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

Highlight Hands

#1 (Badugi) - Chop!

I decided to break that K-Badugi and go for the draw with the best possible 3-card hand instead, which even has a fair bit of showdown value. And then it happened again...

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 150/300 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG (Hero): 5,440 (18 bb)
CO: 3,104 (10 bb)
BU: 1,025 (3 bb)
SB: 5,550 (19 bb)
BB: 6,490 (22 bb)

Deal: (450) Hero is UTG with 2♠ A♥ 3♦ K♣
Hero raises to 600, 3 players fold, BB calls 300

Draw One: (1,350) 2♠ A♥ 3♦ 3♠ (2 players)
BB draws 2, UTG (Hero) draws Kc
BB checks, Hero checks

Draw Two: (1,350) 2♠ A♥ 3♦ 7♣ (2 players)
BB draws 1, UTG (Hero) draws 3s
BB checks, Hero bets 675, BB calls 675

Draw Three: (2,700) 2♠ A♥ 3♦ 7♣ (2 players)
BB draws 1, UTG (Hero) stands pat
BB checks, Hero bets 1,350, BB raises to 4,050, Hero raises to 4,165 (all-in), BB calls 115

Total pot: 11,030

Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows 2♠ A♥ 3♦ 7♣ (a Badugi: 7,3,2,A)
BB shows 2♥ 7♦ A♠ 3♣ (a Badugi: 7,3,2,A)
UTG (Hero) wins 5,515
BB wins 5,515

#2 (5CD) - Mega Cooler

Approaching the bubble, or possibly already in the ITM ranks and approaching the FT, I didn't mind at all how this hand turned out, in which I was not involved... but what a cooler!

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 350/700 (175 ante) - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 8,808 (13 bb)
CO: 30,196 (43 bb)
BU: 14,875 (21 bb)
SB: 5,988 (9 bb)
BB (Hero): 10,613 (15 bb)

Deal: (1,925) Hero is BB with 4♦ 7♣ A♣ 2♦ 2♠
UTG raises to 2,100, CO calls 2,100, 2 players fold, BB (Hero) folds

Draw One: (6,125) (2 players)
UTG draws 1, CO draws 3
UTG bets 3,063, CO raises to 8,331, UTG calls 3,470 (all-in)

Total pot: 19,191

Showdown:
CO shows J♦ J♥ J♣ Q♠ J♠ (four of a kind, Jacks)
UTG shows 8♦ 8♠ 8♥ 9♥ 9♣ (a full house, Eights full of Nines)
CO wins 19,191

#3 (5CD) - And Again...

Now at the FT. Tight fold from me? Maybe, maybe not... but look at the hands I was dodging:

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 800/1,600 (400 ante) - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 27,276 (17 bb)
BU: 61,073 (38 bb)
SB (Hero): 9,952 (6 bb)
BB: 75,699 (47 bb)

Deal: (4,000) Hero is SB with T♦ Q♥ Q♠ 4♣ 3♣
UTG raises to 3,200, 1 fold, SB (Hero) folds, BB 3-bets to 8,000, UTG calls 4,800

Draw One: (18,400) (2 players)
BB draws 2, UTG draws 3
BB bets 14,168, UTG raises to 18,876 (all-in), BB calls 4,708

Total pot: 56,152

Showdown:
UTG shows A♦ A♣ K♦ K♥ A♠ (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
BB shows J♦ J♥ J♣ J♠ 7♣ (four of a kind, Jacks)
BB wins 56,152

Good going at the tables these days, for both of us. I figured that it was also time to get going somewhere else today:

I briefly teased this series in late July, and now that the squats program has been wrapped up, I thought that I should finally get things rolling. 5 km was the distance I was going to run earlier today, and you may remember that I did a timed run for it on a track last December, which finished in 30 minutes flat.

