Poker Night 139 - Down Highway 139

We drove to Benefield's Sports Bar in the Atlanta suburb of Riverdale by taking Georgia Highway 139, or Riverdale Road. Our success last Thursday earned a second visit this week. After dining on a grilled chicken dinner with soda for about $13, our $50 gift certificate gained the week before was deducted. (Nope, no cash payouts.) Could history repeat itself, making us two-for-two at Atlanta Poker Club events?

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: K-10 offsuit

We split the pot on the evening's first hand, but unsuccessful hands have dropped us to 1,700 chips. This tends to be a marginal hand for us, but we decide to try it. So do several other players.

ON THE FLOP: K-9-4

At last there's reason for optimism, with top pair. But the regular dealer is ahead of us, and he bets 200. We call.

ON THE TURN: 3 of clubs

There's no sign of a flush on the board -- yet the dealer hikes the bet to 400. We're puzzled by this, but we call again. "I'll probably regret this," we say -- yet our humility is somewhat feigned.

ON THE RIVER: 9

We have top two pair -- but the dealer looks to see how many chips we have left. "Should I do it?" he asks. Then he does, betting 1,000 to put us all-in.

We're still baffled by what our opponent has. But we remember what he said a few pots before, when another man won with an all-in bluff holding nothing but Ace high: "Sometimes you've got to buy a pot. Everybody has to." We decide that's what the dealer is doing.

"I'll do it." We call the last 1,000.

"Good call," someone to our left says.

"Wow, wow," the dealer says.

"Is that a good wow?" we ask as we show our two pair with a 10. "A bad wow? A sham-wow?"

The answer: good for him. He shows 9-4, which he played in the blinds. He had two pair on the flop, a full house on the river -- and had us beat throughout.

Take-home lesson for us: be more wary. Our opponent clearly could have hit three of a kind on the river to top us. But we believed words more than cards -- to our loss.

MINISTRY MOMENT: It didn't really happen on this night. Quiet players on either side of you can make things challenging. The closest came when a woman to our left raised before the flop.

"As my pastor at church [the United Church of God] said last weekend: you're cautiously optimistic," we said to her.

Then we checked our cards, and found something small. "But my pastor also said we've passed the point of no return" -- and we folded.

In fact, that point was his sermon title -- as he declared the U.S. has passed "The Point of No Return," and is doomed to crash. Do you agree with that view? Why or why not?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 57 final tables in 139 cashes (41.0%) - 11 cashes. We wound up one-for-two on our metro Atlanta road trip.

(We also played at Lil Kim's Cove Thursday night as usual. We'll post those results Friday.)