Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Still brick city... not just in the MicroMillions, I haven't cashed in the Badugi or any other side games in over a week by now either. A few minimal bounties here and there was all we ever got.

The MicroMillions Five Card Draw had another good, but ultimately worthless run in store for me that finished shy of ITM. The MM Badugi at 1 AM was not worth staying up for either, with really unimpressive hands all around, even though the run lasted well past late reg, but still not until ITM.

There are two more days in the MicroMillions where I definitely intend to play, one of them is tomorrow, which has the 2-7 Triple Draw for $5.50 in the evening and a $1.10 + rebuys PLO tournament at 17:30, which I am playing as part of a "Play My Game" challenge with my good friend and PLO crusher Primrose, as followers of her blog will have surely read the other day. Nice to see that at least she has been doing well in her game after only a rudimentary briefing from me on those new variants. I wish I could say the same about me...

Can't say that I will be too sad about the end of this tournament series, for which I didn't have very high hopes to begin with and somehow still ended up falling short of them, but who knows... anything can still happen. And when we're done with it, there is still the issue of getting back on pace with my regular grind. This month had a hot start, but much of the momentum is gone by now. It's high time to correct that.

Well, it was your game and all I did is applying a little logic after your short briefing. I have to say that many Villains were just gambling and actually had really zero clue. The first two hours I was at a table which was full of gamblers (way bigger fishes than me) and all I had to do is waiting patiently for a solid hand and play that aggressively.

My good hands got payed by people, who were gambling for their lucky lucky miracle card and kept calling and calling. Even when I stood pat in Lowball with a solid 8-high, one Villain kept calling and calling and drawing 2 cards. I stood pat and fired my bets. And eventually I got called with J-high and my 8-high got full payment. Same in Razz, where it was even obvious that I had a solid hand (6 to A) and Villain was behind. He kept on calling and gambling.

In no Limit Holdem I had an easy no brain jam with KK and of course got a call from a "no fold button"-Villain (the same that kept calling in Razz) who showed 55.

A little logic, a little luck and solid TAG straightforward play was enough.

This should also be the good advice to you, my friend! Omaha is not completely new to you. And there are more than enough recreational gamblers. Just wait patiently for a good starting hand and a good flop. You will get fully payed if your hand survives the river :f_ugly::f_biggrin:

Play my game! And take a ride with me!

Gl gl gl and enjoy your ride!

I had a good run in the MM Badugi -- but it was mostly desperation equity that fell short of the mark.
I had the (mis)fortune of sitting to the left of Tjs at the very beginning.
He potted and re-potted on two streets multi-way drawing two the first time and 1 the second.
When he went all in the others folded.
I folded to his blind 4-Bet with a 1-card draw to an 8. I'm 🐔

I'm going to watch him next Badugi tournament.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I had the (mis)fortune of sitting to the left of Tjs at the very beginning.
He potted and re-potted on two streets multi-way drawing two the first time and 1 the second.
When he went all in the others folded.

Ah, yes, this guy. He's in a lot of mixed games, and he always seems to have this hyper aggressive playing style - but he makes it work, quite successfully in fact, and also seems to have a tendency to hit when he needs it... I prefer not to have him on my table at all.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Play my game! And take a ride with me!

Gl gl gl and enjoy your ride!
Well, it wasn't exactly a rollercoaster ride. More like this, probably:

Prim railed me while she was playing, but for everyone else, it pretty much went as expected. No cash, but not a completely terrible run thanks to overuse of the fold button. I highly doubt that flop based poker games and I will ever become friends again.

But I'm always up for a nice game with friends - or some PLO, if nice games aren't available. I was glad to be able to play with you, in any case, and congrats on your good finish!

Badugi and the MicroMillions 2-7 Triple Draw are coming up next...

I´m sorry you didn´t like it, Harrier. Oh boy! But let me tell you something: The hands you played, you at least played well. For the next "play my game" challenge we choose another game for you, as you know, I look for nice side games as a distraction and fresh kick for my brain. Maybe you like one of my side games then?

