Hosting Tournaments

This year, the host of each tournament will receive 1/2 off their entry, no matter the buy-in. Along with encouraging different people to host, we hope that the less cost alleviates some of the headaches with hosting large numbers of people.

If anybody is interested in hosting any tournament, please contact me or post at this site. There are variety of events to host from $20 to $80.

We hope to have a doubleheader tournament the weekend of the 14th. A stud event followed by a NL Hold em event.

Our first major tournament of the year is looking to be the weekend of the 28th, this will be a $40 buy-in.

Poker Etiquette

Hello, all,

This subject is one I'm probably the most guilty of any of us. Basically being a good sport, congratulating people at the end of a hand, etc., etc.

Yes it sucks to take a horrendous beat when someone had no business being in the pot with the cards he had, but as is always said, that's poker. As I said, I'm probably the most guilty of criticizing someone's else play at the end of a hand when I'm steaming from a beat. If any of you know me, you know just by looking at me that I'm probably not a person to strike up a conversation with after losing any pot, much less the pot that knocks me out of the game.

To put bad beats in some perspective: How many of you play craps? Well, on the come out roll, how many times do you see a 7 or 11, or, a 2, 3, or 12 rolled? Obviously you win money on the 7/11 and lose on the 2/3/12. These happen more than often as anyone will tell you, and sometimes, 2 -3 times consecutively. Well the chance of rolling a 7 or 11 on the come out is 22%, nearly the same odds as KK cracking AA when all the money goes in preflop. Rolling a 2/3/12 on the come out, or craps, is an even bigger dog at only 11%, or about the same odds as someone hitting their kicker with AJ vs your AK, when the flop comes out with an A high on the board.

I know those statistics won't console anybody who busts out, but I hope that they are able to remember them, myself foremost included, when they suffer their next bad beat and glare across the table at their opponent, or criticize their play.

Corey Eslinger

Heads Up Tournament

A member of the group brought up the idea of having a Heads-up Tournament. 8, 16, or 32 players would be the optimum number, we could work with other numbers, however, if need be (12 or 24 would end up being a 3 person round robin style event for 1st place)

At this point, seeds would have to be randomly drawn to match players. Buy-in for the inaugural event would be between $10 ond $20 most likely since it's a new format. With increased interest the buy-in could be higher.

Comments welcome, guys,

Corey

Local Cash Tournaments

These just posted on fmpoker.com:

$100 buy-in Tournament in Casselton the weekend of the 21st in January, and a $150 buy-in for the "Dead Money Open" at the M&J Saloon, in West Fargo the weekend of the 29th in January.

After the 1st of the year, we will look at getting satellites together for both of these events. A few $10, $15, 10 person winner take all to a $40 to $50 buy-in paying every 3-5 spots. Everything is open for suggestions, and a host is always welcome.

Talk to you all soon,

Corey

Playing Short Stack

Hey, everybody, I thought I'd regularly post my thoughts on certain situations that arise playing poker. Start a discussion and just overall get people thinking about their play and improve everybody's.

First topic I thought to talk about is playing on the short stack. Short-stacked is most often described as having only 10 times the amount of the Big Blind. At this amount your choices are very limited with what you do before the flop. I have seen some limp in, others make a standard raise, and then some raise to an amount that is over 1/2 your stack. The one option I would advise never do is make a raise preflop that commits more than 1/3 of your chips to the pot. If you are reraised, you almost assuredly have to call. Limping in can be a viable option with a decent hand, in decent position. But this should only be used against few opponents going to the flop, because of the possibility of someone hitting a good flop and you getting 2nd best.

The best option, I believe, anytime you are around 7-5 times the BB is to go all-in. The earlier in position you make this move, the more respect for a good hand you typically will receive, however, you also should have a better hand because of the possibility of a big hand waiting in the many hands behind you. The closer you get to the button, if no one has called the BB, or no one has raised, you can push all-in with nearly any hand that you think would have 2 live cards to see the flop. Any Ace in your hand is a good option, but so is any K sometimes. Going all-in with A3, sometimes is less advisable than K8 or some such, or even 67. The reason being, you are most likely going to be called by someone with an A in there hand, and if you have only a 3 as a kicker, you are down to that card alone. And 89s or the like is almost just as good as seeing a KQ in this situation. The reason being, if someone's going to be calling you, they probably are going to have a decent hand, probably an A, or a pair. Obviously the better hand you have the better, but you shouls avoid waiting past the next set of blinds and being only 3-4x the BB. With this small of a stack you can't even put enough pressure on the BB to fold usually.

One sidebar to this type of play. Late in a tournament, near or in the money, I would find it wholly acceptable to try to move up a spot or 2 to get more money instead of making a stand to try to build chips. The sacrifice is usually the fact that you are giving up the chance to win the tournament unless you go on an incredible run of cards and double up 2 or 3 times in short succession.

Anyways, more thoughts on this subject, I'm sure.

Corey

Paulson Chips

A light post here; I am looking at updating my personal chip set. Haven't decided whether to purchase just 100 for use by myself, or spend more on a 300 chip set that I could use for league play as well. Purchasing a 300 chip set, I would be selling my current 650 chip tri-color chip set.

Fivestardeal.com is typically the website I have gone to for all of the supplies for our game. The 100 chip set, 200 chip set, and 300 chip set are seen on those links.

Any comments on your chip set? Your feelings on playing with a good set of chips vs. playing with a mediocre set and whether it affects your feeling about the game you play in.

Upcoming Schedule

Currently, we have nothing scheduled for league. A Tenative date of January 14th had been set for a $20 Stud/$20 NLHE Tournament. Stud game looking to start around 2-4 with the NLHE following by 3 hrs.
Points will be on the line for both of these events. We are looking at capping the NL events at 18 players total. This has never been an issue, but for the $20 events there is a greater chance of large numbers showing up without being able to handle it. We are discussing options, including a 2nd chance event of 8-10 players that will start 1 to 1 and a half hours after the night's main event starts. This will allow those who didn't get in to play, and those who busted out to play again.

All-Time Winners

1. Jason Kramer
2. Jason Hubert
3. Greg Joubert
4. Marvin Holm
5. Mike Pacat
6. Pat Anderson
7. Roger Tangen
8. Bill Burgess
9. Thom Hunter
10. Paul Muchow
11. Craig Peterson
12. Mitch Danielson
13. Corey Eslinger
14. Greg Olson
15. Steve Erickson
    

2005 Final Points Standings

Final Point Standings

1. Pat Anderson - 56.2
2. Paul Mucow - 48.4
3. Corey Eslinger - 46
4. Jason Hubert - 45
5. Greg Joubert - 40.2
6. Roger Tangen - 36
7. Jason Kramer - 34.2
8. Bill Burgess - 33.4
9. Ryan Hanson - 31.8
10. Marty Tallakson - 30
    

Winners for the Year

2005 Winners

1. Pat Anderson
2. Jason Hubert
3. Mike Pacat
4. Craig Peterson
5. Greg Joubert
6. Paul Muchow
7. Jason Kramer
8. Bill Burgess
9. Greg Olson
10. Marty Tallakson
    

Pictures

Lucas Roach's winning hand from August 2005. It was his first tournament with the group, and he outlasted 17 others to take it down.

Welcome!

Welcome, everybody! This is premiere post at Dirty River Poker. We will be updating this site regularly about our upcoming events.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome!