I think you explained these to me once, but I have long forgotten
<sigh>
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Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I think you explained these to me once, but I have long forgotten
<sigh>
A Kokushi Musou is a special hand where you have the 1 and 9 of each suit as well as one of each dragon and wind tiles in your hand, and one extra copy of any of those tiles to make a pair.
A standard winning mahjong hand just involves a pair and four "sets", which could be either a run of three tiles in one suit or triplets/quads of the same tile. If three of those sets happen to be triplets/quads of all three dragon tiles, you got a Daisangen/Big Three Dragons.
It's about time for some more stats - and I'd love to present some, but they are not completely ready yet. I've been collecting a few more than usual, and I'm also working on spreadsheets for new games. And as always, OpenOffice tends to crash a lot when it has to handle such a large amount of data.
I also managed to finally find the time for another Badugi tournament tonight, which doesn't happen a lot these days. I finally made it count by getting a final table and a 5th place finish. Just $1 in bounties, unfortunately, but $17.66 are still nice returns. I am also doing quite well in 8-Game SNGs recently, which are extremely hard to get going.
However, any joy about that success was significantly dampened by me getting absolutely destroyed at mahjong tonight. 
I lost almost $20 in there, which is huge. It's not like those games were going very well before, and now we received a mighty blow to set us back even further. If we can make up that loss at all, which is doubtful, it will take a very long time. But what can you do... those are the only games that have traffic these days - no one plays poker anymore, it seems.
Stats for the mahjong disaster and the mixed bag that is mixed games should be coming up tomorrow, I hope.
I should have collected most of my statistics now, maybe I can get around to posting them tomorrow after work.
But you know what's the biggest problem for me right now when it comes to poker? It's not that the games aren't going well - it's that the games aren't running at all!
Granted, those mixed games SNGs (and cash games) never had great traffic to begin with, but these days, you wonder what it takes to even get any of them going. I managed to get a seat at one Courchevel SNG at around 21:20 CET, then I've kept sitting in the lobby of another Courchevel and an 8-Game SNG for almost two hours while playing Badugi. I think both games had one instance where one intrepid player joined me in the lobby and waited for maybe half an hour, then ended up leaving because no one else showed up.
These games just aren't running. Seems like the only options for mixed games are MTTs now - and good luck grinding them when you're working full time.
For quite a few years already, it often felt like the world of online poker was slowly committing suicide, and I could see it on this forum as well, which in many ways is also only a shadow of what it was even just 3-4 years ago, unfortunately. At least for all those less popular games which I like to play, it feels like the ban on Russians may have been the coup de grâce. Hold'em and Omaha players may "only" have to worry about things like reg to rec ratios and the like, but mixed games are slowly turning out to be virtually unplayable aside from a handful of MTTs.
I have intended to contact Pokerstars support for a while now, mostly to ask for a solution to misclick bets that occur after I press enter in a chat or web browser only to have my table pop up right before it. If I can get around it, maybe I could use that opportunity to implore them to reverse the Russian ban as soon as possible (I don't know the whole story behind it anyway, maybe their hands are tied due to other regulations). I don't think it will accomplish much, but it's all you can do. I just hope that by the time this gets solved, it won't have caused any irreparable damage, with Russian recs having moved on to something else and non-Russian regs having abandoned their games due to the complete lack of traffic.
All right, let's finally have some stats. I had posted some graphs about 5CD just about two weeks ago, here are the the updated ones:
Cash games are essentially just breaking even for this year, by this point, and I don't see any edge to be had for me recently, which is why I dropped this format. SNGs may still look good overall, but this is only because of the good results from last winter. The following graphs illustrate this pretty nicely:
There haven't been many cash games for me at all this year, but they didn't fare better during that time:
My ITM% in the SNGs used to be over 50%, it's not anymore:
Here is a new graph about it that I made last weekend, it shows the progression of my finishing positions over time:
As you can see, both of the ITM positions had to give way recently.
So how are the overall stats for Five Card Draw?
The SNGs may look okay, but as I explained above, that's only because they were more than okay until the beginning of March. Then they turned bad enough to make me put those games on hiatus. And that's where we are right now.
The Main Games
Mixed games MTTs used to be in the heart of my grind, and they still kind of are, I just don't have as much time for them anymore. The few games I played last month didn't go very well, unfortunately:
Also note that this is the first month this year where I made a loss in 8-Game, and it wasn't even a small one, but that's because I was taking shots at some higher MTTs.
