Poker Night 209: The Season of Giving

"I found this gold chip behind your ear," the tournament director at The Red Barn said tonight. "You're not allowed to have chips behind your ears."

The director was playing a magic trick joke at our expense -- hiding a 5,000-dollar chip in his hand, as he tossed it into the third pot of the night. Considering the typical starting stack is 5,000, that's quite an incentive.

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 5s-3s

We don't normally chase a big bonus prize with a marginal hand. But we're in the big blind, so our 50 is committed right off the bat -- and the table simply calls. Checking's free....

ON THE FLOP: 3-6-3

....and that flop potentially is priceless. The small blind checks, and we jump out with a bet of 600.

"600 on the 6," a man across the table says half-smiling. Not exactly -- but enough players think along those lines so that nearly the entire table folds. Only a young man who just turned 21 and is inside The Red Barn for the first time remains.

ON THE TURN: K

Why slow down now? We bet 700.

"Well, he could have a 3," the man across the table (who folded when we bet) now speculates. We say nothing. The young man still in the hand ponders it for a few seconds, then folds.

"I did have a 3," we say as we show. Gaining about 5,900 chips (including the gold chip) in one hand -- now that's truly a "big blind special."

We won a few early pots with good cards, then went dry for awhile. But a woman who quit the game in the second hour gave her large stack of chips for the table to divide, which helped us gained about 4,000. Then 4-4 turned into another three of a kind on the flop -- and we took out a man who pushed with two pair.

Those nice gains helped us cruise to the final table, but the cards ran out for us there. A desperation push with 3-4 of diamonds led to two diamonds on the flop, but no more. We were eliminated in sixth place -- but that was still satisfying, as it was our best tournament finish since Labor Day.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The tournament director noticed we wore a "WWJD" wristband tonight. "Where did you get that?" Rodney asked us.

We gave him a wrong answer at first, but corrected it after thinking for a while. LifeWay Christian Stores sell them for only $1.00 each. Perhaps one will help this director, who openly struggles to set a proper Christian example at times. We also plan to pray for Rodney; will you join us?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 85 final tables in 209 nights (40.7%) - 15 cashes.