Thursday, May 20, 2010

Poker Night 160: Play and Record

"You'd better have your recorder ready," one man across the table from us said several times tonight. He knows we carry a voice recorder to note the hands we post here. And tonight at Lil Kim's Cove, there was definitely one to remember....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: QC-9C

Having won a pot earlier in the game, this is worth a try. A couple of others join in.

ON THE FLOP: Ks-JC-10C

Wow -- we make a straight on the flop, and have an open-ended draw for a straight flush! But this flop also is potential trouble, since A-Q would be a higher straight.

A player ahead of us bets 200. Since we're at a table that's betting big, we try to settle the pot by raising to 2,000. A woman to our left calls; the others respect our bet and bail out.

At this point, we quietly pull the voice recorder out of our pocket and set it on the table. A woman sitting between us points it out.

ON THE TURN: 5h

That doesn't help us, and probably doesn't help her. We bet 3,000, yet our opponent raises 3,000 more. Deep-down, we think she's trailing in the hand -- so we call.

ON THE RIVER: 10d

This card opens the possibility of our opponent having a full house. We check, and so does she. Our opponent has pocket Aces, and we cracked them on the flop.

The woman to our immediate left helps us verbally record the hand, as we forgot the betting order. The woman we beat then says with a laugh it was "b**l***t."

"Put that on your blog," another man says. OK, there - sort of.

That big win put us above 25,000 chips -- and while few other pots came our way, we rode that stack to another final table. We improved to fifth place, dropping out when A-Q in the small blind lost to small cards on the board giving someone else a straight.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Why did you bring that?" a woman asked at the final table. "I know you always have a reason for everything you do."

The item again tonight was a small electrical plug. "This reminds me," we explained to several people, "that I receive power from the Holy Spirit of God."

"Be sure that thing is grounded, though," a man across from us said half-jokingly.

"Oh, you're right," we answered. "Rooted and grounded in love."

That phrase is part of a wish for the Ephesian church from the apostle Paul: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge...." (Eph. 3:17-19, KJV)

Other translations explain this as knowing how wide, long, high and deep Christ's love for us is. Do you appreciate that love -- and let it be the roots of all you do?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 64 final tables in 160 nights (40.0%) - 11 cashes. Four final tables in a row have brought our percentage back up.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: One-table sit-n-goes - 3-8-3-2-0. Full tournaments - 40 point wins in 241 games (16.6%), 18 final tables, 1 cash. We had a fourth-place finish last Friday afternoon, and a seventh on Wednesday of this week.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $11,828, up $95.

No comments: