We disrupted our usual poker schedule this week, and went to Soho Bar and Grill Wednesday night. It's the largest local tournament we play these days -- usually with enough players for six tables. Yet this night brought our best Soho finish to date: fourth place overall.
The first hour went very slowly for us -- with several easily-distracted players and few quality hands to play. A lost hand with an Ace left us with only 4,000 chips at the first break. But on the first hand after the break, we went all in with the Ace of diamonds and made a diamond flush on the river! A few other dramatic gains came later, which led to the final table and this....
BLINDS: 20,000/40,000
IN THE POCKET: 2-6 offsuit
Ugh. We're in the big blind, entering with only 45,000 chips left. Posting that blind left us with a mere 5,000. But most of the table folds, and two players ahead of us merely call. We're happy to check, knowing we have a little pad left.
ON THE FLOP: 3-4-8
To be honest, we halfway-expected that last card to be a 5. But at least there's hope, with an open-ended straight draw. And thankfully, the table checks.
ON THE TURN: 5
"Here it is! My last 5,000," we say plunking a gold chip firmly on the table after the first player in line checks. One player is so underwhelmed by the board that he doesn't even call. The first player does.
ON THE RIVER: 2
"Big blind straight!" we say as we show our cards. Our opponent can't beat it, and we triple our stack to 135,000.
Trouble was, the blinds kept climbing -- eventually to 50K/100K, the largest we've ever played in Columbus. We felt compelled to go all-in with A-4, but they didn't pair while a woman with J-8 paired them both.
MINISTRY MOMENT: Our small crust of bread still has people asking questions. But when we brought up Jesus as the "bread of life" to a man across the table during the one-hour break, a different response came.
"Do you believe in Jesus?" we asked.
"No, I don't."
"That's too bad," we said practically under our breath. But we knew this was an opportunity for dialogue. "May I ask why you don't believe?"
"No tangible evidence."
"Well, Christianity is a walk of faith."
This man clearly had none. "People have been doing that for thousands of years.... yet they're no better off for it."
His explanation continued: "Do you remember anything before you were born?"
Since we don't believe in reincarnation, the answer was no. But we added: "Franklin Roosevelt was President before I was born, yet I know he existed."
"There's that empty void space," the skeptic answered. "You don't know anything before you're born, yet you 'existed.' And when you die, you won't know anything after that. I'm sorry."
How would you respond to that man's explanation? We'll offer our thoughts in an upcoming post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 79 final tables in 188 nights (42.0%) - 15 cashes. We had two "final four" finishes this week!
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 69 point wins in 381 games (18.1%); 29 final tables, 1 cash.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $13,294 (up $225). We haven't played any of the extra-large freerolls lately.
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