Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

My first plan for the new homemade cream of coconut was a Swimming Pool, which is a cocktail I have seen quite a few variations of, so it wasn't all that easy to pick the right one. Another complication was that my hurricane glasses are quite big, so I had to adjust the measurements accordingly.

In the end, I settled for this version, which has already been adjusted for my 0.5 liter glasses:

3/4 oz or 42 ml white rum
3/4 oz or 42 ml vodka
3/4 oz or 42 ml coconut cream
3/4 oz or 42 ml cream
2 oz or 55 ml pineapple juice
and 1/4 oz or 15 ml blue curaçao

The original version was heavier on the rum, I believe, but since I didn't serve the drink for me anyway due to my aversion to pineapple juice, I decided to go for a more balanced version.

While some recipes tell you to simply shake all ingredients with crushed ice, the majority I found recommended to float the blue curaçao on top instead, so I went for this approach.

First, all the ingredients were put into a shaker with ice. Those are flakes of crushed ice in the picture below, not pieces of pineapple.

Then they were shaken and poured into a hurricane glass, together with the ice.

I went to float the blue curaçao. I believe the idea is to let it slowly settle down, similar to the grenadine in a Tequila Sunrise, but I still thought those 15 ml were a bit too little.

I ended up adding a little more by eyeballing it again, and then gave it a light stir. This is what it looked like when I served it. Unfortunately, the lighting is not great in that picture, but the drink has been consumed by now, can't take another one.

As for myself, I made me a Bushwacker following this recipe:

4 oz or 113 ml cream of coconut
4 oz or 113 ml milk
2 oz or 55 ml coffee liqueur
1 oz or 28 ml dark rum
1 oz or 28 ml brown crème de cacao

Preparation was simpler for this one, just combine all the ingredients with crushed ice (2 cups or so? I must have used to much, made a bit of a mess) in a blender.

Still bad lighting from that perspective, but we had another nice lounging session on the new chairs.

Boy, do I deserve a mighty slap in the face after tonight's session!

I was "in the zone" for about the first hour of my grind, doing well in all tournaments, making good decisions, but then after the break, it all started completely falling apart. It was also around this time that the 2-7 Triple Draw got added as a fourth tournament, and I didn't even realize that it's $11 today instead of $7.50 because it's a weekend special. And of course, I played some of my worst 2-7 TD this year in that one and soon busted out.

I simply cannot afford to donk off $11 in a single game when I'm trying to recover from a big downswing!

Many of my last sessions were plagued with a very poor mental game, and it was never as noticeable as tonight, when I went from A-game to C-game within minutes to throw away what could have been a very good session. Instead, it was horrendous. $2.50 in Badugi bounties from my good play in the first hour was all I got for an almost $20 total investment.

I will likely take another look at The Mental Game of Poker again soon to look for some pointers on how to deal with some specific issues, but more importantly, I need to address the elephant in the room: My current grind sucks! I am defeating myself, plain and simple. Four tables in four completely different games late in the evening is just not working out.

I made thousands in the last four years after ditching Hold'em and making the switch to mixed games, but I didn't do it by grinding out big multitabling sessions. On the contrary, I mostly made it by playing a single Badugi tournament every evening and just focusing on making good decisions. Sure, a one-table grind is pretty slim, and I've been looking for good "side games" to add ever since, which mostly resulted in misadventures that just cut into my Badugi profits. And this year, it seemed like I found some good ones when I successfully added Five Card Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw to the grind.

But the simple truth is: Times have changed. This isn't early spring anymore, where the prize pools were inflated by legions of quarantine gamblers. This also isn't late summer anymore, where my silly work hours prevented me from playing most of the time and I saw the need to load up my sessions to make them count. Things are different now, and I can't just keep going on like this. I have no one but myself to blame for the downswing right now.

This must change, and it will, right this moment. From now on, barring some special circumstances, there will be no more than three tables in a grind. The question now is which games to cut.

Badugi will stay, because it's hard to argue with the long-term results, even if the games have been slightly disappointing lately - but I went through far worse stretches in this game, it's not even comparable.

8-game will also stay, because despite the small payouts in this low buy-in tournament, I see the potential and I have been very pleased with my progress lately.

So which one should be the third game to play? Five Card Draw has already been officially cut, and I'm starting to think that 2-7 Triple Draw could use a hiatus too. Maybe it suffered from its bad placement in the grind, starting relatively late at around the point where I'm usually about to lose my focus - or maybe it has been one of the causes for that to begin with. I also tried HORSE two times already, and while the runs weren't very good, it might deserve a few more chances.

