Tales of an Poker Grinder

Quest For The WSOP This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:54:00 +0000

Well after a log break from blogging I'm back. Had a busy winter with work and really didn't even want to look at a computer after I left work. I was really only playing my home game and no online poker all winter long. But the last month my basement "The Poker Room" has been under construction. And it will be another 2 or 3 weeks upon completion. When it is done there will be a full bathroom down there, more heating and a/c vents, and the lighting is really cool. No one will have a problem reading their hole cards. I'm giving the basement a Vegas theme which will be really cool.
So over the last couple of weeks I've been back online playing, it's not the same as live play and I really miss playing cards with the gang. However, playing online has got me back on track with making money online. I've played 8 180-players tourney's and have made the final table 5 times so I've been doing really well on PokerStars. I've also decided because of how well I was playing in live games this year I'm going to take a shot at winning a seat for the WSOP. I really haven't attemped this in the pass. So I've played in 2 qualifiers so far, and both times I was knocked out early when I held pocket aces and pocket queens. Both times I was knocked when the other player hit trips against me. Tommorrow I have the day off of work and I will take another shot to qualify for the WSOP. I plan to really start to journal my efforts again in my blogs.
I'm also coaching baseball for the first time ever. This will be interesting since I only played baseball 2 years when I was in junior high and I really don't care for the game. But my son and his 11 year-old team don't have a coach so I stepped in to help. It's not football so I have to figure out how to coach and teach baseball in a couple of days.
I'm also going Vegas June 6th for the weekend for my 41st birthday. I plan to play in a $2,500 WSOP event that weekend. It's been 2 years since I've been to Vegas and this will be the first time I'm there in the summer. I'm staying at the Polo Towers which has a pool on the roof so that should be fun. Usually I have my whole tripped planned out for Vegas, where to eat, what shows I want to see, where I plan to gamble. But so far I haven't planned anything. One a good friend of mine has moved out to Vegas so I know I will have dinner with him probably Friday night. Saturday I plan to enter and play in the tourney. If I survive the first day, I will do my best to go after the game hard enough to make the final table and stay an extra day in Vegas. If I get knocked out I will look for a show and other dinner options. I should look for a show for Friday night after dinner. I might even sit down with my buddy Wayne and play Blackjack. Poker is my game but after seeing 21 and reading about how the MIT guys actually could count 4 decks I figure maybe I will play some blackjack. I can count cards of course, one deck, no problem. But I've never applied it to Blackjack because you never can play one deck BJ anywhere so I never played it. But I've used my card counting in other games with friends. I'm a math guy, not math wiz like MIT guys, but I'm good with numbers and good with cards. So maybe I'll sit down with Wayne at the tables and he can teach me how to play and I can make a little money and have some fun. He is a good Blackjack player, when he lived here he would usually fly out to Vegas a couple times a year to play Blackjack and always come home a winner. Don't get me wrong he is a low limit player like me. But he would make enough to pay for his trip and come home up $400 to $1,000 playing Blackjack.
So, I'll keep updating this blog.

Why is it only my family members put me on tilt?

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:44:00 +0000

So I'm sitting here watching the Vikings get beat. I turned it from watching my favorite team the Colts kicking the Panthers butt. I was thinking the Vikes might be able to come back and win here, but I doubt it.
So Thursday night we had our weekly tournament game here at the house. The first game it came down to Dan and I to see who had the Bounty on his. Dan would end up having it on him. I'll talk about that in a minute. So I'm playing very well taking down some good hands and end up as the chip leader. The play is really good, in fact all players are still around when the blinds are $50/$100. As a couple players have been knocked out I'm in the small blind with AK suited. The big blind will be going all-in this hand and everyone folds to the button who raises it big time, I think up to $600 with blinds at $75/$150. I look now and see my hand. Why such a big raise? The big blind doesn't have that much, we know he is going all-in with whatever 2 cards. So I call wanted to see the flop, it comes up garbage and the button, who is my uncle goes all-in. So my thought process pre-flop is he has queeens or jacks. I fold now and he show A3 suited. He has nothing, he loses the hand, that I would have would have won because a king hit the turn. The big blind who hit a small pair is still in the game and I lost my chip lead. I'm on tilt for at least 30 minutes. In live games I've only gone on tilt 3 times ever, once this last Saturday, once against the same uncle's wife, and one hand against my wife. I should say the uncle and aunt are on my wife's side of the family. Other than those 3 times no matter what the bad beat I took I have never tilted in a live game. I have tilted plenty of times on line, but that is in private in my living room where maybe only my wife and kids witness that.
After about 30 minutes I calmed downed and started playing poker again. The key thing was I stayed out of hands while I calmed down so I wouldn't make any wreckless moves. Ernie my uncle would end up going out in third place, I would take second, and Dan, who had the Bounty on his head would end up winning the game taking home $128.
The second game that night I would take out Ernie when he made a big bet under the gun, which was a little over a bet at the time of the game should be made. I looked at AQ suited and I said not again and went all-in. Now the key thing to this hand was me stating "Not again". Because Chris who was next to me on my left folded AQ suited thinking I had AK again. Ernie called with some garbage hand and a queen hit the flop and it was game over for Ernie. This game I would end up in 3rd place, I should have taken 2nd place but the big stack at the table was playing to tight when he had a chance to knock out Jeremy who ended up in second.
Well the Vikes lost like I thought. Now if I can make some sort of mircle and have my fantasy team win. Need Ahman Green to score, that has been a fantasy all season.
As for my online play I'm on UB now trying to turn $50 into $250 like I did so far on PokerStars. I'm down $3 now, but it seems like more, and it's been a grind there. Much tighter play on UB than PokerStars. I even took a break to write this after taking 4th in a sit-n-go which put me on tilt a little bit. I thought I had a chance of winning it when I had the chip lead but I lost that and the other guys were all sitting back to make the money. Well back to the tables.

