Poker Night 129: Al-Qaeda vs. Cowboys

Some professional poker players say the most troublesome hand to have is seemingly one of the best: pocket Kings. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a man went for it all with that hand at Club Eighty-Five -- and we had to stare him down.

BLINDS: 2,000/4,000

IN THE POCKET: A-Q offsuit

We've just arrived at a nine-player final table. The bad news is that we showed up with only 4,000 chips. The good news is that we won the deal -- so we dealt ourselves this nice hand right away.

Then bad news again: a man at the other end of the table pushes all-in with a much larger stack. "I have to do it," we say as we call. Everyone else gets out of the way -- and our opponent has K-K. That's trouble, so we have to deal. (In more ways than one.)

ON THE FLOP: A-10-7

"I like that flop!" we declare. We're now in the lead.

ON THE TURN: Q

"I really like that turn...." And with two pair:

ON THE RIVER: 4

A big hand gets topped, and we jump to about 11,000 chips. We never won another hand after that -- but we held on tight with rising blinds, and wound up in fifth place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Some people bring cell phones to the poker table. One or two even bring mini-DVD players, to watch movies between the hands they play. Then there's the young woman who sat down next to us tonight with a paperback book called Up Pops the Devil.

"Does the devil show up in that?" we asked the woman. The answer -- not exactly. She explained it's about a corporate executive who spends time in prison, then faces temptations when he gets out.

"We need to resist temptation," we said -- and the woman agreed with that. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. I read that in a book."

"Really?!" The woman didn't realize that quote is from the Biblical book of James (4:7).

"The trouble is," we added, "you face temptation all the time here." Example: we folded A-9 at the final table when two players went all-in ahead of us -- and after the dealing ended, we would have lost. More on that subject in an upcoming post.

(P.S. After reading an online synopsis of the book, we wonder if James 4:7 might actually be quoted in it!)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 51 final tables in 129 nights (39.5%) - 10 cashes. Now this is more like it: three final tables in our last four nights!