Chris Halverson’s Blog

This is long. You’ve been warned.

As I was looking for something to do this past weekend I looked over my choices:

• Sit at home and watch a movie/TV


• Rip up more carpet so I can finally finish my basement project which culminates in the purchase of a new 51” HDTV


• Play poker online at Party


• Play in the Choice Poker freeroll


• Make the step up and play at the local casino

Well, ripping up more carpet sucks, so I did that during the day. Check that one off. Sitting around watching TV is all good at times, but I can do that anytime. The Choice Poker freeroll may have been a good bet because all you needed to do is make a quick deposit. Since they have something like 50 people who have joined (including the 32 of us that played in the Grublog), the chances of finishing well may have been pretty good. Play at Party? Ya, that’s always good, and was my leading choice until Friday.

Instead I bit the bullet and went to Canterbury Race Track and Card Club for the first time. Let me kick this off by saying that this was my first time in a B&M. I’ve only ever been in any casino less than five times in my life and it’s always been just for fun with guy guys. Not this time. This was to be a “let’s play poker, let’s win” deal.

I’ve been thinking about going there for a while, but have always chickened out. I now, however, have a couple of events coming up where I will be playing live. First off is my trip to California in three weeks. If things work out, hdouble and I will be hooking up and playing in LA. Then a short month later, I am going to Vegas for three days. Suffice it to say, I needed to get some live play under my belt.

I’m the type of person who gets nervous about this type of thing. I don’t always like to do things in front of other people. Online poker, for me, is perfect. I don’t have to see anybody. They can’t see me when I screw up. They can’t see my happy dance when I win. Etc. Therefore, this trip was going to be something that I don’t normally like to do, at least at first.

I had planned on going by myself for a couple of reasons. One of which was that I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of any friends. Therefore the only people I mentioned it to were hdouble and Iggy. I knew they wouldn’t be flying here on a moment’s notice to go to the casino with me The wrinkle came when my best friend unexpectedly showed up at my house at 7:15PM. His parents live a mile away from me and he was over there visiting and decided to stop by. Normally, come 7PM, if I’m in for the night, I’m in sweats. He knows this and said, “You donig something tonight?” since I was still dressed and had shoes on. I told him I was going to Canterbury. He got excited and asked when and if he could go. I enthusiastically said “Yes”, although in some ways I was hoping he wouldn’t. When I finally got around to leaving I called him and he said he wasn’t going to go. In retrospect, I would have been great to have him there and I’ll definitely be calling him when I go again.

Before I get into the actual experience, the “ask the wife” story must be told. Friday night I had pretty much decided I wanted to go either that night or the next. Well, Friday got kinda late due to some family obligations so I went down to talk to her (she was playing a new computer game) and said, “Sweetie, I was thinking of going to Canterbury tomorrow night”. Now, she has given me “permission” to do this previously, so it was not something that was outrageous. She then calmly said, “That’s fine, I’m going to go see the Passion of the Christ with my dad tomorrow.” plonk Great, I am going to go gamble while she goes and sees one of the most moving and powerful movies of our time.

Undaunted I actually did work during the day so as to not feel guilty about going out to play poker. My wife leaves at 4pm to go to the movie. I have no idea when she’ll be back, and I don’t really want to leave my son home alone for too long if I don’t have to (he’s 15, it’s not that big a deal, but you know…). It’s creeping up to 8pm and still no sign of her. Her cell phone is broken so I can’t even call. Ug. Finally, around 8:15 she walks in the door. I was polite in asking how things went and such, all the while trying not to get into too many details so I can get going. Finally we reach a point where I can make an exit.

I grab my son’s retro-1970’s sunglasses, my big hooded sweatshirt, and a big baseball cap and head out the door.

OK, no I didn’t. I didn’t bring anything like that, not even a cap.

I jump in the car to go the 35 miles (I kept track) to the club. It’s a great facility. During the summer they have live horse racing and throughout the rest of the year they simulcast a bunch of other sites. The card room is immediately inside the building and has approximately 30 tables. The also have another room for “Casino Games” such as Pai Gow, Blackjack and such.

