concentrate on.

That reminds me, I need to pony up for the full version of PokerTracker, I’ve maxed out my 1000 hand freebie. Then I need to start using it the way it was intended. I’ve got a lot of studying to do.

There was an “interesting” thread on RGP today about what to do if your wife (girlfriend, whatever) doesn’t approve of your poker playing. Of course it degenerated very quickly, so there was little real value (ie. don’t bother reading it unless you want to read a dozen “Dump the bitch” posts), but the topic is kind of interesting. My wife is pretty understanding (after all, she bought me Hellmuth’s book), plus it’s not like I’m gambling away the mortgage. She usually goes to bed early anyway (I’m up at least 2 hours later than she is), so I’m not taking time away from my family. Additionally, once I get to the point where I’m winning (think positive) I’m sure it will be even less of a deal.

Added a few more blogs to the roll. Thanks to hdouble and Iggy for pointing them out.

Don’t forget, WPT marathon on Friday. I’m going to TiVO as many as I can.

I just turned in my last paper for this quarter. That means I am officially done with my first quarter of grad school. *whew* I’m happy it’s done, but at the same time I’m excited about continuing. I am getting my degree for myself, I have no business reason to do it, it’s totally personal. I get tuition reimbursement, so I have to show that it’s somewhat business related, but that’s easy when I’m a developer and my specialization is application development. I’m only taking one course per quarter from now on, so that should help keep my sanity and still allow me to have some fun (ie. poker).

I’m also done with my Christmas shopping. The nice thing is that my wife took care of all the shopping, even for herself She had been wanting some jewelry and didn’t know where to get it. A month ago or so she found it somewhere and bought it and wrapped it up. I just went and got some smaller gifts for my family and that was it. I really hate Christmas shopping, it drives me crazy. As tech savvy as I am, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now: order it all online. The problem? Ordering requires advanced planning and I don’t always plan ahead enough for holidays. I’m not sure why not, but it happens every year. Oh well, maybe next year.