My first Money Finish with Railbirds

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Well tonight I took 2nd place in a $5 buy-in invite from Railbird. Really I fell into 2nd place. When I made the final table I thought maybe I could make it to 4th place. Once we got down to the final four I was pretty sure I would end up in 3rd, but the chip leader had other ideas and before I knew it we were heads up. The funny thing in the final hand we both had starting pairs and hit trips except his 8's were bigger than my 4's.
I now exceeded my goal of getting my PokerStars account to $200 before I moved on to UB. Sure it's a week later on my goal but I exceeded the goal so that is just fine. I will only play on PokerStars when invited to freerolls from Railbird. Once I build each of the 4 other sites to $200 each than I'll build each one to $500, next to $1,000. One day I will have $10k in each one.
I can hardly wait for my home game tomorrow night. Last week we got back into it after a long break while I coached football. The football season is over so I can get back into poker. I took 3rd place in the first game and I had the flu. I'm healthy and ready this week.

Need a New Mouse

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:23:00 +0000

So today I played in a tourney with 533 players playing pot limit hold'em 6 seated. I was playing well early on but lost a big hand right up to where we were about to get into the money. So I decided just to sit back play tight with only coming into the pot with good hands and make the money. I make in the money of course, now I want to move up or bust out of course. But the problem starts, my mouse will not let me drag to raise, so I'm stuck playing limit poker in pot limit which is not good at all of course. Some how playing with no ability to raise more than the blind I make it all the way to 7th place, one spot off of making the final table.

I've been playing good poker these last couple weeks. Online I've been doing well in large tournaments on PokerStars, finishing in the money in sit'n'go's on UltimateBet, and last week during my poker tourney's at home while we watched the WSOP Main Event pay-per view I took 3rd place in all 3 games we played.

I just plan to keep playing patient aggressive poker and continue to build my bankrolls up. I need to get on Fulltilt and play and double my bankroll there. I have the least amount of money there and haven't had great luck there at all. It's really the only site I seem to lose money at. I really want to change that. It seems when I get up there I lose it all back and then some. I'm going to just play sit'n'go's there for a while instead of playing the 180 man tourney's there and see how I do.

Playing Good Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:44:00 +0000

The last couple of weeks I've been playing some good poker, making the right bets, laying down hands knowing I'm beat. I've cashed in the money in 5 large online field tournaments. And I won my last Thursday night poker game hands down. In a field of 1500 I made it to 17th, twice I've made it into the top 150 players with the field being over 2500 players, and made it to the last 2 tables in the stud high/low game with a field over 500 players. Stud is not my game but I like to play HORSE so I will play Stud and Omha tourney's once and a while for practice. I do well at Razz tourney's and will play those more often than the stud and Omha games because I usually always place in the money in Razz.
I've been playing really focused poker and playing more aggressive. I would say smart aggressive. Really playing position poker and letting hands go if I know I'm beat. The biggest mistake I see right now is players can't let that ace go, especially big ace after the flop. I don't understand why players will call off all there chips with big slick or worse ace five. I won a hnad with pocket two's recently because I knew the player had big slick. He bet all the way to the river with big slick. Sometimes after the turn you have to say I'm beat, especially against a solid player. Every large field online tournament I play in half the field is gone in the first hour, it never fails. The first hour in a tourament you should really play solid hands, wait for loose players to make mistakes and grab theri chips. If you get knocked out because of some donkey suck-out, let it go, that's poker. You want the donkey's in the game, they bring money into the game and most of the time they lose. Yes they may win a game here or there but 98% of the time they are losing. Play solid poker and win! When the donkey beats you say good game, remember what he did so you get him next time.

It's Been a While

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:50:00 +0000

Well it's been some time since I've posted. So far I have had a very busy summer. When you are father of 5 you can get busy. To be honest I don't think things will slow down for me until the end of fall. I'm trying to have my Thursday night games this month after almost skipping all of June. Soon I start coaching football and I will be really busy. I will be a head coach after years of being an assistant head coach. I'm pretty exciting running my own offense, I've always been the defensive coach, so no worries there, my team will shut down teams like before. If you loved the 85 Bears defensive that is what I run, attacking at all times and you never know where that extra guy is coming from. It's very hard for parks to stop, unless you practice against it.
As for poker, I haven't played that much. I think 3 home games in the last 2 months. As for online, I haven't had much time other than to play a sit'n'go here and there. On Bodog I've been averaging 2nd place everytime I sit at the table. I think maybe 2 times out of maybe 15 tourney's I haven't finished in the money. But on any other site I play on I haven't finished in the money at any of them. Bad beat after bad beat, I kid you not. I always have had the best hand preflop and post flop only for some crazy to call me to the river and hit their magic card or they go all-in after the flop on some crazy draw and they hit, especially on Full Tilt. I know that's just part of the game but it's frustrating when you run into that guy willing to gamble all his chips away and they get lucky. That's poker.
As for my quest of 10k on each of the five sites I play on it's going to be a while before I get back on the poker run since I'm so busy. That's another reason why I'm trying to not just play Bodog, even though I've been doing very well there I want to keep my accounts balanced. Right now I have the most money on Poker Stars, second is UB, 3rd is now Bodog, then Absolute, and last Fulltilt which everytime I win money in a big tourney 180+ players, I lose it all playing sit-n-go's there. Maybe I just play 180+ player tourneys there and forget the sit-n-go's.

