Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

Originally posted by Harrier88
Is anyone even still reading this? Are my posts too long? Too much whining from me? Or are my games just too exotic?

I read them — primarily because of the exotic games

Originally posted by Harrier88
Quitting poker entirely doesn't quite seem right yet, however. I think I just need to find a way to turn it into a positive experience again. Not sure how to do it yet, besides the old "less is more" approach, but maybe I will find some way eventually.

Try some NLHE ?
Take a poker vacation?

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Try some NLHE ?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here...

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Take a poker vacation?

Yeah, maybe. A few days to get out of the losing mindset, perhaps. I'll see what I can do. Maybe I just need to focus on something else for a while.

Well, speaking of exotic games... I decided that it was indeed time to try something new, and when my supposed OFC opponent on that low-traffic crypto network turned out to be a no-show, I thought that now is as good a time as ever to start that mahjong side challenge.

Another player sat down at a table of the lowest three-player mahjong stakes, and I joined him... I figured the button with the coins and the dollar sign should be good, and now that I am able to take a closer look, I can even make out the katakana for "Play".

All right, a third player joined, here is our very first hand. The Western-friendly symbols in the top left of the tiles are gone, but that is the least of our worries in this challenge.

First decision that involves buttons early on... I'm glad that the buttons had pictures of the tiles on them, because I knew that I didn't want that tile, so I clicked the button without any on it. After looking it up, it looks like the katakana on that one say "Pass" (pasu).

And here's an aggressive move from me early in the hand: I made a "Riichi" bet, announcing to the table that my hand is one tile away from winning and committing me to my current draw. Unfortunately, I missed the moment I clicked the button, but the sideways tile signals my bet as well.

I am aware that my draw is not very good (we are drawing for a bamboo 7, three outs left, but many draws remaining). I wanted to apply some early pressure, and I was still a little intimidated by all the foreign symbols, so I guess it was a bit of a Hail Mary.

Next intimidating looking button... I know from prior experience that you can set North wind tiles aside in three-player mahjong for extra points, so it was easy to guess that this was what it's about. I had the option of clicking on the tile instead to discard it, but I would just be throwing away free points that way.

And guess what? We won the hand, my opponent discarded the bamboo 7. I did not get a button to click on, the win was automatic - I should find a way to disable that in the settings, there are some rare instances where you would prefer to turn down a winning hand.

My mahjong experience and limited katakana knowledge allow me to identify the scores below: 1 han for the aforementioned Riichi bet, 2 han for two North tiles, and 1 han for one dora (bonus) tile, making 4 han in total - a so-called Mangan worth 8,000 points (and I get my Riichi bet back, worth an additional 1,000).

I am a little confused by the yellow symbols below, which seem to indicate Fu, which I guess can be considered "sub-points". I thought they only apply in standard four-player mahjong, but house rules, I guess...

Good start. And one relatively inconsequential hand later, we are potentially in the final hand of the game.

I did know what the button said here: It was "Pon", which means taking a triplet as part of your hand. My hand was pretty much face-up from that point on, it was pretty clear that I was collecting bamboo tiles, but I wanted to force a quick win to end the game.

I did not win the hand, my opponent closed off the game with a win by self-draw... but he only won the hand, the game goes to me!

But look how close it was! I had 41,000 points, my opponent in 2nd place had 40,700 - about as close as you can get.

And look, I dodged quite a bullet here. My opponent won with a circles 4, which I had in my hand as well, and I chose not to discard it, forcing me to give up my draw, because I figured it was too dangerous. If I had played it, I would have had to pay the 8,000 points myself, already costing me my first place. Also, I declined to discard the bamboo 8 earlier on, which also would have given him a win against me.

But yeah, we won our very first game, despite the language barrier. How's that for a morale boost?

We only made $0.53 in profit (and got our $1 investment back), but that wasn't the point.

Finding something else to focus on really did help a lot.

I mainly admire the time and effort you expend learning these games.

.

It really is a fascinating country, I would like to visit it some day. Its culture has a certain uniqueness that makes people from all around the world fall in love with it. I think it is the combination of tradition and innovation, and of humility and commitment to excellence.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I mainly admire the time and effort you expend learning these games.

Thank you, but it is mostly learning by doing, really. I like that you can come up with your own strategies in largely uncharted territory, in contrast to the large amount of optimization found in Hold'em strategy.

Thank you very much for the support, guys. I apologize if I didn't exude the most positive energy here recently, the last few weeks were a little stressful, with more expenses than usual too. I guess I wasn't prepared for what poker threw at me.