Thank you. Sure, I'm always up for anything.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Badugi and the MicroMillions 2-7 Triple Draw are coming up next...

Still nothing. I was doing all right in the 2-7 TD for a while, but eventually started playing like crap again.

There will be a very tough sports-intensive weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow, I'll take a much needed day off first. The only MicroMillions event left that I intend to play is the Badugi on Saturday. Hopefully, the short break will come in handy, because I won't stand a chance in there either if I keep playing like this.

I'm longing for the beginning of next week, when my schedule should be much lighter for a while and the MicroMillions will be over. Maybe a longer break from poker might be in order too, but I'll decide when I get there. First of all, I'm looking forward to some relaxation tomorrow, and then it's time to get through the tough weekend, with at least one more MM event to play as well.

I've been meaning to make an update for a while, and sure enough, there is a lot to talk about by now.

First of all, the weekend was tough, as expected. On Saturday, there was a mini camp preparing me and my team for the start of our football season next month, which lasted for about 6 hours including breaks. I was also away for a scrimmage (a practice match) the following day in another town, which lasted about 7 hours including travel. There is a video showing some highlights, I couldn't find a way to embed it here, so you can watch it on Facebook if you like. I'm the player with the number 98 from the team with the golden jerseys, though there aren't too many distinct shots of me. I'm playing D-line, if that helps locating me.

So I was away pretty much all day for the entire weekend, and I could certainly use some rest after all that, and that's exactly what I did. My body isn't too beaten up, fortunately, though I did carry away some mosquito bites.

The MicroMillions have officially ended by now too, and luckily, it wasn't a complete brick. Against my better judgement, I took a 2nd bullet in the Badugi last Saturday despite being somewhat deep into late reg, but I'm glad I did. I managed to run that one up quite nicely and ended up finishing 86th out of 1961 (this includes rebuys, I think there were a little over 1300 unique players).

There was potential for more, the exit hand was pretty unlucky, but I definitely stand by my play, even though I was pretty sure I was defeated when my opponent bet into me after the third draw - still no way to fold at that point. On the second draw, I was about 73% ahead, and I'll always go for a 73% chance to gain that many chips which may have possibly helped pave the way to a final table. No point folding into the next ladder.

The exit hand can be found in the spoiler, but let me take this opportunity to mention that Vorpal had a quite impressive run in the same tournament. I saw him with a good stack and sitting on about $40 in bounties when I busted out, not even knowing that he was in the tourney at all. I would have railed, but as I mentioned above, I had some scrimmage to go to the next day and needed some sleep.

Nevertheless, the MicroMillions went pretty terribly for me. The Badugi cash just barely covered the two bullets, and everything else was a complete brick. The total result for the series is $26.47 down.

What's more, much of the momentum from my good results in June and a hot start this month, which involved a 1st place Badugi finish, was gone. There was over a week with no cashes to show beside a minimal bounty. I knew that I had to turn things around once the MicroMillions are over and my daily schedule gets lighter.

I'm happy to report, however, that this is exactly what has happened. Both of my last two Badugi tournaments have final tabled, yesterday's finished 5th for $22.78 including bounties, while tonight's game was outright shipped for $111.84, beating my other 1st place from earlier this month, which only returned $108.32. This is exactly what I needed, and my bankroll has reached a new all-time high, now surpassing the $1.9K mark for the first time.

It didn't even look like a very hot run at first, I barely made it past ITM at all and was the only player without a bounty when I reached FT, where I also soon fell back to last place after a nasty cooler vs a shorter stack. With some patience, though, I managed to get a hold of a number of pretty damn sick hands, the sickest of which can be seen in the Hand of the Day thread. The winning hand heads-up was a drawn K-Badugi which barely held up against a 32A that missed.

There will be no poker tomorrow, but after that, there shouldn't be too many appointments that could get in the way, unless something comes up on short notice again, which may very well happen. For now, though, I'm just glad that I managed to recover not just from all the physical exercise this weekend, but also from my recent lack of success at the poker tables.

