Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

First week at my new job is now behind me. So far, so good.

I did not play any poker whatsoever since Monday, until tonight. The good news is that traffic was surprisingly good, I managed to get four SNGs running within a little over an hour. The bad news is that we didn't cash a single one of them. I had a feeling that the loads of cooler boxes I had to ship out at work today were a bad omen... it was cooler after cooler at the tables too. One of those sessions where your opponents seem to be able to hit trips like it's nothing, and not even your own trips are safe.

Admittedly, though, I was also quite tired, and especially when you're facing aggressive opponents, it is very tough to play that way. Unfortunately, this will be something I'll have to deal with from now on. Even on days where I should have time for poker, eight hours of physical labor will surely take their toll on me. The outlook for poker this month is bleak, but as I mentioned before, it's a sacrifice I'll have to take. As fulfilling as poker was and still is for me, it simply doesn't pay the bills the way my new job does.

However, despite the now severely limited grind and the bad playing conditions, poker won't go away. There are still the weekends, and I'll be working early shifts next week, which should at least give me the time for some poker - though it remains to be seen whether I'll be in an acceptable playing condition. It would still be nice if I could ship something other than camping equipment this month some time, if you know what I mean.

Besides, I already have a scheduled interview for another job that should be more grind-friendly and less back-breaking, with several other applications still pending, so even on that front, there should be some opportunities in the coming months.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Besides, I already have a scheduled interview for another job that should be more grind-friendly and less back-breaking, with several other applications still pending, so even on that front, there should be some opportunities in the coming months.

Best of luck on your interview!

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Best of luck on your interview!

Thank you. It will be a few weeks until then, and the process will then still continue, I believe. I already had to take an aptitude test online last month - I assume I passed it if they invited me to an interview - but it was already mentioned that there should be a local re-test to prevent cheating. And probably a bunch more stuff.

It looked like another unfocused crap session tonight, but in the end, there are now a few more things to talk about after all...

So the PLO8 from our Troll challenges was another bust, and to get it out of the way, Badugi bricked as well. I still don't seem to have my mindset back. 8-Game went back and forth a few times. Razz in particular was a bit of a problem once again. I started struggling a bit towards the end of the second cycle, which is when I picked up KK during the Hold'em part, and pushed into AT:

PokerStars, $4.90 + $0.60 - Hold'em No Limit (8-Game) - 75/150 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG (Hero): 1,600 (11 bb)
MP: 4,273 (28 bb)
CO: 8,679 (58 bb)
BU: 1,875 (13 bb)
SB: 5,322 (35 bb)
BB: 3,000 (20 bb)

Pre-Flop: (225) Hero is UTG with K♣ K♦
Hero raises to 300, 2 players fold, BTN 3-bets to 1,875 (all-in), 2 players fold, Hero calls 1,300 (all-in)

Flop: (3,425) T♣ T♥ 4♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (3,425) 2♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (3,425) K♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 3,425

Showdown:
BU shows T♠ A♦ (three of a kind, Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 29%, Flop: 91%, Turn: 95%, River: 0%)

UTG (Hero) shows K♣ K♦ (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 71%, Flop: 9%, Turn: 5%, River: 100%)

UTG (Hero) wins 3,425

That flop was a bit of a troll, but I can troll back sometimes.

Despite not bringing my A-game at all tonight, I managed to collect two bounties and make it to ITM in the 8-Game, where the cash ladders are pleasantly small, so I wasn't far away from the bigger cashes at all when I made the 2nd ladder, and faced aggression from a player who pushed hard with a high-only draw in Stud8:

PokerStars, $4.90 + $0.60 - 7 Stud H/L Limit (8-Game) - 800/1,600 (320 ante) - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

Seat 2: 30,301 (19 bb)
Seat 3 (Hero): 6,660 (4 bb)
Seat 5: 60,535 (38 bb)
Seat 6: 41,359 (26 bb)
Seat 1: 6,860 (4 bb)

