Poker Night 227: Getting Well Soon

Around three hours before tonight's tournament at The Red Barn, we were not feeling well. (Let's just say we didn't heat the leftovers long enough the night before, and they came back to bite us.) But thanks to some soothing chicken noodle soup at dinner, we made the game -- and then the game made some nice memories.

BLINDS: 500/1,000

IN THE POCKET: 8-2 of hearts

It's the first hand after the one-hour break -- and what a first hour! We gained several big pots (one so big, the Tournament Director noted it was a "two-hand snatcher"), and jumped from 6,000 at the open to 26,500. Now we're in the big blind, and no one from our table of six has raised. We safely check.

ON THE FLOP: 5h-6h-8d

Top pair, table beware! We lead out 2,000, continuing a rather aggressive betting run at the end of the first hour. Most players fold, but a man to our somewhat reluctantly calls.

ON THE TURN: 7h

There's an obvious straight possibility here -- and when we check, our opponent bets 5,000. We stop and ponder this for a while. Then suddenly, we realize something -- we made a flush with that card! And we're open-ended for a straight flush to boot! So sure, we'll call 5,000.

ON THE RIVER: 5d

Now we check in confidence, hoping for a bet we can counter with a big raise. But our opponent only checks, and shows his 9. He did hit the straight, but we topped him and added about 11,000 chips to our stack.

That big gain came in handy, as we lost a big pot to that same man later when he hit a full house on the river. Our stack drained away until we had to go all-in with 8-9 of hearts. It turned into an open-ended straight draw, and we hit a winning Jack on the river!

That led us to the final table -- and we won big again there with A-K under the gun. But the cards ran out, as other players dropped out. Forced to go all-in again with 4-4, we lost to a man who made a pair of 10's. Yet we wound up tied for third (tied due to a double elimination), for our best live tournament result since Labor Day.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "It's your lucky pencil!?" a man to our left asked when we showed him tonight's card protector -- a stubby yellow pencil, like you might find at a mini-golf course.

"It's not really for luck," we said. Then we had to wait through a conversation before we explained its purpose. "I brought it to remind me that need to be written in God's book of life."

"We're all in the book of life," the man responded. That is, every human name is there. "You don't want to be erased."

"What would it take to be erased?" we asked.

"Something really bad," the man said.

What do you think of this explanation? If you're not sure what we're talking about, here's a clue from the Bible....

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. -- Revelation 20:12

So we ask you: is our fellow player's statement on target? We'll offer our thoughts in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 93 final tables in 227 nights (41.0%) - 15 cashes.