Originally posted by Primrose6789
The lettuce has to be washed, not the rice! Period.
...all right, so a sushi making challenge shall be coming up some time in 2022...
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SNG Surprise
We were playing a $2 NLO8 18-man SNG, Prim should feel right at home with those games. 
We were on the same table too, though that was a 50-50 chance.
How am I doing in those games? I think our Discord conversation after folding one of my hands to a donk shove on the flop sums it up nicely:
Harrier: I had AA34 rainbow.
Prim: Crappy flop for that.
Harrier: Yeah, I could have pushed pre-draw, but there wasn't much I could do on that flop.
Prim: "Pre-draw"? What?
Yes, I'm not sure if I'll ever be friends with flop-based games again...Especially if it involved shove-happy opponents like in this game, but I suppose this is just how NLO8 is played. Eventually, I had enough and called one of those shoves with this:
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - Omaha H/L No Limit - 25/50 - 9 players
Hand delivered by CardsChatUTG: 1,465 (29 bb)
UTG+1: 1,435 (29 bb)
MP: 1,680 (34 bb)
MP+1: 1,405 (28 bb)
LP: 1,600 (32 bb)
CO: 1,505 (30 bb)
BU: 1,405 (28 bb)
SB: 1,595 (32 bb)
BB (Hero): 1,410 (28 bb)Pre-Flop: (75) Hero is BB with 4♠ 3♦ A♠ 8♥
5 players fold, CO raises to 1,505 (all-in), 2 players fold, Hero calls 1,360 (all-in)Flop: (2,845) J♥ 3♠ Q♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)
Turn: (2,845) J♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: (2,845) K♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: 2,845
Showdown:
CO shows A♦ A♣ 8♠ 6♦ (HI: two pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 62%, Flop: 43%, Turn: 78%, River: 100%)BB (Hero) shows 4♠ 3♦ A♠ 8♥ (HI: two pair, Jacks and Threes)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 38%, Flop: 57%, Turn: 23%, River: 0%)CO wins 2,845
The good news is that I didn't leave in last place this time, only second last place...
Prim did a lot better and made it all the way to 6th place, just short of the four ITM ranks in this tournament. This was her exit hand:
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - Omaha H/L No Limit - 200/400 (25 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChatUTG: 3,308 (8 bb)
MP: 5,901 (15 bb)
CO: 3,578 (9 bb)
BU (Prim): 1,753 (4 bb)
SB: 8,668 (22 bb)
BB: 3,792 (9 bb)Pre-Flop: (750) Prim is BTN with 8♦ A♥ A♠ 3♥
UTG raises to 3,283 (all-in), 2 players fold, Prim calls 1,728 (all-in), 2 players foldFlop: (4,206) Q♥ J♦ 7♥ (2 players, 2 all-in)
Turn: (4,206) 7♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)
River: (4,206) 9♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)
Total pot: 4,206
Showdown:
UTG shows T♣ A♦ 4♥ K♠ (HI: a straight, Nine to King)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 30%, Flop: 29%, Turn: 18%, River: 100%)BU (Prim) shows 8♦ A♥ A♠ 3♥ (HI: two pair, Aces and Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 70%, Flop: 71%, Turn: 83%, River: 0%)UTG wins 4,206
No cash for her, but another clear victory in the Troll Challenge.
Maybe our next Wheel of Trolls will finally reveal a game where I won't make a fool of me.
Yeah, our SnG-suprise wheel was so far a bit on my side Those were games which suit me more (Holdem, NLO8). But I had a bit issues with no limit (long time not played) and SnG (long time not played either). I really had to realize that you can go all-in pre-flop :f_biggrin::f_ugly: and there´s something called "push or fold". Just got used to "da pot" :f_biggrin::f_ugly:
By the way: Remember that one in Stud?
Prim: "Whoah, my hand was double suited"
Harrier: "Prim, we´re playing Stud"
Prim: "So what? It was a double suited hand"
Harrier: "....?"
