Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Another week or two goes by, and the grind has still been on hold while I was tying up some loose ends. I have already been back to playing casually, however, and picked up a couple of chips at 2-7 OFC, at least. I also finished 4th in the German Freeroll, or Troll Freeroll, as Prim and I like to call it, on TitanPoker last weekend for €20.

I feel almost ready to take on the grind again, I expect we should see a full return next week.

Until the mixed games start again, here's another mixed drink, because I haven't posted one of those in a long time either.

This was a version of a drink called Green Russian, which I haven't found online, but in an old book about mixed drinks that used to belong to my parents, I believe. The version from the book calls for 40 ml of vodka and 20 ml of green crème de menthe, which you are supposed to shake with ice and then strain over ice cubes in a martini glass and garnish with a lemon twist. For this one, I just increased the amount of liquor to make a simple version that fits in the glass as it is after shaking, to see what it's like. I may try the "proper" version another time, not sure if I will bother with the garnish, though.

It does have a nice color that isn't found in too many other cocktails, and as you may expect, the taste is mostly minty, since vodka has a pretty neutral taste. It's still quite different to drinking crème de menthe straight, if nothing else because of the shaking and all the dilution that is involved.

I think a true "green Russian" involves 1 litre of vodka, and consume it straight up until you turn green.

A similar drink is the "Black Canuck" where you consume rye whisky (the cheapest you can find) until you black out.

Happy to see you back at the tables, Harrier!

I think I will hit the tables more often, too! But first comes first! The hard work comforting her :sifflote::sifflote::sifflote:

after our yesterdays MarioKart session.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Happy to see you back at the tables, Harrier!
Not quite yet, but I'm getting there, and I'm ready to kick some tail again.

And I think Baby Peach did pretty well once more. She didn't even make us drink all that much this time.

I have been considering to get back to playing in the last two days, but something came up every time, so I only did some casual games, mostly 2-7 OFC. But despite my resolve to get back at full force, what I experienced so far was pretty worrying...

On Sunday, I had Stars open, trying to look for a game or two to play to get back into it, and was immediately tilted by the changes to the lobby after the latest update. Filters had to be adjusted all over again, and even after doing that, certain tournaments still didn't show up because there were still some table size filters that were inexplicably changed after the update too and so on...
Anyway, it took a while to get this sorted out and resulted in early tilt, my game suffered and the session was pretty costly. My mental game did not take this well and I was back to that familiar jaded feeling about poker already. I even tried reading up on some theory on some of my games after a sufficient break, but got bored almost instantly.

I played some more 2-7 OFC today, which was swingy, but I lost by a decent margin at the end. The losses from both days combined were probably enough to undo my latest gains, and I find myself below 600 µBTC again. I have no idea how my overall stats in this game are by now, but I expect that they are not amazingly impressive.

But yet again, what bothered me was that despondent feeling at the end. Sure, no one likes losing, but I almost felt panicked again, witnessing my heart racing in my chest and feeling worried, pessimistic and almost a bit fearful about my upcoming grind. I can't remember a time when I have felt less confident about my game than during these days, apart from the very first few months when I was starting out, understandably.

It is true that none of those games were part of the main mixed games tournament grind that I plan to resume, which has yet to happen, but it still worries me a lot. It seems like I'm still dealing with the same old problems and nothing has improved, even after a three weeks long break.

Still, this changed nothing about my plans, and I fully expect to get back to my tournaments tomorrow unless something comes up again, and I don't see why anything should. I will try my best to get off to a new start, but it is clear to me that I still have a real mess on my hands. I suppose patience is key...

I suppose patience is key...

THIS!

That´s the spirit! ♠_thumbsup:

Originally posted by Primrose6789

I suppose patience is key...

THIS!

That´s the spirit! ♠_thumbsup:

As planned, I played my first proper tournament session since the break. My plan for now is to play the $2.20 Courchevel and the $4.40 Badugi.

I have played Courchevel on and off before with mixed, but overall decent results, yet I always ended up dropping it eventually because it takes pretty long and doesn't promise great returns compared to other games. For now, however, I believe it might be a good choice to help me get back into the swing of things, if nothing else because the buy-in is lower than most other games which are available.

I also know that I used to be good at Badugi, so I'm still not willing to drop it yet despite about half a year of poor results by now. It will be the second game in my grind, and hopefully, I will either have better results by the end of next month or found a different game to take its place. Another game to consider adding to the grind would be the $1.10 8-Game, where I have been doing generally well in the past, but I'd like to stick to two tables for now, so something else would have to go first.