Stats:
The above 8-Game statistics include failed shots at some afternoon games, which usually had relatively high buy-ins. Counting only the games in my evening sessions, the numbers look a bit more favorable:
Honestly, those are pretty good. 5CD may cause some worries, but despite a bit of a dry spell and hardly any grinding time, those games still deliver so far this year.
The Other SNGs
With Five Card Draw on hiatus, I've looked into other options. 8-Game SNGs are hardly ever running, but in the three I was able to play, I cashed every time and won two of them. Courchevel had a similarly hot start when I got started with them early this year, but cooled off soon and continued along break-even lines. At least I still see some hope in there:
Certainly a lot of ups and downs in this variance-heavy game:
What worries me are the finishing positions. Our ITM% is near 50% and actually better than the one in FIve Card Draw, but look at the high amount of 2nd places:
This means that I'm doing quite poorly heads-up - and that I still have a lot to learn about this game.
Actually, this is part of the point of playing these SNGs, both 8-Game and Courchevel, to practice my game in order to prepare myself for MTTs, including some with higher buy-ins. It also gives me a chance to see where I might be standing compared to other players.
Not much to see yet in the statistics, but have a look anyway:
(Losing) Big in Japan
Finally, let's get to Mahjong. Oh boy...
While my previous performance in those cash games surely would not have inspired any mangas about me, I at least was able to take some pride in being a break-even player in such an exotic game. After the disastrous results last weekend, I can no longer speak of that, but more about that later.
Indeed, my bankroll in there sank below $200 this weekend for the first time in years. I remember approaching the $300 mark a few years ago (pre-2020, before I started keeping track of my results). Not that it matters all that much, as I believe that my previous withdrawal methods should now be unavailable anyway, and I once built this bankroll with the winnings from freerolls, and, following that, low buy-in tournaments. Sadly, none of those are running anymore, and the current tournament line-up mostly seems to have Japanese players in mind, with names and descriptions entirely in Japanese and starting times that are usually very inconvenient for any European players. Maybe I should have a word with their support about this as well, it would be nice to play some tournaments in there again.
The graphs... well, as you can see, it didn't always go this badly:
If we include last weekend's results, those graphs just become visual comedy:
Needless to say, finishing positions don't look good either. And as you can see, they worsened quite a bit recently:
Note, however, that I'm not doing all that badly on the lowest stakes. (Counting the days played is not yet implemented for the $0.05/$1 games)
Compare it to the other stakes. $2/$4 used to be my standard limit, so it is actually quite worrying that I'm doing as poorly in there right now.
I should probably explain those stakes, but this will have to wait until a later point. For now - the stats are in.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Wow!
That's a lot of work — but they sure do look nice!
Thank you. 
Would be good if the results were a bit nicer to look at too, of course.
Some takeaways from those graphs and stats for me:
General
- Those just aren't the best times to grind. Hopefully, things will improve if and when my personal schedule get a bit less busy and the traffic picks up in my games (still keeping my fingers crossed for the Russians to be back eventually).
Five Card Draw
- There appears to be no significant edge for me at the FL cash games anymore.
- SNGs are performing poorly since March and could use a hiatus.
Other SNGs
- Courchevel is more or less break-even (profit has dropped to a little over $5 tonight, ROI is in the single figures) and 8-Game has almost non-existent traffic. Both games should only be played for practice purposes.
Mixed Games MTTs
- Results-wise, these games have not suffered as much as my other games during the last two months.
Mahjong
- What I'm doing right now is not working out at all.
- My game could benefit from some analysis.
- Lower stakes and occasional four-player games may be a wise addition.
If you guys have anything to add or disagree with any of the above, please do let me know.
Harrier's Home Bar
During a break at work some time last week, I mentioned that I like mixing drinks and that I had invested quite a bit into my "home bar" over the years. Of course, I mentioned that what I call a home bar is really just a couple of cupboards with drinks and some equipment and glassware in the living room, but one of my co-workers was interested nonetheless and asked me if I could show some pictures.
Now, most people these days would simply snap some photos with their smartphone and then bring it to work, but of course, I never really cared for smartphones and still refuse to get one to this day. So what I decided to do instead was to take some pictures with my trusty digital camera, upload them right here on the blog and then send the link to my colleague - and while we're at it, you guys can take a little virtual tour of my home bar as well.
That's basically the extent of my humble "home bar" - a bunch of cupboards, as I pointed out before. But what counts is what's in them:
This drawer houses some sweet vermouth, scotch whiskey, a bottle of Pimm's (some fruity gin-based spirit), Angostura bitters as well as a bottle of orange bitters, amaretto, gin and some absinthe, in case you wanna see the green fairy.