To get it out of the way, I donked away like 15% of my small crypto bankroll at an OFC table last night, lol. You have to take the stakes you can get at that traffic, and OFC is variance-hell, not much you can do when the cards keep falling into your opponents lap (hand strength determines pot size in this game). I shouldn't read too much into it - with the CoinPoker tables gone, it is impossible to get a good OFC grind in anyway, so I can now consider this game to be a fringe curiosity to be played every now and then, like mahjong.

Currently kicking back and railing Prim's cash games. I have a lot to say for a more constructive approach to get back on track, both with the mental game and the actual game, I will get to that later.

The Mental Game

Let's find a way out of this situation, now that I had a bit of a break.

General guidelines:

- Take the pressure off, forget about all profit goals for the time being. We can get back to them when things are rolling again.

- Realize that mistakes are part of the learning process.

- Take satisfaction in improving, rather than in pure profits

- Only play when you're ready. Maybe play some short games based on either concentration or logic (or both) to see if you're in the mindset, or to get you into it if you're not. Don't be afraid to skip sessions if your mind is somewhere else.

- Keep saying "less is more" in a deep, philosophical voice while staring stoically into the distance, feeling wise. Alternatively, swap the letters and say "mess is lore" for comic relief

- Remind yourself that you got out of worse.

- Remind yourself every now and again that this is just some silly card game, and that losing at it should feel no more shameful than losing at, say, Mario Kart.

- In general, keep news consumption to a minimum - it's not good for the mental well-being to keep dwelling on everything turning to crap (and since when is that anything new anyway?). Focus on things to be grateful for, of which there are still plenty. Try to find non-political podcasts and streams to listen to as background noise during poker (easier said than done, perhaps, as it seems everything is political these days).

Personal issues:
Those need solutions, advice is welcome.

1. Catching myself making mistakes easily trips me up, and I have difficulties recovering and getting back into the zone. This isn't just a poker thing, I often had that problem in sports too - sometimes you might as well sub me out instantly after the first time I mess something up, because it would be only downhill from there. Destructive perfectionism?

2. Possibly on a related note, it seems like I need constant validation for skills I should know I have. Short-term failure can easily make me question everything about myself. Plain and simple insecurity? Or possibly even a form of "impostor syndrome"? Maybe Primrose has an idea, she is usually the first person to hear about my woes and knows them all too well.

3. I tossed the Sophomore Slump hypothesis around the other day. There may be a general issue of me taking things too easily once I feel like I have established myself somewhere - again, this is not just in poker. Once I'm comfortable, I get sloppy. If this goes on for a while, the "questioning myself" part mentioned above sets in again.

4. I'm one of those players who start to get nitty when they're on tilt. You can't win by just waiting for the stone cold nuts all the time, you need to push your edges. I should only play when I am willing and ready to do that.

TL;DR - what's the plan?

Profit goals are off for now - play good poker, don't play if you're not ready to do it. If that means playing only one table, then so be it. If it means skipping a day, or several in a row - so be it.

The SNG grind is gone for now - but SNGs are not. Play maybe one or two, but do it primarily to identify and develop strategies.

The key takeaway: Turn poker into a learning experience, not one big chase for profits.

The Actual Game

Where do I stand, and what shall I do?

Badugi

My assessment: Solid starting ranges, established strategy.

Comment: The player pool has changed a bit over the years, some players know how to counter some of my typical moves, but in general, my strategy still seems to be working. Just grind it out.

Five Card Draw

My assessment: Solid starting ranges, basic to advanced strategy.

Comment: The building blocks are there, but I think it needs fine-tuning to adapt my strategies to tournament play. Certain situations continue to cause me trouble. It may be time to go beyond the basics a bit.

Courchevel Hi-Lo

My assessment: Basic starting hand guidelines, basic strategy.

Comment: I have grasped some things, but still make beginner mistakes. I may stand a chance here... but I don't think I'm there yet. Some reading could get me on track (very limited material out there), but I mostly need to find a way myself.

Stud Hi-Lo

My assessment: Basic starting hand guidelines, very basic strategy.

Comment: Not solid enough yet, and I lack confidence. The reading material is out there (Super System 1 and 2 - those guidelines may need tweaking for tournament play, especially Sklansky's section in Super System 1, which seems to follow a slightly different rule set), I should take a closer look. What little guidelines I have mostly comes from there, and seem to have put me on the right track in general.

Razz

My assessment: Very basic starting hand guidelines, rudimentary strategy.