Third Street: (1,600) Hero is in Seat 3
Xx Xx 2♠ BI bring-in 480____BI folds
Xx Xx T♣ UTG folds
8♣ 7♦ 5♦ Hero raises to 1,600____Hero 3-bets to 4,800____Hero calls 1,540 (all-in)
Xx Xx K♥ CO raises to 3,200____CO 4-bets to 6,400
Xx Xx 4♦ BTN folds

Fourth Street: (14,760) (2 players, 1 all-in)
Q♥ T♥ K♥ K♣ - Seat 5
8♣ 7♦ 5♦ 3♦ - Seat 3 (Hero)

Fifth Street: (14,760) (2 players, 1 all-in)
Q♥ T♥ K♥ K♣ 3♠ - Seat 5
8♣ 7♦ 5♦ 3♦ J♠ - Seat 3 (Hero)

Sixth Street: (14,760) (2 players, 1 all-in)
Q♥ T♥ K♥ K♣ 3♠ 8♠ - Seat 5
8♣ 7♦ 5♦ 3♦ J♠ T♦ - Seat 3 (Hero)

Seventh Street: (14,760) (2 players, 1 all-in)
Q♥ T♥ K♥ K♣ 3♠ 8♠ Q♣ - Seat 5
8♣ 7♦ 5♦ 3♦ J♠ T♦ 5♠ - Seat 3 (Hero)

Total pot: 14,760

Showdown:
Seat 5 shows Q♥ T♥ K♥ K♣ 3♠ 8♠ Q♣ (HI: two pair, Kings and Queens)
Seat 3 (Hero) shows 8♣ 7♦ 5♦ 3♦ J♠ T♦ 5♠ (HI: a pair of Fives)
Seat 5 wins 14,760

I just had to hit any low draw... you'd think it wouldn't be too hard when 4th street gave me that decent draw that even had some backdoor hi potential.

Anyway, we picked up $8.07 including bounties in the 8-Game. Btw, I tried playing a $5.50 satty for that big $109 8-Game from the Bounty Builder series as well, but failed to secure a seat. I should really learn to ignore those events.

I still didn't want to end the session right there, so I started up some more SNGs. Luckily, we were able to end the losing streak with a 2nd place right off the bat, then I started a second one, and the trend from last Friday continued...

PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 50/100 (10 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 1,625 (16 bb)
MP (Hero): 740 (7 bb)
CO: 1,230 (12 bb)
BU: 1,605 (16 bb)
SB: 530 (5 bb)
BB: 3,270 (33 bb)

Deal: (210) Hero is MP with K♠ K♦ K♣ 4♦ 9♣
1 fold, Hero raises to 200, CO calls 200, 1 fold, SB 3-bets to 520 (all-in), 1 fold, Hero 4-bets to 730 (all-in), 1 fold

Draw One: (1,610) K♠ K♦ K♣ 4♦ 2♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)
SB draws 1, MP (Hero) draws 9c

Total pot: 1,400

Showdown:
MP (Hero) shows K♠ K♦ K♣ 4♦ 2♦ (three of a kind, Kings)
SB shows 6♣ 5♥ 6♥ 5♦ 6♦ (a full house, Sixes full of Fives)
SB wins 1,400

Yes, this kinda thing was still going on... Trip kings no good, leaving me with about 2BB... but guess what, I shipped it anyway. I somehow managed to make a comeback and then took a good lead. I even got into an interesting showdown later on which I decided to post as my Hand of the Day.

It was still a slight losing day overall, but $6.56 in SNG profits help offset the Friday losses in there a bit.

Also, we have a good early candidate for "Blooper of the Year"...

