Chris Halverson’s Blog

Poker

I have hit the ass end of variance over the last few days. It started the night that I lost my stack as described in my previous couple of posts. I basically had the same thing happen again on Saturday. It was a bit different, but the end result was basically the same.

I’m pretty sure my pattern map is outdated.

Cats

We got a new cat over the weekend in hopes of it helping my wife move on. It’s a one year old from the local humane society and is full of energy. So far it has got along with our other cat and dog which is good considering she’s still got her front claws. At least for another day or so

Oh, and my son got a chameleon last week. Joy of joys.

Vacation

I’m taking the week off. No plans on going anywhere though, just hanging out. My wife is taking it off too, so that should be good. Even after this week I’ll still be owed vacation that I’ve “taken” in addition to the new days I am earning. Nice problem to have I guess, but I’ll have to figure out something to do other than “supervising” the installer of the new storm door I just bought.

Cars

More car excitement here at Chez Halverson. I’ll save the full report for when the final drama is played out.

Phil Gordon

I promise I’ll get my review of Final Table Poker DVD out shortly. I have a couple things to touch up and then it’ll be there. You should really buy the Final Table Poker DVD, it’s good.

See this post for background.

Villan flips over 55 for the turned set and IGHN.

I called the all in on the river with my top two pair and lost my stack.

It appears the general consensus is that the turn was where I made my biggest mistake. The theory being that in the end, I was going to call an all in anyway, so the net result is the same, so let’s see where we stand. If I just paid off a set, well so be it.

The flop call, while not bad, is probably not optimal. Had I raised here and taken down the pot, it would have been smaller, but I wouldn’t have busted.

Raising, or actually, the lack of, is one of my big holes.

As Maigrey (go read her) told me in IM yesterday:

You play like a GIRL.

sigh

The sad thing is, she’s right. I really need to jack up my aggression (selectively, not LAGish) and play back.

I still don’t understand the $5 PF raise in mid-position with 55 at a full ring game. This is Party, but even so…

I feel better now that nobody else really put him on 55 either. Not everybody would have called either the raise or the river bet, but nobody really thought he had the fives. I don’t feel so bad that I missed it.

Thanks everybody for all your comments. It’s great to see something like this kick off some decent thoughts and discussions.

Update: See this post for results.

OK, I’ve been given permission to post this from the Poker Princess (I upgraded her to Poker Goddess, at least temporarily, after walking me through this hand). Basically, I want some input from other people here, and so does she, so if you don’t want to help me, do it for her. Think of it as “2+2 without the attitude”. You can also think of it like how some other Professional Poker Players™ post tricky hands in magazines and such. Yeah, just like that. Oh, and pretend you didn’t read my previous post.

1/2 NL on Party ($200 max buyin). MP has $260 and I’m in LP (CO+1) with $180.
UTG limps, MP raises to $7 and I call with A♦Q♦. Everybody folds including limper.

I have no real reads on MP. He’s new, less than 25 hands (PokerAce hasn’t given me any stats on him yet). He won a multiway pot but didn’t do anything tricky.

Flop comes A♠Q♥4♣ and MP leads out with $8 (pot is $19). I just smooth called.

Question 1: What would you do here?

My thinking here was that he had a highish pocket pair or A-high (say AK or AJ), probably suited. I didn’t put him on QQ because I had one. I figured my hand was best here and wanted to keep him around.

The turn brings the 5♦. He checks to me and I bet $20 into the $35 pot. Once again, wanting to bet enough to get something, but not enough to scare away his pair of aces or other high pair.

He proceeds to check raise me to $50.

I am now confused. Obviously a check raise sends alarms. I go through what he could have. I’m still thinking ace with high kicker or high pair. 23? No, he wouldn’t raise pre-flop with that. KK? JJ? Possibly because those would warrant a pre-flop raise. 55? Maybe. But a $5 raise pre-flop? That’s odd alone, even more so since he’s out of position. It would appear that the turn helped, but could he have been slow playing something from the flop?