I haven't been practicing at all recently, and I know that the natural paths where I was going to run the 5K were quite hilly and no comparison to that flat running track, but beating those 30:00 minutes is still my goal for now. It's not like I expected to beat it right away, but today's finishing time was still a little disappointing:

Today's Time: 32:03 Minutes

That's quite terrible, honestly. I know that the terrain is difficult, but think back to my public 10K race in June this year, which was finished in 60:01 minutes. This one arguably had even worse terrain, not to mention that it was a scorching hot summer's day, so the conditions should have been considerably worse for me back then.

It's all right, I just need to get back into practice. Let's see how I will do next time, I plan to do one or two runs per week, if possible. The current goal for the 5 km remains at 30:00 minutes. Will I still be able to do 200 squats every day?

That running time may not be all that great yet, but... we had one heck of a time at the tables again.

It all started with something I haven't done too well at before, which is satellites - but today, I managed to qualify for my first target tournament of the year, which was the $11 Mini Sunday Octopus (8-Game). With the satty, it only cost me $1.10, and I managed to carry it to a somewhat deep cash too:

It's a very good result, of course, but it had the potential for a lot more. I showed Prim a PLO hand I folded against a bigstacked opponent, which she judged to be a clear all-in. In one FL Hold'em hand, I let a $12 bounty slip through my fingers by not being aggressive enough on the turn, allowing my opponent to hold on to a few big blinds and get busted out by another opponent instead. And then, there were several "Troll run-outs"...

Take a look at the chip graph, those run-outs can easily identified by those sudden sharp drops. Razz is a particularly big offender, but I also remember an FLO8 hand where I flopped a perfectly protected nut low draw with an open-ender, neither of which materialized. Many chips were invested while being ahead in those spots and some others, without the returns I hoped for.

Still, that wasn't all tonight. Five Card Draw final tabled for a 4th place finish worth $10.85 including bounties, while Badugi reached the heads-up phase for the third time in a row. I had to settle for another 2nd place against the big stack, but with good total returns amounting to $55.58 including bounties.

As a whole, I made over $200 in MTT profits this weekend (including Friday), and that doesn't even take the target tournament into account that I sattied into. We truly had some fireworks this weekend... but alas, it doesn't change the fact that it will be back to work for yet another week now.

I'm Sensing a Theme...

Those split pots are not getting old, are they? And this time, it happened at the FT, against an opponent with a $11.19 bounty up for grabs. Also note that both of us received those hands predraw already.

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 1,200/2,400 - 3 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

BU: 150,714 (63 bb)
SB (Hero): 45,708 (19 bb)
BB: 25,578 (11 bb)

Deal: (3,600) Hero is SB with 8♥ 3♠ 5♦ 6♣
1 fold, Hero raises to 4,800, BB 3-bets to 9,600, Hero 4-bets to 28,800, BB calls 15,978 (all-in)

Draw One: (54,378) 8♥ 3♠ 5♦ 6♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat

Draw Two: (51,156) (2 players, 1 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat

Draw Three: (51,156) (2 players, 1 all-in)
SB (Hero) stands pat, BB stands pat

Total pot: 51,156

Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows 8♥ 3♠ 5♦ 6♣ (a Badugi: 8,6,5,3)
BB shows 6♥ 3♣ 5♠ 8♦ (a Badugi: 8,6,5,3)
SB (Hero) wins 25,578
BB wins 25,578

It's all good, because I managed to get his bounty after all in the end.

A bit of a waste of quads, don't you think?

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 600/1,200 (300 ante) - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 7,077 (6 bb)
BU: 57,734 (48 bb)
SB: 11,998 (10 bb)
BB (Hero): 9,033 (8 bb)

Deal: (3,000) Hero is BB with 4♣ Q♥ Q♠ J♥ 9♥
2 players fold, SB raises to 2,400, Hero calls 1,200

Draw One: (6,000) Q♥ Q♠ Q♦ 5♣ Q♣ (2 players)
SB draws 4, BB (Hero) draws 4c Jh 9h
SB checks, Hero bets 3,000, SB folds

Total pot: 6,000
BB (Hero) wins 6,000

Finished on the bubble to the final table, for a mincash with some bounties.

