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

I'm always happy to read something about your garden work. Do you think time is already ok to start with cucumber? I will wait 2 weeks and the time for "Grünkohl" is in May because he need cold days in November that you can eat him. But thats my opinion. And against "Mehltau" using "Brennesseljauche" name and smelling is terrible is very good. Or you can use sorts which are good for outside or a greenhouse.

This year I'm testing something which is coming from Siebenbürgen a former part of Romania where many german speaking people in the past are living (know they are living in Germany) It's call Salome Sikkimi and you can keep this cucumber for 2-4 month. I will see. And second new one Cornichons. I like them from France.

So happy gardening

Thank you, Don!
So, what I have read is that April is the right time to start the cucumber and the kale. I´m a bit early with the pumpkin though, because it´s the first time I sow pumpkin and - as you know - I always prefer a little "time buffer". As far as I´m concerned, you can already put the kale outside at the end of May or in June. But that also depends on the region where you live. I personally live in one of the warmest regions in Germany, so maybe that´s also the reason why I can start a bit earlier with the gardening stuff.

And yeah, I know the "Brennesseljauche"! PHEW! :rage::rage::rage: Was reluctant to try it last year because it smells so badly, but will definitely try this year, at least in the big garden. Here, on the terrace, I´m not so sure if my neighbors would be happy if I used "Brennesseljauche". Don´t think it will make me popular in the neighborhood. :coolface::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly: Last year, I tried some organic pesticide but that didn´t work really well.

Love the cute gardening pictures with the Koopas. Nice progress too.

And guess what, I have some progress to report myself:

We're back!

I missed making a screenshot of the first hand on the new PC, which is also the first hand in over a month, but I did catch this beaut during my first Five Card Draw SNG on this machine. Pokerstars is all set up now, and there should be nothing in the way of a good tournament grind, if I find some games that are worth playing. We are back indeed.

...except I ran into a drawn full house with the above hand and finished last. Poker break?

Not a great start with such a cooler, Harrier, but that happens ...

I hit the swimming pool this evening and I´m glad to be back at the swimming pool after another urinary tract infection (due to playing "Troll Open" outdoors at 6°C - that was the "price" ). And on Monday, I was already back at the tennis court, training. But will be back also at the tables soon ....

What's that smell? I think Primrose hit another final table today.

She played some of those free-to-play tournaments on PartyPoker today, I believe. I would have let her do the posting first, but she is currently on a quick emergency shopping trip due to a lack of meat at home - a problem in need of immediate correction.

Normally, she doesn't play in the middle of the week like that, but since she is on vacation right now and will be busy on the weekend, it was a good opportunity. And it was a good opportunity for me to join as well. Not in those particular games, since I don't intend to keep playing at PartyPoker, but in another MTT on Pokerstars that was running at the same time.

Yes, normally those aren't my grinding hours either, but it was a good moment to have a go at that cheap $4.40 Five Card Draw PKO once again. Did I get another cooler? Well, par for the course, really, the occasional trips over trips and the like, but I did get a $2.50 bounty this time with a well-timed iso-raise. Not quite the confidence boost I needed, but it will have to do for now. I got very close to the ITM ranks too when I ran my good two pair into some more trips during my exit hand.

I've done my practice games, now it's time to start thinking about the bigger picture once again. MTTs should be the way to go. It's too bad that the Badugi is currently outside my grinding times during the week, but there should be some good mixed games around. Remember those daily ones on Pokerstars? Here is the list again, for reference:

Monday: Snow Fest - $22 2-7 Triple Draw
Tuesday: The Cadillac - $22 FL Hold'em
Wednesday: The Hunt - $22 FLO8
Thursday: Limbo - $22 Razz
Friday: Study - $22 Seven Card Stud
Saturday: Snowman - $22 Stud Hi-Lo
Sunday: Tarantula - $44 8-Game

Which one of those could be an option to me? That is something to be analyzed in a dedicated post some time soon.

Brennesseljauch depends on your relationships to your neighbours. I have 2 where this will not work I think Magnum 45 will be better. But thats not allowed and I have no weapons.

Collecting satty tickets and an emergency shopping

she is currently on a quick emergency shopping trip due to a lack of meat at home - a problem in need of immediate correction.

Exactly! We almost ran out of meat and completely ran out of chicken!!!! So, just briefly went to the grocery store to buy some.

As this important issue is solved, let´s talk about poker: Yes, as I´m still on vacation this week, I took the opportunity to play a little poker - won´t be able to play on Saturday because of a social gathering and today was sports-free and the weather sucks big time, so great! Played four "Free to play around the clock" tournaments on PartyPoker and a 0,33 $ PLO regular (6-max). The freerolls are quite interesting now because you can win satty-tickets for the Micro-Championship sattys. Those are indeed interesting to me and I´d love to play sattys for that tournament series. So, focussed mainly on the "Free to play" MTTs today and registered to the 2 p.m., 3 p.m. 4 p.m and 5 p.m "Free to play". Besides, decided to pick up four cards in a 0,33 $ PLO MTT.

I late regged in the 2 p.m freeroll and entered it just shy before the end of the late reg period. Of course I started as short stack, but still remember some Nash-ranges. I quickly doubled up with AQo vs AK (yes, I may hit my 3-outer too sometimes ). After a little card-dead phase I could make a nice double up with AA! A couple of good bluffs here and there and it didn´t take long until we were in the prices. Unfortunately was pretty card-dead then and my desperate jam as shortie with A5s ended up in running into AJ and getting no help. "Min cashed" for a 5ct-satty-ticket, but better than nothing.

In the 3 p.m. freeroll I got my AA cracked pretty early and even though I remained in the tournament, I found myself as shortie early on. Nothing really decent came and this time I got no help when pushing AJ into AK.

PLO didn´t go really well either. Could get some nice pots early on but after a while, when getting ssacies and hitting top set on the flop, I lost vs a random gutshot and out I was.

The "smell" Harrier mentioned, came from the 4 p.m freeroll. There, I could work my way up until the final table and placed 5th! And another satty-ticket is mine, this time for 1.10 $! Cool! My final hand was TT, pushing it first in with 6 BB left from the BTN, unfortunately pushing into SB´s AA! Not much you can do about such situations, but happy to have won a 1.10 $ satty ticket!

The 5 p.m freeroll started promising with a big double up with AA early on and then everything started worsening. When a Villain jammed from MP, I didn´t hesitate to iso-raise from the SB, because I held QQ. So far so good. But BB wanted to play with us as well and jammed their AQo (MP held KJ). Well, luck was not exactly on my side this time because SB got their random str8 with their AQ - and out I was!

Well that´s it, a successful session with a bit of bad luck sometimes.

The highlights

Sorry Villain, but my house is full!

kostenlos bilder versenden

Acies making it for once in PLO

kostenlos bilder versenden

I briefly teased my plans on Pokerstars, but I also sent a mail to the support of that crypto website, to ask about that Windows Defender warning and whether they can confirm that their installer is safe and that there are no issues.

Their answer arrived a while ago, and I guess brevity is the soul of wit:

@#$%& Windows Defender. Our Software is categorized unwanted/gambling but it its not harmful to your computer or data.

Well, surely a change of pace from all those customer support clerks who like to copy/paste three politely worded impersonal paragraphs followed by some unhelpful advice from the FAQ that has little to do with your question.

Regarding the file, honestly, I suspected as much, but I tend to be overly cautious when it comes to these things, so I wanted to at least reach out to support once. I guess I can install it tomorrow, then, and maybe play my first few OFC hands of the year this weekend. Assuming, of course, that I find another player who has ever heard of that game, which has always been a bit of a problem with OFC.

We are so back!

...at the crypto tables, this time, with µBTC 2,338.11 to our name. There is even an OFC table available at the moment, but... nah, I'm not playing those stakes right now. Especially not after getting so little sleep this week. I need to do some major de-rusting at this game first.

OFC was the only real poker success last year, and it came at a complete surprise. What about this year? Well, let's see. I guess it can be considered a cash game, though it follows some special rules compared to conventional poker, so it can be considered the only cash game in my grind, for all intents and purposes.

Unless there is a complete lack of opponents, we should see my first games this weekend.

Super and good luck at the tables. Good cards and great winnings for you, or did I forget something?

Originally posted by DonWolfo
Super and good luck at the tables. Good cards and great winnings for you, or did I forget something?

With the games I'm playing, you may want to wish me "good traffic" too. And thanks for the well wishes.

That being said, I did manage to get an OFC game going tonight, at the lowest stakes (µBTC 0.25 per point) - which were the ones I preferred, after not having played for so long. I went through my notes on opening moves and a few old posts of mine before the game. That was all the preparation I got, the rest would have to be figured out at the tables, I just need to get a feel for it again.

First OFC opening hand for this year, and also the first one on this computer:

That didn't go so well...

In general, I had a pretty bad start, being over 40 points down after the first few rounds. I managed to pick up the pace a bit later on. Here is my first Fantasyland of the year:

That went a lot better, and we even dodged quads in the back. My opponent didn't always make the correct decisions either as the game went on, and in the end, I recouped my initial losses, finishing 19 points up when my opponent left. He could have quit when he was ahead...

This amounts to about µBTC 5 already, and while bitcoin seems to have picked up in value compared to where it was when I was playing last year. it goes without saying that this is not a lot of cash. But that's fine, the game was supposed to be nothing but a warm-up, and it succeeded when it comes to that. I feel ready for some "proper" games now.

