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

We did it!

...I think so. I wish I had a coach around who could tell me if those situps were all really executed well enough. Prim watched me towards the end, and she thought they were fine, so I guess I'll take her word for it. I made sure to add a few extra reps too, to possibly compensate for any poorly executed or miscounted reps, stopping at 225, for a clean conscience.

Speaking of which... the two of us did our attempt together, and I noticed that Primrose already got up and announced that she was done when I wasn't even halfway through, and we started at the same time. I didn't watch her, but... I'll just let her be her own judge whether or not her situps were all good form, and she says that they were. Well, it's her challenge, with her own standards, so we'll just accept it. We have no reason to think otherwise.

That means we're done, the 200 situps challenge is now complete.

Not sure where we will go from here, but we will surely find a way to maintain our progress. Now, onto the other challenges of the week...

November Stats

MTTs

It is finally time. Here are the MTT stats from the end of last month:

Overall, things are looking very good. We can even spot a few milestones, like over $500 in MTT profit this year, or $3K in Badugi profit since 2020. A three figure ROI in Badugi this year so far is also nice, while we shouldn't read too much into the one for Stud Hi-Lo, due to the tiny sample size. Five Card Draw, meanwhile, is looking poorly, and has lost its spot in the grind for the time being.

We will see more about that when we get to the individual graphs. But first, let's take a look at the overall monthly and weekly profit.

Not quite as good as October, but still a very good month.

The profit breakdown by game type still shows Badugi as the clear MVP, while Stud Hi-Lo is competing for a spot after overtaking the failing 5CD games.

Now for the big candlestick graphs, starting with MTTs as a whole:

Again, not much to complain about, and the same thing applies to the Badugi graphs:

Five Card Draw is a different story. We have been free falling since September. Early successes, once again, but no consistent profit.

And now for the dark horse, Stud Hi-Lo. Some good finishing have been pushing the profit charts, but will it last, or will it fizzle out, like Five Card Draw? Before I am able to add more tournaments, it seems like anyone's guess.

Finally, the percentage of the plain prize money for finishes has increased a bit compared to bounties, in both PKOs and overall MTTs.

November Stats

OFC

The value of Bitcoin is through the roof at the moment. Unfortunately, in this case, it only serves to amplify this year's losses.

Breaking it down by stakes once again:

No new µBTC 2 games added last month, but the µBTC 1 games now look break-evenish at best.

µBTC 0.25 is still looking good overall, but has been stagnating lately.

it has not been a good month at these tables, as you can plainly see:

This is the graph for the overall OFC-P profit, which excludes certain formats that are included in the stats above.

It looks better in points, once again.

If we include all formats, you can see that this month's losses broke some promising streaks too:

Even if we ignore stakes and look at points alone, this month mostly just seems like a bit of a waste:

Not a good month at all in this format. A short break may be in order.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Not a good month at all in this format. A short break may be in order.

There's a lot of that going around.
My November sucked

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
There's a lot of that going around.
My November sucked

I've read about it. Bummer...

In my case, MTTs went pretty well, and OFC could have been a success too, if it wasn't for some neck-breaker sessions towards the end. Still, I think it's better to step away from that format for a while.

MTTs should be back at full force soon, once I'm done with this doozy of a week.

The Troll Calendar 2024
Day 04

Have Merci

An open heart sees the world in bright colors.

Another Merci Petit. My least favorite of the three shapes (I assume those three are all we get in the calendar). It simply has the worst ratio of chocolate to packaging.

Today's flavor is "White Crunch". I know our friend Vorpal considers white chocolate quite pointless, but I tend to like it, as long as it comes with a crunchy filling - and this one does.

Well, it was good, but I do think it had a bit too much "white" and too little "crunch", if that makes sense. I don't think it beats the dark milk chocolate one, at least.

Through the Wood of Thorns

More 1x1s... but one of them comes with a little hook:

Maybe it will be used to hold some kind of weapon, or something else.

Today was the big day for another Shark badge attempt, trying to implement what I have learned from the grindette last Friday. I did my crawling, 50 seconds were the time to beat for 50 meters. I was pretty sure that I had failed when my coach sent me to swim some easy laps for recovery afterwards without telling me the time - but as it turned out, I was right on the money, with a time of 49.7 seconds.

Great, so the Shark badge should be in the bag, right? Well, not so fast... there is still the breaststroke and back crawling, both of which have a time limit of 1 minute for 50 meters. Breaststroke was no problem, I believe my time was 56.8 seconds. But the back crawling... I'm afraid I'm still four seconds over my target time.