To the right of it are brown and white rum, cachaça, blue curaçao, crème de café, green crème de menthe and brown crème de cacao.
The other cupboard contains an almost used up bottle of Campari, Malibu coconut rum, regular vodka as well as citrus vodka, some overproof rum for that extra punch, white crème de cacao, Frangelico hazelnut liqueur, orange curaçao, Fernet Branca and some good tequila, because this Sierra stuff just ain't gonna cut it - at least that's what my brother says, and he has been to Mexico before.
My shelf space is limited, so I'm keeping some extra drinks in the kitchen. I should really find a better place for them, but that's what I have over there, in any case:
Some Jagertee concentrate for those cold winter evenings (though it also came in handy after that football training camp last month), Drambuie, crème de banane, a bottle of Hpnotiq (some pale blue liqueur containing tropical fruit juices, French vodka and a touch of cognac), raspberry liqueur, white crème de menthe, some Genever, Parfait Amour (purple colored floral liqueur), crème de noyaux (a 19th century style almond-flavored liqueur), butterscotch liqueur, two bottles of Midori (green melon liqueur), Galliano L'Autentico (not the vanilla stuff), Southern Comfort, Triple Sec, Archer's Peach Schnapps, Grand Marnier, a bottle of Grenadine, some caramel syrup for those frappuccinos I rediscovered last month, as well as some chocolate syrup for which I don't even have any use yet, but I'm sure it's nice too.
The fridge has some additional drinks like a bottle of Bailey's, Orgeat (almond-flavored) syrup, blue curaçao syrup, ginger beer and several fruit juices, of course - but you don't need to see pictures of my fridge. 
Above the right cupboard is some equipment. Jiggers, muddlers and several shakers - it's useful to have more than one of those when you have several drinks to prepare for a group of guests. There are even some old decorative items left which once belonged to my parents back in the day, including some of those cute little umbrellas. I rarely bother to use them, maybe I should. I also still have some of those old plastic straws left behind from back in the day, I believe they are banned by now. I already bought a bunch of those re-usable straws made of metal or some special kind of glass in various sizes, shapes and colors, which can be seen in the top left. Those are the ones I use. Never ever bother with paper straws, unless you enjoy the taste of pencils.
The top part of the other cupboard has some room for glassware. On the top left are various kinds of shots and brandy glasses. I don't think I have ever used any of them, except some of those shot glasses once or twice, maybe.
There are more drinking vessels in the top right part, which find more common use. To the right are some "old-fashioned" glasses for whiskey and lowball drinks of all kinds, to left are what I consider "double old-fashioned" glasses (at least the size fits, they were originally meant for brandy too), as well as Mint Julep cups and those cool copper mugs for Moscow Mules, one of which even saw some use last night.
Then there is a third cupboard to the left, almost exclusively for drinking vessels, which once again include a few hand-me-downs, but also many glasses I bought as an addition to the home bar.
The top left contains some champagne saucers - which are actually completely unsuitable for champagne because their shape makes the drink go flat quite quickly, but they are fine as regular cocktail glasses, some "martini glasses", though their shape is a bit rounder than how these glasses are normally supposed to be like, I might get some new ones eventually, and a few of those big hurricane glasses,
To the right are some proper champagne flutes (much more useful for actual champagne, but also suitable for other drinks), as well as a few more unknown glasses which were handed down to me, some of which may be intended for desserts rather than drinks.
The middle part finds some regular use. That's where I keep my pints, including those special Guinness ones, and also including some half pints, great for sharing a bottle or can of lager, ale or stout with a visitor. Also several shot glasses, because I also like to have some of my drinks straight, of course.
To the left are several highball glasses of various shapes, which find common use in longdrinks of all kinds. Also some more neutral shot glasses, which are great for those layered shots like the B-52. In the back, all the way to the left, there are also some wheat beer glasses. I'm not from Bavaria, so I don't feel ashamed to say that those are hand-me-downs which I have never really used because I don't enjoy wheat beer.
The bottom part has some old ashtrays. Once again, those are hand-me-downs. I don't smoke, but I suppose it's still useful to keep some of those in a home bar of any kind. There are also a few beer steins, including one of those cool ones with the lid, though I personally prefer my pints. There's even a whiskey decanter, I believe, but I never had any problems pouring my whiskey in straight from the bottle.
Finally, to the right, we have some margarita glasses and some slimmer hurricane glasses, because I often felt that the bulkier hurricane glasses seen further above are a bit big.
