The Bat Cave

As promised, here we are again. I will blog today’s session even though it will probably be all 8/16. There are three 8/16 games going and only two of us up for 15/30. Pretty ridiculous. Maybe one will fire after the day jobbers get off.

Ultimately made the decision to stay local because we are going hiking early tomorrow.

Starting lineup: The Leak, Grumpy, someone I will call Villain since he wears a hat that says ‘Villain’ on it, and some other randoms.

First notable hand, it folds to me in cut, I raise with 88 and the button and small blind call.

Flop is 763 and they both check-call.

Turn is a king and only the small blind calls.

River is a queen and I go for thin value and he calls with a 7.

Grumpy opens (one hand after taking a horrible bluffing line vs my wife), one other calls, and I decide to flat with A5hh on the button and the big comes along also.

Four of us to 442 one heart flop and they all check to me. I bet and two players call, including Grumpy.

Turn is the T of diamonds and it checks around.

River is a 6 and now Grumpy leads. Other guy folds. He’s basically always bluffing here but… how often is he bluffing with a better ace high? AK, AQ, and AJ are all possible. He could have a ten, but I think he usually just donks a pair on the turn.

I’m getting roughly 6 to 1 on the river so he needs to show up with worse as little as 14% of the time. I’m sure he does. I call. He tables QJdd and I win. My main concern is whether or not I should raise this river. I’m thinking not. He never folds a pair and I think he calls AJ+ a decent amount. Plus my line is not credible at all. He’s probably not thinking very deeply, but I basically never have a hand that can/should be raising the river, except maybe 66 and I’m betting that on the turn almost always.

3:26 PM: Back-to-Back-to-Back hands, same opponent:

Hand 1: limpers, I raise JJ from SB, BB folds, they call.

Flop J93, I bet, dude looks like he wants to raise and calls, so does button.

Turn is a queen and now he does raise me. Obviously I’m vulnerable to straights here but I thought he wanted to raise flop (because he was strong) and I feel very good 3-betting my hand. He just calls.

River pairs the 9 and he calls me. Hard to imagine what strong hands he can have there, so maybe just the case jack?

Hand 2: Same guy limps and I raise AKo on the button and four of us see the flop.

A93 with two spades. My dude donks, I raise and we are heads up.

Turn and river both run out aces and he check-calls both streets and I show him my quads… which also makes the top High Hand with under two minutes left.

Ship $400!

Hand 3: I open AJ, button calls, and my new pal three bets from one of the blinds. He’s probably fed up. We both call.

Flop is QT6 all spades. I have the ace of spades. He bets and I raise. He calls.

Turn is the King of diamonds and now he check-raises me. Well I have the ace of spades and the queen of spades is on board, so how many hands is he 3-betting pre that made flushes? Probably not many. Maybe none. I 3-bet it and he calls.

River is a blank and he pays me off again and shows KK with a spade. Yikes. Pretty unlucky and a brutal stretch for this guy and that was all of his chips and the end of his session.

3:50 PM: Open QQ, callers, The Leak 3s from the blinds and I cap it.

Four of us to the J74 two spade flop. SB donks, Leak calls, I raise, and three players call.

Turn is a blank but puts two hearts on board and the SB donks again. The Leak folds and I raise again and we are heads up.

The river is the ten of hearts and he checks to me. I’m certain he had a jack and I thought he might have donked the turn because he added a flush draw with his pair. Plus he can have JT. I decide to check back and he shows JT with no hearts. Nice line, sir.

4:09 PM: MLB NERD ALERT! Shohei Ohtani is pitching on Sunday! Yes!

4:30 PM: If it wasn’t obvious already, I’ve been playing with 6 or less players the whole time and now we are 3-handed… and they are dropping $5 a hand.

Honestly, that’s ridiculous. I really like playing short-handed but I don’t think I can justify playing 3-handed with a $5 drop… just out of principle… even if the other two guys are total punters.

4:46 PM: I have been moved to old timer’s game. The Queen is here and a bunch of older guys with grey hair. There is one big spewer in the game but The Leak is definitely in the better of the two full games.

It’s definitely not a great game I’m in, but I do find some joy in beating up on the nitty old guys.

Pretty good chance I’m going to play even more aggro than usual, especially if it seems to be getting under their skin.

5:01 PM: Adjusting well already! Open UTG with AJo and two call. I get popped by the button on the AQ32 board and call because he can have A2 and A3 and then the 3 pairs on the river and I call just in case he has A2 (which i still don’t beat) and he shows me QQ.

🤦🏻‍♂️

Defended blind with Q7dd and decide to lead into field on AT9 all diamond flop. I get called in four spots and the board pairs the 9 first and then the ten on the river. I check and it checks around and somehow I’m good.

5:10: Here’s a gem. I limp along with 22 and six of us see the KT4 flop and we all check.

Turn is a 2 (!) and The Queen leads out, next guy calls, and it’s up to me with two players behind me. I decide to call because a) the pot is small, b) If I raise and only The Queen calls, we don’t bet heads up, and c) whatever I lose by raising I think I can make up in an overcall. So I call and one calls behind.

