Primrose vs Harrier - Troll Challenges

As we planned, we played a HORSE tournament on Stars tonight, the same one we played last year. Honestly, though... we didn't enjoy ourselves at all. I just came back from a particularly nasty Open Face Chinese poker session and was in a stinky mood, Prim had to listen to me fume and was dragged down by it as well, and besides, those are just pretty stressful times in general for the two of us.

Anyway, we had a pretty bad time, and we decided to consider this game a practice for now, without keeping score. The playing conditions just weren't right this time.

We'll be back next weekend with more tournament poker, and also enjoy another live meetup on Friday, where we intend to do another fun live challenge to start things off.

I got all the stuff for my first bread baking attempts, but Prim and I had been busy today, among other things preparing for our next meetup tomorrow, so no bread yet. I'll try to get to it next week. Until then, let them eat cake.

We do have a fun little live challenge prepared for tomorrow, to start off the new year. All I can say right now is that it likely involves vodka. Looking forward to it, let's see how it goes.

Originally posted by Harrier88
I got all the stuff for my first bread baking attempts, but Prim and I had been busy today, among other things preparing for our next meetup tomorrow, so no bread yet. I'll try to get to it next week. Until then, let them eat cake.

We do have a fun little live challenge prepared for tomorrow, to start off the new year. All I can say right now is that it likely involves vodka. Looking forward to it, let's see how it goes.

If it is anything like the vodka I'm familiar with, it goes down.
If you repeat that too often, or for too long, it comes up

Originally posted by Harrier88
I got all the stuff for my first bread baking attempts, but Prim and I had been busy today, among other things preparing for our next meetup tomorrow, so no bread yet. I'll try to get to it next week. Until then, let them eat cake.

We do have a fun little live challenge prepared for tomorrow, to start off the new year. All I can say right now is that it likely involves vodka. Looking forward to it, let's see how it goes.

I assume Homer said "dough"

Originally posted by Lazza61
I assume Homer said "dough"

😂🤣:mdr:

Baking bread is a hobby for people who enjoy loafing

I'm genuinely excited to get started with the baking challenge. Being able to bake some basic bread would be pretty cool already, but I'm mostly excited for the more advanced goals down the line.

Making my own burger buns would help out, because while the offerings in the stores are decent, they don't always come in the shapes I want. Finding good gluten-free recipes would allow me to serve them up for the grindette too. Making flatbread would be very nice, as I tend to enjoy that one very much, but it's tough for me to use up the packs that are sold in the stores. And making my own tortillas would be amazing - I love Mexican food and like to make other tortillas wraps too. My failed attempts at making tortillas so far resulted in a huge mess and weird shapes, but I did notice that the taste itself was vastly superior to any store-bought tortillas. Being able to make proper ones would make my already quite enjoyable burritos truly "estupendo".

First proper Live Challenge of the year! Actually, it was a cooperative challenge this time, with both of us Trolls working together towards a shared goal, rather than competing against each other, as usual. And as I teased before, some vodka was indeed involved. What was the challenge?

Live Challenge No. 4 - Super Drunk Mario Land

Super Mario Land probably doesn't need much of an introduction - if you ever picked up a Nintendo Gameboy, you probably played this game at one point. If not, it's just a basic platformer, one of the launch titles for the Gameboy, released in 1989. Being such an early title, it's pretty primitive compared to later games, and also very short with just 12 linear levels, and only moderately difficult. Nevertheless, it's good clean fun to this day, and a game that both of us Trolls are familiar with from our youth. For me, I believe it was actually the first "proper" video game I ever played, apart from some simple handheld LCD games before that.

