Mind Games

GG Vorpal ! ♠_drink:
So poker isn't dead even in its older formats !

Originally posted by MyFloXyBabY
GG Vorpal ! ♠_drink:
So poker isn't dead even in its older formats !

Thanks MyFloXyBabY,
No -- it is alive and well -- especially 2-7 triple draw since Isildur1 took an interest.

Not a lot of action at low stakes though, and although I've played up to FL $2/$4 I'm not quite comfortable playing there.

btw, I love your sig!

Cheers,
VS

Yaaaaay, congrats, Vorpal!

Thank you to everyone for your congratulations and best wishes.

A lot of credit goes to Jared Tendler and Barry Carter for "The Mental Game of Poker".
This blog starts out as a record of my walk through that book.

What I learned there helped my stay sane from the run-up from ITM to FT, then HU

I should also mention "The Education of a Modern Poker Player", by John Billingham, Emanuel Cinca, Thomas Tiroch
John was a blogger here, and the other two gentlemen were coaches who took him through the first few stages to crushdom.

In that book is a section on 5-Card Draw, and I used some of the principles I found there to help learn 2-7 Triple Draw -- since it is merely 5-Card Draw backwards (and with more draws :f_biggrin:)

I would encourage everyone who is struggling with NLHE to branch out -- there is a lot of enjoyment and excitement in the Draw games.

And of course, where would I be without PokerStrategy.com ?

All the best,
VS

Great post, Vorpal! Grats one more time

Well here are the results from the entire MicroMillions run.

    Name    Buy-In               Details     Position        Value  
   MM-02     $5.50          NLO8 [6-Max]     813/5999        $9.54  
   MM-09     $3.30        PL 5-Card Draw           --               
   MM-17     $3.30            Stud Hi/Lo      61/3929       $13.86  
   MM-19     $5.50                8-Game      32/3970       $40.72  
   MM-26     $3.30    FL Triple Draw 2-7       1/3062    $1,302.80  
   MM-35     $3.30        NL 5-Card Draw           --               
   MM-44     $3.30                  Razz           --               
   MM-46     $1.10        R NLO8 [6-Max]     485/4467        $8.87  
   MM-73     $5.50          NLO8 [6-Max]           --               
   MM-98     $3.30    NL 2-7 Single Draw     157/2456        $9.99  
  MM-100     $5.50          PLO8 [6-Max]           --               
  MM-107     $3.30          FLO8 [6-Max]     405/3676        $6.52  
             $8.80 Rebuys, addons & re-entries
   Total    $54.00                                       $1,392.30  

All-in-all a great run.

Now back to the regular grind...
VS

Not bad! ♠_thumbsup: Got only 2 ITMs so far..... ♠_ugly:

Total $54.00 $1,392.30

Massive Congrats on your MM Results Vorpal
Keep up the good work and looking forward to reading about some future successes

Oh boy, by reading this blog, I feel like trying out some exotic variant :sifflote:. I think I will add another poker variant to my repertoire anyway, even though everybody says "focus on one variant", but frankly: So many pros are good in more than one variant and I really feel like it. So, why not?

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Oh boy, by reading this blog, I feel like trying out some exotic variant :sifflote:. I think I will add another poker variant to my repertoire anyway, even though everybody says "focus on one variant", but frankly: So many pros are good in more than one variant and I really feel like it. So, why not?

What if the variant you focus on is 8-Game ♠_biggrin:?

I got started in the "other" games with Fixed-Limit 5-Card Draw. It is very close to the "original" poker game. I thought I already knew how to play, but after losing 58 Big Bets in my first session I decided that perhaps I didn't know so much.

So I read https://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/7-card-stud/5-card-draw-1-introduction/
There are more articles linked at the bottom of that one.

And two videos: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/20414/ and https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/20162/

I also made extensive use of Excel and the math techniques found here:
http://people.math.sfu.ca/~alspach/computations.html

Once you know the odds of each of your actions, deciding what to do us (usually) straightforward.

There is nothing on PokerStrategy.com about 2-7 triple draw, but it is just 5-Card Draw odds standing on their heads -- with 2 more draws.
This game is often played for high stakes -- but not by me ♠_cool:

Stud is black magic. https://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/7-card-stud/seven-card-stud-hi-introduction/
Razz is the bluffingest game in Poker -- but nothing on it on it here beyond this article: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/7-card-stud/razz-introduction/

There is a lot of material on PLO, but not much on Omaha Hi/Lo split.

Another problem is that except for PokerStars, none of these games -- except for PLO -- are played online.
At least not that I know of.

If you do decide to take the plunge, be sure to post some problem hands in Other Poker Variants

All the best,
VS

The problem is: I don´t like Razz!

I love PLO, PLO8 and ...............? Probably some draw-poker-game? Don´t know yet but the lowball sounds good, let´s see.....

Tss, look at that, this dear Prim is still looking for an excuse to spill herself over other variants, that bad girl !

What are you meaning by "stud is black magic" Vorpal ?

Originally posted by MyFloXyBabY
Tss, look at that, this dear Prim is still looking for an excuse to spill herself over other variants, that bad girl !

What are you meaning by "stud is black magic" Vorpal ?

It means I have no clue how to play it strategically, and rely totally on luck ♠_biggrin"

I have some books on my "to purchase" list about stud, and stud hi/lo, but I need to finish my Omahahaha course first

All the best,
VS

Ok, so it is not your craft then, because looking at your avatar it's obvious you are rather sided with the white magic side

Originally posted by MyFloXyBabY
Ok, so it is not your craft then, because looking at your avatar it's obvious you are rather sided with the white magic side

Sadly, that was taken after September 2013. In honour of my Mum's 90th birthday, I had my hair cut, by a wigmaker who uses donated hair to make wigs for cancer patients.

Before that date I looked like this:

Now comes the white magic tie-in...
On several sites, I used the name "Meroveus" -- who is the King in French legend who founded the Merovingian line of kings.
According to the Wikipedia article on Meroveus:

A contemporary Roman historian, Priscus writes of having witnessed in Rome a “lad without down on his cheeks as yet and with fair hair so long that it poured down his shoulders

Elsewhere I've read that Meroveus had mystical powers associated with his hair.

I wish

Recently, though I've adopted "Maugris" -- also known as an enchanter, but not anything to do with hair.

The long white hair was a ton of fun -- especially near Christmas. Kids would come up to me and just stare -- or tug their Mum's sleeve and point.

When the last several Harry Potter movies came out -- and all of the Lord of the Rings films -- we went to the theatre in full costume.
After the first few times, nearly a quarter of the audience was in costume.

But magic?
Unfortunately no...

All the best,
VS

Donating hair for cancer is great, I already heard of it but I don't know if it's possible in my country.

Indeed you looked like Dumbledore or Gandalf even more than I initially suspected ♦
And you know your stuff. Good culture ♠_thumbsup:

The most remarkable thing in your post though is that I'm being given a good lesson in my very own history !
I'm french and we don't know much anymore about Meroveus and Maugris

All the hairest,
;)MFB

First time I've played this in ages[1]

Earlier in this blog, I go through a whole whack -- more like a whack and a half -- of math and deduction to try to find pot odds of playing various hands in this variant.

I played the MicroMillions 2-7 NL Single Draw, and after 2 re-entries I ended up cashing -- profit a whole 9¢

The daily tournament is a Progressive knockout, so there are some strategy adjustments to make -- and I haven't figured them all out yet.

Today's hand is a major departure for me since I'm out-of-position drawing 2 cards.
In this case I do not have direct pot odds to call, but villain has been extremely aggressive both pre- and post-draw.

Since I'm BB it does not cost much to see a draw, there is no-one else in the hand, and I'm drawing to the nuts.

This converter is going to be a cash cow...
PokerStars No Limit Single Draw ($1.44+$1.50) t200/t400 ante t100 - 6 players

SB: t5,676
BB: t11,876 (Hero)
UTG: t3,323
UTG+1: t4,775
CO: t6,105
Button: t10,583

Dealing Hands: (t1,200) 2♥:Q♣:A♣:4♣:7♠: (6 players)
3 folds, Button raises to t1200, SB folds, Hero calls t800 <-- raising here is foolhardy -- a three bet shove by villain would require a fold

First Draw: (t3,200) (2 players)
Hero discards 2, Button stands,
2♥:4♣:7♠: || 3♣:5♣: <-- the miracle draw. Villain holds both a 3 and a 5, so there are at most 9 combinations of 3 & 5 left in the deck
Hero checks, Button checks
This is the lesson learned: Because villain is so aggro, and because he stood pat (which is wise holding a K vs a player drawing 2) I expected him to bet, at which point I would raise -- possibly shove.
As it happened though, he checked back

So what did we learn:
 Don't check so fast. Deliberate a bit if deciding to check
 Even against hyper-aggro players consider a smallish (1/3 pot) bet to give him the opportunity to bluff-catch vs our value bet

Hero showed 2♥:3♣:5♣:4♣:7♠:, Lo: 7,5,4,3,2
Button mucked K♠:3♦:5♥:7♣:2♣:, Lo: K,7,5,3,2
Hero won t3200

All the best,
VS

[1] No, unfortunately I did not cash. I blew off about half my stack trying to get an "easy" bounty. I did however pick up three bounties prior to that, so lost only 1/3 of the buy-in

Originally posted by MyFloXyBabY
Tss, look at that, this dear Prim is still looking for an excuse to spill herself over other variants, that bad girl !

What are you meaning by "stud is black magic" Vorpal ?

Yeah, why not? It´s cool!

Vorpal, this looks cooooool with the long hair!!!

Yeah, indeed a bit like Gandalf ... ♠_biggrin:

By the way: Stupid me got my hair cut to shoulder length for summer, looks nice but realized that I can´t make those nice braids anymore (for sports), so, I let it re-grow even though hair care is a pain in the bum bum!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
By the way: Stupid me got my hair cut to shoulder length for summer, looks nice but realized that I can´t make those nice braids

From time to time I did a pony tail to manage the hair while I did yard work and such, but braiding hair is a skill I'm not like to acquire. Ever.

Cheers,
VS