The Bat Cave

Showed up to Palace a little early today to watch the AL Wild Card Game. It didn’t take long for Aaron Judge to make it a 2-0 game. I really like Aaron Judge but I really hate the Yankees so I’m on Team Oakland tonight. I had over on the Yanks and over on Luis Severino’s win tally, but the regular season is over and I can officially stop rooting with my wallet.

Go A’s!!

List for PLO includes The Crypt Keeper, The Man, Part-Time, Hit&Run, and…

HIS ROYAL AIRNESS! And he’s already in the building so there’s no smoke and mirror potential there. The guy is going to play some 4-card poker tonight.6:11 PM: Official starting lineup: His AIRNESS, Part-Time, couple of random guys I don’t know (one of them is drinking beer and the other one looks like he’s about to knit a sweater), The Man, decent player that has been in this game lately, and The Crypt Keeper.

Pretty solid mix of tight players and a couple super loose ones.

His Airness just felted. We have played four hands.

6:31 PM: This seems like a missed opportunity: Airness opens $15, Part-Time calls, I call with 8866 double suited from the small blind and big blind also defends.Flop is 877. It’s reasonable to lead out here but His Airness c-bets recklessly, so a bet is always going in, regardless of what he has. He bets $25, Part-Time calls and I make it $65 to go from out of position. That looks pretty nutted but they both call anyway.

Turn is a 3 and it kind of feels like Part-Time has a 7 so I size up enough to make sure I get the rest of my stack in on the river (I started with around $500) and bet $140. Unfortunately, they both fold.

Some massive dude going by Big Baby (not my creation) just sat down with $1k and he looks like someone that is going to be putting chips in the pot.

6:58 PM: Big Baby 1, Dark Knight 0I make a pot-sweetening raise with bad double suited aces to $20 after four limpers from the small blind. All the limpers call.

I bet $75 into $100 on QJ5 holding the nut flush draw and only Big Baby calls.

Turn is a red 8 and I check-call $75.

River King and we both check. He wins with QJxx.

Big Baby just won a potentially game-changing pot against The Man and His Airness. The Man wins that one and this game could get ugly real quick.

7:11 PM: Big Baby opens to $15 and I try to isolate to $35 with QJT5 double suited, but both randos call and The Crypt Keeper caps it at $50 (which, in retrospect, isn’t even a legal raise size – it has to be at least $55). 5 or 6 of us call.Flop is QTx with two spades and it checks to me. I bet $150 and that is close to pot-sized and only one of the randos calls.

I’m looking for a blank turn so I can max bet for most of his stack. The 4 of hearts is a beauty. I bet $300 and… he goes all in for $11 more.

We run it once… because he has me smashed with ATssTx.

My two-outer doesn’t get there and I am officially bleeding.

I am down $700 but Big Baby has almost $2k on my immediate right.

7:52 PM: The whole table limps and His Airness makes it $20 from the small blind and we all call.

There is $180 in the pot. There is no muck.

My hand is AsQs88.

The flop is K82 rainbow with one spade and His Airness checks. Big Baby balks at it so the action is on me. My hand is basically a monster here but also hard to get action. I size decently at $110 – not big enough that no one can call but but small enough that someone can float me with impunity and pick up huge equity on the turn. Everyone with position folds and Part-Time check-raises the max from the big blind.

Unfortunately, this pushes Big Baby out and I put Part-Time all in for a little more and I ask how many times he wants to run it and he “doesn’t care” so I’m only running it once.

The board runs out clean and I win a much needed pot.

Only down $400 now.

Part-Time is out of here and Villain takes a rare seat in the game.

8:08 PM: Oh my. Big Baby is racked up like he’s leaving. He has over $3k in front of him. Please say it isn’t so, Big Baby!

8:18 PM: So frustrating. Raised multiway pot again and I have QT99 double suited in the big blind.

Flop is 986 with one diamond. Not super worried about T7s and 75s here so I lead out for $105 and only a random and Big Baby call.

Turn is a 2d to give me a flush draw with everything else I have going for me. Big Baby donks out $200. I think this is a raise. He doesn’t strike me as the type of player savvy enough to check-call straights on the flop and bet out on safe turns. I call though and I fucking hate it now. Other dude calls also.

River is a Queen and Big Baby leads $200. Dude on my left is feigning fold so I call and then the dude behind me makes it $500.

