Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Hey Harrier!
I can't wait to see some of the drinks.

Cheers,
VS

Sure enough, the start of a new blog calls for a "Welcome Drink".

Let's start with a nice and simple classic: the White Lady.

It is essentially a variation of the Sidecar cocktail, replacing the cognac with gin, and it has been around since at least the 1930's. It has a pretty mild citrusy taste, both sweet and sour. Many people may already have gin and lemon juice around, and triple sec is also a nice addition to any home bar if you're into mixing, it can be used in a lot of drinks.

You will need:
40 ml of gin
30 ml of triple sec
20 ml of lemon juice

Preparing it is simple if you own a shaker. Just shake the ingredients with some ice and strain it into a cocktail glass. It should hold around 150 ml, most martini glasses should do fine.

Poker and Drinks - what’s not to like - subbed🤗

Hey Harrier,

Nice idea and good start to the cocktail menu Subbed

Gl gl! I´m sure you will crush the mixed games.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Now that the drinks are out of the way, let's talk a bit about my poker plans. As I said, Badugi is still considered my main game, and I've been grinding the daily $4.40 PL PKO fairly consistently for a ROI of around 150% for a few years, so this one is not going to be cut any time soon. There have always been occasional downswings, but overall, the results are there.

Only one tournament per day is too little even for me, though, so I've been constantly on the lookout for more games to grind on the side. More often than not, this has resulted in costly misadventures, but recently, I have added two more tournaments that might just stick, which are the $7.50 PL Five Card Draw and the $7.50 2-7 Triple Draw. The buy-ins are quite high compared to my current "main game", so it comes with quite a bit of risk, but so far, there have been some promising results, including two 1st places in the 5CD, a 2nd place in the 2-7 TD, and a couple of final tables in both. We don't have a decent sample yet, though, so this could go anywhere. Anyone can catch a hot streak once in a while.

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to mixed games is that the usual practice of moving down/moving up doesn't apply here. There are only a few tournaments to find for any game, and you either play them, or you don't. There is no moving up or down, they just don't have that kind of selection of limits.

Last night went poorly, unfortunately. It's what I consider a "rock bottom" session, where I brick both the 5CD and 2-7 TD, and take a 2nd bullet in the Badugi without cashes or bounties to show. I never rebuy in any of the $7.50 tournaments and only take a maximum of one rebuy in the Badugi, so this is pretty much is bad as it can go in a session, results-wise.

The games showed promise, especially the 5CD, where I was on a solid course to the final table, but then ran into a drawn flush, followed by a long period of being absolutely card dead. My desperation shove from the SB with 77 eventually got called by BB drawing 4 to a King and hitting.

So last night was pretty unlucky, but I'm still up quite a bit for the month. I will probably do another full grind this evening, so let's see how this goes.

I played the 5-Card Draw $3.30 knockout yesterday.
If only it didn't start so late -- by the time it starts, I've been streaming for nearly 4 hours.

I'll have a look at the $7.50 versions.

I was surprised to hear that you play both the 5-Card Draw and the 2-7 SD at the same time.
I made some costly mistakes once mixing them up, so I've avoided that.

Go Go Go 🦅

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I was surprised to hear that you play both the 5-Card Draw and the 2-7 SD at the same time.
I made some costly mistakes once mixing them up, so I've avoided that.

So far, I have only caught myself selecting the wrong cards to discard a few times, but I have always managed to notice it in time.

If I ever get to streaming, I should definitely prepare some mocking "Wrong Game" jingle for those situations.

You could type Headlines on the Tables Maugris, in order to avoid mix ups. A lot of Streamers do it.

Originally posted by Harrier88
So far, I have only caught myself selecting the wrong cards to discard a few times, but I have always managed to notice it in time.

Assuming you noticed at all.
In my case, I saved a drawn straight to use as hand-of-the-day, and it wasn't until I went to post it that I realized it was in lowball. Ooops

Sometimes while streaming, I don't even stick around to see if I win or lose a hand.

Originally posted by deralte71
You could type Headlines on the Tables Maugris, in order to avoid mix ups. A lot of Streamers do it.

That's just it -- I do!

Well folks, I didn't really plan to do daily updates in here, but tonight's session was truly exceptional...

All three tournaments FT'd, and I managed to ship both the Five Card Draw and the 2-7 Triple Draw. Badugi finished 8th.

It is unlikely that I will ever get another session like this. Profit should have been somewhere around $200.

I saved a number of hands for potential discussions, but after those incredible results, I don't think there is much to say, really.

