"On a Saturday?!?" another said with surprise. We'll explain their surprise in a moment -- but first to the game. Every Saturday night The Red Barn has a "heads-up" poker tournament for prize money. We wanted to escape Halloween keepers knocking at our door (since we don't keep Halloween), so this event was part of our strategy.
We knew how to approach the game from watching NBC's National Heads-Up Championship and playing one-on-one games at National League of Poker. Since this tournament had only 16 players, there were fewer hurdles to jump to win the first-place money.
We won our first match easily, with our opponent only winning one hand and splitting another. We won our second match, although it took a bit longer. Then came the semifinal, and a crafty opponent who we knew would be a challenge....
BLINDS: 100/200
IN THE POCKET: K-7 offsuit
We're dealing, which makes us the small blind in this format. We tend to play hands in this format unless desperation requires a tighter approach. So we call, but our opponent is in the lead and exploits it. He doubles the bet, and we call.
ON THE FLOP: A-K-7
Our opponent checks, and we're feeling good. After all, we hit two pair! A hand or two before, our opponent held two pair and tried to put us all-in (he showed the cards afterward) -- but we said no. Now it's time to return the favor.
"I'm all-in," we say. "23-skiddoo" -- as in 2,300 chips left. (The starting stack is 3,500, not counting food and drink purchases for bonus.)
Our foe stares at us for several seconds, as if he's pondering this carefully. At last he answers. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Well, yes -- we committed to it.
"I'll call," the opponent answers -- then turns over A-K. Ouch! We need a seven, or some odd combination to split the pot.
ON THE TURN: 8
Close, but no.
ON THE RIVER: 4
"I had you going, didn't I?" the winner says. He pulled an acting job on us, but no doubt knew all along he had us topped.
We had the right hand -- but we simply had bad timing. But we still made the semifinals in our first heads-up tournament. At the NBC event, two winning rounds would have earned us $25,000. At the Red Barn -- well, at least there was free chicken on the grill with potato salad inside.
MINISTRY MOMENT: The quarterly championship tournament for our poker league occurred at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. We qualified for it, but we didn't go -- and we explained to our first opponent why.
"I keep a seventh-day Sabbath." So we went to a worship service, which happened to be within a mile of the tournament. Yet we could attend this Saturday night event, based on how the Bible indicates time is measured:
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. -- Genesis 1:5 (all from KJV)
This "evening-morning" pattern continued for the first six days of creation. But interestingly, it is not mentioned when it comes to day seven....
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. -- Genesis 2:2
Perhaps that's because the seventh-day Sabbath pictures a coming rest for this world, when Jesus returns to Earth. A "rest" from sin and strife, from Satanic influence and war -- one in which the Kingdom of God will extend into eternity.
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of us entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. -- Hebrews 4:1
Do you want a place in that eternal "rest area" -- and are you fearing God, so that He might let you in?
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