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Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
would you try to fill a gutshot straight flush draw?

That depends on the amount of remaining flush outs, the amount of draws left, and what else can be done with the unfitting flush card.

In fact, I would even break a regular dealt flush in the beginning if it contained a Fantasyland card, simply because that card is important at the top and there will be plenty of opportunities to fill up that flush with 12 cards still to draw. We're talking about a likelihood upwards of 90% at that point. I have gone into more detail about what to do with both flush draws and made flushes in the initial deal here, and in the subsequent posts.

Starting at around the 2nd last draw, I would bail with an open-ended straight flush draw too if I had the opportunity to make a regular flush, possibly sooner if many outs are dead.

Getting back to the original question... yes, in most cases, I think I would keep that SF gutshot draw around for at least another draw or two if I get it during the initial deal. At a later point, most likely not.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Well, the payout is hardly worth mentioning, especially after that unlucky OFC session tonight where I ended up about 170 uBTC down, but shipping my first 12-Game is something to be celebrated either way, even if it might as well have been a play money tournament.

Nice Badeucy hand here. This game is a split pot version of Badugi and 2-7 Triple Draw. Note that even in the Badugi part of the pot (for which only four of your five cards are used, obviously), aces are always high, unlike in regular Badugi. This means that we had the 2nd best possible hand in both directions.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Badacey now. Similar to the other version, but using A-5 rules for the lowball part (the same as in Razz), and aces are low in the Badugi part again too.

The good thing about this game is that you now get to draw an extra card for free if you are drawing to a good Badugi.

And when you get it, you can build a good pot and keep drawing for the lowball hand for free.

Nice pot.


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VCSE007
Joined: 14.05.2011

Nice game!


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Super Moderator
VorpalF2F
Joined: 02.09.2010

Originally posted by VCSE007
Nice game!

Agreed.
I love the badeucy and badacey games — and those were superb hands!


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I love the badeucy and badacey games

They are my favorites, I wish Pokerstars would introduce them, but I see little hope.

Even on the Bitcoin website, there are not many opportunities to play these games, but I appreciate that they are at least offered.

That site is really soldiering on, continuing to offer all those tournament series that no one seems to play for years.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
would you try to fill a gutshot straight flush draw?

Just because the topic has been brought up recently, I received this hand the other night:

Not a tough decision at all in this case, since there is no made flush to break. Maybe some people would like to put the Queen on top to improve Fantasyland chances, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially not with the straight flush possibilities.

My decisions continued to be easy, because this was the first additional heart I collected in that hand. Sure, the T♥: may or may not still be out there, but I think it is time to lock up the flush at that point - and hope to make that one-outer on top to get a pair of Kings for Fantasyland.

Ah well... a pretty inconclusive hand, really, with only two points lost. The T♥: was indeed still out there, and my opponent had some use for it too. It would have been a +5 point hand for me otherwise, so it won him 7 points.

OFC is going quite well in general recently, with the usual swings, of course. We may be able to hit another milestone soon, however, if things continue in the right direction. I also managed to pick up 30 uBTC through a mincash in a HORSE freeroll - one of those non-negligible ones that do have decent payouts.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

New Bankroll Milestone

The above are µBTC, the amount below that are player points. 2,047.46 µBTC should be about $76.52 right now, for reference.

This year's OFC profit on that site so far should be around 1,532 µBTC (≈$57.26).

And yes, I reverted to calling those millionths of a Bitcoin (or "Microbits") µBTC again instead of uBTC, because apparently, UBTC with a capital U can also mean "United Bitcoin", which seems to be something else entirely, so it can lead to confusion. I know next to nothing about cryptos, so please bear with me...


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VorpalF2F
Joined: 02.09.2010

Nice results!


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Thank you. :f_drink: I hope I can present some graphs soon, but my stats spreadsheet is still a little prone to crashing.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Narrowly missing two straight flushes in this Fantasyland hand... Oh well, still a decent payout.