Let´s see who´s going to be HORSE salami today
Sunday HORSE Race
Finally a game where I have a fighting chance again, and I was the one who got off to a better start this time. Primrose, in fact, had to take a relatively late 2nd bullet after getting rivered by a 3-outer in the Hold'em part. I rode my 1st bullet to the end of late reg, then we were both quite card dead - and short. It didn't look good for either of us, we won some emergency all-ins when they mattered, and kept crawling a little closer to ITM, bit by bit.
Not sure if Prim had more guts or just better hands, but she did take some risks with decent starting hands - which paid off. She secured a few more double-ups while my stack kept shrinking down to nothing. We made it to the bubble, where a shorter stack was caught up in a 6-way pot on another table... but managed to win it, so it was my turn to go a few hands later, right on the bubble.
Prim made it all the way to 37th place out of 342 (including re-entries), shortly before the first ITM ladder, which began at 31st place.
I had the lead early on in the Troll Challenges, but lately, Prim was the one to show me how to play, this is turning into a quite impressive winning streak for her. 
There will be one more weekend of poker before our Christmas break, giving me a chance to get back into this, but for now... Prim may hang this over her fireplace:
Christmas time can be quite busy, as we all know. We did not have time for another cringe challenge, and I don't think I will be able to pick up anything for my "Pirate's Quest" until the holidays either. At least Prim made some progress with the Twelve Days of Christmas, but will she make it in time?
There will be one more weekend filled with the standard poker challenges, then the Trolls will be heading into their Christmas break. The next poker challenge after this weekend will probably take place on New Year's Day. We may or may not do some small stuff in between, but for the most part, we should be done for 2021 after our HORSE race this Sunday.
Another tradition for the end of the year was always Prim's announcement of her Troll of the Year, of course. 
We've been discussing a few options for this year, but came to the conclusion that it was simply a pretty slow trolling year, to be honest. We were struggling to come up with any nominations at all, except for the usual suspects. One of our ideas a few months ago, in fact, was to determine this year's winner not by voting or Prim's decision, but through a series of challenges... but this is what went on to become this thread, pretty much, and only Prim and I were participating.
In the end, we decided to do things a little differently than usual. Prim already has a winner in mind, and will announce them on her blog when we head into our Christmas break.
Until then, stay safe and stay merry, everyone. 2021 may have been another exhausting year for many of us, but we'll soon enter the final stretch, hopefully with a lot of quality time for you guys and your wonderful families. 
Five Card Draw Shoot-out
Originally posted by Primrose6789
I already know it by heart.
First of all, Prim wasn't bluffing. I asked her for the lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas while we were railing each other on Skype, and she managed to recite them all by heart, in the middle of playing. I would have preferred if she had done so in the rhythm of the song, or ideally singing it, of course - but still, well done, Prim! You passed the advent challenge with flying colors.
Now to the Five Card Draw. While I was securing some pots early on, Prim didn't have a great start... but managed to take two bounties, including a bigger one, by using this fancy "anti-GTO" strategy of showing down poor hands and then getting people to put their stacks in when you do have something good. A pat straight and a pat full house were all that was necessary for her to take the lead when it came to bounties.
I kept fighting, and secured another bounty when I entered a three-way pot against a <2BB shorty while I was holding good trips. Turns out that this shorty drew to a full house, but at least I managed to bust out the other player for a $1 bounty. We kept playing, and Prim was getting short as she entered another card dead stretch. My stack was looking better and ITM was inching closer, and eventually, I got another pat straight:
PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 350/700 (175 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 13,804 (20 bb)
MP: 4,820 (7 bb)
CO: 7,310 (10 bb)
BU: 10,386 (15 bb)
SB (Hero): 10,392 (15 bb)
BB: 16,424 (23 bb)
Deal: (2,100) Hero is SB with 7♦ 6♥ 9♠ T♠ 8♥
UTG raises to 1,400, 1 fold, CO 3-bets to 3,500, BTN 4-bets to 10,211 (all-in), Hero 5-bets to 10,217 (all-in), 2 players fold, CO calls 3,635 (all-in)
Draw One: (30,713) 7♦ 6♥ 9♠ T♠ 8♥ (3 players, 3 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, CO draws 1, BU draws 1
Total pot: 30,707
Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows 7♦ 6♥ 9♠ T♠ 8♥ (a straight, Six to Ten)
BU shows Q♣ 2♥ Q♠ 2♣ Q♥ (a full house, Queens full of Twos)
CO shows 5♠ 5♦ 5♥ J♣ 3♥ (three of a kind, Fives)
BU wins 30,707
I'm still stunned... 
not only would this have secured me the win in the Troll Challenge, since Prim busted out while this hand was underway, but I also would have collected nice bounties and a stack that could have given me a good chance to play for some very decent payouts...
