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

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
You can add your own "in bed" endings...

Here are 10 fortune cookie messages from the search results:

1. "An exciting opportunity lies ahead of you."
2. "You will always be surrounded by true friends."
3. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
4. "A beautiful, smart, and loving person will be coming into your life."
5. "A new perspective will come with the new year."
6. "The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us."
7. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."
8. "The world may be your oyster, but it doesn't mean you'll get its pearl."
9. "You ingenuity and imagination will get results."
10. "Executive ability is prominent in your make up."

Yes, that's pretty much what I expected. Nice one!

Razz...

Back to the tables, I played the $5.50 Mini Octopus today, which is an 8-Game tournament. The problem with 8-Game, of course, was always that it involves Razz. And NL Hold'em. Not to mention FL Hold'em. And Omaha. And the four other games.

PokerStars, $4.90 + $0.60 - Razz Limit (8-Game) - 150/300 (60 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

Seat 5 (Hero): 8,821 (29 bb)
Seat 6: 10,654 (36 bb)
Seat 1: 7,533 (25 bb)
Seat 2: 10,411 (35 bb)
Seat 3: 23,227 (77 bb)
Seat 4: 3,374 (11 bb)

Third Street: (360) Hero is in Seat 5
Xx Xx Q♣ BI bring-in 90____BI folds
3♥ A♠ 5♦ Hero raises to 300
Xx Xx 4♦ MP folds
Xx Xx 8♥ MP+1 calls 300
Xx Xx 6♣ CO folds
Xx Xx 8♠ BTN folds

Fourth Street: (1,050) (2 players)
3♥ A♠ 5♦ J♥ Hero bets 300
Xx Xx 8♥ K♣ MP+1 calls 300

Fifth Street: (1,650) (2 players)
3♥ A♠ 5♦ J♥ 7♣ Hero bets 600
Xx Xx 8♥ K♣ K♥ MP+1 calls 600

Sixth Street: (2,850) (2 players)
3♥ A♠ 5♦ J♥ 7♣ T♦ Hero bets 600
Xx Xx 8♥ K♣ K♥ 7♥ MP+1 calls 600

Seventh Street: (4,050) (2 players)
3♥ A♠ 5♦ J♥ 7♣ T♦ Q♦ Hero checks____Hero calls 600
Xx Xx 8♥ K♣ K♥ 7♥ Xx MP+1 bets 600

Total pot: 5,250

Showdown:
Seat 1 shows 5♥ 2♦ 8♥ K♣ K♥ 7♥ 9♣ (Lo: 9,8,7,5,2)
Seat 5 (Hero) mucks 3♥ A♠ 5♦ J♥ 7♣ T♦ Q♦
Seat 1 wins 5,250

I had a similar Razz runout that lost an even bigger pot later, I believe, but in the end, the game was not that terrible. I got two bounties, amounting to $3.13 in total, so not quite covering the buy-in. I got out just a few places before ITM, after almost three hours of playing.

During all this time, I was also trying to get a Stud Hi-Lo SNG started, and maybe got to 6 out of 8 players at one point, but no game was running during those three hours. Eventually, the players in the lobby had enough, and so did I, thus there were no other games besides the Mini Octopus.

Not the best advertisement for poker, I suppose, but at least it didn't make me want to take another two weeks off straight away.

У меня много работы!
(= I have a lot of work)

Yes, a hard week lies ahead of us, not only a very sporty one but also for me, one with high work load!! And I´m proud to tell you guys, that I already can say this in Russian. :f_biggrin::f_thumbsup: Yaaaaaaaay me! :f_biggrin::f_ugly: Well yeah, will have high work load in the next couple of weeks, and a couple of pretty chaotic customers (that´s why I have such high work load, because some people do not know the word "time management"). Anyways, as the customers are quite nice and okay, I´m not in hell´s kitchen, but some totally "forget" to send you the informations you need to finish the work (article, book). So after you have been "pestering" your customer at least three times to please, please, please send this or that document, they finally send it and of course, the work has to be done ASAP! :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly: Well yeah. They will get it asap. :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

Sometimes I really deserve some extra compensation for all the nerve cells that explode while dealing with some people :mdr::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Sometimes I really deserve some extra compensation for all the nerve cells that explode while dealing with some people :mdr::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Ah, I could use that in my job too... though it's less about dealing with annoying people (but that too sometimes), and more about annoying objects, and the situations those objects put you in. It got a lot better in that regard lately, but yes, work is still not very enjoyable at the moment either, I think. At least I will have the first meetup of my new karate course this evening, to break up the daily monotony.

