Poker Night 218: What You Can't See

"The tightest man in poker," a man across the table at Lil Kim's Cove called us tonight, We almost jokingly scolded him for revealing one of our secrets to success. But if he had seen us earlier in the evening, he might have thought differently....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: 6-7 of clubs

We won an early hand, so we have plenty of chips to play with. A man to our right raises to 300. We call with our suited connectors, and several players join the pot.

ON THE FLOP: 8-K-5 (8 is a club)

We have three clubs in a row, plus an open-ended straight draw. The man who bet before tries to run us off by tossing in 1,000. The other players run away, but we call to see if something good comes.

ON THE TURN: 9s

So much for the straight flush -- but we still like what we see. The bettor tries 1,000 again. But our straight is the best hand out there, so we raise to 3,000. Our opponent calls.

ON THE RIVER: A

"I'll check to the man who raised," our opponent says. OK, thank you -- we toss out 3,000 again. That's too much for his liking, and he folds.

"What'd you have? Two pair?" he asks. No. "A King?" No.

"I put him on pocket Kings," another player guesses.

"He couldn't have a straight or a flush," a woman says. We don't correct her -- simply smile, and keep the table guessing.

We had plenty of reason to smile, as several big hands came our way. In one case, 2-2 brought a third 2 on the flop. In another case, 2-8 of clubs led to a flush. It all allowed us to reach the final table with 48,500 chips. But then the cards ran out, as the blinds went up. We went all in with A-Q of hearts, but lost to a woman with 9-9 when our cards didn't make a pair. Not a winning night -- but sixth place isn't bad.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We slow-played A-K in the small blind at one point, and it worked -- eliminating a woman who went all-in with A-6.

"I could cuss you out," the woman said as she offered a hand to shake. "But I can't. You're got the Jesus stuff...."

We complimented the woman on being so nice. She illustrates a characteristic not often found at poker tables -- one mentioned in a Biblical proverb:

He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend. -- Proverbs 22:11

What does it mean to have gracious speech? One Bible concordance relates it to displaying "charm.... the moral quality of kindness...." Sometimes that can mean saying a little, as opposed to a lot.

Words from a wise man's mouth are gracious, but a food is consumed by his own lips. -- Ecclesiastes 10:12

Your parents might have put it another way: If you can't find anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything. Maybe that's what this woman did. And maybe that's what more of us need to do -- whether we play poker or not.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 89 final tables in 218 nights (40.8%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 100 point wins in 534 games (18.7%), 40 final tables, 2 cashes.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $34,054, up $5,380.

This was a week when we wish the money was real -- as last Friday afternoon, we won more $4,250 in about 15 minutes.