BLINDS: 400/800
IN THE POCKET: K-K
We've won a few pots, including one with a ridiculous bluff bet. But our stack has gone up and down, and now we're at a table of six with 6,700 chips. A young man to our immediate right is doing much better, and he's first to act in this hand. He raises to 2,200. Then we see our cards, and there's little doubt of what to do. It's time to push back.
"Raise - 4,400," we say quietly, dropping down a 5,000-chip piece. A player across the table is puzzled by that number, but we note we're doubling the original bet.
The rest of the table folds, leaving that young man pondering what we might have. In a way, that lengthy thought process could have been a tell. If he had pocket Aces, wouldn't he have re-raised right away?
Finally he does re-raise, going all-in. We call for our last 2,300. But we forget something.
"Put in the bonus chip," a woman to our left reminds us. We won that chip by taking the first hand of the night - a chip you can cash in for 5,000 only if you make the final table.
"But I don't want to put it in!" we say in a joking protest like a six-year-old. But of course, we do. Then our opponent shows.... A-J! He has a higher card, but we're happy to see we have the lead. "Keep 'em low, please," we encourage the dealer. The cards come out very slowly....
ON THE FLOP: 10-8-6
Good. Very good.
ON THE TURN: 4
Still good - and no flush chance is showing.
ON THE RIVER: J
"Ohhhhh," we declare. The opponent gained a pair - but with the lower card. The Kings survive, and we double up to more than 14,000 chips (when folded blinds are figured in).
But the blinds go up quickly at Yvie's, and we were down to.11,000 at the first break. Then three tables were combined into two, and we had a Small Blind which the cards wouldn't let us defend. Finally with 2,000 chips left, we pushed with Q-10. Two players called, including that young man who was doing well. His A-3 did very well when 3's came on the flop and the river. 3x3=2 knocked out - including us, awarded tenth place.
MINISTRY MOMENT: The beggar's corner was occupied again as we drove home - this time by the man who was happy to get a bag of food a couple of weeks ago, while another beggar grumbled.
"HELP" read his little cardboard sign. He said he needed about everything. "This is humiliating," he admitted to us. Yet it's seemingly become a way of life for him.
We gave the man a business card for the local Homeless Outreach Team. Then he said, "I know somebody named Jesus, and I think he's coming back. He's a good Daddy!"
We answered with a line from a recent hit Christian song - but as we walked away, we wondered if we should have corrected his theology. You see, Jesus technically is not a believer's Father.
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. - Hebrews 2:11
Jesus Christ can be your brother if you're willing to let Jesus make you holy - but that's not really our focus tonight. Let's consider the "Father" Jesus mentioned:
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. - John 10:29-30
With all respect to fans of the late Muhammad Ali, the real "greatest of all time" is God the Father. After all, He's the creator of life - and the One who provided Jesus Christ as a sacrifice so we might have eternal life.
No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. - I John 2:23It's a package deal. - or perhaps better put, a family deal. Will you acknowledge God as your Father, admitting belief in His holy Son as you do?
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 176 final tables in 473 games (37.2%) - 33 cashes. After a good start to 2016, we've now missed six final tables in a row.
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