When the traffic in my SNGs declined and it looked like I was playing my last game, I decided to look for some OFC/P tables... foolishly, perhaps, because this game requires a lot of focus and is not very suitable for multitabling. But speaking of foolishness... I went to that bitcoin site again because I already gave up on OFC as a serious grind anyway, so there was not much point looking at the more reggy tables on the Tether site instead, and I was excited to find a table where a "real" player was sitting down and waiting for opponents, not that one player who just hangs out there looking for newbies and leaves every time I come to play him.

I joined on the spot, and my opponent seemed "recreational" enough. They had a low rank like me, I don't remember ever encountering them before... might be a good spot for me. I played my first opening hand, aiming mostly for two pairs in the middle and in the back, while my opponent appeared to make a risky play going for a straight in the middle...

I was worried for a while, but then eventually saw them miss their draw and ending up with a junk heap of low cards instead. As much as I normally try to avoid disrespecting my opponents, I couldn't help but smirk a little, wondering whether they thought we were playing the lowball version instead. I didn't quite hit my optimal draw, but got a decent hand that would allow me to scoop against my opponent's fouled hand... and then I noticed the chips going to my opponent instead!

Did I miss something? Did they have a qualifying hand after all, possibly just putting high card on high card? I looked again, and guess what... We really were playing lowball! I was the one playing the wrong game all that time!!

Now that was embarrassing, and yes - surely a good candidate for "Blooper of the Year", it won't be easy to top that. Especially because that poker room even conveniently marks the slots for the lowball cards in a different color to prevent exactly this kind of mishap...

Luckily, my opponent didn't have such a great hand, so the losses weren't that massive. And after I caught on, I ended up being a somewhat worthy opponent after all:

I still ended the game in a small loss, but nothing dramatic.

:mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr:

Happened to me in HORSE very often: playing RAZZ in Stud. :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
:mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr::mdr:

Happened to me in HORSE very often: playing RAZZ in Stud. :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Yup, yup, yup.
My favourite is when playing NL 2-7 Single-Draw and a player who drew three shoves. Somebody "bluff-catches" and finds that the guy who drew three hit a boat and thought they were playing 5-Card Draw.

First early shift for me today. I was curious how poker would do with my new schedule, and after a little over a week and two different shifts... I can say it's doing horrendously!

My standard MTT evening grind is virtually unplayable now apart from weekends, either because I return home too late or have to get up too early. Traffic in SNGs is not getting any better, so it's tough to fill any gaps with them. Even worse, whenever I do get to play something, I tend to play like crap, mostly due to fatigue. Motivation, however, is another issue, now that my job earns more than 50% more than what I could possibly imagine poker might be able to potentially earn me if things were to go fantastically, unrealistically well.

I knew that poker would have to take a back seat, but I had no idea that both quantity and quality of play would suffer that much.

Worst of all - and that is something completely beyond my control, making it all the more frustrating: This $5.50 8-Game that I had discovered recently, which was pretty much perfect in every way for me, from time, to buy-in, to game type, to just about everything, seems to be gone again. In its stead, it looks like there is a new 8-Game PKO called "The Octopus", which also involves a "mini" version for the same price of $5.50. The issue? It has TWO HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES OF LATE REG! Long late regs are by far my biggest pet peeve when it comes to MTTs, and I don't need to tell you that this is way too long. I suppose I should send Stars a message about this... but I wouldn't expect much.

Bottom line: Results are crap, my play is crap, and poker is just an all-around negative experience for me recently. Whether it will be effective immediately or not, I should really consider a break. It may be worthwhile for me to reconsider what kind of place poker should have for me, now that my circumstances have changed. It would be a shame to drop out altogether after having previously invested so much energy into it, which is also why my current situation feels so frustrating. Maybe I'll be back tomorrow like nothing happened, who knows, but don't be surprised if there won't be any updates in here for a while.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Worst of all - and that is something completely beyond my control, making it all the more frustrating: This $5.50 8-Game that I had discovered recently, which was pretty much perfect in every way for me, from time, to buy-in, to game type, to just about everything, seems to be gone again. In its stead, it looks like there is a new 8-Game PKO called "The Octopus", which also involves a "mini" version for the same price of $5.50. The issue? It has TWO HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES OF LATE REG! Long late regs are by far my biggest pet peeve when it comes to MTTs, and I don't need to tell you that this is way too long. I suppose I should send Stars a message about this... but I wouldn't expect much.

especially in a PKO, where you need the big stack to collect bounties.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
especially in a PKO, where you need the big stack to collect bounties.

