Monday, January 17, 2011

Poker Night 225: King Day Special?

Blame the end of Monday night football games. Or Martin Luther King Day. Or a cold rainy night. Whatever the reason, barely enough players showed up at The Red Barn tonight to fill two poker tables. That should have worked to our advantage - but when a poker game starts, you never know....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: K-Q offsuit

We've barely played any hands so far, because the cards have simply been lousy. The sight of familiar faces gives us hope, so we call. Several players at the full table do.

ON THE FLOP: K-7-10 (rainbow suits)

We're third in line to bet. When the man to our right checks, we put 400 on our top pair. Two players call - the big blind and that man to the right.

"What do you think the next two cards will be?" asks a woman out of the hand.

"I'll say a 6 and a 3," someone else predicts. OK....

ON THE TURN: 6

Pretty good for the predictor -- and for us. The big blind checks. The man to our right offers 200. We still have top pair, but we modestly call. So does the big blind.

ON THE RIVER: 2

A little groaning occurs around the table - close, but not quite. But the big blind is betting, not groaning. He puts out 800. The player between us folds, and we're left to wonder. Our first guess is one of two things. Our opponent could be "stabbing" - trying to steal the pot while holding nothing. Or....

"That looks like a two-pair bet," we say. The big blind says nothing. But we lean on the side of a stab, and we call.

"I do have two pair," our opponent says -- showing K-6. He bided his time on the turn, and struck on the river. By the way, the pot-winner noted he was getting "eight to one on my money" since he had top pair on the flop.

We won a small pot a few hands later, but we never recovered completely. After the one-hour break, we went all-in with Q-Q in the big blind. A third Queen came on the river -- but the board also had J-10-9, and the man who beat us before had a King for a winning straight. We drove home frustrated, with only 14th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We don't remember what cards came out, but one flop tonight prompted a woman to say "Holy...."

Then she stopped. So we tried to fill the gap: "Holy is the Lord God Almighty."

We're not sure if anyone heard us complete the sentence, but we borrowed it from Scripture....

And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." -- Isaiah 6:3


Who's calling here? Verse 2 says they're "seraphs.... with six wings." They were stationed above "the Lord" (verse 1), in what seems to be a vision experienced by Isaiah. But holiness isn't merely for God:

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." -- I Peter 1:15-16


If you're not sure how to be holy, read verses 13-14. If they still leave you puzzled, leave a comment -- we might be able to help.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 91 final tables in 225 nights (40.4%) - 15 cashes.

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