I’m not a gambler. I don’t like to risk more than I can afford. I don’t even like to risk money for entertainment. The skill element of poker is what keeps me interested. 99% of a casino floor is wasted on me. But the poker room draws me like a magnet.

Is it the social interaction? The constant psychological warfare? The easily quantifiable competition? Or the thrill of the gamble, regardless of stakes?

What is it about this game that makes you want to put it ahead of other, more important hobbies or activities? I’m a musician, and largely due to the time I’ve invested in poker, I haven’t played a show or written a song in almost 6 months. But I play poker at least once a week, more if you count online play.

I even face a constant, deeply tempting battle to place poker ahead of family. On the surface, this sickens me. Yet I continue to find myself trying to justify my way into another weekly game.

I will never let any hobby– poker, music, golf, anything– become a destructive force in my marriage… but I feel like I’ve flirted with just that with poker. I’ve slowed way down on the music, haven’t touched golf clubs in months… all to make room for poker. But I haven’t done enough adjusting of priorities to properly compensate the time drain on my most valuable of relationships.

The funny thing is, I look it over and I don’t see the solution as just simply ‘quitting poker’, or ‘cutting back on poker’. That’s attacking a symptom and ignoring the real problem. I can play the same amount of poker, even more perhaps, and maintain a thriving, deepening marriage relationship by adjusting the entirety of the priorities, and addressing the heart of the matter: how does my commitment to my hobbies communicate to my wife? or, more appropriately, what does it communicate? Too much time checking e-mail and watching TV can be just as destructive.

So I’m not quitting poker. I probably won’t even cut back all that much. But my priorities have to adjust. I will not let poker become a mistress.

So 2 weeks ago we had our practice tournament, in order to get the newer players used to how the game works. I, however, didn’t get to play, as I spent the evening in the E.R. with my son, who performed an impressive faceplant in the backyard which managed to jack up his bottom row of formerly perfect baby teeth. He’s fine now, but that meant by the next time I played live poker, it would have been a month since the last time.

So, Monday night, we kicked off the league in glorious fashion, as the Broncos/Ravens defensive tilt was on the tube and the cards were flying freely. I may or may not have chosen card decks with orange and blue backs as subtle support for the Broncos.

All in all, I ended up taking 5th place, which wasn’t bad. I went out on a ridiculous hand, losing to set over set (me with sevens, opponent with nines). I mean, I lost fair and square, and it wasn’t a bad beat at all… but I played it correctly, and had the other 3 involved also played it correctly, I would have won the hand. It went down like this:

Blinds - 100/200, 5 players remaining
SB: JB (chipleader)
BB: NA (second short stack)
UTG: HERO (short stacked, bubble just burst 2 hands ago)
UTG+1: BH
Button: BK (second in chips)

I’m dealt 77… short stacked, running up against our time limit (we have a time limit rule - long story). I figure now or never, this is likely the best hand I’ll see the rest of the night. I push, BH who has double what I have in chips, only calls, BK folds, JB calls, NA calls. I didn’t want to see a flop with a low-middle pair against 3 other hands, but oh well.

I think I hear angels singing as the flop comes down Q97 (rainbow). Now they’re betting into a sidepot, and BH instantly goes all in. I’m not afraid of a set from him now, because he would have checked it. JB instantly calls, which scares me. NA pushes all in for his remaining 400 or so chips, and JB calls that as well. So three of us are now all in, and BK is sitting back enjoying his instant jump to the top.

BH flips over KK. Not an unreasonable hand to play, but with the overpair, should have pushed right behind me to isolate me. JB had enough chips his calling range at that point was HUGE. So I’m feeling good about my sevens, NA flips over a drawing hand (I dont’ even remember the draw, I just know it was such a longshot that I’m amazed he ever put a single chip in on it), and then JB turns over 99, having hit a set over my set.

JB never would have called my all-in with BH going all in behind me… i don’t think. Maybe he would have due to the time and deep stack he was working from, but I should have been able to come away with a good sized stack after that, but the turn and river were bricks, and all three of us dropped in one single hand. So as you can see, I certainly didn’t suffer a bad beat, because JB got his money in good, and BH gave him the odds to do it. I never think much about how I could theoretically play a hand perfectly and have someone else’s mistake cost me. Now in that hand, there was nothing to play perfectly, it was push or fold in my opinion, and I made one move, all-in preflop, and I think it was the best move. I just got clobbered.