Expectation vs. reality

Super quick health update from me, guys! Today was the first day when I got up in the morning and did not limp!!! No, I got up from bed and could walk to the bathroom, like every normal human being, even though I had a hard tennis practice yesterday and did full running! Physical therapy works well and yesterday, I had another nice physical therapy session. However, expectations did not exactly meet the reality.

Expectation:

Some sessions consist of really relaxing manual therapy, to increase the blood circulation in my foot.

And sometimes ................

Reality:

I have to do some special foot exercises to strengthen the muscles in my feet in order to prevent injury and also to increase blood circulation.

Well, yesterday, after a hard day of work I was really looking forward for a lovely foot massage - and met the "drill sargent" again. :f_ugly::f_ugly: Oh man! Insead of relaxing massage it was hardcore foot-exercises for me. Didn´t even get a massage afterwards. Well, it helped and I´m regularly doing my special excercises. Today in the morning, I got the reward.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Today was the first day when I got up in the morning and did not limp!!!

I'm glad Prim is back to her classic TAG style.

We do have a new fitness challenge to unveil soon - because we are still not done. I am not sure if I really should attempt to go for 200 squats every day, especially if I plan to get a few runs in. I fear that it might put too much of a strain on my legs, especially my knees, considering that I also work a physical labor job which has me on my feet all the time.

Until we introduce the new one, which is planned for next week, I will try to keep doing at least 100 squats every day after coming home, preferably 150. Maybe I will have time for another 5K run too.

Poker didn't go so great tonight, a lot of coolers and bad spots, though we did pick up some bounties. You can't keep up such a hot streak forever, but I think I still have plenty of good momentum, so let's keep it up - the next couple of shipped tournaments could be just around the corner.

Time to beat: 30:00 Minutes
Current PB: 32:03 Minutes

The days are getting shorter, but I managed to get a 5K run in during the late afternoon hours.

Today's Time: 29:35 Minutes
GOAL REACHED!
NEW PB!

That went fast - and it first didn't look like it at all. I had a brief look at my watch after a little over half of the distance, and saw a time of around 16 minutes. I expected an even worse time than last weekend, but it gave me the desperate motivational push that I needed in order to shave off a few minutes after all. I think that was one of the problems last time, I wasn't in "race mode" yet, I treated it not much different than any other jog.

This at least beats the time I set last December on a flat running track. Getting a significantly better time now on much more difficult terrain shows that I have made some improvements since then.

What's the next goal? Runninglevel.com to the rescue, again. My current PB puts me in the "Beginner" column for men my age - note that last Sunday's time of 32:03 minutes wasn't even good enough for that. Novice level for 35-year-old males would start at a time of 26:45 minutes - so let's make that our next target.

New Goal (5 km): 26:45 Minutes

Painful exit in the Five Card Draw right now, shortly before the bubble and with a stack that could have gone all the way. Can we really get away from this hand, though?

PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 350/700 (175 ante) - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

UTG: 24,415 (35 bb)
BU (Hero): 11,640 (17 bb)
SB: 11,695 (17 bb)
BB: 11,496 (16 bb)

Deal: (1,750) Hero is BTN with 4♥ 4♠ A♥ 3♦ A♠
UTG raises to 1,400, Hero calls 1,400, 1 fold, BB calls 700

Draw One: (5,250) 4♥ 4♠ A♥ A♠ 4♦ (3 players)
BB draws 3, UTG draws 1, BU (Hero) draws 3d
BB checks, UTG bets 5,250, Hero raises to 10,065 (all-in), BB folds, UTG calls 4,815

Total pot: 25,380

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows 4♥ 4♠ A♥ A♠ 4♦ (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
UTG shows 9♥ 8♣ 9♦ 8♦ 9♣ (a full house, Nines full of Eights)
UTG wins 25,380

Honestly, I briefly considered just calling, I had a gut feeling. But I don't think anything but a push is really justifiable, straights and flushes would love to call and often probably play the hand in a very similar way. You need to make the most out of those cooler spots in a Turbo when you really are ahead.