We played this game again today after so many years, but added a few extra rules to spice it up for the challenge:

- The Trolls take turns playing the game. When the player loses a life, it's the other Troll's turn to play, and both of us have to drink.
- When a level gets beaten, it's also the other Troll's turn to play.
- Whenever an extra life is gained, both Trolls have to drink. (Keep in mind that there is a bonus game at the end of each level that offers up to three extra lives in one go)

While I still have the original cartridge and hardware in working order, we used my Pandora, which is a miniature Linux computer that was designed with gaming and emulation in mind. Conveniently, it can be hooked up to a TV screen and allows the use of external controllers, both of which came in handy for our challenge.

Our goal was simple: Beat the game with combined efforts while sticking to our drinking game's rules. While it's possible to use save states in emulators, we were not allowed to do that here, we had to beat the game in one sitting using the three lives provided to us, and the extra continues which can be earned for every 100K points. Otherwise, the Troll Challenge would be considered failed. Both of us had beaten this game before when we were younger - and sober - so I figured odds should be in our favor. ♠_grin:

As for the drink, I gave Prim the choice of any drink, mixed or otherwise, from my fully stocked home bar. My suggestion was either plain vodka or a Long Island Iced Tea, but Prim decided to go for the raspberry liquor that I recently bought pretty much entirely for her - I personally don't like it myself. I stuck with plain vodka. Both of us had a cocktail before, though.

It was "ladies first", and Prim was excited to pick up her controller to play this game again after decades and jumped straight in. It went well for a few seconds, until I pointed out to her that this was just the game's demo mode running and she wasn't yet playing, only pressing buttons which didn't yet do anything... Then, it was time to get started for real.

Prim still had some pretty good knowledge of the game, but I guess she was a little unfocused? Despite her great effort, she rarely lasted very long in her player turns. I remember several situations where I gave her the controller and refilled my shot glass, only for her to lead Mario into his doom before I was even done refilling. That was actually the reason for me introducing the rule of having to give up your player turn after beating a level, to prevent either of us from running away with the game if we're doing well, and making sure that both of us get our turns, no matter how it goes. Prim did beat some levels too, though, so she definitely helped out.

I didn't count how many shots we had, but there were a few... Both of us slipped up a couple of times, and unsurprisingly, it didn't get any easier down the line. In the end, though... we did it! ♠_love:

The Trolls mastered their first Troll Challenge of the year, with 14 extra lives and plenty of extra booze to spare. Prim was still ambitious, though: She wanted to prove that she could beat the game on her own too, without any help from me. Sounded like another nice challenge, so I passed her the controller and started railing, while still sticking to the rules of having to drink every time a life was gained or lost in the game, as I was watching. Her first run was a bit disappointing, then her next attempt ended in Level 2-1, the 4th out of 12 stages. Unlucky, but GG!

We decided to switch to the "afterparty" at that point, where I served up Nsavov's Underpants for the two of us as we were listening to some music. The challenge will remain for Prim, though: Will she be able to beat the game on her own in one sitting before the end of the year? Place your bets, trolls! ♠_grin:

You forgot to mention that every time I played YOU were distracting me with some remarks or "Prim do this", "Prim do that". :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Okay, all that booze didn´t help either.... :sifflote::sifflote::sifflote:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
You forgot to mention that every time I played YOU were distracting me with some remarks or "Prim do this", "Prim do that". :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Okay, the all that booze didn´t help either.... :sifflote::sifflote::sifflote:

Yes, I was trying to help Prim a bit by pointing out the locations of some hidden extra lives which she appeared to be unaware of. Of course, it won't help out that much if she loses two lives trying to go for it and then won't even take it because she's like "screw that!" by that point.

Other times, I was just encouraging Prim and praising her on her progress, right after which she messed up and blamed me for jinxing it.
I even hacked an endearing message for Prim, spelled in coins, into an early part of the game. She did like that one, at least.

And luckily for her, her raspberry liquor only had 15% ABV. ♠_biggrin:

Originally posted by Harrier88
Super Mario Land probably doesn't need much of an introduction - if you ever picked up a Nintendo Gameboy, you probably played this game at one point. If not, it's just a basic platformer, one of the launch titles for the Gameboy, released in 1989.

Surprisingly — or not — I have never done so. My son had one, and I watched him, but I never actually played on one.
I did play Mario on my daughter's PC but that was many years later.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I did play Mario on my daughter's PC but that was many years later.

I assume you were using an emulator, like us? I'm not aware of too many official Mario games on PC, except for some edutainment stuff.

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I did play Mario on my daughter's PC but that was many years later.

I assume you were using an emulator, like us? I'm not aware of too many official Mario games on PC, except for some edutainment stuff.

I really don't remember — it may have been a console

Sunday HORSE Race

First real poker-related challenge of the year for us!

Can't say it was a great start, though. I myself was very card dead and soon busted out in the second Hold'em round without winning a single showdown until then, I believe. I rebought, and while I did take down a few pots, I still don't remember winning any showdowns tonight at all whatsoever before I busted out a while later, I think it was again in FL Hold'em.

The grindette did a lot better. She maintained a decent stack and then went on to build a pretty nice one shortly after my exit, with a good chance of making ITM. This was, unfortunately, followed by a pretty long card dead streak, after which she finally got rolled-up 9s in Stud Hi, but lost to a completely unjustifiable runner-runner-runner flush draw that arrived on 7th street. Very unlucky...

Not a good day for either of us at all, but for the purposes of this challenge, the grindette won.

There will be another non-poker Troll Challenge today. We originally intended to do it yesterday, but both of us were busy with some housekeeping stuff. Also, still no bread, but we'll get to it.

Troll Quiz #2 - You Are The Ref

Today, we tried a couple scenario's from the British sports comic strip called You Are The Ref by Paul Trevillion. It features several unusual situations from soccer games, and asks the reader, who takes the role of the referee, how to best solve the situation. A refereeing expert would then provide solutions - which don't necessarily need to be objectively correct, of course, but it's a way to evaluate your responses, at least. For the purposes of this Troll Challenge, the verdicts provided by the distinguished former soccer referee Keith Hackett, who was the expert in charge of these evaluations when these strips were published, will be considered the correct response, at least.

I already picked out three strips for Prim earlier this week, when I suggested this kind of challenge and she was on board with it. As she was trying to find a solution to these scenarios while we were in a Skype call, she seemed a little annoyed, though, saying she doesn't care about soccer. Well, now we were in the middle of it...

Nevertheless, to make up for it, I only answered the two strips she picked out for me, while I allowed her to answer all three strips I chose for her and make the best two of them count, giving her a little advantage. I will still include all three strips, in case you want to play along - which you can do in real time here: The strips are found below, feel free to try to come up with a solution yourself, and then compare your response to the decisions from Prim and me, as well as Keith Hackett's "official" verdicts (with emphasis added by me to key parts), found in the spoilers.

Prim's Challenges:

Issue #276, featuring Martin Skrtel, published February 20, 2014

Issue #306, featuring Ronald Koeman, published November 6, 2014

Issue #307, featuring Alexis Sánchez, published November 13, 2014

Harrier's Challenges

Issue #254, featuring José Mourinho, published September 19, 2013

Issue #255, featuring Jonjo Shelvey, published September 26, 2013

How did you guys do?

Btw, there's also a cricket spin-off... how about this one next week, Prim?

Okay, I have to admit that I had no idea, I was just randomly guessing :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

So, not such a bad result :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Okay, I have to admit that I had no idea, I was just randomly guessing :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

So, not such a bad result :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

You did well!

Not all of those scenarios require knowledge of the rules, some are simply about managing difficult situations.

I'm not an expert on the rules of this sport anyway, but sure, I played it for several years, so I know a few things. My brother, on the other hand, actually did make some money as a licensed referee in some lower leagues and youth games when he was in his late teens.

I'm still down for a rematch with the cricket version next week. Now that would be a sport I never even played myself, except in my backyard - where we even played it together one time, remember? I may still know the rules a lot better, but I can explain some terms if you like, and pick scenarios that are more about general sportsmanship etc rather than the rules themselves.

