Poker Night 192: Heavy Losses

We were in a sad mood as we played poker tonight (read the reason why below) -- and admittedly, that could have affected our decisions on an unusual Tuesday night visit to The Red Barn. We played hands which were a bit more marginal than usual. And in the first hour, they went like this one....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 2-6 of spades

The blinds are small. The cards are suited. We'll take a chance on it. Most of the table calls.

ON THE FLOP: 6-A-A

We make two pair, and decide to see how others did. We do this by betting 500. A woman calls; everyone else folds.

ON THE TURN: A

Now we have a full house! Very nice -- but when we bet 500 this time, the woman calls again. Does she have a high pocket pair?

ON THE RIVER: 3

This time we make a cautious check -- and the woman bets 5,000, which would put us all-in.

"Get a gold chip ready," a player between us says to the Tournament Director. He's half-joking, but we know what he means. House rules award a 5,000-chip bonus for making quads. Our "house" is not feeling anything like home sweet home.

"Everything is telling me to fold this," we say after a moment, "so I'll fold." We show the 6. Sure enough, the woman has A-10 for quad Aces.

We staggered to the one-hour break with only 1,200 chips. But after the break, we were dealt Q-Q to make a big gain. Then came A-A in the pocket, and a man in the big blind folded his cards even before a flop was dealt. But A-9 proved our undoing -- forced to go all-in in the small blind, and losing to a man with two pair. We fell one player short of our sixth final table in a row, finishing tenth.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Several weeks ago, we mentioned the fellow player with his own Christ-centered "card protector" coin. He's now Tournament Director at The Red Barn -- and at one point tonight, he got into a loud argument with another man. In fact, he used some language we would never post here.

We got his attention moments later and said nothing we never imagined we'd say. "One Christian already has been killed in this city today. We don't need another one."

We'll comment more about the Director's response and his overall tone in another post. But that killing earlier in the day is why we were sad -- as the morning host at a Christian radio station in our city was found shot and killed in his driveway. We mentioned it to a woman at our table, who hadn't heard the news.

"That's why I'm saying 'Thy Kingdom come," we said to the woman. In fact, Jesus told followers to say those words in His model prayer (Matthew 6:10). When Christian DJ's are gunned down on a sunny afternoon, it should be clear God's Kingdom has not come yet.

(Read more of our thoughts on this in the 8 September post at our other blog, The Blog of Columbus.)

As it happens, our second poker night of the week was moved up this week because of an event celebrating the coming of God's Kingdom. Wednesday night is Rosh Hashanah for Jews, who mark the Jewish New Year. Some Christians will mark the Feast of Trumpets, which some say points to the future trumpet blasts announcing the return of Jesus Christ. The news of the day reminded us Jesus can't come soon enough.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 82 final tables in 192 nights (42.7%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments -- 72 point wins in 397 games (18.1%), 30 final tables, 2 cashes. Our fifth-place finish in the afternoon "turbo tourney" Sunday has been followed by top-20 scores the last two days!

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Full tournaments -- 1 "point win" (unofficial) in 8 games (12.5%). Pretend cash games -- $14,684, up $1,205.