Originally posted by Harrier88
Combined together, this also led to my best recorded FL 5CD cash profits for a single day this year, with $7.09 to be bagged. Add the $5.57 from my SNGs and the $2.35 from the 5CD MTT I played with Prim earlier, and it suddenly becomes a little easier to forget about losing those $22 in the Badugi tournament, even though we're not completely covered.
I expect that somewhere there is a buy swearing about PokerStars 
Now it was my turn to nail a cat hop. 
PokerStars, $1.32 + $0.18 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 100/200 (20 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,615 (8 bb)
MP: 1,775 (9 bb)
CO: 715 (4 bb)
BU: 1,825 (9 bb)
SB: 1,600 (8 bb)
BB (Hero): 1,470 (7 bb)
Deal: (420) Hero is BB with 4♣ 8♠ 5♠ 6♦ J♠
3 players fold, BTN calls 200, SB calls 100, Hero checks
Draw One: (720) 8♠ 5♠ J♠ 7♠ A♠ (3 players)
SB draws 3, BB (Hero) draws 4c 6d, BU draws 3
SB checks, Hero bets 480, BTN calls 480, SB folds
Total pot: 1,680
Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 8♠ 5♠ J♠ 7♠ A♠ (a flush, Ace high)
BU mucks J♣ J♦ Q♣ 9♥ 9♠ (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
BB (Hero) wins 1,680
All thing considered, though, it was not a very good weekend poker-wise. I ended up shipping the SNG above, but that was the only cash out of four games today. Yesterday, I played only two and finished 2nd in one, losing the other. This means a loss of about $1 in the SNGs this weekend (disregarding Friday). Badugi bricked today not long before ITM, I didn't play yesterday.
It looks like American football practice has resumed now, with some fitness training to get ready for next season. Honestly, I'm not sure yet how much longer I will continue with this sport, but then again, it's not like there are many organized sporting activities as an alternative available right now with Covid and all. In fact, considering the latest developments, it may be questionable how long that football practice will even last. I intend to go this week, at least, I should find out everything I need to know over there.
This would mean no poker in the evening on those days, but... what about those afternoon sessions? Primrose is doing her brand new bankroll challenge, as followers of her blog will know, which also usually includes some sessions in the afternoon. We had a lot of fun railing each other last week, when I decided to play a few SNGs on Pokerstars in the meantime, and I think we're going to keep this up, which would also open up many opportunities for me to play MTTs that aren't available at my usual evening times. 
I had decided to limit my poker sessions to the evenings many years ago in order to achieve a better poker/life balance, but honestly - it's (almost) winter, the Covid-stuff is getting crazier, I got most of my Christmas shopping done months in advance, I've sent out batches of job applications so I'm now mostly stuck playing the waiting game... there isn't all that much productive stuff left to do out there, is there? Spending a few more hours making a good effort towards poker while chatting with friends doesn't sound all that bad, does it?
I think that's what I'm going to do, and we could see some exciting new developments - let's see what there is in store.
This happened in like the third hand of a SNG tonight:
PokerStars, $1.32 + $0.18 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 10/20 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG (Hero): 1,500 (75 bb)
MP: 1,500 (75 bb)
CO: 1,490 (75 bb)
BU: 1,470 (74 bb)
SB: 1,460 (73 bb)
BB: 1,580 (79 bb)
Deal: (30) Hero is UTG with A♣ A♠ 4♣ 9♥ 3♦
Hero raises to 60, 4 players fold, BB calls 40
Draw One: (130) A♣ A♠ 2♦ K♣ A♦ (2 players)
BB draws 3, UTG (Hero) draws 4c 9h 3d
BB bets 130, Hero raises to 400, BB raises to 1,330, Hero raises to 1,440 (all-in), BB calls 110
Total pot: 3,010
Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows A♣ A♠ 2♦ K♣ A♦ (three of a kind, Aces)
BB shows K♦ J♠ 9♣ Q♠ T♠ (a straight, Nine to King)
BB wins 3,010
If drawing two to a straight or flush is a cat hop, was that a tiger hop?? 
