Harrier's Blog - Mixed Games & Mixed Drinks

The first Sunday of Advent is fast approaching, and I have a little something planned for Advent this year as well.

Not sure to what degree advent calendars are a thing internationally, but over here, they are a mainstay in December for the young and young-at-heart. Nowadays, many variations exist, but the most common, classic ones contain little bits of chocolate behind 24 cardboard doors. Every day until Christmas (note that in Germany, December 24 is usually considered the "main event" of Christmas), you would open one door to reveal your chocolatey prize for that day, usually depicting some Christmassy symbol. The doors were scattered in a somewhat random order, so finding the correct one was often half the fun of the experience.

I loved those as a kid, coming home from school to check the next door in your calendar was always something to look forward to. The chocolates always had a special kind of taste to them that I don't really remember from any other chocolate available for sale, even though it seemed to be just the plain old dairy milk kind. Usually, my grandparents, who lived downstairs from us when I was little, kept two of those traditional calendars for my brother and me, while my parents would sometimes have something a little fancier for us in mind.

One time, for example (I think it was first done in 1998, when I was ten), they got us an advent calendar which didn't simply contain chocolate, but an entire Kinder Surprise egg behind every door. My brother and I loved the idea, so we did it again the following year, but without a commercial calendar. Instead, we got 24 separate Kinder Surprise eggs, which were then wrapped in several bits of paper with stickers for each day. It was cheaper that way, though it didn't contain any special Christmas figurines which were included exclusively in the commercial calendars, one of my favorites being a series of walnut shaped ornaments depicting Christmassy scenes. On the plus side, you never knew what to expect.

When I moved into my student's apartment at university, I actually got myself one of those again, because I figured that you're never to old for them. I also got one containing several Kinder products, but the highlights were always the eggs anyway. And in recent years, I thought, why not bring this back yet again? So here's what I did for the last two years: Get myself six four-packs of Kinder Surprise eggs, put them all in a bowl, and then randomly draw one every day. And that's exactly what I did this year too, here they are, ready to be used:

Unbeknownst to most people, I was actually in a (now defunct) Skype group for Pokerstrategy trolls at the end of last year, which is where I shared the contents of my last "troll calendar" every day. It was well received, so I decided to bring it back again, but this time, it will happen right here on my blog.

So stay tuned for December 1st, where I shall reveal the contents behind the first "door" of the Troll Calendar 2020! ♠_love:

You´re NEVER "too old" to feel young! Never too old to act a bit childish! The best anti-ageing strategy ever!!

:banana::banana::banana::banana:

When my kids were little, my Mum made an advent calendar for them.
It was a wall hanging that had numbered panels, and when the panel was turned over, there was an image depicting part of the Christmas story.

Sadly, we don't have it any more that we know of -- it probably got lost in a move some some such.

Another very good session, all three games cashed, and they were all better than mincashes too. Badugi final tabled, this time with $2 in additional bounties. 8-Game final tabled for the fourth time in a row, ultimately resulting in a 3rd place finish.

Saturdays tend to be a bit chaotic tourney-wise, but I'll try to keep the momentum going.

More lowball fun (and luck). I was chasing until the second draw, but when I hit an identical hand there, I decided to just pat and hope for the best. I was out of position, so there was some guessing involved, but assuming my opponent was still drawing, the rough nine should have more equity with only one draw left compared to drawing to an 8532. In fact, even a ten should be a favorite at that point, as far as I know.

PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Triple Draw 2-7 Limit (8-Game) - 3,000/6,000 - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG (Hero): 31,495 (5 bb)
BU: 439,088 (73 bb)
SB: 226,177 (38 bb)
BB: 47,240 (8 bb)

Deal: (9,000) Hero is UTG with J♠ 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 2♦
Hero raises to 12,000, BTN 3-bets to 18,000, 2 players fold, Hero calls 6,000

Draw One: (45,000) 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 2♦ 9♥ (2 players)
UTG (Hero) draws Js, BU draws 1
Hero bets 6,000, BTN calls 6,000

Draw Two: (57,000) 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 2♦ 9♠ (2 players)
UTG (Hero) draws 9h, BU draws 1
Hero bets 7,495 (all-in), BTN calls 7,495

Draw Three: (71,990) 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 2♦ 9♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)
UTG (Hero) stands pat, BU draws 1

Total pot: 71,990

Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows 3♥ 5♥ 8♥ 2♦ 9♠ (9-8-5-3-2)
BU shows 3♣ 6♠ 4♦ 5♠ K♥ (K-6-5-4-3)
UTG (Hero) wins 71,990

Wow, how I would envy you if I was still an MTT player. Whoa, super cool results! :f_o::f_thumbsup: Really mega cool! ♠_cool:♠_thumbsup:

The MicroMillions Badugi ran today, which was the last event I cared to play. Surprisingly, it was not a PKO, which took some time getting used to. Nevertheless, I was up to a great start by winning this kind of cooler hand near the beginning:

