Poker Night 233: Down By the Riverside

Our evening started well at Lil Kim's Cove, as we won a nice pot with a pair of Aces. But then the fireworks started -- with players making huge speculative bets while holding marginal hands. We laid low through all of that, then had timely pocket Aces in the small blind during the second hour. Our stack jumped from 5,000 to 26,000 -- and then came another tempting moment:

BLINDS: 2,000/4,000

IN THE POCKET: A-Q offsuit

We're in the middle of the betting order at the semifinal table. Applying our personal motto "Limp early, bet late," we call this potentially big hand. No one raises, and four players are in.

ON THE FLOP: A-3-7

That's a nice flop, and we're tempted to risk it all right now. But when the play checks to us, we decide to make an alluring bet to keep people in. We toss out 7,000. A man to our left calls; the others bail out. We conclude from the call our opponent might have an Ace, but does not have a better kicker card.

ON THE TURN: 6

We're first to act, and we're thinking as we count our chips aloud. Do we push now, against a man with a much bigger stack? We conclude we should. "I'm all-in -- 15,000."

Our opponent calls, and confirms our read. He has A-8. "You have me outkicked," he admits....

ON THE RIVER: 8

"Not anymore!" he adds. Our opponent makes two pair on the river -- and for the second week in a row, a fatal river card eliminates us. We finish 14th, at the semifinal table.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "I'm a little drunk," a man admitted as he sat down to our left at the semifinal table. We should stop right there and get your thoughts on that statement. Is a little drunk like saying a woman is "a little pregnant?"

We didn't show the man our can of diet soda, but we replied minutes later: "I choose to do things in moderation."

Admittedly, some critics could say we really don't -- because we don't drink alcohol during poker tournaments at all. They'd say that's abstinence, not moderation. But at least we were following the Bible's advice....

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. -- Philippians 4:5 (KJV)

How do you do that? And do you do it merely in the way you drink? Ponder that (and comment if you'd like); we'll offer our thoughts in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 94 final tables in 233 nights (40.3%) - 15 cashes. It's now been seven months since we won any money at local tournaments.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments -- 121 point wins in 609 games (19.9%), 46 final tables, four cashes.

If the two big championship games we played this week had awarded NLOP points along with money, we would have gone four-for-four in point wins -- and our point percentage would have moved above 20 percent.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $41,822, unchanged (no play).