Despite my concerns, I have also decided not to take any extra vacation days around next weekend, with my all day long meetup for the Silver lifeguard exams.

We will get through this together, Prim, as always. It should be a lot better for us by the beginning of spring, which gives us yet another reason to look forward to that season. I may have a new series to introduce around that theme later on too... but I think we will do that tomorrow.

Hajime!

It begins... I returned from the first lesson of my eight week karate crash course, which will surely put me on my way in this martial art. It even turned out that one of my coaches briefly went to the same class as me at school, back in 11th grade. Small world...

With this being a beginner's course, the pace is slow for now, as expected. We learned some basic techniques today:

Basic stuff. And I suppose we get some Japanese lessons along the way too... how are those going for you, Prim? Admittedly, I haven't done any Finnish in a while either.

It was pretty interesting. and the exercising always feels good, of course. Let's see what else we can learn in the next few weeks.

I mentioned that we had a new cooking series to introduce, so let's get to it.

This can be considered a sequel of sorts to the Burgers Around the World series from the Troll Challenges blog. I will be making burgers once again, but this time, instead of basing them on a certain country or geographical region, I will base them on one of the four seasons.

Originally, I just wanted to get them all out within a couple of week, but as Primrose suggested to me, it would be much nicer to post them whenever the relevant season begins, so that's what we are going to do. The winter burger will be posted now instead of waiting until December, so we are a little late on that, but all the other burgers shall be posted on the astronomical start of their respective season. Of course, I can prepare them whenever I like, and in whatever order I want, but that's when they will be posted.

Time for our first entry, then, which was prepared when there was still snow outside, I believe:

Winter is a good time for some hearty meat. The patties will be all beef for all of our burgers, but adding some bacon for our winter edition seems like a good idea. We will therefore start with some diced bacon...

...add roasted onions...

...and finally some shredded emmenthal cheese, as well as some smoky barbecue sauce on the other half of the bun.

Our Winter-burger is ready.

Nice and classic - you can hardly go wrong with some bacon on a burger, I suppose, and barbecue sauce is always a good fit in this case too.

A solid start to the series, I'd say.

Wrapping Things Up?

If everything goes well, I should be able to finish my Silver lifeguard course this weekend. Apart from that first aid course, that is, but have already arranged for an appointment in early March.

I have received an e-mail today with the details, I am going to meet up Saturday at noon at a different location out of town. This place has deeper pools, which are a necessity for some of the things left on the list. This is a little earlier than I would have liked, for such a busy day, considering that I have some driving to do, and I remember that place being a little difficult to reach.

No later than 2 PM, we are supposed to be back at my hometown's pool, to take care of the rest, including the big theory exam. I should be pretty well-prepared. Just last night, I did three more practice attempts with zero mistakes.

Will Harrier take down the Silver, and take his place among "proper" pool lifeguards? We should find out this weekend...

Theoretical part

[ ] Passing a nationally standardized quiz about the following subjects: Respiration and blood circulation, hazards in and around water, assistance in case of bathing-, boating-, and ice-related accidents, avoiding strangleholds, rights and duties when providing emergency assistance, using life-saving equipment and the tasks and activities of the DLRG.

[ ] Having passed an officially recognized first aid course within the last two years.

