"No, you don't," we told him. Because he clearly was drunk -- so drunk that he couldn't understand simple instructions from us about how to raise before the flop, and he sometimes flung in big stacks of chips without even counting them.
A plastered poker player sometimes can be the most dangerous at a table -- liable to bet big with anything. "He's playing happy," a man told me outside the club as we left. But he kept making so many big hands and winning so many pots that he frustrated and infuriated other players.
How do you take on someone like that -- a drunk acting like a bully? "Wait for a hand, then take him on," said the man outside the club. We faced a different scenario....
BLINDS: 2,000/4,000
IN THE POCKET: K-10 offsuit
We're at the semifinal table, with 12 players left. But we only had 5,500 chips when this hand began, so we're in desperate straits. The drunk man across from us raises to 8,000, without bothering to count them. As he's said several times in the game, it's "all that." One player between us calls.
"I'll take you on. I have nothing to lose," we say -- and go all-in with our last 1,500 chips.
ON THE FLOP: J-Q-6
Not great, but it's still an open-ended straight draw. While we're all-in, betting continues among other players. The "high" roller bets thousands more, to chase away all but one other opponent.
ON THE TURN: J
Another big bet chases off that opponent -- yet as we recall, the drunk only had Ace high. "How about a King?" we ask.
ON THE RIVER: K
Turned over with dramatic slowness, but lovely for us. Two pair is enough to double us up, and more.
We joined the big-betting drunk at the final table -- but the big bets eventually did him in. Too many losses left him out in seventh place. Yet we wound up sixth -- and a bit stunned that we finished ahead of him. Patience indeed does pay off. For us, it means three final tables in the last five Thursday nights.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "What did you bring this time?" a man to our left wondered. Tonight our card protector was a plastic plug, used to cover holes in power strips.
"I brought this to remind me," we explained, "that I'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon me. [Acts 1:8] Do you have the Holy Spirit?"
The man nodded to indicate he did, but then he challenged our explanation. "If you need to be reminded that you have it, you don't really have it."
Hmmmmm -- what do you think of that statement? We'll offer our thoughts (and our response) in an upcoming post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 59 final tables in 143 nights (41.3%) - 11 cashes. Online play is still suspended, due to a busy work and cleaning schedule.
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