PokerStars, $2.94 + $0.36 - Badugi Pot Limit - 60/120 (30 ante) - 7 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 10,084 (84 bb)
MP (Hero): 28,030 (234 bb)
MP+1: 33,945 (283 bb)
CO: 6,807 (57 bb)
BU: 27,125 (226 bb)
SB: 7,297 (61 bb)
BB: 20,535 (171 bb)

Deal: (390) Hero is MP with 3♦ A♣ 2♥ 3♥
1 fold, Hero raises to 240, MP+1 calls 240, CO calls 240, 3 players fold

Draw One: (1,110) 3♦ A♣ 2♥ 7♠ (3 players)
MP (Hero) draws 3h, MP+1 draws 2, CO draws 2
Hero bets 740, MP+1 calls 740, CO calls 740

Draw Two: (3,330) 3♦ A♣ 2♥ 7♠ (3 players)
MP (Hero) stands pat, MP+1 draws 1, CO draws 1
Hero bets 2,160, MP+1 raises to 9,810, CO folds, Hero raises to 27,020 (all-in), MP+1 calls 17,210

Draw Three: (57,370) 3♦ A♣ 2♥ 7♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)
MP (Hero) stands pat, MP+1 stands pat

Total pot: 57,370

Showdown:
MP (Hero) shows 3♦ A♣ 2♥ 7♠ (a Badugi: 7,3,2,A)
MP+1 shows A♦ 5♥ 7♣ 4♠ (a Badugi: 7,5,4,A)
MP (Hero) wins 57,370

This put me into a very comfortable position, but unfortunately, I mostly ended up on the wrong side of coolers during the next few hours. Several of them in a row, in fact, it was getting pretty ridiculous at one point. Not a huge issue, though, since my stack was able to take some punishment, but ITM ended up becoming a relatively close call after all, despite the excellent starting position early on.

Once the bubble had burst, however, things went a lot more smoothly, allowing me to take some ladders, until one spot where I decided to bluff catch with a good 3-card hand against an opponent who was caught bluffing before, but happened to hit his mid-range Badugi on the last draw this time. I stuck around, but failed to recover in any effective way. Final result was a 98th place finish out of 1,312 entries, with 192 ITM. The $7.52 was a decent return on my $3.30 entry.

As for my regular session in the evening, it didn't look too bad, but the results left a lot to be desired. Courchevel went poorly, used two bullets and didn't cash, maybe I should really post some more hands in which I'm doing badly for discussion, there are definitely some mistakes. Badugi yielded a bounty, but I finished just shy of ITM after another nasty cooler late in the game. 8-Game mincashed, at least. No fifth FT in a row, but at least the fifth consecutive cash.

Let's see if I'll have some time to get my nose into the poker books again this December. My bankroll has passed $1.8K the other day and should be big enough to take some shots at the $16.50 Stud8 games, but my skills simply aren't there yet, it would be a waste of money at this point. I would also like to get back into mahjong, but this one would probably call for some studying too.

In my post about the upcoming troll calendar, you may have noticed the two pink packages on the right hand side. About ten years ago, a new version of those Kinder Surprise eggs was released, specifically aimed at young girls:

Apart from the packaging, the eggs themselves are the same, of course. The difference is that the toy inside is now more specifically geared towards a young female audience, which in turn also allows the "regular" eggs to be more geared towards young boys instead of kids in general.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I personally prefer the girly eggs. If you're going to get some plastic trinket, might as well make it an adorable looking one, at least. For that reason, and for the sake of variety, I decided to include eight girly eggs in the 24 eggs for last year's troll calendar, which even happened to match the male to female ratio in our troll group.

Obviously, I wanted to include them this year as well, but I wasn't sure about the ratio. Half and half, maybe? Or even a majority? Eventually, I decided to keep the 2 to 1 reg to girly ratio, to make sure that the girly eggs are something special and that there is some hype when I draw them.

Only problem: I opened the package, the eggs inside there look the same as the regular ones this time, so there would be no excitement when they're drawn. I could have just bought some new ones, but instead, I decided to just get a pink marker and color the top in myself:

That way, we'll know right away when one of them is drawn. I just hope that they do in fact contain some girly toys and that they didn't just stuff a bunch of regular eggs into a pink package. Otherwise, there shall be a girly riot!

I love the girly eggs! :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love:

I prefer them too. I love to be 5-12 year old :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
I love the girly eggs! :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love:

I prefer them too. I love to be 5-12 year old :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love:

I am not fond of the candy part, and it has been so long since I opened one I have no idea what might be inside.
I tried an internet image search to see if I could see the lot at a glance, but could not. <sigh>

Now, if I liked the candy part, I would buy them now and again...

I love the chocolate part! And the girly eggs have sooo cute stuff in them. :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love:

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I am not fond of the candy part, and it has been so long since I opened one I have no idea what might be inside.

Sure enough, the things that are in there now are quite different to the stuff that was inside when I was a kid. For one thing, many of the newer stuff seems to require a bit less assembly, but that's not always the case.