I did another attempt towards the end, I was only told that I was "way above" the time limit, and that my previous time was better. My coach realized that I was tired by that point too. I probably have a lot of room for improvement, but not a lot of time - I can return on Friday, but this will be my absolute last chance. At least I now have only one thing left to focus on.

Backstroke swimming in particular is very technique-based, I believe. How can I shave off those last darn four seconds next Friday? I don't know... but I know that we have come too far to quit now!

So it will be Shark badge or busto on Friday - and the very next day, I will have my big karate belt exam in the morning. What a weekend it is going to be... whatever the results, I predict a hangover on Sunday morning.

[DONE] 50 meters of breaststroke swimming in under 1:00 minute
[DONE] 50 meters of front crawling in under 50 seconds
[FAILED] 50 meters of back crawling in under 1:00 minute (current best: 1:04 minutes)
[DONE] a head first dive from a height of 3 meters, or a front flip from a height of 1 meter
[DONE] dribbling a water polo ball for 25 meters

Maybe it's best to give the poker tournaments a break for a few days, with so many other things on my mind.

Positive results is always nice, the bigger the winrate (edge vs others), the lower the swings. There is few things one can do to reduce risk of losing:
1) increase winrate/edge (by learning at poker schools)
2) playing more (so that it evens out)
3) playing at lower stakes with bigger bankroll.

Happy to see you crushing @poker, this trading market looks quite unpredictable, I don't know why people play that :f_biggrin::f_love:

Originally posted by taavi1337
Happy to see you crushing @poker, this trading market looks quite unpredictable, I don't know why people play that :f_biggrin::f_love:

Thank you. Not sure if that last bit was facetious or not, but the above graphs and stats are indeed all poker, I am not involved in trading at all. The poker room where I play OFC uses Bitcoin, but I never bought any of those either, my bankroll there was built through freeroll winnings.

I generally agree with your points about lowering the swings, but they only apply to my formats to a certain degree. For one thing, many of my non-Hold'em/Omaha tournaments may only have one MTT running per day, or at least only one during my grinding times. It's similar with the stakes, some MTTs only have that one stake, others may have an additional high roller or so, which is currently not a realistic option for me anyway. Effectively, that means that I am limited to one specific tournament at one specific buy-in for many of my formats.

Increasing your edge is always a good idea, but in these formats, you are largely on your own, though there is some limited material available. It's a blessing and a curse - it makes it difficult to get into those games, and it may take a lot of experimentation to find out what works and what doesn't, which may also require you to play a costly losing game while you figure things out. At the same time, however, it means bigger edges for the people who do figure the games out, because those winning strategies are pretty much your own, you haven't picked them up at some public place where everyone else has access to them too.

For me, it's a matter of enjoyment. Staying on top of the latest strategies in "mainstream" games like NL Hold'em and figuring out a mathematically sound way to beat them is a perfectly acceptable way to play the game, and many may find that part in particular stimulating - it''s just not fun for me anymore. I much prefer the classic "mind game" feel of the more obscure, "uncharted" formats, without solvers or starting hands charts or anything, just a bunch of card players trying to find a way to win over their opponent... like in the old days, perhaps.

The Troll Calendar 2024
Day 05

Have Merci

There is a little bit of bliss in every moment.

We finally get a regular sized bar again, and our filling is "Dark Mousse".

A little similar to the "Praline Cream" one from December 1st, maybe, except darker. I think I would prefer the previous one, however, if given the choice between the two of them.

Through the Wood of Thorns

Now we're talking, we finally added some big pieces. Looks like things are mounting up to form a tower structure of sorts.

Also some more 1x1s. One of them has a hook once again, though it's probably hard to see because it is black on black.

Originally posted by Harrier88
The Troll Calendar 2024

We finally get a regular sized bar again, and our filling is "Dark Mousse".

Well, since this is a Troll Calendar, here is what this filling would be in Canada

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
(you knew that was coming, didn't you?)

When I opened the spoiler, I was actually expecting something that is more directly related to trolls, but when I was writing my post, I was thinking of moose too.

Originally posted by Harrier88

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
(you knew that was coming, didn't you?)

When I opened the spoiler, I was actually expecting something that is more directly related to trolls, but when I was writing my post, I was thinking of moose too.
🤣
Of course, if it had been "white mousse" I would have been ready

Spoiler

(Click the pretty picture to read the entire article)

I still find it a little difficult to unwind with all of those tests around the corner.

