{"id":26934,"date":"2026-06-10T06:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/?p=26934"},"modified":"2026-06-10T06:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:53:06","slug":"tour-de-draftee-stop-4-the-house-always-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/2026\/06\/tour-de-draftee-stop-4-the-house-always-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de Draftee Stop #4: The House Always Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The Thang<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Tour moved under the lights for a special Casino Night edition of High Life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The evening began with a Buy-In EMOM consisting of:<\/p>\n<ul data-spread=\"false\">\n<li>Merkins<\/li>\n<li>Big Boys<\/li>\n<li>Squats<\/li>\n<li>SSH<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Using a 45-second work \/ 15-second recovery format, the PAX completed three rounds through the rotation before heading to the casino floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The main event divided the PAX into Team A (Pele&#8217;, Hot Dish, Brown Bag) and Team B (Wobegon and Draftee).<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">One representative from each team stepped forward to play a hand of Blackjack while the remaining PAX held high plank and waited to discover whether their team would be celebrating victory or paying the price for defeat.<\/p>\n<h3>Round 1<\/h3>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The winning team performed the prescribed exercise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The losing team performed 10 burpees.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Exercise<\/th>\n<th>Winner<\/th>\n<th>Loser<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Merkins<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Squats<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Big Boys<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>SSH<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lunges<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Mountain Climbers<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>LBCs<\/td>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>10 Burpees<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h3>Round 2<\/h3>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The rules changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The loser of the previous hand determined the number of burpees the losing team of the next hand would perform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Penalties ranged from five to twelve burpees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Mercy was in short supply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The evening concluded with the High Stakes Table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Everyone played.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">One big hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Hot Dish and Wobegon both hit 21, forcing overtime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">In the deciding round, Wobegon emerged victorious and enjoyed immunity while the rest of the PAX enjoyed burpees.<\/p>\n<h2>The Story<\/h2>\n<ul data-spread=\"true\">\n<li>Casino Night began with optimism. Everyone believes they will be lucky before the cards are dealt. Reality arrives shortly thereafter.<\/li>\n<li>Very early in the evening, Hot Dish announced that he had arrived for one purpose: to ice the dealer.<\/li>\n<li>Brown Bag may have openly questioned the integrity of the shuffle.<\/li>\n<li>Team A (Pele&#8217;, Hot Dish, and Brown Bag) opened hot, endured the longest losing streak of the evening, and somehow finished strong.<\/li>\n<li>Team B, consisting of Wobegon and Draftee, experienced a somewhat different journey.<\/li>\n<li>Draftee led the field in busts.<\/li>\n<li>As the stakes grew larger, the entire AO became invested in every card. A simple hit could trigger celebration. A face card could trigger panic. A bust could trigger immediate accusations of incompetence.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, the PAX in high plank positions discovered that watching someone else gamble is significantly less enjoyable when your shoulders are on fire.<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">At one point, Pele&#8217; requested more burpees instead of more Big Boys. Hot Dish responded with some fatherly wisdom:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">&#8220;Don&#8217;t do sit-ups uphill. Face the opposite way and life gets easier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Some lessons are learned through experience. Others are learned through geometry.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Later in the evening, Pele&#8217; identified what appeared to be a flaw in the rules. By setting the burpee penalty at one and intentionally busting, his team could absorb a single burpee while forcing the winning team to perform twenty reps of the prescribed exercise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">While the strategy was never employed, merely threatening to exploit the loophole was enough to prompt immediate review by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Tour Rules Committee.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As the evening progressed, it became increasingly apparent that losing did not make men merciful.<\/li>\n<li>It made them vindictive.<\/li>\n<li>The loser of each hand determined the burpee penalty for the next hand, and the number selected rarely reflected forgiveness or compassion.<\/li>\n<li>Eventually, all roads led to the High Stakes Table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">With everything on the line, Hot Dish and Wobegon both hit 21 and advanced to overtime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\">In the end, Wobegon emerged as the High Roller Champion and enjoyed the spoils while the rest of us enjoyed burpees.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The biggest lesson of the evening was simple:<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><strong>The house always wins.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>We left broke, but our cups were filled with good conversations and brotherhood.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tour Update<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">After four stops, the Tour continues to take shape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Still no FNGs have entered the competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">A reminder to the contenders:<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Tour will not be won by attendance alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">At some point, somebody is going to bring an FNG and change the entire leaderboard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The mission remains unchanged:<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><strong>Show up. Lift your brother up. Bring an FNG.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Next Stop<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The Tour heads to Coffee w\/ the Runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The cards are going away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">The conversations are not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">SYITG for coffee &amp; conversations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was an honor. Thank you for the opportunity Hot Dish.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Draftee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Thang The Tour moved under the lights for a special Casino Night edition of High Life. The evening began with a Buy-In EMOM consisting of: Merkins Big Boys Squats SSH Using a 45-second work \/ 15-second recovery format, the PAX completed three rounds through the rotation before heading to the casino floor. The main [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlife"],"acf":{"q":"Draftee","date":"06-09-2026","pax":"Hot Dish (WD), Brown Bag, Pele' (WB), Wobegon (WD), and Draftee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26934"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26942,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934\/revisions\/26942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}