Mind Games

Because of my fixed-limit background, I usually just fold longshots but playing the MicroMillions series, and watching other streamers, I'm learning that if you get into the pot cheap, you can sometimes score big -- and if not, you can always get the hell out of Dodge

This is a 2-7 Single draw lowball hand in a PKO tournament. If you hit, you not only get a stack (or more) but you also get a bounty, each of which is worth about 1/4 of a buy-in.
Drawing 3 cards is such a long shot that I've never even calculated the odds of hitting it.

I call it here pre-draw only because if I hit it well, no-one will believe it, and therefore I've very likely to get paid off.

Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars No Limit Single Draw ($1.44+$1.50) t20/t40 ante t10 - 6 players

Button: t3,238
SB: t2,940
BB: t3,396 (Hero)
UTG: t2,715
UTG+1: t2,658
CO: t3,626

Dealing Hands: (t120) 3♦:5♥:3♠:3♥:Q♠: (6 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to t80, CO calls t80, Button folds, SB calls t60, Hero calls t40

First Draw: (t380) (4 players)
SB discards 2, Hero discards 3, UTG+1 discards 1, CO stands,
3♦:5♥: || 9♦:6♠:2♦:
SB checks, Hero bets t3306 and is all-in, UTG+1 calls t2568 and is all-in, 2 folds

Hero showed 3♦:5♥:9♦:6♠:2♦:, Lo: 9,6,5,3,2
UTG+1 showed T♦:4♦:2♥:8♠:7♦:, Lo: T,8,7,4,2
Hero won t5516

UTG+1 clearly did not believe me.

Well, it was OK but...

Overall, I think I played well.
Perhaps too tightly, perhaps too passively.

Three times I was up to play tournaments at 05:30 local time, and I could tell that being tired affected my play.

In three different tournaments I made extreme blunders to the extent that the one mistake cost me the chance to cash.
These weren't playing a hand and getting outdrawn, or coolered, or suffering a bad beat, these were mistakes where I made a clearly incorrect call, or failed to call, or failed to raise.

So we're done.
I'm going to take a week off streaming -- perhaps even take a week off poker -- to get some tasks done around the house.

After that -- SCOOP!

All the best,
VS

I've got a whack and a half of stuff I need to get done, so no stream this week -- and so far no poker either.

I'll be back at it next week...

I was contemplating 2-7 Single Draw today
There are 1020 different ways of making the nuts 7,5,4,3,2
If you don't believe me, here is the derivation:
For any 5 unpaired cards, there are 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 4 different ways of arranging the suits == 1024
4 of those arrangements are flushes, and flushes aren't allowed in 2-7 lowball hands.

For the sake of argument, let's assume Hero is UTG holding 7,x,y,z,2 where x,y & z are all > 7
We block 7 and 2, so now there are only 3 x 4 x 4 x 4 x 3 combos of the nuts left == 576, and some of those are flushes [1]
So if we hold a 7 and a deuce, of the 2598960 possible combinations of cards there is only a 576/2598960 possibility that someone else holds the nuts (0.022%)
If we started with 2 deuces, there are now only 192 possible combinations of 7,5,4,3,2 == 0.08% chance someone has the nuts

Blockers and Outs
Now we're on the button, in a 7-handed game of 2-7 single draw, holding a 7,x,4,3,2 -- so 1-card draw to the nuts. Any 5 gives us the nuts, any 6 gives us the 2nd nuts. No card we can draw brings a straight. If we count 8s outs[2] , we have 12 clean outs out of 47 cards ~ 3:1 odds
The first 4 players all limp. We decide to limp as well, and we'll call the inevitable squeeze from BB which doesn't come. SB completes and BB checks.

Starting with SB, all 6 players before us draw 1.
There are 7 ranks from 8 to 2, and only 4 cards in each rank, for a total of 28 cards.
The seven players at the table each hold 4 cards, and we assume they are all sensible players, and are not drawing to worse than an 8
So the other 6 players hold 24 of the 28 cards I want -- and they all get to draw first!
I also hold 4 of those 28 cards, so we have all blocked ourselves -- there are no outs left for anyone!

Ewwww.
VS

[1] maybe only 3, and maybe only 2 depending on which suits we hold of the 7 and deuce
[2] t'aint necessarily so. 8,7,x,y,z isn't nearly a good hand as 8,5,x,y,z

After the first draw, still needing two cards, it made sense to fold
Converting hands till the cows come home
PokerStars Limit Triple Draw ($0.98+$0.12) t250/t500 - 6 players

Button: t1,710
SB: t2,875
BB: t11,750
UTG: t10,530
UTG+1: t1,675
CO: t12,590 (Hero)

Dealing Hands: (t375) 4♠:2♣:4♥:8♦:Q♥: (6 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t250, Hero calls t250, Button raises to t500, SB calls t375, BB calls t250, UTG+1 calls t250, Hero calls t250

First Draw: (t2,500) (5 players)
SB discards 2, BB discards 2, UTG+1 discards 2, Hero discards 2, Button discards 1,
4♠:2♣:8♦: || T♦:9♠:
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero checks, Button bets t250, SB raises to t500, BB folds, UTG+1 calls t500, Hero folds, Button folds

Second Draw: (t3,750) (2 players)
SB discards 1, UTG+1 discards 1, SB bets t500, UTG+1 calls t500

Third Draw: (t4,750) (2 players)
SB discards 1, UTG+1 discards 1, SB bets t500, UTG+1 folds

SB collected t4750

I went to visit my Mum yesterday for the first time since early March.
There are still prohibitions in place that meant I could not go inside the care home, but hey arranged it so we could talk to her by phone.

