Poker Night 235: Present Tens

The book of Joshua describes how the Israelites marched silently for days around Jericho, then made a shout when the moment of capture came (6:10-20). You can do the same kind of thing in poker, without saying much at all. Look at what happened tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: 10-10

We're in the big blind, having won a few nice hands and losing a big one or two. We start the hand with 7,675 chips. Before we look at our cards, a man across the table raises to 1,400. We offer a reluctant look, but believe it's the right decision to call. Only one other players joins in.

ON THE FLOP: 8-K-J (suits don't matter)

We check to the raiser -- and are happy when he checks as well. No one bets.

ON THE TURN: 6 (as best we recall)

We check again, as does the table. Sitting first in line to bet, what should we do on the river?

ON THE RIVER: 10

This card makes the answer obvious -- bet! If our opponent hit a pair on the flop, we've topped it with three of a kind. We decide to do something against our usual nature.

"I'm all-in," we say -- pushing in 6,275. The man who raised pre-flop thinks this over carefully for several seconds. Then he folds, and we score a nice gain.

"Did you have a straight?" he asks.

"No," we say shaking our head. Our opponent somewhat disgustingly drops his cards at that news; we never see what he had.

"I guessed you had two pair," someone else at the table says. We say no more -- simply harvest the pot.

That wound up being our last win of the night. We held on to the semifinal table, but felt compelled to push again with rising blinds and K-J. No face cards came, and a 9 on the flop gave an opponent a winning pair. We survived for a while, but finished 12th.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We had a good discussion tonight with a Catholic man named Steve -- and it started when he asked about big tournaments every few months for top point-scorers.

"I've qualified for a couple of them," we said. "But I don't play because they're on Saturday at noon, and I keep a seventh-day Sabbath."

"Are you Jewish?" Steve asked. No, we're not. But we admitted we follow the example of Jesus, and He was Jewish.

For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. -- Hebrews 7:14

Steve responded to our comment by offering a different viewpoint not only about the Sabbath, but Jesus's ethnic background. We'll get into that in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 94 final tables in 235 nights (40.0%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 121 point wins in 612 games (19.8%), 46 final tables, 4 cashes.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $42,337, down $765.