Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
I'm far from being a Gin expert

So am I, honestly. I rarely drink gin straight, but it is a very versatile ingredient in cocktails that finds many uses.

Mind you, I didn't even go for quality drinks until a few years ago, when I took mixing cocktails more seriously and got into a more stable financial situation.

From what I can tell, though, Bombay Sapphire really is up there. I had it once at a relative's wedding.

Can you give me some recommendations on good Irish whiskey, while we're at it? The local stores carry Tullamore Dew, which seems good enough, but maybe there are some better ones out there that I might find on my next trip to the bigger store.

Tullamore Dew wouldn't be top 10 imo.

So many good ones to choose from but most of suggestions will be shop label stuff

Jameson
Powers Gold label
Paddy

3 most popular around these parts and in that order are also my personal faves

Tullamore Dew is definitely more fancy/pricey

Also, and as much as I hate him... McGregors "Proper 12" is supposed to be good (haven't tried it, personally)

Will ask friends who are bigger drinkers than I for suggestions.

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
Tullamore Dew wouldn't be top 10 imo.

So many good ones to choose from but most of suggestions will be shop label stuff

Jameson
Powers Gold label
Paddy

3 most popular around these parts and in that order are also my personal faves

I've seen Jameson and Paddy around, I don't think I'm familiar with Powers Gold label. I will have a look the next time I visit the liquor store out of town.

It's not a top priority for my home bar, as few mixed drinks explicitly call for Irish whiskey, and I still have a bottle of Scotch to use in a pinch.

A quality bottle of Irish whiskey would still be a good thing to have in the cupboard. Also some good bourbon and rye. I saw some bottles at that store during my trip last week and considered it, but I already had a basket full of other stuff and a bill for €130, I thought I might as well do it another time, possibly on a dedicated whiskey shopping trip.

Also not a gin expert — there are different types of gin though
https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/gin-types-how-to-drink-them
I'm familiar with "London Dry Gin" — beefeater and tanqueray were common.
I have had Pimms as well, which for some reason we called "Pink" gin in my misspent youth.

IMO Bombay Sapphire should be a type all on its own.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Also not a gin expert — there are different types of gin though
https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/gin-types-how-to-drink-them
I'm familiar with "London Dry Gin" — beefeater and tanqueray were common.
I have had Pimms as well, which for some reason we called "Pink" gin in my misspent youth.

IMO Bombay Sapphire should be a type all on its own.

Nice article.

I agree that Bombay Sapphire is to a degree its own thing, which is why I got it along with "standard" gin, so I have both at home.

I still have an old bottle of Pimm's in the cupboard. It is gin-based, but not a kind of gin. Real pink gin is still a bit too "gimmicky" for me, like most of the other infused drinks.

Old Tom would be nice to have, I asked about it when I was at the liquor store last week. It's pretty rare, but the shop may have carried it at one point, just not this time. I will check again next time I'm there.

I saw some Japanese gin at a local store some time, I plan to get some eventually too - but two kinds of gin were plenty for one trip.

We used to drink this a lot when I was a teen.
Mix it with Sprite, 7-Up or ginger ale and the girls would drink it.
There were various nicknames for it I found out later, but we just called it "Lemon Gin"
I don't know if it significant, but this image is from the Newfoundland Liquour commission...

Back to poker, things are not looking good right now. The OFC grind may be on life support soon.

I'm currently collecting data...

Okay, here we go.

You have all seen the graphs, and you may have looked at the overall direction and wondered what on earth I was talking about when I said that things weren't going well.

One general problem when it comes to making judgments about my possible edge in this format is that this data is pretty much all I have. It's not like with Badugi where I have years to look back on and can think long term, which makes it a little easier to endure some swings. With OFC, I only have this year and a short-lived and largely unsuccessful grind the year before.

The other two problems are 1) that my good results are mostly due to an early heater, with no progress for about two weeks (which sounds like nothing, but in this case refers to just about half the overall grind), and 2) that those profits were almost entirely achieved at ₮0.02, with little success at higher limits, which means that I may have no future in anything but the lowest stakes.

To illustrate this last point, I have now compiled some stats for the individual limits.

Sure, ₮0.02 may look nice and steady, but how about the other ones?

₮0.05 is still in the black... but not by much, and the results are swingy. Just about half of my profits there disappeared within the last two days, which shows how precarious those profits are.

₮0.10 has essentially no sample yet, I have included it for the sake of completeness.

Is this really a game that is worth grinding? The stats so far suggest that it may at least deserve a chance beyond the lowest limits, but it is questionable for sure, not to mention that all of our stats stand on wobbly legs with these small samples.

What do you think?

Well, it didn't quite end there either tonight:

I think we're done here, I can't recover from that.

It was an extremely demoralizing day in general, Badugi went poorly too. And the SNGs just didn't run, I don't think I even saw another player in the lobby all day long.

