Pedigree? Yumm!
That´s what my back-then dog (died long time ago) liked too. I think he didn´t eat anything but Pedigree. 
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Originally posted by Primrose6789
Pedigree? Yumm!That´s what my back-then dog (died long time ago) liked too. I think he didn´t eat anything but Pedigree.
Puppies adopting puppies, how cute is that?
Originally posted by Harrier88
As for the mixed drinks, I decided to purchase a wooden mallet to help me a bit with the crushed ice. Store bought crushed ice tends to freeze into a big lump, of course, so you have to crush it all over again, which can be tricky without causing a mess or damaging the packaging, which would inevitably result in an additional mess too. That mallet will hopefully allow me to do a better job with that. I also heard of people who simply like to drop their package on the ground until the ice is all crushed again.
Dropping the package works if the ice is in a sturdy plastic bag.
Otherwise, you have a mess of crushed ice on the floor.
We have a really, really old tool called an "ice pick" from the days when ice was delivered daily to in very large blocks.
The one we have belonged to my Mum's parents.
They had a sawdust-burning stove, and the sawdust was kept in a shed separate from the house.
Buried in the sawdust were large blocks of ice since the only refrigeration was an icebox.
All that is left of those days is the icepick.
The typical OFC reg at my network, pretty much.
So OFC has been going pretty well overall, with a bankroll of over 400 chips by now. I've been able to add some 2-7 OFC into the mix too, and did all right in it, at least heads up. As for getting a game going... there are two regs who keep hanging out at the tables, looking for players - but not just any player, apparently, because when I join, one of them tends to sit-out and leave, while the other tends to keep sitting out and then sitting back in to make sure he won't have to play a hand without being kicked off the table, which is even more annoying. And at least in case of the latter player, the issue clearly seems to be me, because when I got tired of this sit-out/sit-in thing once and left, I noticed another player joining right after me, and all of a sudden that reg is willing to play.
Sure, this might be flattering in a way, but it is also annoying. Traffic is bad enough as it is without having a bunch of Sir Robins spread around five different tables like vultures waiting for the kill, and then avoiding to play once someone like me joins instead. We all have players we'd rather avoid, but we don't lurk around at empty tables waiting for anyone but them to show up, do we? To think that I got absolutely crushed in this game just a month ago and nearly went broke... I didn't have too much trouble finding opponents back then.
Anyway, we're also back to the mixed games grind, but the results aren't quite there yet. 8-Game in particular has been going quite poorly, but my main focus is on Badugi, where I'm still way behind expectations this year. At least about half the tournaments this month finished ITM, with a very promising run yesterday, but no big scores yet, and we're down quite a bit overall.
Still, results aren't everything, and I'm feeling much more confident about my game by now. During many of my downswings, I tended to play overly cautious, which just doesn't work unless the cards keep falling into your lap. You need to push those small edges, and thanks to some reading I did on odds and average ranges, I believe that I'm now able to take much smarter risks. Too bad not all of them paid off so far, but that's just how it goes. We can only put the chips in good, everything else comes with time - hopefully.
Another promising run in the Badugi yesterday, despite some serious trouble early on, where it looked to be very likely that I had to take another rebuy. Thankfully, though, I was able to double up a couple of times and managed to ride that first bullet all the way to 11th place. I made a bit of a mistake close to the exit hand, but other than that, I was pretty pleased with my play.
Tonight, on the other hand, was quite bad. Another relatively early 2nd bullet after losing a hand which could be at least charitably considered a cooler, though it may not have been a fantastic spot to begin with. After that, completely card dead, only one really good hand, which got nothing but a predraw call. I may want to reconsider if I really want to go for those 2nd bullets at all these days. I also decided to skip the 8-Game this time, which also might be a more sporadic addition from this point on.
There was some success to report, however. I tried some more 2-7 OFC games, and apart from great results (gained about 80 chips today), I feel like I have learned a lot about how this game is supposed to be played, and I feel about as confident as I do in the hi only games by now. After my failed Badugi session, for example, I joined a player who I know to be pretty competent, and we ended up playing for hours, deep into the night - looks like my opponent was enjoying it as much as I did. The point was less to take their chips, but more to see how I would fare against a decent reg, and to gain some experience in general. Again, I feel like I have learned a lot, and I walked away with a small profit from that battle too.
As I mentioned previously, the 2-7 version seems to have slightly better traffic than hi only, so gaining a foothold in this format could be a big move in the long run.
Here's one highlight hand from today (from my earlier session, not the big one at night). Straight flush vs straight flush, how about that...
We both hit them on our last draw too, and we were both sitting on QJT9 in our respective suits at that point.
Originally posted by Harrier88
We both hit them on our last draw too, and we were both sitting on QJT9 in our respective suits at that point.
I don't know why, but it always seems so much more satisfying to win by just one pip
(and of course getting pipped is tough to take...)
