Northland Poker.com - The Upper Midwest's Poker Homepage

For Sale: One good website……

Jack — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:47:33 +0000

Hi all, sorry this site has been dormant for a while. Due to time constraints I just can’t keep up with it the way it should be. If anyone out there wants to take it over, make me an offer I can’t refuse and it’s all yours. I DO think a site like this has potential, I just don’t have the time to get it there. Thanks for visiting, and I hope to see you on the felt someday soon!

Good Luck,

Jack.

How to play this hand?

Steve — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:09:17 +0000

Well I have to say it has been a few weeks and I still have the HPT on my brain. I’m going through every hand wondering if I played them correct. I still feel I played to tight at the end. I do have a hand that has been running through my brain for awhile.

Blinds are 15000/30000 with a 3000 ante. 7 people are left in the tournament, one person away from my goal of TV. the man under the gun limps in and makes a production of the fact he is limping. At this point I’m putting him on a monster hand waiting for someone to raise. He has just between 250000 and 300,000 in chips left.

It is folded to me in the small blind, I have 8,9 of diamonds. A hand I like but and would raise with if he hadn’t limped. I just call the big blind, I have about 320,000 in chips left. Here is where it gets funny, the big blind raise 60,000. Now he could be raising because we both showed weakness. He has us both covered and was a more aggressive player. The first limper looks at me for a long time to see if I might push all in before he just again calls.

At this point, I can’t put the limper on a monster just calling there, and the big blind could really have any two cards just trying to bully us. I debate on shoving all in or folding. I don’t want to call cause I’m first to act and will have to make my action before everyone else and don’t want them to catch and call. There is already over 200,000 in the pot so pushing might steal the pot right there. But I’m very nervous of the limper. Does he have a small pocket pair, or a hand like mine. And can I get either or both to lay down there hand at this point? I decide to play for tv and I fold.

The flop comes 10,7, 3 with two hearts. I would have flopped the open ender and I would have shoved at this point. The big blind makes a small bet and the limper goes all in and is called instantly by the big blind. They turn over their cards. Big blind has AA he actually did wake up to a monster. The limper has 9,8 of hearts. He has a straight and a flush draw. The turn is a jack giving him the straight and the river a heart giving him the flush and crippling the big blind.

So after the flop, I wouldn’t have gotten either player off their hands but if I push per flop and the big blind calls which he obviously would. Does the limper fold or call? Did I miss an opportunity by playing it to safe or did I play it correct? I would love to hear some feedback.

The Run of a lifetime.

Steve — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 05:12:19 +0000

Sorry to Jack for not blogging in a long time. I have so many tournaments I could talk about cause I have been on a unbelievable streak. I have cashed in I believe 12 of the last 15 tournaments I have entered. Unfortunately I have only won 2. Both small events so nothing to spectacular, but lets say I’m on my ‘A’ game.

So this weekend I go to Shooting Star casino to play in the HPT event. Now, I want to mention that Shooting Star is having some dealer issues. I don’t really know any details, but a lot of their great dealers have quit or been fired recently. So, I was reluctant to go. Anyway, because of my cousin Joshua’s nagging about how great my tournament playing has been, I decide to drive up and play. My weekend started off bad when I miss the first qualifier because of a flooded road. But, that was the only bad part of my weekend. I got to the casino around three on Friday and by the time the 7 o’clock qualifier starts I’m ahead in blackjack enough to pay for my qualifier with a few hundred to spare.

The qualifier was actually uneventful. I was short stacked for awhile. Hit a couple of hands. Easily made it into the main event.

The main event was another story. I felt like I was on a roller coaster.

2 hours into play I had 4 times the chip-average only to fall back down within 5 hands. I had a streak of cards that were ok hands. AJ, 77, 55, A10. All of which i would raise and have someone go all in over the top of me. I didn’t want to make a big mistake so I laid all of these hands down to the all-in bets. I showed most of them to get respect for having OK hands and having the ability to lay them down. Finally, the 5thhand I get is AK and do my usual raise. At this point I’m visibly on tilt. So, of course the small blind wants to capitalize and moves all in. The big blind thinks for awhile and likewise, moves all in for a small raise. I have both covered and decide its time to gamble. I call and I’m surprised to see I’m a huge favorite as they hold A10 and AJ. I win the hand and take 2 players out. After that players stop stealing from me, although I played much fewer hands.