The chocolate is still the same, and I always enjoyed it. Of course, people who like it could get a much better value from regular Kinder chocolate bars.

I will certainly keep everyone updated about this year's contents.

I like both!

But have to be careful with them, the Kinder Chocolate bars are lactose-bombs and even whenever I wanna eat one of them, I need to take a high dosage of the enzyme (lactase).

Otherwise .....urm.... *censored* :sifflote::sifflote:

Tonight's session was a rollercoaster. Badugi got unlucky again, no cash. 8-Game started out great until I got sucked out on the river in a big PLO pot. 2nd bullet didn't get off the ground, 3rd bullet went well, then I lost a big chunk during a bad Razz runout again and then the rest during a probably overplayed instance of aces in Stud. Finished a few places short of ITM.

In Courchevel, I made yet another very costly mistake within the first few hands and got ready to rebuy, then surprisingly got back into it again by doubling and tripling up a few times. End result was a 13th place finish for $9.61, which was just about good enough to break even. But what a ride it was to get there...

While there is work to be done, I don't think my main problem is that I lack theoretical knowledge in the games I'm playing. I just need to stay focused and properly apply what I have learned - I guess that would be the "conscious competence" stage of that well-known learning model. Courchevel tends to provide the best examples of that lately, but I do have my "blonde moments" in various 8-Game sections too.

Given enough alcohol, I can reach unconcious competence much faster -- at least the unconscious part.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Given enough alcohol, I can reach unconcious competence much faster -- at least the unconscious part.

I think you're more likely to reach the unconscious incompetence stage that way.

Or the unconscious indifference stage.

Originally posted by Harrier88
I think you're more likely to reach the unconscious incompetence stage that way.

Or the unconscious indifference stage.

Good point.
As opposed to the concious Indifference stage, where you don't give a rat's ass, and you are fully aware you don't give a rat's ass.

With only one day left before December begins, let me present to you the highlights from last year's troll calendar, in no particular order, as chosen by Prim and me.

First, we got this puppy, for obvious reasons. The little pedestal doubles as a compartment for a bunch of stickers that came with it.

Then, we have this cute green fairy (insert your own absinthe jokes here), which was actually a pain to set up. It's a little known fact that Prim loves fairies.

Next, we have this weird little disc thing featuring some ninja-like martial arts guy that you're supposed to flick into little bits of cardboard depicting villains with different bounties...

Another one of Prim's choices, now we have this gothic skunk lady with her skunk friend.

And finally, we got this little Christmas bauble with a cheeky squirrel inside, another obvious choice.

That last one was part of a series of up to eight different Christmas baubles to get. We ended up getting three different ones, though we also had some repeats.

As a little glimpse of what might be in store for us this year, the packaging already announced the new series, featuring various kinds of cute Christmas messengers.

How many different ones are there, and how many will we get? I don't know yet, but I know that I want that husky.

Tonight's session was a lot like the last one. Nothing going in the Badugi, finishing just short of ITM in the 8-Game (after only taking one rebuy instead of two, at least), and then saving it yet again with deep run in the Courchevel - which also started out poorly with a misplayed hand. This time, however, the run went a little deeper and we went all the way to 9th place for $15.27, actually resulting in a winning session.

Altogether, this makes an overall profit of $169.64 in November, which isn't bad.

My results in the Courchevel after picking it up again about two weeks ago are great so far. 7 out of 12 games cashed (with three rebuys), one FT (a 2nd place, no less), and $55.89 in profit at an ROI of 169.36% over this tiny sample. But even when accounting for the 59 tournaments I played early this year, which finished at a loss, I would now be at $38.21 profit and a 23.47% ROI.

With such a promising start and plenty of room for improvement, I think I'll now officially add Courchevel as my third game to the grind, replacing HORSE, which I haven't played in a while anyway. I will adjust my results spreadsheet soon to mark that change, now that a new month has started. If I have time, I may update the graphs too, ideally adding some for the new games as well.

Look at all that snow that came over night. Good thing I have nowhere to go today anyway, so I was able to just go for a nice jog, and enjoy the atmosphere, fitting for our first day of the Troll Calendar.

Here is our bowl, what will our first draw be?

Awww, look at this, it's a cute little squirrel!

That would be very cool indeed, if it wasn't the exact same thing we already got last year, which I just posted!

I already would have said something along the lines of "let's hope we won't get too many repeats" today, but I certainly didn't expect to get a repeat on the very first draw. That normally isn't even possible without some meta stuff.

And I thought those series are rotated around pretty quickly. Oh well, at least that gives us a shot to collect those 5 out of 8 Christmas baubles we missed last year. Even back then, we got the squirrel twice, btw, and another bauble three times.

Oh well, might as well assemble the latest recruit in our squirrel army. Here it is, sitting in the fresh snow:

The first egg a squirrel already????

Whoaaaaaaaaah! That´s gonna be coool this year! I know it!!!!!!!!!!!

♠_love:♠_thumbsup:♠_cool: