But we were able to start with 60,000 chips (62,000 with an "on-time bonus"). The challenge was holding on to them:
BLINDS: 200/400
IN THE POCKET: K-9 of spades
All those chips and low blind levels have allowed us to take some early chances. Trouble is, they've all fallen short so far. We come to this hand with about 56,000 chips, looking for something to get us going. We're in the Big Blind, and get help when no one raises at our table of seven. As best we recall, four players are in.
ON THE FLOP: 6s-10s-Kh
Top pair seems good to it. When the Small Blind checks, we bet 1,000. A man to our left calls. So does a man across the table. The Small Blind folds.
ON THE TURN: 8c (guessing on the suit)
If this card helped anybody, we still possess top pair. So we turn up the heat by betting 2,000. The man to our left clearly isn't comfortable with this, but he calls. So does the other player.
ON THE RIVER: 3s
Uh-oh -- three spades now are showing. We check cautiously. The man to the left checks. The man across the table ponders a moment, then checks as well.
"I've got nothing," the man across from us says.
"Kings," we say.
"Flush," the dealer points out.
"Oh yeah!" we say with surprise. We admittedly overlooked the fact that we had two spades! Our checking of the river looked like a great trap. Too bad nobody bit -- but at least we gained several thousand chips.
We climbed back to the starting level, then scored a big gain when we called with K-K and topped a man who went all-in with Ace-high. Another big gain with Q-Q fell short, when an all-in opponent with 10-9 hit two pair on the flop. But we still reached the final table with about 70,000 chips.
Once there, climbing blinds took their toll. We stayed alive with A-7, when we called a man with a matching hand. (Amazingly, the flop was 7-A-A.) Then A-K brought us an all-in win. But another try with K-J fell short, when a man with a 7 caught a pair on the flop and we missed. End result: eighth place for the second tournament in a row.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "This man is using a salt packet for his car protector," a player at the final table said with a laugh.
It was our salt packet, of course. "I brought it to remind me that Jesus said I'm supposed to be the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13).
A man across the table actually was delighted to hear this. "I try to bring up Jesus at poker tables, but other people don't want to talk about Him," he said. "They don't think it's the right place to talk about that, but I think we should talk about Jesus all the time."
Wow! Regular readers know this sort of reaction is rare. And we think we know why....
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. - John 3:19
These words of Jesus seem as true today as they did long ago. People who don't want to embrace the "light of the world" (John 8:12) would rather not even talk about the things of God. What they may not realize is that they can try to run from God.... but they can't hide:
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up against me." But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.... - Jonah 1:1-3
Jonah tried to run away from God's assignment. That led to a violent storm (1:4), Jonah being thrown off a ship (1:15), a giant fish swallowing Jonah for three days and nights (1:17), then a second command from God to go to Nineveh (3:1-2). This time....
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.... - Jonah 3:3
Are you trying to be like Jonah -- running away from God? Trust us: it won't work. He's bigger than you. He wants you to come to the light of His Son. And the light won't hurt. Honestly. In fact, your life might be a lot better for it.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 167 final tables in 453 games (36.9%) - 29 cashes. A busy schedule will restrict us to online poker only for the next few weeks.
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