My brother, daughter and I stood on the patio, while Mum sat in the activity room.
At first she was a bit confused, and couldn't hear us properly, but once we got the technical difficulties sorted out, it worked out fine.

Not entirely satisfactory, but under the circumstances...

Desperation Equity
Our Hero survives an all-in

Didn't cash though...

I was worried because I'm basically playing for the straight, and Seat 3 has a 6 on the door -- and it is one of the cards I need.
Fortunately, nobody had better...
Converted by the cows of Feral Cow Poker
PokerStars Limit Stud ($20+$2) t1750/t3500 ante t350 - 8 players

Seat 1: t50,013 [X] [X] K♦:
Seat 2: t6,912 7♦:8♠:9♠:6♦:T♣:4♦:7♣: (Hero)
Seat 3: t74,608 [Kh] [Jh] 6♥:6♣:2♣:2♠: [8c]
Seat 4: t67,640 [X] [X] 7♥:
Seat 5: t47,615 [Js] [Jd] K♣:T♦:Q♥:3♥: [5s]
Seat 6: t8,475 [X] [X] 2♥:
Seat 7: t28,897 [X] [X] T♥:
Seat 8: t22,350 [X] [X] 5♥:

3rd Street: (t2,800) (8 players)
Seat 6 brings, 3 folds, Hero raises to t1750, Seat 3 calls t1750, Seat 4 folds, Seat 5 raises to t3500, Seat 6 folds, Hero calls t1750, Seat 3 calls t1750

4th Street: (t13,300) (3 players)
Seat 3 checks, Seat 5 bets t3500, Hero calls t3062 and is all-in, Seat 3 calls t3500

5th Street: (t23,362) (3 players)
Seat 3 checks, Seat 5 checks

6th Street: (t23,362) (3 players)
Seat 3 bets t3500, Seat 5 calls t3500

River: (t30,362) (3 players)
Seat 3 checks, Seat 5 checks

Hero showed, a straight, Six to Ten
Seat 3 showed, two pair, Sixes and Deuces
Seat 5 mucked
Hero won t23011
Seat 3 won t7876

As you may know I have written a script that automates a lot of tasks related to streaming.

I spent most of my spare time this week working on a troublesome portion of the script that involved time-of-day calculations.
At about 17:20 local time today, I finally got it working.
There are over 100 lines of code in this section, and the calculations were always going worng;

About 3 minutes after getting right, I realized that there is a much, much simpler way.

About 30 hours down the tube.

I hate that!

Thanks for simple answer, have a good day.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
About 3 minutes after getting right, I realized that there is a much, much simpler way.

The big question is. Would have come up with the much simpler solution under 30 hours by just thinking about the problem and not grapple with it? And if you start waiting for big ideas - when will you be sure that there isn't an even more beautiful solution? Done is better than perfect!

Originally posted by Rhodriguez
The big question is. Would have come up with the much simpler solution under 30 hours by just thinking about the problem and not grapple with it?

Good point.

It isn't likely I would have come to the simple solution straight off.

The biggest problem I had was remembering how I "used to do it" and trying to make this language (AutoHotKey) do what it wasn't meant to do.

I haven't been playing much this SCOOP, but tomorrow I get to play a $22 PLO8 with a ticket I won watching OP_Poker's stream

I'll be streaming this starting at 18:15 UTC at http://bit.ly/maugr1s

See you there!

a straight is totally useless in 2-7 single draw.
Feral Cow Poker Hand Converter
PokerStars No Limit Single Draw ($9.80+$1.20) t125/t250 ante t60 - 7 players

UTG+1: t27,823
HJ: t14,267
CO: t39,938
Button: t31,275
SB: t38,484
BB: t25,000 (Hero)
UTG: t53,068

Dealing Hands: (t795) 5♦:6♠:4♦:5♠:3♣: (7 players)
2 folds, HJ raises to t750, 3 folds, Hero calls t500

First Draw: (t2,045) (2 players)
Hero discards 1, HJ discards 2,
5♦:6♠:4♦:3♣: || 7♦:
Hero bets t1411, HJ folds <== except as a bluff

Hero collected t2045

so what happened with your SCOOPS?

I've only played a few -- no cashes yet, unless you count my cash in the $11 NL 2-7 Single Draw today.
Problem with that was I fired 4 bullets at it.

Tomorrow I'll play the HORSE and Thursday is Razz -- we'll see how those turn out.

Ok ok I thought u said you were gonna play a 22$ one today

Originally posted by stevegold87
Ok ok I thought u said you were gonna play a 22$ one today

I did play that one -- didn't even make it to the end of late reg.

