Chris Halverson’s Blog

Balance: $133.42 (-$18.95 from previous)
Ranking: 17/166
Level: 1/2

Due to the fact that my cats didn’t realize it was a holiday and therefore a prime opportunity to sleep in, I was awakened at my normal 6AM. I fed the cats, took the dog out and went back to bed. Unfortunately for me, one of the cats was still hungry and woke me up again at 7. *sigh* I just got up then and decided I’d make some coffee and sit down with some Europeans on TGC. I basically treaded water and after about 90 minutes I was down $5 (2BB) and decided to call it session.

We had a nice Thanksgiving meal at my brother’s house. Good food, good family and friends. After hanging around his place for a bit, my wife and I headed home (all four houses away).

As my wife went downstairs to create some more clothing for her online game, I sat down at tables at TGC and PokerPlex. At Plex I hit two big hands early, winning me about 20BB, unfortunately those were basically the only hands I got all night and when I ended the session I was basically back to even. That’s kind of OK as I’m clearing the monthly bonus there.

The Gaming Club game didn’t go that great. No real suckouts or anything, but I didn’t really get much either. At TGC the software tells you what your hand is, and the software knows what your hole cards are before it can display them. You know it’s a bad night when you repeatedly see “No pair, 4 high”. Woo hoo! After an hour and a half of that I called it a night and watched CSI and Without A Trace with the missus.

My brother is having a post-Thanksgiving party tonight, so I’m not sure I’ll have much time to play. I am at work though and it’s entirely possible that less than 10 people will show up, so there is the possibility of getting some table time in there too

Balance: $152.37 (+$59.38 from previous)
Position: 11/166
Level: 1/2

I finally made it out of 50/1 and am only 1 place away from being in the top 10. I started the night only needing a couple BB, but as is sometimes the case I lost a couple hands or didn’t get anything on the flop so I went down a bit. I finally was able to get the hand the got me over the $100 and I left the table in search of some 1/2 goodness.

When I sat down at the new table I went on a huge rush. I quickly ran my balance up to $170 and then the table broke! It was full when I sat down, then I won something like 5 out of the next 7 hands and everybody left. Wow, I’ve never had that happen before. Maybe it was the sixes full of fours that I filled on the river to beat two flushes including the A high flush (yes, I was in the big blind and got to see a free flop with 64o).

Since I was on such a rush and the night was young I went looking for another table. At the new table I had a run of about 10 hands where I saw nothing but face cards. Unfortunately they never improved so I bled off some chips there which eventually brought me down to the $150′ish level. I never really got much going at that table and left after a while to watch CSI:NY (which is, of course, filmed in LA).

My stats for the 50/1 level are:

Total Hands: 2033
Hours Played: 36.13
Total Sessions: 39
VP$IP: 23.66%
Amount won: $52.62
BB/100: 2.59
BB/Hr: 1.46
Went to SD%: 29.7
W$SD: 52.13%
PFR%: 4.13%
Saw flop not a blind: 17.52%
Won $ When Saw Flop: 26.38%
Aggression Factor: 0.63 (including pre-flop)

I was sure my aggression factor was higher. If I take out the pre-flop numbers it jumps to 1.32, but I’m not sure if I should include those or not. Not a great rate, but not too bad. Of course, it was 50/1, so in theory they should be better. All in all I’m fairly happy, although it took me a lot longer to reach 50BB than I thought it would.

To my American readers, have a great Thanksgiving! Everybody else, have a great day too!

Balance: $92.99 (-$5.62 from previous)
Ranking: 28/165
Level: 50/1

So close again. My high water mark for the night was $99.11. That’s right, less than 1BB away, a whopping 89 cents, and I couldn’t quite get it. I played two orbits after that and got nothing and decided to call it a night.

I could have had it too had I been paying attention to the pot versus my balance at the time. In other words, I would have thrown in a raise at the end and if he called I would have had it. Basically, I went into weak mode yet again.

I got rockets in MP and raised, folded to SB who raised. BB and UTG called. I made it four and everybody called. Flop came down KQ9 rainbow and I was loving that as I was sure it hit somebody. SB led out and everybody called. I probably was weak here too as I probably had the best hand, but JT is an obvious possibility. Turn brings an A and while I made my set, the board is very scary. SB bets, BB calls, UTG folds and I raise to figure out where I’m at. I figure if somebody raises I’m probably dead. SB does indeed raise. Damn. BB calls again though so I’m getting incredible odds to continue, so I call again. I could very well be drawing dead, but if the board pairs I’ve got to be good and I still have top set. The river is a 4 and SB bets. BB calls and I just call. SB flips over AQo, BB shows T2o and MHIG. Had I just raised there and been called I would have met my goal.

I played a little weak on that hand and a couple of others throughout the night. It seemed like whenever I got big pockets, the flop would be very scary. This put me into check/call mode in fear of being raised. I made a dumb play early in the night that put me on the defensive a bit. I had top two pair, but the river brought a potential straight. Early position led out and I raised and he raised me back. Opps. I honestly didn’t really see him staying in with the straight. It was a double gutshot on the flop and there had been betting, so I didn’t put him on it. I thought he may have been trying to buy the pot and was more than happy to raise.

I did watch one 2+2 OIC’er bust out. I had played with him a bit over the last couple of days and he was playing in super-LAG mode trying to either bust of move up quickly. I think that’s kind of the strategy when doing the OIC and getting down to about $25. You don’t get your money back until you bust, so it’s actually in your best interest to be hyper-agressive.

I only played OIC stuff last night. I need to get jamming on the Crypto sites, there’s no way I’m going to clear all those bonuses this month. I did deposit into Interpoker so at least that one will stack and I can clear it next month. No SNGs since last week either. This is mostly due to a lack of a known block of time to play. Last night’s session was actually 3 sessions, one as short as 15 minutes. I generally don’t like to play unless I can play for an hour at a time, but of course sometimes real life comes into play.

Balance: $98.61 (+$32.50 from previous)
Ranking: 25/165
Level: 50/1

So close…so close…

So why didn’t I keep playing trying to get the last $1.50? Mostly because I was really tired. Secondly, a couple super LAGs sat down and I didn’t feel like having to pay 3 bets pre-flop just to win $1.50. Yeah, they probably would have paid off if I got some cards, but like I mentioned, I was also pretty tired.

I would have made it had it not been for a couple of fairly bad plays. Both came when I had big pocket pairs, AA and KK. I raised both pre-flop but then the board came very scary, one case was three to a flush and three to a straight (and my cards didn’t complete either), the other had an A and a pair on the board. Basically I wasn’t able to pump those as much as I would have liked, but I still ended up winning.

I also played pretty weak on another KK hand. The flop was all low, the SB led out, folded around to me in LP and I raised. He popped it again and I went into the tank a bit. I raised him again for good measure but then when the turn brought an A I went into call mode. My kings were good, and he didn’t show, but I don’t think I played it very well.

My highlight of the night was when I first sat down and posted in the CO. I got 6h4h and got to limp in. The flop came 57K, two hearts. So I flop an OESD and four to a flush. I cold call two bets and the turn doesn’t help me. I call one bet and hope for a good river. The river brings me a beautiful 8. It’s bet into me and I raise. That throws the other two people still in the game for a loop and one guy drops. The other guy reluctantly calls. I show my straight and MHIG, dragging a 15BB or so pot. The guy immediately goes to town on my for staying in with 64. I didn’t respond at all, just let him vent, not pointing out that I got to see the flop for “free” and that the flop hit me hard.

I played a little at Interpoker to start clearing that monthly bonus, but ran into a bunch of crap hands which did nothing but drain the roll for a while. I quit that and didn’t pull it back up after watching CSI: Miami with the family.

I obviously fully expect to finally break into 1/2 land tonight. Finally.

Well all my recent SNG play evidently didn’t amout to a hill of beans at the Grublog II event. Geez. The event drew 34 people and the chat room (what a great idea) was filled with all sorts of talk.

I got seated at Table 1 with:

jlee621
Me
StrangeLuck
BumblePuppy
OtisBDart
NemoD
davidross
LostAlex (aka Grubby)
HR_PufNStuf

Joy. I’ve got grubby and davidross at my table. I do the rebuy right away and start playing tight like everybody else. It was crazy tight for the longest time. The worst part was that I was actually getting cards in the BB but it would get folded around to me. Nothing really exciting happened for the first hour and at the break I was 8th (out of 32) and sitting at T8415 after the T2500 add on.

Once again, nothing seemed to really happen for me. I got a couple hands here and there but they never amounted to much.

I busted out when I got Ah2h and min-raised (blinds at 300/600/50) from the SB. A couple people called and the flop came down QhXhXx. I was first to act and bet about 20% of the pot. I was insta-raised by StrangeLuck the other people folded. Back to me and I figure I have to push and do so. StrangeLuck flips over Q4o or something weird like (Edit: it was KQo so it wasn’t “weird”, I just went into the tank about how bad I was playing the hand) that and I don’t improve and the queens win and IGHN in 19th place.

I can see a couple of mistakes here. I had about T6500 at the time. I was almost at push or fold time. I should have at least done more than a minimum raise, that may have driven StrangeLuck out with his ragged Q high. I’m not sure what the other people had, but it may have driven them out too and I could have taken it right then. On the flop I really should have bet more than I did. I wasn’t thrilled at the Q, but I had four to my flush and an ace so I had some good outs. The problem was that I didn’t bet enough to drive him out. On a coordinated board like that I may have been able to drive him out with an all in. I didn’t really want a call anyway, so I’m not sure why I was screwing around. I guess I basically forgot that the people I was playing with weren’t the regular yahoos at Party’s SNGs, they actually knew how to play.

Anyway, I didn’t end up with squat again, but at least I didn’t have to rebuy based on busting out, so I had that going for me.

Thanks a lot Grubby for setting it up, it was fun as usual!!