But the way things went, I ended up finishing short of ITM with only a $1 bounty, while Prim collected $1.75, which means that even though I finished a little higher, she collected more bounties and therefore wins the challenge yet again.
The Wheel of Trolls to determine what SNG we will be playing tomorrow evening will be coming up later. Let's hope it will be a little kinder to me that it has been so far.
Originally posted by Harrier88
The Wheel of Trolls to determine what SNG we will be playing tomorrow evening will be coming up later. Let's hope it will be a little kinder to me that it has been so far.
The Wheel of Trolls has spoken, and it says.......
Spoiler
Wow, looks like it listened. Except I kinda suck at FL Badugi, I only play the PL variant...
Still, it's at least no Hold'em or Omaha, but my advantage will not be as big as you might think.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by Harrier88
The Wheel of Trolls to determine what SNG we will be playing tomorrow evening will be coming up later. Let's hope it will be a little kinder to me that it has been so far.The Wheel of Trolls has spoken, and it says.......
Spoiler
Wow, looks like it listened.
Still, it's at least no Hold'em or Omaha, but my advantage will not be as big as you might think.
Booo! :f_ugly::mdr:
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Would have preferred this:
Yes, you and our little Troll princess can sure make me look like a baby in PLO - especially if you keep playing like you did today.
But we already had NLO8 last time, and besides, you kept steamrolling over me in those last few Troll Challenges. 
Maybe I stand a chance this time, even though I'm not very good at the FL version of Badugi. I'll still give you a little crash course, if you like, to teach you what I know.
I'll say it now before I'm accused of trying to do damage control after losing: I don't like fixed limit Badugi, and I'm not good at it. The strategies I have developed are for pot limit Badugi tournaments and do not work very well in fixed limit - I've tried it before, both in cash and in tournaments.
Still, I should at least have a fighting chance here, and who knows, maybe I can get Prim into Badugi while we're at it...
But first of all, we need to get a SNG started in the first place, I'd be very surprised if these games had good traffic.
Originally posted by Harrier88
I'll say it now before I'm accused of trying to do damage control after losing: I don't like fixed limit Badugi, and I'm not good at it.Still, I should at least have a fighting chance here, and who knows, maybe I can get Prim into Badugi while we're at it...
But first of all, we need to get a SNG started in the first place, I'd be very surprised if these games had good traffic.
Here´s my "damage control":
Help! I am a PLO player!!! :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
Originally posted by Primrose6789
Here´s my "damage control":
Help! I am a PLO player!!! :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
It is so hard to look at a badugi hand and not see a PLO(8) hand!
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
It is so hard to look at a badugi hand and not see a PLO(8) hand!
Especially if you're playing both at the same time... 
I usually have the opposite problem, though, and see Badugi hands when I look at Omaha hands...
Originally posted by Harrier88
Especially if you're playing both at the same time...
I usually have the opposite problem, though, and see Badugi hands when I look at Omaha hands...
Something I try to avoid ...
... but end up doing rather frequently
Nice Start...
On Discord, as we were regging for our SNG:
Harrier: So, do you still need any help with Badugi?
Prim: So you need different suits and cards as low as possible?
Crap, I've never done this before.
Harrier: Yes, the cards must have different suits and different values in order to count for your hand.
So what would be the best possible hand?Prim: A-2-3-4-5 rainbow.
Harrier: ONLY FOUR CARDS!
Prim: (laughing GIF) Nice start.
Game is still going, stay tuned.
SNG Surprise
Will any of that stop the grindette, though?