Oh dear me, what a cooler!
I´m not a 5-card-draw expert, but a full house in 5-card-draw is a solid, strong hand! UTG took one card: That could be two pair or a set (some people draw one when they have a set) or even sometimes a draw (some people play str8- and flushdraws like this). So, as played. If not going all-in with a full house, than with what?

Originally posted by Primrose6789
UTG took one card: That could be two pair or a set (some people draw one when they have a set) or even sometimes a draw (some people play str8- and flushdraws like this).

Quads are another rare, but possible option. In most situations, however, it will either be a two pair or a straight/flush. In addition to carding, betting behavior is also a source of information, and that's what made me think here - making a pot-sized bet right after the draw does seem like a very strong hand, including the ones I didn't want to see, but more likely, a straight or flush. Even unimproved trips don't usually bet out that strongly all of a sudden, I believe.

This left me with two likely situations: Either my opponent hit a straight or flush, giving me an excellent value spot, or they filled up to a full house, in which case I would be behind against most. The straight or flush seemed like the much more likely case.

The gardening kings (or queens)

So guys, gardening season slowly comes to an end, as we cannot keep our fields for next year but have to choose another one instead, we won´t sow or plant anything anymore this year. And it´s time to crown our gardening-kings (or -queens) based on harvest. Who is going to be crowned this year? Who had the best harvest? Let´s see .......

Let´s start with our 3rd place, the bronze medal

For great (and even too much!!!) salad, the bronze medal goes to:

Wendy O´Koopa!

This sassy little girl wanted to plant salads - and so she did! She succeeded in spring already

and still can celebrate great success in fall with rucola salad !!

So, let´s give our salad-queen Wendy O´Koopa a big applause!!! Bravo, Wendy! :appl::appl::appl:

Let´s move to our silver medalist:
He is not only one of the "little ones", but also planted this veggie for the very first time!

The silver medal is a tie and goes to:

Larry Koopa and Morton Koopa jr.

Planting green beans is not a big deal, neither is caring for them. Those two decided to plant green beans, while Larry planted bush beans

and Morton planted the runner beans

Harvest was amazing!!

We got plenty of green beans frozen down and plenty of canned green beans.

Bravo for Larry Koopa and Morton Koopa jr!!!! :appl::appl::appl::appl::appl:

And our WINNER, GOLD MEDALIST and GARDENING-KING is:

Lemmy Koopa

Sowing pumpkins and caring for them? Whoah! That can´t be that difficult, can it? Well, it wasn´t easy, there are many parasites that can damage a pumpking plant: especially snails and mold! But our brave little Lemmy took up the fight - and fought bravely: with coffee powder, baking soda, rapseed oil and raw milk! And he got rewarded! With a HUGE harvest!

We already ate two giant pumpkins (those big orange ones), a muskat-pumpkin (the big green one), a "spaghetti-pumpkin" (the yellow one), a pink banana (the pink one) and two Hokkaido pumpkins (the smaller orange ones), and four giant orange pumpkins are still on the field.

CONGRATULATIONS to LEMMY KOOPA!!! :appl::appl::appl::appl::appl::appl::appl::appl::appl:

Yaaaaaay, congrats to our new Gardening King!

Well done with all the yard work this year, Prim. I know it was a little tough at times.

Gardening season may be coming to a close, but poker season does not. Though there might be a few inconsistencies soon due to an early daylight savings time switch around here. I will see how I can adapt to the situation.

The exercising is also far from done, even apart from the new timed runs, but that's a matter for another day.

The unlucky one

Hey guys, decided to give also a special price to the most unlucky one in gardening. And the "winner" is:

Bowser jr.

Here he is, with his poor little Carolina Reaper. There´s a reason why I didn´t blog about HOT stuff: There wasn´t any. Unlucky weather, unfortunately. In June, we had cool and rainy weather, which prevented our sun- and warmth-loving chilis from growing and developing. Also the sweet peppers did not ripe properly. Furthermore, in May, our "dragons back", "thai dragon" and "Lila Luzi" chilis suffered some brutal snail-attacks! We could save them, but there were not many fruits .... The "Apocalypse Red" didn´t even germinate. So, bad luck this year with the HOT stuff.

But don´t worry, Junior. Our beloved Carolina Reaper (seen in the picture) and "Fire Kiss" will hibernate. We keep them and next year, we will have hopefully even an earlier than usual harvest!!!

Will you ever eat the Carolina Reaper or only to make more of them?

Originally posted by SDK1987
Will you ever eat the Carolina Reaper or only to make more of them?

I indeed wanted to eat it - wanted to make really HOT chili con carne. But it´s the second year that my Reaper (not the same plant) did not grow fruit. This year, it didn´t even flower!!! Well, more luck next year? Then I plan to make hot soups, hot sauces, hot chili con carne, hot curry and hot cocoa with it.

Well, considering the huge amounts of coffee I needed to even get through the week, I'd say we did all right at the tables. Several big scores were missed, however, and we have to settle for an overall loss. Tonight in particular went extremely badly, but that was also due to a lack of discipline. I decided to add a Stud Hi tournament in the beginning of my session, where I couldn't set a foot right, and it may have impacted the rest of the grind, even though my exits in Badugi and Five Card Draw were pretty standard, where I simply got drawn out on again. I still think I played pretty poorly overall.

I don't expect a lot of poker glory this weekend, to be honest, and certainly no fireworks like last weekend, but who knows, sometimes you can still see some surprises. The impact of the daylight savings time switch tomorrow night also remains to be seen, but I expect most MTTs to still be playable at my grinding hours.

Regarding exercises, we have a new challenge to introduce over the weekend, and we should also see a new 5K run. I believe Primrose will also have few things to say regarding this year's gardening season, which should have come to a close now, for all intents and purposes.

Time to beat: 26:45 Minutes
Current PB: 29:35 Minutes

Another run today, after regaining on sleep. Those Saturday runs will now probably be the only ones for a while, with shorter days and places to be at on most evenings

Today's Time: 29:09 Minutes
NEW PB!

I didn't even realize this was a new PB until I was about to post it - for some reason, I thought my old time was around 28:35 minutes. Well. I guess I wish it was. At least that means that I improved once again, despite having had neither a coffee nor any kind of breakfast before going out for my run.

It will surely be a while until I get close to my new goal, I don't expect to beat it any time this year, but maybe I can keep shaving off a couple of seconds every once in a while, and keep up the current progress. A sub 30 minutes 5K is not a bad time to sustain for an occasional runner, I believe - especially considering that the route I'm running should be more like 5,070 meters, and features prolonged uphill sections.

Baby Peach´s session saver

Hey guys, what´s up? It´s Saturday and that means: Prim´s poker day. Caught a little common cold, unfortunately, so after tennis practice, I just took a hot shower and went straight to bed, where we played our today´s session. As I didn´t do any further chores (cause don´t feel so great), our session could start a bit earlier as usual. It was mostly Baby Peach´s turn, picking up FOUR cards.

We played the 3 p.m. "Free to play around the clock" freeroll, two 0,22 $ PLO8-MTTs and one 0,33$ PLO MTT. And I have to say: Today was not exactly our lucky day. The first 0,22 $ PLO8 went totally card-dead, while Baby Peach fought very bravely in the second 0,22 $ PLO8 and could survive until shy before ITM. She did a great job but again: Todays was not our lucky day and so, shy before ITM, another Villain hit their wonder lucky card on the turn, and poor Baby Peach was out. In the 0,33 $ PLO-tournament, it was acies which didn´t hold up, until then, we were pretty much card-dead. But there was a silver lining and session saver: the "Free to play" PLO! We managed to win a 1.10 $ ticket there! So at least something ....

Bowser jr. can confirm as well, that today is not our lucky day. Also card-dead in the "Free to play" Holdem (5 p.m) and the Big Quarter freeroll-satty! Both times busting with AKs! First time flip lost vs 55, second time lost to J6o, who got the 6 on the river.

Well at least Baby Peach saved our today´s session with winning a 1.10 $ ticket in PLO. Better than nothing....right?

Hands of the day

Sorry, our house is full

Lucky straight

The life saver