True, but now that I think about it, there could be a way to make this work. If you reg early, you may be able to get a decent stack and then take advantage of all the people who reg later because they don't care to wait for 2h 40m either. More people regging late with a small stack means more opportunities for bounties. And the prospect of insta-cash through bounties would mean that you could secure a profit even before late reg ends.

Still, I highly doubt that I'll play it. 2 hours of late reg are already usually a dealbreaker for me, 2h 40m are just plain ludicrous. Maybe I'll try it on a weekend once. The $55 non-mini version could even make bounty hunting quite attractive if you manage to satty into it.

Most likely, there will be no poker at all until the weekend, and I expect it will continue along these lines for the coming weeks. I mean, honestly, it was a pretty sudden and unexpected change with my new occupation, it will take time to adapt. Forget about profits and ROIs, my only goal for this month will be to "get my stuff together", on and off the felt. A loss will be almost guaranteed for this month, unless I manage to get a really good run in one of my few weekend MTTs. That is okay. Better grinding conditions will come. Not just in a game, but also in the grand scheme of things, you need to know "when to fold 'em" and which spots to go for.

Just one more early shift tomorrow, then I've made it through my first full week at those hours, and one week each of both of my standard shifts.

No poker for Harrier, as expected. There should be some more action this weekend, at least. Would be nice to make it count, but I'm a little out of the swing of things by now, I wouldn't expect much.

I've been looking into those 8-Game satellites. They only have one hour of late reg, and are usually Turbos, with one Turbo Deep satty also being available. With the entry cost being identical to the MTT I've been playing in the last few weeks, maybe it could be worth a try? As I said, a $55 PKO does offer some attractive bounty hunting, so the absurdly long late reg would not be that much of an issue anymore if I managed to qualify. Also, isn't there a way to simply use your satty winnings instead of playing the target tournaments? Either by keeping the tournament money or by directly converting it to cash (with the help of another player who agrees to exchange it, if I recall correctly)? I remember that grinding satellites for profits used to be a thing, at least (it probably still is). Barry even wrote an entire book about it, after all, and I doubt it is only about qualifying to target tournaments.

I could ask on the Pokerstars forum or even contact them directly... but if anyone reading this happens know how satellite winnings, including tournament entries, can be used on Pokerstars, feel free to let me know here. I mostly likely won't play until Saturday evening anyway.

Originally posted by Harrier88
I could ask on the Pokerstars forum or even contact them directly... but if anyone reading this happens know how satellite winnings, including tournament entries, can be used on Pokerstars, feel free to let me know here. I mostly likely won't play until Saturday evening anyway.

Some satellites — let's call them "direct satellites" force you to play the target tournament. Upon winning your "ticket" you are registered to the target tournament and there is no unregistering.

Other satellites "indirect satellites"[1] pay a ticket worth a certain amount.

There are very few of those indirect satellites left.

[1] I just made up those categories

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Some satellites — let's call them "direct satellites" force you to play the target tournament. Upon winning your "ticket" you are registered to the target tournament and there is no unregistering.

Other satellites "indirect satellites"[1] pay a ticket worth a certain amount.

There are very few of those indirect satellites left.

[1] I just made up those categories

Is there any way to know which ones are "direct" and indirect"?

What happens if you already qualified through a "direct" satellite and then win another entry in another "direct" satty?

Originally posted by Harrier88
Is there any way to know which ones are "direct" and indirect"?

