BLINDS: 100/200
IN THE POCKET: 7-8 of diamonds
We sit in the Small Blind, and have lost a couple of mid-sized pots to drop to about 6,400. We limp in with suited connectors, but the Big Blind raises to 500. We join about three other players in calling.
ON THE FLOP: 6s-9h-10h
Now that's a nice order of cards -- a straight on the flop! We decide to slow-play to maximize our gains, and the Big Blind bets 300. After other players call, we're tempted for a moment to go all-in. After all, two hearts are showing and someone could be on a flush draw. But instead, we make a modest raise of 1,000. Only the Big Blind calls.
ON THE TURN: Ah
Uh-oh -- not the suit we want to see. We cautiously check, and the Big Blind bets 2,000.
"Can you beat a flush?" he asks us. "If you can't beat a flush, don't bother calling."
We've heard trash talk like this before, and we conclude he's trying to chase us off the pot. We call 2,000, leaving 2,250 in our stack.
ON THE RIVER: 5h
Oh no!!! Now four hearts are showing, and our straight looks like a dead-end street. We check again. Our opponent bets 2,000 again.
"OK, I'll fold my straight," we say showing our cards.
"I had the flush," the pot-winner says. But he never shows the cards to prove it, and he asks moments later why we called his pre-flop raise in the first place. (Our "suited connectors" explanation seemed to satisfy him.)
So did we completely misplay this hand? We're not really sure. Other players at The Red Barn tend to buy more bar items than we do, giving them an automatic chip advantage due to bonuses. So our opponent had more chips to play with than we did.
But if we had pushed for 5,250 more chips after seeing the straight on the flop, the table probably would have presumed we had a huge hand and folded on the spot -- or someone like Mr. Big Blind with a huge stack might have decided to take us on, and in the process potentially take us out. What would you do?
We never recovered from that big loss -- eventually going all-in with A-9 after the one-hour break. A woman called with 3-2. So what happened? The flop was 3-3-2, of course. She made a full house, and sent us home shaking our head -- sixth place out of six at our table.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "That looks nice," the Tournament Director said after looking at our "Lord's Supper" card protector. He hadn't seen it before. Here's a quote from that famous supper which you may have overlooked....
They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. - John 16:2
When we lost that big straight to the presumed flush, the pot winner and another man exchanged a "knuckled bump" across the table -- right in front of our nose. No one ever seems to offer that to us. The paranoid/persecuted thinker might conclude from that the other players are out to get us. It's not "killing," but a targeted elimination.
It's the nature of a poker game, of course. The only way you win is by eliminating everyone else. But why might we be on a "hit list" of sorts?
They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. - John 16:3
By comparison, a much more Christ-like attitude was displayed by the woman who hit that unlikely full house to eliminate us. "I still love you," she said as she shook our hand -- even though she offered it a touch early on the turn, when running Aces didn't come.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 94 final tables in 243 nights (38.7%) - 15 cashes. The slump stands at 12....
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