Poker Night #88: Reading is Fundamental

We'd like to think we're getting better at reading our opponents in live tournaments. Wednesday night at Lil Kim's Cove, we kept betting after making three 8's on the flop -- and even though straight and flush chances eventually appeared, we scared away other players. Tonight's tournament brought a different sort of challenge....

BLINDS: 50/100.

IN THE POCKET: A-8.

We're in the small blind, and choose to merely call. Several players jump in for the minimum.

ON THE FLOP: A-9-9.

Make two pair -- it's time to scare. In lead position, we bet 600. A man two seats away tries to raise to 1,000, but is told by other players he has to double our bet. So his bet actually is 1,200. We call it; no one else does.

(The NBC Sports online tournaments don't seem to have this "double-up" rule; they let you raise at big-blind levels anytime. Does this vary from place to place?)

ON THE TURN: 5.

We're wary, so we check. Our opponent bets 1,000. We shake our head and call, fearing we've already been topped -- but realizing a full house still could come.

ON THE RIVER: Q.

So much for that "dream boat." We check again. Our opponent bets 1,000 again, and really makes us think about it.

"I think you've got me," we say after a moment. We have about 3,200 chips at this point, so calling would put us in deep trouble. "But I'm gonna call. I've got an Ace."

"So do I," the other man says. Two pair plus a Queen equals a split pot -- and a sigh of relief from us.

"You knew I had an Ace, right?" the man asks us twice after the chips are split. No, we really didn't. We feared he had a third 9. Thankfully he didn't -- and daring to be bold paid off in the end.

We won a couple of all-in moments along the way, and wound up tied for 10th -- once more coming potentially within one hand of the final table. But with blinds at 5,000/10,000, we were forced to go for it all with A-9. Neither card paired, while another player made a pair.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Our friend Harry keeps having his thyroid surgery delayed. He told us tonight because he's had heart surgery, he has to visit a cardiologist before being cleared for another operation. That appointment has been pushed back to August 11.

"I've had eight surgeries in three years. It's no fun," Harry told us. We had five operations before we turned 13, so we can relate. But the more this is delayed for Harry, the more we're wondering if he'll even need an operation at all. We're praying for God to intervene with his health problems.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 37 final tables in 88 nights (43.0%) - 8 cashes.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $13,295 - up $92 to a RECORD high! (We actually topped six dollars higher Monday night.)

NBC SPORTS POKER TOTAL: Five-player sit-n-goes - 25-30-4-4-8. Full tournaments - 14 final tables in 100 games (14.0%), 2 cashes.

Have we mentioned FIVE final tables in the last two weeks? And all the tournaments had 150 players or more? And in July, we've earned "points" in the standings 36 percent of the time -- all for finishing in the top ten percent of entries. (Overall we've earned points 23 percent of the time.)