By the way, I assume that you guys are at least somewhat familiar with OFC. If that's not the case, feel free to ask any questions if you don't understand something. I have explained the rules, the scoring and some strategy concepts before on the forum, but I am aware that not everyone may have read those posts.

Harrier on a Quest

My cross country running shoes have seen better days... time for a good cleaning soon, or possibly even an entirely new pair.

But they got put to use today nonetheless, because I embarked on a "quest" that I announced last year on the old shared blog. Remember that one?

The goal was to take a continuous jog to a former Cistercian monastery, founded in 1174, that is located nearby. The aerial distance is about 2.58 km from the edge of the forest where I was starting my run, but the actual jogging distance should be closer to 3.10 km or so, possibly a little more. That's just one way, of course, I would have to run that distance back and forth, which is why I originally intended it to be the finale of my previous "Road to 5K" challenge.

This was the starting point. It was a beautiful spring day, perfect conditions to put this old challenge in the books, especially because I plan to introduce tougher running challenges soon.

Navigation was supposed to be a part of the challenge, but after checking a special map again that included footpaths, I noticed that it is not as difficult as I remembered. Back in my student days, I would just run wherever I felt like, which would sometimes lead me to that nearby village with the abbey. As it turns out, however, I pretty much just have to follow the path of a small local river.

Just stay near it as you follow the closest footpath in the forest, and eventually you would get to a crossing.

Keep following the path as it waves its way up the hill, and you will eventually see the first few houses of this tiny hamlet.

Here is the gate, for people who instead prefer to travel by car to this place:

And finally, as proof that I made it, I held up the logo of this blog while standing next to the buildings of the old monastery.

Though I also wanted to give a little shout-out to the old blog, where we first came up with the idea.

Here's an aerial picture of the place, available online at the official website (only available in German).

It was supposed to be one continuous run back and forth, but I couldn't help but do some sightseeing when I was there. Besides, I was a little tired out at that point already, but I decided not to count it against me in this challenge.

More pictures coming up next...

I spent a while doing a little walk through that village. I am aware that the ruins of the monastery themselves are only partially open to the public, so I wanted to find some good spots for pictures.

This sign just outside the village gate points to local excavations. Could this lead me to some of the ruins?

I followed that path along the moss-covered wall until I got to some yellow rapeseed field outside of the settlement. After I had a look online when I got home, it turned out that those excavations must have referred to an old castle structure instead. Here is a pic I found on Wikipedia, I remember having visited that site with my class in grade school once. Maybe I would have eventually reached that place if I had continued further along the path.

And who constructed this bridge? It can only hold one person? I was almost a little concerned to cross it at all. It did hold me, of course, but it didn't lead me anywhere where I haven't been already.

Moving inside the walls of the abbey that are open to the public now...

I was vaguely aware of it before, but it turned out that the abbey now holds a memorial site for the victims of World War II.

In memory of the 450 victims of the war and National Socialist violence that are buried here:

1 Belgian, 210 German soldiers and civilians, 1 Latvian, 1 Luxembourger, 3 Dutch, 49 Poles, 1 Romanian, 49 Soviets, 1 Czech, 6 Hungarians, as well as 128 people of unknown nationality.

This includes 81 women and 6 men who have been shot by the Gestapo and SS in the labor camp Hirzenhain on March 26, 1945.

Sorry if that depressed you.

The outside of this place, still within the walls of the former monastery, I believe:

It's a very small settlement, as you may have seen in the aerial picture in my previous post. Most of it is taken up by the monastery, really, which is why the entire village is named after it. There is also a good restaurant just outside of town, maybe I will go there with Primrose some time.

And look, I even found an old cannon.

Oh, and here is some info on local singing birds, I found it along the path to the excavations:

It was time to head back, straying off the path a little earlier this time, to cross the river right away. I knew where to go now.

And as soon as I saw the stacks of beer crates, I knew that I was about to enter my hometown again.

Well, as I said, it wasn't one continuous run, but I will take it. Challenge passed, my quest is over.

There was some poker today too. I played a satellite for the "Snowman" (the weekly Stud8 tournament) on Pokerstars, but ran a broadway straight into a full house that got there on 7th street, so I was essentially rivered.

At least I found another OFC table, and while it ended up being decent, with a profit of µBTC 46.88, it could have been much, much better. More on that later, I have a major blooper to share.

But first, here is another interesting hand. We are starting out with quads here, very nice.

Playing this hand is a no-brainer, you put the quads in the back, of course, and the Queen on top, since it is a Fantasyland card. Notice that my opponent has a pretty decent starting hand too, with ready trips.

I like my next draw as well. We pick up an ace, which could end up being very useful to support the Queen on top. As for the other card, I think it makes sense to keep the 4♦:. The 9♥: has a dead out, and the 4♦: also gives us some backdoor flush potential, if we get a draw that allows us to go for it.