Sigh. We both fold. He shows J3dd which is even more annoying because I had a Queen high flush draw. Meanwhile Big Baby is saying, “pair the board.”

Fuck. What a catastrophe.

I mean maybe that dude just takes $500 to the face with Jd3dTx but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have made him have to.

And now Big Baby is gone. With over $3k in chips.

His Airness is still here which is nice, but he’s short.

The two randoms have a lot of chips but they have been playing decently.

Mr. Plow is next up for this game but he’s never played it as far as I know and I’ll believe it when I see it.

And the random in s6 that beat me in that last pot another $3k off the table.

I’m steaming now. His Airness felts and leaves and I might just rage quit.

8:31 PM: And the random in s5 hit and runs also!

Now it’s just seven of us, sitting here miserable because we all got smashed and now the game is on the verge of SUCKING.

8:32 PM: We have life! Another random I’ve never seen before sits down… with $200. Yawn.

Will he run it up to $1500 and leave?

Stay tuned.

9:15 PM: Uneventful happenings on the felt, but The Man just told me about a sick, awesome bet he made in college. He bet one of his friends that the Mariners would win the World Series before the Cubs and with every year that passed without one of those teams winning it all, they each deposited $100 into a joint account.

They made that bet in 1991.

The Cubs finally won in 2016.

So cool.

Except the Mariners not winning part.

The AL Wild Card Game was a dud, but the bright side is that it now sets the Red Sox and Yankees to meet up in the postseason for the first time in 14 years.

What? Has it really been that long? Yes. They haven’t battled when it mattered most since the infamous 2004 ALCS when the tides changed forever.

So… I guess that’s kind of cool. And the nice thing is this historic match is happening in the Division Series and not the ALCS. No matter how much history there is here I never want to see the Red Sox or Yankees advance in the playoffs.

Go Astros.

Go Indians.

9:37 PM: There is hope on the horizon: Animal is first up on the list.

9:59 PM: Call a $15 raise from The Man with 8776 double suited and we go to the flop multiple ways.

K33 rainbow isn’t interesting… to anyone. It checks around.

Turn is pretty cool: 7 of hearts, giving me a pretty nutted hand and opening up a heart flush draw. The Man bets $40, I call hoping to keep some players in (and avoid destruction when The Man is slow playing KK on the flop), and Villain is the only other caller from the big blind.

River is the 9 of spades and they both instantly check to me. That seems weak so I keep it reasonable at $75 and Villain snap-calls and I wish I had sized bigger.

Meanwhile, Animal is still first up. Uhm, doesn’t The Crypt Keeper have a horror anthology to host somewhere? Gtfoh, buddy.

10:53 PM: Animal sits down with almost $1300 in chips. The maximum buy in is $1000. No one say anything.

Dealer is making him take chips off the table now. 😡

11:21 PM: 3-bet AA52 with clubs to $40 and get three callers. Hit a nice flop of J43 with one club and bet $90 but nobody wants to play.

11:42 PM: The Palace dealer I’ve been wanting to give a name to and I have settled on a name. He is Twinkie. And he’s a white dude, so that’s not some kind of racially charged nickname. He’s just a skinny, goofy looking white guy that Billy Dubz decided to call Twinkie and I was like…

🤔

Okay.

So Twinkie is in the game now and The Man is gone.

Also, Twinkie is the one person that has committed to go to Chinook Winds with me. So he definitely needed a name.

I have a place booked for the 23rd through the 28th. I wanted to be there for the O8, Big O, and Main Events.

12:27 AM: Holy shit. Mr. Plow is in the PLO game. I thought it was all show. I didn’t think he’d actually sit down. He has $500 in front of him… and I’m assuming very little clue how to play this game, but we shall see.

1:15 AM: It’s not a coincidence that as the night wears on my material dries up. I haven’t been very involved and the craziness has basically stopped. Animal and His Airness are both gone now and that automatically halves the average pot size. Mr. Plow has been playing conservatively as he gets his feet wet in this game. The Crypt Keeper is basically napping in between hands.

I will probably be leaving shortly. It’s late and this game isn’t too attractive.

1:43 PM: Wow. I picked up to cash out and three players immediately quit the game. LOL. That sure makes me feel good.

Anyways, this fires back up at 6 PM tomorrow and I’ll be here for that. I will probably actually be here at 2 PM for the first game of the MLB Division Series.

Final Score: -$280

Not too bad considering I was -$1000 at one point and it never felt like anything good really happened.