What could be other alternatives? There aren't too many on Stars, besides Stud, but I have already made the resolution not to play it unless I have understood some new concepts that I wanted to try. Another option, of course, would be to cut the third game altogether for now and simply play two-table sessions. But who says that it all needs to be on Stars? Maybe I can even find other rooms which could offer a completely different choice for game number 3. It's time to go scouting, but I already have some ideas...

Oh boy! I´sorry to read that

As you know, I´m pretty much the last person who should give mental game advices (cause as you know: Got mental game issues too in MTTs).

But could you identify the triggers that make you "lash out"?

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Oh boy! I´sorry to read that

No need to feel sorry. If I seemed a little angry during my last post, it's because I was - at myself. But self-criticism can be healthy.

However, it was less about venting or "beating myself up", it was mostly about identifying some basic mistakes I'm currently making and discussing solutions for them. I believe that I could have recouped my August losses by this point, and as I said, I'm the only one to blame for coming short of that. Not variance or anything - I made mistakes. And that doesn't need to make me feel bad, as it shows that I have the power to do something about it.

As for specific "triggers", I hope that my new grinding plan will prevent many causes for tilt or loss of focus, but I do plan to read a bit more about this to get a better picture and maybe come up with some solutions and/or preventive measures for the future.

First hand of the tournament last Sunday.

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 15/30 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 3,000 (100 bb)
UTG+1: 3,000 (100 bb)
MP: 3,000 (100 bb)
MP+1: 3,000 (100 bb)
CO: 3,000 (100 bb)
BU: 3,000 (100 bb)
SB: 3,000 (100 bb)
BB (Hero): 3,000 (100 bb)

Deal: (45) Hero is BB with J♣ 8♦ 2♦ 3♣
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to 105, 5 players fold, Hero calls 75

Draw One: (225) 2♦ 3♣ A♥ 4♠ (2 players)
BB (Hero) draws Jc 8d, UTG+1 stands pat
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets 225, Hero raises to 570, UTG+1 raises to 1,935, Hero raises to 2,895 (all-in), UTG+1 calls 960 (all-in)

Draw Two: (6,015) 2♦ 3♣ A♥ 4♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)
BB (Hero) stands pat, UTG+1 stands pat

Draw Three: (6,015) (2 players, 2 all-in)
BB (Hero) stands pat, UTG+1 stands pat

Total pot: 6,015

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 2♦ 3♣ A♥ 4♠ (a Badugi: 4,3,2,A)
UTG+1 shows 8♥ A♣ 5♦ T♠ (a Badugi: T,8,5,A)
BB (Hero) wins 6,015

Ended up with a mincash but also $4.50 in bounties, which was already enough to freeroll it. No success in the 8-game, but I did get my first ever final table in HORSE, where I finished 8th. I hardly ever played that game before, so this was probably my first ever cash in there too. Considering that I was (and still am) very skeptical about adding it to my grind, this at least gives me something to think about already. Let's see where it goes, it's cheaper than all those draw tournaments at least, so I got some leeway.

As always, Monday was a non-poker day. My schedule is pretty busy in the evenings now again, with many courses and activities recommencing after the Corona break, but I don't expect anything to impede my grind this week.

We still have catching up to do, but my vice president would like to remind you all that we will
Make Poker Great Again.

Yeees, Trumpy bear should play poker instead of ................. (you know what )

Hey, guess what? There´s somebody who wants to say "good luck":

We did it, boys and girls! We finally shipped a Badugi again! :f_drink: Including bounties, the prize was $120.31, and yes, it is enough to cover the losses I had to chase from both this month and August.

Maybe it was for the best that my other two games had busted without ITM before I went deep, because I faced some very good opponents who had a few clever tricks up their sleeve. They certainly kept me on my feet, and at the edge of my seat at times.

Here are some highlight hands. First, the one that put me into the driver's seat at the final table. BB was an aggressive player with the 2nd highest bounty at that point, only slightly below mine. He also happened to have my stack covered...

