Chris Halverson’s Blog

Sunday morning, usually a day of rest. Maybe a little light housecleaning, lunch with the family, some football or racing depending on the season. Not today though. Today brings Al to the Twin Cities to watch football with friends and fellow bloggers at a bar.

Oh the humanity.

For pictures, see my gallery. Let’s just say we had an unexpected visitor:

The highlights of the day, all times approximate and in Central Standard Time.

9:45 AM I leave to go pick up Drizztdj

10:10 AM Yahoo! Maps sends me the wrong way and I drive around looking for his house

10:15 AM I find the house

10:25 AM We pick up a dozen Krispy Kremes (thanks Drizz), or as Al calls them, “Crack for drinkers”

10:55 AM We make a couple of wrong turns trying to find the bar, but eventually find the righ road.

11:00 AM We arrive at the bar and notice Al and Brad (Al’s longtime friend) and Brad’s wife just pulling in at the same time.

Al then hands me a gift: A bottle of Oban scotch! He had to go to two different stores to find it (it’s pretty hard to find). (Thanks Hank for helping him out ). How awesome is that? I suddenly feel like a putz.

11:03 AM We find the bar after having to enter through the bowling alley.

11:05 AM First round of drinks is ordered. I honestly cannot remember if I have ever had a drink before noon. Ever. Today I am driving, so I have to make good time in order to allow a little time to recover. SoCo #1 is going down the hatch.

11:07 AM Monkeyboy, Jr. makes an appearance and camps out on the bar.

11:10 AM Al informs us that he and Brad came to the bar the night before. Al is already a regular and is on a first name basis with the bartender.

11:15 AM The bartender offers us a deal: Every time the Eagles score he’ll give us $1 shots of Apple Pucker. Every time the Vikings score he’ll give us $1 shots of Grape Pucker. We wholehartedly agree.

11:20 AM We hang around the bar talking about poker, people and life in general

11:35 AM Chad from Pokerama-rama shows up.

11:40 AM SoCo #2

11:50 AM Al calls Pauly for “dial a shot”, he’s at Derek’s getting ready for the game.

12:00 PM Vikings at Eagles starts

12:15 PM Apple pucker #1, down the hatch

12:45 PM Apple pucker #2, down the hatch

1:00 PM Grape pucker #1

1:04 PM We passed on Apple pucker #3 figuring that at this rate we’d be wasted just from the Apple Pucker shots

1:20 PM SoCo #4 (hmm…what happened to #3?)

3:15 PM The Vikings are finally put out of their misery and the Eagles move on to face Atlanta in the NFC finals

3:30 PM We start a poker game with a guy that Al found. The bartender conveniently has a set of chips and cards behind the bar. We start up a $10 winner take all tourney in the back of the bar. The other guy had a tendency to fold his unraised big blind. If he didn’t do that he tended to fold his hand on the flop. To no bet. As in, if he didn’t hit, he just folded. The first few times we tried to tell him that he didn’t have to, but he did anyway. He said he plays at Pokerrom quite a bit. (Note to self: Go play at Pokerroom.)

There was very little limping in this game because Al declared “No LIMPING” and “No Min Raises!”. Despite recent advice by the pros, the Hammer was played with reckless abandon. I won with it once, and had to fold it once to a big reraise.

The other guy busts out shortly. Al was next a little bit later. Then the guy asks Al if he wants to play some darts and Al says sure. As Al goes to the bar the guy pulls out his own darts and starts talking about how he’s a league champion. Al decides he doesn’t want to play, which ended up not being a big deal because the dart machine broke.

I somehow ended up short stacked. I was leading for a while, then I looked down and couldn’t figure out where my chips went. This required me to make some moves. Drizz ended up busting me and it was down to him and Chad.

They went back and forth for a while with Chad going from short stack to about even. It was then that Drizz got the Hammer and gave it up to a big bet on the flop.

Then in what could only happen in a blogger game, he got the Hammer again the next hand. He pushed and was called. Opps. Of course, he knew he was fine because of the power of the Hammer and sure enough, the three 9s on the board just served to fill him up when a 2 spiked on the river. He bought a round for the group and all was well.

Of course, then he made cardinal mistake #1: He called his wife to see how she was doing. We were getting ready to start game #2 when he came back and said that she was a little stressed and that it would be in his best interests to get back home. See, he wouldn’t have had that problem if he hadn’t called.

6:00 PM I drop Drizz off and I’m on my way home

Overall I had a great time. It wasn’t a drag out drinking fest that we’ve all read about in the past. I’m glad that it turned out that way (partially so I didn’t have to spend all day tomorrow with a killer headache after puking all night, that is assuming I survived in the first place). It gave us a lot of time to talk which was great. We sat around, had a few drinks and had a great time. We also played a little poker which was also a lot of fun.

