Poker Night #92: A Tie is Like....

In sports, they sometimes say it's like kissing your sister. But when you're unemployed and trying to make money any legal way you can, a tie can feel a bit like heaven -- and it did for us tonight. We tied for first place in the early tournament at Lil Kim's Cove!

How do you tie for first? When two players remain at the final table, and a crowd of players is waiting for the second half of the doubleheader to begin. A man named Mike across the table offered to settle things by splitting the top two prizes, and we accepted. It turned out to be a financial gain from the second-place finish we probably were facing.

(Mike actually could have cleaned us out in heads-up play. With the blinds at a staggering 50,000/100,000, we posted the big blind with only 10,000 to spare -- and we were dealt 5-3. It should have been curtains, but Mike never called and allowed us to take the pot unopposed.)

For both of us, this was a final table of dramatic comebacks. We were at 15,000, going all-in barely above the big blind level. But then an amazing run happened:

* A-7 all in -- and both cards pair on the flop. We gain a big double-up.

* Q-Q all in, next hand -- and a third Queen falls on the flop. Suddenly our 10,000 chips has become more like 100,000.

* A-J all in, after a couple of setbacks -- and a Jack pairs on the board, to top the other players.

* An opponent pushes all in with K-J (or something similar), and we call with 6-6. Nothing pairs on the board, and we win again.

Then there was this hand, when another player was sure he had us....

BLINDS: 5,000/10,000

IN THE POCKET: Q-10 of spades

We have about 20,000 chips, but the blinds are huge. A player across from us bets even more than that, and we go all-in. A third player calls the higher bet, creating a sidepot.

ON THE FLOP: 9-9-5 (no spades)

Our main opponent makes a big bet, and the player who started the action folds. We turn over the cards, and he has A-8. He leads the race.

ON THE TURN: J.

The Ace is still ahead, and we need help in a hurry.

ON THE RIVER: 8.

The opponent starts to claim all the chips and a big win, thanks to his Ace kicker. But hold on....

"Don't I have a straight?" we say -- and point out our cards make 8-9-10-J-Q. Why yes, we do. Our opponent wins the sidepot, but we capture the main pot with a major escape. We praise the Lord out loud -- one of several times we do that during the final table.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Where's your baseball?" a man to our left asked early in the match. We carried our candle again, as we did last night. After a hand was finished, we were ready to explain -- and that man made sure nearly the entire table was listening.

"I read in a book...."

"You can read?!" the man to our left joked.

"Yes I can," we answered playing along. (We'd just read cards well enough to win a nice pot.) "I read in a book that you're supposed to be a light to the world."

The table seems stumped, and doesn't really say anything more about it. We later explain to a young woman at our right that the phrase comes from Jesus in the Bible. She didn't know it was there.

"Do you read the Bible?" we asked her.

"Not really," she answered. We encouraged her to try it, in small portions.

"You don't have to read it all at one sitting," we explained. This may be one reason why some people don't read the Bible at all -- it can be imposing at first reading.

The man to our left happened to be the one we engaged in the "esteem others better than yourself" discussion last Thursday night. He also didn't know this was a Biblical phrase. But he added: "No one's lit your candle.... I don't think you're very hot."

He had a point. The candle sat unused all evening, except to protect our cards. Cigarette smokers around us never offered to light it.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 39 final tables in 92 nights (42.4%) - 9 cashes.

This was our first "cash finish" (top two) at Lil Kim's Cove since early June. And the last time we finished first (sort of) was a similar settlement last December.

(P.S. We were the only player to make the final table at Lil Kim's two nights in a row. We're praising the Lord for that -- but that's a topic for another day.)

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $13,226 - down $69. (But we hit a personal record last Friday at $13,341.)

NBC SPORTS POKER TOTAL: Five-player sit-n-goes - 27-33-5-4-8. Full tournaments - 16 final tables in 117 games (13.7%), 2 cashes.

That's another thing we're praising God about -- as we actually made TWO final tables today! The first was an afternoon online game, where we finished fifth out of 137 players. Going back to Wednesday afternoon online, we've made four final tables in a row.