Unfortunately, it was more like the exception to the rule today. Very little went right.

Check out the following hand, though. Another outstanding Fantasyland deal. You can always repeat FL with quads in the back, but sometimes, you can break them for something even better.

This time, there was no need - we have enough flush cards to safely put our quads in the back and go for a flush and trips on top. It hardly gets any better!

And yet, we just barely got anything out of it...

Such an amazing hand, and yet only tiny winnings... not to mention that our opponent repeats Fantasyland again too. How did that go?

Trip aces, scooping... and there we are with big losses all of a sudden, after getting what should have been a contender for Hand of the Month. It was illustrative for how things went today.

That's OFC, it is cruel. And today, it was cruel enough to give me my biggest losing day of the year, with almost 400 points lost. That was almost 20% of my bankroll, mind you. In fact, those losses were big enough to immediately give me losing stats in the 1 points=1µBTC games. Yesterday, I was so far ahead that it was hard to imagine that anything could go wrong. As it turned out, it can go that wrong on a single day, and I didn't even play such long sessions.

What can you do? Nothing but tightly fastening your seat belts if you want to play OFC, it is a very harsh mistress. I have had some good streaks, now I have a bad one, and I shouldn't be blinded by either.

Anything good to report today? Well, I finally learned how to play trip Queens, in another game:

It was against a beginner-level bot on Chess.com, not a real game - though the bot is based on a real streamer.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

It didn't take long for me to lose all those chips... but it didn't take long to regain them either. As of now, all losses have been recouped, I made about 430 µBTC today and yesterday. As I said, it's a very swingy game to say the least.

Let's take a look at a few hands from today, to demonstrate that it pays to pay attention in that game. Check out this situation:

It doesn't look too good for us, we were hoping to hit both a King and a Queen in order to unlock Fantasyland and collect some points in the top row. We only got the King, and if we were playing on autopilot, it would be quite tempting to put the King in the middle, where we were drawing for it, and put the next highest card on top.

But pay attention: What does our opponent have? Notice that we are beat in the middle even if we have our Kings, but what about the top row?

That's right, we can put the King there, and simply make a small pair in the middle. Our middle hand loses anyway, so it doesn't matter if we have Kings or 3's there. Our top row, however, would now win against our opponent's hand there. Remember that there is a 3 points bonus payment for "scooping", if you win all three lines against your opponent. Now that we won a line ourselves, we no longer have to pay that, so we only lose 3 instead of 8 points in this hand. Those saved points add up over time!

Let's have another example. Here, we are in a much better spot, and we are once again hoping to hit two draws to get us to Fantasyland:

Only an ace, but no Queen. Once again, pay attention to our opponent's hand: They have nothing but K-high in the middle, we don't even need to improve there to beat them. Without being able to support Queens on top, our pair of aces would be pretty pointless in the middle, so let's do this instead:

By putting our ace on top instead of in the middle, where we were originally drawing for it, we are able to win this line too, and therefore scoop our opponent, collecting those 3 bonus points. We therefore now win 12 instead of 7 points.

Again, these points add up over time, it is important to get them. Don't just play on autopilot, think of the purpose behind your moves!


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

...and sometimes, of course, you just need those clutch moments:

We were desperately looking for another heart to complete our flush in the back, without which our entire hand would collapse. Too bad, we didn't get it... :f_frown: ...but wait!

We have an ace, and a better kicker in the back - we can simply make another pair of aces there, and the hand will be valid! Sure, it's no flush, but it's a ticket to Fantasyland, and that's all we need. Meanwhile, our opponent missed their draws and fouled, which is even better for us. It means 14 points for us in this hand, and if I remember correctly, the following Fantasyland deals went very well too.

Very clutch...


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

That's fun - the opponent to my left must have thought we were playing the 2-7 version again. We were not. As you may have expected, this player quickly caught on, however.