Jack 2 Suited Once Again Gets Me

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:34:00 +0000

Well I didn't win the Absolute Dream on Sunday. To start off the field wasn't as big as I thought it would be, only 575 players. Of course the bad news was only one person was going to walk away a winner, I would have loved to see 2 spots but there would have had to be a field of thousand players for that. Early on I got be cards, pocket aces, pocket kings, and pocket queens. The problem is in this tournament where you have a mix of players who got in for free and others who dropped $200 to play the play was very tight at the beginning. So my big hands all won but very little when the blinds are $10/$20 to $20/$40. I pretty much stayed up for the game for the first couple hours, never in the top chip leaders but I was holding my own winning small pots. The one thing was I had a guy at my table who won a freeroll to get in but had no idea what he was playing for. Early on he won a huge hand and moved into the top 5 chip leaders and now he was playing every hand. The problem was he was half way across the table from me so I couldn't attack him. He kept building his chips with loose crazy calls, even calling pre-flop all-in's with hands like 5 6 and getting lucky to win. Now of course he doubled me up a couple of times which was very nice, just wish I was closer to him to win more chips from him. So we get down to about the last 150 players and my worse nightmare comes true for any poker player. The chip leader of the tournament gets seated at my table and right to my left. Now anything I do has to go by him. And this guy just wasn't the chip leader for a little bit but the chip leader for a couple of hours. So I knew this was going to be tough.
Now the hand I hate the most. I'm on the button and everyone folds to me. I have ace 9 so I go all-in thinking as long as the chip leader doesn't have a hand I can pick up the blinds and ante. The blinds are $500/$1,000 with $100 ante. The chip leader folds and the big blind who if calls my all in is down to less than $2k in chips. This is another reason I made the all-in move. He calls and to my surprise he turns ove Jack 2 suited. Now I have never made a move out of line at least that I had to show down. The flop comes up 5 7 of hearts and a nine of diamonds. So I make top pair with the ace kicker. The turn brings another diamond, I don't even remember the card but I knew the river would bring another diamond to give this moron a flush. Sure enough the next diamond hits the board and I'm out in 109th place.
I've had Jack 2 suited beat me three times in major tournaments, twice online and one live one. All 3 times the player had no business calling my raises or all-in's. All 3 times I put those players in jeopardy of either getting knocked out or crippled. Just killer, my achilles heal Jack 2 suited. Oh well that's poker. Until the next tourney.

Sunday I Have One Shot

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 02:12:00 +0000

Well I haven't been blogged in a while and for good reason, I haven't been playing poker. In fact for two weeks I haven't played a hand of poker until tonight. I took 2nd in an online sit-n-go, so I still have it.
About 2 weeks ago I was off from work, doing the Daddy Daycare thing. I wasn't going to waste any money playing poker online while watching the kids so I played some freerolls, just for fun goofing off. I think freerolls are a waste of time if you have money to play with online, but they are good for players who are learning or have no money to play with. It's funny most of my Thursday night guys are playing these freerolls all the time now, I guess they have went broke. Anyways, so I'm playing freerolls and losing quickly of course, but I play this Absolute Dreams tourney. In the first 10 minutes I get dealt pocket kings and pocket aces and no have about 10,000 in chips and the chip leader. You know these freerolls people going all-in preflop with junk. Problem is they ran into me with those big cards which held up. From there I just played solid poker. When we got down to the final 3 tables with only 2 spots advancing to the Absolute Dreams Tourney on the 3rd of June. I would have really thought things would tighten up with 3 tables but no, before I knew it I was at the final table. I was maybe 7th in chips at this point. Once again thinking things would tighten up but the chip leader was knocking one guy out after another and I managed to win some hands to move up to 3rd in chips myself. But it didn't matter because the chip leader was working the table and before I knew it I took 2nd place.
So Sunday is my chance to go Pro!! Right now 470 players are entered in the $200 buy-in tourney. I got in for free. If I win this Absolute sponsors me at the WSOP Main Event, the Aruba Event, I think some WPT events, as well as the sites $150k Saturday tournament each week. This is my chance, my one shot, at least for now to become a professional player.

I've been so busy with family stuff and work I've had no time to really practice, but I've been reading and watching poker and I feel fresh and ready for this one.

I'll make a post of how I did once the tourney is over with.

Drinking and Poker Can Work

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sat, 05 May 2007 13:15:00 +0000

I was surprised we only had 11 players for the first game with the Jackpot Bounty at $170, but the weather was great last night so I do understand. I had a happy hour that I spent about 45 mins. before my poker game. I had one and half long island ice tea's so I had a little buzz going into the game. Roo had the Bounty on his head and really early on in the game he took down a lot of chips. The action was fast, loose, and furious, with me playing aggressive. I won my first hand but lost a second, then a third. I went all in with King Ten with about $125 in chips with the blinds being at $20/$40. Micah had limped in and I wanted to be heads up with him and I knew the blinds would fold if they didn't have a hand. Sure enough they folded and Micah calls with Jack Ten. A Ten hits the flop and then Dan calls for the Jack on the river and it hits, I was mad at Dan for not even being in the hand and calling cards, oh well. The thing is I was relaxed and believe it or not I was focused with having a little buzz. With me out the final table was set and it even went fast to the final five players at the table. Beth would go out in 5th and Wayne would be the bubble boy taking 4th place, not bad from coming back from $95 in chips early in the game. So the final 3 were Dan, Heshima, and Roo. Dan would go out in 3rd and Heshima and Roo battled for about 30 minutes heads up. In the end Roo would win the game, his second win of the year but of course taking down a huge Jackpot Bounty walking away with a cool $250! Not bad for $13 investment.

The second game Heshima would end up having the Bounty on his head. Could he win the $9 Jackpot Bounty? LOL! Not between the Hart's. Beth would end up taking Heshima out. So the Jackpot once again starts over at $9. Let's see if it can get over $200. Wayne would go out in 3rd place, but I should mention some crazy hands that took place up until this point. At one point in the game JD limped into the pot, Roo went all in, Scott went all in, Beth went all in, both Heshima and I in the blinds prayed for aces but both folded. JD went all in. JD held pocket Kings, Roo Jack Seven suited, wrong time to bluff, but he did just win $250. Scott had pocket Aces, and Beth pocket Queens. Beth would hit the turn to trip up and win this huge pot. Scott would take the side pot since he had more chips than Beth. JD lost twice tonight with pocket Kings. Wayne would later hit quad nines on the flop against Beth, he would also make a bigger full house on the river against Beth. But in the end it would be Beth taking out Wayne finishing in 3rd place. Beth had a huge chip against Pacman(me of course) heads up, and in Pacman style I would chomp away at her little by little until she only had $20 more than me in chips. With Beth first to act she went all in with pocket Eights I looked down at pocket Jacks, they held up and Beth was down to her last $20 and I won the next hand and the game. Beth had a great game and with her knocking out at 5 of the 9 people at the table. I just knocked out one player and during the whole game I would just win little pots which kept me second in chips for most the whole tourament. My reads were right on all night and played really solid poker. Normally I don't drink when I play poker, and most of my players don't drink either, a couple drink beer but it's rare to have a drunk at my game. But maybe one drink won't hurt, a little relaxing and for me I focused really well on my table. We will see.