Question 2: What do you do here?

I thought he was trying to buy the pot right there, so I called.

The J♠ falls on the river (final board of A♠Q♥4♣5♦J♠) and he moves in (I have $118, pot is $135) and has me covered.

Question 3: What do I do?

Results will follow later.

Any advice would be appreciated. I can handle it, even if it’s “Played. Poorly. On. All. Streets.” (which I don’t think it was). Thanks.

So I join the 21st century July, 2005, and upgrade Poker Tracker to the Postgres version and install PokerAce HUD. WOW! I bookmarked it when it came out, but I hadn’t played enough to warrant using it yet. Amazing. I love the flash of the mucked hole cards. Very, very nice. I used this setup at Party last night at a 1/2 NL table.

As a fellow Professional Poker Player™ is fond of saying, “If it weren’t for luck, I’d win all the time.”

I hear ya bro.

So I’m holding about even, which kind of sucks, but at least I’m not losing much. I’m sitting with $185 when I proceed to lose it all in one hand.

I was a 96% favorite on the flop. Donkey got lucky (see above) and made a set on the turn. Then again, I played the flop terribly, so I kind of deserved it.

I’m going to run it by a player who, you know, doesn’t suck at NL, and see if I messed it up or if it was just “one of those hands”.

Needless to say, I stood up from the table and decided to watch Reno 911! instead. I didn’t tilt, I didn’t let it bother me, I just went on. That’s key I think. It’s easy to go on tilt after something like that, rebuy, and play sub-optimally.

How many times have you read people doing that exact thing? Quite often, right? Well, quite often among people who don’t win. No offense, but you’ll notice that most winning players have a decent amount of tilt control. You have to in order to win because the beat will happen. Look at a real poker pro, Matt Maroon, and his recent bad beats. He is much better than I could hope to be, and plays much higher than I do, but makes a good point:

I guess my key to emotional control is just not caring.

I’m the same way. Granted, losing $200 in one night is different than losng $9000, but the concept is the same. You cannot get bent out of shape over losing. The stakes really don’t matter because if your bankroll is $50, losing $15 is a big deal. Just go read Matt’s entry and you’ll see that bad suckouts happen at every limit and goes to show that good bankroll management in addition to an even disposition are quite possibly two of the most important qualities of a good poker player (and “good” should be used loosely when talking about me).

After a shortish session (yes, Profession Poker Player Chris Halverson actually played poker, twice, this weekend) I had to do a couple of things:

• Check to make sure my laptop hadn’t been hacked
• Check my balance twice, logging out and back in just to make sure
• Check my astrological chart to make sure the end of the world is not about to occur

  You see, I actually won at Full Tilt tonight.

  You read that right, I won at Full Tilt.

  I’m as shocked as you are. I think Hank, et. al, forgot to flip the switch this weekend.

  Actually, on Saturday night I lost $20 at the 50/1 NL. I started with $95, dropped down to $30, and ended the night at $70.

  Sunday I decided that I may as well go for broke at FTP. I bought into a $22 SNG and into a .25/.50 NL for the remaining $48.

  After a shaky start to the SNG, getting down to T300, I got a few cards and played more aggressively and finished third for $36 (net $14).

  My ring game also went well, winning my first hand and, while not killing the table, stayed up the whole time. I finished that table at $80.

  So I guess I can’t complain about FTP anymore. Especially because their software just freaking rocks. Oh, and I saw plenty of fishy plays there. Plenty. Things are just a bit tighter than Party, you may only get 4 to the flop Of course, they’re 9 handed tables, so percentage wise it’s probably close to the same. Of course, my bonus expired on July 11, $580 short of clearing. Oh well.

  Review of “Final Table Poker with Phil Gordon” DVD coming Monday or Tuesday. Here’s a preview: Get it, it’s good.