It's weird how little things like these can seem so important to us. The swimming badge is little more than a piece of paper, possibly a piece of cloth too, with little to no practical use. Hardly anyone even knows of its existence. The karate belt will rate this year's progress and set me on a path for next year, but it's still only something I do in my free time. Both of these courses cost money, in fact.

Still... a squirrel's gotta do what a squirrel's gotta do. Even if it's a little nuts.

To put it in Hold'em terms, I'd say the belt graduation exam is AA vs random, and the Shark badge is AK vs QQ. It fits with the odds I'm expecting, but also with the situation. Karate should work just fine unless something stupid happens. For the swimming badge, I should have a chance - but only if I improve.

Annoyingly, I still had some brain farts when I was preparing for the belt graduation in my two practice sessions this week, sometimes mixing up which hand does what during certain blocks. I went over it at home, thought I had it all figured out... and today in practice, it happened again. I will most likely get the opportunity to re-do stuff if I make mistakes in the exam, but it's still frustrating.

I can write all I want, but at the end of the day, I just need to get these things done. Let's just give it my best shot, come what may, and next week, we will be ready to crush poker again.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Of course, if it had been "white mousse" I would have been ready

Maybe we will get to that one eventually too.

I generally agree with your points about lowering the swings, but they only apply to my formats to a certain degree.

Thanks! I now understand high-risk players better.

The thing with NLHE is, it's a tough game, people sometimes claim it to be easy, but it's not, in my opinion it is very complex and tough game.

Originally posted by taavi1337
The thing with NLHE is, it's a tough game, people sometimes claim it to be easy, but it's not, in my opinion it is very complex and tough game.

One of those cases of "easy to learn, tough to master", maybe.

I'm not a high-risk player at all, btw. My current bankroll carries almost 1K buy-ins for my current MTT stakes.

It's the feast of St. Nicholas today, which serves as a sort of mini-Christmas for German children. They would leave their shoes out to receive little gifts in them, based on a story about the real-world 4th century saint who is celebrated on this day. It is said that he sometimes secretly slipped a few coins into the shoes of needy people if they left them out for him.

The Troll Calendar 2024
Day 06

Have Merci

The best kinds of presents are the little ones which touch your heart.

Oh, looks like our Merci calendar is doing something special for St. Nicholas day too - we get a double feature. I was honestly not expecting that.

Finding the right door is half the fun with those classic advent calendars, but for this one, especially in these bad lighting conditions, it can be a bit of a challenge, since the doors vary in shape. Getting a special door like today complicates things even further. As a result, I accidentally opened a corner of the adjacent door, and we get a sneak peak of what will be in store for us on December 23rd.

In today's double feature, we get both a "Merci Together" with almond cream filling, and regular Merci bar with marzipan filling, sometimes also known as almond paste.

You would think they are similar, but the "Merci Together" one comes with a little extra crunch - I assume those are almonds too. Also, the regular bar uses dark chocolate. I'm familiar with this one from the regular assortments, and the Marzipan bar is usually among my favorites there.

Indeed, I would rank the Marzipan chocolate higher than the other bars, but I think the almond cream has earned the current #1 spot. Looks like I tend to prefer the Merci Together versions over the other variants in general, while the Merci Petits rank lower than the others. Maybe we will see some shake-ups in the future.

Through the Wood of Thorns

Another big wall piece, some reverse slanted blocks, and even a little arch or branch jutting out of our structure.

The pieces on the left part seem to form a little nook of sorts together.

Let's see if St. Nicholas has a swimming badge to slip into my shoes later today...

Cannot handle all those Koopa-kids alone ........... :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

So, I hired a nanny :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

It´s not bad to have a Magikoopa in my collection! Kamek came yesterday... I found the package just on the way to tennis practice, so I just grabbed it and packed it out in the car, on the way to the tennis hall. Just arrived, Kamek found himself on the tennis court well, at least as a spectator. :f_biggrin::f_ugly::f_ugly: He is small so, he was in the pocket of my jacket and watched my tennis practice But he was not only watching.... yesterday, during tennis practice I managed to hit FOUR miracle, lucky net-rollers :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly: Well, not so bad to have a Magikoopa in your collection, is it?

He will take care of those Koopa-brats :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

and hopefully bring us good, lucky cards in poker? :f_wink::f_biggrin:

Kamek! Welcome aboard!

Getting ready for my swimming challenge soon, trying to get a 50m backstroke time below 1 minute. Maybe I should have started looking for videos like this sooner:

I think I still got something out of it, and I will probably get some advice right on location too. Whatever the outcome will be, I trust that I will be able to say that I gave it a good attempt.