No flush card on the next draw, but the 4♠: can join the other four in the middle. None of the other cards are very helpful, so I put it in the back, where it is not needed at all and therefore won't take up a slot that we would like to fill with something better later on. I chose to use the 6♣: instead of the 5♠:, to avoid giving my opponent information on dead outs - he is unlikely to chase trip sixes in the middle anyway.

Oh dear, the next draw gives us some decisions to make... we could put the queens on top right away, but if we won't make our middle hand, they entire hand will become invalid and we will lose our quads. I decided to play it safe, putting a King on top instead, to give us two additional outs for a Fantasyland pair on top while still keeping the option to bail if we won't make the middle.

D'oh! We would have made our two pair. Assuming, of course, that we had used the Jack instead of the King in the middle, like we ended up doing here. Our opponent now has a slight chance to get to Fantasyland himself...

Good, he didn't make it. We missed the big score, but that hand worked our all right in the end after all, with ten points for the quads and nothing else, except a standard scoop worth six more points.

Blooper of the Day!

Goodness gracious!! This happened right in the very next hand - how could I give it away like that?

Take a look:

This was the situation starting out. I had a good starting hand, played it correctly, and it worked out to a T, allowing us to lock up our Fantasyland deal early on. Standard stuff, we nailed all the draws we wanted, OFC is easy when the cards are coming your way.

This was my next draw, I was watching some YouTube videos on the side and didn't pay much attention to the draw, since I already considered the hand to be more or less finished.

And what I ended up doing... was this:

Yes... I paid so little attention that I just blindly put the two pair in the middle, failing to remember that the hand underneath it is not able to support it yet, being a weaker two pair. This was inexcusable, even if I may have been a little distracted.

Well, I could always spike my full house draw in the back, and claim that I meant to do this all along...

It didn't happen...

The amount of chips to be exchanged were just six points for a standard scoop, but the actual damage was much bigger. For one thing, I should scooped instead, so that's already a 12 point gap. Queens on top would have been an extra 7 points, so that's 19 already.

Then, we also missed Fantasyland, which is theorized to be worth about 8 points on average, so that would be 27 points then instead. But in addition to that, my opponent ended up hitting Fantasyland in the next hand, which probably could have been prevented if I had made it there before. His FL deal ended up scooping against me, and in the end, I ended up being quite a bit down for the round. Instead, I could have had very nice winnings myself, and I was already more than 100 points up at the point.

All things considered, I expect this mistake has cost me at least µBTC 50, but probably more like 75 and possibly up to 100, if we take the aftermath into account. That's how it goes in OFC, the tiniest bit can have a snowball effect, whether it was caused by the luck of the draw or such a massive blooper on part of the player. I need to stay alert in the future.

Visual analogy of this hand:

It is finally time for our Spring burgers. Sorry for the delay caused by those tech troubles.

One of my original plans was to include a version of Frankfurt-style green sauce, or "Grie Soß" as it is known in the local dialect. Making an authentic version requires very specific herbs, and while mixtures for this sauce are available in the stores, they don't usually come in amounts that work well for the couple of tablespoons I want to spread on my burgers.

Instead, I decided to simply collect a bunch of herb from the garden, including some that would be used in "Grie Soß", but also moving beyond it. It's not supposed to be all that authentic anyway, it's just supposed to be a spring-themed burger sauce.

The ingredients included chives, parsley, hyssop, lovage, tarragon, and possibly some other stuff - it has been a few weeks since I made those.

I mixed up the chopped ingredients with some mayonnaise, and possibly a bit of cream cheese or sour cream. Again, it has been a while.

That is our spread, and for the other toppings, I also cooked some spinach with a couple of onions.

To build our burger, we start with the patty...

...add the cooked spinach, and also some cut up spring onions, and put the spread on the top bun...

...and our Spring-burger is ready.

It was pretty good, a little drier than I expected, maybe. The sauce could only do so much. Still, not bad at all, a worthy entry for the series, even though I preferred the Winter burger so far.

The Four Seasons lineup:

Winter
Spring
Summer (coming in June)
Fall (coming in September)

Looks delicous, Harrier!
Are you sure you don´t wanna open a "Burgeria"? :f_biggrin::f_wink:

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Are you sure you don´t wanna open a "Burgeria"? :f_biggrin::f_wink:

Now there's an idea... though I would prefer to open it together with you, of course. We make such a great team in those cooking games on Steam, after all.

I have plenty of ideas for more burger creations to be posted here, at least, including several series for them. Let's see if we can get to them all eventually.

Yeah, that Would be wonderful of course. :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

Like me in "Cook, Serve, Delicious". :f_biggrin::f_biggrin::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly: