Chris Halverson’s Blog

Let’s get back to poker news for a bit, ok?

While starting to clear the Empire bonus on a strange 200NL table (only 15% VP$IP, but huge pots post flop, had my first $250 pot and two sets of quads within 70 hands), I stumbled across this article about Barry Greenstein and how he thinks the top tournament players are not “great”. He sounds pissed.

I’ve been waiting to mention this for almost a month now, but Inc. magazine’s May issue’s cover story was about Steve Lipscomb, creator of the WPT. They’ve finally put it online. It’s a pretty interesting read. He took some big risks early on trying to sign up casinos. Say what you want about the WPT, but it’s made some of you a lot of money

Oh, and Jackpot Jay is looking for a backer (for the whole $10K). As Mean Gene says, he makes it sound like a fool if you don’t back him.

Blog Content Uproar

The poker blogsphere has been up in arms over the last few days regarding a site that has republished content. Now, I’m not all that enthused about this myself. The site is nothing but a banner farm, and they have taken the lowbrow step of making veiled threats and such. I don’t like the fact that this person is using content for financial gain without providing anything orignal. I think, however, everybody is giving them more press then it’s worth. If anybody links to them you will do nothing but help them due to search engine linking algorithms.

This site, however, at least provides links to the original site. I’ve had content stolen and republished without any attribution whatsoever. I was almost to the point of creating a WordPress plugin to add some text in my feed to point back to the original article (and still may, maybe MtDewVirus will beat me to it ). Then I noticed that these sites tend to fall away after a short while. Maybe it’s just not worth getting all worked up about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this site is doing the “right” thing. Personally, it wouldn’t bother me as much if it weren’t a banner farm. After all, it’s similar to weblogs.com, blo.gs, syndic8, moreover, My Yahoo!, etc. The syndication part doesn’t bother me (as long as there is attribution). The huge difference here is that they are trying to make money off other people’s content.

And that, in my opinion, is wrong.

Empire Lockdown

Empire is apparently closing down some accounts. Many people are saying it’s to shut out bonus whores.

I don’t think so.

There’s been accounts of a couple dozen people getting accounts closed. Some of those have admitted that only their second account (the one their lawn gnome “uses”) has been shutdown. These people deserve to have those accounts shutdwon. The T&C explicitly says one account per person. People cheating the sites for extra bonuses are in the wrong and deserve to have the accounts closed.

Note that as of now, everybody has got their money back.

The conspiracy theorists are saying that the reload bonus on Tuesday is a trap to lure the whores in and catch them.

Oh my. Art Bell would have trouble believing that one.

Empire is promoting this like crazy. They sent out emails. They have it as the popup when you login.

And more telling: They didn’t lock me out.

I have not played a hand at Empire that was not a bonus hand for over a year. I am the epitome of a Empire bonus whore. If anybody abuses them, within the rules (ie. I just have one account), it’s me and my account is just fine.

Honestly, if they wanted to catch the bonus whores, it would take a programmer about 5 minutes to write something to figure out who has a negative MGR. They could then send out (via email) an account specific reload and track those (but this time don’t screw it up like the one last year). Simple. Effective. This one has been promoted for a week, it’s no trap.

Of course, I could be wrong, but I think people are overreacting a bit.

Another Tech Site Reviews Online Poker

One thing that we’ve all come to accept is that there are a lot of tech people who play poker. A lot of people who are making a living (or a considerable side income, or working for a poker site) have computer science backgrounds. Unfortunately, my computer science background hasn’t helped me much, but it’s probably due to my terrible math ability (failed Calc 1 twice, Calc 2 once and never went further) more than desire.

But anyway…

Yet another “tech” (or “geek”) site has posted an article about online poker. This time it’s at K5 (kuro5hin.org). The article is here. Try not to laugh too hard.

The comments, however, are classic. There are a ton of “online poker is rigged” ones, a bunch of “bot” ones and a good number of “gambling is a drain on society” ones. Good stuff.

The best comment is the one that just says: “don’t tap the glass”.

Saturday night was my brother’s 4th Annual Housewarming Party. The novelty this year was that it actually was in a new house (well, they moved in last July or so, but after the 3rd Annual Houswarming Party). This is a great night where the neighbors turn out in droves, get drunk, pass out in his lawn, stumble home (barely), etc. All this in a quiet, semi-seclulded (as much as you can get in a suburb) neighborhood in the Twin Cities.

This year, there was also a poker tournament.

Well, “tournament” may be stretching it.

To tell the truth, “poker” may be stretching it.

There were, however, chips, Texas Hold ‘Em and 7 people sitting around a table, so we’ll just call it poker.

We got setup after we shooed aside my son and his friend from playing craps next to the table.

The format: $20 buyin, NLHE. Blinds start at some smallish amount and double each orbit. Payouts are 1st: $100, 2nd: $40. Oh, and we started out with T700.

Nothing like a little bingo to pass the time.

Anyway…2 of the guys were our neighbors, I wrote about them in earlier posts. One was my friend Jason. One other guy had some knowledge of poker while the final two really didn’t know much.

In other words, I was all set to be first out. After all, in a game where the blinds escalate so quickly and with people who don’t know what they’re doing, it’s just ripe for suckout city.

The game starts and two hands in I’m the big blind. I look at a beautiful 6c3c and get to see a free flop along with 3 others. Flop brings 2 more clubs including the K. SB checks and I lead out. Folded around to SB who shakily calls. Turn is a blank, but I lead out again and am called again. Hmm…River brings me my final club and I lead out again and am called. He mucked when he saw my flush.

Off to a decent start.

I then proceed to get pushed off an OESD when the odds dictated I should have called. Jason wouldn’t let me forget about this for most of the night.