Results-wise, it was a brick tonight, but who could blame me after hands like this: (just check out those equities...)

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Courchevel H/L Pot Limit - 75/150 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 9,102 (61 bb)
CO: 2,095 (14 bb)
BU (Hero): 4,426 (30 bb)
SB: 3,435 (23 bb)
BB: 3,303 (22 bb)

Pre-Flop: (225) K♣ Hero is BTN with 3♣ 2♦ K♠ A♣ Q♠
1 fold, CO calls 150, Hero raises to 450, 1 fold, BB calls 300, 1 fold

Flop: (1,125) K♣ K♥ 9♣ (2 players)
BB bets 1,125, Hero raises to 3,976 (all-in), BB calls 1,728 (all-in)

Turn: (6,831) A♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (6,831) 5♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 6,831

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows 3♣ 2♦ K♠ A♣ Q♠ (HI: a full house, Kings full of Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 50%, Flop: 94%, Turn: 3%, River: 0%)

BB shows A♥ 9♠ A♠ 4♣ 3♦ (HI: a full house, Aces full of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 50%, Flop: 6%, Turn: 97%, River: 100%)

BB wins 6,831

I try to mostly focus on the mental game for now, because I know that this has been a big problem and I believe that if I improve in there, I may or may not end up doing better results-wise, while I'm pretty much destined to fail either way if I don't improve. It's all about changing what you have the power to change and so on.

So I don't think I did too badly in the Courchevel, but I'm still not feeling the Badugi at all. By now, I'm not willing to take rebuys in there anymore either, so I'll have to make the first bullet count from now on. As I said, I hope that I'll have some better results by the end of next month at least, but I'm already keeping my eye open for alternatives in case I prefer to chop it by that point.

Skipped another session after coming home late (and pretty fatigued) from sports practice yesterday, but I should have plenty of time for poker in the next few days. I did play some mahjong later that night to get my feet wet in that game again too. It went pretty well, but I noticed that I was still pretty tired, so I left it at just one game.

I had been looking for different grinding options during my break already, but realized that there really is nothing new under the sun. With the exception of OFC (hi only) games on that second crypto site where I haven't deposited yet, I think I have already exhausted every good option in the past, and this includes new poker sites where I wouldn't have an account right now. This means that rather than finding completely new games to explore, I will have to use what I'm already familiar with and try to make it work.

Nevertheless, I'm down for some gambling challenges away from the poker tables. I already mentioned mahjong, but I'm always interested in exploring other skill based real money games. Backgammon comes to mind, of course, and I know that some people over here have some experience with this game already, whether it's online, live or just plain casual play. I had a look at some real money sites, but there have been a lot of concerns about game integrity on almost all of them. To be fair, there have always been legions of people complaining that online poker is rigged tool, but I suppose backgammon is more of a niche game compared to poker and it would be a pretty easy game to cheat at.

Besides, I would ideally like a site that offers some freerolls so I could try building a bankroll from scratch without risk, like I did it with mahjong back in the day - another game where I wouldn't have felt comfortable depositing, especially considering that game's steep learning curve. The sites I found didn't seem to offer them a lot. I have found one which claims to have a freeroll schedule, but also pointed out that the freerolls come with a small admission fee... really not sure if they know what a freeroll is. Seems to me like they are confusing them with guaranteed prize pools or something.

Anyway, I wasn't too excited about what's on offer, but then I thought, why would I need to play for real money at all for a new challenge? I had a different idea, and it involves a piece of open source software called GNU Backgammon:

It is a training and analysis tool which uses neural networks (you may have heard of Snowie) to analyze your play in real time, and also offers you AI opponents of various skill sets to play against. Note that due to the real time analysis feature, you are not allowed to use this software while playing proper backgammon games online, keep that in mind in case you're an online player and you're considering to get it yourself.

So it's time for a new on-and-off challenge in this blog, for those slow poker days, which I would like to call:

Can Harrier Backgammon?

Here's how we'll do it: I will play Match games against the AI (current settings: "advanced" opponent, 7 points to win, Crawford rule* enabled, though I may change any of this down the line), and keep track of not only my results, but also GNUbg's brutally honest mathematical analysis of my play, and even an evaluation of how lucky my dice rolls are. We will then see not only how well I'm doing results-wise (we may even assign a monetary value to those games later to see how much I would have won or lost in real games), but also how good my actual decision-making is, for a better estimation of how good I am at backgammon.