I got few playable hands, and even fewer flops on which I could continue.

so it goes...

I entered a satellite for the $11 HORSE and a few hands in this happened

Feral Cow Poker
PokerStars Limit Stud ($0.98+$0.12) t1250/t2500 ante t250 - 8 players

Seat 1: t11,725 T♦:J♦:T♣:J♣:5♦:Q♦:J♥: (Hero)
Seat 2: t31,225 [X] [X] Q♠:
Seat 3: t19,050 [K♣: ] [8♣: ] A♣:5♣:8♥:T♥: [9♣: ]
Seat 4: t34,400 [X] [X] 4♠:
Seat 5: t12,925 [X] [X] 2♣:
Seat 6: t7,225 [X] [X] 5♠:
Seat 7: t5,950 [X] [X] 2♠:
Seat 8: t8,800 [X] [X] K♥:

3rd Street: (t2,000) (8 players)
Seat 5 brings, Seat 6 folds, Seat 7 folds, Seat 8 folds, Hero raises to t1250, Seat 2 folds, Seat 3 raises to t2500, 2 folds, Hero calls t1250

4th Street: (t7,000) (2 players)
Seat 3 bets t1250, Hero raises to t2500, Seat 3 calls t1250

5th Street: (t12,000) (2 players)
Seat 3 bets t2500, Hero raises to t5000, Seat 3 raises to t7500, Hero calls t1475 and is all-in

6th Street: (t24,950) (2 players)

River: (t24,950) (2 players)

Hero showed, a full house, Jacks full of Tens
Seat 3 showed, a flush, Ace high
Hero won t25325

--I didn't get a ticket

I love AutoHotkey -- a scripting tool that allows you to create scripts that can do just about anything

For example, If I type the letters "p" and "s" immediately in succession after a space I get "PokerStrategy.com"
If I type "p" then "k" then "s" I get PokerStars
I have entire posts I can create just by a few letters.

For example, if a member from another community drops by and accidentally posts in Spanish I just type "p" followed by "strans" and I get:

AutoHotkey allows you to create hotkeys as well (surprise, surprise) so for example if I press alt-P a dialog pops up that lets me put a window in an absolute position.

I love hotkeys.
I have hotkeys that open apps, hotkeys that find things, hotkeys copy and paste stuff and so on.

So when I started streaming, and found OBS used hotkeys, I was overjoyed. Well maybe not over joyed, but certainly well joyed. (btw, pressing ctrl-i in a forum posts automatically applies both bold and italic tags)

I got a bit carried away.

So last night I build a spreadsheet (did ever mention I love spreadsheets almost as much as I love hotkeys?) and listed all the hotkeys in all the apps I could think of that had them and discovered that:
 I had quite a few hotkeys[1]
 I had quite a few conflicts (this explains why when press ctrl-o in an app to open a new document the odds chart in OBS appeared)

So I spent several hours ensuring that all hotkeys were unique across all applications.

I feel so much better now

[1] There are 66 that I've found so far. btw, the footnote is generated by a hotstring -- not quite the same as a hotkey, but close

In the beginning was the 500 set

That is actually a very early dial phone.
Before that we had these:

To use it, you picked up the receiver, and if no one was talking, you turned a crank on the box on the wall two or three times around.
When the lady answered, I was taught to say, "Mrs Baxter, may I talk to Dad please?" (I was 5yrs old -- maybe 6)
Mrs Baxter was a woman of great clairvoyant powers who knew everybody in town (pop 600 or so) and who and where their Dad's were)
If the phone rang, and it rang 2 short rings and 2 long then it was for us.
Whichever of my sister and I won the race to the phone answered it and breathlessly said "Hello" while fighting off the other sibling trying to get at the phone.

I don't ever actually remember outrunning my sister, but if she wasn't around then I got to deliver the important news. Usually along the lines of "Raise to DEFCON 1" or more likely, "Mum! Dad's on his way home now"

I have no idea what such a setup cost per month.
When we got our private line, and our own number the set had a dial, and was beige, not black

I got my first phone in 2nd yr university. I still remember the number.
228-8443
We don' need no steenkin area codes!
It cost so little I could actually afford it.
It was vitally important I have a phone though, because with it I could phone home and say, "I'm coming home for the weekend. May I bring a load of laundry?" or more rarely "Raise to DEFCON 1"
Oh yeah -- order pizza.
Long distance calls were dreadfully expensive 60¢/minute to cover the 60 miles (we didn't even have km back then) from UBC to where my folks lived.

Why all this?
Now I have a phone in my pocket that costs nearly 5 times as much per month to operate, and does an infinitely greater number of things than that first phone did.

The calculator app I downloaded is faster and has more significant figures than the university mainframe at the time I got my first phone.

What a world.

My brother's phone died a day or two ago, and he needed help picking out a new phone -- Instead of choosing the colour of his 500 set, he as 9461 different makes and models to choose from.

For most of them, when you read the blurb about the phone they never mention the phone at all -- it's all about how good the camera is, how much internal storage there is yada yada yada [1]

So it goes.

[1] we didn't even have yada yada yada back then