Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Those freerolls were once quite frequent — but sadly, no longer. I don't even check for them any more.
I just check every now and then when I'm in the lobby looking for OFC tables. If I'm there anyway, I might as well add one, especially if it's a game I like. 11-game or Badeucy, for example.
Originally posted by Harrier88
As a rule, keep two pairs together and put them in the back. A remaining K or Q goes on top, the rest in the middle.There are exceptions:
1. With AAXXx (XX not being KK or QQ), AA goes in the middle and XX goes in the back. AA is a good foundation for any Fantasyland cards on top, and the lower pair should improve to a two pair or better easily enough.
All right, we know what to do...
See? Easy stuff. Our quick little case study paid off.
Pretty good day at the OFC tables, but when it comes to regular poker on Stars, I guess I haven't quite found my rhythm yet. I started playing some SNGs on Friday evening, also the Badugi. My first Stud8 SNG finished 2nd, the other one bricked. Badugi had a mincash without bounties, finishing at a slight loss.
Especially annoying were the three Five Card Draw SNGs I have played so far, which all finished on the bubble. One particularly frustrating case was the SNG I played today, where my big stack opponent refused to put the shorty all-in predraw on the bubble, allowing him to check behind with a few big blinds left. A single win in the next hand was enough to give him a fighting chance, which was followed by a period of absolutely crappy hands for me, allowing my opponent to keep stealing from me at those high blind levels and eventually securing his place ITM after all, while my card dead streak continued.
It was frustrating enough to make me quit SNGs for the day, but honestly, I shouldn't get worked up over results until some time next month, I don't expect very good grinding conditions until then.
This should give me time to try to get something going in OFC in the meantime, ideally setting up a situation where this game could possibly be taken seriously as a grinding option, but we're a long way away from there right now. I could also prepare some new spreadsheets.
I'll leave you with this cool hand from Fantasyland today. Quads and a full house - not bad at all.
Notice that a flush is possible? If we had one more heart, or trips not containing any cards for the flush, I think this would have been a situation where we should have broken our quads, instead making a full house in the back, a flush in the middle, and then our highest trips on top.
The way it is, though, I don't think there was any way to put trips on top, so the quads plus full house combo really should be our best bet, earning us 22 points in royalties and allowing us to repeat Fantasyland one more time.
We were even lucky enough to have our underwhelming Q high hand on top hold up, earning us some extra points for the scoop.
My opponent was in Fantasyland too here, but their double flush stood no chance against my quads and boat.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Especially annoying were the three Five Card Draw SNGs I have played so far, which all finished on the bubble. One particularly frustrating case was the SNG I played today, where my big stack opponent refused to put the shorty all-in predraw on the bubble, allowing him to check behind with a few big blinds left. A single win in the next hand was enough to give him a fighting chance, which was followed by a period of absolutely crappy hands for me, allowing my opponent to keep stealing from me at those high blind levels and eventually securing his place ITM after all, while my card dead streak continued.
Collusion? I hope you noted the names.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Collusion?
I highly doubt it. Shorty made a raise from the button, having only one or two big blinds left, if I remember correctly. Big stack called in BB, leaving me wondering why he didn't just push for those last few remaining chips if he is last to act. If his hand was good enough to call, it should be good enough to play for those few additional chips too. He at least should have pushed postdraw, but instead allowed his opponent to check behind with his losing hand. Questionable moves by the big stack in my opinion, but I don't see any reason to suspect any foul play.
For one thing, I don't see why he should care whether I or the other player end up heads-up with him, and also, if he really was colluding, he would be better off just letting the other guy steal.
Five Card Draw, possibly more so than any other type of poker, is a terrible game to play when you're a little tilted, because it relies so much on your own judgment. Maybe that's the reason why my downswings in there have often lasted quite long whenever I had them.
Still no success there, but we continue to make good profit in OFC, despite an absolute rollercoaster session at the next highest stakes tonight, where I started out losing, then had a few superb rounds putting me back up with a very nice profit, and finally another very unlucky streak so I finished with a loss in that session again.
The winter weather may be very mild here at the moment, but it looks like we can expect some cold streaks at the poker tables this season.
Will I make it through three more weeks at this terrible job I'm working without going completely insane? Only one way to find out. Luckily, we're back to late shifts next week again, there will be only one week of those insulting evening shifts left.
What a Troll! 
Our opponent made a very good hand, among other things earning a Fantasyland deal in the next hand with their AA on top, which in itself pay very nicely. Having locked up solid trips in the middle already as well, we are looking for a King or Queen to offset the royalties a little and even the playing field by also earning a trip to Fantasyland.
...and sure enough, we get the King that we were longing for so much... together with two other cards that we can't use in the middle, because they would make a middle hand that would beat our bottom hand, forcing us to foul! 
And we're even getting teased with unusable quads. What a troll...
We have no choice, we have to put the King in the middle and use the 8 (or 3, doesn't matter here) for our top hand. The only silver lining is that our trips in the middle beat our opponent's trips there, so we won't get scooped.
Despite all that, tonight's OFC session went very well. Five Card Draw not so much, though we at least had our first cash of the year there, which is of course up against six bricks. Stud Hi-Lo is looking better, but we only played three games so far. It is doubtful that we will see any great results in "Jumbled January". Maybe we can at least ride out the momentum we've built at the OFC tables.
OFC can really make you feel helpless when the cards are not coming your way. On the flip side, it can make you feel unstoppable when the cards are coming your way. In other words, it's a very variance-heavy game.
For that reason alone, I'm going to stick with the plan. Look for tables during times when I'm ready to play poker but don't feel like playing any of my standard games, or when they are simply unavailable. Stick to one poker room, and the lowest limit (the only exception is when there is a known beatable player at the next highest limit and the lowest one has no tables). Avoid the 2-7 version. See how the game works out in the longer run, if nothing else just out of plain curiosity, and be patient. Once some positive results are in, I can start wondering about the "what ifs".
Today's games there were really tough, worst results so far this year, I lost about 100 points (think of them as big blinds if you're not familiar with OFC scoring). We are still up quite nicely so far for the year, but we are up against overall losses from last year. Maybe I can finally get to those 2022 stats this weekend.
On the plus side, we are starting to see some better results in the 5CD and Stud Hi-Lo SNGs, though we are still waiting for a 1st place finish.
Friday should be a breeze, even with my current lack of sleep.
Finally got a 1st place finish in a Five Card Draw SNG, but it's not much of a reason to celebrate. Things still look a lot like a downswing. On the mental level, it was very important to finally ship one, at least.
Bad luck at the next highest OFC stakes (a familiar player was back), but the lower ones went well enough to easily offset it. I even picked up some microscopic fractions of a bitcoin through a small cash in a Badeucy freeroll (a spilt pot combination of Badugi and 2-7 TD).
Let's hit the bed... 
We've been discussing the best possible OFC hands in HotD today. I didn't quite have a hand like this tonight, but I had a very good one nonetheless:
When you have reached Fantasyland, you would ideally either make trips on top or quads or better at the bottom, as either of those hands would allow you to get yet another FL deal. At this network, a full house or better in the middle will do the same, but that seems to be a house rule.
While quads already qualify, there may be a situation where you want to break them to make trips with them on top instead, if you can. Quads at the bottom are always worth 10 points in royalties, while even the worst possible trips on top (222) are already worth the same amount. 333 already earns one point more, so does 444 and so on, going all the way to 22 points for AAA on top, almost worth as much as a Royal Flush in the back (25 points). In addition to that, trips are nigh unbeatable at the top, so they also give your hand excellent scooping potential.
In this hand, we had another set of trips to choose from. This already allows us to break our quads for a flush, putting the remaining 2s on top, resting on 999 in the middle. There is a much better choice here, however, since we also have a possible straight that won't require us to break anything:
An outstanding hand, especially considering that this happened at higher stakes.
Imagine, though, that our Q♥: had instead been a Q♣:. With this tiny change, we really would have had a hand that comes very, very close to those perfect OFC hands we have been discussing. A Royal Flush with quads in the middle and 999 on top would be worth a whopping 62 points in royalties. Getting 35 points in total here, with my opponent only being able to offset two points with a straight in the back, is still an amazing result in a single heads-up hand.
We had a good day at the OFC tables, and also a good one in the SNGs, with a first place in both a Stud8 and a 5CD SNG, in addition to another second place in 5CD. I also had plenty of sleep that day, so what shall we do so late at night, after a successful poker session?
How about we learn how to perform the "absinthe ritual"? Because, you know, you are not really meant to drink it straight. I actually didn't know that until some time last year...
The Absinthe Ritual
There are two ways of properly serving absinthe: The traditional French method, which we will do here, and the Bohemian method, which involves some fire, so I better try this one another time, using due caution.
We start by getting one of our absinthe glasses ready.
