Poker Day 421: Ladies' Day?

"Happy Mother's Day to all you...."  Well, we'd better stop the quote there.  The manager of River City Poker Room was talking to a room full of men.  One young woman showed up later, but otherwise the Mother's Day crowd for Sunday poker was all-male.

Since our mother died years ago and we have no children, we were not neglectful as we went to the table.  But perhaps we should have asked if our parents would have been pleased with our decisions....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: Q-Q

We're in the Small Blind at a table of six, on a two-table day.  We've claimed one small pot already.  The blinds go up next hand.  No one has raised ahead of us.  These are cards worth exploiting - so we raise to 700.  A couple of players call.

ON THE FLOP: J-10-2

We have an "overpair," so a continuation bet clearly is in order.  We bet 1,200, and get one player to fold.  But a man two seats to our right doubles to 2,400.  This gets our internal alarm bells ringing, but we call.

ON THE TURN: A

Now this is the card which concerned us more on the flop.  We choose to "check to the raiser," and he now tosses out 4,000.  The logical voice in our head screams that he has two pair -- maybe with J-10, which is why he raised in the first place.

"I think he's got it," we say -- and fold, with cards face down.

Our opponent wins the pot.  And while he doesn't have to do it, he now turns over his cards.  It wasn't two pair -- but a third 2.  He bet big because he had a big hand.  The dealer wonders if the man who folded on the flop might have hit it big.

ON THE RIVER: 3d

That certainly would not have helped us.

We won a couple of other moderate-sized pots, and held on to make the final table with 12,000 chips.  Once there, we were dealt an Ace to start with the dealer button - maximizing our chances of staying in the game.

Then with seven players left, we went all-in with A-J.  But another man pushed with much more, telling us we were in trouble.  Sure enough -- he had 8-8.  The higher cards didn't come for us, and we bowed out in seventh place; only the top three won money.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We wore a hat with the words "Panama City Beach," and noted to a dealer we'd played at the main poker room in that area a couple of times.  We did not mention how well we did.  But we made an admission.

"I couldn't tell many people about it, because I was at a church convention."

Most people attending that convention probably would consider us wrong to play in a poker room -- especially during that annual event.  But, we'd point out in response, we do not spend specially set-aside "festival tithe" money in those rooms; we make sure we spend our own.  And we were reminded in Bible study the other day of Jesus's example....

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" - Luke 5:29-30

Some ministers say when you convert to Jesus and Christianity, you have to drop all your old friends because they'll be a "bad influence" and drag you back into worldly sins.  Yet Jesus let His disciples (apparently not yet filled with the Holy Spirit) hang around "sinners."  Why?

Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." - Luke 5:31-32

Jesus's mission was to spread the gospel to sinful people, in order that they might repent and accept Him as Savior.  That means going to where the sinful people are.  (And by the way, the Pharisees were every bit as sinful; they were more self-righteous - and may not have even entered the banquet room.)

In more than 400 trips to poker games, we have not been tempted to indulge in drunkenness or carnal lusting.  Why not?  We give God the credit for it, and recall these words about the Holy Spirit:

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. - I John 4:4

We must add a disclaimer: everyone's tolerance level is different.  What is easy for us to resist might be difficult or impossible for another.  So pray about what God would have you do, before taking steps which might be daring or "tempting God."

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 149 final tables in 421 games (35.4%) - 25 cashes.