Comment: I would love to get into this game... but with no SNGs, virtually no cash traffic and only a $7.50 MTT, I'm afraid my hands are tied - unless I want to jump into that MTT, which I don't think would be wise at the moment, and which would very likely require a few buy-ins of "tuition fees" before showing returns... which may not even be worth it in the end.

Stud Hi

My assessment: Rudimentary starting hand guidelines, rudimentary strategy.

Comment: This is a quite frustrating game, and it seems like the edges to be had are slim. This is one game best reserved to its sections in HORSE and 8-Game for me, I think, and I hope that my bare-bones strategy will be enough to carry me there. I could try to improve it a little, but it is not a top priority.

PLO8

My assessment: Very basic starting hand guidelines, very basic strategy.

Comment: This is a largely ignored game from my point of view, which may, however, have more potential than I think. Material is out there. The tournament schedule is better than for most other games on the list. Maybe some studying could pay off?

2-7 Triple Draw

My assessment: Basic starting hand guidelines, very basic strategy.

Comment: Lack of availability makes it not worthwhile to invest any effort into this. I hope my current skills carry me in 8-Game, should I choose to play.

2-7 Single Draw

My assessment: Rudimentary starting hand guidelines, sloppy strategy.

Comment: This is one I better skip.

PLO Hi

My assessment: Rudimentary starting hand guidelines, rudimentary strategy.

Comment: I'll leave it to Prim... I just hope my skills get me through the 8-Game sections.

NL Hold'em

My assessment:

Comment: lol, pleb.

FL Hold'em

My assessment: Chaotic starting hand selection, sloppy strategy.

Comment: It's part of HORSE and 8-Game... old starting hands charts should hold me, hopefully...

Did I miss anything? I don't think so.

TL;DR - what's the plan?

Grind Badugi, self-study 5CD, self-study Courchevel mixed with reading, read into Stud8 mixed with self-study, consider getting into PLO8.

To do: Play some PLO8 fun challenges with Prim
Oh, guess that means, I have to play MTTs :sifflote::f_ugly::facepalm:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
To do: Play some PLO8 fun challenges with Prim
Oh, guess that means, I have to play MTTs :sifflote::f_ugly::facepalm:

One more reason to look into those games, then...

Back to mahjong for a moment. So my challenge was to win at mahjong on a Japanese-only website, despite not knowing enough Japanese to even order sushi. I did it yesterday on my first try, so... challenge over?

Yes, kind of. That really was the bulk of it, I imagined it would take a few attempts, at least. But "Big in Japan" will continue, I will still play some games every now and then, and post about any big hands, big wins, big losses, weird stuff, tactical battles and epic mind games that may occur. As before, be on the lookout for "Yakuman" hands - certain special and rare hand combos with the maximum payout. Don't worry, I will give a detailed explanation on why you should feel excited each time.

Also, there may be some special games every once in a while. This is the tournament lobby, I made that screenshot two days ago, along with the other ones for the opening post:

Again, not much to understand for people like me, except for the essential stuff like date and time, as well as the amount of entrants. The dollar number with the coins symbol seems to be the buy-in, and the one with the money bag seems to be the prize pool.

Unsurprisingly, the schedule is based on Tokyo Time and tends to be a little inconvenient for people in my time zone (the times shown in the lobby are in my local time). Freerolls are nice, but I won't get up at 6 AM for them. That one freeroll at 14:00 yesterday seems to have been restricted in some way. If I understood the translation of the Japanese text in the lobby that I copy-pasted correctly, it was reserved for "beginner" players, whatever that means. Maybe it's for first depositors, or players without any funds.

Anyway, the only tournaments I could realistically play with my work hours are unfortunately paid entry tournaments, and I don't think I saw any lower than $7. That's a bit too much for my $190-ish bankroll, I think, even though they tend to come with shallow players pools. There is, however, one freeroll I regged already... though I had to guess which button to click, but it seems to have been working, as I'm in now the list of participants:

It seems to be a monthly freeroll, with a special twist: The prize pool is $200, and the player finishing first gets it all, everyone else gets nothing.

As for how you get there, you play standard four-player mahjong, four hands in each round. After the round, the player in first place moves on to the next round, until there are only four players left at the final table.

Right now, there are 146 players regged. You can only play at full tables, so that means 36 tables and at least two players who won't be able to participate after all - assuming everyone shows up. Players who are not in the lobby one minute before the game starts get kicked. Oh, and it's first come first served, so it makes sense to reg early if you consider playing, the players who registered last are the ones to get kicked if they won't get a full table because the number of entrants is not divisible by four.

