Breaking Up the Band

What an amazing poker year it is for us. Not really in how we're playing, but what's happening to poker rooms where we've played. We've now found out another room has closed - a place we visited only once.

Prairie Band Casino in northeast Kansas has shut down its poker room, apparently to turn it into a bingo hall. When we were there last August, we finished second in a Sunday tournament. But apparently not many players showed up during the week. One man told us the "Bad Beat" jackpot there reached $250,000, but people still weren't interested.

One video we've seen online notes casinos really don't care about it, because they don't make much money from it. We'd guess that's especially true beyond tournaments. Cash games tend to have players shuffling chips (and money) between each other. The only time that changes is when a player is kind enough to tip a dealer.

Come to think of it, some poker players could learn a lesson from Prairie Band. If you're not making money and having success at it, you should minimize your losses and get out. That's true in card games, business.... and even bigger things:

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. - Isaiah 55:2

Some ministers would turn this into a commentary on eating whole wheat bread - but of course, the point is bigger than that....

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. - Isaiah 55:3

You may be surprised to learn "souls" can die. The Bible says so more than once (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). But they can be resurrected to live again, under God's covenant plan:

And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.... They came to life and reigned with Chris a thousand years. - Revelation 20:4

The resurrected souls gave up their lives for Jesus - and Jesus is "bread" worth the cost of your money and time:

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.... If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." - John  6:35, 51

Listen to Jesus. Take Him into your life. And your life can last long beyond this one - long after the bread served in casino restaurants runs out, and the last poker room shuts down.