I think this also makes up for the PLO? :sifflote::f_ugly:

There has been a lot of attention given to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in American-style (which includes Canadian) football.
It is present, but far less prevalent in Aussie-rules or rugby.

There has been talk of ending the game at the high-school level in BC, but I don't know how far that train has travelled.
I do know that coaches of all contact sports need to have specific CTE training.

When they introduced helmets in the NHL, the incidence of head injuries went down, but neck injuries may have increased.

from : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/036354659402200203?journalCode=ajsb (1994)
Over the past 30 years hockey players began wearing helmets and face masks. Cervical spine injury, with an incidence of 15 cases per year, began to be re ported in the 1980s. Cervical spine trauma had not been reported before then. After review of the litera ture, there seems to be a consensus of opinion that the style of play that is allowed a player with head protection may actually increase the chances of cervi cal spinal trauma.

I'm going to guess that the league has all this in hand though...

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
There has been a lot of attention given to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in American-style (which includes Canadian) football.
It is present, but far less prevalent in Aussie-rules or rugby.

Having played both rugby and American football, I think I'm typically more bruised after a practice session of American football than I remember being after most rugby practices, though that might be because of my position and the constant beating you take in those drills (then again, you dish out a lot too). But I was definitely quite sore after a full rugby match.

Both sports certainly have a high risk of injury. I got pretty lucky so far, I only remember three instances that required a doctor's attention in about ten years of playing those sports, and I think they were all rugby injuries. None of them were too serious either, the worst thing I got so far was a broken tooth.

I try to be careful, because I know the risk, and I also know that I'm not in my early 20's anymore, but I think I have a few more years of playing time left in me. I decide on a year by year basis when it's time to quit, and I don't think that's any time soon.

Like Poker you pretty much have to enjoy it to continue.
Cheers,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Like Poker you pretty much have to enjoy it to continue.

Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I do enjoy it to a good degree, but it can be pretty taxing at times. It's definitely a challenge, but that's also a good thing - things don't always need to be pleasant to be fulfilling.

The opposing team's coach actually gave a little speech about effort and sportsmanship to all the players who were present before the start of our last scrimmage. One of the things he said was "Don't let yourself say 'if only I had...' when you are older - the time to do it is right now!", and that's to a large degree my motivation too. I can already look back to my sporting career with a certain sense of pride and accomplishment, but I don't think I'm done yet, and I want to say that I gave it my all when I finally let it rest. Not to mention that the last (pre-COVID) season, which was also the first one I played, was terrible results-wise , so I'd hate to go out on that.

Anyway, there are a lot of things that I'd still like to do and accomplish in life, but for most of them, there's still plenty of time. As for American football, it's really now or never for me.

Originally posted by Harrier88
The opposing team's coach actually gave a little speech about effort and sportsmanship to all the players who were present before the start of our last scrimmage. One of the things he said was "Don't let yourself say 'if only I had...' when you are older - the time to do it is right now!", and that's to a large degree my motivation too.

Many of the greatest things Mrs Vorpal and I have done started out with "Let's do this before we regret not doing it".

At my stage in life I'm pleased that there are far more things I regret doing, than things I regret not doing

The main thing I regret not doing is a trip to Australia.
All through high school I saved up to go, and had a decent bankroll for the trip on graduation.
I won two scholarships though -- that had to be used that year at one of two universities.
So I went -- just for a year -- and spent too much, so I had to work in the summer, and ended up completing a degree.

There's still time though...

Another month goes by. As I mentioned before, we came out of a good month, had a hot start, a few bad weeks in between, but finished strong again. Here's how it looks like in the Badugi:

That's a profit of over $315 over the last two months (Badugi only) despite relatively low volume. If this continues, we might just be able to turn the terrible first half of the year around and finish according to plans after all.

The MicroMillions were a little costly, but as a one-time expense, it's a drop in the bucket. Even with those events and all side games included, I still made a profit of $141.30 this month.

