Thursday, October 15, 2009

Poker Night 106: Mr. October?

Well, OK -- that title may be overstating things. But we're now three-for-three in making final tables this month. We held on tight through the semifinal hands at Lil Kim's Cove tonight, and wound up in eighth place overall.

A man across the table from us won two huge pots by making flushes on the river. We had to settle for a few mid-sized wins, including one where we apparently telegraphed our hand....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: Kh-Kd

A player in the blinds is so low on chips that he's forced to go all-in. We have about 7,000 chips, and raise to 1,200. A couple of other players call.

ON THE FLOP: J-8-6 (not completely sure on the last two, but they were low)

We're now first up to bet -- and holding an overpair, we dare to bet 1,500. A man to our immediate left mulls it over, then folds. (Another player in the hand folds as well.)

"You've got a f***ing pocket pair," says the man who tends to swear a lot.

"Do I?!?!" (playing along with him)

"You raised before the flop, then bet after the flop with junk out there."

"Oh. Then I guess I'd better show my pocket pair." And we do. The player who was forced to push is dominated, and the remaining cards don't pair anything. Our Kings are good enough to win.

MINISTRY MOMENT: That man who figured out our hand was given a glimpse of our "Jesus as your Savior" coin at the semifinal table.

"Do you agree with that message?" we asked.

"I don't know," the man said after a moment. "My faith has been shaken."

The man is a two-tour veteran of Iraq -- and after playing a hand, he admitted the experiences overseas shook his faith. "I was baptized a Catholic, and then...."

The facts turned into some wandering opinion from there. "I believe there's a spirituosity, and then there's religion. I think there's some kind of a higher power." But the veteran admitted the dog-tag he once wore with a Catholic saint on it is now gone.

How would you have responded to these comments? We'll share the rest of the conversation in our next post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 44 final tables in 106 nights (41.5%) - 10 cashes.

YAHOO POKER TOTAL: $13,798 - unchanged (didn't play there)

NBC SPORTS POKER TOTAL: Five-player sit-n-goes - 29-35-10-5-8. Full tournaments - 21 final tables in 184 games (11.4%), 2 cashes.

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