Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

I played a little back when TonyBet was a thing and watched some videos from Jen Shahade which I can't seem to find anymore...
I found out players are terrible at micros but it isn't really worth 1 tabling.
It's a cool game to play in a home game while waiting for others to arrive!

Not finding any traffic whatsoever at the OFC/P tables, I decided that I may as well play another regular Badugi and 8-Game session, after an almost two weeks absence from the tables. And man, what a "welcome back" present... I got my first connection dropout when I received a very nice pat hand in the Badugi, though I may have gotten the blinds with my raise anyway. A few minutes later, another connection loss, and another one, and another one... I think they were were five in total within about one hour.

After about the fourth one, I got out the vodka and stopped caring about the tournaments. Actually, I more or less stopped caring after the 2nd disconnection already. Things seem to have stabilized somewhat after the last dropout, but the damage had been done. Except in the 8-Game, where I had a decent stack after all, but lost anyway due to cracked aces in the NL Hold'em part.

An extremely crappy day on all fronts, really, I should have stayed in bed. If I knew that my internet would stay up, I might try some OFC later tonight, but right now, I prefer to remain cautious.

Those internet troubles sure were frustrating, but no worries, things were back to normal after my session. After waiting for a few hours to make sure, I did join some OFC/P tables - and I really wanted to be reasonably sure that my connection would stay up, because disconnections in this game should be absolutely lethal.
Don't worry about me and the vodka, btw, I only had two shots during my would-be tournament session.

Things started out quite nicely with this kind of Fantasyland. We just discussed the value of trips at the top, so check this out - triple trips:

Can you identify the mistake I make in this hand? If not, check the spoiler.

I managed to repeat FL three times in a row there, with my opponent (who is usually on my "would rather avoid" list) timing out during the last one. Can't tell if disconnection or rage quit. Nice winnings of 25 chips anyway for one round.

I stuck around until Jimmy777 joined again, who is apparently still looking for revenge after being shown fouling and losing in my example hand. Or maybe I'm on his personal fish list. Anyway, it started out okay with some evenly matched rounds, even slight winnings, until I completely slipped again. I made one costly mistake in Fantasyland too, where I found a better way after placing my hands, but then started panicking as I was re-arranging my hand and watched my time bank getting short, so I quickly ended up putting it all back together into my suboptimal formation to avoid an embarrassing FL foul. Jimmy, meanwhile, wasted little opportunity to grill me in his own Fantasylands while I was missing my draws, costing me most of my winnings from my previous session until we finally hit the end of the round and I was saved by the bell.

Lesson learned, I should really quit this game as soon as possible once I notice the earliest signs of tilt.

This was not the end, though!

After taking a little break and doing something else to calm down, I came back to look for some more tables, and soon found one. This time, things started out a lot better, and while I can't offer triple trips anymore, I had another nice Fantasyland:

A double full house with Kings on top is surely nothing to sneeze at either. Also check out the beautiful quads from my opponent, who also was in Fantasyland. Notice how despite such a monster hand in the back, I still come out winning by a good margin thanks to the higher royalties for hands in the middle and on top. And as I said before, at least on the site where I'm playing, a full house in the middle is good enough to repeat FL, so both me and my opponent stayed there for one more hand.

Here's another interesting case. Yet again, we're in Fantasyland (my opponent isn't this time), and my hand is a little underwhelming. We have an Ace-high flush that will go in the back, but not much else except for some pairs. Here's what I did:

I could have made two pair in the middle, but figured that such a weak hand probably won't do much good, so it's better to get a decent pair on top and leave a measly pair of Queens in the middle that will surely get crushed by any hand that doesn't foul. Even though it turned out that the two pair would have been good enough to win this row, my feeling was correct. The pair of Tens on top earned some useful royalties that were enough to offset anything else I lost with my disappointing FL deal.

Lastly, here's an example of what not to do, thankfully not demonstrated by me this time. While I do have some players I'd prefer to avoid, there's also one known player that I like to seek out, and they happened to join our tables a little later. I removed their name from the screenshot, mostly out of respect.

They started with an opening deal of 88Kxx (I think the xx were a 6 and a 7, not sure) and opened with a good move, I believe it was 886 at the bottom, K on top and 7 in the middle. Or maybe just 88 at the bottom and xx in the middle. Either way, a solid move aiming for Fantasyland with the K on top, opening yourself up for trips, full houses and two pairs for support further down. Sure enough, they got their full house in the back, but look how they dealt with a KK draw:

Trip Kings on top??