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 1,200/2,400 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 43,744 (18 bb)
CO: 50,126 (21 bb)
BU: 76,717 (32 bb)
SB (Hero): 74,976 (31 bb)
BB: 81,437 (34 bb)

Deal: (3,600) Hero is SB with 4♣ 8♦ A♠ 4♠
3 players fold, Hero raises to 4,800, BB calls 2,400

Draw One: (9,600) 4♣ 8♦ A♠ 6♥ (2 players)
SB (Hero) draws 4s, BB draws 2
Hero bets 4,800, BB calls 4,800

Draw Two: (19,200) 4♣ 8♦ A♠ 6♥ (2 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB draws 1
Hero bets 9,600, BB raises to 19,200, Hero calls 9,600

Draw Three: (57,600) 4♣ 8♦ A♠ 6♥ (2 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat
Hero checks, BB bets 52,637 (all-in), Hero calls 46,176 (all-in)

Total pot: 149,952

Showdown:
BB shows A♣ 5♠ 2♥ A♦ (a 3-card: 5,2,A)
SB (Hero) shows 4♣ 8♦ A♠ 6♥ (a Badugi: 8,6,4,A)
SB (Hero) wins 149,952

The check-call on the third draw is a move I like to do with many marginal showdown hands. It's purpose is usually mostly to mitigate the risk of either getting value-towned or forced into a costly bet-fold when running into a better hand, while also inducing bluffs by worse hands. In short, it's supposed to keep the hands you want to play against in, while minimizing the damage of the hands you don't want to play against. I can't say I wasn't worried about my opponent waking up with a monster hand here, which would have been a definite possibility, but since I knew that I had to go all the way no matter what with a hand as strong like this, its purpose was mostly to get weaker hands to put in the chips. Luckily, my opponent turned out to be snowing, and it would likely have worked if I had had a higher Badugi (though I probably would have bet-folded on the 2nd draw in that case).

The heads-up phase against a player with a stack about 25% as large as mine - and strangely enough, not a single bounty collected by this point - was truly nailbiting. I certainly would have hated to throw the game away after earning such a big lead, but I was up against a very tricky, skillful player who had to be caught snowing more than once, but who also got me to bluffcatch in the wrong spots at other times. He certainly went a lot deeper than just playing his cards throughout the whole game.

When I hit this high pat Badugi, I welcomed the opportunity to put him all-in and hope it holds, but his tricky behavior made me resolve not to break my hand come what may, which was possibly not very wise. It temporarily made me lose control of the game, in any case.

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 2,400/4,800 - 2 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

SB (Hero): 263,952 (55 bb)
BB: 63,048 (13 bb)

Deal: (7,200) Hero is SB with Q♥ 4♠ 8♣ 2♦
Hero raises to 9,600, BB 3-bets to 14,400, Hero 4-bets to 43,200, BB 5-bets to 63,048 (all-in), Hero calls 19,848

Draw One: (126,096) Q♥ 4♠ 8♣ 2♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)
BB draws 1, SB (Hero) stands pat

Draw Two: (126,096) (2 players, 1 all-in)
BB stands pat, SB (Hero) stands pat

Draw Three: (126,096) (2 players, 1 all-in)
BB stands pat, SB (Hero) stands pat

Total pot: 126,096

Showdown:
BB shows A♠ 9♥ 2♣ J♦ (a Badugi: J,9,2,A)
SB (Hero) shows Q♥ 4♠ 8♣ 2♦ (a Badugi: Q,8,4,2)
BB wins 126,096

Despite holding on to a small lead, it didn't look all that good anymore, but I eventually managed to hit a hand that turned things back around in my favor. The check-raise at the end was definitely intentional, trying to make him think that I hit a bad Badugi that I was trying to sneak to showdown and fold to aggression, and it worked just like intended. Based on what I observed from him so far, it really seemed to be the line that would give me the most value.

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 2,800/5,600 - 2 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

SB: 148,496 (27 bb)
BB (Hero): 178,504 (32 bb)

Deal: (8,400) Hero is BB with 4♥ 9♥ J♥ 6♥
SB calls 2,800, Hero checks

Draw One: (11,200) 4♥ 3♣ 8♠ A♦ (2 players)
BB (Hero) draws 9h Jh 6h, SB draws 2
Hero bets 5,600, SB calls 5,600

Draw Two: (22,400) 4♥ 3♣ 8♠ A♦ (2 players)
BB (Hero) stands pat, SB draws 1
Hero bets 11,200, SB calls 11,200

Draw Three: (44,800) 4♥ 3♣ 8♠ A♦ (2 players)
BB (Hero) stands pat, SB draws 1
Hero checks, SB bets 28,000, Hero raises to 128,800, SB folds

Total pot: 100,800
BB (Hero) wins 100,800

I won not long after this hand with a J-high Badugi that held this time, facing a similar situation as the Q-Badugi hand you saw above.

Definitely an exciting night, and amazing results. Better go grab some beers and get some rest now.

That´s great news! Awesome! Well done! Yaaaay!

:appl::appl::appl::appl::appl:♠_cool:♠_cool:♠_cool:♠_cool:

First of all, if anyone of you is worried about my vice president's health, rest assured that he is fine. My top medical team has been dealing with him and confirmed to me today that the situation is under control. I appreciate the concerns and wish him a speedy recovery.

As for poker, I updated my spreadsheet the other day to reflect the changes in my grind, which now consists of Badugi, 8-Game and HORSE. While there haven't been any outstanding cashes in the Badugi since my recent 1st place, progress has been steady. We even could have had some more really big finishes if it hadn't been for two coolers in the last two tournaments, at least one of which would have been avoidable. We definitely seem to be on the right track again, though, and I expect great things to come out of this month.

My stats in the 8-Game show that after 31 games, my ROI so far in this game has been even higher than the one in Badugi this year (116.65% vs. 104.89%). The sample is close to meaningless, but the stats seem consistent with the ones I saw when I used to grind the game a few years ago already. If a value along these lines can be maintained by the end of October, I think it should be time to consider 8-Game a solid part of my grind and maybe even slowly start to plan ahead for higher stakes in the near future.

HORSE has been less than impressive overall after 7 practice games with only one good cash, but it's too early to tell where things are going at all. It will stay for now.

Overall, we made $94.99 with the MTT grind in September thanks to that recent big Badugi cash. It recouped my August losses of $89.99 and I'm excited to move forward from this point. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some more graphs soon, after adding a few more things related to the new games to my spreadsheet.

Look!

There are a lot of "get well soon" wishes: They all hope Trumpy bear will be alright soon.

As an ex-bushwhacker I really must try that one.

For really cold weather, we used to do this:
In any kind of glass or mug put...
About an ounce or so of dark rum (measure by counting "glurgs" from the bottle -- 2 is fine)
Add about a tablespoon of brown sugar, and another of butter (in between wipe the spoon on your t-shirt so you don't get sugar in the butter or vice versa)
Fill the glass or mug with hot water.

If you don't have brown sugar, butter, glasses etc, just heat the rum in the microwave a bit, and pretend.

What's up guys? I took a bit of a break from the forum this week, but not from poker. I do have some poker-related stuff to get to, but first, let's talk about that new cocktail the grindette mentioned on her blog.

As she mentioned, we had another very fun meetup at my place with takeout food, plenty of mixed drinks and a round or two of drunk Mario Kart, but we were also on a Skype call last Monday where we did a thing I always wanted to give a go: Creating a new cocktail live on the fly, with direct input from someone else.

For this one, we decided to honor the person who is my personal choice for Troll of the Year 2020 and call our new drink "Nsavov's Underpants". I got my jigger and some booze ready and the grindette told me how much of each drink to use, after discussing some of my recommendations. After some back and forth, we came up with this:

30 ml of brown crème de cacao
20 ml of orange curaçao
10 ml of vodka

Pour everything in a lowball glass with ice cubes and stir. That picture was taken after I already took a few sips to try it, making it "almost unused", much like the real thing.

The crème de cacao and curaçao were mostly picked based on their color, and the vodka was added because nsavov is Bulgarian. I considered adding some red vermouth or grenadine in case nsavov is one of those people who tends to wipe too hard, but we concluded that the drink was fine as it is.

And indeed it was. Prim personally approved of its quality this Friday and I believe it has secured a place in her Top 5. The ingredients are pretty similar to the Chocolate and Orange Martini I once made, except that that one was shaken and used exclusively clear looking ingredients. Also, it was mostly based on vodka with only a hint of chocolate and orange flavors, which are more prominently featured in Nsavov's Underpants here.

Just wait until I convert my home bar into a commercial bar and you will see "Nsavov's Underpants" on cocktail menus around the world.

Poker update coming soon.

Oh, and in sad news, I managed to break a highball glass when I wanted to make a Tequila Sunrise for Prim this Friday and tried to shove down a cluster of crushed ice.

To add insult to injury, a Tequila Sunrise is traditionally made with ice cubes instead, as far as I know. I personally prefer to use crushed ice for it, though.

At least I still got two of those glasses left, but they are my favorite highballs at home and they may be difficult to get nowadays.

I planned to do some shopping around for more bar stuff either way soon.

Wow, I feel like a star.
My drink of choice is Rum btw. And Bulgarians (all Balkans actually) are known for Rakia.
But this is fine too, in case you choose to stick with it

Originally posted by Harrier88
30 ml of brown crème de cacao
20 ml of orange curaçao
10 ml of vodka

Galliano ftw!

Broken glass brings luck, Harrier ♠_cool:♠_thumbsup:

And Troll of the Year will be announced, as usual, at the end of the Year. ♠_smile:

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Galliano ftw!

Galliano, obviously, why didn't I think of it...

While it wouldn't really fit with the other chosen ingredients (I can't imagine it would, anyway), the color fits perfectly. Maybe I'll come up with an alternative version that involves Galliano.

Another substitute I considered was banana liqueur, which I mostly didn't pick because I don't really like it myself and only keep it around as an ingredient for certain drinks. But a combination of Kahlúa and banana liqueur may have been another version that could have worked.

I experimented with a layered shot first as well before settling on the lowball version, but couldn't get it right. Also, I originally wanted to float a layer of cream (make of that what you will) on top of Nsavov's Underpants, which was only prevented by the fact that I didn't have any non-expired cream left in the fridge at that point - and now I have and don't know what to do with it.

Originally posted by nsavov
My drink of choice is Rum btw. And Bulgarians (all Balkans actually) are known for Rakia.
But this is fine too, in case you choose to stick with it
Rakia is one of those drinks I don't have at home, and I haven't heard of it ever being used in cocktails - not that it would stop me from using it for my own creations. But rum should work just fine in place of vodka in the current version, maybe I'll give it a try, possibly when there's a grindette visiting again who can give me her own opinion on it.

I wish I would have made my poker update earlier because tonight's rock bottom session dampens the mood a little. In fact, the entire weekend went poorly, so while I could have taken satisfaction in over $100 in profits so far in October earlier, only around $73 of it are left by now.

Nevertheless, things are looking good overall. Apart from terrible results this weekend, Badugi went pretty great for the most part. 8-Game is looking especially promising right now, with 7 out of 11 games cashing this month, including some deep runs and a final table. I have high hopes in this format, mostly because I believe that my skills in my weaker sections have by now improved to a point where I feel like I can play all eight games with confidence, whereas previously, there had been sections where I had to more or less resort to folding my way through them. Being skilled in all eight games should give me a serious edge if I can really pull it off.

In fact, I have tried some dedicated Seven Card Stud tournaments by now, which I usually considered my weakest game from the 8-Game line-up before, and managed to finish 2nd for $43.19 once. In what was probably the biggest source of tilt tonight, I also succeeded to build a commanding chip lead in tonight's Stud, but ended up clumsily squandering it later. Another cash would have given me the confidence that I could make it in this format. Instead, I am now still unsure where I'm really standing.

HORSE, meanwhile, has yet to see another cash after my final table around two weeks ago. Many runs showed promise, but eventually stopped just shy of the money, including one particularly frustrating stone cold bubble, which even seems to have led to my first ever poker-related PC equipment casualty. My mouse must have taken some abuse, and I noticed later that the mouse wheel didn't appear to be working anymore. I also noticed at that point how often I like to use that wheel when I'm using my PC, prompting me to replace my mouse - luckily, I'm keeping a little supply of USB-mice in preparation for situations like that.

I'm still not sure why my HORSE results are lacking so far, considering that it's basically "8-Game Light", where things are going very well. One of my theories is that it suffers from its late placement in my grinding session, so I'm approaching it with a worse mental state that the other games. Either way, it's getting progressively harder to find reasons not to drop it with every failed cash. Stud seems like a better option at the moment.

Here are the updated graphs, versions for 8-Game and the other formats might be added soon.

As you can see, the last two weeks haven't been too shabby at all. I just hope that the terrible weekend performance won't break my hard-earned momentum too much.

Tonight, I managed to achieve what I failed to do yesterday and cashed the Stud, with a 3rd place finish, no less. This format is starting to look surprisingly promising, and the over $43 in profit so far will give me some leeway for the future. It certainly looks like a good alternative to HORSE right now, in any case.

Unfortunately, Badugi has been going in the wrong direction recently, with only $1 in bounties but two extra bullets being taken in the last three days. Some correction is needed. Meanwhile, there's still steady progress in the 8-Game, though I annoyingly missed the second cash ladder by one place tonight.

It's still too early to tell where Stud is really going, but the game is fun and I'm starting to believe that I could master it with a bit more practice. Pulling this off could be huge, and if I manage to keep up the pace in the 8-Game and then maybe eventually even take the same performance to higher stakes, we could be running the real money some time in the future.

I made the decision a while back not to fire a second bullet (or third) in PKOs
From what I've seen the trick in Stud is TAG -- and even more of the T and the AG than in Hold'em -- would you agree?