Normally, you're in very good shape when you hit trips with your aces and your opponent drew 3 as well and starts betting aggressively. Most likely, those will be trips too, which are guaranteed to be beaten by your three aces while your opponent may have trouble letting go of their hand. There is a very slight chance of them getting super lucky and hitting a full house or even quads, of course, and that's a thought I've had in mind here as well, but those rare situations should be easily offset by all the value you get from worse trips. I was expecting pretty much anything but a straight - and that player was a decent reg too... well, more or less everyone who plays these games is a reg, of course.
My afternoon session today was disappointing. Very little traffic at both SNG and cash tables, and there weren't too many interesting MTTs after all besides the 5CD that is normally part of our Troll challenges on Fridays. I played that one, but I wasn't currently interested in the $11 8-Game and the $3.30 Stud Hi-Lo, I'm not feeling confident in those games at the moment. There are also a couple of $7.50 Courchevel Hi-Lo's and a $5.50 6+ Hold'em. Same problems there, though I think it would be fun to try 6+ Hold'em again, too bad I don't know a lot about proper strategy there, which would make this a little foolish (though I did once ship an MTT two or so years ago).
Anyway, there was only one SNG this afternoon, finished 2nd. Cash was slightly better than break-even, and the MTT showed a lot of promise after I got a $2.50 bounty and a good stack on course for ITM. Unfortunately, I ran into (represented) pat hands twice within a short time, and I gave them credit, which already cost me a lot. Then I was pretty card dead and couldn't recover. I'm not yet sure if these MTTs are for me, with their fast structure including antes and all. You can't just rely on getting good cards in that case, I should probably get a better idea about required ranges there.
There were some more SNGs and cash games tonight, which went all right for the most part. The SNG with that "tiger hop" I showed above wasn't one of them, of course. 
There was also a $3.50 SNG, however, which I believe are even the highest stakes that are still available. I would play them more often if they had any traffic, but tonight, one game was indeed running. It went a lot better in there:
PokerStars, $3.19 + $0.31 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 15/30 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 2,834 (94 bb)
MP: 1,135 (38 bb)
CO (Hero): 1,835 (61 bb)
BU: 1,292 (43 bb)
SB: 850 (28 bb)
BB: 1,054 (35 bb)
Deal: (45) Hero is CO with 3♣ A♦ 2♦ 3♥ 3♠
2 players fold, Hero raises to 75, 2 players fold, BB calls 45
Draw One: (165) 3♣ 2♦ 3♥ 3♠ 3♦ (2 players)
BB draws 1, CO (Hero) draws Ad
BB checks, Hero bets 120, BB raises to 525, Hero raises to 1,740, BB calls 454 (all-in)
Total pot: 2,123
Showdown:
CO (Hero) shows 3♣ 2♦ 3♥ 3♠ 3♦ (four of a kind, Threes)
BB shows 4♣ 4♦ Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ (a full house, Queens full of Fours)
CO (Hero) wins 2,123
Just a few hands later, someone else ran a full house into quads from another player. Hey, it's higher stakes - players over there are making their quads now.
Luckily, I managed to ship this game. Two of the four $1.50 SNGs I played that day finished 2nd, so I picked the right one to ship.
This made it a profitable day after all, though the afternoon session was quite underwhelming.
Originally posted by Harrier88
If drawing two to a straight or flush is a cat hop, was that a tiger hop??
Check out https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3282444#post3282444
I drew 5 once and got quad kings — and elephant hop?
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I drew 5 once and got quad kings — and elephant hop?
Now that's the most epic way of punishing limpers I've ever heard of - assuming you got paid.
And assuming, of course, that you got a freeplay in the BB, but I highly doubt you would enter a draw 5 situation any other way.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I drew 5 once and got quad kings — and elephant hop?Now that's the most epic way of punishing limpers I've ever heard of - assuming you got paid.
And assuming, of course, that you got a freeplay in the BB, but I highly doubt you would enter a draw 5 situation any other way.
It was limit, as you guessed I was BB
I bet, BU raised, I re-raised and BU folded — in never would have thought he would fold.
I'll always wonder what he had
What I forgot to mention was that my sports practice on Monday evening, which mostly involved sprinting, went well. It still meant pretty tired legs the next day, and I definitely noticed it this evening. I found it hard to stay focused on my poker games around that time, and they didn't go well at all, though I think that was mostly due to running poorly (the very thing I practiced on Monday... :f_ugly:).
