Poker Night 107: Get Over It

A pastor in our city likes to say, "Get your higher education -- and then get over it." We should have remembered that advice tonight, as our Wednesday night poker game moved to Soho Bar & Grill. But we didn't, and a big loss led us to an early end in about 30th place.

We won two nice pots early, including one where Q-9 of diamonds turned into a flush on the turn and gained us 4,000 chips over the man who always seems to know what hand we have. (He guessed "flush draw" on the turn, when we already had it.) But a huge stack of chips made us a little overconfident....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: K-Q suited

Standard calling occurs at a full table, until we raise to 300. One man to our left calls -- but then a man in the big blind re-raises by 2,000. Our stack is huge enough that we can afford it, so we call. Only then the man to our left raises even more, and goes all-in for about 9,500.

"Yeow," we say as we count our chip. We have a lot, but this would cost a lot. But we think there's some deep-down bluffing going on (we took a man out earlier who bet big with only 8-10), so we call again.

ON THE FLOP: K-9-7 offsuit.

The man who went all-in turns over pocket Aces. Trouble is, two players still can bet! If that's not bizarre enough, our opponent then pushes all-in for several thousand.

"You know they're going to bet now," a man out of the hand declares. And since we have top pair (at least compared with the board), we call a second all-in bet. The opponent for the sidepot shows 8-8.

"They're two-timing you," the man to our left says. But we still could get a consolation prize -- especially if a King or Queen comes.

ON THE TURN: 4 (we think, can't recall)

No help to anybody.

ON THE RIVER: 8.

"Hey, I've got 8's." The man whose big over-the-top raise started all this winds up taking everything -- an estimated 30,000 chips. We're left with about 3,000, and a good dose of disbelief.

MINISTRY MOMENT: At one point late in our time at the table, a player brought up the idea of "karma" happening in poker.

"Or as I read in a book once," we responded, "you reap what you sow."

A man sitting next to us affirmed that idea. "That's why I try to be nice to other people," he said -- which was interesting, because he spent a great deal of time during the tournament engaged in cursing taunts aimed at other players (including us).

Do you know what book has that line about reaping and sowing? It's the Bible -- Galatians 6:7, to be exact. Read verse 8 with it, and consider what you're sowing in life.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 44 final tables in 107 nights (41.1%) - 10 cashes.