That's surely an amazing hand if you manage to complete it. IF, that is. That two card straight draw in the middle was a bit of a longshot to begin with, but look at those dead outs: Only one of the absolutely crucial 6s left, and in addition to that, only one 8! Sure, the 3s are live, but first you need to catch that one lonely 6, all in one draw of three cards.

As you can tell by the fact that I have still a working laptop to type on, they did not in fact nail that miracle draw, and the round was soon over with nice winnings for both LilDip and me. Over 30 chips for me, I believe, even more than what I got in my first session, of which I unfortunately donked a good chunk away later. This time, however, I claimed my winnings after our third player left and called it a night.

Bankroll is now back @143 - we're getting there!

rofl at his middle with 8 dead backdoor outs
Maybe he was playing 2-7 in the middle?

I remember I was playing when northern players started disconnected all over the place. It's definitely Stars' fault.

Originally posted by nsavov
I remember I was playing when northern players started disconnected all over the place. It's definitely Stars' fault.

My entire internet connection dropped out, though, so it wasn't all on Stars. I heard later that there were more internet problems earlier today as well, though I didn't encounter any yet since late afternoon. If this continues over the weekend, we should definitely get it checked.

As for that ambitious backdoor draw, I checked the odds in one of my charts, my opponent should have had about 3% equity. Not a complete hell draw, but still not much better than a one-outer on the river in Hold'em. And worse than a two-outer on the river or a one-outer over two streets.

Note, however, that if my second opponent hadn't been in Fantasyland and all their cards had been open, revealing no more dead outs for my backdoor-chasing opponent, their equity would have increased to 9% on that draw. Which still isn't great, of course, despite the high possible rewards.

Originally posted by Harrier88
My entire internet connection dropped out, though, so it wasn't all on Stars. I heard later that there were more internet problems earlier today as well, though I didn't encounter any yet since late afternoon. If this continues over the weekend, we should definitely get it checked.

I use a tool called "Multiping" that can continuously check several targets at once.
I keep track of several targets in our home network, and a DNS server.
If a home network item goes offline, that's one thing, but if I lose connection to the DNS server, that means the entire internet is down.

The output looks like so:

Multiping looks interesting, but it's paid software and I'm not sure if it will help a lot in my case.

nsavov may be on to something after all, though. I played another standard Saturday MTT session with Prim tonight and when I opened Stars to rail one of her tables, my internet connection dropped out within a few seconds yet again. It happened right when I tried to bring up the table. Thankfully, it didn't last long this time, and I avoided opening Pokerstars since then, but it was the only disconnection of the day for me. Very odd...

Here's one aggressive opening I played with KKAxx in OFC today:

I wasn't sure about it, and after reading up on it in my articles, this is indeed not the recommended move. A single pair of anything but aces (which go in the middle) would normally go in the back, with the exception of KKQxx, where KK would go in the middle and Q on top, or QQAKx, where the AK would be decent enough support in the middle to put QQ on top.

It worked out this time, though:

Originally posted by Harrier88
Multiping looks interesting, but it's paid software and I'm not sure if it will help a lot in my case.

Too bad.
In former times you could run a free version -- it just nagged you every so often to license it.
My license lapsed several years ago, but it still works.

Here is a free alternative I have also used.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/multiple_ping_tool.html

Looks like the connection issues are gone now. At least, let's hope they are.

I played another Badugi and 8-Game session with no disconnections on Sunday. It went all right, with a decent cash in the Badugi, though I still didn't manage to stay concentrated for more than about 2 hours. Luckily, I played a well-timed hand in The Deal on Pokerstars that day. My earnings from the winner's jackpot spin were enough to cover both buy-ins, so I was already freerolling as I was playing.

OFC saw some minor losses in the meantime, but it all turned around earlier today with one amazing session that earned me over 50 chips. At 0.25 chips per point, that means finishing over 200 points up, so you can tell I was running quite hot.

This hand wasn't from today's session, but I saved it the other day because it marked a rare occasion of hitting trips on top while not being in Fantasyland, and very good trips too. I made a risky move before, trying to complete flushes in both the middle and the back, with a single queen on top. It worked, so I was only hoping for one of the two remaining queens on the last draw to allow me to access FL. Sensationally, I got them both.

Today, I instead made one of those moves that I've discussed before, where I break quads in Fantasyland in order to make trips at the top. Yet again, I made the mistake of putting my worse trips at the top instead of using them in the full house, which had cost me another two points from each player. It still seems to be the correct move over putting quads at the bottom.