My SNGs in the afternoon went much better, with all three games cashing and one being shipped. One of the 2nd places was in another $3.50 SNG, so decent returns overall.
Most importantly, another month went by, so let's finally take a look at those Five Card Draw stats I collected ever since picking that game back up on October 16th. Here is the overall graph ever since then, with each point representing a day:
Looks very good, we're looking at $75.07 in total profit over 29 days played, so it's about $2.59 per day. Cash was mostly $0.10/$0.20, with some few $0.25/$0.50 tables thrown in, while SNGs were mostly $1.50s, with two $3.50s that were added just the other day.
Now let's take a look at a more detailed cash graph, where each point represents one tables being played, i.e. the amount I left the table with minus the amount I brought to the table, including reloads. Note that each point may represent anything from a few hands being played in a minute or two while I was waiting for another game to an hour long grind.
Pretty smooth and consistent profit, I am certainly pleased with that. Total cash profit so far is $30.87 over 85 tables played on 27 days, which means an average table profit of $0.36 (or 1.8 big bets on my typical stakes) and a daily profit of $1.14 (5.7 big bets on these stakes). Again, keep in mind that some higher stakes were added, which are included in these stats too, so the big bet amounts are not entirely accurate.
I have a corresponding SNG graph, where each point is one game, which makes a bit more sense.
I've had one bad streak in the middle, which happened last Thursday, I remember blogging about it. Other than that, very good results too. We're looking at $44.20 in SNG profits over 63 games and 12 days. This means an average profit of $0.70 per game, an ROI of 44.87% and a daily profit of $3.68. 32 out of 63 games cashed, for an ITM% of 50.79%, a little over a half. 18 SNGs were shipped. A more detailed breakdown can be found below:
The candlestick graphs aren't all that meaningful yet, but let's take a look at the overall (combined cash and SNG) graph at least. Note that calendar week 46 was skipped entirely, and that SNGs weren't introduced until calendar week 47.
Altogether, definitely some promising results. It already seems like a more than worthy supplement to the MTT grind, with the added advantage of offering more flexibility, and maybe there is even potential for more.
Now, back to the usual mixed games MTT grind. Once again, the following charts only include MTTs played in the evening, including events and Troll Challenges around that time. The reason for that is that those games were once all I played, back when I originally prepared those charts. Apart from 5CD, most of my efforts when it comes to afternoon sessions weren't significant and consistent enough to warrant a remake of my data charts.
A pretty good month overall, can't really complain. Badugi was the main game, of course. (Note: The bricked $22 Badugi MTT was considered a special event and is therefore included in the overall graph above, but not the Badugi graph below, which is for the $4.40 games only.)
It's nice to see that the positive trend that started this summer continues overall more or less, even if most of it this month was riding on shipping one tournament last week.
All things considered, a good month, I'm happy with that, and I'm especially pleased with the Five Card Draw results. Let's hope that things will continue like that in December, so we can finish the year a lot better than we started it.
That's November being dealt with. But now that it's December, it's time for the Troll Calendar!
If you were around last year in this blog, you should remember what we did last year in December. We started a little advent calendar using Kinder surprise eggs, with a new egg being randomly drawn every day until December 24. The contents were revealed on this blog, and featured a quite troll-worthy number of duplicates, most infamously five of the same reindeer. Here's the whole lot from last year again:
This year, we have to do things a little different than usual. Normally, I would use 6 of those 4-packs of Kinder Surprise eggs, which come with a certain amount of Christmas stuff, I think each pack contained one or two of them, and the rest were the regular trinkets. I thought that was a perfect ratio of Christmas to regular stuff, to make sure it's seasonal and topical, but not too predictable.
However, I just couldn't locate those packs at the local stores anymore this time, and I tried a bunch of them. After several attempts, I figured that I'd have to do it with regular Kinder Surprise eggs this year, even though that means no Christmas stuff. 
But I had an idea to offset this a little: There were some "Maxi Eggs" available - on sale even - and I decided to buy three of them to use them for the three remaining Advent Sundays in lieu of the regular eggs. Those Maxi Eggs should contain Christmas stuff, so it's better than nothing, I thought.
