Chris Halverson’s Blog

Un-freaking-real.

Well, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise, what with me being a Professional Poker Player™ and all, but as you all may know, big multi-table tourneys are not really my thing. The Inaugural PokerStars Blogger tourney was indeed a big ‘ol MTT, 1473 people were entered in this freeroll.

And I placed 21st.

21st!!

WTF? Are the poker gods taunting me?

I don’t really have any notes because I didn’t really plan on lasting long. I know I was never below the T2K starting amount though as I won the first hand I was involved in. For a while I was holding strong mid-pack. The chat room was full of people falling quickly. Near the end of the 2nd break I made a huge double up and jumped to 6th place. Soon thereafter the blinds started escalating and I hit a run of very cold cards.

We come back from break and the blinds are killing me. I make one steal and just get the blinds. I then get 33 in EP and push, but it’s not even a 3xBB raise, so the BB calls with an ace, which he catches (of course) and I don’t improve.

So now my biggest quandry is how to synch up my normal iPod and my new iPod nano to my one iTunes. That’s right, finishing 21st won me a 4GB iPod nano.

w00t! I play g00t!

Thanks go to my new favorite poker site, Poker Stars. They are the best. Everrytbody should play there right now. Seriously though, thanks to Otis, Ryan and whoever else was involved in this incredible freeroll. Great job! Plus, they do rock in general.

Thanks everybody for the railbirding and encouragment in the chat room. Thanks to Mrs. H and Nemi for waving the dead chickens.

As Maigrey would say:

THEMS QUADS BEETCHES!

So, yeah, I played poker on Saturday night. I know, stop the presses.

In preparation for Sunday’s tourney, I, being the Professional Poker Player™ that I am, decided to take some time and get back to the tables a bit. I’ve been joking all weekend to basically anybody who’ll listen that I’ll be out in the first hour or so, after all I’ve got a casserole to make (sorry, had my menu mixed up, burritos were on Saturday night). I’ve been told repeatedly to basically shut up and play well (thanks Nemi and Mrs. H). So, yeah, watch out!

So I decided to play a little bit and pulled up Party. Did you know they broke away from their network sites? Did you hear about this blackjack thing? How about the side bets?

Oh, sorry about that. I’m about 2 weeks late on that aren’t I?

So I sit at a table with an annoying black jack logo in the corner and get dealt KK when I posted from the cutoff. I proceed to take down the first pot I’m in and am off to a good start.

I then proceed to get crap cards for 20 minutes.

Then I get dealt American Airlines, Pocket Rockets, the Hand that Shall Never Win, that’s right AA, on the button nonetheless. Unfortunately, it’s folded around but I raise anyway. BB raises me and I decide to play a little coy and just call.

Then I flopped quads.

Luckily, the BB led out and I just smooth called. Ditto on the turn. On the river he led out and I raised him 3x his bet. Surprisingly he called with KK. It’s great getting paid off with quads.

QUADS BEETCHES!!!

So in prep for the tourney, I had the WPT Ladies Night on in the background while online earlier in the night. Damn Gene, Isabelle Mercier was looking fine. Anyway, sorry…I also watched some of the 2003 WSOP on ESPN Classic. I then watched the Ultimate Poker Challenge. That’s right, after watching poker on TV, I am totally prepared to take all of you on.

It was fun to play again, and of course it didn’t hurt that I came out ahead, especially since I only played for about 30 mins. Look out on Sunday because I’m out to win now.

Also, you should fear me if the board flops a pair and I’m still in because I may have just flopped QUADS BEETCHES!

See ya at the tourney.

I will be so glad when I’m done with my Master’s program. The work itself isn’t that hard, but it’s just time consuming. This quarter is my capstone project. It’s basically a project to show I actually learned something from the various classes that I’ve taken and create a full blown “real” project. There are some discussions each week but they’re fairly straightforward, it’s the “project” part that takes time.

This, of course, means that my spare time is not spent at the poker tables. I am, however, planning on playing in the PokerStars tourney this Sunday. I have a strategy for this tourney and it basically involves getting a big stack early or busting out. As much as I’d love to win some of the great prizes that Stars is so generously offering I have to accept that I suck at MTT’s, therefore I don’t want to play for hours to get nothing. As the saying goes, “Go big or go home.” That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be reckless, but I will be looking to build a stack early, after all, I have to cook dinner at about the 2 hour mark (I’ve got burritos planned for that night, although I’m looking to branch out next week with a couple of new items).

Being a Professional Poker Player™, I have been asked to submit a review of Fox Sport’s “Learn From the Pros” TV show. To that end, I have setup my Tivo to record the episode that will air on Thursday at 1:30AM and will endeavor to watch it post haste and give an opinion on what my fellow Pros are teaching. I haven’t been watching it out of principle since I wasn’t asked to participate. I’m blaming it on the fact that I live in the land that football forgot instead of Las Vegas.

