Heads-Up Week 3: The Long Hard Climb

"Nothing comes easy, baby." So said Scotty Nguyen today, as he kept doubling up Phil Ivey at the Heads-Up Poker Championship feature table. Nguyen was as low as 2,400 chips, yet kept hitting big hands and roared back from behind to win the match.

We can tell a similar tale, from only a few days ago. We took a big hit to a big hand early in an online tournament, dropping to only 150 chips. But then we waited for the right moment to come -- and several big blinds fell in our favor. We rebuilt above 1,000, then grew from there. To 3,507. Then 23,440. And all the way to 104,822 at the final table!

Trouble was, then we became Phil Ivey. We had a 2.5-1 chip lead over a woman in heads-up play for first place -- and she rallied to win. Ten dollars for her, none for us. But we thanked God all the way, for the thrill of the comeback. It wasn't quite the "chip and a chair," but it was on that order.

God can use little things in a big way, too. I Kings 17 has the story of a widow whose possessions apparently consisted of a son, "a handful of meal.... and a little oil...." (verse 12) But after committing a little of those items to God's servant Elijah, the remainder was extended by God. "She, and he, and her house, did eat many days," says verse 15 (KJV).

Jesus had only 12 named disciples, and one of them betrayed Him at a critical hour. Yet Acts 2 shows those disciples were used by God to learn 3,000 people to baptism on a day of Pentecost. And while you might feel repulsed by modern-day preachers with million-dollar planes and ministry buildings, remember -- they undoubtedly started small as well.

Jesus referred to it as "faith as the grain of a mustard seed" in Luke 17:6. So commit your "little" to God, whether in life or a poker match.

Scotty Nguyen is right -- growth probably won't come easily. And there's no guarantee you'll roar all the way back from the brink to victory. But amazing things could happen. We've seen it. Twice.

P.S. While we were preparing this, we missed an apparent Heads-Up "classic moment" -- with Phil Hellmuth talking himself into a disastrous all-in bet. We hope to check the video online and talk about that later.