Poker Night 202: Keep Them Guessing

Sometimes poker tables seem to have trends during a game. For instance, 8's seemed to turn up fairly often tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. But we spotted another trend, which had its benefits....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 10-10

We won an unlikely earlier pot with A-2, when a 2 on the flop was good enough to win. This is a better hand for action, so we raise to 250. About three other players choose to call.

ON THE FLOP: A-K-7

Two high cards make our "better hand" suddenly look worse. A man across the table bets 400. On other nights we would have assumed an obvious losing hand and folded, but we decide to hang tough and call.

ON THE TURN: 10

Patience pays off! But our memory is a little murky of what happened here; as we recall, our opponent bet 500 and we raise to 1,000. He calls; everyone else is out of the hand.

ON THE RIVER: A

A big hand for us -- but is there danger lurking? Our opponent throws out 2,500. Could he have A-7 for a top-floor full house? We don't take long to decide we ought to call.

"Do you have a full house?" we ask as we show ours. Thankfully no; he has A-Q, and three of a kind falls short.

"Trips" worked for us again on the next hand, as pocket 5's brought a third one on the flop. Two big wins increased our stack to 17,500 chips, and a couple of other wins gave us a high of 19,500. But things turned sour in the second hour of play, as hopeful chases fell short.

We were forced to go all-in after the two-hour break with 6-8, and the flop included 6-8! But this time we were "tripped up," as a woman who also pushed with 10-10 received a 10 on the flop for three of a kind. We came close to the final table, but finished in 12th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "What's that thing on your cards?" a man asked at the start of the evening. We once again took our little bandage, and tried to explain it reminded us of how Jesus is a healer.

"I don't talk religion...." the questioner said. End of discussion there -- but let's pick it up here. When Jesus walked on Earth, He "healed many who had various diseases" (Mark 1:34). But when Christ died, the concept expanded greatly....

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. -- I Peter 2:24

Our Savior endured scourging and crucifixion -- a process actually prophesied to happen centuries earlier (see Isaiah 53). As mystical and strange as it may sound, you can have spiritual healing as a result. The sins which condemn us all to death can lead ultimately to "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Will you accept that offer of healing -- one that in the long run is far better than any doctor can provide?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 83 final tables in 202 nights (41.1%) - 15 cashes. We've missed the last table seven times in a row.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 83 point wins in 458 games (18.1%), 35 final tables, 2 cashes. Our latest final table came Sunday afternoon -- ninth place out of 593 players.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Full tournaments - two "top ten-percent" finish in 11 games (18.2%). Pretend cash games - $22,414, up $1,470.

We entered our first $500 "Nightly Freeroll" Wednesday night, in the North American Poker League. Out of 10,000 players, we finished 938th -- earning us a ticket to a "rookie division" tournament for money. Now all we have to do is figure out how to redeem it....