Poker Night 182: Well Connected

We're heard Ali Nejad on NBC's poker shows claim "suited connectors" are overrated as a potential hand. He would have shaken his head in disbelief at what we tried at Lil Kim's Cove tonight....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 9-10 offsuit

We haven't played many hands so far, so we have 5,950 chips. We put out the minimum -- but then a man to our immediate left raises to 500. A couple of players call, and we decide to join them. After all, we've heard players at local tournaments say this is one of the best hands to play.

ON THE FLOP: 9-9-Q

They seem to know what they're talking about! We're first up to bet, and we toss in 500. The man who raised calls -- but then a player across the table goes all in, with more than 6,000. This admittedly puzzles us, so we think a moment. Did he sneak in with pocket Queens, or perhaps a higher pair?

"All I have," we say as we count our stack, "is 5,450." We choose to call. Everyone else bails out.

"Do you have a full house right now?" we ask a couple of times -- but our opponent says nothing. Then we show our cards, with a third 9. He holds K-Q, but his two pair isn't good enough.

ON THE TURN: 4

Let's keep them nice and low, shall we?

ON THE RIVER: 5

How many times have we seen it, even from us -- two pair overconfidence? We make a massive gain, to more than 14,000.

Another nice pot came our way in the first hour, when we dared to play Q-10 and wound up with a full house. But then a couple of players scared us off potential winners with big bets, and our stack dwindled away. We finally had to push with 5-6 in the big blind, after a 5 came on the flop. But another player had a pair of 8's, to leave us out in 15th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Our card protector tonight was a folded digital wristwatch. The timepiece has lasted much longer than our watchband has, but it served our purpose well.

"I brought this to remind me," we told a woman at the one-hour break, "we're at the time of the end." That phrase occurs five times in the King James Bible -- all of them in the book of Daniel.

"Do you think we're in the time of the end?" we asked the woman. "Do you think Jesus is coming soon?"

The woman admitted she didn't know for sure. "He could come tomorrow. He could come 5,000 years from now."

Her point of view has some validity. A lot of people have set dates for the second coming of Christ (including a couple who claim it's within the next two years), but they've all been wrong to this point. So how can we say this is the time of the end? Check an upcoming post for the answer.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 76 final tables in 182 nights (41.8%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: One-table sit-n-goes - 6-9-5-3-2. Full tournaments -64 point wins in 355 games (18.0%), 27 final tables, 1 cash.

We played three SNG's last weekend to qualify for the Sunday weekly championship, and won two of them.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Full tournaments - 0/3. Pretend cash games - $10,861, up $138.