Bankroll on that room is back to 188, already recouping about half of what I lost during my initial OFC attempts. It has increased by about 100 ever since I did some studying on that game.

Let's take it to over 300, at which point we are officially in profit in that game overall.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Bankroll on that room is back to 188, already recouping about half of what I lost during my initial OFC attempts. It has increased by about 100 ever since I did some studying on that game.

Let's take it to over 300, at which point we are officially in profit in that game overall.

very Good news

Late night update: First of all, I discovered that I kinda suck at mahjong by now. Played one game, but quickly realized I don't really have the "feel" for it anymore, decisions aren't as automatic and/or confident as they used to be. Still finished a few cents up, at least, but I need to find my way back in again before I attempt any serious grinding. There is still a little bit of profit to protect.

In OFC, I kept an eye on the lobby and discovered my favorite fish, except he was playing the 2-7 version. Since I only read about the Pineapple hi only version, I usually avoided that one, but with this player at the table, I decided to dive in. That was a mistake - not only am I a lot less confident in my decisions there since I didn't study that game, but much like regular 2-7, it also has some brutal variance, with each hand being in real danger of fouling as long as the middle row isn't complete yet. Long story short, I had some bad losses when I left after just one round, about 30 chips, I think.
It didn't help that the alleged "fish" from those hi only games (the one with the backdoor gutshot I once posted) actually seems to do all right in that version, probably better than me.

But no worries, because when I did find the courage to seek out the Pineapple tables despite my most feared reg lurking at them (that would be Jimmy, of course), I hit another fantastic session, finishing with an overall bankroll of 223 in the end, despite the loss at 2-7 before.

Another day like that, and the bankroll reconquista would be complete.

Originally posted by Harrier88
In OFC, I kept an eye on the lobby and discovered my favorite fish, except he was playing the 2-7 version.

I am tempted, but the last thing I need right now is some other variant to spend time learning.

I'm going to have a run at SCOOP again this year, so I'll be studying all the mixed and draw games.
I'll also play some hold'em, since I've had some success recently for some strange reason.
PLO8 of course, but not PLO hi only!

OFC/P continued to be my main focus, with many ups and downs, but the general direction was up. Bankroll is now at around 250, edging closer and closer to being completely rebuilt.

Traffic is bad, and it looks like the 2-7 version has more players who are interested. It might be worth it to learn how to play that one properly, but without a lot of written articles on it, I would have to mainly rely on intuition and a bit of trial and error, which can potentially be costly. I don't think I should attempt it until I have built my bankroll a little further.

Meanwhile, I have checked out another crypto room which also has OFC, with much improved traffic. However, the overall quality of players also seems to be a bit better than what I've seen on my current site from what I could tell, so I'm not sure whether it's worth it. I'll stick around in some Hold'em and PLO freerolls, which are all satellites. Getting a few free chips to try my luck at those tables would be great, but making a deposit is also not out of the question, it's just not a priority right now.

While the progress in this fun and addicting (and sometimes quite tilting) game is nice, I'm still eager to make my way back to the usual mixed games grind. After some more messy and unfocused sessions, I have decided, however, that I should wait until the daylight savings time switch, so my local time has caught up with North American time and the tournaments are back in the old time slots for me.

This switch happens to be tomorrow. Due to an appointment early in the morning, I will not get a lot of sleep – in fact, I have considered pulling an all-nighter, but I think I'll hit the bed in a few minutes and try to get at least a few hours of sleep in. Therefore, I am not sure if I'll be in great shape for playing in the evening, but let's see. I already did some reading on my games the other day, trying to get back into the swing of things, so hopefully I'll be able to get off to a good start once I do make the comeback, whether it's tomorrow or some other day.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Bankroll on that room is back to 188, already recouping about half of what I lost during my initial OFC attempts. It has increased by about 100 ever since I did some studying on that game.

Let's take it to over 300, at which point we are officially in profit in that game overall.

We did it...

Well done!
You probably feel like I did when my 888 roll topped $500

Now don't go and do what I did and toss 10% of it down the drain!

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Well done!
You probably feel like I did when my 888 roll topped $500

Now don't go and do what I did and toss 10% of it down the drain!

I'll try. But there's still a lot to do in that game, this is not a done deal.