I wish I could end on a more positive note, but I can't. Nothing went right today.

Well, it wasn't just poker. When I arrived at work today, I was confronted with several mistakes I made yesterday. Looks like it really wasn't my day.

I better deal with it, whatever it is that is currently going wrong with me. But maybe I shouldn't read too much into those bad OFC results then either, if there was something going on in general.

Let's hope that things will go better from today on, at poker and otherwise.

We all have bad days bro.

Take a few days to reset, don't even give it some head space and come back and crush!

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
We all have bad days bro.

Take a few days to reset, don't even give it some head space and come back and crush!

UPAY is right! ♠_thumbsup:

Thank you for the support. A lot has been piling on recently, but I should also fix a few things about my general approach.

I skipped last night's session, maybe I will give it another try this evening, but definitely not this afternoon - I already told Primrose yesterday that she should smack me across the face if I start considering to play around that time again, and I am sure she would find a way to do this online.

My worst downswing started two years ago and lasted six months. We got through this, we will find a way here too.

My back...

...is killing me! I would like to think that I'm too young for these kinds of pain, but I'm not. I must have lied down in a bad way last Sunday, and ever since then, I have been dealing with some back pain when I'm doing certain movements.

It got a bit worse the other day, and I went to my aqua gymnastics course yesterday, hoping that it would help. If anything, it made it much worse, now the pain is pretty much always there, not just when I'm doing certain things.

In general, my sitting posture tends to suck when I'm at the computer, which certainly doesn't help preventing this, but it's too late to worry about that now. It won't be an issue for the time being anyway, as I'm unable to even lean back unless there are like five pillows supporting me, but I should deal with that once I get out of all this.

I will have the doctor take a look in about an hour. Work would not be a good idea, especially because I know that I would have a bunch of brake discs to haul. I hope that I can get back to it on Monday, at least.

Early weekend, I guess... but not in the way I would like.

Originally posted by Harrier88
My back...

...is killing me! I would like to think that I'm too young for these kinds of pain, but I'm not.

I had surgery when I was 21 on my lower discs (L5) you're never too young!

That said, sounds like something muscular and you should be fine dude

Swimming is good to alleviate back pain.

GL with the doc!

Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
I had surgery when I was 21 on my lower discs (L5) you're never too young!

That said, sounds like something muscular and you should be fine dude

Swimming is good to alleviate back pain.

GL with the doc!

Thanks mate. I just returned from the doc, he confirmed it's something muscular. I thought so myself, and I expected it to go away on its own, but after a week, it was time to get it checked. Just before going to bed last night, I thought that this will either dramatically improve over night or I will not make it to work.

I'm supposed to take some painkillers every day, and then it should be back into action on Monday. It somehow worked out earlier this week too, after all, I just had to watch out for certain movements, I should at least be back at that level by that point.

I asked about swimming, because I usually go to the pool after waking up on Saturdays, the doc says it would be a good idea. Then again, yesterday's aqua gymnastics and two lanes of back stroke swimming didn't go too well - but I'll see how it is tomorrow.

No booze for Harrier this weekend, I guess...

Originally posted by Harrier88
No booze for Harrier this weekend, I guess...
Speaking of booze, I found a bottle of Maraschino Luxardo locally, and bought it.
What a disappointment.
It has a very weak flavour (or my taste buds are failing)

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Speaking of booze, I found a bottle of Maraschino Luxardo locally, and bought it.
What a disappointment.
It has a very weak flavour (or my taste buds are failing)

I only had a sniff of it. I don't like cherry stuff, so I keep this one around as both a "for guests only" and, to a degree, a "for cocktails only" drink. It did smell only vaguely of what I expected it to be like, so I imagine it will be a similar case for the taste.

Maybe you will like it better in cocktails.

Back update

The painkillers seem to be working. I'm on now on that level again where I was earlier this week, where only certain movements will hurt. I should be fine by Monday.

We have a product here called "Robaxacet" that contains a mild muscle relaxant.
It is a mixture of acetaminophen (paracetamol) and methocarbamol
Our local drugstore sells a generic version that is considerably cheaper than the brand name, we've named it "robaxafake" or "unrexabak"
It is quite effective for muscle strains.

I have no idea whether or not it is available there

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
We have a product here called "Robaxacet" that contains a mild muscle relaxant.
It is a mixture of acetaminophen (paracetamol) and methocarbamol
Our local drugstore sells a generic version that is considerably cheaper than the brand name, we've named it "robaxafake" or "unrexabak"
It is quite effective for muscle strains.

I have no idea whether or not it is available there

I'm currently using another one which might be similar, called Rasputin.

It helped a little, I think, and the painkillers should do the rest.

Poker update

Out with early cooler in Badugi, bad losses in OFC even at the lowest stakes.

We're on a downswing, boys and girls.