Double Trouble with Prim and Harrier - Poker, Sports, Cooking, Gardening, Mixed Drinks and more

Coming up tomorrow ......... Troll Open: Mixed doubles 40 plus!

Yes, as tomorrow is an official holiday, Homer and I decided to compete in mixed doubles 40 plus (urm..don´t we have anything better to do? ). I´m still pretty tired from my last Troll Open (Troll and Trollette Open) women´s singles 50 plus, but well... We don´t have anything better to do ...I guess? :mdr::f_ugly: But after this one, we´re pretty much through with tennis tournaments. In May my "Trollette Open" (Team events) and Homer´s "Troll Open" (Team Events) start and we won´t play any tournaments. During summer, we decided to play ONLY doubles-tournament, if any .... (Come on! Won´t play two single´s matches at over 30°C!!! I´m no masochist ). The plan is to compete less in July and August (as we´re no masochists ) and play our last competitions in September. Afterwards, it´s off-season ....

A lot to post about, and we are not even getting to the poker stuff yet...

Pre-Match Analysis

Mixed doubles for Prim and Homer tomorrow. Once again, it looks like she faces one beatable team, and a very challenging one. The more beatable team should feature opponents that are a little older and ranked slightly lower, so at least on paper, Prim and Homer are clearly favored to win. The other team, on the other hand, is younger, and especially the man is ranked quite a bit higher, which can be tough to overcome.

I know that it has been a relatively exhausting week for Prim too, so I won't hold it against her if she doesn't win both matches. And in light of that, I think I am going to predict one win and one loss again, even though my first gut instinct told me that Primrose will out-troll the strong guy again.

Best of luck on the court tomorrow. As for me, I think I need a good rest while you are busy there. I hope you will be able to get one soon too.

All right, so I mentioned that we have a new aquatic challenge to get to. It's another badge, and one I briefly teased as an "also available" near the beginning of our blog. It is indeed about the "Skull and Crossbone" or "Hour-long swimming" badges.

I already described them in the linked post, but they are what they say on the tin: You simply need to swim continuously for one hour, with the caveat being that you are not allowed to take any breaks whatsoever, none at all. Turning around at the other end of the lane at your local pool? That won't do, this is already considered a break! I assume you can already see the problem: This badge is pretty much impossible to do at a standard swimming pool during regular visiting hours. I have been to pools before where it was enough of a challenge to swim straight lanes due to high "traffic".

In addition to that, these badges are rare and obscure. Not quite as unknown as the Shark badge I did last year, for which I had to approach a professional swimming coach and even he had a hard time getting his hands on the actual badge, but still, not many people have heard of its existence. When I asked about it during my lifeguard training last year, I kept getting referred to other people, who ended up being unable to help me as well.

Not only that, but those badges are "unofficial", and not recognized at all by the DLRG and other swimming associations. Some of them even actively discourage people from taking these exams, citing the risk of hypothermia, among other things. So we are facing the problems of obscurity, uncooperative organizations, and the challenge of finding a suitable place at all, with an examiner who is willing and able to certify us.

What to do? Well, guess what: I am now a licensed lifeguard myself - and with those badges being unofficial and not formally recognized anyway, I would be in as good of a position to take those exams as anyone else. I also know where to get my hands on the actual badges and certificates, and the swimming facility where I help out should be optimal for a challenge like this. Here is an aerial picture of the lake where it is located:

The area that is available to the public measures about 50-70m x 80-100m, so even during regular bathing hours, it should be perfectly possible to swim big enough circles to keep going for an uninterrupted hour - or longer, for the more advanced versions of the badge.

Sounds like a plan? I think it does - and the badges have arrived yesterday, so we are almost all set. Looks like this summer will really test our stamina, with both this challenge and a half-marathon being planned, not to mention the Trollympics.

A lesson to be learned for the poker tables too, maybe - because the poker grind also tends to be very much a marathon, not a sprint.

Here they are, the Black (standard) Silver and Gold versions of the Skull and Crossbone badge. Looks like I will still have to cut them up. The nerve...

As you may have been able to tell already if you speak a little German, you will need to keep going for 1.5 hours for Silver and 2 hours for Gold. I ordered 25 Black, 15 Silver and 10 Gold versions, expecting that people will be more likely to shoot for the lower ones first.

