"This is the time of the game when the betting starts to get crazy," a man to our right said as the second hour of play began at Lil Kim's Cove tonight. With higher blinds, he explained, "Someone will say: 'I've got an Ace, I'll go all-in.'" Hmmm -- thanks for giving us an idea.
BLINDS: 500/1,000
IN THE POCKET: A-K offsuit
We won a modest pot early, but reached the break with 5,500 chips from a starting 7,000. We're in the small blind with "big slick," and a small table of five players. The big blind to our left has a monster stack and isn't afraid of raising pre-flop. So when players merely call to us, we make a somewhat-hesitating call and wait to see what happens.
"I'll check," the big blind says. Well, OK....
ON THE FLOP: 6-7-8 (suits don't matter)
Three in a row is potential trouble. So we check -- and don't mind when the entire table checks.
ON THE TURN: 7
This isn't turning out as we hoped at all. We check again -- but everyone else does, too.
ON THE RIVER: A
Aha, that's more like it! Now we can play like that man recommended during the break. "I'm all-in," we declare as we plunk down the last 4,500. The big blind folds. The man to his left thinks about it.
"I'll be friendly to you," he says as he plays with his stack of chips.
"That would be really, really wonderful if you did," we answer with encouragement.
"You either have an Ace with a big kicker, or a pocket pair," he speculates. We offer no more guidance, only more encouraging words to call. He finally suspects we have a big pair, but he calls anyway.
"You were right the first time," we say as we show our hand. Nope, we weren't bluffing -- nor was he; he had A-2. Our King kicker means a big gain, to 12,000. And yes, we politely thanked our opponent for helping us out.
Then followed a speculative bet with 6-6 which went nowhere, along with rising blinds. We finally were forced to go all-in again at the semifinal table with A-8 in the big blind. But two pair on the table left us second-best to a man with a full house, sending us out the door in 15th place.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "I am the truth," a young man said as he took a seat at our table during the second hour.
"No. You are not the truth," we responded.
Another newcomer seemed to pick up on our answer. "You're not the way OR the life."
"Amen!" we said -- giving that man to our left a high-five. "Amen to that."
Your assignment: where in the Bible will you find the verse everyone was mentioning -- even if they didn't quote it directly? We'll have the answer and more about it in a future post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 100 final tables in 271 nights (36.9%) - 15 cashes. Our final table slump hits ten, our percentage hits an all-time blog low -- and we're now at 14 months without winning any money in local tournaments.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 164 point wins in 736 games (22.3%), 57 final tables, 7 cashes. We placed seventh in a 124-player qualifying game Sunday afternoon.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $57,833, down $2,100.
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