Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

It's almost the end of my little quasi-vacation, with just one more day to go. Luckily, today was a more relaxing day, because I still didn't feel like I was able to unwind all that much until then. The constant nightmares just before waking up don't help.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a screenshot of the final SNG leaderboards on Sharkscope for last month, which now seem to be impossible to get because only the current month gets displayed. When I checked a few days ago, I was 1st for Germany in Five Card Draw, and maybe around 3rd to 5th worldwide. In Stud8, I finished maybe in the top third for German players, after a terrible start. Not sure about the global ranking.

Last week, I got quite a streak going in Stud8, with three 1st places in SNGs in a row. It's too bad that this was followed up by a four game losing streak today, but the results are still pretty good overall. Five Card Draw is also still showing some promise - and a 1st and 2nd place in some Troll Challenges SNGs sure helped.

More importantly, I made tonight's Badugi MTT count by shipping it for $82.02 including bounties. Actually a pretty low payout for a 1st place, but the tournament did not have as many entries as usual this time. It was enough to get our bankroll above $3.4K, which is good. I still don't know when I'm going to play for withdrawals again, the problem is that I don't have a proper grinding plan for the longer run, because there are still so many decisions to be made in my personal life, many of which would have an impact on poker.

Due to the low number of games last month, I think I'll skip the stats this time - but I did notice that before tonight, I had exactly 100 Badugi games this year, so let's see what our stats are around this milestone:

Pretty darn good returns, especially if you consider that this was before shipping tonight's game. Also note that by some coincidence, The average profits from 2020 and 2021 exactly add up to the average profit of 2022 so far...

I aim to finish a new spreadsheet for tracking SNGs from various formats for comparison by the end of this month. Once this is done, we should have some more graphs and data to look at, which should give us an even better idea of where we are going.

No poker today. It's back to work tomorrow - and to another job interview before that too, so I'll have a full slate ahead of me.

Before that, though, let's take a look at a drink that Primrose and I made together when she was visiting last Friday. It involves some pumpkin puree that she kindly prepared for me.

Also some "pumpkin pie spice", which I prepared myself ahead of time, using four teaspoons of cinnamon, two teaspoons of ginger, a teaspoon of cloves and half a teaspoon of nutmeg - all ground up, of course.

We were aiming to recreate the Pumpkin Spice Latte as it is sold at Starbucks - at outrageous prices, especially nowadays. But we are all in the mood for fall-like stuff, so why not try to imitate it at home.

In addition to a tablespoon of that pumpkin puree and about a quarter to a half of a teaspoon of that pumpkin pie spice, we used a cup / 284 ml of milk (almond milk in our original attempt, which also worked nicely) and half a tablespoon each of maple syrup and vanilla extract.

We cooked it until it was starting to steam, and then put the mixture into my blender to get it nice and frothy.

Now we just needed a shot of espresso for each of our glasses - the mixture we made was enough for two servings, so two shots in total.

Carefully top it off with the mixture...

And finally sprinkle a little pumpkin pie spice on top.

It was pretty good. About on par with the flavored macchiatos I get from my coffee maker, I guess, which are of course much easier to prepare and require less cleanup, but it's still nice to try something new once in a while. Primrose liked them too.

Here are the almond milk based lattes we made on Friday. The froth on top looked nicer in those, I believe. We didn't even add it in any way, it just naturally came out that way when we poured the mixture on top.

Those, I believed, could have used a little more sweetness. I did not feel that way about the lattes I prepared today, using real milk. That's coming from a guy who never adds sugar or artificial sweetener to any of his coffees and teas, by the way.

The less said about those late shifts, the better... No poker this week, until today. We're getting quite a streak going in the Five Card Draw SNGs again. Four games in a row cashed, the first three of which were even shipped outright. 6 out of 9 games this month cashed so far. Also, we are finally back at over $100 in profit in those games this year, for the first time since March.

Badugi had some nice returns tonight as well, we finished 3rd for $34.97 including bounties. I made some crucial mistakes late at the final table, which prevented me from going all the way.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes to deal with my bad work schedule, and some progress is being made, but I'm mostly stuck playing the waiting game. Until then, let's try to make the most of it.

Mixed Drinks for the Colder Seasons

We've had our mixed games, now let's have some mixed drinks again - but not the usual cocktails this time. As I'm now getting into those hot drinks, and we had our coffees... let's try making some hot chocolate! But none of those ready made mix packages, forget about those. I used to make hot cocoa instead using powdered unsweetened cocoa instead, combined with other ingredients, and I do know a good recipe for that. This time, though, I wanted to get into "real" hot chocolate, made from actual chocolate bars. I've always wanted to try that, because it allows for virtually endless possibilities - you can cut up any kind of chocolate you like, and turn it into a drink.

For my first attempt, I started with a bar of plain old Milka alpine milk chocolate.

Good old Milka, leading urban kids to believe that cows are purple since 1973 (and making chocolate for many decades before that). How could you go wrong with that? In fact, I remember some "special editions" of those pre-packaged mixes, advertised as being made with Milka chocolate. I can do better than that and just put the stuff in myself.

I've been following the instructions on this blog, which I had archived many years ago for that purpose. It suggests using a cup of water with four ounces of chocolate... that would be pretty much the entire bar, I decided to only use half of it for now.

Of course, I couldn't resist trying a few pieces myself... I forgot how good it was, I haven't had a piece of basic, plain alpine milk chocolate in quite a while, I believe.

Thanks to my super sharp knife and the instructions on that blog, cutting the chocolate went surprisingly well and only cost me a couple of minutes.

Let's prepare the water, then. This should be about half a cup...

Bring it to just about a boil, turn the heat off, and pour that chopped chocolate in...

Whisk it around a bit and keep it simmering for a few minutes... that should do it.

I've wanted to introduce those new mugs for "brewed coffee" on this occasion, but it turned out that the hot cocoa was barely enough to fill a smaller macchiato glass. Maybe I should have used the entire bar after all...

Now that looks pretty good already, but I decided to add a little extra. This, however, will have to wait until my next post...

Remember my new milk frother? Here it is readily assembled:

It has four buttons, for warm creamy frothing, warm firm frothing, cold frothing, and just basic warm milk.

The whisk sits at the bottom of the device, and can be removed for cleanup.

Using it is pretty simple. You just pour milk into it, up to the marking for the minimum amount...

Then put the lid back on, push the button for the kind of froth you want, and the machine gets to work.

I think I pressed the wrong button - I wanted the warm firm frothing, I may have gotten the creamy one instead, but it's some nice frothing either way.

Back to that cocoa...

I wanted to top it off with some of that milk froth. Turns out that the frother yields a pretty generous amount, and much of it is steamed milk rather than froth (as it should be - you want some steamed milk in addition to the froth for most drinks). Maybe the bigger "brewed coffee" mugs would have worked after all with that amount of cocoa, but then again, alpine milk chocolate combined with such a large amount of hot milk would have been quite rich, I believe...

I decided to use a part of it, at least. It looked like this:

A little messy, but that's because I had to do a careful balancing act with that froth, since I couldn't just pour the whole lot in.

In conclusion, I was very pleased with that hot chocolate. That's certainly something I can try again, with various other kinds of chocolate. I could also add some booze, of course. Some rum for a Lumumba, or some vodka for a Russian Chocolate. Once again, virtually endless possibilities.

Poker? None at all this week. Normally, I find some time to at least squeeze in some SNGs in those weeks with early shifts, but not this time. It was a pretty exhausting week, frankly. One setback was that I got a rejection from what I considered to be my most promising job application, which I didn't take lightly that day. It's all good by now, and I sent out plenty of new applications in the meantime too, in addition to the ones that are still pending.

Most importantly, I took a long nap this afternoon to compensate for my bad lack of sleep this week. I was in a pretty sorry state this morning, accidentally almost knocking several things over in the kitchen in a daze, and operating my coffee maker without realizing that there was no cup underneath it...

Now that regained some sleep, I should have the energy for a couple of games this evening already. There won't be much time next week either, so let's make this weekend count. How about we ship a Badugi?

Only managed to mincash last night's Badugi, and after taking a 2nd bullet too. There have been some new arrivals for the "home café", though.

I already introduced my glasses for espresso, macchiato and "brewed coffee" last month. I got a few extra ones of those, but also a medium size glass for "Lungo" shots - your basic coffee size, I guess. It holds up to 190 ml, as opposed to 70 ml for the espresso glasses, or 250 ml for the Macchiato ones.

