The Bat Cave

Before I start updating I’m going to see if I can publish and update from an iPhone that is no longer active.

Testing.

6:38 PM: Great success! Blog opener coming soon.

If you don’t like baseball talk, just skip ahead to the next time stamp.

Yesterday I participated in an AL-Only auction fantasy baseball draft and that process basically took up my whole Sunday. It was a blast though and I’m really looking forward to seeing how I do in a format I have absolutely zero experience with.

Today I had another baseball draft. This one is a little different. Six of us draft six MLB teams and whoever has the most combined wins… wins. We also draft four players for homeruns and four starting pitchers for wins and whoever has the best two from each category wins money there too.

My picks (overall rank in parentheses):

• Indians (2)
• Diamondbacks (11)
• Phillies (14) [Gambooool]
• Athletics (23)
• Reds (last six draw)
• Nolan Arenado (5)
• Joey Gallo (8)
• Manny Machado (17)
• Matt Olson (20)
• Justin Verlander (6)
• Luis Severino (7)
• Trevor Bauer (18)
• Carlos Martinez (19)

After that I went and upgraded to the iPhone X and that’s why I’m just now sitting in a poker game at 6:30 PM on a Monday. I haven’t transferred anything to my new phone so I’m updating from my old one via wifi.

6:54 PM: Starting lineup: Radio Mike, at least three fun action players, and three average regulars.

First hand I post cutoff with Q8dd and there are multiple limpers, one of the fast players raises from SB and everyone calls. Flop is QT7dd an there is a bet, calls, and a raise in front of me. I go ahead and 3-bet and we are 5-handed to the turn. The SB donks again when it’s an 8, everyone calls, and I get to raise again. Three of us see the 5d river and the SB donks again! The other player folds, I raise, and the small blind folds! A line so spectacularly bad and fishy that the third player on the river asked to see the SB’s hand, even though he folded. Hard to blame him – except he knows me and I can’t imagine he actually thinks anything funky is going on. Just bad players doing bad player things. Nothing to see here.

Good start!

7:25 PM: The action players are certainly making this a high variance game. Just lost a big pot where I defend J8 from the big and pop it on the JTx flop because the small blind was the PFR. I end up getting raised by one of the loose players on the 6 turn and Radio Mike had called two bets cold on the flop and the turn, so I’m fully prepared to fold when the river is an ace, since KQ seems like one of his most likely holdings, but he folds and I have to pay off the lunatic and she shows me J6o – the kind of hand you just can’t fold preflop when you’re in middle position.

7:31 PM: New blog nickname: Rocksteady. Rocksteady is a friend and blog reader that seems to have made the jump from $8/$16 regular to playing $15/$30 the last few times he’s been in.

First person to tell me who this person is and why I came up with this nickname gets $5 from me.

7:48 PM: I’m just going to refer to each individual maniac by their seat position. I open utg with KQss, maniacs 9 and 1 call, decent player calls, maniac 4 3-bets, and I cap because my hand plays incredible against this ensemble. Flop is K98 all diamonds and I decide to try and check-call down since so much can go wrong here and my hand isn’t really worth protecting but has showdown value. I check-call flop and turn, but the only reasonable player in the pot fires his third barrel on a final board of K98ddd75 and there are still two maniacs standing, which makes this a pretty trivial fold now. He shows the other two players A7dd.

Very next hand, maniac 9 raises utg and I defend 88 and check-call down on KJ73K and beat his 75o.

8:29 PM: Just broke a huge losing streak vs Rocksteady. My last session we battled in a decent amount of hands and he had me coolered basically every time. I think I went 0-9 against him at showdown on Saturday. Something ridiculous like that. Maniac 4 limps, he raises, I 3-bet AKo on button, 5-way action to ATx two clubs and Rocksteady and Manaic 4 check-call. Turn is Qc (I have no club) and I decide I’m probably going to bet-fold if Rocksteady raises here, but the maniac folds and he check-calls so I feel very comfortable betting the river for value and he pays me off.

8:35 PM: Radio Mike limps, I limp along with A4cc, maniac 9 raises, maniac 1 3-bets, maniac 4 calls, and both Mike and I call. Flop is 653 one club; maniac 9 bets, everyone calls, I check-raise, he 3-bets, and everyone else folds. Wow! I call. Turn is an ace and I check-raise since I should be crushing his range now and I have good outs if I’m not. He calls. River is an 8 and I actually consider checking but there’s no good reason to do it, so I bet and he calls with… 63hh.

10:00 PM: Maniac 4 limp-raises me after I raise QTdd from late position and both blinds call. I love my spot here so I put the cap on it and wind up losing to the big blind’s J7dd on JT8d5d3. Lots of good possibilities there and a terrible river. Maniac 4 also pays it off with A8o.