I did play one hand poorly on day one. I have JJ, someone in early position raises. The gentleman (and eventual HPT winner) sitting next to me calls. It was one of the first “calls” I had seen in a long time. It had become an all-in fest due to the blinds and antes. I also call with my JJ on the button and the blinds fold. There is around 60,000 in the pot. The flop comes J 5 2 rainbow. The first guy checks and the winner bets 48,000. We are 2 of the 3 big chip stacks at the table. I’m putting him on a monster like AA , KK, QQ. He starts talking, telling me how he knows I like to see flops with J10 and that I’m going to get myself in trouble with it. At this point, I don’t know if he has the over pair or under to that Jack and is maybe trying to get me off of my J if I hit it. I decide to push all in and hope he can’t lay down an over pair or that the original raiser was slow playing his over pair. They both fold. Yes, I overplayed my hand and could have probably gotten more chips had I called. But, I didn’t want to slow play my way into getting beat. If they had called with AA and hit I could have lived with that. But, if an Ace comes on the turn… I would have been sick if I just let him catch instead of just taking down a 100,000 pot.

The biggest hand for me all weekend is a hand I wasn’t in. Nobody was. It was the first hand deltto the TV six. We were all nervous, trying to figure out the cameras for our whole cards. I was the short stack at 190.000 and in the big blind. Play is folded to seat 6 who shows his cards to the camera and starts to reach into his pocket for a card protector. The dealer, Tim, mucks his cards. He cries out in protest that he was about to move all in. He asks for his cards back as they would have been on camera. The tournament director calmly say we don’t pull cards out of the muck. The button then moves all in and steals my blinds. This is where it hurt me. The button only had 210.000 in chips and seat 6 had 300,000. So, if seat six moves all in withhis 10 10 (which he shared once play was over) and the button calls with AK. If the tens hold I move up to 5thplaceand make and extra 1700 bucks. If he hits an ace or king, seat six is left with 90.000 and unable to take me out 2 hands later. I know Tim and he is my favorite dealer at Shooting Star, he had worked very long hours and was still smiling and happy, but I will say that one hurt, stung the rest of the night! It wasn’t his fault I got 6th.

I played great poker just made one huge mistake. I set my goal to be on tv, not to win the tournament. With 8 people left, I said I was making it to TV no matter what and I didn’t play a hand for almost 2 hrs. I had had a huge chip stack and instead of stealing blinds and keeping it. I was content with only stealing 2 blinds in 2 hours and letting myself get blinded down to nothing.

I should be happy, I accomplished a goal in my life, to play poker on TV. I set a goal for the tournament and I reached it. But now, I just regret what might have been. I hope I can contimue to play at a high level and someday get a chance like that again. Lesson learned, the next time I will be more willing to die in seventh with a chance at the big prize.

Overall it was a great weekend, I won 8,000 bucks and a lot of pride in my game. I got an experience of a lifetime. Thanks to Greg, Todd, Jen, Chris, Fred and everyone at the HPT. Your hard work really does change lives. That 8000 will help my family a lot. Thanks to all the dealer for their hard work. It was a well run tournament. Tim if you’re reading this you can make monthly payments to pay off the 1700 you owe me.

Online Poker is a Total Snore. Period.

Gina — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:38:04 +0000

Given the fact that online poker is available 24/7 from any location on earth, it stands to reason that more people have played poker online than have tried their hand at a live game. And the numbers don’t lie. Full Tilt and Poker Stars have millions of registered players, and online poker itself is a billion dollar industry worldwide.

Online poker. Someone tell me please, WHAT is the deal with online poker? I. Don’t. Get it.

Have I played online poker? Yes, but not much. There’s a reason for that. I don’t like it. It’s boring. I want to take a small nap just thinking about what it would be like to call online poker my job. I can’t imagine anything more tedious than trying to make a living playing poker online for 40 hours a week. Staring at a screen, watching betting patterns and calculating odds, developing carpal tunnel as your wrist clicks back and forth at the speed of light in order to keep up with all the games you’re playing at once…(Zzzzzz… Oh, I’m sorry, I must have nodded off.) Of course, many people I know feel differently. It comes as quite a surprise to people when they hear me say that I don’t play online. “Why not?” they ask. “It’s such easy money!” I beg to differ.