Saturday was not the results I wanted

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:37:00 +0000

Well I had my 3rd Annual Hart Invitational Poker Tournament on Saturday. I had a great turn out of 26 players with the weather in the 70's here in Mpls. I was surprised. So we had 3 Bounty Seats each worth $40 on their heads. First place would win $420 and 6th would get their $40 buy-in back. Plus if a Bounty won the game with would walk out with an additional $170 so won of them could walk out with $600.
I started off with a bang almost doubling up the first hand of the game. I'm in the big blind with ace three suited diamonds. four people limp into the pot and I'm happy to see the flop and it comes up all diamonds!!! The whistles are going off in my head and just wondering how much money I can win being the first hand. I check when Alex who is to my left bets a $100, the blinds are $10/$20 starting. I'm like yes, Micah, a lose crazy player calls the other 2 fold and I smooth call. The turn brings an 8 of spades, harmless. I check, Alex bets another $100 and Micah calls. Enough with Micah in the hand I think because he is a lose cannon, I want him out so I raise it to $400. Of course Alex calls so I think flush or a king or queen since both are out on the flop but are diamonds, Micah folds. The river is a blank 2 of hearts, yes, nothing can beat my hand I have the stone cold nuts. Now the key is how much can I get from Alex? I go all in and he is out of there. Most of my regulars know I'm a solid selective aggressive player so the all in he would lay down. We started with $1,500 in chips so I throw out my $500 chip and hope for a call or by a mircle all in. He calls! Yes! He turns over nine seven of diamonds. Funny thing is today online I take out a guy holding that same hand he hits the flush on the flop I trip on the flop but hit the river with another jack to make quads. The only difference I raised preflop and the bozo should have never called with nine seven suited when he had no chips invested in the pot, took him out of course.
So then the table has 3 more flushes in a row, amazing, and people say it only happens online, bs. But none of the player got the pull down of chips I did. I'm the chip leader and becuase of my image I rake some more uncontested pots and have control over the table, it's a beatiful thing. Then the worst happens the tables get unbalanced and I just won a hand so I have to move, my house rule, winner's of the most recent hand always move. I sit down next to Denny which is a blessing and a curse. First off is one of the two big stacks at the table, he has more than I do and sitting to my right. One at least I get to act after him and he shakes like a leaf when he has a big hand, so there is the blessing. I sit down win the first hand and bully a couple hands stealing some blinds using my stack and image, it's great when you have this image when you have a lot of chips because people have to respect your play. So when you have the chips you can bluff at them and people will lay hands down to you. Things are going good but now the curse Denny's hands are shaking a lot and I have to lay down some hands I would have loved to play but I know I'm beat everytime. Sure enough he is getting pocket kings, aces, it's crazy. The bad thing is others are not paying attention to this and are calling his pre-flop raises and losing tons of chips to him, making him more of a threat to me later on in the game. So for the next hour so I held my own keeping pretty much a good amount of my chips and still one of the top 5 chips leaders in the tourney. The biggest problem is that 3 of us are at one table. Nona becomes the overall chip leader by taking out my wife the returning champion and a Bounty and then she takes out Brian who was the out first year's champion. Now she is dangerous, Nona plays a lot of online poker, she is a housewife so when her husband, one of my best friends comes home from work she gets online to plays a lot of heads up matches and sit-n-go tourney's. She is good, I had been taking chips from her up until this point but now I won't have the edge over her.
This is when things go bad for me. I lose a big hand when I flop a queen high straight having the bottom piece of it. Denny is in the hand but his hands didn't shake preflop, no raise. Nona bets $100, Denny raises to $300, no shake, I call, Nona folds. Then the worse thing happens an ace hits the turn and I know Denny has the frickin king, I know it. He bets $300 I call, the river is a blank he bets $500 I call and he turns over king queen. I look at a couple of things here, I could have lost a lot more chips. If I would have went all in after the flop Denny would have called with his Queens and king kicker with the draw. Maybe I could have laid down on the river but Denny didn't raise preflop, so he could of had 2 pair so I had pot odds to call even though my gut told me he had the king, he made it cheap. I still had plenty of chips but it's going to hurt more. We are down to the final two tables and the remaining players from table number 3 are dividing into the open spots at tables 1 and 2. Sure enough the chip leader from table 3 draws are table so 4 out of the 5 big stacks are at this table, not good. A new player to my game for the first time, I don't know a thing about him except he is a new guy at my company. He has more chips than me too, so I don't like that either. He sits back for a while and steals a pot from Nona, or Nona just didn't have anything and laid the hand down. So here it is I'm the big blind Jason, the new guy is on the button. He raises 3 times the the big and I look down at ace queen, great I call! The flop is huge party poker ace king queen BINGO! I check he bets $300 and I reraise to $800, he than says if you have me beat that's poker and goes all-in, I have to call right? Can anyone lay this down to a guy you have never played a hand with, haven't scene his hole cards yet at the table? I call he shows ace king, my nightmare and they hold and I'm out in 11th place.

As the rest of the tourney goes, Nona ends up knocking out her husband and takes Jason out who is one of the remaining 2 bounties at the final table. She ends up tiring out, 2 babies would tire and one out and it's 12:30 at night she takes 3rd place which paid $150 so not bad taking out 2 bounties and 3rd place. I really think she would have won the tournament he she didn't mentally and pyshcially tire out. So the last reamining Bounty Stephen was heads up against a guy named Dan, not a frequent player in my tournaments but makes an appearance once and a while. Dan took Nona out so he has a commanding chip lead over Stephen. But Stephen doubles up twice and now could get the chip lead if he plays smart. He had been playing super tight all the way to heads up and I mean super tight. But he is tired and sure enough he loses and he walks out with $230 versus $600. I would have figured a way to wake up. So I have a new champion with Dan but that poker money won't probably go back into my regular Thursday night game like Stephen's money will. At least we have a Jackpot Bounty on Thursday worth $170, I'll probably get about 18 players showing up this week to play for a chance to get that Bounty Seat.

The Jackpot Bounty Is Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:48:00 +0000

Well last night was my Thursday Night Poker game. My first game had 17 players all either there to win the Bounty or keep it alive for my 3rd Annual Hart Invitational. I had a lot riding on this since I didn't want anyone to win it before the Hart Invitational. I have about 20 players showing up right now but I knew if the Jackpot Bounty was alive for next Saturday I could maybe see a field of 30 players.
The first game Stephen had the Bounty on his head and he was at my table to my left a seat over. So I thought at least I have a chance to get him out. However, he started off on fire and became an early chip leader at our table. I had won one hand early on and never even saw another ace, face card without a 3 or 4 unsuited, no suited connectors, one gapped suited cards, nothing. I was felted and won that hand, felted again and won that hand. I mad the final table LOL! Of course I was out first when I was in the big blind first hand. Wayne the small blind raised enough knowing I would go all in. He held Ace Jack, I held Ace Five suited, believe or not I had a flush draw after the flop but luck was not there. The good news was Stephen got knocked out in 3rd place keeping the Jacpot Bounty alive and Wayne did up winning the game.
The second game of the night Jeremy would end up having the Bounty on his head. He was at the other table so I had no way of knocking him out until the final table. I had pretty much control of my table early on and held the chip lead until tables combined. Jeremy came and sat to my left with the chip lead, way more than my chip lead. However, I was second in chips and really felt I was the only one good enough to take him out. Stephen helped cripple the wild card at the table JD, when he bluffed a big pot with Two Seven offsuit against him. It was a great play, Stephen had been playing really tight during both games laying down some huge hands so he had the image all set. Of course he showed the bluff when JD laid down the winning hand. So now I had Stephen to help me take down Jeremy who had a huge chip lead. I would and Stephen would chip away at Jeremy. I would take the lead, Stephen would take the lead but we never gave the chip lead back to Jeremy. I ended knocking him out in 3rd place so next Saturday there will be another $145 alive for the Hart Invitational. I would end up battling Stephen heads up but I came away with the victory which was nice and a good confidence builder going into the Hart Invitational. I could walk away with over $500 with a win next week.