Let's assume there will be those 36 tables. This means that there will be 36 winners, which is actually divisible by four - otherwise, there would have been randomly chosen "lucky losers" who get to stay in despite not winning their round. Out of 36, 9 players win - which is not divisible by four, so there are three more "lucky losers". 12 players left, so three players win, plus one "lucky loser". And out of those four players at the FT, one will walk away with $200.

This means that, disregarding the chance of advancing as a "lucky loser", I would have to finish 1st out of four players four times in a row. I'm no good at this compound probability stuff... but I assume that given equal chances and no edge for anyone, that means a probability of 1/4 * 1/4 * 1/4 * 1/4, amounting to around 0.0039%... am I right?

Needless to say, even if I was an anime-esque mahjong genius who does have a massive edge (and speaks Japanese), this would not be a tournament I am likely to cash. But hey, it's a free shot at $200... what's not to like? Besides the fact that this money would be more or less unwithdrawable for me, that is...

First things first, I don't even know if I can make it to that tournament, or if I will get a seat there if I do make it, I only regged just in case. The tournament will start on May 1st at 2 PM my time - the only reason I can think of for not making it would be lunch time interfering. Or me forgetting about it, but now I posted about it and all, I should remember.

Let's see... maybe we can win a round, at least.

.

Well, yes, obviously. What I meant to say was that I would not be able to order sushi in Japanese, just as an example of how limited my knowledge is. As a visitor, I'm sure it's easy enough to get by speaking English in Japan, at least in the more urban areas. I did not know about the plastic food models, though.

Then again, maybe I would be able to order sushi in Japanese after all... I expect most menus are numbered, and I kind of know my Japanese numbers, as well as my pleases and thank yous. At least I would be able to do what Harrison Ford did in this beer commercial:

However, I expect that if I was going out to eat sushi in Japan, I would do the same thing I usually do over here and go for the All You Can Eat buffet, and I would have no idea how to announce that.

First of all, I deserve a big slap to the face for immediately violating all the guidelines for more focused and tilt-free sessions that I just set. Prim and I played our HORSE race again, as we planned, so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to add in some of those Courchevel and PLO8 tournaments I mentioned before. Yeah... no, it's a terrible idea, at least when I intend to also cook and eat dinner around that time.

Unsurprisingly, as tables kept popping up left and right while I was trying to get a few quick bites in, I made bad and obvious mistakes where I didn't even bother to think about my opponent's hand. Then my standard mistake-tilt sets in, and soon everything goes completely down the drain. Normally, three tables of different games is my absolute limit and is supposed to take my full focus, not something to casually do on the side.

There have been so many instances of me pretty much burning my money in such a way recently, I shouldn't even speak of a downswing. Nothing swingy about it, just the predictable results of some very poor decision-making.

But enough of that... I just found out, almost by complete accident, that the MicroMillions Marathon has started, and there are even some promising mixed games in there. In fact, there was a PL Badugi event this evening. Didn't do very well in that one, unfortunately, only got a $0.75 bounty for my $3.30 buy-in. However, I also played the $2.20 Stud Hi side event, and much to my surprise, I did not only cash - I final tabled it.

Only got an 8th place there, but out of 551 players, that surely is a more than satisfying result, and the payout of $16.19 is at least enough to cover the buy-ins of tonight's otherwise pretty botched session.

I really need to get my act together, though. No more nonsense sessions like that, I should hit the tables ready to crush, or not at all.

Other MicroMillions Marathon events I intend to play are the $2.20 Stud Hi-Lo tomorrow, the $1.10 Razz on Sunday, and maybe the $5.50 8-Game earlier on Sunday too. Primrose and I have also been discussing adding an event or two as part of our Troll Challenges, maybe we can agree on something tomorrow.

Off the Felt...

I had finally heard from my tennis club this week - season is about to start, and members were asked to show up early today to get the courts and the clubhouse ready. Naturally, Harrier was there.

My past on the football gridiron was known, so I was mostly tasked with rolling the courts, taking turns with one other member.

I used the opportunity to ask about the upcoming practice schedule, which will also affect poker. Supposedly, the coach from the academy where I will practice is currently putting his schedules together, and I should hear from him within the next couple of weeks.

Really looking forward to it. There would be some casual tournament tomorrow (if the weather allows it), but I don't plan to join, neither as a player nor as a spectator, because I really need to regain on some sleep.