Practical part

[DONE] Swimming 400 meters in less than 15 minutes, including 50 meters of front crawling, 150 meters of breaststroke swimming and 200 meters of leg whip kick back swimming without using the arms

[DONE] Swimming 300 meters in full clothing in less than 12 minutes, with subsequent unclothing inside the water

[ ] Performing a jump from a height of 3 meters

[DONE] 25 meters of distance diving

[DONE] 50 meters of transport swimming - pushing or pulling, in less than 1:30 minutes

[ ] Diving from the surface of the water three times - once feet first and twice heads first - retrieving three 5 kg diving rings from the bottom of a 3-5 meters deep pool within 3 minutes

[practised] Displaying abilities to avoid strangleholds and escaping neck chokeholds from behind

[DONE] 50 meters of transport swimming with an embracing technique (for people who may try to resist the rescuing) in less than four minutes, using two different techniques and switching halfway through, both participants being in full clothing

[ ] Demonstrating the ability to use life-saving equipment

[ ] A combined exercise involving the following steps without any breaks in this order: A 20 meter swimming approach, diving to retrieve a 5 kg diving ring halfway through at a depth of 3-5 meters, then dropping the ring and escaping a stranglehold, followed by carrying a partner for 25 meters, bringing them safely ashore and performing CPR for 3 minutes

Missing the game

But still liking Bio hamburgers... ♦

And after finishing your silver course you will present a drink called "Lifeguard". I think this will be no problem for you. And we could make a virtual party :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

!!! Coming up this weekend: Omaha-Saturday and Underdog-Sunday!!!

So, guys, this week I could finish a HUGE part of my work and now it´s TGIF (Thanks god it´s Friday)! The weeked is ahead of us and as usual: Saturday is poker-day! Will pick up four cards on Partypoker tomorrow and looking forward to it!

Sunday will be definitely underdog-day! :f_biggrin::f_ugly: What is an underdog-day, you ask? You will see ...... soon ...

Originally posted by Zeezout
Missing the game

But still liking Bio hamburgers... ♦

Which game? The Troll Trivia from our last blog? Or this thing called poker?

If it's the Troll Trivia, we have plans to introduce something similar very soon. If it's poker, I probably won't be able to get back to the tables until next week, but yes, I would also like to play more. I would love to bring back OFC too, though this will require dealing with some annoying technical stuff first.

Until then, Primrose will continue to kick butt in her Saturday MTTs.

Originally posted by DonWolfo
And after finishing your silver course you will present a drink called "Lifeguard". I think this will be no problem for you. And we could make a virtual party :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

Now there's an idea... and apparently, there already is a cocktail out there which is called Dirty Lifeguard.

Another classic that would fit the theme would be the Swimming Pool, which I once tried to make a few years ago on the old blog, though I wasn't completely satisfied with the result yet and would like to try again. Both of these drinks contain pineapple juice, however, so they are likely not for me.

I already miss the cocktails, I didn't prepare a lot of them last year. Maybe I can get back to them in the warmer seasons, there are still plenty of recipes I haven't tried yet, and I already had plans to compile a full list and eventually maybe even put a printable menu together, for when I have guests at home.

Pre-Match Analysis

Primrose will have her next Troll Open mini tournament on Sunday. Since I will be away for most of tomorrow, let's do our pre-match analysis right now.

The schedule has been released just the other day, I believe. Unlike last time, where three teams played each other, there will be four teams participating, with the winners from the first match facing each other in the final, and the losing teams squaring off for 3rd place. Once again, it will be a mixed doubles tournament, and I believe all of the teams consist of married couples.

I talked it over with Prim, and she may not be as much of an underdog as she first thought, though it will still be tough. It doesn't help that all of her opponents will be a few years younger, since this is a 40+ tournament. Primrose considers her first opponents to be beatable, however. The woman is ranked about the same as Prim, while the man is ranked a little higher, but not by much.

As for her other opponents, they may be a tough nut to crack. The man in the second team is ranked a little lower than the grindette, while the woman is a good chunk above her. In the third rival team, meanwhile, the woman is ranked a little lower than Prim, but the man has a seriously high rank. In Primrose's experience, a mixed doubles team with a highly ranked male tends to be considerably more trouble than one with a highly ranked female, simply due to the physical differences. In any case, Prim expects that this is the team that will be in the finals, whether she and her husband will join them there or not.

At the same time, the grindette warned me that we shouldn't read too much into rankings either. Even a very skilled player could end up with a lower rank simply because they haven't played in a while, which automatically ranks you down, for example. Besides, she has repeatedly beaten opponents of a much higher rank before, maybe she will do it again this Sunday.

