Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Just take a shot from time to time! How about that?

That's the plan, pretty much.

I don't need to wait until my bankroll is big enough to grind any of those higher stakes, I can take occasional shots at single tournaments when I feel ready. If I notice that I don't have an edge in them, I can pull the plug on the idea earlier, without blowing huge chunks on longer grinds.

Either way, I will keep building up my bankroll. Badugi only had the $4.40 games (during my grinding times, anyway), but now that I have expanded into other mixed games, there will be more options and more opportunities, so I would like to be properly bankrolled to take those opportunities when they arise.

I used to wait until I had won a buy-in playing cash to enter a tournament.
That so far hasn't worked with Stud.
I fold far too easily -- I need to be more like cardboard than crepe paper

Tough times...

There's a lot of stuff going on lately. My vice president is getting increasingly impossible to live with too. He is a little irritable these days and developed a weird obsession with counting papers and letters and stuff, which causes a bit of a mess.

In addition to everything else that's on my mind, I will also have to make a brief appearance in court tomorrow to testify about something that happened during my work earlier this year. Nothing to worry about.

The grind continues, but it has not been going well recently. Maybe it could be argued that I should take a break, but I think I will just keep playing. If nothing else, it may take my mind off the quarantine and everything else that's going on.

I brought a huge bin of papers upstairs so sort.
I got up for a few minutes, and one of the cats (the purr collar in the photo) promptly went to sleep in the bin.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I brought a huge bin of papers upstairs so sort.
I got up for a few minutes, and one of the cats (the purr collar in the photo) promptly went to sleep in the bin.

Who said paperwork can't be relaxing?

Took a little break yesterday. I did play, but only a few Stud cash games for further practice. My last two regular MTT sessions had been abysmal, and while there were many decisive suckouts and coolers involved, it seems clear to me that my mind just wasn't in the right place. So I believe that the break was a good move, but it still felt like something was missing yesterday without my grind.

Clearly the everyday stress of both the quarantine and world events had been getting to me, combined with the lack of sleep from an election all-nighter followed by an early courtroom appearance one day later. But I had a good sleep last night and while I will keep myself updated, I decided that it's foolish to put too much energy obsessing over things that are beyond my control anyway. Hopefully, this will get me back on track in general and also in good shape for some more sessions, probably starting today already.

On the bright side, the Stud cash games that I played yesterday and also the days before as an addition to my tournaments went well overall. That is not to say that I should expect to be a consistent winner, but it does show that I have made some progress. RIght now, my verdict about Stud would be that it's a little how I see Five Card Draw: quite beatable, but with a lot of guesswork and therefore variance involved, which in the case of 5CD was enough to make me look for alternatives for my grind. Stud might eventually have a similar fate, but like so much else in the world right now... it's just too early to call.

Originally posted by Harrier88
RIght now, my verdict about Stud would be that it's a little how I see Five Card Draw: quite beatable, but with a lot of guesswork and therefore variance involved, which in the case of 5CD was enough to make me look for alternatives for my grind. Stud might eventually have a similar fate, but like so much else in the world right now... it's just too early to call.

Like all limit games, Stud is all about pot odds.
What is really great (and really bad) about Stud is that on later streets, you are getting fantastic pot odds, so both folding and slowplaying are often wrong.

There is so much going on right now I have barely played any poker at all for a couple of weeks, but I did play some Razz a day or two ago -- nice runouts for a change ♠_biggrin:

What Stud stakes are you playing?

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
What Stud stakes are you playing?

I played the lowest three stakes on Pokerstars, which I believe are $0.04/$0.08, $0.10/$0.20 and $0.25/$0.50.

And after another brick in today's MTT, I'm officially in the red overall in Stud now too, despite two very good finishes last month.

By now, I see little reason for keeping these games in my grind. Yes, I believe that I could beat them, but what do I have to prove? I only include a limited number of tables in my tournament grind, so if I can make more in any other format, with less variance involved, it should be time to move on. The experience I've gained would still come in handy in any mixed games that include Stud.

One of them being 8-Game, of course, which is currently going through a cold streak after that amazing series of cashes last month. It has been nine days since my last cash by now. I played some HORSE recently, but not tonight. You'd think that if 8-Game is going well in the longer run at least, HORSE should be too, but the results have been humbling so far. A loss of $46.28 and an ROI of -70.12% after 20 games. Just bad luck over a small sample? Could be, there have been many close runs just shy of ITM, in fact. But it's enough to make me think twice about entering one of those tournaments late in my session.

Things are not going well overall lately, and I need to find a way to turn things around. I made one small step towards this tonight, with an 8th place in the Badugi that couldn't quite save the session, but at least turned it break-evenish.

For now, I will continue as planned, with Badugi, 8-Game and - yes - still Stud, even though I'm already looking for games to replace it. But maybe I can turn things around with a few good runs. One thing I thought I should try is to play more "by the book" and go for less of those instinctive steal spots. New rule of thumb: If your starting hand isn't a pair or a straight/flush draw, it's just a steal hand and should be treated as such, which includes giving it up on later streets without improvement.

But suppose Stud will be cut, what should replace it? Well, the only available options during my times that I haven't really tried yet are Stud8, which not only requires me to properly study it first but also comes with a steep barrier for entry since the only MTT costs a whopping $16.50, and PLO or PLO8, which I have only played occasionally, but without any proper grinding. Not sure if PLO would be a good option, it seems a bit too "mainstream" for me with large fields and no shortage of study material on it - not really what I'm usually going for. I have my doubts about PLO8 too.

If it's none of these, it will just have to be a game I've played before, and I should have collected plenty of information to help me with my decision on it. For now, things will go as before, and I will try to get into Stud8. I may not end up playing the tournaments, but I should do some studying on it to help me in the mixed games that include it.

Really not sure what's wrong with my vice president these days. He is now always obsessively counting stuff, and then counting it all over again. He's also on the phone a lot talking with some lawyers about some private matter - I didn't really ask. I just hope that whatever side projects he's doing in his spare time aren't affecting his performance in his main job as my VP too much.

So he's not much joy to be around lately, but there have been some developments when it comes to poker. The bad news first, most of my games went very poorly these days, most notably 8-Game, where I'm now on an eleven tournaments losing streak. ROI has dropped well below three figures and is currently at 74.97% after 68 games. Last night's tournament was bubbled. My ambitions of moving up have certainly be stifled for the time being, but I'm still overall pretty confident in my game. The downwards trend needs to be corrected, though - immediately.

The good news is that Badugi is currently going great. There have been three final tables this weekend, and Sunday's tournament has been shipped outright. Last night went pretty well too, I narrowly missed the final table, but collected some good bounties.

What about the other games? Well, Stud has been cut for the time being, instead I tried some PLO8 tournaments. I didn't have any success in them so far this year when I tried them before, and after bricking the first one on Sunday (despite a decent run), I had some doubts if it would be a good replacement. However, my luck turned around last night, and I ended up not only cashing, but making a final table and a 5th place.
This at least gives me something to work with for the time being, while I am still considering what my third game should be.

In the earlier stages of my session, I may occasionally add a cash game for practice, and I played some $0.25/$0.50 Razz recently trying to apply what I have learned about it. And it went quite well, I left with about $7.50 in profit this time. No reason to get cocky, though. This game is extremely variance-heavy and runout-dependent in my experience, I may just as well be $7.50 or more down next time, without doing too many things differently.

Overall, some promising results in the new games, and Badugi carried whatever was lost in the games that are going poorly. At least financially, the downswing has been fully recouped by now thanks to those recent successes. Let's continue in the same direction.

Poor Trumpy-bear! Don´t worry, at least you will get a nice new hairstyle soon.

Nothing comforts more than getting his hair styled by a REAL Eastern European leftist.

Cheer up Trumpy bear!

Well, we finally cashed in the 8-Game again... but it was only a mincash worth $1.82. The rest went poorly. I was pretty unlucky overall, I believe, so things could have easily turned out differently, but honestly, I wasn't all that concentrated tonight either.

I'll try to enter tomorrow's session in a better mindset, maybe I should do some basic form of "pre-session warmup" or so. Always a good idea to take care of the things you can actually influence when you're hitting the tables.

That's more like it, we final tabled the 8-Game last night.

We got $9.13 for a 6th place finish. At least this game is looking better already, and that's the one I was most worried about recently.

It was still a slight losing session overall, unfortunately, but what can you expect after brutal hands like this earlier on...

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

UTG (Hero): 2,002 (67 bb)
UTG+1: 3,210 (107 bb)
MP: 2,970 (99 bb)
MP+1: 3,000 (100 bb)
CO: 4,163 (139 bb)
BU: 2,835 (95 bb)
SB: 2,820 (94 bb)
BB: 3,000 (100 bb)

Deal: (45) Hero is UTG with 3♠ 8♠ 5♥ A♣
Hero raises to 60, 1 fold, MP calls 60, 1 fold, CO calls 60, 1 fold, SB calls 45, 1 fold

Draw One: (270) 3♠ 5♥ A♣ 6♥ (4 players)
SB draws 2, UTG (Hero) draws 8s, MP draws 1, CO draws 1
SB checks, Hero bets 135, MP calls 135, CO calls 135, SB folds

Draw Two: (675) 3♠ 5♥ A♣ 2♦ (3 players)
UTG (Hero) draws 6h, MP draws 1, CO draws 1
Hero bets 338, MP calls 338, CO calls 338

Draw Three: (1,689) 3♠ 5♥ A♣ 2♦ (3 players)
UTG (Hero) stands pat, MP draws 1, CO draws 1
Hero bets 845, MP folds, CO raises to 1,690, Hero calls 624 (all-in)

Total pot: 4,627

Showdown:
CO shows 2♣ 4♠ A♥ 3♦ (a Badugi: 4,3,2,A)
UTG (Hero) shows 3♠ 5♥ A♣ 2♦ (a Badugi: 5,3,2,A)
CO wins 4,627

Of course I rebought, but only got a $1 bounty out of it this time.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Showdown:
CO shows 2♣ 4♠ A♥ 3♦ (a Badugi: 4,3,2,A)
UTG (Hero) shows 3♠ 5♥ A♣ 2♦ (a Badugi: 5,3,2,A)
CO wins 4,627

OH MY!
I seem to recall a hand a while back where it went the other way
I've been so busy lately I can only play the occasional freeroll

Decent finish in the 8-Game though -- well done!

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I seem to recall a hand a while back where it went the other way

You mean this one?

Today went a little better:

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 100/200 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 10,754 (54 bb)
CO: 10,041 (50 bb)
BU: 3,000 (15 bb)
SB (Hero): 5,780 (29 bb)
BB: 8,569 (43 bb)

Deal: (300) Hero is SB with 2♦ 5♥ A♣ 4♠
3 players fold, Hero raises to 400, BB calls 200

Draw One: (800) 2♦ 5♥ A♣ 4♠ (2 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB draws 1
Hero bets 400, BB calls 400

Draw Two: (1,600) 2♦ 5♥ A♣ 4♠ (2 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat
Hero checks, BB bets 688, Hero raises to 1,600, BB raises to 6,400, Hero calls 3,380 (all-in)

Draw Three: (12,980) 2♦ 5♥ A♣ 4♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat

Total pot: 11,560

Showdown:
BB shows 6♥ 3♠ 4♦ 8♣ (a Badugi: 8,6,4,3)
SB (Hero) shows 2♦ 5♥ A♣ 4♠ (a Badugi: 5,4,2,A)
SB (Hero) wins 11,560

But despite that, I could only got a mincash, though it was right before the next ladder, and two bounties.

I played terribly at times tonight, in all games. I really seem to have some general mindset issues lately, and not necessarily poker-related ones. I'm looking forward to some kind of a break to get it sorted.

That would be the one.
You had it framed?

Nice touch!

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
That would be the one.
You had it framed?

Nice touch!

Yes, I had it framed and put it on my nightstand.

For those who don't know, bobbydr in that hand is Twitch streamer TonyW4rriorz. I didn't take a screenshot of the hand myself, but he did and posted it on Twitter, which is where I got the image. I remember personally apologizing to him on Discord that night for not shipping the tournament after that insane cooler. I believe I ended up finishing 2nd.

I did show him the photo of that framed hand on my nightstand once on his stream, though, and he thought it was funny - even though the hand was no laughing matter for him.

If I remember right, in your case that was a 1-out draw.
Even if not, one of the best hands ever.

For those that missed it...
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3021559#post3021559
I can't believe it was that long ago...

It's quiet in here...

Looks like the combined stress of developments in both world news and my personal life, together with the "sort of quarantine" and the decreasing amount of daylight hours with winter approaching has finally been getting to me. I've been through a bit of a rough patch this week and decided to skip a few sessions.

I'm happy to report that things are looking much better by now, and I would like to thank everyone who helped me through this short phase.

Poker has been going better too, after recommencing the grind two days ago. I finished 3rd in the Badugi last night and cashed in both 8-Games, though they could have been better if I had avoided some nasty mistakes...
Two days ago, I got careless in the Stud phase with trips against a fairly obvious straight late in the game, costing me a run that may have been on pace for FT. Even worse was last night's mistake, where I wasted a good amount of chips in the same section because I thought it was Stud HiLo already for some reason...

Turns out it's still a little difficult for me to keep my focus until the very end of my MTT-session. Another problem is that old question of what my third game should be in addition to Badugi and 8-Game, and I'm starting to run out of ideas.

But more on that later, maybe. I just wanted to give a little update for now.

You´re not alone: And I played fishy today which costed me a stack.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Another problem is that old question of what my third game should be in addition to Badugi and 8-Game, and I'm starting to run out of ideas.

But more on that later, maybe. I just wanted to give a little update for now.
Well, about that... I decided to add some Couchevel HiLo a few days ago, which I used to grind before. One of the reasons for cutting it was that it simply took too long. Late reg lasts two hours, unfortunately, and deep runs can take more than five. But back then, I was only playing Badugi as an additional game, which tends to be quicker. Now that I have 8-Game too, which also tends to last a while, the chances of me only having to grind out the Courchevel for hours after an early exit in everything else are lower.

I still wasn't too excited about it, but I just finished my session, and managed to finish 3rd for $44.77. And that tournament has a much larger field (close to 300 players if we include rebuys) compared to the other ones I'm playing, so a deep run means something else than merely cashing, like it's the case in some other games where the ITM ranks may begin close to or at the final table.

That's surely a nice result, but should I keep it in my grind? This wasn't my first ever FT there, so I do see the potential. Then again, the game really does take forever if you run deep, and there don't seem to be any opportunities to move up should things go well. Is the payout I can hope to achieve in this really worth it? There are also Courchevel cash games, where I had mixed results in the past. If I can get something going in this format, would these games be worth revisiting, and could they perhaps be worth it instead?

I don't know yet, but I guess I'll keep playing it for a bit at least and see where things are going. I have a few hands saved from the tournament as well, maybe I'll post them tomorrow.

In other news, the MicroMillions are underway. I have made a decision in the past not to pay too much attention to these kinds of events, since I have found that I'm usually more likely to lose money in them, not to mention that they may conflict with my schedule and take my concentration away from the other games, where I could expect a better result. So I'm only really interested in the PL Badugi this time, which should run Saturday next week. However, I also noticed that there's an 8-Game tomorrow, and since I still have that faint hope of maybe possibly moving up limits in that format eventually, wouldn't it be a good idea to test my skills in a different tournament other than that modest $1.10 one that I'm usually grinding for lack of alternatives?

I think it would be, so I'll try to make it. It means that I'm likely to spend more time with poker this weekend than I would prefer, especially after a Courchevel run that lasted deep into the night, but I think it's a very nice opportunity.