What happens if you already qualified through a "direct" satellite and then win another entry in another "direct" satty?

If registrations is forced, you will see this in the "Home" tab of the satellite lobby:

If you already have a ticket to the target tournament, you will not be able to register to another satellite.

That's how it looks like. No mention of having to play the target tournament, but another problem can be found in the title: On weekends, the Octopus comes in Saturday/Sunday versions with twice the buy-in, which also doubles the entry cost for any satellites to it. So much for playing those on the weekend...

I did try the $5.50 Mini Octopus, which stays at its buy-in level even on the weekend. While the absurdly long late reg is annoying, I found that a good run could be expected to end at around the time when a good run in my Badugi tournament would end, so it may still be an option. Unfortunately, I didn't have any success in it yet.

Another tournament I found, which may or may not have been there before, is a $7.50 8-Game which would normally start at around 18:13 my time - it's an hour earlier now due to daylight savings time. This one could be an option in the weeks where I'm working my early shift - unlike the Mini Octopus and my standard Badugi MTT, which would both end too late for me.

It was a pretty terrible weekend results-wise, with not a single cent being cashed in any of my MTTs. Saturday's Badugi showed some promise, but I lost in a good triple-up plus bounty spot shortly before ITM, where the bigstack bully drew out on me on the second draw. There have been some winnings in the SNGs, but not a lot. Things are going poorly and it is not likely that this will change any time soon, especially with another week of late work shifts coming up, which won't allow time for a lot of poker at all, apart from the odd SNG every now and then, maybe.

I will continue with my plan of playing the $7.50 8-Game on weekdays when I'm working early shifts, playing Badugi and the Mini Octopus on weekends (possibly the $7.50 8-Game too), and SNGs to fill in any gaps, but if my poker games were an investment option, this really wouldn't be the time to go long, I believe.

Finally weekend. I can't say I like those late shifts very much. Sure, it's nice that you don't need to wake up early, but there isn't really time for much of anything when you're at home, whether it's before or after work.

Next week, it's time for the early shifts again, leaving a lot more time in the afternoon. And as inconvenient as those working hours can be sometimes, I guess I can consider myself fortunate that I'm even still dealing with them, because with so many new workers arriving every week, I have already seen what happens to those who do not perform as well as one would like: They find themselves back at home and out of work in a heartbeat. It already happened to some people who started at around the same time as me.

No poker this week... well, except for one small Courchevel SNG tonight, which was actually cashed with a 2nd place finish. I've played a few of them by now, so I've started creating a spreadsheet for them as well. After 20 games, we currently have a profit of $12.80 in them, amounting to an ROI of 32% - actually not very far behind the 36.95% ROI I currently have over 122 Five Card Draw SNGs this year. There is still a lot of work to be done in there, though. I don't think I'm playing all that well yet.

I plan to get a few MTTs going this weekend - and actually had to take a good look at the lobby, as well as my previous post, to remember the ones I intended to play. It has been a while, after all...

There are also some differences now, like the Mini Octopus 8-Game MTT, which previously always had a buy-in of $5.50, but now also comes in Saturday/Sunday variations with twice the buy-in, like the big version. If I was still confident enough in my 8-Game skills, I wouldn't mind the $11 buy-in. With me hardly even getting to play for the last couple of weeks and my results leaving a lot to be desired in the few games I did get to play, however... I think I'll pass for now. It has some satellites, though, for $1.10 and $2.20, so it could be worth a shot while I'm playing other stuff.

Apart from that, there is the $7.50 8-Game and the Badugi, of course. At inconvenient times, I might add, because my time zone still hasn't caught up with all the fun daylight savings switching. I hope I get to play most of my games despite all of this.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Finally weekend. I can't say I like those late shifts very much. Sure, it's nice that you don't need to wake up early, but there isn't really time for much of anything when you're at home, whether it's before or after work.