"Tutor mode" is enabled, which will give me an instant warning when the move I'm going to make is not recommended, as seen below. Depending on how far it is straying from the software's calculated optimal move, it is classified as "doubtful", "bad" or "very bad", and you can even adjust those thresholds if you believe the program is going too hard or too soft on you. I will, however, treat every game as if I was playing a real game for money online, so I am not allowed to undo my moves after that warning, even if it was a misclick or if I realize myself what I could have done better. It wouldn't matter in real online games either, wouldn't it? As soon as I touch the dice, the move is made, misclick or not.

Can Harrier Backgammon? Find out in my next post...

*The Crawford rule is an optional, but recommended rule for Match play. When one player is one point away from a win, the next game becomes the "Crawford game", which prohibits either player from using the doubling cube. Otherwise, the losing player could just blindly use the cube willy-nilly and inflate the value of that game, since they have nothing to lose. After the losing player wins the Crawford game, either player is free to use the cube unrestricted in any later game in the match.

Ready for Harrier's first match of the backgammon challenge? Well, it was short and not so sweet, my opponent won 8-0 after one game...

I was off to a good start, managed to double and then keep my opponent pinned with a good prime, until I was bearing off and they managed to capture one of my checkers, having set up a decent prime themselves. I incorrectly accepted their re-double to 4 and even foolishly doubled again to 8 after escaping it and believing to have a slight pip lead, causing the program to yell at me. The game does display the pip numbers, so I must have misread - or my decision was wrong either way. In any case, it was a quick match for sure.

Here are the stats:

GNUbg was not impressed with my play, giving me an "Awful!" rating overall, the worst one possible. It didn't think too highly of my opponent either, though, rating them as a "Casual player".

My actual checker play, however, was considered less terrible, only a few bad moves, no very bad moves at all, and also an overall rating of "Casual player".

The doubling cube was where the real mistakes were made, not that my opponent fared much better, incorrectly accepting my first double. Luck was slightly in my opponent's favor, though not by much.

I originally planned to only play one game to get the challenge going, but since it was over so quickly, I started another one. This one was a little more interesting, and in the end, your favorite troll (well, 2nd favorite, behind Vorpal) managed to win 8-5.

But how well did I really play? According to the analysis, not too hot:

My cubing decisions were slightly less donky this time. There was one game where GNUbg kept yelling at me to double, but I didn't quite have the guts, and yet in the last game, I made a bad double which nevertheless worked out in the end to bring me the win. My checker play, however, was much worse than in the first game.

Can Harrier Backgammon? Well, there's room for improvement... I'm certainly not Gus Hansen yet, though I seem to have the "losing at poker" part down recently.

At least we are still break-even results-wise. Let's see how this will go in the future, should be a fun challenge.

Baby Steps

Courchevel and Badugi tonight again. Had to take a 2nd bullet relatively early in the Courchevel after some bad luck, then ended up losing with that 2nd bullet later after some bad play. Badugi started out pretty card dead, but I at least managed to secure a mincash and a $1 bounty in the end. This was exactly enough to break even - in that game, that is, I'm still stuck with my Courchevel losses.

Even the most cool-headed poker players are not made of stone, and losses, swings and bad beats impact everyone, but I still noticed that setbacks like my 2nd Courchevel exit and the slow, steady chip losses during the more card dead Badugi phases upset me more than they should. I still seem to be stuck in "fight or flight" mode and tend to get very nervous in those situations, with all the usual symptoms. Clearly my bad overall results this year still haunt me, and it's tough to escape, but this is just something I need to play through at the moment, I believe. It's not going to get better on its own, there is no mythical remedy for it, and I've had plenty of breaks already, so that's not the problem. Looks like I have no choice but to persevere.

Some good results would surely help wonders to ease my nerves when it comes to that, and tonight, we took some baby steps. I secured an ITM plus bounty and got my chips in good in the exit hand. I certainly have higher standards for success normally, but during these tough times, you have to take what you can get and take it from there. Let's hope we can get some momentum going.

Can Harrier Backgammon?

I felt like playing some more backgammon after the poker, so I tried my luck in five more matches against my advanced level AI opponent. As you could see in my last post, my backgammon skills could do with some improvement. How did it go this time?