Then we pour some of the absinthe in directly. This glass comes with a little well of sorts at the bottom, but I found that you want to go up to that little marking at the main part of the glass, where the pattern begins. That way, you will have about 30 ml of absinthe in your glass.
Next, we add a special slotted spoon on top. It has this little bend in it so it will rest securely on the glass.
We then add a sugar cube on top of it. I still have those poker themed ones, and I chose the heart this time.
Ideally, you would now have a fancy carafe for decanting ice water. I guess my measuring cup will have to do instead.
A special absinthe fountain for dispensing the water would be even better, but those things are pricey.
You then slowly drip the water over it, dissolving the sugar cube...
The recommended water to absinthe ratio is between 3 to 1 and 5 to 1, according to your taste. By adding water up until that marking on top of the pattern, you achieve just about a 3 to 1 ratio.
You can then use that slotted spoon to stir your drink a little.
The absinthe is supposed to turn cloudy, to an almost milky green color. Not sure if I had done it correctly, but it was tasty nonetheless, and surprisingly mild.
Let's have another go, with another glass, because I couldn't decide on one model when I bought them. 
This one doesn't have this well at the bottom, but by filling the absinthe to that marking, you will still have about 30 ml.
We add the slotted spoon, and our sugar cube - this time, I went for the clubs.
By filling it up to the marking at the top, you now achieve about a 4 to 1 ratio of water to absinthe.
Of course, nothing prevents you from ignoring any of these markings to go for the ratio you like.
Originally posted by Harrier88
The absinthe is supposed to turn cloudy, to an almost milky green color. Not sure if I had done it correctly, but it was tasty nonetheless, and surprisingly mild.
And you didn't go crazy?
.
I never had that one before, I think. I should try it some time. 
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
And you didn't go crazy?
At least not any crazier than I was before... 
Cocoa of the Week: After Eight Mint Chocolate
It's back after the break!
This week, we will use some After Eight mint chocolate.
Twelve of those pieces should amount to just about 100 grams.
I was starting to cut them up as usual, but then I noticed that those things are so soft that you can just easily rip them into little shreds with your own hands. Not surprisingly, they quickly turn into a big lump, but that doesn't matter as long as it dissolves well.
They were still quite lumpy in those 250 ml of hot water.
In the end, though, it came out all right.
It was quite tasty, even. I decided to add some whipped cream on top.
It's not looking too good here... We have good trips in the middle, but our opponent made a full house at the bottom that beats our straight and takes most of our outs for the Fantasyland cards away.
Pairs of kings and aces are now impossible to get. We would need to get extremely lucky to get the last remaining two queens. Or imagine how cool it would be if we could even get the last two remaining jacks all at once... but how likely would that be...
I am now about halfway through my final week of those dreaded evening shifts, and before I'm done with those, all we can hope for when it comes to poker is picking up a few points and cryptos at some OFC tables after midnight.
As a little change of pace, I at least managed to pick up some crypto dust tonight by placing 3rd in an 11-Game freeroll - because 8-Game could be 37.5% cooler.
Nice Rundown
Our straight cards are overlapping perfectly. Do you see what we can do here?
We had a similar hand later on, which instead benefited from an overabundance of flush cards.
Note that both of my opponents were also in Fantasyland there, so we were basically just playing Chinese Poker.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Note that both of my opponents were also in Fantasyland there, so we were basically just playing Chinese Poker.
So "Chinese Poker" is 14 cards face up? I can't remember from the few times I tried it
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
So "Chinese Poker" is 14 cards face up? I can't remember from the few times I tried it
In regular Chinese Poker, you receive 13 cards all at once and arrange them as in the other versions, with a three card top hand and two five card hands below it in middle and bottom. Like in the Fantasyland deal in the open face versions, the cards won't be face up until the showdown.
The 14th card in Fantasyland is exclusive to the "Pineapple" versions of OFC, to compensate a bit for the fact that every other player would receive three cards instead of one on each deal after the initial five cards, technically giving them a 17-card deal in total. Having all cards available at once in Fantasyland is still a huge advantage.
There are versions of OFC where you can receive even more cards in Fantasyland. In the 2-7 version, you would qualify for FL by either making KK or better at the top, or a perfect 75432 in the middle, and if you manage to get both, you will get a 15-card Fantasyland deal. There is also "OFC/P Progressive", where your FL deal depends on the qualifying top hand. QQ gives you the standard 14 cards, KK gives 15, AA gives 16, and trips of any kind result in a huge 17-card Fantasyland deal - the same amount you would get in a normal hand, but all available at once, combining the advantages of both.
