Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Originally posted by Harrier88
I recently learned that uBTC is a more common abbreviation for a millionth of a bitcoin than the µBTC I had been using before.Yeah, but technically incorrect. <sigh>
I guess I'll stick to uBTC anyway, in solidarity with everyone who can't find the µ key on their keyboard.
Is it even a part of the standard QWERTY design?
Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Originally posted by Harrier88
I recently learned that uBTC is a more common abbreviation for a millionth of a bitcoin than the µBTC I had been using before.Yeah, but technically incorrect. <sigh>
I guess I'll stick to uBTC anyway, in solidarity with everyone who can't find the µ key on their keyboard.
Is it even a part of the standard QWERTY design?
Pretty sure it isn't.
To find other-worldly characters, I pick one of the other keyboards on this list, then if necessary click the keyboard symbol. and often the character I want will be there.
If not I use the charmap app to get all the greek letters.
Hmmm, I wonder if there is a Greek keyboard I could add...
Edit: Done. This will make math symbols easier as well
Fair enough, I guess that makes it understandable why people resort to 'u' instead of µ.
The standard QWERTZ keyboards that I got used to ever since I started messing around with my grandfather's typewriter always had a convenient µ symbol in the lower corner of the M key, to be accessed with AltGr.
Ignore the Cyrillic letters, those are just stickers I attached to help me with the Russian lessons. Also, ignore the dirt.
Ready?
Ready. My opponent from last night was back, but instead of sitting down at five times the stakes we were playing back then, they only sat down at twice as high stakes. I considered this barely within my comfort zone, so... let's give it a try. This would be my first game at this limit, where one point is worth 2 uBTC, and I would bring a 400 uBTC stack to the table. For reference, my bankroll was a little over 1,500 uBTC at that point, and the maximum loss in a round is 200 uBTC.
I actually had a good start, then my opponent caught up a little bit. I was still at a slight profit when this hand happened, where I was already in a tight spot, being forced into a 2-outer gutshot that missed. My opponent already had Fantasyland set up with QQ on top, but would have to go for a similar gutshot with three outs in order to make it count.
Did it arrive? Just take a look:
That one physically stung... not only did the 3-outer arrive (around 31%?) but so did the 1-outer for trip Queens on top (around 2% together with the 3-outer). A massive 34 points loss for me, and a trip to Fantasyland for my opponent.
It didn't stop there either, as my opponent then managed to get a double full house to repeat the Fantasyland deal, while I was stuck with a fouled hand yet again, losing another 24 points. Luckily, my "penalty killing" lines worked a little better against the next FL deal, where I even escaped with a 1 point profit, but the damage had been done. My total loss in that round amounted to 63 points, corresponding to 126 uBTC at these stakes.
I clawed my way back up a little, though my opponent kept finding ways to sneak in a good backdoor draw to defend against my good hands, and in the end, I left the table being "only" 18 points down, which is not a huge deal at those stakes either. In fact, I still finished the night with a profit due to more successful rounds at lower stakes, but I did drop below the 1,500 uBTC mark in my bankroll.
Ah well, it was a nice experience, and I may be back if those games keep running. I had plenty of other hands from the other tables to post as well, but I thought this session deserved much more of a mention. Let's clean up that kitchen table one last time now before going to bed, because I believe a certain Troll-puppy may be visiting tomorrow...
Originally posted by Harrier88
Fair enough, I guess that makes it understandable why people resort to 'u' instead of µ.The standard QWERTZ keyboards that I got used to ever since I started messing around with my grandfather's typewriter always had a convenient µ symbol in the lower corner of the M key, to be accessed with AltGr.
Although my keyboard has an AltGr key, I've never used it.
I just tried it, and it behave like the Alt key
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Although my keyboard has an AltGr key, I've never used it.
I just tried it, and it behave like the Alt key
All of this makes me realize how many of the things that I took for granted ever since I started typing are unique to the QWERTZ design.
On the keyboards I'm used to, the AltGr key is used to get to the characters shown on the bottom right of the keys. One very common everyday use of this would be the @ sign, which is located on the bottom right of the Q key on QWERTZ keyboards. Another common one for many people would be the € sign on the E key. Other less common characters would be { }, [ ], and \ on the number keys, the ~ sign next to the Enter key, and indeed the µ that I mentioned, which is on the M key.
I remember once taking a university exam on the PCs of a computer room, and before we got started, that super sweet Chinese girl from my class approached me because she just couldn't figure out how to make the @ sign. I gave it a try myself on her keyboard, expecting some kind of technical error, and was surprised to see it working like usual. She just giggled sheepishly and apologized, and I figured that she must have been used to a different keyboard layout at home. But now that I have looked it up, I see that even on a standard QWERTY keyboard, the @ sign is not in that place, and apparently doesn't need to be accessed with AltGr.
Tonight's session immediately made me remember this song by the Spanish ska punk band Ska-P. The song may be meant as a criticism of the death penalty in the United States, but what reminded me of it was just the hell I had been going through at the OFC tables - variance hell, that is, because that's what this game is, at the end of the day.
I already mentioned last time how my opponent managed to hit that 2% draw to set up a string of big losses for me that single-handedly turned what would have been a very good game into a loser. That's just the way OFC goes, a single draw can have a cascading effect that leads to increasingly overwhelming winnings across several hands thanks to the repeatable Fantasyland deal. It works the other way too, you could be the one in line for the same series of cascading winnings, only to have everything collapse before it even started because that one draw that everything was riding on didn't get there - even if it was carefully set up and a massive favorite. It is a big mental game challenge, and it gets amplified even further in a 3-handed game.
Tonight, I was playing my current "standard" stakes where each point corresponds to one uBTC. I had some nice winnings in a short game, then I joined another player who is usually pretty solid, with another player who tends to play rather poorly joining us soon. Boy, was I in for a ride... 
My draws rarely arrived when they mattered, and even the not so great player seemed to have the cards continuing to fall into his lap, often getting rewarded for very questionable drawing decisions, and other times just getting such great cards that you couldn't help but find good ways to put them.
I was eventually alone with that player, but it didn't get any better. When I occasionally did get a Fantasyland deal, more often that not it was about as useful as a knitted condom, while my opponent continued to hit, no matter where he placed his cards. When I finally got up from the table, I found myself down about 309 uBTC, which is almost a third of this year's winnings on that site. Keep in mind that 100 uBTC is a round's maximum loss, counting as busting out. "Welcome to Hell", indeed.
Non-OFC poker is not completely dead yet for me, btw. Especially now that the clock has been set back an hour for daylight savings while North America is still waiting to make the switch, it means that Badugi is a lot more grindable for a short time, starting one hour earlier from my point of view. I gave it a try today, started out pretty card that, and then managed to go all-in with 85% equity... and lost. Once again: "Hey brother, Welcome to Hell!".
The Badugi brick is just another drop in the bucket, but the OFC losses hurt, and may take a while to be recouped. Still, this is just part of the game in OFC, both winnings and losses tend to come in spades. Overall, things are still looking good, and I should collect some stats and graphs soon, which will now look a lot less impressive. Otherwise, just try to think long-term, as usual. And better luck next time.
9-Game??
This freeroll was running on SwC this evening, exclusively for people who generated some rake before. I heard about 11-Game on that site, which also includes fixed limit Badugi, Badeucy and Badacey in addition to the 8-Game line-up... but 9-Game? I couldn't find any infos on their website either. What could this mysterious ninth game be?
As it turned out, it was NL 2-7 Single Draw - a game I am usually quite bad at, but this time, it was probably the only one that went okay. I had some bad troll runouts in the Stud Hi-Lo part, at least. I couldn't recover from that, the starting stacks were pretty shallow anyway. But I like that the freeroll has some decent payouts this time, much unlike most of the other freerolls there, which tend to pay out cent amounts worth of bitcoin dust. I haven't seen this kind before, I hope they stick around, maybe as a weekly thing on Fridays.