I still feel very good about the way I played over the course of the whole evening. If I could just learn to trust my reads against the more familiar players, I could probably save myself a few chips. NA had a few hands that I had a read on him, pegged him on a hand, just couldn’t act on it. Second-guessing yourself is dangerous.

It was good to sit and play again. If any of my few loyal readers are ever in the Portland/Vancouver area, let me know. We’ll throw together a game.

peace.
–j.

ps: i have an article brewing in my head on the online poker ban stuff, i hope to get it out in the next week or two.

barry greenstein is multi-tabling in REAL LIFE. at the WSOP.

the guy is just ridiculous. look over to the right, you’ll see some WSOP headlines from the PokerStars blog. check em out.

I’m ready for some more live game action, right here at the homestead. To that end, I’ve determined this the summer of George! George Washington, that is. $1 games… all summer. Or at least every other Sunday starting July 2. We’ll do $1 Turbo SNGs, $1 heads-up challenges, $1 cash games, whatever strikes our fancy. RSVP at HomePokerTour.com - linkylinky - it’s a nifty little site that will allow us to track and post all the results over the course of the Summer of George. You’ll have to register for the site, if you aren’t already. Once you register, you’ll automatically get a reminder email before each game.

The first game, July 2, will be right here at my place. We’ll do NL Hold Em Turbo SNGs… 500 chips to start, 15 minute blinds, winner takes all. We’ll also have a side table, ring game, and if there’s enough interest, Rebecca’s Heads-Up Challenge - I’ll stake my 6-year old daughter for $1, you put up $1, and get 250 chips to go heads up against Rebecca.

As always, RSVP as soon as you can so we can be sure there are enough seats.

We’ll see what happens… keep tuned for updates.

EDIT: out in 1401st place. too pissed off to describe the hand.

In other news, I’ve been kicking around a few things in my head, one of which is the implications of the Washington state online gambling law. Since ‘unenforceable’ and ‘impossible to prosecute’ are not valid reasons for breaking the law, I need to think hard before depositing anymore money online. I think the state is being absolutely ridiculous, and as in most cases should just leave us the heck alone… but disobeying the law is still not justifiable. I’ll post more on this later.

The other thing I’m kicking around is putting together some sort of poker league, that tracks results over a period of time. We’ll start in the fall, and I think in conjunction with Monday Night Football (of the ESPN variety) is probably the way to go. I’ll keep you posted of all the details.

In the meantime, wish me luck in the Pokerstars blogger-championship-tournament-wsop thingy. There are over 2000 players, and the prize structure is pretty weak. Unless, you know, you win FIRST and all. Then the prize structure rocks the hizouse. Since I’m rather inexperienced at navigating such a large field, I’m hoping to crack the top 50%… top 1,000 players, and I’m happy. If I get there, and have a better than average chipstack, then I’ll just shoot for top 500. If stars align and the cards hit just right and I don’t do anything too stupid and end up top 500 with a better than average stack… well, I guess then I’m shooting for the top. But chances are, this will all be moot by 3pm on Sunday. Either way, it will be a fun experiment.

Blew through half of my (admittedly miniscule) online bankroll this weekend. It got to a point where I was calling out the cards I didn’t want to see in hopes of keeping them from hitting, but knowing deep down they were going to hit. And hit they did. No less than 3 times did I fall to the dreaded 3-outer, as well as a couple 2-out specials to make my weekend fantastic.

Went to a game last night, $5 with rebuys. Whoa nelly. 26 players, a total 73 buy-ins… quite a prize pool. Of course, I didn’t get anywhere close. I didn’t make it to the first table combination. I had one rush of about 5 great hands, but other than that it was 2 hours of folding or getting hosed on the river, or just betting into someone who didn’t have a folding bone in his body. It left the poker player in me a little smarting, but I have to remember that cards don’t always fall, and I honestly don’t feel like I was beat by a particular player (this time) as much as just one freaking cold deck.

Looking forward to a week without money poker where I can find some ways to remember how to not play like a scared little girl.

Also, congrats to Brother Nick, who made it to heads up at last night’s game, and ended up chopping the pot for his first live tourney cash - a smooth $125. Great work dude. Too bad we weren’t heads up, cuz I can read you like a book.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

I am a Poker Blogger. It’s true. I blog about poker. I have a whole list of blogs that I read and enjoy, each for a different reason.

I’m not clamoring for linkbacks. I admire the community poker bloggers have developed, but all I’m here for is to put my stuff out there, and as way of introducing myself I’ll be registering for the Blogger Tournament on PokerStars. If others appreciate what I write here, great. If not, great. My self-worth is not based on the number of subscribers, which as of now stands at 1. (me!)