That's the worst thing about working — lack of time you can truly call your own.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
That's the worst thing about working — lack of time you can truly call your own.

Well, it's not so bad on the days with early shifts, where you get home just a little late for lunch. The downside is having to get up really early, of course, and not being able to get a lot done in the evening.

With the late shifts, however, you barely have time to grab some food and maybe some drinks when you get home. And before you leave for work, you also barely have time to make some lunch. The only upside is getting plenty of sleep. Still, I think I much prefer the early shifts.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Well, it's not so bad on the days with early shifts, where you get home just a little late for lunch. The downside is having to get up really early, of course, and not being able to get a lot done in the evening.

With the late shifts, however, you barely have time to grab some food and maybe some drinks when you get home. And before you leave for work, you also barely have time to make some lunch. The only upside is getting plenty of sleep. Still, I think I much prefer the early shifts.

My favourite shift was when I was driving taxi. I would start at about 14hr, and work for 10-14 hours depending on how much business there was. I would then eat a meal, and head home and sleep until about noon. I then had a couple of hours to do stuff.

There was no internet then...

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
My favourite shift was when I was driving taxi. I would start at about 14hr, and work for 10-14 hours depending on how much business there was. I would then eat a meal, and head home and sleep until about noon. I then had a couple of hours to do stuff.

There was no internet then...

Wow, that's pretty crazy... I start my late shifts at 2 PM too, but at least only have to stick to the "normal" eight hours, so I'm back home between 10 and 11 PM.

The fact that there was no internet back then may have been a good thing if you only had a few hours to spare, though.

Poker yesterday was terrible, despite a slight profit in the 5CD SNGs, where I also lost two quite winnable heads-up phases. I did not play any 8-Game or Badugi MTTs that day. My brother was visiting with his wife and son, and there was dinner for all of us at my mum's place downstairs. Especially with the 1 hour daylight savings gap, my tournaments overlapped quite awkwardly with dinner time, and a good nasi goreng is a terrible thing to waste.

Even mahjong later that night went horribly. The way I lost some almost locked up games was truly incredible, but it's hard to explain to people who are unfamiliar with the game - just rest assured that it was pretty sick. A few hands of OFC/P also resulted in a slight loss, but I'm aware by now that I kind of suck at that game.

It didn't look any better today, when I lost my first 5CD SNG in 5th place. I even felt myself beginning to panic a little with those terrible results piling up within the last few weeks, it really started leaving a toll on me. Fortunately, the next game went better, and I was finally able to ship a SNG again, which calmed my nerves a bit.

Time for some 8-Game MTTs. I tried a $1.10 satty for the Mini Octopus and didn't do too badly, but eventually lost a flip in the NL Hold'em part. A double-up there would have given me a real shot at a seat in that target tournament. At the same time, I played a regular $7.50 MTT. Again, decent progress, and I even ended up taken the chip lead for a while when late reg was just about over. As we were nearing the bubble, however, I began encountering an agonizing card dead stretch... I didn't want to fold my way to the bubble, but I had little choice...

When we finally reached the bubble, it got super close for me, and I briefly even dropped to last place. KTs in the FL Hold'em part had to do, and luckily managed to complete the flush draw to give me a double-up and a psychologically really important ITM.

Of course, I wanted to go all the way now. When I reached FT, it quickly turned into a battle for 2nd place, as the entire table was mercilessly bullied by the big stack. I took a few pots against them, and finally managed to secure my 2nd place in the Razz part. Could I come back with my mini stack to even take down the bully? Well, I doubled up a few times in the following Stud hi part and started accumulating a somewhat competitive stack, but couldn't quite overcome those massive odds in the end. Still, $66.90 for 2nd place out of 59 (including 17 re-entries) was a great result.

It was sorely needed, and turned this seemingly terrible month around after all. Five Card Draw turned a little profit over the weekend too.

Now, time to prepare for that early shift tomorrow again...