It's looking good right now, let's try to keep it going. I'm still trying to introduce good side games, and I've seen some success in Seven Card Stud, with two cashes in a row in the last two days, one mincash and a final table that finished 5th for $24.45. It was enough to recoup this year's losses in this format, but whenever I gave those games a try, short-term success was the best I could achieve. I need to keep it consistent if Stud is to be a permanent addition to the grind. Hopefully I can keep the trend up - no poker tomorrow, but plenty more to come this week.

Really nice looking graphs!

Another final table in the Stud, making it three cashes in a row. Tonight's finish was 3rd for $28.14, which might be my best result in this format yet.

My play was not very good when I entered the final table with a pretty good stack, forcing me to eventually rely on some desperation equity like in the hand below. I had been quite card dead for a while by that point, and noticed that I wouldn't even survive the next couple of antes, so I decided to just go for it with what I had since my hand had at least an ace in it that could potentially pair up, and even some faint runner-runner straight potential - there was a good chance that it would be better than the next couple of hands I would be dealt.

There was what seemed to be a lot of tanking going on (looks like it was mostly just disconnections), so I even had time for a toilet break after pushing all in on 3rd street since this happened during the 5 minute break in the Badugi too. I fully expected not to see my name at the table anymore when I returned and even noted down the amount for an 8th place cash in my spreadsheet already. The fact that my opponents were still not done with the 3rd street betting when I returned was not the only surprise:

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 7 Card Stud Limit - 600/1,200 (240 ante) - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

Seat 5: 5,760 (5 bb)
Seat 6: 5,780 (5 bb)
Seat 7: 23,380 (19 bb)
Seat 8: 20,290 (17 bb)
Seat 1: 8,780 (7 bb)
Seat 2: 23,325 (19 bb)
Seat 3 (Hero): 715 (1 bb)
Seat 4: 76,970 (64 bb)

Third Street: (1,920) Hero is in Seat 3
Xx Xx 3♣ BI bring-in 360____BI folds
Xx Xx 7♥ UTG folds
Xx Xx 9♥ UTG+1 calls 360____UTG+1 calls 840
Xx Xx K♣ MP calls 360____MP calls 840
Xx Xx T♣ MP+1 calls 360____MP+1 calls 840
Xx Xx 6♠ LP folds
Xx Xx J♥ CO raises to 1,200
5♥ A♦ 3♥ Hero calls 475 (all-in)

Fourth Street: (7,555) (5 players, 1 all-in)
Xx Xx K♣ 4♥ MP checks____MP calls 1,200
Xx Xx T♣ 5♣ MP+1 checks____MP+1 calls 1,200
Xx Xx J♥ 2♠ CO bets 1,200
Xx Xx 9♥ 8♣ UTG+1 folds

Fifth Street: (11,155) (4 players, 1 all-in)
Xx Xx J♥ 2♠ K♥ CO checks
Xx Xx K♣ 4♥ 3♦ MP checks
Xx Xx T♣ 5♣ 4♣ MP+1 checks

Sixth Street: (11,155) (4 players, 1 all-in)
Xx Xx K♣ 4♥ 3♦ K♠ MP checks____MP calls 2,400
Xx Xx T♣ 5♣ 4♣ 4♠ MP+1 bets 2,400
Xx Xx J♥ 2♠ K♥ 5♠ CO folds

Seventh Street: (15,955) (3 players, 1 all-in)
Xx Xx K♣ 4♥ 3♦ K♠ Xx MP checks
Xx Xx T♣ 5♣ 4♣ 4♠ Xx MP+1 checks

Total pot: 15,955

Showdown:
Seat 8 shows 2♥ T♥ T♣ 5♣ 4♣ 4♠ J♠ (two pair, Tens and Fours)
Seat 7 shows Q♣ T♠ K♣ 4♥ 3♦ K♠ A♠ (a pair of Kings)
Seat 3 (Hero) shows 5♥ A♦ 3♥ 2♣ 4♦ J♦ 6♥ (a straight, Two to Six)
Seat 8 wins 11,300
Seat 3 (Hero) wins 4,655

So I had to rely on luck a lot to secure such a good finish, there are definitely still some leaks, but as I once pointed out, I often have a tendency to be a bit hard on myself, so let's look at the bright side: I correctly identified plenty of spots for bluffing, value-betting, bluff-catching and early folds all throughout the game. I feel a lot more confident already than during my last few tries at this format, and at least in the short-term, the results are now starting to come in too. Considering what little experience I have with this game yet, I really shouldn't be too disappointed for not making the most of a final table - especially when I ended up securing a pretty good finish after all, even if it was mostly through luck.