Well, what can I say about tonight... I had some more success at 2-7 OFC earlier today, even at slighlty higher stakes, surpassing the 500 chips milestone in my bankroll and finally getting past the minimum withdrawal limit - not that withdrawing funds is something I have in mind at that point. Then I played those same stakes again, where each point corresponds to one chip, against the same opponent from last night's session, and had incredible success. I was up 130 chips after a few rounds, making it my most profitable session ever in this format... and then, my luck turned around, and round after round, I lost just about all of it. I was only up around 3 measly chips when I closed the table to take a break and do some dishes and stuff.
Hoping for some domestic chore equity, I rejoined that table against a different opponent, and after some minor success early on, I lost badly. When it was all done, not only was my initial profit gone, but I even ended up with around a 130 chips loss - the same amount that I celebrated as a huge success just about an hour earlier.
And so an amazing day at the tables turned into a terrible one in record time. Bankroll is now 383, after briefly sailing past the 600 mark at one point tonight. Not unlike regular 2-7 lowball, these things really can turn around quite quickly, and the margin between the stone cold nuts and garbage hands can be razor thin.
It's very demoralizing, but it's part of the challenge of those games.
Originally posted by Harrier88
It's very demoralizing, but it's part of the challenge of those games.
Well, you could always play Razz 
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Variance is a wh0re, first it´s with you and then with your opponent.
Yeah -- it costs you money, you get a few moments of pleasure, then ...
The continuously disappointing results in my mixed games tournaments call for some changes to my grind, but that should be the subject of its own post, I believe. While we're at it, I should also make some changes to my tracking spreadsheets. That one "super spreadsheet" which contains most of my stats tends to be slow, prone to crashes and hang-ups, and besides, it often takes a long time to get to the infos I want. I'll try to work on a better way over the weekend, most likely breaking the big spreadsheet up into one for basic stats and another one with a bunch of crosslinking for the more advanced statistics like those fancy graphs and all.
I currently care more about my 2-7 OFC games, which, not unlike the hi only games, have also become a matter of pride by now, and as I pointed out yesterday, I had some catching up to do, and a bad session to avenge. This time, I stuck to the low limits where each point is worth only a quarter of a chip, and I'm happy to report some good results. Despite the small stakes, I made 75 chips throughout the day, corresponding to a 300 points gain. This brings my bankroll back up to 458.
There was one nasty hand right at the end of my last 3-handed session. Here's the deal: Much like regular OFC, 2-7 OFC is all about accessing Fantasyland. In the hi only version, this can be achieved by finishing with a pair of queens or better on top. In 2-7 OFC, you can also get there with a perfect 75432 wheel in the middle, and the requirement for the top hand has been bumped up to a pair of kings or better to compensate for that. However: If you manage to get both a perfect wheel and a pair of kings or better on top, you will receive 15 instead of 14 cards in your fantasyland, and believe me, that one extra card can make a world of difference! How often have you found yourself wishing that you had just one more draw in any other game of poker? So here's the situation in this hand, as seen through the replayer:
I was lucky to have made a perfect wheel in the middle on my previous draw, while already having placed an ace on top near the beginning to possibly draw for a AA. I was wondering: what if I got dealt another ace on the next draw, without hitting anything to improve my QJJ hand at the bottom? Hitting both AA and the wheel would be huge, earning me fantastic royalties against both players while also giving me a chance to really take them to the cleaners with my 15 card fantasyland in the next hand. On the other hand, my nice wheel would go to waste if I fail to improve my bottom hand and bust out. And that's just the situation that came up on my 2nd last draw, which gave me an ace, a ten, and some other relatively dead card, I think it was a 6.
My Jacks were all dead, Queens were all live (though it's possible that some were mucked) and the ten I drew wasn't great either, with just one more out. Still, those three remaining Queens alone should come up around 40% of the time, assuming they are all live. I bursted out "I'm going for it!" and placed the ace on top along with the ten, which I figured wouldn't have been much help anyway with just one remaining out.
That was a big mistake. Here's what happened:
I did not get my Queen, but I did get a ten after having foolishly placed one on top, which would have enabled me to make a two pair if I had placed it on the bottom. Sure, it was almost dead and I would have much preferred a more live card, but - not to go all John Madden on you - "One out is better than no outs!". There is really no advantage of placing that ten on top at all, except for the off chance of getting dealt an entire pair on my last draw, which I could have then placed along with my Jacks. Results aside, one additional out at the bottom would have pushed my odds barely above 50%, according to one of my charts.
I still stand by my decision to go for it with the aces on top, I think the possible rewards were worth the risk, but not putting that ten down there was a huge mistake that has cost me a massive amount in that spot. Still, I think I played pretty well apart from that hand, and the overall results that day were very good too. Let's just learn from this mistake and not repeat it on stakes that matter.
Still didn't get around working on my next versions of the spreadsheet. Anyway, the mixed games grind is pretty bare bones by now. I had high hopes going into it this new year, hoping to expand into new games and taking things to the next level, but that is definitely far away by now - for the time being. We will get back to it, don't worry, but for now, I'm just trying to get back to my old strength. That means that for now, Badugi is the only game in my tournament grind, just like it was a couple of years ago. Once I get things going in there again - and I'm still chasing losses for this year - I can slowly get back into other games one at a time.
