Poker Night 248: Works of Art

There's nothing like a final table appearance at a five-plus table tournament to rebuild a little confidence. So we were optimistic heading to Lil Kim's Cove Thursday night. Of course, that optimism would be tested early....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: K-J offsuit

We won an early pot, so we stand at around 8,000 chips. This "King James" version (or "artwork" as described at the NBC Heads-Up Championship) gets a call from us, and most of the table jumps in with no one raising.

ON THE FLOP: 2-2-K

A young man to our left who's been playing a lot of hands bets 200. We think he's speculating, and raise to 500 with our two pair. He calls; the rest of the table folds.

ON THE TURN: 5

As long as an Ace doesn't show up, we're feeling comfortable about this - but our opponent bets 1,000. We still don't think he has a 2, so we call again.

ON THE RIVER: 7

Now our opponent checks, as if he thinks WE have the 2. Yet that move makes us wary of a trap, so we check as well. We show K-J. He has K-4. Our kicker gains us a nice pot.

We kept things tight after that, which let us advance to the semifinal table. But we didn't win any more pots, and had to push with Q-J. The turn card was a Queen -- but the river was a K, and a man with K-9 made two pair to eliminate us in 14th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: When the chip stacks were distributed at our table, one had a green chip missing - so someone was 500 chips short. When a man sat down to our left, we noted his stack was one short.

"Thank you very much. I appreciate your honesty," the man said. "Honesty is the best policy."

Well, yes - until the game begins and the bluffing starts. To borrow a phrase, "all bets are off" when the bets are on the table. So how honest should you be during a game? Leave a comment with your thoughts; we'll offer ours in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 95 final tables in 248 nights (38.3%) - 15 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL (as of 12 May): Full tournaments - 139 point wins in 656 games (21.2%), 49 final tables, 5 cashes. UFC three-card knockout: 1 win in 4 games (25%).

Full disclosure: we received a nice NLOP hat in the mail today - a "thank-you gift" from Zen Entertainment for mentioning its tournaments so often here.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $47,044, up $2,128.