Tuesday, December 25, 2012

December Senior Championship: Need a Lift

Poker playing seems to take no holidays.  Ask anyone who's ever watched a WSOP marathon on ESPN on December 24.  Or us -- as "Christmas 2012" found us playing in the National League of Poker monthly Senior Championship.  One month ago we finished 35th.  We'd need to make the Top 10 tonight to win money....

:00 IN: The second hand of the night brings us 3-A under the gun.  The flop is 3-A-A.  We offer a wimpy bet of 30 with a full house, a man across from us raises to 60, we re-raise to 360 and get called.  The turn is 5.  We bet 300 and get called.  The river is 5.  Now we bet 1,000 (everyone starts with 2,500 chips).  Another call comes.  Our opponent has A-8!  The running 5's save him, as we split the pot with matching full houses.  Net gain: $30.

:02 IN: We have 10-K in the Small Blind.  The flop is K-3-10.  We bet 70 with two pair, and get callers.  The turn is 2.  We bet 150 and get called.  The river is 5.  We bet 200 and the table surrenders.  We win $730.

We wind up winning nine more pots in the first half-hour, helped by the fact that only four of the ten players at our table showed up to play.  But we had a couple of setbacks, so we reach the break at $3,960 (our high was around $4,500) - 113th place out of 740 still playing.

:38 IN: We have 6-A of diamonds.  The flop is 8x-8x-3d.  The table checks.  The turn is J.  The table checks.  The river is a third 8.  We dare to call a bet of 180 -- and apparently it was a bluff, because our Ace is high enough to win the $1,090 pot.

:56 IN: We have J-2 of spades in the Big Blind.  The flop is As-Ax-Jx.  We bet 200 with two pair, and get called.  The turn is 6 (not a spade).  Everyone checks.  The river is 5.  We bet 200, get called -- but our opponent has 10-Q.  We win $1,400.

:58 IN: We have J-A of diamonds, and face a player going all-in for 1,025.  We call, and face A-6!  The board brings Q-8-K-9-Q, so we win $2,350.

The second break finds us up to $5,055 - 134th place, with 585 players left.

1:12 IN: We have A-9 in the Small Blind.  The flop is 5-6-9.  We bet the minimum 300, and get called.  The turn is Q.  An opponent bets 300, and we call.  The river is J.  The table checks - and we're relieved to see our opponent has A-K.  A pair of 9's wins us $3,300.

1:34 IN: After a four-way split of a pot and a nut flush chase which falls short, we have 4-A in the Big Blind.  The flop is K-9-A.  We bet the minimum 400, saying to ourselves, "We need this."  We get called.  The turn is 5.  We call a bet of 400.  The river is K.  When a bet of 400 comes, we feel compelled to stop a possible bluff and call -- but the opponent has 6-K.

A disastrous third term drops us to $1,855.  We're down to 193rd place, with 341 remaining - but the blinds are getting steep.

1:47 IN: We have K-A.  The flop is 3-6-2, and an opponent puts us all-in for our last 1,065.  The turn is 5.  The river is 9.  But our opponent only has 7-A!  It's a $4,960 comeback blessing.

1:52 IN: We have Q-A on the button.  The flop is 10-6-A.  We bet 1,000.  Other players with bigger stacks take the hint.  They fold; we win $4,150.

1:57 IN: We have pocket Aces!  Another player doubles the blind, and we tag along by calling.  The flop is 2-3-9.  We go all-in for 3,735, get a caller -- but the caller has only 4-4!  The turn is 8.  The river is 10.  We knock an opponent out, and jump to a nightly high of $15,670.

2:02 IN: We have A-6 in the Big Blind.  The flop is 2-5-J.  The table checks.  The turn is K.  More checking occurs.  The river is 3.  An opponent bets the minimum 800.  We dare to call -- and he has 8-Q!  Ace high survives, and we win $4,000.

A walk in the Big Blind wraps up a huge half-hour - as we end at $15,470, or a gain of 834 percent!  With 110 players still in the running, we're now "mid-list" at 55th.

2:22 IN: We have pocket Jacks.  The flop is 8-K-A.  An opponent bets the minimum 1,600, and we dare to call.  The turn is 2, and we stubbornly call another bet of 1,600.  The river is Q.  The same bet comes.  We think it's a bluff, so we call -- and we were partially right.  He has no big cards.  But he has pocket 2's.  A sneakily-played three of a kind costs us a lot.

2:28 IN: We have Q-J of hearts in the Big Blind.  The flop is 6-4-J, all spades.  An opponent bets 1,600, and we call.  The turn is 4.  We dare to go all-in for 4,695 with our two pair -- but give the appearance we could have much more.  The opponent ponders, then folds.  Good timing wins us $14,045!

2:47 IN: After missing with 6-A and 4-A, we're blessed with pocket Aces again!  Our notes don't show it, but we believe we went all-in again.  A player called - with K-K!  The board brings J-Q-6-10-7.  It's another escape, winning $7,785.

A lost $600 ante in the next hand ends the fifth period, leaving us with $7,185.  That's not worth much now, as we're in 46th place with only 50 players left.

2:59 IN: We have 9-2 in the Big Blind.  The flop is 3-7-4, and we're forced to fold to a minimum bet of $4,000.

3:00 IN: Now we're in the Small Blind, and can't afford to post it.  After the ante, we're all in for our last $1,285.  We're dealt a piddling 5-3.  The flop is 9-J-6.  The turn is A.  The river is 9 - and we know we're sunk. a player with Q-J wins the pot, and ends our night.

We actually dropped a few spots from the November Senior Championship, finishing 46th out of 867 players.  That still would have won us money in a live tournament - and done so for the second time this week.  In the Sunday night weekly championship, we finished 68th out of 1,024 players.  Only 52 players are paid there, and we were eliminated with A-K when a pesky player who pushed with Q-8 and a bigger stack caught a Queen on the turn.

MINISTRY MOMENT: An online tournament earlier in the day brought this exchange....


DonkeyEater:  Happy birthday JESUS
Me:  Was He born on Dec 25?
DonkeyEater:  no
Dealer:  DonkeyEater wins Main Pot ($270) with Two pair, queens and fours

Me:  I agree with you.

Why do we say that?  In part because the Bible nowhere says Jesus was "born on Christmas Day" (to borrow from a Caribbean spiritual song you might hear on radio).  And also because of some Biblical clues....
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. - Luke 2:8
Would shepherds be outside late at night in late December in the Middle East?  We actually checked a forecast for Jerusalem (located not far from Bethlehem), and found overnight lows in the 40's F.  That's about average -- and at almost the lowest point of the year.  We think that would be a bit chilly for shepherds, so....

Me:  I think it was closer to Sep-Oct.
DonkeyEater:  It is as good of a day as any other to honor our king
Me:  But if it's not the right day....?
DonkeyEater:  Doesn't matter
DonkeyEater:  he loves us anyway

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:12-13
Jesus displayed His love for us by giving His perfect, sin-free life to be the ransom payment for our sins -- to cover our death penalty (Romans 6:23).  But the Lord went on to say:
You are my friends, if you do what I command. - John 15:14
Search the Bible from beginning to end, and you'll find no verse where Christians are commanded to keep Christmas - or even say "Merry Christmas" (contrary to what some defenders might pressure you to believe).  Instead, Jesus warns:
...."These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught my men."  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." - Mark 7:6-8
Do your practices of worship come for the Bible?  Have you checked to make sure?  If you want to consider the issue of Christmas in detail, we're prepared a Bible study on it (actually a response to a defender of the holiday).

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