Poker Night 204: Minor 49'er

Our poker day began with a very nice result -- eighth place out of 604 players in an online tournament. (If only the payouts hadn't stopped at fifth!) And tonight began well at Lil Kim's Cove, as we dealt ourselves A-A to start the tournament and won two early pots. Then this test came....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 4-9 of diamonds

The early gains have us overflowing with more than 13,000 chips. So for a measly 50, suited cards are worth a whirl. We join several players in the hand.

ON THE FLOP: 8d-3d-9c

There's plenty of promise here -- top pair, plus a flush draw. So sitting in early position, we bet 350. But a man to our left doubles the bet to 700. We're not sure what he has, but we call.

ON THE TURN: 2s (unsure about suit, but not a diamond)

This doesn't change a thing for us, but now we "check to the raiser." He bets 700 again. But we have a big stack, and decide it's time to use it for a little serious warfare.

"Raise -- 2,000." The scare tactic doesn't work; he calls.

ON THE RIVER: 9h

Now we have three of a kind -- and if our opponent was betting big with the same flush draw we had, he missed. That's what we think happened, so we check in the hope of inducing a bluff we can call.

"Two-thousand again," he says. We feel confident and quickly make the call. "Three nines."

"I've got a boat," our opponent says. Huh?!?! Yes, he does -- showing 3-3. He led us in the hand from start to finish, and took us for close to 5,000 chips. (Not to mention a lot of our confidence.)

That loss cost us a lot of momentum, and only a split pot followed for us after that. We lasted into the second hour, then went for it all holding A-8 when an Ace came on the flop. But a man across from us made a full house on the river, and what started well ended meagerly in 18th place. We've now missed the final table at nine live tournaments in a row.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We defer tonight to a woman sitting at our right, who described how she finished first and won $50 at a tournament earlier in the week. She says she offered to "chop the pot" with her final opponent, but he declined.

"Then three hands in a row, I got Ace-Queen," she said. She went all-in three times -- finally persuading her opponent to call and lose. She hopes he learned a lesson about not being greedy. "If you make it that far at the final table, it's only right to chop it."

Then the champion thought of a Bible verse. "The Bible says it's harder for a rich man to...." She couldn't remember the rest, so we helped her finish the thought -- which comes from Jesus:

"I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." -- Matthew 19:23-24

But then the woman said something which topped it all. "I didn't even break even on the night, because I'd spent more than 50 dollars on alcohol...." It was the principle of fair play she had in mind.

What are your thoughts about this story? We'll share ours in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 83 final tables in 204 nights (40.7%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments -- 85 point wins in 470 games (18.1%), 36 final tables, two cashes.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $22,424, up $10. The next "Million-Dollar Challenge" freeroll tournament is this coming Sunday.