"You're the only one, sir," the Lil Kim's Cove tournament director told us tonight. Then he corrected himself, looking toward another table. "You and he are the only regulars still coming." He claimed other Thursday night players had stopped coming, because of the shooting a couple of weekends ago.
From what we saw, it didn't seem that way. Several long-time Thursday night people were there -- enough to deprive us of success. We fell out at the semifinal table, tied for 14th out of about 30 players.
To be honest, we should have finished even lower. Good cards simply didn't come our way -- and when we tried to force the action with bets chasing straights or flushes, the right cards didn't come. The exceptions came during two all-in moments. The first was a classic "luck-out":
BLINDS: 100/200.
IN THE POCKET: Ac-Qc.
We haven't won a hand all night. Our chip stack has shrunk from 6,000 to 1,550. So we go all-in, and the woman to our immediate left takes us on. Her pocket 5's are deceptively dominating.
ON THE FLOP: 4-6-7.
No clubs come, and our opponent has an open-ended straight draw. Big cards suddenly look grim.
ON THE TURN: 10.
ON THE RIVER: Q.
What happened on New York's Hudson hours before was an even more important "miracle on the river." But this will do.
The second escape came at the semifinal table, as we played one quick hand before break time:
BLINDS: 200/400.
IN THE POCKET: Kh-Qh.
A couple of bad chases against big bettors has reduced our chip stack again. Now we go all-in with 1,100. The two players to our left join in, and the second with a "humongous" stack (we talked in Texan words like that all night, in honor of outgoing President Bush) puts the first man all-in as well.
We never saw what Player 1 has. But player 2 has pocket Aces - diamond/club.
ON THE FLOP: Ah....
Player 2 nods with approval. He's made a habit of hitting "trips" tonight. But wait....
9h-6h.
"Let's play hearts!" I declare. But anything pairing the board gives Player 2 a full house.
ON THE TURN: 7h.
ON THE RIVER: 5h.
At last a big flush comes! But Player 1 hits one as well, which limits our winnings.
After the break, the blinds went up and our success ran out. We went all-in with Q-10, but that Player 2 had A-5 and wound up with A-A-A-5-5 full house.
MINISTRY MOMENT: A young grandmother to our right took a look at our "Jesus as your Savior" coin tonight. "Interesting," she said when we asked what she thought of it. Then she seemed to agree with the message. But earlier, she admitted she'd probably be drunk by the time the poker doubleheader night ended.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 23 final tables in 54 nights (42.6%) -- 7 cashes.
YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $11,301 - down $278. (We've made some bad chases into big pots lately there as well.)
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