Taking a Break Can Be Helpful

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 04:42:00 +0000

Well a week ago starting with my Thursday Night Home Game I hit a losing streak and it went for the whole weekend. So what's the best thing to do? Take a break, I took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off. I went into my next Thursday Night Home Game fresh and ready to play. The first game I slid into second place and the next I finished in the money taking 4th. Then online every tourney I played in I finished in the money. So my advice when you hit that bad run just take a break, just get away from the game, watch a movie, read a book, or go excercise, you know we all sit at the tables for hours so a little walk couldn't hurt anyone.

Even a 9 Year Old Can Win at Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:25:00 +0000

First off before I go any further I don't think kids should gamble. I myself have told my kids they shouldn't gamble or make bets. My son Billy watches me play cards a lot, online and in my home games. Once and a while there was a site I played poker and they had other casino games such as roulette and when I wanted a break from poker I would let him pick the numbers or red black. We had a lot of fun on that site, but they are gone like many that don't operate in the U.S.
My friends will even play for fun with my son when they get knocked out of the game. But he not allowed to play for money. My friends respect my wishes of course. I've told Billy he can't play for money until he has a real job with a paycheck, something to lose. I feel some of these young kids(18 to 20 year olds) playing online or at the casino shouldn't be playing with their parents money, college funds. If they have a real job or had a real job and won a big tournament I'm fine with that. But I do know some young guys using their parents credit card to play poker when they should be using the money only for an emergency. That's my rant.
So to the story. Last night I just sat down on Fulltilt to play a $2 tourney, I don't think I played a hand yet but one guy was knocked out. My phone rings and a friend needs to get picked up at the airport. So Billy and Stephinie are the only one's home with me, and we are babysitting Alexander(my grandson). So I let Billy play, I've taught Stephinie, Billy, and Sabrina all to play Hold'em. Billy has watched me play countless hours. Once again the great thing about online I can stay home and play, also why I have a home game every week instead of going to the cardroom 30 minutes away. I love my kids. And they have reaped the rewards of me winning like movies, dinner's, vacations, and special treats, so they don't mind I play and really like it when I play big games.
So I go pick up my friend and drop her off at her son's. So I'm driving home and thinking where did the little guy place. I come in the door and ask him and he took 3rd place. I give him a high five and a way to go! Now he wanted to play another $2 tourney and I told him no of course. But I was very proud of him taking 3rd place and he told me all about the game.
All the poker guys say he will be a world champion someday. My hope is first he play football in the NFL and then poker.

Never Chase a Bonus When There is a Time Limit

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:42:00 +0000

Well I made a mistake in bankroll management last week. About two weeks ago Fulltilt sent me an e-mail stating they would give me a $50 bonus however I had until April 1st to clear it. Now the thing I like about Fulltilt is they release the bonus $5 at a time which is nice, but the time limit thing sucks. So right away I clear $5. Now I'm playing no limit hold'em .05/.10 blinds which I shouldn't have been doing with a $50 bankroll there. I should have had at least $100 if not $200 to be playing at that limit, but there is no other option on Fulltilt. So Saturday I was close releasing another $5 with April 1st being the closeout. So I played late into the night with no luck and ended only with $10 in my account at 3 in the morning. So I went to bed thinking if I play a tournament when I wake up and win it it I could still clear it, I was so close. When I woke I played a tournament and placed 3rd so I went back to play some more cash no-limit. I was back to $10 and looked to see how close I was to the bonus. But I didn't see there was a time as well as date. I only had until 8:30 the morning of the 1st. So now I'm down to my last $10 bucks on Fulltilt.
So my plan of turning $50 on five sites into $10k on each wasn't looking good on Fulltilt. So my first lesson don't chase a bonus on a limited bankroll, it's not worth it.
Next thing I decided was since I have over $150 on PokerStars and Ultimatebet that I should get AbsolutePoker and Bodog up to the same amount as well. I would also go broke on Fulltilt or build my bankroll back up.
So with my $10 on Fulltilt I would either win or leave the site for good. I played 4 sit'n'go's yesterday and I placed in the money all four times building my bankroll back up to $25. I took two 3rd places, a 2nd place, and a 1st place. So not bad, I was playing $2.00 sit-n-go's.
So tonight I will go back to Fulltilt and do the same. Maybe I can get back to $50 tonight, that would be nice.

Your Wife is Your Best Friend Except at Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:12:00 +0000

Well last night was Thursday Night Poker at the Hart's. Our first game we had 12 players and little Billy picked me for the Bounty for the 3th time in a row. I made the final table but I would end up losing to my wife. First off she takes most of my chips when it's folded around to me and I have Jack Queen suited I raise and she goes all in with ace 7. The ace holds up. Next hand I have ace 7 and it's folded to me again so I raise again and she goes all in which puts me all in now. She has Jack Queen, she hits the Queen and and I'm out.