Things are going pretty well though. I’m up over $1000 and it doesn’t even feel like I’ve been running great.

There are currently four players that read my blog in the game now, which might be a new record. John Kim, Muckleshoot Main Event winner, has joined us and since I used his real name in my Player of the Series post, I guess I’ll continue to do so here. Maniacs 9 and 4 still in with $2000 and $500, respectively. Rocksteady and Radio Mike both still in too.

Maniac 4 is calling Maniac 9 “The River Man,” and having just read multiple books about infamous Puget Sound serial killer Gary Ridgway, I think I will bestow this name upon Maniac 9 on my blog.

10:52 PM: Of course, as soon as I give him a name he cashes out. On the bright side, he has been replaced by Puss-In-Boots!

11:32 PM: Radio Mike has been running brutally lately. So brutal that when he opens cutoff and I look down at KTss, I almost feel bad about having to 3-bet him for the 5th time tonight. He calls. Flop is TT6 with two clubs. He checks and I say “that is a better flop for me than it is for you” but he calls anyway. Board runs out jack and 7 and he check-calls both streets and then shows me the best possible hand he could play that way that I beat: KJ of clubs.

And then he goes home. John Kim also just left. We just picked up an $8/$16 regular that I haven’t played $15/$30 with yet but comes with a great nickname: Bingo Man. Also naming the female maniac Rosanne at the urging of Rocksteady. Trust me, it fits.

12:18 AM: I feel for Radio Mike right now. I’m not sure there’s any worse feeling than getting crushed in a totally juiced game where multiple players aren’t just making lots of mistakes, they are literally hemorrhaging money. There are weak players and then there are legit spewers. My game has at least three spewers in it right now and zero good players. It’s amazing. I was thinking I would leave around 2 AM but this is the kind of game where I feel like I need to dig deeper and take one of the team – even if it renders me useless until late afternoon tomorrow.

12:30 AM: Well, I was overdue to post an actual hand and, on cue: one limp, a spewer raises, I call K9cc because 3-betting never gets me heads up and my hand plays decent multiway. Puss-In-Boots 3-bets from the small blind and seven of us see the A99 flop. It checks to my right and he bets, I just call because I want everyone in drawing basically dead and this isn’t the type of flop texture where they take cards off for all the bets. I keep it 4- or 5-handed and then call again on the turn and Puss-In-Boots springs to life with a check-raise. The turn bettor calls and now I 3-bet because I know I have them both smashed. They both call and can you believe the river is an ace? Cruel, cruel world. Puss leads out, the other guy folds (?), and I lose to AQ. 🤢

1:14 AM: Puss-In-Boots had the courtesy to stay an extra half hour before leaving with all my chips.

And I’ve gone card dead and cold at the worst time!

Palace has a new floorman and his name is Mooski and I absolutely can’t resist the urge to call him Mookie instead.

1:51 AM: Chipped back up with AA in 3-bet 6-way pot and getting a little too much action from J6 on J42dd3d9 – they donked into me on flop and turn and helped me clear the field. I’ve seen this player take this line basically every time he turns some sort of draw so I felt fine raising flop and turn and still betting river.

2:38 AM: Oh, it’s painful but I think I have to leave. There are still three certified spewers in the game but I am super tired and running a little card dead, which can be a bad combo and make you start doing stupid things like opening 44 from the nojack at a loose table (I got folds from everyone but the big blind, but the hand still didn’t end well).

2:47 AM: Six players limp in and I look down at A9dd. I mean I have to raise this, right? Everyone calls and one of the spewers 3-bets from the cutoff. I mean I have to cap this, right? Flop QJ2 one diamond. I check, someone bets, I peel getting like 35-1, and a number of us see the Qd turn and it checks around and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that. River is another Q and a spewer bets and everyone folds to me. Am I winning with A9 on QJ2QQ more than 4% of the time basically heads up (others left have nothing) against an crazy person? Uhm, definitely. Probably closer to 50%. I call and lose to JT.

Then I pick up KK and get outflopped by AK when they hit their 3-outer twice.

It pains me but I will be racking up and playing my last orbit.

Final Score: +$610

Pretty blah result for a game where it seemed like money was falling out of the sky at times. You look at a hand like that K9 v AQ on A99xA and you can see how much of an impact it has on your overall session. Winning 2.5 racks is substantially sexier than winning 1.2 racks!

I will be taking tomorrow off although I might play a number of online tournaments but mostly I’ll just be playing catch up.

Wednesday I’m probably playing PLO but I’m not committed to it and Thursday we are going to the Mariners season opener (even though we don’t have tickets yet)!

Then back to the LHE grind this weekend.