I believe SwC has 12-Game too, but I never had a chance to join one. Maybe this one would be 11-Game plus 2-7 SD? I may find out one day.
And check out this OFC hand. How's that for a straight flush? Seven cards in a row:
Imagine getting a straight flush and just breaking even. 
Well, I suppose it's not uncommon in hi-lo split games either.
A good OFC session at 1 uBTC per point stakes (not sure if there is a more common way to describe stakes in this game) brought me a little closer to where I was before the bad -300 uBTC session earlier this week. Tonight was an absolute rollercoaster ride too, but I finished on top.
For all intents and purposes, OFC is currently my main game, though I hope to be back in the swing of things at Pokerstars soon, at least in time for the new year. I even made some attempts at the 2-7 version of OFC this weekend again, which went well so far, though I know that the variance is even more extreme in this version. I also adjusted my spreadsheet to track both of these games, both combined and separately.
At least it seems like the traffic in those games is not so bad after all, at least by my standards - I have seen worse in some non-Hold'em games on Pokerstars. There is a game running on most days, you just may have to play some chess or backgammon to keep you occupied while you're waiting for an opponent to show up.
Late Night Session Saver
Actually, the session went pretty well overall before, but I had lost quite a bit of my previous profit in the last few rounds before calling it a night. I decided to briefly get back for one more round when I saw another opponent joining the table, and the hand above made me not regret it - even though the opponent to my left went on to get a flush on top of a straight flush in a non-Fantasyland hand to cut into my winnings a little again.
The losses from that one bad night last week have now been fully recovered, and we are sitting on a new high point in the bankroll. I started adding some additional stats to my spreadsheet, I hope I can continue to work on it tomorrow so I will have some graphs and data to present soon.
Also, I did end up playing some 12-Game this evening, and as I suspected, it seems to be the 11-Game line-up plus NL 2-7 SD.
The game even went pretty well, many players were clearly not taking it very seriously. Then I got AQ in the NL Hold'em part, someone pushed all-in preflop with a random Jx hand, and a third player joined with 88. Flop AQx, River 8. That's the one bad thing about mixed games, that most of them still include Hold'em in some form.
Anyway, those freerolls seem to be part of a limited time tournament series on that site, so maybe I will see a few more of them. Hopefully I can pick up a few cryptos in there, but otherwise, I'm just happy to be able to play some exotic poker versions.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Also, I did end up playing some 12-Game this evening, and as I suspected, it seems to be the 11-Game line-up plus NL 2-7 SD.
That sounds like something I would get into
Originally posted by Harrier88
The game even went pretty well, many players were clearly not taking it very seriously. Then I got AQ in the NL Hold'em part, someone pushed all-in preflop with a random Jx hand, and a third player joined with 88. Flop AQx, River 8. That's the one bad thing about mixed games, that most of them still include Hold'em in some form.
I think many players on that site don't understand the games that well.
Any yes, it beggars belief that hold'em could ever catch on at all, let alone become popular.
Counterfeited
We took a bit of a risk here by placing KK and AA over our unfinished hand, knowing that making our draw gets us to Fantasyland, while missing it gets our entire hand invalidated, among other things leaving us defenseless against the Fantasyland deal of our opponent on the left. Luckily, it worked out and we hit our two pair.
I decided to put one of the remaining cards (the 5, just because it was higher - we're not using it in any draws anyway) on top, figuring that this gives me a very slight additional chance of improving the middle if I am lucky enough to get both a T or 3 and an A, 9 or 8 on the next draw.
I lost the screenshot of my draw, but this is how it ended up: In a massive troll deal, I received 998 and had no possible way of putting those cards down in a valid way, forcing me to foul what was essentially already a locked up hand. 