River is an 8. No flush possible. It checks to me, I bet and then the player behind me raises! Other two fold. If he has 88, he gets to win four bets from me. I 3-bet and he calls.

I’m good but what is great about this hand is that he flashes me a king. A king! So… with six players in the pot and four checks in front of him, he checks top pair. Then he calls the turn and finally decides to spring his trap on the river.

As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy torturing nits, so when under the gun raises, three people call, and a nit 3-bets from the cutoff, I get splashy on the button with 75 of clubs. It gets capped.

Flop is 864. Yessir!

One player has KK and the other has QQ. They are not happy. Actually the guy with KK is pissed. I’m sitting on his left and I turned my music off just so I could listen to him curse to himself and criticize my preflop play.

6:32 PM: Open AKdd and a loose but passive player behind me 3-bet and a super loose player calls from a blind. I just call.

Flop is K74 one diamond and we all check.

Turn pairs the 4 and gives me the nut flush draw. I bet and they both call.River is an 8 and now I get check-raised by the blind and he does that thing where he’s talking to someone as I pay him off, so he doesn’t know it’s time to show this beauty yet. Someone prompts him and he does that sick move where he keeps talking and does the whole no look show where he gets to beat me in this big pot and act like it’s the easiest thing he’s ever done in his life.

Lol. He has 43ss and I lose.

7:08 PM: Palace currently has 1 of 14 active TVs on the most important series of the MLB season for the Mariners. Meanwhile 8 TVs are on this Seahawks preseason game that means jack shit. And some people wonder why I can’t stand Seattle fans, in general.To be fair, two more TVs are on the Mariners now as I typed this.

But the sound of the Seahawks game is on. Preseason football = volume. You know what else gets volume? Nothing. Not the World Series. Not even the World Series of Poker.

I hate football. So much.

In other news, I completed Day 2 of my Cold Shower Challenge. It wasn’t too bad today. I got in and it was freezing so I tried to make it a tad warmer and it overcorrected. Then I turned it cold again and I was in and out in less than four minutes.There was a bit of a temperature shift while I was showering so it felt a little cheap today.

My eventual goal with this is to be able to stand under very cold water and just be in peace.

8:02 PM: More strategic soft collusion 🤦🏻‍♂️:

I open AKcc, two cold callers and both blinds come along.

Flop is 873 rainbow with one club and I check this flop. The button bets and everyone comes along.

Turn is a King and now The Queen donks from the big. My first instinct is to raise, but that’s not my best way to maximize. I know I lose the pot more often by calling but that’s what I do and everyone comes along!

River pairs the 8 and The Queen still leads and I’m the only caller. She has KJ.

I don’t feel great about this dynamic and how I exploit it, but it is what it is and I’m here to make the most money possible and if I can avoid being heads up with the one person in the world I don’t bet against, I’m usually going to take that route.

8:19 PM: Not sure what the appropriate response is here. I have TT on 543hh flop as the PFR. The first limper donks, I raise, the big blind calls, and the limper 3-bets, but when he does so he puts four bets out there. I call the 3-bet but the big blind is totally clueless as to what’s going on and sees four bets out there and puts his own four bets out to call… meanwhile the dealer is correcting the first guy and now the big blind is trying to take his last bet back but before he does that the dealer says, “now it’s capped.”

And suddenly I’m putting an extra small bet in when nobody really capped it.

Not a huge deal but I’m pretty sure I’m losing on the flop so it’s not a welcome miscue.

I’m not sure whose fault this is or what can be done about it and I don’t care too much but it is annoying that the limper somehow got four bets to go in on the flop when he didn’t even have that option.

EDIT: I just realized I never said what he had… because it wasn’t the point of the story… he limped in early position with the mighty 62 of hearts.

9:14 PM: I’M IN TOTAL SHOCK RIGHT NOW. EMINEM JUST DROPPED A NEW ALBUM TONIGHT WITH ZERO ADVANCE PROMOTION. TOTALLY OUT OF NOWHERE.

9:28 PM: Blog updates are cancelled for the rest of the night. I wasn’t expecting an event album to drop. I’m not going to be able to play poker, live blog, and listen to this new Em album intently all at the same time. Something has to give. I will post a final score when I’m done playing tonight.

9:48 PM: Okay, Joker says I’ve reached a new peak by cancelling a live blog because of an Eminem album so… I’ll post the hands I feel like I have to talk about. Like this one:

Limper or two, I raise AA, both blinds call and five of us see the 443 rainbow flop. I bet and three players call, including both blinds.

The turn is an 8 and it checks to me and I decide… to check back. Not like my hand is vulnerable here.

River is a king and they all check to me again. I bet, the small blind calls, and the big blind check-raises. I practically want to give him a standing ovation. This line is so unorthodox I can’t even consider folding but wow. I call and he has K4. Well done, dude.

Final Score: +$1145