Let's see how this will go, I don't think I ever had one of those Maxi Eggs, I have no idea what they are like. I assume it's the same as the regular eggs, just more chocolate and bigger toys.
As usual, I have included some girly eggs, 8 out of 24, which are usually the highlight of the Troll Calendar. 
First post coming up shortly...
Troll Calendar - Day 1
I will admit that this wasn't a random draw. When I was putting the eggs in my drawing bowl, I noticed that the packaging of one of them was a little damaged, so I thought that it's best to use this one right away. I forgot to take a photo of it before opening it up, but anyway, it was a girly egg, which is usually a good sign. Wonder what's inside...
Now that looks nice, doesn't it? It appears to be a cute little figurine.
Here it is set up. Is she posing with her beautiful long hair, or flexing her muscles? Maybe she's doing both, sounds like something Prim might do.
That's not all, though, because as you may have seen in the first picture, the figurine came with a little paper part, and there are some possible variations.
Put it on a little hook at the back of her hair, and she becomes a cute fairy:
Put it between her torso and leg parts, and she is wearing a layered dress:
Both look nice, but Prim and I preferred the fairy princess style from the first variation, so this will be the official version now.
Pretty good start to our Troll Calendar 2021, I'd say, this one won't be easy to beat. 
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! :f_love::banana:
And there´s Sherman in the pic!! Megan says "Hello". :heart::heart::heart:
Originally posted by Primrose6789
And there´s Sherman in the pic!! Megan says "Hello". :heart::heart::heart:
Yes, the Pokerstars shark plushie you can see in the background of one of these pictures is now known as Sherman. ♠_grin: The story of him and his wife Megan can be found here.
Mrs Vorpal ordered a Peanuts themed Advent Calendar online back in September.
She thought it would never come, and was feeling ripped off.
Well it arrived a week or so ago, and today she opened the first door.
It contained a little toy tractor.
That is not related to the Peanuts cartoon in any discernible way, so now she's feeling ripped off again. 😭
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Mrs Vorpal ordered a Peanuts themed Advent Calendar online back in September.
She thought it would never come, and was feeling ripped off.
Well it arrived a week or so ago, and today she opened the first door.It contained a little toy tractor.
That is not related to the Peanuts cartoon in any discernible way, so now she's feeling ripped off again. 😭
Well, maybe they'll save the good stuff for the later days. Now I'm kinda curious about the other doors, though.
If there's no Peanuts stuff by the 5th door or so, I'd say it's time to call shenanigans.
Mind you, being a good troll myself, I just would have put an actual peanut behind each door...
Troll Calendar - Day 2
A proper draw this time, and we drew another girly egg. I hope we won't get all the good stuff out of the way in the first couple of days.
It's another figurine, from a series about Disney's Frozen (2013) this time. I've never seen this movie and I never really cared about it. Therefore, I also don't know what this guy is called, though I believe he's one of the main characters, probably the male lead. I could look it up, but whatever, I'm sure someone else can enlighten me here.
I know the protagonist of the movie is called Elsa, and there's some snowman called Olaf... that's pretty much how far I'll get with Frozen characters.
Here it is assembled. Not much to say about this figurine, it's just the guy from Frozen, standing on a patch of snow.
Since this is a series, we might see a couple more of this. I believe they will be exclusive to the girly eggs.
As my latest Hand of the Day indicates, I have not been terribly lucky at the tables lately, but I managed to keep it somewhat break-evenish, at least.
On to more important matters...
Troll Calendar - Day 3
What I didn't mention yet is that the non-girly eggs have some cheerful and encouraging little messages written on top of them this time, ideal for giving them away as a gift. This one simply says "Thank you".
What's inside?
Looks like some kind of construction equipment, and it seems to be largely assembled already.
It also comes with a sticker for some sort of motor part, which seems a bit excessive for such a minor detail.
Here's the final thing, including the sticker. It's all plastic, but the shovel offers some resistance so it will bend back once you stretch it out a little.
The tracks at the bottom are fake, as you may have guessed. The excavator moves on little wheels instead.
You can also pull in that shovel, which will then snap in place and can be released by pulling back on that little lever, which I believe is supposed to be the driver.