I’ve also got a couple of poker books in the queue to read (thanks publishers, keep ‘em coming!) which I will review when i get a chance to actually read them. These are kind of taking a back seat to class, RL, SL and the occasional poker play at this point in time. Not to mention the new TV season, although I am still pissed that Alias is on opposite Survivor (due to issues I must Tivo Alias, but could watch Survivor on another TV, but even so…).

General Blogging Thoughts

If you (ahem UFP) publish a half assed RSS feed, please see this article (thanks Heather) and help us out. You guys aren’t the only ones who do this, but you’re the only ones where I get frustrated by it, ie. I actually want to read you, but am pissed that I have to visit your site which means that I don’t do it often enough. Sorry, my time is in too short supply to go there when I can read everybody else’s via bloglines.

Unrelated to this, if you want to make sure that I don’t read your post, start it out by saying that blogger ate your post. As soon as I read that I move on. This isn’t hard people…Write the post in something else, notepad, Word, whatever, and then post it into blogger. Then if it does eat it, you haven’t lost anything. It’s not rocket science, plus that would give you an extra chance to oh, say, fix grammar and spelling issues.

Thank you. Venting done.

6:17 Woke up

6:31 Start up shower

Opps…sorry about that…:)

First off, thanks to everybody who commented on my last post. I’m just going to do one be answer here instead of in the comments there.

Firstly, thanks for wanting to see me continue posting, even if (especially if?) it’s not poker related. That wasn’t an attempt at ego boosting or anything, and yes, it is my blog, but if people aren’t interested, why do it?

Secondly, thanks for all your support in terms of “balance”. My real life is much more important than poker ever will be.

Don’t think this means I don’t want to be invited to another poker blogger get together though I’ll also try to be at any of the blogger tournies if they’re at “normal” sites, I don’t really want to sign up at any new ones.

Anyway…

Not much going on right now, just wanted to acknowledge and say “Thanks” for the kind words. Real blogging coming soon

There seems to be a fair amount of poker ennui going around right now amount the poker bloggers. Maybe it’s “that” time of year, maybe it’s burnout, maybe it’s a combination of all of those.

All I know is that I am definitely in that camp for whatever reason.

October marks 2 years for me as a “poker player”. During that time I have made some money, met a lot of great people and became a Professional Poker Player™. I’ve had a ton of fun and learned a lot. This year has seen me move from limit to no limit with much success. I’ve also enjoyed the company of fellow poker bloggers in Las Vegas. It’s been a great year.

That being said, lately I have got to the point where poker isn’t fun. I have cut my play down dramatically so now when I do play, it is for fun. This has led me to enjoy playing again, although my skill level is not improving.

While people who play seriously will say “stasis = death”, I am OK with it. I’ve never played poker for the money, I play it to have fun. Now, I take it seriously enough to play correctly (more or less) and try to study it, but I’m not relying on it for my livelihood. Therefore, forcing myself to play is not fun.

While my poker play has been taking a back seat, my real life has taken a great turn for the better. My son is doing well in school and is feeling better than he has in a long time. Mrs. H and I have a renewed passion and have started sharing more time together in real life. I have also joined her in her online “game”, although it’s hardly a game, which has given us a unique perspective to our relationship and has actually allowed us to share something together as well as be able to socialize with others who share our interests. It’s infinitely more enjoyable to explore SL with my wife than it is to grind it out at a virtual poker table with people I don’t know.

This is also the last quarter of my Master’s program, so I’ve got to devote some time to that and just get it done.

So where does that leave poker?

Basically, poker is going to be relegated to even more of a recreational activity. Maybe in a couple months, or after the holidays when I’m finished with my MS, I’ll get a renewed interest in it. In the interim, I plan on playing now and again, but if I don’t, it won’t bother me.

What’s that mean for this blog?

Well, I can do a couple of things:

1. I can go hdouble and post once a month and have it stay totally poker related

2. I can post more often, but integrate more real life things

I’m leaning toward #2 at this point. Don’t worry, I won’t bog you down with the details of brushing my teeth (I prefer Crest), but I may branch out a bit. I really don’t have anything to add in terms of poker strategy or deep thoughts like Hank, so #1 just wouldn’t work for me.

This has seemed to work for a couple of my very favorite “poker” bloggers such as BG and Mean Gene. Of course, their writing doesn’t suck, so maybe it’s not quite applicable to me, but the theory is there anyway.

So basically, no huge year in review this time, it just really doesn’t matter what my results were. I’ve had a great year and have fostered new friendships and had a blast. I don’t plan on having that stop or go away.

My real life is also at an all time high. Spending more time with Mrs. H has brought me more happiness than I can imagine. It’s rejuvenated and refocused me. She brings me a happiness and fulfills me in ways I never thought possible

To me, that’s much more important that my yearly BB/100 rate.