Tag: poker

Bubble Boy

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

Ok…the recap from Friday afternoon’s home tournament is finally here. I know, I know, I’ve been slacking!

I helped my brother set up his poker table in the living room and brought in some chairs. The tournament was supposed to start at 2:00, but at 1:45 they were still calling people to play. We ended up with 15 guys, which turned out to be a good number after it was all said and done. My brother announced that we’d be paying the top three places, $100, $30, and $20. WHAT?!?! I couldn’t believe it. What ever happened to the standard 50% for first place? And why aren’t the top 4 getting paid with 15 people? Hey, whatever I guess, it’s not my tournament, even though I had to come up with chip distributions and help set everything up.

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Hold'Em Poker

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Hold 'Em PokerAt about $20, this book is no where near being worth the purchase. I’ve only read one other Sklansky book, so I’m not an expert on his writing, but Hold’Em Poker comes up short in value. I own Small Stakes Hold ’em: Winning Big With Expert Play, which is a much better book. Everything that is discussed in HP is in SSH and with 10 times the amount of detail.

While reading through all 108 pages of HP, I didn’t really learn anything I hadn’t read in SSH. The concepts are all the same. Since HP was one of the first books written on Texas Hold’em the information is also a bit outdated for today’s game. If I hadn’t read SSH first, I think I would have been confused by some of the advice Skansky gives in HP. He discusses a lot of great information, but a reader is left without the proper details. There are a few hand examples to illustrate some of the concepts, but not nearly enough.

Where the book is useful is in the sense of a refresher course. While reading it, I was reminded of a few things I had forgotten from SSH. Also, since the book is so short (I already mentioned the whopping 108 pages) you can easily take it with you anywhere.

In my opinion, if you are going to buy a book, spend the extra money and get SSH or even The Theory of Poker. I haven’t read TOP, also by Sklansky, but it’s the next one on my list after I review some of SSH.

If I had to grade Hold’Em Poker, I’d have to give it a C+.

Poker Holiday

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I’ve been able to play quite a bit online over the past couple of days, because there isn’t a whole lot else to do around here. I made over $400 yesterday in a couple of hours of play. In fact, I played for about a half hour yesterday morning and made nearly $200 playing two tables. I said before that I had not found the $2/4 bad beat jackpot tables on Party to be all that juicy. Well, I was wrong. They are very juicy, but so are the normal $2/4 tables. In fact, I think I’ve won more at the normal tables, but I have suffered quite a few bad beats on the jackpot tables. More than the odds say I should.

My brother is putting together a big tournament for around 2:00 today. Should be about 20 people he said. With a $10 buy-in, there’s not a whole lot at stake, but it should be interesting to see how all these young punks play. Hopefully I can stick to my game and place in the money. Look for a recap later.

Dealer Cheats

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Awhile back I wrote a post at my personal site about tipping dealers at the poker table. Yesterday, someone who claims to be a dealer in Reno posted a comment and basically said that the dealers will cheat and do what they can to get rid of players who do not tip. I really hope this guy/gal is in the minority, becauase that’s horrible for the poker world if this is standard practice.

Up a Notch

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In the last post I forgot to mention that I’ve made the move to $2/4. I think I did it the same day as the post about goals actually. After 1,000 hands I’m winning close to 4.5 BB/100 hands, which is consistent with my .5/1 and 1/2 play. I’ve been playing a bit at the bad beat jackpot hands (on Party Poker of course). I had heard this tables were extra juicy, but haven’t found that so far. In fact, the play is tighter pre-flop than I had seen at 1/2, but that doesn’t stop people from taking their shitty hands too far and paying me off. Of course they occassionally hit as you may have noticed from my last post, but it all adds up in favor of the better players.

I find it amazing how the cards can change so much. When I was playing .5/1, AK offsuit was one of my worst performing hands +/- money-wise and now it’s my best playing 1/2 and 2/4. aa is a close second, but is making the most per hand with qq being 2nd in that category. Go figure that those three hands have also held up the highest percentage of the time to win the pot. kk does come in 4th by percentage, but has taken some tough beats so it’s BB/hand isn’t all that great. It’s fun to look at all these meaningless stats using Poker Tracker.

Tomorrow I’ll be heading up north for the holiday weekend and I plan to visit St. Ignace for some live action on either Friday or Saturday night. I’ve played there a few times and the tables have been loose every time. It’ll be interesting to see how my SSH strategy holds up. The bankroll keeps increasing, but it sure would be nice to have a big increase from some casino play.

Just remember…”Fold’em more than you hold’em.”

What are the odds?

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Can I get a hand to hold up today?

Beat by a 2 outer on the river for a $60 pot.

Beat by a 2 outer on the river for a $40 pot.

Flop trips and get beat by a straight…three times.

Hit a straight on the turn and lose to a full house on the river.

Flop top pair and lose when the board pairs giving trips.

Lost a $100 pot with trips to a straight.

There are many more that I don’t care to remember. I have no idea how I still came out ahead for the night. It’s amazing I only lost $1 on the night.

I feel like a Pistons fan I’ve been beat so hard. Oh wait…I am a Pistons fan. I just wasn’t at the game.

It's Goal Time

Nick Momrik7 Comments

Since getting serious about my poker playing, the bankroll has been doing very well. It seems like yesterday, but it was almost two months ago that I took $130 profit from a year’s worth of playing at UB and added a $300 starting bankroll. Since then, I’ve taken the $300 out and now my bankroll is entirely composed of profits. It’s sitting at about $2,000. I figure it’s time to set some goals for the coming months.

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Redeposit Bonus

Aside Nick MomrikLeave a comment

When are Party Poker or Empire Poker going to have a redeposit bonus?!?! I’ve had an account at each site for over a month now and neither one has had a redeposit bonus. I’m ready for some bonus whoring dammit! Update: Party listened! Use deposit code RELOADNOV on a deposit between 11-19 and 11-22 and […]