I’ve learned a ton from the blogging community. Heck, it was Wil Wheaton’s blog that re-introduced me to hold ‘em poker and ignited this little fire for poker. So if you ever read this, thanks Wil. The story goes further than that, but I’ll leave that for another entry.

I’ve learned that it’s possible to be a Christ-follower, husband, and father, and still enjoy poker.
I’ve learned that dropping the HAMMER is one of the finer pleasures in life.
I’ve learned that I have a long way to go to be the kind of writer that gets noticed in the poker world.
I’ve learned that you can be a well-known poker pro and not come off like a complete ass.
I’ve learned that sometimes you have to just buckle down and grind it out.
I’ve learned that some people have an amazing sense of humor.
I’ve learned that dedication to one’s passion is a rare quality.

There’s much more. I’m going to be slowly adding links to all the blogs I read to the “Links” page. It takes a lot of time, I recommend using Bloglines to aggregate all these things so you’re not clicking across one by one. Skim the ones that don’t interest you, if you must. I admit, I do that often.

How else would I get a peek into the lives of such a diverse group of people that have only the love for a game in common? I’ve felt guilty reading these things and feeling like I know these people, but doing so in complete anonymity. I guess that’s why I’m here, to allow that reciprocal peek into my life, for those who care to take it. I’m just a guy. I’m staring down the throat of my 30th birthday. I’m a pastor– I pretty much play around with guitars and amps for a living. I’m a musician, I write songs and play out in the local bars, clubs, and coffeehouses. I’m married to a woman who loves to play poker almost as much as I do. We are a perfect match. So perfect, that we’ve made 3 amazing kids. My 6-year old daughter has a mean heads-up NL game. For a 6 year old. My 4 year old daughter plays a very loose, maniac style, all-in-all-the-time game because she likes pushing her chips into the middle. My 18 month old son likes to try to eat the poker chips. And I am a slightly obsessive poker player. I play for the lowest limits possible, because that’s the responsible thing to do for my families finances. Sometimes that means play money only. I’m competitive enough, that I even enjoy the free play. I love to play poker. I started at LHE, and have been absorbing so much NL information over the past few months, that I’m starting to try to get a feel for other games, stud and omaha specifically.

Thanks for listening.

—

i will be brutally honest, i don’t want to do a bunch of posting about specific hands, for a couple reasons. one, if i give detail about how/why i played a hand, anyone reading here will know exactly how i play. not that i’m THAT serious about it all, but you gotta keep a little mystery, right? i don’t play casino poker much, so these home games are all i’ve got. the second reason, is that in the same vein as reason one, i don’t feel right about just calling out all my observations on other players. not only do i not want to give up someone else’s tell for their benefit, it also benefits me to keep quiet the things i’ve figured out on certain people.

so. that sounds so serious, doesn’t it, just for a home game? i’m really not as crazy as that. i will say this– the CdMPF (Cinco de Mayo Poker Fiesta… i’m tired of typing that out) established something of a table image for me. i played good solid poker. i only misplayed a couple hands, and only one of them required me to actually show my cards and admit to my misplay. i’m not sure how i feel about my current table image, but i’ll work on it.

i did a whole heckuvalot of folding for the first hour, including some aces with weak kickers, lots of suited cards, and a couple connectors. i only played pocket pairs, and even then very carefully. played a few hands out of the big blinds that gained me some chips, but mostly i watched the table play. finally, just before the tables combined, got into a hand with scott (last month’s winner), where i was playing A9h against his KQh. The flop and turn collectively brought 2 hearts, which gave us 4 to the flush. had he moved in on me at the turn, i would have likely bailed on the draw, because he also had top pair. the river brought the flush, his was king high, mine was the nuts. he moved in, of course i insta-called. this was the hand that set me up for the rest of the night.

i went back into turtle mode for a while, the tables combined, i watched the short stacks drop, lost some chips calling with my ace high when an ace came on the river to give me top pair, knowing my opponent probably had a Q to complete the straight. he actually had two, so i was beat at every step, and totally failed to read him properly. that was my last misstep of the night. from there, it was bully time. things tightened up, and there was some good play, had i screwed up at all i probably would have bled off my chips quickly and taken second, but as it was i took it down 5 hours after it started.

thanks to everyone that played, it really was a fun time. it would have been even had i not won… but i have to admit, it was nice to not just finally cash in a tourney, but to push hard and take it down.

stay tuned for details on the next game. we’re thinking about memorial day still…