BLINDS: 1,000/2,000
IN THE POCKET: K-8 offsuit
We won a big pot in the first hour with.... well.... let's just say our opponent is sure we hit a "Broadway straight" on the river. But after reaching the one-hour break with 12,500 chips, we've lost a couple of heartbreaker hands (losing with 10-10 at one point). We start this hand with 4,000 -- and we're in the big blind to boot. Thankfully, no one raises ahead of us (we would have folded if someone had), so we can check.
ON THE FLOP: 8-7-4
Top pair and a nice kicker give us a little hope. "I'm all-in for 2,000," we say. Two players generously call.
ON THE TURN: Q
The callers now are fighting over a sidepot -- except as we recall, they both check. We're not sure what to make of that.
ON THE RIVER: K
We could make something very nice from that! A player across from us bets big enough (4,000, we think) to make the other player fold. So there's no real sidepot after all.
"I've got two pair," the opponent tells us. "Queens and Eights."
"I've got Kings and Eights," we say as we show.
"You hit the river!" he says -- giving us credit for a nice escape. Our stack triples to 12,000.
But sad to say, it didn't advance from there. A lack of good cards drained us, even though we reached the semifinal table again. Forced to go all-in in the small blind with 6-9, we missed a straight draw and lost to a man with a pair. So it's another fairly good finish in 12th -- but not really good.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "Are you doing good?" a woman asked as she sat down at our table to begin the evening.
"I'm trying to do good," we answered. "But that's not always easy. I want to do good, but then bad things happen. And sometimes I do bad things, when I really want to do good."
We're not sure if the woman realized it, but we were paraphrasing the words of the apostle Paul....
For I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing.... So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. - Romans 7:18-21
Have you ever faced moments like this? We probably all have at some point, to some degree. Note this admission came from a church apostle - and Paul noted one chapter earlier that our sins lead to death (Romans 6:23). But in his frustration, he found hope....
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! - Romans 7:24-25
Look to Jesus for rescue, by repenting of your sins (Acts 2:38) and praying to God for salvation through His Son (Acts 4:12). Then try to do the good things -- seeking God's help through the Holy Spirit to succeed in them.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 288 nights (36.5%) - 17 cashes.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 187 point wins in 805 games (23.2%), 64 final tables, seven cashes. We made a final table online earlier in the day, finishing ninth out of 99 players in a Senior qualifying tournament.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,239, down $515.
No comments:
Post a Comment