It’s been I think just over a week since I’ve written here, partially because there hasn’t been much to write about and partially because I haven’t had time to write anything anyway. In the limited time I’ve had I’ve been playing a bit of poker here and there but not too much. I’ve just been too busy with work, and twice a week my 9 year old’s basketball practices. To say the least I’ve been keeping busy. Read more…
I’m writing this with a heavy heart today. Today my family was dealt one of life’s “bad beats” as my grandmother passed away, about a month after the passing of my grandfather. This is all after my aunt passed away in March. All on the same side of the family and 2 out of 3 from cancer. I feel so sad for my Dad and my uncle. They lost a sister, a mother, and a father all within 9 months of each other and I can’t even imagine what that would be like. I don’t want to know either. We were a pretty tight family growing up. My aunt and her three daughters lived about 7 houses down from us. My two eldest cousins are both around the same age as my oldest younger brother (I’m the oldest) while my youngest cousin and youngest brother are a few years apart. Read more…
Texas Hold Em is a game of missing information, usually in relation to what your opponent is holding in his hand. There are different ways to try and gain more information such as tells, betting patterns, your observations of how he/she’s played their hands previously.
Another way is through table talk. People will try to talk to their opponents, asking them questions in hopes that their answers (or non-answers) will give some sort of indication as to what they are holding. Questions like “Will you show if I fold?” and “Do you want me to call?”are asked a lot. A lot of the times they aren’t even looking for a specific answer though. They’re looking for the WAY you answer. If someone asks you “How much do you have left?” then they are looking for a few things because observant, skilled players know exactly how much is in front of you. Quirks in your voice, is it cracked because you’re nervous? Are you fumbling with your chips as you go to count for them? Has your breathing increased or decreased? All these little bits of information can lead your opponent to putting you on a hand that either helps them save money by folding or betting because they’ve picked something up that tells them you aren’t that strong.
Ever sit at a table where there’s one guy who seems to be raising, reraising, betting big at every pot no matter what the action in front of him? There’s a lot more of it going on these days and I do agree that aggression is a big part of winning in No Limit Hold Em. People are playing a lot wider range of hands, betting more aggressively all the time. I’ve said in earlier posts that Gus Hansen probably started a lot of that with the way he was shown on the WPT in the first three seasons. Now guys like Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and Ilarias ‘Ziigmund’ Solaries are shown a lot and the way they are shown to play make them look like they’re crazy too. And with millions of dollars in their bankrolls from playing online you see a lot more adopting their style. They raise from any position with any two cards and it’s very hard to put them on a hand.
So, how do you combat this? No matter what, eventually you have to take a stand and you will probably have to do it with less than stellar holdings. If you sit and wait for your big pairs to play back, they’re going to know what you have and get away from it pretty easily. I remember a hand I was in against such a person playing a $1/2 game at the River Rock casino in Vancouver. This guy had seemingly been raising big every time there were 4 or 5 people limping into a pot and picking up all the dead money. He was doing the same thing against one bet and a few callers.
I’m going to try and get back into some poker thoughts for awhile now. I don’t anticipate much changing in my life right now outside of poker. I mean, what could? lol
Focus and concentration at the tables, be it online or a brick and mortar (B&M) casino is one of the most important aspects to the game. There is so much information out there in every hand and if you don’t see it, process it, and store it away in your memory banks for future reference than you could be missing out on golden opportunities. The problem is that there are so many distractions out there that it can be very hard to stay focused the whole time. In a B&M casino you can get caught up in conversations with other players, watching sports or other poker shows on the multiple televisions that a lot of poker rooms have, checking out the waitresses, having a little bit too much to drink, the rowdy table across the way, the elderly lady that just won big on a nearby slot machine…you get the idea. And while you’re allowing yourself to be distracted you may miss out on some key information. You may miss how someone played a very strong hand, how they looked when they were betting, how they bet their chips, were they breathing more rapidly all of a sudden, how did they react when the flop, turn, or river came? All of these things can help you later on when you get involved in a pot with this person later on.
What a tiring week, and it’s only going to get worse apparently. Looks like I have to work 13 of the next 14 days and with the rest of my time being spent with my son there isn’t a whole lot of time to play poker. I was able to play at PokerStars for about an hour the other day, winning about $10 so my total is standing pat at around $160 in the account. I just got home from work about half an hour ago so maybe I’ll play a few hands before going to bed. The boy is staying at my mom’s house tonight so I finally do get a bit of “me time”. Tomorrow I’ll pick him up and we’ll go do something fun. Apparently the weather is supposed to be pretty nice so maybe a round of golf at the little course he likes to go to. It’s a 9 hole course where no hole is longer than 90 yards. Jordan (son’s name) has driven that green once or twice which is not bad considering he was 8 at the time.