PokerStars, $1.29 + $0.21 - Badugi Limit - 15/30 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,550 (52 bb)
UTG+1: 1,955 (65 bb)
MP: 1,325 (44 bb)
MP+1: 1,805 (60 bb)
CO: 1,270 (42 bb)
BU: 1,515 (51 bb)
SB (Hero): 1,440 (48 bb)
BB (Prim): 1,140 (38 bb)
Deal: (45) Hero is SB with 5♦ Q♥ K♥ 3♦
UTG calls 30, 1 fold, MP calls 30, 3 players fold, SB (Hero) folds, Prim checks
Draw One: (105) (3 players)
Prim draws 1, UTG draws 2, MP draws 2
Prim checks, UTG checks, MP bets 30, Prim calls 30, UTG calls 30
Draw Two: (195) (3 players)
Prim draws 1, UTG stands pat, MP stands pat
Prim checks, UTG checks, MP bets 60, Prim calls 60, UTG folds
Draw Three: (315) (2 players)
Prim draws 1, MP stands pat
Prim bets 60, MP raises to 120, Prim raises to 180, MP calls 60
Total pot: 675
Showdown:
BB (Prim) shows 3♥ 4♦ 2♠ A♣ (a Badugi: 4,3,2,A)
MP mucks 5♥ 2♣ 6♠ 8♦
BB (Prim) wins 675
She sure can hit, at least... Which didn't stop her from using Omaha terminology while chatting with me all the time...
Eventually, it led to this on Discord:
Prim: (folds hand after third draw): Boooah, and the ace was single suited.
How stupid...Harrier: There we go again with "single suited"...
Prim: I had A2T6ss.
Harrier: Can you just call the hands what they are, please?
Prim: But that's what I'm doing.Harrier:
Prim: I had A2T6ss (ace suited)Harrier: And which cards had the same suit?
Prim: I said the ace was suited.
Harrier: And what other card???
Prim: A2 were suited.
Harrier: So you had T-6-A...
Prim: No good, huh?Harrier: It does tell me a lot more than "A2T6ss"...
Prim: (laughing GIF)Harrier: 6-2-A is significantly better than T-6-A, for instance.
Prim: (another laughing GIF)
I was struggling a bit with FL too, though. Once I entered a multiway (5-way, I think) pot in SB with a good 3-card hand and hit a Q-Badugi (or A25Q rainbow, as Prim would call it...) on the first draw, but decided to break it. Maybe it's better to keep the Q-Badugi in FL? I didn't improve and my raise after the last draw got called by a K-Badugi that won the pot.
Now I was short stacked too, but ended up getting a decent hand after all:
PokerStars, $1.29 + $0.21 - Badugi Limit - 50/100 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,160 (12 bb)
UTG+1: 1,020 (10 bb)
MP: 3,710 (37 bb)
MP+1: 1,330 (13 bb)
CO: 1,955 (20 bb)
BU: 1,760 (18 bb)
SB (Hero): 640 (6 bb)
BB (Prim): 425 (4 bb)
Deal: (150) Hero is SB with 9♦ T♥ 2♠ 3♣
2 players fold, MP calls 100, MP+1 calls 100, 2 players fold, Hero raises to 200, Prim calls 100, MP calls 100, MP+1 calls 100
Draw One: (800) 9♦ T♥ 2♠ 3♣ (4 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat, MP draws 2, MP+1 draws 2
Hero bets 100, Prim calls 100, MP folds, MP+1 calls 100
Draw Two: (1,100) 9♦ T♥ 2♠ 3♣ (3 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat, MP+1 draws 1
Hero bets 200, Prim calls 125 (all-in), MP+1 calls 200
Draw Three: (1,625) 9♦ T♥ 2♠ 3♣ (3 players, 1 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat, MP+1 draws 1
Hero bets 140 (all-in), MP+1 folds
Total pot: 1,625
Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows 9♦ T♥ 2♠ 3♣ (a Badugi: T,9,3,2)
BB (Prim) shows T♠ 8♥ Q♣ 5♦ (a Badugi: Q,T,8,5)
SB (Hero) wins 1,625
GG, Primrose! 
Things went a little better for me from that point on, and I ended up finishing 2nd for $3.09 after almost one and a half hours of playing.
At least I got one more win in our Troll Challenges. One more game left, we'll be playing HORSE tomorrow again, then it's off into our Christmas break.