This isn't the first time this has happened to me, and not even the first time I have posted about something like that. But I thought I should post about it again, because yes, this is a very real risk, even if it requires a rare, very specific deal. So rare, in fact, that I'm not sure if I should consider placing my 5 on top a mistake. If I had placed the 5 in the middle and received something like A3x on my next deal (ghost_run's cards were concealed to me at that point, I wouldn't know that aces and 3's were dead), I surely would have been kicking myself too.
I thought I could name this phenomenon "counterfeiting", in analogy to the similar situation in Omaha Hi-Lo, where an unprotected low hand gets invalidated by an unhelpful low card on the board.
There were many other noteworthy hands tonight:
Hand of the Day
You rarely see hands like this in a non-Fantasyland deal. Really nice hand, and it gets us to the Land too. Unfortunately, our opponent got there too, with QQ on top, but that is the only bad thing that could be said about it.
Suckout of the Day
No "counterfeits" this time - we have AA firmly locked up, earning us some nice points and getting us to FL again. Our opponent may also get there once more, but they need to hit a full house or quads on the next draw, with only three outs (I discarded a Jack earlier, which is not shown). I'm not sure, but it should have a chance of about 30%.
No frickin' way... They nailed it, and received a Q for trips on top too, turning what should have been a +15 hand for us into a -27 hand instead. The chance for that should have been 5% at best, assuming that boths Queens were live. Ugh...
Blooper of the Day
Luckily, not from me, but from my opponent, whose name I decided to remove (I actually consider him a pretty solid player too). He was currently on a Fantasyland deal, and I was building up a quite decent hand myself, which should have a good chance of fighting back.
Then it was time to reveal our hands, and... guess what:
So what happened? I can tell you: My opponent was playing an OFC 2-7 table on the side, where the middle hand needs to be a lowball hand under 2-7 rules. He must have gotten a little mixed up... and to add insult to injury, you can even plainly see what could have done with this hand instead. Just put the K♣: in the middle and it would have been a solid double flush hand, one that still would have won with a margin of four points against me. This way, I end up collecting 15 points instead.
Speaking of which, fouling in Fantasyland is actually a genuine risk in the 2-7 version, because you sometimes may not get enough low cards (the lowball hand must be T-lo or lower to qualify). In the hi only version, though, fouling in Fantasyland is always inexcusable - but possible, if you don't pay attention.
My opponent wisely decided to leave after this round and focus on lowball. At least it gave us a session saver, we finished in profit for the night after all thanks to that round.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I love the look of a royal flush
Well, it depends on who's holding it...
Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I love the look of a royal flushWell, it depends on who's holding it...
Well I prefer it in my hand, but even otherwise they sure are pretty
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Well I prefer it in my hand, but even otherwise they sure are pretty
Some people say quad Queens in Omaha are the prettiest hand, especially if you can bluff other players out of the pot and then reveal your hand. I don't think that can beat snowing with "quad" Queens in Badugi, though, as this guy once did.
I don't know much about Hold'em, but I believe this hand is probably the prettiest in that game:
Well, speaking of which...
I almost even had enough spades to put a regular flush on top of it (the 4♠: did not end up getting used in the final hand).
My opponent had a decent hand too, so I only had a surprisingly low (by Royal Flush standards - it's still good in general) payout of 13 points. The face value of a Royal Flush alone would be 25 points. Not that it matters too much, because my opponent was only 6 points away from "busting out" by hitting the maximum 100 points deficit for a round anyway.
Also, I got to repeat Fantasyland.
It may not be of the same caliber, but we still have something better than our made flush to draw to here.
I think it should be obvious that we should take our draw for a while. We can still try to go for a regular flush (or straight) later if it fails.
This time, it didn't even take long for our draw to arrive.
Not quite as pretty to look at, maybe - but scoring twice as high as our previous Royal Flush, thanks to a combination of better hands on top and especially less strong hands from my opponent to fight back with. In OFC, the margin by which you beat your opponent's hands matters a lot, unlike in most other forms of poker, where the worst hand you can have is the 2nd best hand.