Well, there was one win and four losses, bringing my overall record since beginning this challenge to 2-5, but those are just the results. My play was still rated as "Awful!" across the board in the first two games, with the second game also admitting that I got pretty unlucky, giving me the "bad dice, man!" rating. My play in games 3 and 4 was still rated as "Awful!" overall, though I at least got a "Beginner" rating (the second worst label) for my checker play, it was the cubing that dragged me down. Also, my opponent got "good dice, man!" for their lucky rolls in game 4.

Game 5, which was the game I won, finally rated me as a "Casual player", the third worst label, and it did so across the board for both cubing and checker play (luck was neutral, but a bit better than zero). For a player like me, this can be considered a success already.

So we're taking some baby steps, both in poker and backgammon.

In order to take such bad streaks easy, not giving a shit, you need to be a psychopath. And fortunately, we´re not! Downswings and bad luck indeed can erode your self-esteem, your motivation and your mind-set. As you know, both of us struggle with such phases. While I often experience you upset and try to encourage you, I myself find millions of excuses why I cannot play poker right now, why I first have to do this and that and I´m too tired from sports and bla bla bla yada yada yada.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
While I often experience you upset and try to encourage you, I myself find millions of excuses why I cannot play poker right now, why I first have to do this and that and I´m too tired from sports and bla bla bla yada yada yada.
I wouldn't even look at it as making excuses, it's only smart not to play when you're not in the right mindset.

In my situation, though, I think the only way to get back on track is to play through the bad phase. Clearly this wasn't just a matter of getting away from it for a while, the problems are all still there after the break.

A Lesson to be Learned

The answer to my self-imposed "Can Harrier Backgammon?" challenge appears to be a "not really" so far, and while part of this was meant as something of an experiment to see how I would do playing for cash on a hypothetical backgammon network, there was more to it. By having my decisions analyzed separately from my results, for example, I wanted to see a specific case of how both skill and luck influence the outcome of a game like this, so I could see my poker games a bit more rationally too.

The lesson that I learned from this the other day, however, was a different one: It looks like I'm often simply going too hard on myself.

Sure, those pretty brutal ratings from my backgammon software are all based on objective mathematics, and it can be humbling that I'm often not even given a "Beginner" rating, but I've had a look at how this is calculated by taken some glimpses in the middle of a game. It turns out that if the game isn't lasting too long, it's actually pretty easy to be stuck with a terrible rating by simply making a couple of bad moves - which is to be a expected from players who are as inexperienced as I am, no matter how much I was criticizing myself for not seeing those better moves and for my overall lack of understanding.

Let's take a look at my overall stats for checker play so far during my challenge:

A lot of mistakes were made, and this could indeed put me into trouble in real money games, but let's look at it this way: in over 75% of moves where there was an opportunity to mess up, I didn't. In the big majority of cases, I did make the right move. Over 85% of my decisions were not considered "bad" or "very bad". As an inexperienced player, do I have much of a reason to be hard on myself for straying so far from the mathematically suggested moves, then?

More importantly, could it be that I have often been using similarly harsh standards for myself when evaluating my poker play - and possibly some of my non-poker performance too? If we were to rate my poker moves in a similar way, for example, I'm sure there would be plenty of mistakes to be found as well, and I'm also sure that many players who are doing pretty well results-wise and who are well ahead of the field wouldn't look too great on paper.

Definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to the mental game. And going back to backgammon, I did actually improve a lot after taking a look at my typical mistakes. On occasion, I already got an "Advanced" or even "Expert" rating for checker play in some isolated rounds, while the rating for cubing decisions tends to be pretty polarized because it can sometimes be riding on just a single decision per game, since the doubling cube shifts into your opponent's possession after using it. Therefore, the rating for your decisions will often be considered either perfect or terrible in any given round. I'm improving when it comes to those decisions too, though.

Back to Poker

There was no session tonight because for the first time in over half a year, Harrier was able to put on a helmet and join his teammates for a full two hour football practice, giving a much welcomed dose of pre-2020 normalcy - hopefully there will be more of it on its way.

Yesterday, I did play, and unfortunately, Badugi was over so quickly that I ended up taking a 2nd bullet after all, despite my earlier plans not to do that. That one didn't fare any better, and the future of Badugi in my grind is looking shakier each day, but that should be discussed in more detail some time.

Courchevel went a lot better and mincashed. Also, I joined a $1.10 8-Game, since Badugi was over so early (even after that 2nd bullet) and I have been doing pretty well in that one so far this year. It went quite well, finishing on the final table bubble for an 8th place finish - that's the good news. The bad news is that the guarantee for this tournament seems to have been severely shortened to only $100. I believe it was $200 or $250 when I was last grinding it. My 8th place was worth only $6.17, not even covering my two Badugi bullets, and a 1st place only would have paid out $30-something. Even in the old tournaments which offered about twice as much for 1st place, I considered it just barely worth the while, I certainly don't plan to hang around with the new payouts.

