Poker Night 190: Strangely at Random

A few big timely hands helped us reach the final table tonight, for the fourth live tournament in a row. We ended tied for eighth (ninth in points), when K-Q lost to a woman with J-5 when she hit two pair on the flop. But we're deferring to a hand at Lil Kim's Cove which was borderline ridiculous....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: We don't remember - we folded it!

Standard calling is happening, until a man in the small blind to our right asks a woman to our left how many chips she has left. She covers them up protectively, then shows 5,000. The man doesn't seem to grasp this, and raises 10,000. The woman goes into the tank.

"I'm not really sure I want to do this," she admits. Others at the table of six start urging her to call. (We say nothing.) Finally the woman slowly places her 5,000 on the table to call.

She shows A-9. The man confidently shows A-10. Then the dealer deals all five cards for the board face down, and spreads them.

"Show that one first," the man with A-10 says pointing to the middle card. What happens next is a scene from The Price is Right. The man points to cards at random to be turned over, in a ridiculous moment of drama.

As best we recall, the order of the cards came up: 6-4-5-2-3.

"It's a straight!" several of us say in amazement. But hold it.

"She has a straight flush!" Sure enough -- the 2-3-4-5 are spades, and the woman holds the Ace of spades. She wins the pot, and the confident man is left in mourning for several minutes.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Nothing really happened tonight, primarily because we sat around familiar people. We've shown them our Jesus coin and asked them about their Savior before -- which leads to a question we knew eventually would come. How do you keep the conversation going, when you've already used your main "tool" for witnessing?

The apostle Paul may have been in this predicament long ago, at Mars' Hill in Athens. But he looked around and found something to use....

For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. -- Acts 17:23

Paul went on to present a short message about repentance, and a resurrected "man he has appointed" (verse 31). We've used various things at bars over the years, to bring up that man called Jesus -- from the coin protectors we take to music playing on a jukebox. We missed bringing up a fitting song tonight: "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts. Maybe it will inspire you.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 81 final tables in 190 nights (42.6%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Five-player sit-n-goes - 6-11-6-3-2. Full tournaments - 69 point wins in 390 games (17.7%), 29 final tables, 1 cash.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Full tournaments - 1 point win (unofficial) in 7 games (14.3%). Pretend cash games - $13,479, up $185.