Here’s a shocker: I’m not the world’s greatest poker player. Yeah, I think I’m pretty good. I think it’s fair to say that I’m even better than average. But by far the weakest part of my game is the mathematical aspect of poker. I realize that the formula for calculating pot odds is relatively easy, but for some reason, my mind doesn’t wrap around the cards that way. I understand the basic concept, but when it comes right down to it, I make my decisions based on the player, and not necessarily the numbers. I can’t sit for hours in front of a computer screen and focus on some cartoon moniker’s betting patterns. Forget it. It may as well be a video game. And a pretty boring one, at that. I mean come on, there’s no catchy little Super Mario-type doot-doot-bleep song, and the cartoon guys don’t even move, much less fly or shoot fire-balls.

Another reason that I don’t care for online poker? Well, I’m just not that good at it. I try not to get myself involved in poker games where I’m the obvious underdog. I won’t sit at a table where the stacks are already 5 times the max buy-in, I don’t like playing when I’m tired or drugged up on allergy medicine, or at a table full of guys who treat every hand like penis-measuring contest. The strongest part of my game is reading people as opposed to betting patterns, and I play games where I can use that to my advantage. Unfortunately, online games do not fall into that category.

I play poker because I enjoy it, not to make millions of dollars. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because I find people interesting, and I’m pretty good at figuring out what they’re up to as far as poker goes. I like the social aspect of the game, chatting with people, and listening to their stories. Not only is that amusing to me, but I use all of the available information to make decisions during the game. THAT is my advantage. Take away the people, insert a cartoon moniker, and for me the game’s as good as gone.

Randoms….

Chris — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:58:43 +0000

Hey Northlanders! Just a couple of random thoughts from the table and from my drawing dead brain!

Thanks for all who made their way to Shooting Star. Nice turnout considering that the main drawing market (F-M) was going through the 6th biggest flood in recorded history! I saw some new faces too, which is always cool. I only had a chance to play live action for about 3 hours on Saturday and BOY WAS IT FUN!!! Why did God invent limit poker? To hear people say his name with DAMMIT!! Honestly. I played $3-20 with a kill, which was the biggest game going on Saturday afternoon. I bought in for $300 and within the first hour…I had AA twice….KK…once and QQ once. I had to rebuy. The second hour I had 9d5d in the big blind and flopped a flush and won a huge pot. Later I had 10-2 off in the big blind and turned a boat, for a huge pot. Both of those pots were family pots of $3 limps. The third hour I had QQ cracked…flopped set of 9’s that got cracked by runner runner and my top two pair sucked out on the river by a set of Kings! WHEEEEE. I hate limit poker. That is that.

If you are into cool rock music, and hey who isn’t? Check out a new band (atleast new to me) called Silversun Pickups. Todd Anderson from the HPT got me into them at a drunken night at his house. I think they have a very FOO FIGHTERS sound to them. It’s three guys and a girl from LA and they are the shizzzz. Look em up and thank me later.

Blackberry addiction is a problem that is tearing me apart. It’s time to get a new phone and I’m not sure if I can let the Curve go. I hate that they ram you with $30 a month just to have web access on the damm thing, but I love everythingthing else about it. I also have an old phone plan that gets me 3000 minutes (yes three thousand) for on $20. I call it the “Dude at the cell store can’t freakin believe I have that plan” plan. If I change my phone…the plan has to go. It’s sooo old that no other phones will work with it. So…if I want to upgrade my phone…I have to get a new plan too. I also love that BB has the laptop internet connect…but only use that when I travel for the Heartland Poker Tour.

Make sure you checkout the new Heartland Poker Tour podcast / radio show POT LUCK POKER. You can find it at heartlandpokertour.com Fred Bevill is the host and already has had Joe Cada and Vanessa Rousso on the show. You can be a part of the show as well, by calling 701.540.5545 and answer the question of the week or rant about whatever you want.

So there are some random thoughts. Hope you enjoy.