There were no games running for me yesterday, and I took a break the day before. It's nice to see that there seem to be tables to be had just about every day if you don't mind keeping the lobby open in the background. Also, we just passed 2K µBTC in profit for the year on that site, which is another milestone... but let's not get too excited yet, we know how quickly things can change in this game, don't we?

Still no graphs. I should probably redesign my spreadsheets to rely more on manual inputs rather than those fancy cross-references between multiple files, which appear to make them very prone to crashing.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

.

Well, let's see. :f_grin: I am interested in how those graphs will look like too, I feel that they tell you more than just plain numbers. The information I get from this could also be an important factor when it comes to deciding which games to play in the near future, including next year.

Speaking of which, I might be back for a session on Pokerstars tonight, I am already starting to miss "conventional" poker a little... and you know you have strayed off quite a bit from the mainstream when you start considering games like Badugi and Stud Hi-Lo conventional. :f_ugly:

I should also have some time to work on those spreadsheets. Not sure yet if I should collect those graphs and stats right away, or if I should wait until the end of the month, it's just a few days left, after all.

Also on the subject of spreadsheets, I got into the habit of playing some offline backgammon games while I was waiting for opponents at OFC tables, maybe I could get back to tracking those games again too, I still have that old spreadsheet prepared.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

.

Sipping on some hot cocoa right now. It's true that I haven't posted some mixed drinks in a while...

In the meantime, let's have another look at the Drambuie coffee I first made last year.

8 oz (roughly 225 ml) of coffee and 2 oz (roughly 55 ml) of Drambuie, topped with whipped cream.

Nice twist on the classic Irish coffee, with a bit more sweetness to it.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

Blooper of the Day

What the bejiminy was going on here? It's bad enough that my opponent hit their backdoor draws at the last moment to share a visit to Fantasyland with me - I think I even got scooped in the process - but then I looked back up at the cards I just placed, and found this:

What in the world is the 8♠: doing in the middle row? Why isn't it making a full house in the back? Absolutely no excuse for that, it must have been a bad misclick. Maybe my finger slipped.

I had to make a screenshot of the results from the replayer, because I was still eating myself alive when it was time for showdown. Still being a bit under shock from that mistake, I thought for sure that I had fouled, but as it turned out, it wasn't quite as bad:

Trips at the bottom still make a valid hand, but it was quite a waste nonetheless. I actually would have scooped with that full house, which would have earned me 11 points more (6 for the full house, 2 for winning that line instead of losing it, and 3 bonus points for the scoop). Note that this happened at the highest stakes that I am currently comfortable playing, making this even worse.

Lesson learned, I guess. Always check your hands one more time before confirming them - especially when 2 AM is approaching. :f_ugly:

While there were ups and downs, I had a pretty tough time at that table in general tonight, resulting in a session that won't look too good in my graphs.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

I've had a look through my spreadsheet. It is clear that some sections were more of a concept at that point, rather than something that is fully implemented. It will take a while to sift through all of that, and while I wanted to cut down on cross-references to improve performance, some small sections are probably better left with those references intact. I should un-automate (is that a thing?) some of the more complicated sheets, though, and maybe cut a few altogether. I made a backup of the old one, so I can afford to experiment a little more. This might be a bigger project, though...

Another note regarding OFC traffic... I have mentioned before that it is not too bad by my standards, because you can find a table on most nights for a while, but it does have some problems, of course. This is what the lobby looked like yesterday evening, which is not an unusual sight recently:

Eight tables (the red ones are mine), but none of them running. What is going on?

Well, in this typical situation, we have one "high roller" sitting down at the 25 and 50 point cost tables, hoping in vain for an opponent. My own bankroll would have been barely enough for one minimum buy-in at the 25er, for reference.

At the 10 point cost table, there is another player who shows up a little more often, and also rarely finds players, though he did have a game running yesterday. With a minimum buy-in and max loss per round at 1K µBTC, I could technically afford it, but I don't like putting almost half of my hard earned bankroll on the line in a high variance game, and neither should anyone else. Especially because that regular appears to be relatively skilled, from what I could see during my short rail yesterday.

