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NOSTRI's 2.6 Challenge

NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
edited April 2020 in Poker Chat
Good morning. I have decided to do a 2.6 challenge. The idea behind this is that the Coronavirus pandemic has hit charities hard, cancelling many of the events and fundraisers they rely on for funding. To help, the people behind this challenge are encouraging "Home Heroes" to raise money by doing some activity suited to their skills.

I hadn't even heard of this until I saw this post by @QUICKFEET, who is currently raising money for The Movement Centre, which provides physiotherapy for disabled children. I'm a teacher in training and have some experience working with children who have special needs and it's always very apparent how underfunded facilities for them are, so I couldn't wait to send some money his way and I hope you will consider doing so too.

For my own part, I would like to raise money for St. John Ambulance. My wife has been a volunteer with them for a long time and I have heard firsthand how hard hit they have been by the current crisis. Much of their income comes from being paid to attend large national events like football matches, all of which have of course been cancelled. My wife's local unit was already in constant danger of being closed down before all of this happened. They have received limited funding to assist them through the crisis but it's not enough.

They desperately need the money.

And St. John Ambulance is of course playing a crucial role in the pandemic, too. They are placing people in Nightingale hospitals and emergency departments all over the country to assist NHS staff, in addition to volunteering as first responders at 999 centres. Those who are being placed in Nightingale hospitals are being warned they may leave the experience with PTSD and are being offered extra counselling for that, which is increasing their financial burden.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWCHtABEd6I


They need us and we need them, more than ever.

So what am I doing?

These 2.6 challenges are supposed to take place on Sunday 26th April. On that day, I intend to play poker from morning until midnight (and beyond if I still have tables alive then). At the end of the session, I will donate:
  • 100% of my profits from the day
  • £26
I'll choose whichever is the greatest number. This will be done through the JustGiving page I have set up here.

I'm going to stick to playing MTTs. I'm thinking of lowering my usual buy-in level slightly for this just in case things go badly, which means I'll be playing the Mini Major, everything else up to £5 and going back to the micro stakes too. But I'll be playing this by ear. If things are going well at lunchtime I'll probably add in some higher buy-ins. I hope to have at least four active tables at all times and I will be playing on Sky, Party Poker and Unibet to make sure I have enough options available to me. I'll give myself breaks for lunch and dinner but beyond that I intend to play all day.

I will use this thread to post updates on my progress through the day.

How can you help?
  • Messages of encouragement will be gladly received and appreciated, especially on Sunday
  • If you see or know a St. John's volunteer, let them know you appreciate their hard work
  • Please consider donating a few quid through my JustGiving page if you can
That's all for now. See you on Sunday.

My JustGiving page is here
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Comments

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    PKRParPKRPar Member Posts: 2,233
    you should twitch your day :)
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    PKRPar said:

    you should twitch your day :)

    I did consider that, but two problems:

    - I don't have the necessary equipment, nor can I particularly afford the necessary equipment, and since I only thought of this today there's no guarantee it would actually ship in time
    - The idea of people watching me play poker is incredibly anxiety-inducing, Twitch streaming has never appealed to me and I think people who do it are very brave

    It would certainly have added a lot to the challenge but I think this time I'll just do it the old-fashioned way. Perhaps next time I do something like this!
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    QUICKFEETQUICKFEET Member Posts: 528
    This is another great cause. Sorry to hear your wife's branch of St John is ask at risk of closing.

    Good luck with the day, hope you run good. I thought about doing mine as just 12 hours on Sunday rather than all week but reckoned I would get tired, lose concentration and end up playing rubbish... which I am more than capable of at any time anyway! ha ha
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    edited April 2020
    QUICKFEET said:

    Good luck with the day, hope you run good. I thought about doing mine as just 12 hours on Sunday rather than all week but reckoned I would get tired, lose concentration and end up playing rubbish... which I am more than capable of at any time anyway! ha ha

    Thank you!

    This is a legitimate concern but I've planned ahead for that. Will be having short breaks for lunch and dinner and I've filled my office with good high energy foods like bananas, buts, etc and will be trying to stay off sugar-heavy things. And lots of coffee. Loads and loads of coffee.

    I will also be blasting high energy music into my face. That always works wonders.