In cases like these, I have a common solution:

THIS is a good idea, Vorpal!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
THIS is a good idea, Vorpal!

There is nothing like a decent explosion ...

Hi-Lo

While we're still trying to look for some good additions to our poker challenge schedule, we decided to play a casual PLO8 tournament on Saturdays for now. It's the $2.20 PLO8 6-Max Turbo that is running on 21:12 CET on Pokerstars.

Prim already mentioned on her blog that she was feeling a little under the weather today, and honestly, I was a little sleepy too, for some reason... Nevertheless, we fought through, and after a shaky start for both of us, we managed to pick up some crucial pots so we could stagger on towards ITM.

Both of us made it! I love those kinds of challenges where both of us make a profit. Even though we are in the end competing against each other, I also see us as a "Team Troll" in some way. Prim was in a bit more trouble than me at that point, barely hanging on to her last few chips. She went for an emergency all-in shortly after making ITM, and hit a pretty terrible flop against two other players:

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Omaha H/L Pot Limit - 700/1,400 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 39,393 (28 bb)
MP: 7,716 (6 bb)
CO (Prim): 1,202 (1 bb)
BU: 7,491 (5 bb)
SB: 37,241 (27 bb)
BB: 23,854 (17 bb)

Pre-Flop: (2,100) Prim is CO with 4♦ 4♠ A♠ T♠
2 players fold, Prim calls 1,202 (all-in), BTN calls 1,400, SB calls 700, BB checks

Flop: (5,402) J♣ J♦ K♣ (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB checks, BB checks, BTN checks

Turn: (5,402) 2♥ (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB checks, BB bets 1,400, BTN calls 1,400, SB folds

River: (8,202) J♥ (3 players, 1 all-in)
BB checks, BTN checks

Total pot: 8,202

Showdown:
BB shows 5♣ 9♥ Q♠ K♥ (HI: three of a kind, Jacks)
Prim shows 4♦ 4♠ A♠ T♠ (HI: a full house, Jacks full of Fours)
BU mucks
BB wins 3,394
Prim wins 4,808

Wow, that was surprising! It gave her a chance to get back now, and she was approaching the next ladder. Then she got this hand:

PokerStars, $1.96 + $0.24 - Omaha H/L Pot Limit - 1,000/2,000 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG (Prim): 4,362 (2 bb)
CO: 11,492 (6 bb)
BU: 16,704 (8 bb)
SB: 18,115 (9 bb)
BB: 36,626 (18 bb)

Pre-Flop: (3,000) Prim is UTG with 9♠ A♠ 6♦ A♦
Prim raises to 4,362 (all-in), 3 players fold, BB calls 2,362

Flop: (9,724) 8♠ 6♥ 4♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (9,724) Q♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (9,724) J♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 9,724

Showdown:
Prim shows 9♠ A♠ 6♦ A♦ (HI: a pair of Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 77%, Flop: 89%, Turn: 23%, River: 0%)

BB shows 5♦ Q♦ 5♥ Q♠ (HI: three of a kind, Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 23%, Flop: 11%, Turn: 78%, River: 100%)

BB wins 9,724

Very unlucky... She went out in 19th place for a $3.62 mincash, but nice run!

As for me, I did manage to grab some good pots, to the point that I was on track for FT. I made a few ladders, but then failed to knock out some shorties despite getting the chips in good. I was still in good shape, until I got into a set over set situation against a player with a decent stack, which was costly. It didn't go much better later on, like when I flopped a wheel and had to settle for a split pot after getting my stack in with 91% equity. In the end, it wasn't meant to be, I got out in 9th place for $11.07.

Still a very good night for the trolls, with both of us finishing ITM even under less than optimal playing conditions. We're both quite happy with it, but as far as this challenge is concerned, I'm the winner today.

HORSE race tomorrow at 19:03 CET.