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High-Stakes CardRunner's Poker League

A couple months ago, some professional poker players approached us to do a high-stakes expert league with part fantasy experts and part poker pros with some Wall Street guys thrown in as well. That draft took place tonight. It was sponsored by CardRunners.com which essentially is to poker what RotoWire is to fantasy sports.

The league is a 10-team AL-only with the standard lineups and five bench spots. One catch is that you can use your auction dollars to fill bench spots, and there's only a draft to fill the remaining spots once everyone runs out of money. Here are the results:

Bill PhippsEric KesselmanChris LissAndrew WigginsBrian Hastings
CardRunners$CardRunners$RotoWire$CardRunners$CardRunners$
CShoppach8J. Posada15Saltalamacchia7J. Mauer40M. Napoli18
CA. Avila2J. Kendall2D. Navarro3Tyler Flowers0K. Suzuki18
1BKonerko13M. Kotsay1Justin Morneau26C. Pena17M. Carp0
2BCabrera15A. Hill19A. Callaspo3I. Kinsler34J. Lopez15
3BA. Beltre17M. Young19Alex Rodriguez41Encarnacion8Youkilis27
SSBartlett17M. Scutaro8Derek Jeter27A. Ramirez17Bloomquist0
CIN johnson7D. Barton2Evan Longoria34Wigginton1Kotchman3
MIM. Ellis3J. Wilson1Alex Gonzalez1Kendrick16W. Aybar1
OFEllsbury31Hamilton20Rajai Davis14C. Quentin20A. Rios17
OFJ. Damon16Ichiro22Reimold10M. Ordonez15C. Crawford33
OFJ. Rivera12D. Span16Podsednik4J. Cust4Granderson26
OFGutierrez14V. Wells13C. Guillen 5R. Rayburn1M. Bradley9
OFJ.D. Drew10B. Gardner4Hermida3E. Patterson1R. Ankiel3
DHH. Matsui8M. Aviles0Kouzmanoff6V. Guerrero16P. Burrell5
PJ. Shields16B. Fuentes15M. Rivera25Verlander26A. Pettitte8
PJe. Weaver17J. Lackey17Bobby Jenks12M. Gonzalez11J. Frasor5
PA.J. Burnett14B. Sheets9Jake Westbrook3K. Slowey9J. Chamberlain6
PN. Feliz4F. Hernandez28Gavin Floyd10J. Masterson4Gio Gonzalez4
PScherzer11Hochevar2Matsuzaka4C. Pavano2Cliff Lee25
PB. Matusz6J. Peavy18J. Niemann4R. Porcello9M. Guerrier3
PW. Davis5J. Danks12R. Romero3S. Downs3M. Garza14
PJ. Guthrie2Rzepcynski5F. Liriano13J.J. Putz3C. Perez4
PWakefield0Millwood2Hellickson0F. Rodney2J. Pineiro4
RC. Crisp6Duchscherer5J. Dye1R. Perry1S. Kazmir10
RL. Scott4S. Marcum5J. Fox1M. Lowell0D. Murphy2
RT. Hafner2D. Ackleu0Felix Pie0Okajima0Josh Fields0
RC. Carter0D. Hudson0P. Neshek0J. Washburn0K. Davies0
RB. Harris0Carmona0Tommy Hunter0Sonnenstine0V. Mazzaro0
Peter KreutzerChad LevineDerek CartyErickson/SheehanGonos/Dobish
Ask Rotoman$CardRunners$Hardball Times$RotoWire$Open Sports$
CWieters21V. Martinez35J. Buck5Pierzynski14L. Marson3
CB Pena1Teagarden2G. Laird3L. Powell0Adam Moore5
1BN. Swisher11K .Morales21C. Davis14M. Cabrera36Teixeira36
2BC. Getz9Pedroia31B. Roberts18M. Izturis 7R. Cano28
3BFiggins23G. Atkins10B. Inge6A. Gordon9Jhonny Peralta11
SSHardy11E. Andrus19Y. Betancourt1E. Aybar12Pennington5
CIOverbay3B. Wood6R. Branyan8B. Butler20Gordon Beckham18
MIValbuena3M. Tejada12S. Sizemore8O. Hudson9Cesar Izturis0
OFR. Sweeney9Adam Jones21N. Cruz24G. Sizemore32B.J. Upton23
OFMarkakis21B. Zobrist22J. Borbon14B. Abreu21M. Cuddyer13
OFHunter20M. La Porta8A. Lind23S. Choo23Jose Bautista2
OFJ. Kubel15A. Jackson6T. Snider7M. Teahen10M. Cameron6
OFM Saunders1D. Young8D. DeJesus6M. Joyce1Andruw Jones0
DHJ. Thome3B. Wallace1D. Ortiz11R. Ruiz1J. Nix0
PSabathia32C. Buchholz9J. Vazquez21J. Saunders4J. Papelbon21
PJ. Lester24C. Tillman3J. Soria17A. Bailey17S. Feldman2
PBuehrle7B. Anderson16F. Francisco11B. Morrow4G. Meche7
PE. Santana10K. Gregg5R. Harden11I. Snell3R. Soriano17
PBergesen1D. Price11S. Baker15D. Holland3Z. Greinke33
PBonderman1P. Hughes7E. Bedard5K. Wood7D. Aardsma11
PNathan2Rowland-Smith5M. Wuertz2J. Beckett22C.J. Wilson1
PJ. Rauch5B. Ziegler1C. Lewis1D. Bard2N. Blackburn3
PValverde18J. Zumaya1D. Braden3T. Cahill2M. Talbot1
RS Rodriguez2R. Winn0J. Pierre16J. Devine1B. McCarthy0
RJ Guillen3K. Griffey0J.P. Howell3M. Brantley0Dontrelle Willis0
RJ. Smoak2C. Delgado0M. Thornton2J. Johnson0Carlos Santana2
RDes. Jennings2K. Uehara0M. Lowe1H. Rondon0A. Gonzalez7
RA. Aceves0H. Blalock0B. League4J. Mijares0R. Nolasco5

A couple notes:

I like my team and accomplished mostly what I set out to, but I realized late in the auction that a league where you can bid on reserves changes the end-game dynamic. Normally my strategy of buying stars and then being patient to snap up bargains late has no downside, but in this case, I found myself waiting for that perfect $5 or $6 OF while good $3 ones were being snapped up by filled-up teams for their reserve. While I'd rather have better starters, in a league of this depth quality reserves matter a lot.

Another thing worth noting is the non-experts weren't fish by any means - the auction moved about as quickly as LABR - except for some hiccups due to being online and using a chatroom/skype - and everyone knew the player pool extremely well. I expect it to be a tough, competitive league.

Finally, if any of you are poker players, we're partnering with CardRunners and figuring out ways to get discounts on subscriptions there for RotoWire subscribers. (Terms are still being worked out).