While not quite Vegas, the Minneapolis stop of the poker bloggers meetups was a blast. Everybody was cool in “real life” and we got along great. We didn’t even discuss poker all that much which was good too, after all there’s more to each of us than just poker. Drizz and I got to talk quite a bit during the drive to and from the bar which was good. It was great to put a face to the the names and writings. I’m sure the other guys will fill in other details, so go read them for the full picture.

I’d like to thank Al for the scotch, I’ll be thinking of you every time I take a drink. Also, thanks for making a trek to the frozen tundra in the midst of the coldest weather we’ve had in years. Thanks to Drizz and Chad for coming along too, it wouldn’t have been complete without you.

Wow, I can’t believe this myself, but I played poker for 7 hours on Saturday. WTF? Of course, the high was below zero again. At least I think so, I didn’t get outside once today. I took a shower, but then got dressed in my pajama pants and a sweatshirt. Playing poker all day seemed like a good idea and after a while time just slipped by.

Outcome? I made $12.

The high school dropout working at McDonald’s earned more than I did this afternoon.

Then again, at least I didn’t lose, so it’s all good.

I was playin the 50/1 NL ($100 max) at Gaming Club. I have no idea how many hands I played (I’ll run it on Sunday) but I’m still trying to figure out where the day went. It sure didn’t seem that long, which is good I guess.

Jason stopped by and sweated me for 30-45 mins. I showed him how much of a pro I was by “making big laydowns”. Actually, what he got to witness was weak/tight Chris fold small flush draws, top pair no kicker, and other hands that eventually would have won.

While Jason is over he also gets to witness me dropping down to about $30 at one table while hovering around $70 at another. Nice job, I’m down a buyin and I’m laying down winners. I’m seeing huge monsters under the bed and it’s pissing me off.

In the midst of this run I get a call from America’s Wingman letting me know that he and his friend had just finished the scouting mission and they have found a bar that is Al Worthy(TM). No more than 15 minutes later I get an email from Drizztdj asking what time I’m showing up to pick him up. We hash out the details and are now set to go.

Jason heads back out into the frozen tundra and I keep plugging away. Around 4pm (hour 4) I start to make a comeback. I run both tables up to about $120 and I’m feeling pretty good again. I then realize that it’s about dinner time and try to figure out where Mrs. H is hiding. She has spent all afternoon playing her online game (Second Life), so I don’t feel bad about playing poker I throw in a frozen pizza (nothing but the best at Chez Halverson), grab a diet Coke and keep playing.

I start to go back down on one table until my ATs that made two pair on a coordinated board holds up when nobody makes a flush. I’m back up again when one table gets down to 5 people. I’m new enough to NL that I am not yet comfortable playing short, so I wait until my blind and leave the table. A half hour later I decide I’ve had enough for now and leave the other table.

I think I played OK. I made some terrible laydowns facing largish bets. I really need to work on that. Having somebody else watch you play really puts things in perspective. What seemed obvious to me drew quizzical looks from Jason. Well, more like him saying, “What are you doing laying that down?” Then I do my best Hellmuth and say I just didn’t feel it or some BS like that. Anyway, I think in general I played OK, but I realized after a while that I really need to step up the aggression more. How many times have I said that now? You’d think by now I’d start to actually do it.

Anyway, I’m glad I’ve got a rakeback (not to mention the last $100 of a bonus) at TGC because with it I may end up making more than the guy at McDonalds.

Skol Vikings!

Holding On Too Long

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

I made a conscience decision on Thursday night to not just lay down good hands when facing a large bet. In limit this is usually not a big deal because in the worse case you can just check/call a bet. In no limit you could be facing a huge bet that you must call to stay in the game.

I was at the Gaming Club playing 50/1 NL and was up about $40 (buy in of $100) when I get AKo. I pop it to $3 and was reraised to $6, which I call. The flop comes KJx (rainbow). I’ve got TPTK and throw out a $5 bet. The other guy immediately raises to $25. Hmm…Now alarms should have been going off, but I had resolved myself to not just roll over. I had a good hand (VVP would say it was a monster), so I called. The turn brings a Jack and now I’ve got a gutshot to the nut straight. I wuss out and check and the other guy goes all in for another $60. Damnit. I use up my time trying to figure out if I’m still good. There are a lot of things that can beat me, but I’m not good enough to lay down that AK in that situation so I call hoping for a K or Q. It’s a brick and he flips up his rockets and I’m down to $25 watching a $200 pot being pushed to him.

Now there are about 4 places where I could have laid this down, but I had been laying down hands that would have ended up winning all too often lately and it was starting to frustrate me. Of course, laying it down for a $5 bet is very different than calling a $25 bet without the nuts. I got married to the hand and it kept improving. It just figures that this is the one time that it runs into pocket aces. I was behind the whole time drawing to two outs for a win and four more to tie. The guy didn’t even slow play it, so I’ll give him credit. I’m sure he was jumping around not believing that I was calling.

Surprisingly (to me anyway), I didn’t let it bother me. I had been playing well until that point and continued to do so after that. I was up $60 on my other table and doubled up on the “down” table to end that session up a few dollars. I played a little bit after CSI and ended down about $15. I felt I played well, the second session was abbreviated (and I was also playing a bit distracted) so that I could watch some TV with the Mrs.

ESPN Tilt

Oh my.

Much like others, I’m sure I’ll continue to watch this, but…Wow.

In some ways this may be good for poker, after all they showed how to get paid off playing such monsters such as:

T6o (to beat the “bitch end” of the straight)
34s
22 (in MP facing a 40x BB raise, yes, 40, not 4)

That is unless they think that all the casinos have cheating rings setup in order to get the vacationer’s money. At the poker tables of all places. Oh, and don’t forget that if you claim you were cheated make sure to show up 2 hours earlier than you planned, that way the tapes may not be erased yet.

You also have cameos by Daniel N and TJ Cloutier. What’s ironic (beside Daniel saying he wants to find an easier game) is that early in the show they show Daniel throwing the dice. Come on…if you’re going to have a pro make a cameo playing craps you must have TJ doing it.

“Best” quotes:

“I reraise bitch” - as player #2 pulls out a bigger gun than player #1 in an underground game after #1 tries a string raise.

“When I was 12″ - as we find out that the woman has been a playa since she was 12

“I bet like I had a pair because I have a pair”

“$8000? When I run out of toilet paper I wipe my ass with $8000, $9000 if I’ve had chili” - The Matador

I’m sure there are more, leave ‘em in the comments if you want (what’s funny is that I’ve got 4 comments today for the posting I did in August 2004 about this show! leave ‘em here now guys).

I got home last night and checked my email and saw this:

From: AlCantHang
Subject: Eagles/Vikes

Ok Mr. Halverson,

Are you going to be around this weekend. Maybe watch the Eagles game?

Looks like I’m heading out to Minn friday to monday.

woohoo

My liver cringed but I quickly replied back encouraging it.

This moring I get an IM:

alcanthang: i’m in

Woo hoo!

So anyway, if you don’t hear from me after Sunday afternoon, you’ll know why. I’ve said I’ll probably die if I hung out with Al. My saving grace is that it will most likely be just for the game on Sunday afternoon. I’m still going to make sure to give Mrs. H my Neteller and poker login info so she can cash me out to pay for the hospital bills.

I can’t wait…

The Hammer

I won’t go into the recent debate (debacle?) over playing the hammer, but this happened to me in a $20 SNG on Wednesday night. Yes it was the big blind, but I min-raised it anyway (it doesn’t count unless you voluntarily put money in the pot, right? plus it was only Level 1 so it didn’t cost much):

‘Nuff said.

Maybe I shouldn’t have made a pot sized bet and tried to get some more out of it, but I figured people would think I was pulling something and would call anyway.

(No, I didn’t get to show, I was too busy taking the screenshot.)

No Limit

I’ve continued to play the no limit games, both on Empire and Gaming Club. I am at the $25 on Empire and the 50/1 blinds at TGC (why can’t sites agree on a way to determine the size of a NL game?). The normal buyin there is $100. Yikes. It’s kind of interesting to be facing a $30 bet when you’re first starting no limit for real money (as opposed to tournament dollars).

I think I found the slowest table on Empire on Wednesday, it’s just plugging along, but at least once a hand the timer comes on. I should have moved, but I was playing three tables and it worked out OK, but is not helping the bonus clearing much. I dropped one buyin there not thinking that my trips would be dead to a double gutshot, but hey, that happens. I did, however, win it back plus some, so in the end, thanks to being able to bet $15, I was able to come out ahead. Played in 3 SNGs and got 2nd in one, bubble in the other and 7th, so I broke even minus the fees.

That, however, is being results oriented, so let’s move on.

I do like no limit though. I’m still getting used to facing larger bets at times and I’m sure I’ve been pushed off some hands because I’m just not totally confident enough yet. Either that or I’m awesome and am making great laydowns that only pros can make.

I think I’ll stick with the “I’m not totally sure yet”…

Like I’ve said before, I really have no reference on how to play NL “correctly”. I am kind of winging it betting wise. I am trying to charge people for their draws and make people pay when I have the nuts. Of course, that implies that I always know what the nuts are, which is not always the case I also am starting to buy some pots if I have position (either first or last). Things are going pretty well and I feel like I’m starting to understand it a bit. Obviously I do not really understand it after just a few days, but I’m starting to see some of the differences between lilmit and NL and how to make some of the needed changes in my game.

I am playing pretty tight though. The other night I folded so often that if I raised pre-flop everybody would fold. This was at a table where there were usually 5 people were seeing a flop. That’s OK for now. I still have to get comfortable seeing some of these bigger bets, and more importantly, getting comfortable making the bigger bets.

I am having fun though, which is good considering how many hands I still have to clear. I think I need to concentrate on one site per night though and just hammer out a bunch of hands in order to clear some of these.