NBC Sports Championship #4: Stay a Little Longer

We accomplished one goal tonight in the weekly championship game at the NBC Sports poker room. We made it to the one-hour break!

Trouble is, we went bust in the first hand after that break -- improving nonetheless to 185th place out of 691 players. It's a top-30% finish, but only the top three players win money.

Here's a summary of how our evening went:

Hand 1: A-10 leads to a double-up bet right away, and we take the lead with a $430 pot.

:15 IN: We have A-A, then a third Ace comes on the flop! We go all-in, and double-up to the tune of $1100.

:22 IN: Our Ace pairs on the flop, then we gain a diamond flush draw. But the flush doesn't happen, and we lose to a player with three 2's.

:23 IN: The very next hand finds us with Q-4. It becomes Q's and 8's on the flop, and we gain a $425 recovery pot.

:35 IN: We're dealt A-K, and an opponent with fewer chips goes all-in on the flop. We call -- only to discover he has J-9, and the board shows 8-7-10. He flopped a straight, and 5-5 following don't help us.

:36 IN: Next hand again, and we have A-4. Lowered to about $215 in chips, we're forced to go all-in with blinds coming up next hand. Yet a 4 comes on the flop, and our pair of 4's somehow holds up. "Alleluia," we say.

:39 IN: Another nice deal, with A-J. With A-8-10 on the flop, we go all-in -- and a third Ace comes, for a $1365 double-up.

:43 IN: We have J-10, and a player with $400 ahead of us goes all-in. We call, then another player behind us goes all-in with more. We're concerned and bail out -- only to find 7-A-9-8-5 hit the board. We would have won it all with a straight.

1:00 IN: BLINDS: 150/300

IN THE POCKET: J-10

We're in the big blind with $645. The man in the small blind doubles the bet to $600, and we feel compelled to go all-in. Another player joins the small blind in calling.

ON THE FLOP: 6-6-6

"Revelation flop," we write. If you're not sure why we wrote that, check the last few verses of Revelation 13.

We watch helpless, as the other two players in the hand check.

ON THE TURN: A

That's trouble. Someone must have an Ace, we figure, to put more than $600 into the hand originally. The small blind bets, and the other remaining player folds.

ON THE RIVER: 9

Sure enough, the small-blind had an A. His full house dooms us -- but we consider it an evening of improvement.