Chris Halverson’s Blog

After confirming with both CJ and Mrs. H on the first day the WPBT Vegas II event was announced, I finally booked the actual trip.

Mrs. H and I will be wheels up on Champion Air at 8:30AM on Thursday, June 2. We will also be residing at the luxurious Plaza (at least Pauly told me it was luxurious ). All I know is that the Plaza better have a good stock of brown liquor.

So now I have a question: We’re looking to go to a show either Thursday or Friday night. Probably Cirque du Soleil. Any thoughts on the different shows? I see they have 4 out there now: O, Mystere, Ka and Zumanity. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Yes, I know it’ll be $100+ per person and yes I know Zumanity is “adults only” (which is totally fine if the show is good).

Two months. Plenty of time to get my bankroll in order (hopefully) and to get my liver in shape.

I had a little time to kill before the WPBT tourney on Wednesday night, so I sat at a 50NL table (since I only had $70 in my account). Within a half hour I doubled up and the tourney was a freeroll.

Just as an aside…I don’t think the players at Stars are any better than anywhere else. There was plenty of bad play in the time I was there. Also, the software really isn’t as good as most people make it sound. Full Tilt’s blows it away and Party’s is pretty much better too (except for the stupid “click the button 5 times” issue).

Anyway…

So 106 people eventually signed up for the tourney. I get seated at a table where I didn’t know anybody. That’s not all bad, but then again, I didn’t know anything about anybody else. Once again, that’s OK because I had a drink and was watching Alias, so it really wouldn’t have mattered.

I got some great cards early and nearly doubled up before the break. I then got involved in some pots that I shouldn’t have and bled off quite a few chips. The blinds were going up and I was got all in with Kxo. Unfortunately I ran into Bob’s rockets and I went home in 62nd.

Frack.

Not sure how it ended up, but Bob won the bounty of a WPBT card protector. Nice job!

To finish up the night I jumped over to Party for a little 100NL goodness. And it was good…Made up for the lackluster tourney performance.

Thanks to Iggy for setting it up!

Don’t forget, there’s another tourney tonight:

PokerStars
Private Tourney Tab: WPBT Tournament
Password: thehammer
9PM EST
$20+2 NLHE

So far there’s only 29 people registered which is totally unacceptable. If this is the case, I may actually make the money, which would just not be right.

Oh, there’s also a bounty on me. Thanks to Dragonystic, whoever knocks me out will get a nice WPBT Card Protector. Personally, I lobbied for the thong, but he decided this would be a better choice. I’ll let you decide.

When playing no limit it is generally good to have as much of a stack as you can. Some people will say they like to play with short stacks and there is some validity to that, if you’re good, but in general, most people will say you should have as much available as you can.

I, for example, reload quite often. If I lose 20% or so of my stack, I rebuy to the max. I do it so that I can maximize profits if I get a good hand. I’ll give you an example why I think it’s a good thing (and I’ll get the hands right this time).

Party 100NL (50/1 blinds). I’m UTG and have A♠K♦ with $103 and raise to $3. MP ($57) min raises to $6. SB, myself and UTG+1 call. Flop comes 7♥K♥A♥. I’m not liking the flush possibilities, but top two pair is looking good. Checked to me and I bet $15 into the $21 pot. UTG+1 folds and MP goes all in for $52. SB folds and it’s back to me.

What do you do?

Since I’m talking about rebuying, I’m sure you’ve figured out that I called.

I didn’t put him on the flush. If he had it, I figured he’d slow play it a bit more in hopes of getting more callers. I figured he was betting to protect against the flush.

I was right on that count.

I did, however, fear AA or KK. Then again, this is Party, so he could have almost anything.

I was, again, right on the AA part.

Of course, I didn’t know that now that Party has changed so that they don’t show hole cards when there’s no more action, which pisses me off (that is a change isn’t it, they used to show IIRC). Anyway, the rest of the cards are irrelevant, although I was secretly hoping for a flush on the board thinking it may save me.

So I drop $57 on that hand. Was it the right call? I’m honestly not sure. Any thoughts would be helpful. No real reads on the guy, it was about 20 hands into my session.

So now I’m down to $47. Less than half a full buyin. I immediately hit “rebuy” to get back to normal.

I’m glad I did.