So there you have it. Now you know what happens with my poker winnings when I'm not doing any bankroll building. I still plan on expanding that bar a little. For example, with summer fast approaching, I intend to buy a couple of tiki mugs for those themed drinks, and as you were able to see, some drinks are in need of replenishment, so I would have to take a trip to my go-to liquor store when I find the time, at which point I could also expand my collection a bit. I will let you guys know whenever there are any bar updates. 
♠_thumbsup: 👍 on the gin — my absolute favourite. I bought it for the first time because it came in a lovely pale-blue bottle, which I (correctly) assumed Mrs Vorpal would want when the gin was done.
I don't care — but purists get their knickers in a twist about this.
Scotch whisky has no "e". Irish whiskey does.
But even the page that purports to explain the difference has this paragraph:
from: https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/about/about-whisky/whisky-or-whiskey/
Rye Whisky
Rye whiskey is made in the same way as bourbon, but is made up of 51% rye. Examples of rye whiskey include Wild Turkey Rye and Jim Beam Rye.
And of course, in Canada, we're totally schizo with both spellings used more-or-less interchangeably.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_whisky
In the US, they have something called "Rye whiskey". What we in Canada call rye whisky doesn't meet their definition, so they call Canadian whisky exactly that.
In Nova Scotia, they now produce a single-malt https://www.glenoradistillery.com/glenora-whisky that they're careful not to call "scotch"
I would love to try some, but it is not often available.
And it's rather expensive https://glenbretonwhisky.com/alexander-keith-glen-breton-rare/
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I don't care — but purists get their knickers in a twist about this.
Scotch whisky has no "e". Irish whiskey does.
The version with the "e" looks a bit more natural to me, so this is the spelling I more commonly use, but I'm aware of the difference.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
♠_thumbsup: 👍 on the gin — my absolute favourite. I bought it for the first time because it came in a lovely pale-blue bottle, which I (correctly) assumed Mrs Vorpal would want when the gin was done.
Bombay Sapphire tends to be a tad more expensive than the regular "Bombay Dry Gin" that I currently have. The blue bottle does look pretty cool, though. Some might consider that alone to be worth the little markup.
I once made a drink called the Sapphire Martini, which ideally calls for some Bombay Sapphire, but of course can be recreated using any other gin too. This was before I took mixing drinks more seriously, so I probably used some cheapo brand back then.
This one uses 2 oz or around 60 ml of gin combined with two dashes each of dry vermouth and blue curaçao, which gives the drink a blueish tinge, a little like the color of the bottle.
To my palate, Bombay Sapphire has more subtle flavours than say, Tanqueray or Beefeater, so that makes it worth the extra.
In a G&T or Tom Collins it adds something extra.
As soon as the cocktail gets overly fruity, the extra that Bombay Sapphire adds is lost
Originally posted by Harrier88
The version with the "e" looks a bit more natural to me, so this is the spelling I more commonly use, but I'm aware of the difference.
Yeah, I rather thought you would have known. I just let my inner Scot out for a stroll 
Hoo boy... super busy week yet again. Very little time for poker. I'm happy to finally have a day off for myself tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'm going to spend it on poker either, I could use some time to simply unwind.
Next week shouldn't be too bad. I'm back to late shifts, which I dislike, but Thursday is a federal holiday (Ascension Day, officially, though it's more commonly celebrated as Father's Day, which overlaps with this feast here) and I requested a vacation for Wednesday, so I'll have two weekends for the price of one. There will also be no sports practice in the evenings, as I'll be either at work or on vacation at that time.
Speaking of sports, my American Football season opened today, with an exciting game that ended in a super close 28-31 loss that was decided within the last minute of the game. I hadn't written about it last week, because honestly, it's a bit of a struggle to keep up there at all. I can only make it to practice every two weeks due to my new job, and even when I do make it, I find it tough to invest the energy that this sport deserves from me. I already planned to retire after this season, and already considered this move at the end of last year. Back then, I decided to stick around because I figured that I have the energy for one more season - but that was assuming that I still had all the time in the world for it.
I'd hate to quit while the season is underway, but considering the little impact I have on my team, it's getting really hard to justify the time and effort I put into this, especially now that time is becoming an increasingly rare commodity for me that I would rather spend on something else. I do have a very strong sense of duty, but I believe it's high time I develop the strength to act out of self-interest too.
I'll think it through in the next few days, now that I finally have some time for myself. For what it's worth, this is the season schedule that is awaiting me in case I stick around:
What league is this, and what team are you?
Perhaps I can use my daily PokerStars free sports bet to support you...
