We were already in the loser's bracket of a heads-up tournament, after losing our first match. Now we had to play a young woman who openly admitted she was drunk and was being annoyingly confrontational with some people. "I want nothing to do with a drunk-a** woman," the director declared at one point.
"Do you believe in angels?" we asked the woman who heard the director's blessing.
"Yes, I do."
Yet the woman was drinking -- and telling people about how she "chopped the prize money" earlier in the evening at a regular poker tournament in the next city. "I may be drunk, but I know what I'm doing," she told us as we started to play.
"I haven't been this drunk in a long time," our opponent declared. Then, perhaps because we were a listening ear and not talking back, she explained what was behind it. "I'm feeling heartbroken right now." It was emotional pain for a female friend, whom she said was being treated badly by a boyfriend.
"People think they know all about me," the woman continued. "But they don't know what's in my heart."
Then our opponent switched the talk to poker -- and we failed to offer our thoughts on what she was going through. First of all, God knows what's in her heart. And what He knows might disappoint her....
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? -- Jeremiah 17:9
The woman's heart may have convinced her she needed alcohol to cope with a friend's pain. But the angels she believes in probably would offer an alternative approach.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. -- Ephesians 5:18
God's Holy Spirit is a comforter with far fewer side effects than "Southern Comfort."
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. -- II Corinthians 1:3-4
We prayed at the end of the night that this woman might come to know the comfort which God offers. It's even less expensive than shots at a bar.
Oh -- you're wondering how the game ended? We went all in for 2,500 with pocket Aces. The opponent who kept saying she "didn't care" called with Q-4. Then she hit Q-4 on the flop, and a 4 on the turn for a full house.
Yes, we lost to a drunken woman (who we think deep-down wasn't quite as drunk as she sounded). We went home humbled. Poker can do that to you. May she learn that lesson, too.
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