For those who missed it, the story so far is that I discovered this brand new poker version called Open Faced Chinese Poker (OFC) early this month and instantly got hooked, but also got crushed on the weekend I started playing due to my lack of skills. I lost a huge chunk of my bankroll on that bitcoin based site, which started out with around 275 chips (each representing one millionth of a bitcoin) and dropped down all the way to 80, believing that it was probably just about over. Then I studied the game a little and got back all the way to 300 chips within the next two weeks, completely rebuilding that bankroll.

That's not really a lot of money, but it's a great achievement nonetheless to come back from such a dire situation. Still, we're not done. Not only can my luck turn around and I could end up losing a lot again, especially if overconfidence sets in, but I'm also obviously not content at just rebuilding that roll and leaving it where it is. If we can rebuild our bankroll with that game, then we can also use it to build it up further. So where can we go from here?

The next milestone would be 500 chips, which is the minimum amount for a withdrawal on that site. Not having ever dealt with bitcoins before, it would be pretty nice to get some for free, though I wouldn't immediately cash out all of my bankroll, of course. Maybe I could consider this at the 1K mark, but I would prefer to build a proper roll that could support some decent tournament sessions on that site, which features a nice array of rare mixed games.

As for moving up in stakes, the next limit would be 4 times the stakes of my previous one. In this one, each point in an OFC game would correspond to one chip, whereas at my current limit, each point is only worth a quarter of a chip. I would need a much bigger roll in order to try my luck at those if I don't want to risk squandering all of my hard earned chips there. However, I have already seen one known opponent against whom I have usually been winning in the past lurking around a heads-up table. Once I get my hands on 500 chips, I might take some careful shots, once this player is seen waiting for opponents - but only this known player, I won't be taking any chances otherwise.

I also mentioned the 2-7 version before, which seems to have better traffic, but I didn't find a lot of study material on it and don't seem to be really good at it, to be honest. With about 400 chips, I might take some shots at that one too, and see if I can figure out a way to beat it.

Everything else is pure speculation at this point. These goals remain: a 500 chips bankroll as the next milestone, first shots at the next limit under certain specific circumstances, and trying to get into 2-7 OFC/P.

Also, we should finally expect a proper mixed games tournament session tonight.

Tonight's mixed games didn't go too badly, at least in the beginning, but not getting bored two hours into an MTT is still a big challenge for me. There were some decent bounties and a mincash in the Badugi, which was enough to break even.

I had decent success in OFC, though I didn't find a lot of action. It encouraged me to check out the 2-7 OFC/P games earlier this evening, at least, where I also had some nice success. However, another game at night after my mixed games session quickly gave me a reality check. I ended up over a full stack down, which took care of the rest of my earnings that day. Clearly, I'm not beating those games, so I'll ignore them from now on, until I find some good material on them. The only reason I played them tonight is because no one wanted to play me at regular OFC/P.

But traffic or no traffic, if I'm not beating the games, there is little reason to play them. I'll stick to hi only OFC/P and will just have to accept the fact that I'll only find a game once in a blue moon - better make them count, then.

Thanks, AceFromSpace. Traffic is a real problem on my current site, so it's nice to hear about alternative places.

I still have that new account on that other crypto site, though, where traffic seems to be as good as it gets in that game, so I will probably focus on that one once I got some funds in there.

OFC was pretty terrible last night, btw, which is another problem of low traffic - you have to take the few games you're going to get, or not play at all. Bankroll is back down to about 250 now. Luck wasn't really on my side this time, but I've had sessions like that even during my successful rebuilding.

Badugi didn't cash either, but the 8-Game had a nice deep finish, I believe it was for 12th place. I don't think there's much point in posting detailed stats for March this time, since play was very limited this time. My overall results this year are still pretty disappointing, though. Hopefully we'll be back to pre-2021 levels by the end of April.

Hope you guys had a great Easter. I sure did. It's a feast of hope and joy, after all, which can sometimes be in short supply during times like these.

Poker has continued, and it has been going slowly overall. I believe we are on the right track, though. More on that possibly later.

As for the mixed drinks, I decided to purchase a wooden mallet to help me a bit with the crushed ice. Store bought crushed ice tends to freeze into a big lump, of course, so you have to crush it all over again, which can be tricky without causing a mess or damaging the packaging, which would inevitably result in an additional mess too. That mallet will hopefully allow me to do a better job with that. I also heard of people who simply like to drop their package on the ground until the ice is all crushed again.

Anyway, ebay sellers sometimes like to pack some additional stuff with their sales, which happened this time too. What I didn't expect, though, was that this seller even had my Grindette friend in mind when they shipped out my order.