So now we have some construction equipment in our lineup. What could possibly go wrong this Christmas?
Originally posted by Primrose6789
I think for you it´s more to collect the money you have won.
Not with those quads, though...
Took a bit of a break from poker yesterday, so nothing new to report.
Troll Calendar - Day 4
We drew another one of those yellow "Thank you" eggs.
Well, I admit that's the first time this year where I've been genuinely confused after opening the contents of the capsule. What is that? 
So first we have this weird guy. The presence of leaves suggest that he may be some kind of vegetable, maybe a carrot or so?
What are those leaves all about anyway? They have some little pictures on them. Different ones on each side, even.
Well, that's the finished figurine, set up according to instructions. Again, it could be a carrot, though the leaves don't really match, carrots have those long thin leaves (the round "body" doesn't fit either, of course, but that could be a stylistic choice; round = cute). Maybe it's a beet? Or even a pineapple?
The instructions shed some light on those pictures on the leaves. Looks like you can put them underneath a piece of paper and then scribble over it, which gives you a template to draw those pictures yourself. As you can see on the right, there is also some app compatibility for online games or so, though I think that's the case with all of those Kinder surprise things by now.
So in conclusion, we got some weird veggie dude (or maybe a fruit?) with detachable plastic leaves to be used as scribbling templates. I'm not entirely sure if I'm sold, to be honest...
I wouldn't mind playing some higher 5CD stakes if they were available, but that is seldom the case. At least the next highest limits, which would be $3.50 SNGs or $0.25/$0.50 for cash are occasionally running, and I sometimes join when I get a chance.
Tonight, I added a quick $0.25/$0.50 table when I had a few idle minutes between SNGs and my Badugi tournament. Based on the cards I got there, I should have made a killing, but it was kind of ruined by my opponents drawing to even better hands in this situation, the best example of which being this:
PokerStars, 5 Card Draw Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: $7.11 (28 bb)
BU (Hero): $5.24 (21 bb)
SB: $2.44 (10 bb)
BB: $1.71 (7 bb)
Deal: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with 5♥ J♣ J♥ J♠ 5♣
UTG raises to $0.50, Hero 3-bets to $0.75, 2 players fold, UTG calls $0.25
Draw One: ($1.85) 5♥ J♣ J♥ J♠ 5♣ (2 players)
UTG draws 1, BU (Hero) stands pat
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.50, UTG raises to $1, Hero calls $0.50
Total pot: $3.85 (Rake: $0.16)
Showdown:
UTG shows A♠ K♣ A♦ K♥ A♥ (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
BU (Hero) mucks 5♥ J♣ J♥ J♠ 5♣ (a full house, Jacks full of Fives)
UTG wins $3.69
Luckily, I still managed to walk away with a small profit from that table. SNGs went a lot better, I played four of them, lost one, shipped two, and finished 2nd in the remaining one. In one of them, I even managed to hit such a perfect full house myself in the last hand to finish the SNG in style:
PokerStars, $1.32 + $0.18 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 200/400 (40 ante) - 2 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
SB: 3,380 (8 bb)
BB (Hero): 5,620 (14 bb)
Deal: (680) Hero is BB with A♥ A♣ Q♦ K♦ T♠
SB raises to 800, Hero 3-bets to 1,200, SB calls 400
Draw One: (2,480) A♥ A♣ K♦ A♠ K♠ (2 players)
BB (Hero) draws Qd Ts, SB draws 2
Hero bets 1,600, SB raises to 2,140 (all-in), Hero calls 540
Total pot: 6,760
Showdown:
SB shows J♣ Q♥ J♦ Q♠ J♥ (a full house, Jacks full of Queens)
BB (Hero) shows A♥ A♣ K♦ A♠ K♠ (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
BB (Hero) wins 6,760
So there was some good profit at 5CD today. Badugi showed a lot of promise too, I had a very good stack with only 10 players remaining, then I received a good pat 8-Badugi and played it until the end. Unfortunately, my opponent hit a 7. Returns including bounties were $13.81, which isn't bad at all, but disappointing nonetheless. This run had the potential to go all the way...
Still a pretty good day, profit-wise.