2-7 OFC will still be my main focus for now, and yes, I'm pretty much exclusively playing that version now instead of the hi only one. My bankroll is currently at 688.29, which should be $37.52 at the current exchange rate - it's not nothing.
The fact that those games are essentially cash games, even though they work a lot differently than "regular" poker, is quite a challenge to me, simply on the mental level. For years, I've been playing almost exclusively tournaments, which come with their own mental challenges, but I was used to them. Cash games have other pitfalls, like forcing yourself to play on despite not being in a good mental state because you feel like you have to chase what you "deserve" to get out of the session, as well as the stress of noticing your funds going up and down in real time. I remember all of it from my old Hold'em cash grinding days, but it's not something I'm used to these days, so I have to adapt.
In general, I see a lot of potential in this game, at least if I manage to plug my mental leaks. Despite the big swings, profit has been coming in pretty consistently, and if I improve, this game might even be able to eventually rival some of my better mixed games tournaments in terms of profit. But that still depends on a lot of factors, and I'm aware that I can lose my roll as quickly as I built it. For now, let's just focus on playing well and improving. Next bankroll milestone is 1K chips.
Originally posted by Harrier88
2-7 OFC will still be my main focus for now, and yes, I'm pretty much exclusively playing that version now instead of the hi only one. My bankroll is currently at 688.29, which should be $37.52 at the current exchange rate - it's not nothing.
Getting my taxes done will be my main focus for the next 8 days.
I lost an entire day to an internet outage yesterday.
No streams, no poker until it's done.
And I just got landed a bunch more stuff to do...
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Getting my taxes done will be my main focus for the next 8 days.
I lost an entire day to an internet outage yesterday.
I have a bunch of IRL stuff to deal with as well these days (had my third job interview within a month this week, for example), but as far as poker is concerned, 2-7 OFC does remain my main focus. Didn't play a ton today, but I picked up around 50 chips, which is a pretty good turnout for one day.
Actually, with other cryptos being an option at my room now, those chips are now referred to by their value as µBTCs, so maybe I should use that term from now on too. We could also multiply that value by 100 and call them satoshis, which I believe are the smallest recorded unit of a bitcoin.
No Badugi tonight, I didn't feel too well and had to take more trips to the bathroom than I care to admit here. I should really go easy on the burritos from now on, especially the beans.
2-7 OFC was beyond terrible this time. I lost almost 100 µBTCs, at only 0.25 µBTC per point, no less. So I had almost a 400 points deficit today, which is insane.
Bad luck was likely an important factor in my failure, but those losses won't be regained too easily. Definitely quite a setback.
At least Badugi made a profit, though it was nothing amazing.
Ouch!
I've noticed that it is far easier to lose money quickly than it is to win money quickly.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I've noticed that it is far easier to lose money quickly than it is to win money quickly.
In 2-7 OFC, both good runs and bad runs can easily happen in massive waves. It's just part of the way the game works. Once you get a hand that's good enough to unlock Fantasyland, you may be lucky enough keep your opponents in a bind and hit them with monster hand after monster hand, without much they can do about it. Of course, the same thing can just as easily happen to you. I plan to discuss what I have learned about strategy so far in a later post.
The streaks can be even more brutal in both directions once a third player enters the action, which is the reason why I usually prefer to play heads up.
I saw some wild swings tonight too, but I managed to finish on top, with about a 60 µBTC gain for today, recovering more than half of my nasty Friday losses.
This was hands down my best round so far, finishing at an incredible 189 points up. I may never be able to top that one, considering that under table rules, a player is considered busted out for the round after losing the maximum amount of 100 points, so the best you could possibly achieve at a full 3-handed table is +200 in one round.
As it's often the case in those situations, I managed to pull off one of those massive combos I mentioned last time, where I repeated Fantasyland three times in a row. It's pure luck to get those deals (though it does require some skill to recognize the opportunities your deal brings), but once it happens, your opponents are sitting ducks. And that's why there's so much variance in this game. You know what you want to go for. Sometimes you get it, and you can steamroll your opposition. Sometimes you don't get it, and you got nothing to show. And in the worst case, your opponent gets it, and you're the one getting steamrolled.
But today, we bagged a total profit of 90 µBTC, a great result for one session at 0.25 µBTC per point. The Friday losses have been completely regained and we're now sitting at a bankroll of 790 µBTC, a good deal closer to the next milestone.
Badugi cashed too, though the lack of bounties resulted in some pretty meager returns in that game.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
This is OFC Lowball?
Yes, it's 2-7 OFC. 
I've been playing this one more or less exclusively over the hi only version for over a week now.
You make a lowball hand in the middle (T-lo or better to qualify) and a regular poker hand at the bottom, which must beat your three card top hand.