Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Poker Night #93: F.A.Q's

We were prepared to write that today was one of those days at the poker table. In an afternoon online tournament, we busted out in a record-fast two hands -- folding A-J when opponents bet big and wound up with a straight, then sent all-in and losing with A-7.

Things didn't look much better at Lil Kim's Cove tonight. A big early loss compared with only one modest pot win left us with only 1,500 chips after the one-hour break. But then the rally started! A push all-in with A-5 led to three Aces. A big bet with pocket Kings led to another big win, putting our chip stack above 10,000. Could we keep it up?

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: Q-10

Wellll -- we were already heading the other direction. A losing bet had dropped our count to about 3,500 at this point. We call, as do two others at the semifinal table.

ON THE FLOP: Q-6-Q

We're first in line to bet -- and with three Queens at this point in the match, a push is automatic. We go all-in. A man to our right guesses correctly that "you caught a Queen." His turn is coming, but a man in between calls.

ON THE TURN: 7

Hold it -- that card-guesser hadn't decided about calling yet. The dealer turns the card around, but too late. Everyone saw it. He decides out of courtesy to fold, and even shows the 6-7 he gave up. His two pair wouldn't have beaten us.

Trouble is, it also wouldn't beat the man who called us. He shows K-Q, which means he has a higher kicker.

ON THE RIVER: K

Change that abbreviation to Favored, but Annihilated Queens. Our opponent hit a full house, but we take comfort in knowing we rallied to finish 11th overall.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The closest one that came tonight occurred when the table talked about college football. A man next to us said Florida quarterback Tim Tebow "should have taken the money" and entered the N.F.L. draft last April.

"But he decided some things are more important than money. Like mission trips," we replied.

The man granted us that, but still thought Tebow should have left Florida after his junior season. We then disagreed about whether he would have been the top overall pick in the draft. (He said yes.)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 39 final tables in 93 nights (41.9%) - 9 cashes.

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