    More worried about how my body will feel about it than my mind. I have some muscular issues relating to having Marfan's Syndrome but as long as I can get up and have a walk around periodically I should be able to manage.
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    QUICKFEETQUICKFEET Member Posts: 528
    Blimey! Sports science dieting comes to poker! ha ha
    Had to look up Marfan's Syndrome... I guess with MTTs at least you get a 5 minute break to run round the house every hour.
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    Tikay10Tikay10 Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 161,300
    NOSTRI said:

    Put your hands together for @chickMelt, please.

    He has offered to cover some buy-ins for £11-£33 MTTs and let me add anything I win from them to the donations. If I lose it all, he'll donate £26 himself.

    Absolute legend. ❤️


    What a gesture by @chicknMelt . That's just wonderful.

    Well done to Mr Nozzer too.
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    St John Ambulance could run out of money by August, says its CEO
    St John Ambulance could run out of money in the next four months without government support, according to the charity’s chief executive Martin Houghton-Brown.

    Houghton-Brown told the committee: “Our entire organisation is now delivering for Covid-19. Quite frankly, if the support doesn’t come, we will run out of money.”

    Work on operations to help fight Covid-19 currently costs the charity £1.6m each week, he said, at the same time that the charity has lost £1.5m a week from its training and events businesses. He estimated that the charity needs £450,000 each week to meet its commitments during the crisis.
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    waller02waller02 Member Posts: 9,026
    Donation made. Best of luck Nozzer.
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    StayOrGoStayOrGo Member Posts: 12,129
    NOSTRI said:

    Put your hands together for @chicknMelt, please.

    He has offered to cover some buy-ins for £11-£33 MTTs and let me add anything I win from them to the donations. If I lose it all, he'll donate £26 himself.

    Absolute legend. ❤️

    Awesome. VWP Andy! @chicknMelt

    Best of luck @NOSTRI
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    StayOrGo said:

    Awesome. VWP Andy! @chicknMelt

    Best of luck @NOSTRI

    Thank you very much.

    And a big thank you @waller02 for the donation.
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    EnutEnut Member Posts: 3,292
    Best of luck with this, I have made a donation and look forward to seeing how you do. Good Luck! I kept it fair and donated the same to @QUICKFEET
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    QUICKFEETQUICKFEET Member Posts: 528
    Thank you @Enut
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    StayOrGoStayOrGo Member Posts: 12,129
    edited April 2020
    Hi @NOSTRI

    After Sunday 26th's play, I will make a donation based on how well (or badly I do)

    I won't pledge an exact amount or percentage but it will be a total of between £26.00 and £100.00 split equally between your's and @QUICKFEET 's charities.

    All the best.
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    You rock, @Enut, thank you. Thank you too, @StayOrGo, that's very generous of you.

    And my thanks to someone else I believe is from this forum who has donated. You haven't announced it here so I'll leave that to you. The donation was noticed and appreciated, though!
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    NOSTRINOSTRI Member Posts: 1,459
    Right. Here we are, then.

    I'm going to be kicking off at 9am with the £1 Rebuy here on Sky and playing it mostly by ear from there. I was fiddling around on Sharkscope the other day and noticed I have more than 80% ROI in that tournament, so that seems like a slam dunk gimme for playing today.

    Just a few administrative notes before we get going.

    I've decided to split the profit figures between the three poker sites (Sky, Party, Unibet) I'm playing on today. That means even if I show a loss on Sky but make some money on Party Poker, I will still donate the full amount of profit from Party. This is more of a convenience than anything since each site uses a different currency but it also effectively triples my chances of being able to make a donation at the end of the day.

    I am also going to match all donations made today up to £100. I've already had one anonymous donation of £20 this morning (thank you!), so that leave £80 more I will match. Most of the donations have been £26, in keeping with the 2.6 theme, but please don't feel like you have to donate that much. Even a £1 donation helps and effectively becomes a £2 donation with my matching. Totally worth it.

    I'll try and keep some tallies updated through the day but I expect to be pretty busy come afternoon so updates may be sparse and brief.

    My JustGiving page is here
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    QUICKFEETQUICKFEET Member Posts: 528
    Good luck!
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    SidV79SidV79 Member Posts: 4,042
    Good luck
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    stokefcstokefc Member Posts: 7,657
    Good luck
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    PKRParPKRPar Member Posts: 2,233
    All the best today
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