Classic country music abounded from the Lil Kim's Cove jukebox tonight, with the notable exception of Kenny Rogers's song with a poker theme. You know, The Gambler -- with the chorus, "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." One key hand tested how much we knew....
BLINDS: 100/200
IN THE POCKET: 8-7 offsuit
We hear players in live tournaments rave about playing these connected mid-range cards. So we do, and no one raises.
ON THE FLOP: 6-9-10
This actually is the second time in three hands that we've flopped a straight! The first time was with 5-4 -- and we split a big pot with a woman who also had 5-4. In that case, we raised to 1,000 on the flop. This time when a player to our right bets 200, we raise to 1,000 again.
"You have 8-7?!" a man across the table correctly concludes based on our pattern. But we say nothing, as the table folds. The man next to us calls.
ON THE TURN: K
There's no flush threat here, but our opponent leads for 1,000 again. We don't want to run him off if he's betting that much, so we call.
ON THE RIVER: 10
With a pair now on the board, our opponent goes all-in for about 2,100 -- and we sense big trouble. If he has 10-K or even 10-6, he tops us with a full house. We started this hand with about 8,100, so a call would be a substantial loss. After pondering for a moment, we decide to be safe.
"I'm going to give you credit for a big hand, and I'll fold." We show our straight. He shows a 10, all right -- but NOT a full house. Our read was wrong, and he ran us off a huge pot.
That mistake left us wounded for a while, and we crawled to the one-hour break at 3,750. But immediately after the break, we won from both the big and small blinds to improve to 11,500. Good cards ran out after that, though; a desperation all-in bet from the small blind with Q-J didn't bring a pair, and a man who paired an 8 knocked us out. Another final table missed -- as we finish in 12th.
MINISTRY MOMENT: A man sitting at the bar with crutches motioned us over during the one-hour break. "You gonna play the jukebox?" he asked.
"I never have here," we admitted.
The man offered us two dollars for the jukebox, which admittedly made us uncomfortable. "I don't know what songs you want," we said after an awkward moment.
"Play something country," he said. So with that guidance, we took the two dollars to the jukebox and.... well, let's stop right there.
If you wanted to send a Christian message with country music at a jukebox, what songs would you select? We'll tell you what we chose in a future post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 98 final tables in 259 nights (37.8%) - 15 cashes. Four missed final tables in a row have dropped us to our lowest percentage since we started this blog.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 155 point wins in 703 games (22.0%), 54 final tables, 7 cashes. We owe you a monthly championship report; it's coming Friday.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $50,643, up $800. We stayed above "50-K" at last, with some action last weekend.
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