The next game I make it to the final table and she takes me out again. This time it's folded to me and I raise with King Queen and she goes all in, we both have the same amount of chips. She has pocket jacks and ends up with a straight. Just not me night, at least not against my wife.

As for online play I've had a good week at the cash games but in tourney's I haven't any wins and only a couple of money finishes, so I'm about even for the week online. It's going to rain all weekend so I should get some good online play in this weekend, let's hope.

Finally Got off the Losing Sessions at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:54:00 +0000

Well last night was Poker Night at the Hart's. I had been wanting to play in my home game for a week since my last bad performance. The first game I was one of the first people out however I knew I was on my game, just ran into bigger hands and was able to get away from them. When I did have to move all-in it was with Ace Queen in the big blind. After my wife called and was all-in the button was getting the right money to call with 8 9 and hit his 9's on the flop but he had to dance around both low and high straights to take us both out and he did. Scott has been running hot lately and he ended up winning the game.

The second game I had the Bounty on me for the third time in a row. Maybe three times a charm, at least that's what they say. At my table I was on fire taking down pot after pot. When we made the final table I was looking good but Scott and Markin were looking better. Between the 2 of them they had knocked out 3 players at their table when we combined tables to make the final 8. Our whole table of 5 players joined their remaining 3. Everyone was pretty much after Scott, he should have had the Bounty on his head. Markin was gathering chips and I was running cold on cards so I just sat back and waited for the game to come back to me. Soon Scott was out and now we all attacked Markin. Markin is a great Omaha cash player, makes a lot of money at that game, but he seems pretty loose aggressive at poker and a lot of guys at my game are tight players. I'm tight aggressive myself, but very aggressive when I'm in the pot so players back down with marginal hands against me, which works in my favor. We end up grabbing chips off of Markin, Joel, Wayne, Heshima, and myself all take turns grabbing chips from him. In the end he busts out in fourth with no money to show for his big stack early on, and I mean it was huge, he had us out gunned big time. Wayne ended up in 3rd when I knocked him out, he was just too short stacked with the blinds at $200/$400 and he only had another $75 on top of his big blind.
So Heshima and myself were heads up. Heshima and myself have been in more heads up matches than anyone else in our home game. Heshima's game has really improved back in December and him and I had some good battles back in December and Early January. However, niether of us had been doing that well this year so it was nice to see him heads up. Hopefully this will continue some more this spring and summer. Heshima had the chip lead but that changed, and we went back and fourth changing chip leads a couple of times, neither of us giving way. I finally had him all in and I had a good chip lead but he river'd the flush on me. I still can't believe he called my raise with Jack two offsuit, but now I know for next time he is calling any raise with a face card and will raise with any face. Paid a little more attention than our last heads up matches, really because I usually won or they were over quickly. This was a battle of going back and fourth. Heshima did win the game in the end. But I was very happy with my performance, I made a couple of grat lay downs pre-flop which got me in the spot to win. And if Heshima didn't get lucky with the flush I would have won the game, that's poker. But I'm back to my old self now and can't wait until next week.

My Home Game is Killing Me

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:50:00 +0000

Thursday night was probably my worst performance in my young poker career. I was felted both games. I hate being felted. The first game I played a little too tight, made the final table but took 5th when I should have probably made 3rd. The second game was worse I was out in 9th place I played way too loosy goosy, not my style and it wasn't loose aggressive, it was here take my chips loose. I sat there in disgust with myself the rest of the night and didn't sleep well.
I have been playing well online though. Even this morning before work I played some no-limit cash and made some money. My bankroll is up online and I have made more than I've lost in my home game. For my Tournament of Champions and Player of the Year Board I'm 6th. Last year I was in first and second all year for the Player of the Year. Next week I'm going to win my home game and get back to being on top of the leader board.