I arrived at about 9:30PM and walked into the crowded, bustling card room. The signup board is just inside. I looked at it and noticed the line for 2/4 HE was LOOOONG. Great…I put my name on it and start waiting. In many ways I’m glad I wasn’t able to be seated right away. Since I had never played live before I wanted to watch a little to get a feel for how things worked. This was helpful to me and I soon realized that people were making mistakes all over the place and yet the other people were pretty good about it, at least at the 2/4 tables I watched.

I got to watch a lot because it took 90 minutes for me to get a seat. Ouch. It’s now 11PM and I’m finally sitting down. I pull out a stack of 20s (with some in reserve) and the dealer calls the chip runner. I post while waiting and suddenly I have cards flying at me. While I’m reaching for them the runner comes back with my rack of $1 chips. This is for real now! I attempt to look like I know what I’m doing while looking at my cards, but have a sneaky feeling that the guy to my left can see them. Not sure why I think this, but I just don’t think I was looking at them guardedly enough. I adjust the next hand and cover them tightly. I take hdouble’s advice and say each card and suit three times before letting the corners flip down. My first hand is crap and I fold on the flop to a bet.

My first hand played live and I made it through without screwing up. whew I now have a chance to look at the other players. I’m in the 5s. There are four others about my age there (I’m 33). To my right is a loose passive middle aged woman, to my left is a loose passive middle aged man. The 1s turns out to be a big ‘ol maniac. The 8s and 9s were my age and appeared to be playing pretty smart.

A couple hands go by when I look down and see big slick offsuit. If you’ve seen the Fox Sports showing of the “Showdown at the Sands”, you’ll remember how they had some players hooked up to heart monitors. If I would have been hooked up to one at this time I would have short circuited it. My heart was pounding. I hadn’t been at the table long enough to establish how I would play, so when I raised I got 6 callers. My mind flashed. Was I playing at Party? Where am I? Oh well, let’s see the flop. KKQ. One bet called around to me. When I called out “Raise” and reached for my chips my hand was shaking. I was hoping nobody could see it, but I could and I was having trouble grabbing the chips. I toss them in front of me and keep looking at the felt. I was nervous as hell and was hoping nobody could tell. I get four callers. Turn and river are rags and bet out each time and have one caller at the end. I flip them over and he mucks. I win! I was shaking as I was trying to stack all my chips. Cards are flying, I’ve got chips all over the place and I was trying like hell not to make too much of it. You know, like I do this all the time

I finally get everything stacked and after a few more mucked hands I look down to see big slick suited! Wow! I’m in LP and loving it. Everybody calls to me, and I reach with a shaky hand for the raise. Five callers follow me to the flop. The flop comes up QJ9. The suits don’t help me, but the straight draw is looking really nice. Especially because the 9 will make the baby straight. Checked around and I bet. We loose one. Turn is nothing, I bet and everybody follows. River is the money card, the T. I’ve got the nuts and am trying to play it cool. They would have had to replace another heart monitor if I were still hooked up to one. EP bets, everybody folds to me and I raise. Re-raise and I call. I spaced on the rule where there’s unlimited raising if you’re heads up. I would guess I would have only got one more bet out of him so it wasn’t a big beal. What’s he got? Kx. He made the King high straight and I had the only hand that could beat him.

Not too many other exciting hands, plus I don’t want to bore you with the details. The one thing that did happen was that I got a table image of being tight. About 15 minutes after my big hands, some kid would couldn’t be more than 19, but looks 17, sits down in the 3s. He’s playing pretty aggressively but isn’t making much headway. I’m starting to put on a folding clinic. Pretty soon I get a pocket pair in EP and call. He immediately pops in with a, “Wow, he must have something!” quip. Great, now I realize I have probably been too tight. Only three people see the flop. Hmm…Not good. I decided that I wasn’t going to change too much though as I wanted to play my game that night and treat this as a learning experience.

A short while later a kid from a local college sits down with about $10 in chips. He looks totally out of his league. Dealer asks if he wants to post and he says, “What’s that mean?”. I look over to the other kid on my right and we both make a connection thinking the same thing: dead money. He was too, he bought in for another $40 and proceeded to loose it in about a half hour. Unfortunately not much went to me.