I also ordered 50 certificates. Screenshots that I have seen made my think that they are just a basic sheet of paper, but it turned out that they are foldable like a passport of sorts, much like the official badges I took before, and they leave room for all three versions of the badge. That's good... but it also means that it was unnecessary to order 50 of them. Oh well, I got a discount, and we can always get more badges.

Just for Prim and me, I also ordered two special "glittery" versions of each badge - but first we will have to earn them. Note that "Black" now gets a Bronze design after all, but it is purely aesthetic.

Oh, and I also received this poster, advertising the "Pirate Pimpi" badge... remember that one? I briefly mentioned it in an early post too.

"For all Pimpis"... well, I'm sold.

But guess what: I also received the badge itself, as well as the certificate for it. Also a package of what I think is dextrose, or grape sugar, or whatever it's called.

Honestly not sure what to do with that one. I don't really want to keep a badge I didn't earn at home, but it obviously doesn't make sense to take the exam - it's for beginner-level kids! My swimming facility shouldn't really have any use for it either, as the location is quite unsuitable for the exam.

Maybe I will just have one of my nephews take on the challenge some time. Or hey, maybe Prim could do it, just for the lulz. Something for "Talk like a Pirate Day" this September, perhaps?

Anyway, we're all set. We may be able to take our first attempts in June already, looking forward to it.

Everything hurts ....

Harrier, you were right again! Your prediction was completely correct: There was one clear win, but also a hard fight and eventually, it was fatigue which "won" over me and so, we couldn´t make it in the second match. Were were close, we had great hits, but also made - due to fatigue - stupid mistakes. Nevertheless, the second match was much more fun than the first one, with the clear win, because Villains were strong, solid players. I enjoy competing stronger Trolls and Trollettes because you never know, what will happen: It´s just more interesting! Same goes for poker! I don´t particularly like playing the Just-for-Fun-players. I don´t really like it when they call everything. It´s of course easier to play them, you only have to wait patiently for a good hand and then value bet, but that is also kind of boring. That was the case in our first match. It was a clear win, but was a bit boring. The second match was super interesting and it is really a bummer that we got tired in the second set. Anyway, it was a very nice Troll Open with beautiful weather and we can take away at least one win. And after the Troll- and Trollette Open last Thursday, tennis practice on Monday, tennis practice yesterday and 3 hours competing today .... ouch! Every muscle hurts!

Stats Time (sort of)

Another month has passed, and things were light on the MTT front with only four games played. I don't think that warrants a full stats roundup, but let's at least take a quick look at the relevant graphs and statistics for Badugi and MTTs in general.

It continues to be a very bad year so far, with mostly just a 1st place finish in January carrying it.

The downward trend has been relatively consistent ever since.

The motivation wasn't really there yet, which also explains the low volume last month. Maybe I can pick things up again soon.

It would be interesting to see some 2-7 OFC stats, but I believe it's too early for that yet. If I'm still playing these games by the end of this month, it should be a better time.

Let´s aim for Big Quarter and Sunday Carnival!

Our Koopa freeroll challenge continues of course (on work-free days and weekends). And I notice the same phenomenon in poker like in tennis: There are a couple of favorite tournaments which have become a MUST PLAY! In poker this is the Big Quarter and I liked the Sunday Carnival a lot - both are PKOs (or Mystery Bounty) tournaments. So, yesterday, we played a couple of "Free to play" freerolls and a freeroll satty for the Big Quarter final (freeroll). We, again, made it to the freeroll satty final - where we will play for Big Quarter 11 $ tickets! Besides, we won two 0,11 $ Sunday Carnival Sub Feeder tickets, which we will use soon. We already used one and won a 0,55 $ ticket for the next qualification round. So, the Koopa freeroll challenge will be focussed on qualifying for low- and midstakes MTTs.

Mini freeroll session

There was also a super quick mini-freeroll session on 888, where Wendy O´Koopa could win another +10 ct in the 50 $ freeroll (not it´s not just 125 $ freeroll, it´s alternating between 50 $ freeroll and 200 $ freeroll), but due to fatigue, it was not our A-poker. We f*ed up quite a bit, so after the Fabulous Winner Spinner freeroll at 9 p.m. we decided to call it a day.

Not much luck today ....

Well, not really one of our best sessions today. Started with two suck-outs in the "Free to play" tournaments and ended with some random runner-runner-str8 against us in the PLO "Free to play". Then we found out, that we don´t get a new stack in the Big Quarter Final freeroll satty and entered it as ultra-shortie! Couldn´t remember that anymore, played this 2-phased freeroll satty a long time ago. So starting stack was 2,3 BB and as you can guess, we had to take a gamble already early on. No luck for us! Good that these are freerolls, so everything was for free ...