Here are all the kinds of coffee glasses I have available now, in addition to that porcelain mug for brewed coffee.

The glass all the way to the right is a tea glass. My capsule-based coffee maker also supports capsules for tea, of which I have a couple at home, but don't use them all too often. First of all, I'm much more of a coffee guy, I don't drink tea very often unless I'm sick (I'm which case I'll drink it all day long), but also... tea is very easy to prepare already without the need for any fancy capsules or machinery, isn't it?

That's why I didn't get any of those tea glasses the first time around, but I've been so happy with the other glasses that I decided to go for it. They are not only for tea anyway. I got into making hot cocoa as well, for example, and those glasses could be a good choice for that one too. Or how about a nice glass of Jagertee on a cold winter evening, or maybe some mulled wine - a staple at Christmas markets all across Germany.

The tea glasses may look similar to those Lungo glasses, but there are some differences, and the tea glasses hold considerably more: 260 ml vs 190 ml, enough to easily fit another shot of espresso in. Here they are next to each other, the Lungo glass is on the left. As you can see, the tea glass is just a little taller and wider.

Also compare it to one of those Macchiato glasses, also on the left in the picture below. The Macchiato glass is quite a bit taller, but not as wide, especially at the bottom. As a result, the tea glass actually holds a little bit more, 10 ml to be exact.

There's a lot we can do with those glasses. I already gave the Lungo glass a test run this morning, when I served some café au lait in it for breakfast, along with oven croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice.

And yes, I'm aware that I should get rid of that roll of duct tape in the background... I don't even know for what I originally needed it, but it has been sitting around in my kitchen for ages now, ruining pictures left and right...

Cocoa of the Week: Dark Chocolate with Salted Caramel

I think I will turn this into a weekly series now. Every weekend, I will try to present a new hot cocoa, made out of another kind of chocolate.

Last week, we had plain Milka alpine milk chocolate. This week, we will stick with Milka, but use a dark chocolate with pieces of salted caramel.

This chocolate bar is a little smaller than the one from last week, with only 85 g or 3 oz worth of chocolate, so we're going to use the whole thing.

I timed myself this time, I needed about seven minutes to cut this one up.

The chocolate was already starting to melt, so it almost seemed finished already when I poured the flakes into my 3/4 cup of water.

Just a couple more minutes, and we were done.

I used one of my new tea glasses, and thanks to the added chocolate, the finished drink was a little more than the 260 ml that the glass could hold. Also, I left out the milk froth this time.

It only vaguely tasted of that salted caramel, looks like it was dominated by the greater amount of dark chocolate when those little flakes dissolved. Still, a very satisfying drink.

Salted caramel is Banhauser! ♠_ugly:♠_ugly:♠_ugly:

No noteworthy success in Badugi this weekend, unfortunately. Tonight had a lot of potential, but I got a bad cooler shortly before the bubble, so I had to settle for my $3 in bounties. I don't think there was much I could have done differently in this hand - then again, I was three-tabling at this point, which is a lot if every table is an entirely different poker format. Still just a big cooler, not much to do about it.

My SNGs actually went really well on Saturday, hot streaks in both Stud Hi-Lo and Five Card Draw, where it looks like I have somewhat regained my form from last winter. We have also regained all the money that was lost there during my downswings in the meantime. Tonight went okay too.

Also, I have found a new tournament which may even be an option for those nasty late shift weeks, like the one that is coming up now. There is a new $2.20 6-card Omaha MTT starting at around 11 PM my time, with a refreshingly short late reg period of only 50 minutes, so it should end shortly before midnight. I may not be an expert on 6-card Omaha, but then again, neither is anyone else, I expect. It's a mixed game, as far as I'm concerned, so it works for me.

Tonight, I didn't even do too poorly. Had to take an early rebuy, but then I made it all the way to 7th place, getting drawn out right on the FT bubble. $5.21 were very modest returns, but enough to cover both bullets.

It's certainly better than nothing. This game, combined with a SNG or two, could be a good way to get some "poker after dark" in after plugging away at that warehouse until 10 PM.

No countable success so far in 6 card Omaha, but I'm starting to get a better feel for the game.