Overall, today was a good day, at least outside of playing poker is concerned. More on that in a bit. Read more…
A long day this is going to be so today’s blog will probably be pretty short. After working last night at my normal job, from 11pm-7am, I go to the last of my orientation at the new job at 2
and work til 10. Then I go back to first job at 11-7 again. What would one do without caffeine? My kid has been pretty great about me having to do this right now. He seems pretty understanding that I need to get some money put away and he said “Dad, you gotta do what you gotta do. I’ll be fine”. Just when you think you can’t love your kid anymore, you know?
Four hours of training with this one other girl who’s going to be doing the same thing at a different store. In case I hadn’t mentioned it, I’m going to be working at London Drugs as a Service Specialist. So far, that seems to entail supervising the cashiers and the Customer Service desk, keeping things organized, relieving the cashiers so they can go on their breaks…I’m sure there’s a lot more and I’ll find out soon enough. It appears to be one of the busier jobs in the store and I’m going to be working at one of the busiest, if not THE busiest store in Victoria so it should be interesting. I’m sure Christmas is going to be a nightmare but I’m glad to get in there now and sort of ease my way into it instead of being thrown to the wolves, so to speak. I do have to finish a 140 question quiz that I need an 80% minimum on to keep going. Wish me luck!
It’s getting more difficult to get on here. I started a new job today, just orientation at a major drugstore chain. Day two tomorrow and with still working my normal job and of course having my son it’s making for less and less time. I’m trying to make a bit of extra money for Christmas and other stuff too. And of course, less time online means less time playing poker. It’s OK and it sucks at the same time. I love all the time I have with my son and how busy he is with all of his sports and activities but I do miss playing a lot too. I really do want to see if I can get back to the level I was once at. I think I can but it will take a little longer is all.
I really wish this city would get poker at the casino. If I haven’t mentioned it, I live in Victoria BC, Canada and the casino here doesn’t have any poker tables. When they first opened up about 6 years ago they had one, with $1/2 NL and $2/4 Limit I believe being the only tables they had. It wasn’t all that popular and the it was the same 15-20 people every night, sometimes not even that many. Eventually the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) decided it wasn’t worth it to keep the poker room and they filled it with slots. Well, as luck would have it, shortly thereafter Chris Moneymaker wins the World Series and all of a sudden poker is the new biggest thing. Now there’s no space in the casino to put a poker room. Recently the casino has decided to forget about the restaurant and everyone assumed that it would be made into the poker room. Instead, they’re putting in more slots. (Ugh!)
They’ve been telling us for about 4 years now that they’re going to be getting one “real soon”. The new word on the street is that they will be building the room upstairs. At this point I’ll believe it when I see it. They’ve put in these Lightning Poker tables which I absolutely hate. I don’t trust it at all. It’s basically a poker table but with a virtual dealer, virtual cards, and virtual chips. You type in your bets, press a Call button etc. Sort of like playing online only all the players are right in front of you. I’m definitely not a fan and apparently it’s popularity has waned a lot over the last two years. Who knows? Maybe one of these days what the management has been telling us for 4 years will come true but until then I won’t go back in to that casino. I refuse to play the Lightning Poker and they’ve taken away any other card games that I liked to play. Until then, it’s online poker and the occasional trek over to Vancouver to play at the River Rock Casino. A beautiful Casino, Hotel and Resort right by the airport it’s definitely a must visit for those of you that play and go to Vancouver. Poker pro Brad Booth frequently visits here as his home is in Vancouver and occasionally will sit in on even the $1/2 games.
OK, must get going. Like I said, I have day two of my orientation tomorrow and then head straight to my other job after that. I may go get a hand or two in before bed though. 
My first blog at wordpress. I have one going at blogger.com as well but this one seemed to be pretty popular so I thought I’d come and check it out. Seems to be a lot more options for things you can do here as far as your page set up and the like. Anyway, my name is Justin, I’m a 36 year old single parent of an amazing 9 year old boy named Jordan and we live in Victoria, BC Canada. He’s so much like me it’s sick. Read more…
