BLINDS: 800/1,600
IN THE POCKET: If you haven't guessed by now, Ace-Jack offsuit
We stumbled early at a table of six, but fought back to return to around our starting count of 10,000 chips. A seventh player now has joined us, and he's talking somewhat big to match his stack. We sit second in line in this hand with 8,200 chips, and choose to limp early. No one raises, to force the issue. Most of the table is in.
ON THE FLOP: K-K-A
Those letters could spell trouble for anybody. But we have top two pair and a very good kicker - so when the play checks to us, we think it's a good sign. We bet 2,000. That brings some folds, but a man and woman call.
ON THE TURN: A
Hmmm. Now we have the full house "nuts" - and we can't all have an Ace, can we?
The other players check. We have an impulse to go all-in right now, but that might make our hand too obvious. To maximize our potential gain, we bet 2,000 more.
"I have to call this," the woman says after thinking a moment. Our guess: she has the missing Ace. Or with two spades and two clubs showing, she could be dreaming of a big flush. The man between us calls for some reason as well.
"I'm going to put the full house on the table," the dealer jokes....
ON THE RIVER: 8
Nope, he didn't. And any chasers now are in big trouble. The two opponents check again.
"All of it," we say. We have 2,600 chips left. The insistent woman calls. The man in the middle surrenders.
"You didn't think I had an Ace," we say - and show it. The woman mucks her cards in response. Maybe she had a third King. But whatever she had, we get a windfall - including a 5,000-chip bonus for the best hand of the tournament so far.
We won another big pot to put that middle-man out - and at the one-hour break, we had an impressive 41,500 chips. But it's amazing how quickly that stack can collapse when blinds go up and promising hands miss flops. It did for us.
We held on until nine players were left, one away from the final table. Then seeing A-4 in the Big Blind, we pushed for our last 10,000. The Small Blind called with something like 6-9 -- but of course, the flop had a 6. No Aces came, and our bubble burst with a ninth-place finish.
MINISTRY MOMENT: Out drive home takes us past one of the leading "beggar's corners" in town. Tonight a man was in the intersection well after dark, holding a "HELP" sign.
"I don't want no trouble," he told us as we walked to the middle island to meet him. But he also didn't want the things we were offering: a card for a city "Homeless Outreach Team", or a small bag with food and a Christian booklet inside.
"I'll give this to my friend." The beggar pointed to one of four men along the side of the street. He considered only one of them a friend - a man who looked familiar, from helping him in the past.
"Thank you very much. God bless you," that friend said as he offered to shake our hand. Then he had a question for us: "Do you know Jesus?"
Yes, we assured him - we do. "Tell him," we said to "friend" referring to the original beggar. "I think he needs Him."
That beggar was a hardened homeless man - on the streets for five years, cursing a lot. And while he originally told us he wanted "money and food," a can of Vienna sausages in our bag didn't impress him. We see several problems in his life - but we'll only focus here on one:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. - Romans 1:21
We're probably giving the beggar the benefit of the doubt by presuming he "knew God" at some point. But when he grumbled about any effort to provide assistance, it's a reminder that unthankfulness can hurt your own reputation. Consider what happened when ten people received a medical miracle from Jesus:
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus's feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" - Luke 17:15-18
Maybe the other nine didn't realize what had happened. Maybe they were too busy. Or maybe they were too hard-hearted, like that beggar in the intersection. How do you view life and the small blessings that come - like our beggar, or his friend?
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 176 final tables in 471 games (37.4%) - 33 cashes.
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