Anyway, those last few winnings give me the confidence to ride out a few weaker phases too, so I will try to stay at it. Hopefully the positive trend will continue, in which case we might really have another addition to the schedule. But it's still way too early to tell.

Badugi, meanwhile, was largely played on auto-pilot tonight, which is another risk that a new game like Stud brings. Luckily, I got some good hands when they mattered, so I could still get a 10th place finish in the end, which amounted to $12.01 including bounties.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Badugi, meanwhile, was largely played on auto-pilot tonight, which is another risk that a new game like Stud brings. Luckily, I got some good hands when they mattered, so I could still get a 10th place finish in the end, which amounted to $12.01 including bounties.

It is really hard for me to play stud properly with anything else going on.
If my attention is averted at the wrong time suddenly I'm looking at my hand wishing I could see the door cards that are no longer there.

Gimme a break...

We all need a break every once in a while. I haven't played any poker since my last update, because I have been dealing with a lot of personal stress lately. It's nothing that can't be resolved, however, which reminds me to introduce a weekly ritual of sorts that I started some time last fall.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the concept of the sabbath, and I had decided to establish a somewhat secularized version in my schedule - I am religious, and my sabbaths typically also include some bible reading, but my motivation to introduce it was less to follow laws from scripture, and more because I simply thought that it would be good for me - and probably for all kinds of people of all creeds too.

It's pretty simple, you just set aside one day a week for some scheduled relaxation and reflection time. I chose Saturday, but it's not set in stone for me and might change depending on any new schedules due to new jobs etc, like the one I had last year which eventually had me working almost every weekend.

Sounds easy, right? It may seem that way, but our society is fast-paced and many forms of entertainment offer escapism rather than recreation. I myself noticed, especially during my job last year, that those off-days with "nothing to do" often ended up feeling almost more stressful than the days I tried to relax from. So that was one of the reasons why I gave those "sabbaths" a try, with scheduled time for relaxation, not just passing time.

My rules:
- No internet. Also a "less is more" approach when it comes to electronics in general, though they are not banned by any means.
- Nothing politics-related. That includes news reports of any kind.
- No alcohol the night before (it used to be the night after it, but I thought it makes more sense that way).
- No hard workouts or physical activities (though I will still help others with their work if that's required).

And as I said, activities based on pure relaxation are encouraged. Things like reading, watching meditative videos, maybe even some actual meditation, though I'm still learning the ropes. I also try to spend some time outside, if possible. It helps with the relaxation and the great outdoors is another thing that's easy to take for granted these days.

It will all last until some unspecified time in the late afternoon/early evening, usually when I'm done with my reading or whatever I'm doing. Rituals include making oven croissants for breakfast (unless I forget to buy some), and also swimming.

This is the local indoor pool. I learned to swim right there back when I was a kid, and even before that, my parents would sometimes take me there when I was still wearing swimmies. The swimming classes of my elementary school would also take place there. It has changed a lot over the decades. Most notably, it used to be a commercial swimming pool in the 90's, but was gradually converted into a members-only pool in the 2000's when it was struggling to survive on a commercial basis, like most more rural swimming pools over here. Membership fees would pay for the expenses, but members could use the pool whenever they like without any extra cost.

It has been a long time since I went swimming there, first because it was closed due to COVID, then because they had a new system to let members in that required getting a new card for it, but today I finally hit the water again. And it sure was a great feeling, just the right way to get the sabbath started.

I hope that it will stay open for a while and that I will be able to keep using it in my sabbath routines. Oh, and poker should continue this weekend.