Poker Night 467: All About Yvie's

"So did the police do something to the poker rooms?" a woman asked at the place where we played tonight.  If you have to ask, you're probably a part-time player.

To be fair, that woman probably is. Tonight we went to the opposite end of the poker spectrum from the Heartland Poker Tour - back to the amateur version of World Poker Tour, where we started playing in Kansas three Aprils ago.  It's now called "WPT League", and it's dropped from several weekly locations in our city to only one.

Yvie's Bar and Grill on the west side of town is much more "bar" than "grill." Signs with beer jokes abound. It's a throwback to the places where we played poker in Georgia and Alabama years ago - and police are unlikely to raid it, since the games are totally free to enter (no chair rental) and you can buy as much or little refreshment as you wish.

Two tournaments were going simultaneously at this small bar tonight. One was a "VSC" - Venue Series Championship, with top players from recent weeks competing for a trip to Las Vegas for a high-stakes contest. Then there was ours. The "open division" tournament had some distinct characters, reminding us more of a classic TV sit-com. It also had surprising twists....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: K-10

The open division has only two tables. We're at a table of six, and have won a nice pot followed by a fairly big loss to a flush.  Now we're in the Big Blind, and a player ahead of us has raised to 800. These cards are pretty substantial, so we call. As we recall, four players are in.

ON THE FLOP: Kc-Qc-10c

We make two pair, but we see potential trouble with so many clubs showing.  The Small Blind checks, and we offer a large "get lost" bet of 1,500. Our goal is to stop potential chasers, and two of them fold. But the Small Blind calls.

ON THE TURN: As

Well, at least that's not a club. But it's potentially more trouble, because now a Jack makes a straight. The Small Blind checks again. If he was waiting for an Ace, our two pair would still top his one - so we repeat the bet of 1,500.  He quietly calls again. Hmmm.

ON THE RIVER: Jc

Uh-oh - there's the fourth club.  That's such a big concern that only much later do we realize that card put a straight on the table. The Small Blind checks once more - and we don't dare risk any more. We check as well, and he shows.... the Ace of clubs! 

We led the hand all the way to the river - and then the Small Blind hit a royal flush!  This marks the second time we've lost a hand that way, although the prior case was much more of a bad beat.

But we recovered from that loss by winning more hands, eventually eliminating the royal flush man and another player when A-K of spades turned into a "nut flush" on the river. That led us to the open final table with 43,500 chips - and we gained from there to make the final two, heads-up!

We were behind in chips to a middle-aged woman, but rallied from 10,000 and a forced all-in to 70,000. We finally went all-in with J-J while she called with a measly 4-3 of spades.  You might guess what happened - she paired both her cards, with a 3 on the river giving her the match.

Second place would allow us to play in a couple of WPT League online tournaments for small prizes - but both weekly times don't fit our current schedule. Yet it was nice to "go back in time" for a night. Back to when the games were free, the players were more entertaining than serious and people actually talked about their lives - even if some brought up ex-spouses' divorces.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "You doing good?" a man asked as we waited in line outside the small men's restroom during the one-hour break.

"I try to do good," we told him. "But that's not always easy."

He nodded, and we continued. "It's like a man once said - the good things that I ought to do, I don't always do. And the things that I don't want to do, I wind up doing."

"The apostle Paul," the man responded.

How about that! At that small bar, a customer knew exactly what we were talking about, and where we found that quote....

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.... 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. - Romans 7:15, 19

The way many Bibles phrase this section makes it almost sound like a comedy routine. But we think Paul was very serious. He wanted to do good things....

....But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. - Romans 7:23

Every human has the innate ability to sin.  Some people, of course, are more concerned about that than others. Paul indicated he was quite concerned:

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 

If you're becoming aware of your "sin nature," that can bring bad feelings. But God wants to turn those feelings into a good life. It starts by repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as the sacrifice before God for them. If you need help doing that, leave a comment and we'll be happy to help.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 176 final tables in 467 games (37.7%) - 33 cashes. We've split our "vacation poker" so far, although our financial planner probably would prefer the order had been reversed.