I then am made fun of for about the next 4 levels because I played a total of about 4 hands during that time. Jason kept asking me if I was going to fold my way to the money and I said that I just might.

(Hint: In the business, we call that “foreshadowing”.)

During this time, one neighbor gets bored and starts pushing. Of course, he wins and is a huge leader. Then Jason is getting called asking when he’s going to leave. Two of the other guys are on the phone setting up other plans. So basically there’s only 2 of us who are not being pressured to leave.

Due to my stealthy play, I find myself short stacked (wow, that’s a new feeling…) when in the BB I find TdJd. There are a couple limpers and I pushed for slighly more than a min raise. Of course I got no respect and everybody called. I show Jason and neighbor #1 my hand. Both nod in agreement about my play.

Flop is Kd9dXx. I’m starting to like my chances with a straight flush draw. They check it down. Turn is a brick and is checked down. The river is the miracle Qd. I got a big ass grin on my face and both Jason and the neighbor look at me and I just nod. Some betting happens or something, I don’t care.

They flip up the cards and I say, “It doesn’t matter, I just tripled up with my straight flush!”. I wanted to yell, “Ship it!”, but figured it’d be lost on them.

Ironicallly, I’m sitting pretty good here. I watch the carnage as other people go out and suddenly it’s down to three. Neighbor #1 takes out #3 and I’m in the money baby!

First hand heads up and I deal myself rockets. American Airline. Bullets. Fireworks are going off in my head. I smooth call the BB and hope he hits on the flop. It’s ragged and I reach to throw out a min bet and he folds before I even pick up the chips. Damn. I show to get sypathy. I get none.

Next hand I get T8s and I push. I’m short stacked so he calls with A high and takes it down.

I didn’t have much to play with HU, and it was cutting into my drinking time, so I figured the $20 profit was good enough.

While it was not an exhibition on how to play poker, it was pretty fun. Not reallly something I would want to do too often, but drunken bingo poker with people who don’t know how to play and/or are bored is sometimes fun.

Local Twin Cities player, recent college graduate, and 2+2 regular “bicyclekick” just posted his poker story in this 2+2 thread.

All I can say is: Wow.

Assuming it’s true, and there are some biggish names that would probably speak up if it weren’t at least mostly true, it is truly amazing.

So far this year he’s won (monthly): 14K, 60K, 87K, 66K. Over $400K last year.

Wow.

The writing itself could use some work, but wade through it, it’s pretty interesting.

A little poker, a little, misc…

Cinco de Mayo

It’s Cinco de Mayo and I’m sitting here stuck in my cube. I want a margarita…

200NL

Last night I got a chance to play some poker for the first time this week. I decided to grow a pair and move up to the 200NL on Party.

I didn’t get to play as long as I would have liked, and one session does not a trend make, so I’m reserving judgement on how the play compares at this level. I didn’t play that well. It was probably due to the bigger bet sizes and such, they always freak me out whenever I first move up a level. I probably laid down too many hands, but the play didn’t seem all that different than the 100NL, maybe a touch more aggressive, but not to where I feel I’m outclassed.

Yes, I was down, but I don’t feel I was outplayed, it was just one of those nights. You just don’t like them to happen when you make a move up. Well, that and I blew half my stack on a dumb ass move when I made a set on the turn. Unfortunately the card also made the other guy’s straight. Oh, and I made sure to bet into him. D’Oh! That’s not getting outplayed, that’s just being dumb.

Hollywood Park

If any of you LA bloggers out there could do me a favor I’d appreciate it. Basically I’m looking for a $1 chip from Hollywood Park. I know, it’s one of those dumb things, but I’m trying to get a chip from each casino I’ve played in and I forgot to get one when I was out there with Henry last year. Let me know if you’ve got a spare. If you happen to be heading out there soon, keep me in mind. I’ll gladly buy you a drink in Vegas or something.

I also need one from the Luxor, but I will be in Vegas in less than a month so it’s possible I could get one myself.

I’m Famous

Thanks to Iggy, I came to find out that I am a famous poker player. The posting on RGP said:

I’m looking for poker blogs by well-known players. So far, I’ve found Paul Phillips, Wil Wheaton, Chris Halverson, and Annie Duke. Are there more? Please send the links.

I love how I’m ahead of Annie Duke That prompted me to do a little investigating and I found his web site (look about 2/3 of the way down, on the right). He got my name slightly wrong, but I’m sure it is my brilliance and fame that blinded him to the correct spelling.

Now where are the endorsements?

Half-Life 2

I’ve been able to play a bit of HL2 and I have to say that it is quite possibly the coolest game (at least FPS) ever. Un-freaking-real.

Of course, I’m not able to play it right now because, surprise, Steam messed it up. It evidently was updating it and proceeded to stop or something. It’s stuck at 84% updated and nothing I can do can make it continue on. I tried to play it and it says it wants to update, so I hit “OK” and it chugs for a minute and then just stops. No error, no nothing.

So…Can I do the “Delete Game Content” and reinstall? Actually, I think I tried that and it said it couldn’t do it because it was waiting to update. Ug! Will it keep my saved games? I found them, so I’ll copy them over anyway, but…

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Iron Maiden

I recently came into possession of the complete Iron Maiden discography and I’ve got one thing to say: Old Maiden rocks, new Maiden isn’t as good. I haven’t really listened to them after Bruce left, so this was all new. Powerslave on back and I’m good. The newer stuff? Meh.

Nine Inch Nails

NIN, on the other hand, continues to stay strong. With Teeth is pretty damn good. Not quite as groundbreaking as Pretty Hate Machine or even Downward Spiral (or the “side” companion CDs such as Fixed and Further Down the Spiral), but pretty damn good. Like most NIN CDs, it really requires a couple of listens to fully appreciate it. Highly recommended.