Poker Night 302: The Royal Rumble

We don't pay much attention to professional wrestling these days.  But WWE's Raw Super Show is shown live inside The Red Barn on Monday nights -- and tonight we were reminded a man named Sheamus won the annual "Royal Rumble" battle royal earlier this year.  Poker games can have plenty of royalty on display, of course.  That can be both a good and bad thing....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: Q-3 of clubs

We're sitting one behind the dealer, at a table of six.  It's early.  We started with 7,000 chips and haven't lost very many.  So it's inexpensive to try this.  We call, and no one raises.

ON THE FLOP: 6-5-Q

No clubs came out, but we have top pair.  A woman first in the betting order offers 500.  Fine by us; we call, as do two others.

ON THE TURN: Q

Now the table tightens, as everyone ahead of us checks.  Not with three of a kind, they don't.  We bet 700.  The early bettor folds, and only a man across from us calls.

ON THE RIVER: Q

Well, well!  The man across from us checks -- and we want to gain as much as we think he'll tolerate.  We bet 1,500, saying nothing more.

"I'll call," our opponent says with a shrug.  And now we finally can complete a quote we started to make at The Red Barn on Memorial Day 2010 -- a moment which marked our worst-ever bad beat in live play.

"Q is for quads!"  There's no straight flush possible to top it.  Our chip stack jumps to more than 15,000, helped by a 5,000-chip bonus for quads.

We took another nice pot after that, and were cruising along in the 15,000-chip range.  But then a moment of truth occurred at the one-hour break, as we held K-K.  A man kept making big raises ahead of us -- 8,000 on the flop when we had an "over-pair."  An Ace on the turn led him to bet 40,000.  After thinking over an all-in call for several seconds, we decided to fold.  Another Ace was revealed for the river, and the bettor indicated later he had a pocket pair of his own.  "If you had an Ace, you beat me," he said.  We didn't, but we probably would have.

We still had 10,000 chips at the break, but few good cards came after that.  We felt forced to push with 3-3 and 4,500 chips left, but the board didn't pair for us and a woman with A-K won with a pair of Kings.  A promising night ended with a stinging conclusion: only 17th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Is that your lucky nail?" a woman across the table asked when she saw tonight's card protector.

"Not really," we said.  The long narrow nail was a message of the season.  "I brought it to remind me of the crucifixion of Christ."

"I believe he was crucified," the woman said when we asked.  "But I think it was with a bigger nail than that."

We have to agree.  It would have to be much larger, to do what Peter described several weeks later....

This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. - Acts 2:23

Some experts believe the nails used at the crucifixion were seven to nine inches long.  (But despite what you may have heard, that's apparently not how the rock band Nine Inch Nails gained its name.)  Jesus didn't have to go through any of that punishment.  But He did, for a most wonderful reason.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? - Romans 5:8-9

Have you accepted this wonderful gift of love, which God offered long ago?  You can be saved from "the wrath to come," which the Bible indicates will top anything in that upcoming movie The Wrath of Titans.  If you'd like to know more about that way of salvation, leave a comment; we'll be happy to explain it.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 108 final tables in 302 nights (35.8%) - 17 cashes.