Poker Night 282: Little Becomes Much

One of the most-talked about Christian movies of the year is Courageous.  While we admittedly haven't seen it, the game of poker can offer plenty of opportunities to test your courage (as well as other things).  We faced a few of those moments tonight at Lil Kim's Cove -- and the results were mixed.

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: 4-10 of clubs

We're in the big blind, at a table with a couple of empty chairs being played "as if."  We had a three-way split of an early pot, then won another one.  So we're comfortable checking here with about 11,000 chips, when no one raises ahead of us.  Most of the table is in.

ON THE FLOP: Q-8-4 (as best we recall, the Q was a club)

We have bottom pair in lead position (the small blind is one of the empty seats), and make a safe check.  But a long-haired man across from us bets 500.

"He bluffed on the last hand," another player recalls.  In fact, he won with that bluff after chasing other players away with a huge bet.  But this bet is modest and we do have something, so we call.  Four players stay in the hand.

ON THE TURN: 7 (not a club)

The flush dream fades, but a pair remains.  So we check again and hear, "500 again" from the long-haired man.  We decide to hang tough and call once more.  The other players do, too.

ON THE RIVER: 10

That's a good card for us -- so good that we decide to take control right away in lead position: "One-thousand."

The man to our immediate left responds much as we thought, and even wanted.  He's stunned.  He never saw this bet coming.

"You can't have a straight," he says to us.  (Except it's possible.)  "Have you got two pair?"  We stare back and forth at him and the board, saying nothing.  "You can't have a flush."  (That's true; there's no more than two of any suit showing.)

"He might have a Queen," the player next to our guesser speculates.  "Slow playing that [censored]...."  Both of them fold, leaving the long-haired man with a decision to make.

"Fifteen hundred more," he announces.  Something tells us he's trying another acting job, so we don't hesitate  and call.

"All I've got is a pair of 10's, man, " he admits.  He hit the river -- but we hit it better!  "Nice hit," he admits as our two pair brings a gain of about 6,000 chips.

We reached a high of 19,000 chips at the one-hour break.  But then our aggressive pre-flop nature began to miss flops.  And when a pre-flop bidding war began at another table, we dared to go all-in with A-J.  Trouble was, this raising opponent was not bluffing.  He showed J-J, and caught the missing Jack on the flop to win with three of a kind.  We joined another player on the rail, finishing tied for 15th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: An online tournament during the afternoon had an even better finish.  We were sixth out of 119 players, to qualify for the monthly Senior Championship -- and along the way, we met a player named "IICor5_17".  He went all-in almost immediately, so we knew we had to act fast:


Me:  Hi II Cor
Dealer:  oreo1 wins Side Pot 1 ($380) with Full house, aces full of tens
Me:  I;m new in Christ. :-)
Dealer:  oreo1 wins Main Pot ($2355) with Full house, aces full of tens
Me:  Bye.
Me:  That's what that Bible verse talks about.


If you don't understand, that screen name is an abbreviation of this Bible verse....

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! - II Corinthians 5:17

No one online responded to our explanation -- but we invite you to do so.  What does that verse mean to you?  Offer a comment; we'll offer ours in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 282 nights (36.2%) - 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 179 point wins in 784 games (22.8%), 62 final tables, 7 cashes.

Despite continuing connection problems, we had a very good week at NLOP: two final tables in five tournaments (including that fourth place out of 397), and one spot away from a third.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $66,424, down $783.