Slid into 3rd being Patient

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:49:00 +0000

Well last night on my quest to turn $50 into $10k I decided to play a $4.40 180 player tournament on Pokerstars last night. I had built my Pokerstars account up to $63 playing $.01/.02 no-limit cash so I thought I could risk it and play a tournament. This tournament only pays the final 2 tables so I knew it would be tough getting down to the final 18 players. I figure I would at least need $15k in chips to make it there.
The tournament started off bad for me early when I got pocket kings, I raised pre-flop and the big blind called, I bet every stage and he called all the way down and he hits his straight on the river. He called 3 times the big blind raise with a six and a three in his hand and held on to the river to hit his one card. So I'm down to my last $300 or so in chips, I'm mad but I cool down quick and wait patient for a hand I can go all-in on now. I hit it and double up. Now I think if I can do it again I'll be back to normal and I do it. Now I'm not doing this with crazy hands but solid play, that's my game.
We get down to about the last 30 or so players and I'm still in it the problem is I really haven't increased my chips I've been surviving staying at about $1,500 chips this whole time. I won some small pots to stay in but no big pots at all. I really haven't had any cards to push. I'm thinking I need to start getting some cards or I'm not making the 18. Well sure enough as time goes by I start winning some bigger hands and now I'm in the top 10 in chips and I never even had to risk the all-in move. So now we are down to the wire but I'm confident I will make the final 2 tables and be in the money. After a long and slow process we get down to the final 18, however I've slipped out of the top 10 and really in the bottom of the pool. And now the problem is 11 through 18 pay the same. Can I slip into the final table where the real money is?
I play the short stack and win some hands, hang around and now we are down to the final 12 players. Now playing 6 player no-limit poker for the last month comes into play and helps me out and I make the FINAL TABLE! Yes, I'm the short stack at the table but I make it, I'm happy. I'll find my hand and go with it. The chip leader is to my right 1 seat away, he now has 3 times the amount of chips anyone has at the table. Earlier when we were at a table he had more than double so it was looking good for him. Before I know it 2 guys are all-in and mr. chip leader calls them. One guy has Ace King, the other pocket Kings, and the chip leader pocket Queens. I'm thinking I'll at least move up another spot. but the leader hits trip Queens, they are both out and now I'm up to 7th.
I actually take down a couple of pots and I've put myself 5th in chips. The chip leader has more chips than all of us combined and players start thinking they are playing for second place, which I think is wrong because no one player even has enough chips to challenge for second. The chip leader takes out another player and then another. I'm in the top 5, man if I could do cartwheels I would have. Now the chip leader did get lucky a couple of times by hitting the river card, some loose play on his part. I decide to take advantage of this and start hitting some hands and I start taking down some pots. And before I now it I'm in the final three with a good shot to take second place.
The three of us go back and fourth for a while and the blinds even get up to $1,000/$2,000. The key hand that changes the game is when the big stack battles the other guy when the flop hits jack jack two. They go all the way to the river betting back and fourth and on the river the other guy is all-in, I hope mr. big stack has the jack, but no it's the other guy. Mr. big stack called bets all the way to the river with pocket 8's, he didn't believe he had a jack, and expensive not believe. Now the other guy had a little under $100k. We play some more but now I'm really out gunned playing against 2 big stacks. I do end up taking 3rd place but I'm very happy because I could have really been out at 18 or at 9 when I did make the final table, but patience really paid off this game. I took down $85, not bad for a $4 dollar investment. I've almost trippled my bankroll on Pokerstars, not a bad night.

The $10k Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:40:00 +0000

10k Challenge
Well I just went back to Pokerstars with $50. At the same time a guy on Cardplayer posted a challenge starting with $50 to make it to $10k. So I have taken him up on the challenge as others have as well. Of course I don't put the time he does but I'm going to use some of his methods and see how I do.

I'm going to try to do it on 5 sites: Ultimatebet(My Favorite Site), Fulltilt(I just went back to them since they support U.S. Players and I joined the PPA because of them. If you don't belong I suggest you join, it's the only way we will be heard.), PokerStars(Where I took up the Challenge), Bodog(Not my favorite site but I have money there too), & Absolute(Not a favorite but they give me money to play there plus I do like their sit-n-go's). So can I do it? Turn $50 into $10k on each site.

See I like variety so I can't just play on one site. Plus if I have a bad run on a site I can take a breack from it and play on another.

I'm Back

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:38:00 +0000

Afer a long absence from here, I've been blogging on myspace plus I've had a busy winter I've decided to start here agains. Especially because I'm going to try and turn $50 on PokerStars into $10K.

Tales of an Poker Grinder

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:57:00 +0000

Tales of an Poker Grinder

Well After a month off from writing I've decided I'm going to do a much better job at putting updates on this site as well as ITH.

Thursday will be my next game here at the house and I plan to put the hammer down and win all the games that night. I think I backed off playing aggressive because I have seen some players scared off from my game plus I'm not getting invited to there home games which I seem to find about later. I guess they want an edge against their own friends and not have me come in and win. I don't think I'm that good, not even close, I have so much to learn but I've been more of a student of the game than most of my friends and I think the most important thing is I have patience.

Tales of an Poker Grinder

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Wed, 10 May 2006 00:51:00 +0000

Tales of an Poker Grinder

The wife has been winning

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:43:00 +0000

Well my wife has been the big winner this month at least in live games. Besides winning my annual Championship she also took down a jackpot bounty on my Thursday night game for $174. So fro the month she has won over $600! While I've been still taking 2nd's and 3rd's. She has played some great aggressive poker.

Saturday Come and Gone

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:25:00 +0000

Well, I didn't win the Championship but the trophy stays in the Family! My wife won the championship. She didn't feel she was going to win or play well so she actually concentrated on the game and didn't play as loose as she normaly does. So she ended up winning the game!

As for me I played my best poker ever. I only had three pocket pairs before making the final table, 4's, 6's, & 8's. The 4's I had to lay down after the flop when I was raised off of them when the flop didn't hit me at all. The 6's I bluffed like the flop helped me, I did have a straight possibility but lucky for me know one called. The 8's I won pre-flop after I just bluffed someone off 8's the hand before, the person that laid down the 8's to me laid another hand down to me.

I'll continue later, have to go pick up the champ.

Tales of an Poker Grinder

noreply@blogger.com (Harthon) — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:24:00 +0000

Tales of an Poker Grinder