BLINDS: 25/50
IN THE POCKET: A-7 offsuit
A man to our right doubles the bet to 100. (That's downright polite of him, because he'd raise in the 1,000 range minutes later.) We call, and several players join in.
ON THE FLOP: A-4-7
Two pair is very good -- and the raiser betting ahead of us makes things potentially even better. He tosses out 100. We raise to 400. A couple of players fold, including that man to the right.
ON THE TURN: K
Hmmmm -- this could be trouble. What if our opponent has pocket Kings? He hints in that direction, by betting 1,000. But our two pair still feel strong, so we call. One other player does as well.
ON THE RIVER: 7
Now we have a full house, and can't wait for that man to the right to act. Imagine our displeasure when he folds! Apparently he missed some kind of draw. So we'll bet big -- 1,500, in fact. The remaining player thinks it over, then folds to give us a nice gain.
Another big gain came later, when two hearts turned into a flush (and a man who happened to have stronger hearts was folded for being away from the table when his turn came). But then we lost a two pair vs. three of a kind bet in the second hour, to put us on the ropes. We made it a five-player table with ten to go, but were forced to go all-in in the small blind with A-4. We didn't make a pair, and missed the final table by one hand with a tenth-place finish.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "How are you tonight?" we asked a man sitting down to our left.
"I'm blessed."
Now there's a nice response! And the man agreed with us that we should be grateful for the blessings of every day. The Psalms give several tips about things you can do to receive blessings from God....
Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in time of trouble. - Psalm 41:1
Some translations add "the poor" to this verse. During Monday's game, the winner of a huge pot actually tossed 500 chips to a loser as a "consolation prize." We think it was an indication the winner got a "lucky card" on the river, and gave his opponent a bad beat.
Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord, the man you teach from your law. -- Psalm 94:12
This one may be harder to grasp. How can discipline from God be a blessing? Because God wants to steer you toward a walk that's closer to Him.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent. -- Revelation 3:19
And old hymn talks about counting your blessings. That's a wonderful thing to do. But we'd suggest going farther, and looking through the Bible for the words "Blessed is" -- to see what sort of things lead to God's blessings in the first place.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 94 final tables in 234 nights (40.2%) - 15 cashes. Heads-Up record: 15-25.
We're declaring the Saturday night heads-up season over, as a couple of busy weekends will move us into daylight time, when the tournaments start too early for us to attend.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 121 poker wins in 610 games (19.8%), 46 final tables, 4 cashes.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $43,102, up $1,575.
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