With Badugi increasingly looking like a candidate for the chopping block, this makes me wonder how much point there is in even playing during these hours at all. I have experimented with an afternoon grind before, but most of the tournaments in there seem too expensive for me in my new situation now.

There are still some options: I would still feel comfortable enough playing the $4.40 Five Card Draw, which is a PKO and a Turbo, and shortly after that, there would be another $1.10 8-Game with a $200 guarantee, like I remembered it from my previous grind. Other more expensive tournaments during that time that could be worthy of consideration would be a $7.50 Courchevel PKO, if I ever get confident enough in that game, and a $5.50 6+ Hold'em (Turbo). I have shipped a 6+ Hold'em MTT in that buy-in range before, but overall, my results are mixed, I would have to read into it more until I can seriously consider this, I believe.

I won't commit to anything just yet. With me now hopefully being a little busier in the evenings, maybe I can try the afternoon grind again from time to time on those days when I won't be able to play in the evening anyway, and otherwise keep things as they are. Either way, let's hope that we can finally start turning those poor results around this month.

And now for some highlight hands from my last session:

1. Bad Luck in the Courchevel

This didn't happen too far away from the bubble. I know that preflop sets can be vulnerable, but you're usually in good shape with the high ones, at least. Usually...

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Courchevel H/L Pot Limit - 300/600 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 8,415 (14 bb)
CO: 4,439 (7 bb)
BU: 14,088 (23 bb)
SB (Hero): 11,742 (20 bb)
BB: 7,873 (13 bb)

Pre-Flop: (900) Q♦ Hero is SB with 8♣ J♣ 3♥ Q♥ Q♣
1 fold, CO raises to 2,100, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to 6,900, 1 fold, CO calls 2,339 (all-in)

Flop: (9,478) Q♦ K♠ K♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (9,478) 5♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (9,478) 2♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 9,478

Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows 8♣ J♣ 3♥ Q♥ Q♣ (HI: a full house, Queens full of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 40%, Flop: 45%, Turn: 3%, River: 0%)

CO shows 5♥ A♣ K♣ 7♦ T♣ (HI: a full house, Kings full of Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 60%, Flop: 55%, Turn: 97%, River: 100%)

CO wins 9,478

Check out the equities: My opponent was actually ahead preflop against my set, just by dominating all my draws. And even after having all lo-potential and chances of winning with a flush or straight wiped out on the flop, they were still slightly ahead with their overfull (or quads) draw, because five cards in your hand give you plenty of chances to hit something.

2. Good Luck in the Courchevel

This happened not much later. Trip queens again on the flop, and I thought for quite a while about it. I suspected that my opponent could be ahead, though the flop might not be too bad for a bluff at this stage either, and they may just have a flush draw. Apart from ICM pressure, part of the reason for my push was that I had seen how easy it can be to hit a full house with all those hole cards.

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Courchevel H/L Pot Limit - 350/700 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 8,415 (12 bb)
MP: 10,528 (15 bb)
CO: 14,038 (20 bb)
BU (Hero): 6,253 (9 bb)
SB: 2,775 (4 bb)
BB: 6,973 (10 bb)

Pre-Flop: (1,050) Q♣ Hero is BTN with Q♠ 9♥ K♠ 5♣ J♥
3 players fold, Hero raises to 1,400, 1 fold, BB calls 700

Flop: (3,150) Q♣ Q♥ 3♣ (2 players)
BB bets 3,150, Hero raises to 4,853 (all-in), BB calls 1,703

Turn: (12,856) 9♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (12,856) 8♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 12,856

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows Q♠ 9♥ K♠ 5♣ J♥ (HI: a full house, Queens full of Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 38%, Flop: 45%, Turn: 92%, River: 100%)

BB shows A♠ 8♠ Q♦ 2♦ 8♦ (HI: a full house, Queens full of Eights)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 62%, Flop: 55%, Turn: 8%, River: 0%)

BU (Hero) wins 12,856

3. Freerolling in the 8-Game (PLO)

Also close to the bubble, and both me and BB are deep stacked. The turn card sure is nice, but I suspected that BB might have hit the exact same hand. The decisive difference was that I was holding the Jack, giving me a chance to improve to an even better straight. With not many hands that could dominate me on this rainbow board (two pairs and sets could improve to full houses, an extra KJ could dominate one of my straight draws), I decided to push all-in with that deep stack, hopefully freerolling my draw. It worked perfectly.

PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Omaha Pot Limit (8-Game) - 200/400 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 7,352 (18 bb)
MP: 15,104 (38 bb)
CO: 5,848 (15 bb)
BU (Hero): 21,091 (53 bb)
SB: 7,440 (19 bb)
BB: 18,879 (47 bb)

Pre-Flop: (600) Hero is BTN with 9♣ 8♥ J♥ 7♣
UTG calls 400, 1 fold, CO raises to 800, Hero calls 800, 1 fold, BB calls 400, UTG calls 400

Flop: (3,400) 6♣ T♠ 3♥ (4 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: (3,400) 9♦ (4 players)
BB bets 3,400, UTG folds, CO calls 3,400, Hero raises to 17,000, BB calls 13,600, CO folds

River: (40,800) Q♣ (2 players)
BB bets 1,079 (all-in), Hero calls 1,079

Total pot: 42,958

Showdown:
BB shows 4♣ 5♠ 8♦ 7♥ (a straight, Six to Ten)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 31%, Flop: 36%, Turn: 40%, River: 0%)

BU (Hero) shows 9♣ 8♥ J♥ 7♣ (a straight, Eight to Queen)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 69%, Flop: 64%, Turn: 60%, River: 100%)

BU (Hero) wins 42,958

How about the challenge: Can Harrier cook and eat decent food for once?

Originally posted by Primrose6789
How about the challenge: Can Harrier cook and eat decent food for once?
Will this one do?

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by Primrose6789
How about the challenge: Can Harrier cook and eat decent food for once?
Will this one do?

BANHAUSER!

Originally posted by Harrier88
Courchevel went a lot better and mincashed. Also, I joined a $1.10 8-Game, since Badugi was over so early (even after that 2nd bullet) and I have been doing pretty well in that one so far this year. It went quite well, finishing on the final table bubble for an 8th place finish - that's the good news. The bad news is that the guarantee for this tournament seems to have been severely shortened to only $100. I believe it was $200 or $250 when I was last grinding it. My 8th place was worth only $6.17, not even covering my two Badugi bullets, and a 1st place only would have paid out $30-something. Even in the old tournaments which offered about twice as much for 1st place, I considered it just barely worth the while, I certainly don't plan to hang around with the new payouts.

Was that the Monday one?
I normally check to see if any friends are in the tournament, but didn't this time.
Congrats on the decent finish.
I hadn't noticed the drop in the guarantee.
I'll still play it as a filler for when I bust out of one of the others.

How do you feel about Razz?
There is a $7.50 Razz that starts at 17:13 GMT that I have been wanting to play, but I would normally need to late-reg it, and last few times I checked, it didn't run.

I'll be in there tomorrow, Thursday and Friday to hopefully get a feel for it.

Can you post a link to the backgammon training site please?
I'm curious.

Cheers,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Was that the Monday one?
I normally check to see if any friends are in the tournament, but didn't this time.
Congrats on the decent finish.
I hadn't noticed the drop in the guarantee.

Thank you! It's the one that starts at 22:03 CET. Guaranteed prize pools tend to be changed around from time to time, but today's was still at $100, at least. I did not play on Monday, Sunday was my last session.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
How do you feel about Razz?
There is a $7.50 Razz that starts at 17:13 GMT that I have been wanting to play, but I would normally need to late-reg it, and last few times I checked, it didn't run.

I'm not a big fan of Razz, it seems like variance-hell. It's among my least favorites in the 8-Game lineup too, though I still much prefer it over Limit Hold'em.

I've had decent success in some isolated tournaments and may even have final tabled one a few years ago (not sure), but overall, I haven't really figured out a way to gain a consistent edge. If there were really low buy-in ones during my playing times, maybe I would try it occasionally, but I will definitely not risk $7.50 per tournament on it.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Can you post a link to the backgammon training site please?
I'm curious.

I'm not using any site, it's some open source software called GNU backgammon, or GNUbg, it can be downloaded here. Not sure how much setting up it needs after installing, I recommend at least adjusting your opponent's skill level to your preference, and enabling tutor mode under Options, though I've turned it off for cube decisions by now.

Those post game analyses can be found under Analyze -> "Analyze match or session". It might take a while to calculate.