The 1 and 2 point cost tables are mine, where I am waiting for opponents. But what about that other 1er and the 0.25er, why am I not sitting down there? Well, those belong to one certain opponent, who likes to sit down at all kinds of Chinese poker tables of those limits across the room, like a dog marking its territory, but never actually plays. Very rarely did I get him to play a single round when I was desperate enough to sit down at his tables, but he always stops after that one, whether he wins, loses or breaks even. It's pointless to even try, and other players seem to have caught on too, because they also like to avoid his tables. Really not sure what he is even trying to do.

And then there is another player at the other 0.25er table who is simply avoiding me. :f_ugly: Sometimes he sits down at a 1er, but same situation. He leaves when I join, and sits down at different tables. If another player joins, he stays. I know that he has had a few bad losing sessions against me, but he really shouldn't open tables if he wants to pick and choose his opponents, I believe.

So that's the player pool, or lack thereof. Several tables started, but rarely any tables running. The good news is that there are some regulars at my limits who are willing to play, and if you leave your tables open throughout the evening, they will find you. Sometimes they find each other, if you are not there.

But yes, at the end of the day, you do usually find a few opponents every evening, which could not necessarily be said about some non-Hold'em games on Pokerstars.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

While this has nothing to do with poker, or mixed drinks (well, not directly...), I always like to share whenever any of my personal chapters come to an end, and it looks like we can put this firefighting gig into the books now.

Many of you may not have heard much about it because I got started before I created this blog. I joined in 2019 when I saw a poster about the local fire department while having lunch in town. Being unemployed at that time, I always welcomed the opportunity for meaningful activities and things to improve my CV with. I did my training in November that year, and I was eager to gain some experience and add more courses for more specific tasks in the future, continuing to improve and to provide an important service to the community.

What happened then? You can probably already guess by the timeline: Covid happened. Lockdowns in 2020 put things to a complete halt in that year, undoing most of my training progress. By the time I was able to sporadically join again in the following year, I had forgotten most of what I had learned in that course, which was supposed to be only a first step anyway. Let's just say that my vaccination status didn't help matters either that year, and leave it at that - because I remember my training well enough to know that I can't disclose any internal matters.

Long story short, bad work shifts last year added to the challenge of making it to any assignments and training sessions, and when I finally got some breathing room after picking up a new job early this year, I figured that I should also either start making an effort to get through my material and become an active member again, or wrap things up and call it quits. Go hard or go home. But we all know what can happen to good intentions... I ended up putting this decision off again and again whenever the topic came to mind. There were so many other things to do.

A few weeks ago, it was finally time to make a decision, and it was to drop out for now rather than continue to be a member in name only. Maybe I will be back eventually... but only if I am certain that I can pull through in the long run, in which case it would probably also be wise to re-do my training from scratch.

I always like to evaluate these things after they are done, and I'm afraid that I have to consider this chapter largely a failure. Sure, I completed my training course in which not everyone succeeded, I even overcame my bad vertigo and entered a third story window by ladder, both in and out (and getting back out on the ladder is the worst part), I participated in several dozens of training sessions throughout the years... but not much else, right? No proper assignments and all. I kind of feel like I let my community down, like they needed more from me after paying for my training. It was with a heavy heart that I arrived one more time to clear my locker today.

Still, if I am not willing to give it my all, which would by now require me to completely start over, it's better not to do it at all, I believe. I am grateful to have had that opportunity. Let's do better from now on - we can start with poker.


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Harrier88
Joined: 01.05.2012

That's one mighty uncooperative spreadsheet I have here...

Stats coming up as soon as I manage to tame it, it might take another day.

Late night update: Forget about it, that spreadsheet works about as well as my car right now. I can rarely even get it to load, and when I do, it always crashes as soon as I try to update the first cell.

I know that I shouldn't have made the spreadsheet so complicated in the first place, but it's hard to simplify it when every single change causes a crash.

Maybe it's time to give LibreOffice a try?


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