At around 1:30AM I was getting pretty damn tired. I left before my BB on the next orbit and got up. Grand total: +$20 or 5BB. This was for about 2.25 hours of play. Not bad, not great considering some of the people that cycled through. It was, however, my first time live and the whole experience was something that I needed to take in before I played really seriously. I did well in the “play” though. I only kinda spaced posting my BB a few times, but that’s no big deal. I didn’t act out of turn or do anythng else wrong, so that was good.

Canterbury is a great club. I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed very nice. The board was on top of things and kept things moving smoothly. Yes, I had to wait 90 minutes for 2/4, but they kept seating people as fast as they could. They spread a few tables of stud and one of O8, but the rest was HE with 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, 5/10 and 15/30. The dealers were very competent. They kep the game moving very smoothly and it was actually faster than I would have thought. Of course it helped that virtually everybody called the flop, but things moved very smoothly. There was only one incident with a side pot that got confusing, but everybody was confused. The dealers kept calling out the open seats and they were quickly filled. Table service was fast and curteous. I only heard one call for a floorperson, so things must have been kept pretty clean. The playing area is non-smoking, and in fact is totally tobacco free, not even chewing tobacco. The bar is right next to the playing area with a little half wall separating the two areas, but the smoke wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I didn’t even notice it until I got home and smelled it on my shirt. Or maybe it was the White Castles I had on the way home (Sorry Grubby, Wendy’s was closed at 2:30).

I must say, playing live was great. I’m sure I’ll play better next time. Yes, winning at all is good, but I didn’t really play well. I was uber tight and that cost me some. I’ll keep that in mind next time. I really enjoyed it. I will plan things out better and try to get there earlier so that I don’t get so tired (or I’ll try to nap or something before I go). The only downside is that it’s an hour round trip, then X amount of time to wait for a table. If I stay at home, I can play online that whole time. There is definitely something about playing live that I enjoyed though. The other limits had a much shorter line though, so who knows, maybe in a few times I’ll try 3/6 and try to get seated quicker. I watched a bit of that and they still had 6-7 callers pre-flop. It was basically No Fold ‘Em there too, but with a much shorter line. I’ll work up there, but am already planning for it.

Wow, this got long. Suffice it to say that everybody is right, playing live is very different and in most ways, more fun than online The only real downside is the time involved (well, and you can only play one table). I can’t wait for LA and Vegas! Thanks to Henry and Iggy for the advice for what to do while there, it was very helpful.

Friday night was my best night of poker I’ve ever had. Played two tables of 50/1 for a touch over two hours (see, I’m keeping up my “play two hours a night” quest). After a rocky start on both, down 5BB on one, 3 on the other, things started to turn around.

On one table I kept going down, -10BB at one point, but it was a crazy table so I thought I’d ride it out. The guy two to my right voluntarily put money in 75% of the time. He was very passive after the flop, but he was wild. When I first joined he was close to busting out, then he did and rebought. He proceeded to runner runner people for about an hour, going up 20BB or so. Then the poker gods had had enough and put the smack down on him and he went bust again. It was beautiful. I worked my way back up to being just -2BB on that table when it started to break and I left. I think part of my bad start on this table (which thankfully didn’t transfer to the other) was that I got on tilt after throwing away pocket twos on my first hand to a raise and a re-raise. Flop was 2QQ with a flush possibility. Lots of betting as the flush was made on the river. I got frustrated that I missed out on that. It wasn’t my best play ever, that’s for sure. I got it back under control, but it threw me for a bit.

The other table was a different story altogether. Pocket pairs were my friend again. On two consecutive orbits I was dealt QQ on the button and was paid off handsomely with both. I eventually worked my way up to doubling up my buyin when I went a little on “happy” tilt. I had just won a 15BB pot which put me over the doubling up. I tried to click the “Leave Table” button (it was about 10 mins until my two hour time, so it was semi-planned), but the cards were already being dealt. I got AQs so I stayed in. The end result was some over aggressive play and lost 5BB. I then decided I was going to stay in until I got my “double”. It took a little longer than I planned, but eventually it happened. In-freaking-credible.

So things were going well, then I got chatting, and then watching some other games, then I decided, what the hell, let’s play, and proceeded to lose 7BB (generally beat by bigger hands, ie. I still had good odds, I didn’t play too badly, not great, but not too bad). Oh well, the upside is that the night was still up quite a bit. I can’t complain at all, plus I got to watch a classic case of putting somebody massively on tilt. It was a great night all around.

Oh man, poker is everywhere. Not trying to scoop Iggy again, I’ll leave the real poker news to him, but just thought I’d show some other spots where poker is showing up. The Register is a British news site, today they have an article entitled VeriSign calls ICANN bluff in world’s biggest game of poker. OK, in my (well, part of my) industry, this is actually pretty big news. The title, of course, jumped out at me. Let’s see what else they have to say:

We’d been wondering what VeriSign was up to. Leaning back, but carefully observing. Making the odd snide comment, but all the while shifting its cards in its hand and plotting its next move in the world’s biggest game of poker.

The prize? Control of the Internet.

ICANN on the other side of the table has been in confident mood. It called VeriSign in an earlier round, had better cards, and won. ICANN was relaxed and chatty, telling everyone how it was in charge of the game.

It’s sitting up straight now though. VeriSign has called ICANN’s bluff and laid down on the table four Kings – four of a kind. The kitty has built up. Whoever wins this hand looks set to take the whole game.

Wow. Then at the end:

Whatever way you look at it, VeriSign has put down an extremely strong hand on the table. ICANN needs a straight flush – it won’t manage 10, J, Q, K, A, but it might get 3,4,5,6,7. It will take a hell of a lot of work and persuasion to get the relevant parties onside though – especially when all of them will have some sympathy with VeriSign’s position.

But, as with all good poker matches, it would be foolish to discount the other shadowy figure at the table. The ITU is due some luck with its cards. Who’s to say that the inter-governmental organisation won’t draw gasps by throwing down a royal flush and walking away with the entire takings?

Not bad really.

Let’s just hope this doesn’t mean that poker has jumped the shark yet. I’m just getting started!

Wil has put up the second part of his poker game.

Lesson? Don’t go on tilt early on. Also it may help if you aren’t referred to the club by “the deadest of dead money”.

Not a bad night tonight. Not great, but not bad. I was totally saved by pocket threes. “Come on Chris, pocket threes won’t save your night,” you say. Well, let me tell you about pocket threes.

A while back, while talking with Iggy, I mentioned something about about how I thought I had my starting hands figured out and such. He, being Iggy, called my bluff and asked what I meant. I went on to say something about “Level 1” pairs or something “smart” (ie. Sklansky-like) like that. Iggy, being Iggy, basically laughed in my face and said something to the effect that I was retarded. He went on to say that in the low limits you can limp in with any pocket pair. I expressed disbelief, but he just reinforced that you can do it.

Uh…OK. I was really green, and he seemed to know what he was talking about, so…

Well, after that I started calling any pocket pair. Of course it doesn’t always pay off, but it doesn’t cost much to see if it will. If you don’t hit anything on the flop, get out. Sound advice. So where does that lead to tonight? Have I had too much scotch and am rambling incoherently with no point? Well, maybe, but here’s the payoff for tonight:

Pocket threes three times, won with them twice. Amount won 15.25BB. Hell, I won 2BB with pocket twos, not even on the blind.

If 33 can payoff like that, I’ll definitely pay to limp in with any pocket pair.

The night ended up being up and down. I killed one table, down 5BB on one, and down 10BB on another. Grand total:

Played a total 205 minutes on three different tables (“real” time of two hours, just like I planned), won -$1.25, or -1.25BB, for a total of -0.37BB/hr. So I basically broke even (not sure what the exact criteria is on if you break even, but it was less than 2BB, so that’s close enough for me), which, as everybody says, counts as a “win”. I’ll take it, at least for tonight.

Tomorrow is a different story…It is Friday after all.