In addition to that, Team Primrose will have a home field advantage of sorts - she mentioned that the venue for this tournament will be the place where she usually practices at the moment.

As always, fingers crossed for the brave grindette and her husband. I predict a 2nd place in this tournament, but of course, we are all rooting for her to ship it! ♠_drink:

Was talking about poker ♦

Originally posted by Zeezout
Was talking about poker ♦

Don't worry, Primrose will have us covered tomorrow. I can smell a few final tables already, she better bring her brown pants.

I should be back very soon too. And I guess I will just make a resolution over here to get SwC working again by the end of next week, so we can see some OFC action.

As for the interactive game on our blog, we are aiming to introduce it next weekend. We seem to have at least a few regular readers, so it should be worth it, I hope.

Originally posted by Zeezout
Was talking about poker ♦

Omaha-Saturday tomorrow, Zeezout!

MId-Challenge Update

I just returned from that pool out of town, the deep diving and the jump from the 3 meter board were passed without problems. It wasn't comfortable, of course, but it's not supposed to be. That should have been the hard part.

Now all that's left is the theory exam, the big combined exercise where we put it all together, and a short demonstration of using life-saving equipment and the old escape moves from those strangleholds in the water. And then I will have to take the first aid course later on, obviously, but that should be mostly a formality.

Should be a breeze, but you know... it's not over until it's over. I've given away some sure-fire poker tournament wins in the past too.

Moving on...

Done!

That takes care of the rest, including the theory exam. For all intents and purposes, I am now a qualified Silver level lifeguard, or an "International Lifesaver", which seems to be the international equivalent. It will be official after I complete my first aid course, scheduled for Saturday in two weeks.

While Bronze qualified me to help watching over kiddie pools or other facilities with a maximum depth of less than 2 meters, which is why most of the people who participated were school teachers in training, the Silver badge certifies that I can now watch over public swimming pools in general. In order to do it professionally, I would have to take additional training, but I can already fill in, as long as I keep renewing my certification every two years.

In fact, I may take on some of those duties this year already. The group where I will be taking my first aid course is associated with the hosts of a local public swimming lake, and they would appreciate it if I used my newly certified skills to help out every now and then this summer - for a decent compensation, of course. Might as well...

Until then, we can consider my first major sporting challenge of this year passed. Let's hope Primrose will be just as successful on the tennis court tomorrow.

Oh, and passing this badge will also automatically secure me a Gold in the stamina part of the Trollympics this year, not that it matters too much, because I intend to get Gold in a few stamina events anyway.

Congratulation to our Silver-squirrel!!!

And Prim was successful too!

As already announced I enjoyed my Omaha-Saturday on Partypoker! Found out that there is now also a PLO version of the "Free to play around the clock". The 3 p.m. "Free to play" is now a PLO, another one at 7 p.m. also and one at 11 a.m. So, more Omaha-fun on Partypoker! Played that PLO-freeroll, a 0,33 $ PLO regular MTT and two 0,22 $ PLO8 regular tournaments. Even though I do not want those stupid tournament tickets which you can win in the "Free to play", it´s a great opportunity to practice PLO. Had a quite nice start:

10 upload

But unfortunately busted then later with a flopped 3rd nut flush, which was the best flush, but on turn, the board paired.... :facepalm::rage: I encountered a similar fate in the 0,33 $ PLO tourney: Was midstack and had flopped the nut-str8. The chips go in on the flop, and the board pairs ......!!!

PLO8 went much better and early on, I could make my hand of the day:

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and another lovely scoop:

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With a lot of patience I managed to get ITM in this tournament and with even more patience I found myself at the final table! And with even more patience and double suited acies AA2Qds I could double up and went from almost-short-stack to big stack with a nice scoop. Eventually, I was heads-up against a big stack who hit quite everything, while I hit nothing and busted with A34Jss, while jamming flop with the nut-low draw and the nut-str8 draw. Nothing came! So, 2nd place there! Yaaaaaaay!

Couldn´t make it ITM in the other 0,22 $ PLO8 tourney (card-dead), but so what?! Happy with my 2nd place in PLO8 today!