One orbit later I’ve won a couple pots and am up to $140 in the CO and am staring down at K♠K♥. UTG limps and I pop it to $4. Button goes all in for $102. Folded around to me and I’m loving it.

I don’t think you can fear AA when somebody pushes preflop, at least not at Party at this level. Yes, it will happen, but with KK I could not ask for a better place to get my money in so I call.

I don’t improve, but then again, neither does he and his Hilton Sisters fall to my cowboys.

Getting back to my lesson…Had I not rebought (and assuming I still won the other $40), I would have been at around $80. Therefore, when he pushed for about $100 I would not have been able to match and he would have saved $20. More importantly, it would have cost me $20. Had I not won anything between then, which may have happened due to playing with some scared money, then it would have cost me a lot more.

Maybe I just suck and want to have a full stack. Maybe it’s a crutch, but I don’t think so. Some people like short stacks and that’s fine. It protects your roll a bit, but in the long run I think it costs you a lot more.

OK, I know it’s not really Hank-like in the grand scheme of poker theory, but then again I’m not as smart as he is. Nor as good of a poker player. It is, however, as good as it gets over in this part of poker blogdom.

Party Bonus

I knew I should have just waited and not posted about how well I was running…Friday I was four tabling Party to work off some more of the bonus, well and to hopefully walk away with some more money from the Friday night gamboolers.

I played about 600 hands, some with SirFWALGMan and Poker in Chile, and was stuck about $50 total until my last hand at my last table. I got AK and ended up making a nut flush and earning enough to get back to being down only $15. Not great, but in the end, not bad.

Saturday I played the remainder of the Party bonus. I was down for the night, but over the course of the bonus I won $260 (all at 50NL), so it was a nice little run.

There’s been some talk about the lack of bloggers playing on Party lately. I’ve been there, but I’ve been hiding myself from search for a while now. Unfortunately, for a while it was getting to the point where half of at least one of my tables would be other bloggers. Talk about poor table selection. I play to have fun, but then again, there are times I want to play and win some money. So, no offense, I’m not trying to be holier than thou, I’m just starting to play well at NL and it’s just easier for me to play when I’m not having to pay attention to the chat all the time. I’m also one of those who lost more at the blogger table than I was winning at the regular tables which was not fun. Therefore, your best bet is to IM (if I’m on, which I’m not a lot when I play due to the same reasons, I can’t pay as much attention to the game), or via email and let me know you’re there.

Bankroll

Checking my spreadsheet, I’ve noticed that my bankroll sits in a really nice place. I’m way over rolled for what I’m playing. Working with the 300BB for limit, and whatever for NL, I’m way over rolled for the 50NL and even for the 100NL. What is the measure for NL, 10 buyins? If so…Wow.

Basically, NL has turned out to be a good move for me. Thanks Henry for giving me the push. My bankroll has almost tripled since the beginning of the year. Granted, some of that is bonuses, but even if I take those out my bankroll has doubled.

So the obvious question is: do I move up? I’m definitely going to settle in at the 100NL for now. I’m comfortable there, after all, it is the lowest you can play at Crypto and I’ve got a ton of hands there. If things continue to go well, at the beginning of May I’ll move up to the 200NL.

Basically I’m comfortable with where I’m at. I feel no risk sitting at the 50NL tables. Even if I lose a buyin, it’s not a big deal, even if I don’t win it back. While I don’t like it, it doesn’t “hurt”. Not that I want a loss to hurt, but there’s really no risk to the 50NL either. The players aren’t very good on the whole and it’s easy to come out ahead (in the long run). Bonuses help move the roll up, even with break even play (although since the beginning of the year I’ve definitely been winning), especially when you just play the lower levels since the bonus is a bigger proportion of your level (does that make sense?). My play, however, is getting better and I think I could make it grow even faster if I move up.

I guess I just need to quit being such a wuss. I’m not hung up on what other people think about my poker ability based on the game level that I play at. Some people seem to think that if you’re not playing at 15/30 then you must not be any good. Now I admit I’m not the best, but I’m good enough to be a winning player at my current levels. I’m not killing the game, but I’m doing well enough for what I need/want.

The other side of this is that if I’m able to win, then I may as well win more dollar wise. I guess this was a long winded “think out loud” type of thing. I’m going to play a month at the 100NL everywhere and if things continue to go well, I’ll move up at the end of April.

Plus I want to get some more together for Vegas in June