So I'll just leave you with the blooper of the day, from the 2-7 Triple Draw. I believe I misread one of the 2s to be a 3, but didn't realize it until after I stood pat the first time. I figured I had to stick with it then, instead of making a donky redraw.

beware the feral cow packs. they hunger.
PokerStars Limit Triple Draw ($6.69+$0.81) t80/t160 - 5 players

UTG: t2,650 (Hero)
CO: t4,350
Button: t440
SB: t3,040
BB: t3,540

Dealing Hands: (t120) (5 players)
Hero raises to t160, 3 folds, BB raises to t240, Hero calls t80

First Draw: (t520) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero stands,

BB checks, Hero bets t80, BB calls t80

Second Draw: (t680) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero stands,

BB checks, Hero bets t160, BB calls t160

Third Draw: (t1,000) (2 players)
BB discards 1, Hero stands,

BB checks, Hero bets t160, BB folds

Hero collected t1000

...and as it turned out, I got away with it in the end.

But this could have been a pretty embarrassing showdown, considering that there would have been little reason to snow with a hand like this in that situation.

I love it when that happens!

Well played!

Now if only I had the guts to do that when holding a full house!

For good measure, here is another hand from the final table of that tournament where I actually meant to bluff:

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars Limit Triple Draw ($6.69+$0.81) t1800/t3600 - 4 players

SB: t69,520
BB: t17,520
UTG: t38,360 (Hero)
Button: t24,600

Dealing Hands: (t2,700) (4 players)
Hero raises to t3600, Button calls t3600, 2 folds

First Draw: (t9,900) (2 players)
Hero discards 2, Button discards 2,
||
Hero checks, Button bets t1800, Hero calls t1800

Second Draw: (t13,500) (2 players)
Hero discards 2, Button discards 1,
||
Hero checks, Button bets t3600, Hero calls t3600

Third Draw: (t20,700) (2 players)
Hero discards 1, Button discards 1,
||
Hero bets t3600, Button folds

Hero collected t20700

Pretty loose calls by me until then, probably should have folded at one point. But after the final draw, I figured there was only one way left to win the hand.

Congrats Harrier, time for a party drink!

Originally posted by Harrier88
Pretty loose calls by me until then, probably should have folded at one point. But after the final draw, I figured there was only one way left to win the hand.

Oh the things you can get away with when you have the stack muscle to shove 'em around with

My work schedule is pretty busy these days, but at least it still allows me to always get back home in time for my sessions.

I bubbled the Badugi with no bounties (but also no regrets) yesterday, yet an 8th place for $24.50 in the Five Card Draw was enough to cover the session, even though the profit was modest, considering that it costs me close to $20 to enter all three tournaments. Tonight didn't go so well, with only a mincash and a small bounty in the Badugi.

It should be noted that the 5CD and 2-7 TD tournaments on Saturdays and Sundays are "Weekend Specials" for $11 each, inflating the buy-ins for my sessions even further. I have had good results a few times in these tournaments as well, though, and after my recent wins, I will have some cash to burn heading into the weekend anyway if things should go wrong.

Right now, I try not to focus too much on results alone in any case, my goal should be to find winning strategies in the new tournaments I have added. Once I have found them, the results will be there eventually, no matter what. So I'm willing to accept any losses as a "tuition fee".

Even results-wise, though, I have very little reason to complain recently, so let's just keep going.

Hey man, will be reading for the drinks part, since I don't know much about the other type of poker.
I can tell you are around my age and you sound like a chill dude, take care and good luck

Thank you, stevegold. And you are correct, I actually am a pretty chill dude IRL.

The fatigue from my relatively busy work schedule seems to have finally taken its toll on me in tonight's session, along with a general sleep deficit, possibly. I quickly realized that I wasn't on my A-game and decided to unregister from the 2-7 Triple Draw after busting in the Badugi and Five Card Draw, minutes before it started. Apart from saving a $7.50 buy-in, it also allowed me to unwind a bit, which was needed.

At least I will have Sunday off, allowing me to regain some hours of sleep, among other things. Hopefully, I will be in better shape tomorrow evening, otherwise, it might make sense to skip some of the $11 weekend specials.

About the drinks, I'm happy to announce that my homemade version of Allspice Dram is finally ready, making another fine addition to my home bar.

For those who are unfamiliar, it is a rather obscure drink, originally from Jamaica, which seems almost impossible to get due to its rarity, especially over here in Europe - and even in America, it should be tough to find. There are plenty of instructions online for DIY versions, though, so I decided to give it a shot myself. The recipe I used can be found over here, in case you would like to try it yourself, but there are others available. You will need allspice berries, rum, a stick of cinnamon and some brown sugar.

It has a rather pleasant spicy and sweet taste, but I thought the aftertaste was very sugary. Maybe the recipe calls a bit too much sugar, but for the first try, I decided to follow it to the letter - I can always make changes to it the next time. And maybe this is what it's supposed to taste like, I wouldn't know.

I do have some cocktail recipes in mind involving this drink, I hope I'll be able to get to them this weekend.

Hi Harrier,

love the idea of your blog with mixed games and mixed drinks, awesome mate

And pretty sick to start the blog with 3 FTs and 2 Wins. Congrats!

cheers