Not surprisingly, it's variance hell. Check out the equities in this hand, for example. We flop the absolute nuts, and yet, we only have a coinflip, because our opponent has so many ways to hit with their six cards:

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - 6 Card Omaha Pot Limit - 50/100 (12 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 4,967 (50 bb)
MP: 7,195 (72 bb)
CO: 2,496 (25 bb)
BU: 2,270 (23 bb)
SB: 2,507 (25 bb)
BB (Hero): 2,545 (25 bb)

Pre-Flop: (222) Hero is BB with 2♦ 4♥ Q♠ J♣ T♦ 7♠
4 players fold, SB calls 50, Hero checks

Flop: (272) J♦ J♥ 2♠ (2 players)
SB bets 200, Hero raises to 500, SB raises to 1,772, Hero raises to 2,433 (all-in), SB calls 623 (all-in)

Turn: (5,062) 4♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (5,062) 5♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 5,062

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 2♦ 4♥ Q♠ J♣ T♦ 7♠ (a full house, Jacks full of Fours)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 45%, Flop: 52%, Turn: 69%, River: 100%)

SB shows T♠ 9♥ J♠ 6♠ Q♥ A♦ (three of a kind, Jacks)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 55%, Flop: 48%, Turn: 31%, River: 0%)

BB (Hero) wins 5,062

Not unlike 6+ Hold'em, this might be a format where limping may not be such a bad idea.

Had some time for poker tonight after going home from work early yet again - I guess we're just working so efficiently that we're done with everything three hours in advance...

The SNGs didn't go so well, but we made FTs in both Badugi and 6 Card Omaha. Badugi finished 5th for $14.31 including bounties, 6 Card PLO went all the way to 2nd place for $20.

Here's a cool one... nice river:

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - 6 Card Omaha Pot Limit - 700/1,400 (175 ante) - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 57,723 (41 bb)
CO (Hero): 17,724 (13 bb)
BU: 14,290 (10 bb)
SB: 32,168 (23 bb)
BB: 22,095 (16 bb)

Pre-Flop: (2,975) Hero is CO with J♠ 9♥ Q♠ 3♠ 7♥ 8♥
UTG calls 1,400, Hero calls 1,400, BTN calls 1,400, SB calls 700, BB checks

Flop: (7,875) 8♠ J♦ T♠ (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets 5,250, BTN raises to 12,715 (all-in), 3 players fold, Hero calls 7,465

Turn: (33,305) 7♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (33,305) 9♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 33,305

Showdown:
BU shows T♥ K♦ 9♦ 2♠ 4♠ J♥ (a flush, Ten high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 57%, Flop: 29%, Turn: 17%, River: 0%)

CO (Hero) shows J♠ 9♥ Q♠ 3♠ 7♥ 8♥ (a straight flush, Queen high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 43%, Flop: 71%, Turn: 83%, River: 100%)

CO (Hero) wins 33,305

Nice hand for sure. Lucky for sure with in mind villain blocked your flush draw.

Originally posted by SDK1987
Nice hand for sure. Lucky for sure with in mind villain blocked your flush draw.

Well, we already flopped a straight, so we didn't really need the flush.

The only things we needed to dodge were full houses and K-high straights, I think, but as you can see from the equities, we were pretty comfortably ahead on the flop already. Still cool to spike that straight flush on the river.

Tonight's 6 Card Omaha was on good pace for another very nice FT finish, but unfortunately ended on 7th place, right on the FT bubble, after a big blunder by me where I overplayed a flopped nut flush draw. It's a lesson to be learned. I did all right when I was playing in a more disciplined way before.

We have finally reached the weekend, and I'm feeling a little under the weather, actually. It should not impede the poker grind in any way, though - if anything, it's the opposite, I will probably now spend a little more time than usual in front of the screen.

Turns out I really did catch something Thursday night, but don't worry, it seems to be just a common cold. With some additional potty problems...

I'll still see if I can take at least one sick day tomorrow. If I was working at some office desk, then sure, I'd drag myself to work, not much difference if I sit there or at my laptop at home. But in the job I do, I really don't think it's such a good idea to try forcing myself to pack all those heavy boxes at a snail's pace while spreading my germs all over them.

Poker this weekend was mostly unlucky, but the 5CD SNGs went well. Stud Hi-Lo is on a bit of a downswing, unfortunately. Had bad luck in Badugi too. Not sure how next week will look poker-wise, let's first see what my doctor says about when to return to work.

Oh, and the Cocoa of the Week will be postponed a few days, but it's coming. The chocolate is still in the fridge, nice and chocolatey.

Cocoa of the Week: Chili Chocolate

Wow, we're late this time... but better late than never. It's what happens when you're struck with the sniffles and reduced to sipping tea all weekend long.

I made this cocoa yesterday, didn't get to posting it until now. Tonight, we went for some dark chocolate with little bits of chili in it, from Moser Roth, another common brand at local supermarkets.

The chocolate from this brand usually comes in individually wrapped little 25 gram blocks, meant to be eaten as one "serving" each. It's actually quite convenient, also for my purposes. I used four of them and ate the fifth and last one, so we had 100 grams of chocolate to use for our cocoa.

I think I used about 250 ml of water.

Maybe it's pointless to even keep showing the final results unless I put a twist on it... but it does look a little darker than usual, I believe, and I don't think it's just the lighting.

It's hard to tell without trying them side by side, but this may have been my favorite so far. The dark chocolate had a nice, rich taste, and the extra chili added a pleasant little punch without making the chocolate taste outright spicy. I think it would work well with an additional shot of rum too.

It's the weekend... another long one for me, because I will be on vacation on Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully, I will find some more time to relax than during my last vacation, though it doesn't look like it so far. Getting a new job could help tremendously, and trust me - I'm still on it. Fingers crossed that it will work out in time for the new year.

As for poker, there have been few games and fewer successes this week. Check out my Hand of the Day for some dark comedy. Stud Hi-Lo and 6 Card PLO need to see some improvements if they are to stay in the grind.

Our Cocoa of the Week shall be postponed yet again because I have another meet-up planned with the grindette soon - and she will provide the chocolate this time. I am not yet told what it will be, so it will be a surprise for me too.

For now, let's have some coffee instead. I have made it through another week of morning shifts, and I don't know about you, but I can't imagine getting up at those early hours without a nice espresso - preferably a double shot.

There are, however, some people who are not big fans of espresso. Reasons may include that they feel the drink is too strong, or that the amount is simply way too little. I may not agree, but if you happen to be one of those people, maybe you should try a Caffè Americano.

Simply put, an Americano is an espresso with hot water. People aren't in agreement over the ratio, some suggest 2 to 1 water to espresso, but I've seen other suggestions along the lines of 1.5 to 1, which I believe works better. It is said that the drink has been invented by American soldiers in Italy during World War II, who added some water to their espresso to both increase their rations and to make it more like the standard drip coffee they were used to, hence the name.

It is quite easy to make at home. I know that my espresso maker spews out 60 ml of espresso as one serving, so I went with 90 ml of hot water.

It is recommended to pour the water in first. If you have one kind of cup that you always like to use, you can remember where the water stops, so you won't even need any measuring cups anymore.

Next, pour in the espresso. Might as well just put the cup with the water right under your espresso maker.

And that's all there is to it. Notice that the coffee still has that layer of crema at the top. If we had poured the espresso in first and then added water on top of it, it wouldn't look that way.

It's a fair drink to add to the menu, but personally, I think I'll stick to my double shots of regular espresso.

Tonight's grind didn't look like much... I bricked a 5CD SNG and got out early in Badugi, prompting me to take a 2nd bullet in there this time. However, I made it count to secure a 2nd place finish in the end. It's too bad that we lost the heads-up battle, so we had to settle for $36.83, but at least we got another final table tonight in 6 Card PLO, finishing 4th for $10.

Together, those winnings were enough to make another milestone:

With that, we have now exceeded our minimum goal for this year by $1K. Not only that, but we also cracked the $1K mark when it comes to MTT profit this year. Considering the small volume due to work, this is a very good result.

Not much has changed when it comes to my poker plans, I guess. I originally intended to withdraw anything in excess of $3.5K for one time only, at least, to get a little cash windfall and to make sure that withdrawals are still working with all the new red tape attached to it, but with only $7.10 to grab, I don't think I'll bother.

I also don't plan to start playing for monthly withdrawals again yet. I would still like to build that bankroll up a little further. I should, however, now be in a position to take a few more shots at higher games. The problem is still a lack of time, and I'm afraid this won't change any time soon either...

Oh well, let's just keep it up as best as we can. And let's welcome Primrose tomorrow.