Thursday, June 3, 2010

Poker Night 164: The Hole Thing

On Monday night we had pocket Queens, which turned into crushed quads. (Yeah, that still stings.) Tonight at Lil Kim's Cove, there was an opportunity for things to balance out....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: K-K

We're in the small blind. The one-hour break is near, and we've won a couple of small pots. But a man across the table loves to bet big with almost anything. He goes all-in before the flop for perhaps the fourth time in the game, for a total of 6,450. A woman to our right dares to call him. Then we look at our cards, and actually ponder this a moment. Could one of these two be hiding pocket Aces?

"All I have is 5,250," we declare -- and we choose to go all in ourselves. We think the man is bluffing. The woman concerns us more.

"On the eve of National Donut Day, I have Krispy Kremes," we say showing our Kings. Our read turns out to be right: the man only has Jack high, while the woman for some reason called with 6-7. (She probably smelled a bluff as well.)

ON THE FLOP: 9-5-3 (suits don't matter)

We're focused on looking for pairs our opponents might have. What we don't see here is the woman gaining a "gutshot" straight draw.

ON THE TURN: Q

Good. No one even has an Ace. If we can avoid one more bullet....

ON THE RIVER: 8

Noooooooo! We may have had the donuts, but the woman filled the hole in her straight. She takes two players out of the game, and we wind up about 35th. We had the right read, but she had the perfect river.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "You're acting like a pit bull over there," a woman to our left said as the big-betting man built a huge stack of chips early. "You're going to be taken out by a chihuahua."

The dog talk continued minutes later, with the same woman saying she wouldn't mind to a "shepherd" taking the man out.

"I'll tell you what," we said as we prepared to deal. "The Lord is my Shepherd."

"All the time! All the time!" the woman to our left agreed. No one else commented.

Does our comment look familiar? It's from perhaps the most famous psalm in the Bible - Psalm 23:1. Jesus added later: "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

Are you one of those sheep? Jesus wants you to be, because He gave His life to redeem you from the death penalty for sin. If you want to know more about it, e-mail us -- we'll be glad to help.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 66 final tables in 164 nights (40.2%) - 11 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: One-table sit-n-goes - 4-8-3-2-0. Full tournaments - 45 point wins in 260 games (17.3%), 20 final tables, 1 cash. Heads-Up - 9-7.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $11,438, down $125.

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