More luck for Wendy O´Koopa

Even though we got another suck-out (KK < 77) in the 50 $ freeroll, we managed to get ITM in the 450 $ Freebie freeroll. We placed 26th and could take +1,89 $! But again no luck in the 500 $ Winner Spinner freeroll, ran with KQs into JJ and emergency all-in with K6o ran again into JJ. But at least a nice BR-boost there!

BR on 888: 7,23 €

Crypto poker update: OFC is deader than disco, whether we are talking about lowball, regular or even progressive. It is impractical for various reasons, including bad traffic and the entire rounds-based way of playing the game, and I simply don't seem to be able to achieve anything close to consistent success. In fact, I lost pretty badly in recent days.
I decided that it is best to simply ditch this often extremely frustrating game. It has served its purpose as an initial bankroll builder.

Instead, my crypto misadventures will be continued at the Drawmaha cash tables, which saw decent traffic last year, and I finished in profit too, so it can't be all that hopeless. At least when it comes to traffic, however, things seem to have changed a lot by now. It is likely even worse than OFC, and requires a lot of waiting at empty tables.

A few opponents showed up, mostly of the aggro kind, which can be challenging, especially if you face them heads-up, as I usually did. Rake can also be a real problem in split pot games like Drawmaha, even more so if you often find yourself all-in. As a result, I believe both my aggro-opponent and I ended up in a "house wins" situation where both of us finished at a loss. It was all good after all, because another opponent showed up later and rather carelessly lost two stacks to me in record time. No full stacks, but it helped to finish with a decent profit in the end.

Drawmaha may very well end up being another short-lived experiment, but it may at least help me generate enough rake to unlock some benefits on that site, including more access to freerolls, after which I should be able to take things easy without giving up on that room. I wish bigger sites like Pokerstars would start offering Drawmaha too, I think it's a very interesting game, and I would much prefer playing it in a tournament format.

The HOT STUFF has moved....

...into the greenhouse

Carolina Reaper and two Bhut Jolokias

Habanero, Kusburnu and Aji Charapita

Popeye is happy!

Spinach!!!

Enjoy it with mashed potatos

Salads and herbs

Spanish salad

In the garden in front of the house.

Yaay, we have moved, too!

Tomatoes, pickles and cucumbers in the greenhouse

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Enjoy it with mashed potatos

That reminds me a lot of the food I had during a hospital stay once, when I received surgery after breaking a bone in my face and had to be served food that was easy to chew.

I don't mean that in an insulting way either, as I actually liked that food. I also got some ground meat with it, and I usually liked to mix all three ingredients together. The end result may have looked a bit like puke, but it was tasty and nutritious.

Not to read too much into short term results, but we seem to do all right at Drawmaha so far. I managed to pick up more than 200 BBs over the weekend at three different tables, despite only ever sitting down with 60 BB stacks. I am aware that things can turn around quickly, but let's stick around and see where this goes.

No Badugi tonight due to technical difficulties at Stars, which I heard were resolved around the time Badugi started, but by then, I already joined some crypto tables. We should be back tomorrow.

Meanwhile, another week has passed in the half-marathon training schedule, with some tough runs:

Only one more week left in the first half of the program. Wanna take a peek at the second half already?

It won't be easy... but at least after I have completed next week, I should look into registering for that event, I believe.

I notice that on Sunday you run a long distance while taking LSD

From my limited experience with LSD, I would not advise running after taking it.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I notice that on Sunday you run a long distance while taking LSD

From my limited experience with LSD, I would not advise running after taking it.

For those who are genuinely confused, LSD stands for "long, slow distance" run in this case.

It's a little redundant, because unlike the 10K training schedule I followed last year, this plan doesn't include any runs with aerobic intervals where you are supposed to pick up the speed, so pretty much every run is supposed to be at a steady pace.

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Enjoy it with mashed potatos

That reminds me a lot of the food I had during a hospital stay once, when I received surgery after breaking a bone in my face and had to be served food that was easy to chew.

I don't mean that in an insulting way either, as I actually liked that food. I also got some ground meat with it, and I usually liked to mix all three ingredients together. The end result may have looked a bit like puke, but it was tasty and nutritious.

Harrier, don´t forget that you are a BANHAUSER!