Poker is all about making decisions -- and that can include the way you make those decisions. We wonder if our method got in our way tonight, with a key hand at Lil Kim's Cove....
BLINDS: 200/400
IN THE POCKET: 8-7 offsuit
We won the first two hands of the night in a big way, and had more than 11,000 chips. But at this point, we've been knocked down to about 6,300. Sitting in the leadoff spot, we call in hopes of making a straight. Standard calling occurs around the table.
ON THE FLOP: K-10-7
It's a pair, but only bottom pair. We're still first up to bet check. Other players are in a "Hollywood" kind of mood, and fake bets before checking.
ON THE TURN: 8
The play checks to us -- but we're not faking now with two pair. We bet 600. A man to our left thinks about this a moment.
"You've got two pair, right?" a man on the other side asks. We say nothing, and politely clap our hands to The Devil Went Down to Georgia on the jukebox. Finally the other man calls. Everyone else has folded.
ON THE RIVER: K
The board pairs, with just about the last card we want to see. Now we take a moment to ponder -- and then we check.
"I'm all in," our opponent declares. He has 2,900 left.
Now we take even longer to ponder this. Was our opponent betting with top pair, and now has three Kings? If we call and lose, we'd be down to less than 2,000 chips. We finally decide he means it.
"I'll fold."
"I didn't have nothing, man...." Sure enough, he has J-3 of hearts. He missed a flush draw, but bluffed his way into making us surrender a big pot.
Looking back in our mind, an immediate bet on our part at the river might have persuaded this man to fold. If he sensed a lack of confidence on our part, he made it work.
We never rebuilt our chip stack after that -- and while we reached the semifinal table, we eventually had to push with 8-8. But two 3's came on the board, and a man with a third 3 eliminated another player along with us. We finished in a tie for 14th place.
MINISTRY MOMENT: During the one-hour break, a man across the table from us talked about some sort of situation where "I was praying like a m****r f****r...."
"Praying is good," we said in response, "but I wouldn't recommend praying that way."
The man laughed at that -- but hopefully he understood our point. There's a much better way to word this in James 5:16. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (KJV)
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 51 final tables in 130 nights (39.2%) - 10 cashes.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Five-player sit-n-goes - 3-7-3-1-0. Full tournaments - 9 final tables in 114 games (7.9%), 0 cashes.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: One-table sit-n-goes - 0-1-0-1-1-4-0-0-1. Pretend cash game total: $1,650.
We finally figured out how to build our chip stack at this site -- by playing "fun" walk-in tables with small blinds. Starting with 1,000, we gained 55 dollars in a five-card stud room. Then at no-limit tables with blinds of 5/10 or 10/20, we gained 1,405 in a two-day rush! Since Tuesday, we've given up 810 -- but we're still ahead.
(After making this discovery, we admittedly might not play Yahoo poker anymore. The action is faster, with higher stakes and easier entry and exit.)
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