It was a pleasant day today, though, with some nice weather too. And look, we even have some visitors in our pond in the backyard already.

Also the regular inhabitants, of course.

But let's get back to what is supposed to be one of the points of this blog, namely mixed drinks.

We will have two for the price of one today. Let's start with the Perfect Storm, a longdrink based on ginger beer.

First, we will combine 45 ml of Grand Marnier, 15 ml of lime juice and three dashes of Angostura bitters in a cocktail shaker. We will then strain the mixture into a highball glass filled with fresh ice.

Then, simply fill it up with ginger beer, and the Perfect Storm is ready. Feel free to garnish it with a lime wedge, especially of you are using freshly squeezed lime juice, which is recommended.

Next, we will also make a Corpse Reviver #2. Yes, there are several Corpse Revivers which are totally different from one another, and they are numbered. Maybe we will get to the other ones eventually. The #2 is the only one that is included in the official list of IBA cocktails, though, as far as I know.

This one is a bit simpler. We will just combine 30 ml each of gin, triple sec (Cointreau is preferred, didn't have any) and lemon juice. Also a dash of absinthe. With Angostura bitters, I generally just give the bottle a good shake once, and what comes out should be about a dash. Can't do that with the absinthe, obviously. So I simply poured a little on a spoon and carefully drizzled some of it in.

Shake and strain it into a cocktail glass. An orange zest can be used as garnish.

Here they are, both of them:

I only had the Corpse Reviver #2, which was very good, and the Perfect Storm seemed good too, I had a sniff. It was also quite well received.

Maybe I can revive the corpse of my poker grind too, and brew up a perfect storm at the tables soon.

Originally posted by Harrier88
But let's get back to what is supposed to be one of the points of this blog, namely mixed drinks.
What can one do with Jagermeister?
(besides just drink it over ice as suggested on the bottle)

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
What can one do with Jagermeister?
(besides just drink it over ice as suggested on the bottle)

We have briefly discussed this on Christmas two years ago. I can link again to the list I found back then, we have been discussing some of those choices in that post.

The Dead Nazi (shown below again, for convenience) has become a bit of an "afterparty" favorite for when Primrose is visiting, when we are done with the regular program and are just listening to music and having a few drinks. It's quick and easy to make if you have all the ingredients, I don't even bother with the measuring - just fill half of a shot glass with Jäger and fill it to the top with mint liqueur (I use white crème de menthe from De Kuyper), or vice versa.

As for drinking it straight, instead of pouring it over ice I usually prefer to just put the bottle in the freezer.

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
What can one do with Jagermeister?
(besides just drink it over ice as suggested on the bottle)

We have briefly discussed this on Christmas two years ago. I can link again to the list I found back then, we have been discussing some of those choices in that post.

Wow — I had forgotten that. Thanks! (again)

MicroMillions Stud Hi-Lo was mostly a snore-fest... The very few playable hands I had could not make an impact.

I am still quite sleep deprived, which I intend to fix soon. I made sure to only add one more game, which was the $4.40 Badugi, where I could get my hands on a pretty good stack that made it all the way to the final table. Still not the big cash I needed, only made a 6th place for $14.98 including bounties. This makes it a successful session, but I would have needed more out of it. At least I got the chips in ahead in my exit hand.

My best MTT cash so far this year was $38.02 in one Badugi in early February, I need to make it to the big cashes somehow.

Razz tomorrow, still not sure if I will play the 8-Game.

Tonight's MicroMillions Razz side event taught me some valuable lessons - most importantly, that this game should not be played. This means that I won't need to worry about if and when to take shots at those $7.50 tournaments anymore.

8-Game went pretty well, but the problem with this one is that it involves FL Hold'em... arguably the worst version of poker ever conceived. I'm still pretty hopeless at it, so my run ended right there, without a cash, but with $5 in bounties, almost paying for the tournament buy-in.

Things should be back to "normal" tomorrow, and maybe it's better that way. Today seemed like a bit of a momentum killer, but we had two final tables this weekend, one even in a large field tournament, so maybe I can build on that somehow.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Tonight's MicroMillions Razz side event taught me some valuable lessons - most importantly, that this game should not be played. This means that I won't need to worry about if and when to take shots at those $7.50 tournaments anymore.

Of all the games I ever played, razz has the highest frequency of disappointment.
I think I miss out on a lot of money though, since I don't bluff enough, and (I think) I fold to bluffs too often.
On the other hand, I seem to win enough — especially in 8-game, where it is one of my biggest money-winners