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
What league is this, and what team are you?
Perhaps I can use my daily PokerStars free sports bet to support you...
It's GFL 2, the second national league. We are the Gießen Golden Dragons. Next game will be against the Frankfurt Pirates.
I don't think you'll be able to bet, at least not on PokerStars (feel free to have a look, though, things might have changed), but you can watch a live stream of the games. Not sure where those streams are hosted, but I heard that my team's Facebook page provided a link today. So if you guys have some time next Sunday or could use a little background noise, feel free to do a web search or check out the Facebook site linked above starting at around 13:00 GMT to see the Dragons in action - with or without Harrier.
Ended up playing quite a bit of poker after all. I must say, busting out of a SNG by losing a coinflip is frustrating enough without the knowledge that this means you will be staring at empty lobbies for another hour or so.
Nevertheless, by sticking around, I did manage to get a total of six Courchevel SNGs going today, which is an impressive number for this format. Only two of them cashed, but those two were shipped, so I made a small profit in there after all and did something to combat my poor heads-up statistic in this game.
Despite having put those games on hiatus for a while, I thought that it may be time to try some of those Five Card Draw SNGs again too. I was pleasantly surprised that they seemed to have pretty decent traffic again this Sunday. How couldn't they if their favorite fish is back? 
I didn't cash any of my three games. I'm able to pick up a few good pots, but always seem to end up with the short end of the stick when it really matters. And once again, it isn't all just bad luck, I'm making bad decisions. I will need to step up my game again if I want to see results like I had last winter.
I also got one 8-Game SNG running, and that's really all you could hope for for a day. Yet again, I choked during the later parts after a good start and didn't cash. By now, however, I have played enough SNGs to make me feel like including them in their own spreadsheet. More on that later.
With my current schedule, it seems like I'm only able to play Badugi MTTs once in a blue moon, but apparently that was today, because I did manage to play one - and I made it count. A 2nd place finish with $17 in bounties resulted in returns of $51.68, which is enough to turn those lackluster results from the last few weeks around.
As for those SNGs, let's compare some of the relevant stats for this year, now that I have collected some data on them:
Five Card Draw
Games Played: 170
Profit: $75.48
ROI: 20.40%
ITM: 43.53%
Courchevel
Games Played: 55
Profit: $10.36
ROI: 9.42%
ITM: 43.64%
8-Game
Games Played: 7
Profit: $3.03
ROI: 21.64%
ITM: 42.86%
As I keep saying, those are very bad times for the grind, and they are unlikely to improve a lot in the near future, so I'll just have to deal with them. It's important not to set my expectations too high, as this will only lead to frustration. I think my goal should be to set the groundwork for better grinding days, which is the main purpose behind those SNGs, to see where I stand in those formats and to get some practice in there.
MTTs will very likely continue to be my best bet, and maybe I will one day have time to grind them again. I have not yet made a decision on how to continue with American football yet - but I have made a decision to buy an air fryer. It's a Cosori CP158-AF-RXB, got a decent deal on it for €110 brand new in the box. It was among the better rated ones when I looked up reviews and comparisons, so let's hope for the best.
There has been some poker this week, not a lot - some SNGs cashed, not a lot. I may have more time next week.
Speaking of which, I had already announced here last week that I was considering dropping out of American football before the end of the season, where I originally intended to call it quits. I've been thinking it through a bit more this week, and decided to announce in an online chat with one of my coaches yesterday that I intend tomorrow's game to be my last. He actually won't make it there himself this time, and I have not received a reply yet either, but he has usually been very understanding when it comes to this.
Our roster is currently well-filled and I don't see myself getting a lot of playing time this season in my current role, but you never know what happens, so I suggested that I could be contacted when they are in dire need of extra players, in which case I would see if I could make to the game and to the practice sessions before it, if my jobs allows it. I consider this to be a fair compromise, but let's see what happens.
If things go according to plan, I should have plenty more time for other projects this summer already, including poker.
Still, there should be at least one more game tomorrow, which is an away game, so I'll be traveling to Frankfurt.
Check my team's Facebook page at around 13:00 GMT tomorrow to look out for live streaming links. A recap video of last week's game can be found here.
Dragons win, 47-21. 
I got a few plays in too.
I've been talking things over with my coaches, and we agreed that I would play basically "on demand" for my last few months, when they are a little short on players. So my football playing days are not quite over yet - but we are in a "transitional" phase of sorts.
Maybe this means that I can free up a couple more hours for poker this summer already.
Back to work tomorrow...