BLINDS: 100/200
IN THE POCKET: 6-3 of hearts
It's the very first hand of the night, at a table of six players. We're in the Small Blind, and no one has raised. Of course we'll play suited cards. About four players are in.
ON THE FLOP: 2h-Jh-8h
A perfect flop for us! But then the humility moment strikes. Our hearts to make the flush are small. Someone might be sitting on bigger ones. So in lead position, we bet 500 to take the temperature of the table. Several players fold, but the dealer does not. He calls.
ON THE TURN: Kh
A fourth heart makes our cards suddenly look a whole lot smaller. Is this what the dealer was waiting for? We check to see.
"I'll bet 1,000," he says. Yup, that's what we feared.
"I liked these cards for awhile," we respond - but we fold, expecting the worst. Sure enough, the dealer shows us the Ace of hearts. He had a draw for the "nut flush," and received it.
That loss was relatively small, but we won a few pots which were modestly big. From a starting 10,000, we reached 11,200 at the first break. We won a few more in the second hour, helped at one point by pocket Aces. Despite a big loss with A-J at the end, we reached the final table at the two-hour break with 12,000.
A couple of wins and splits there lifted us to a high of 25,000 - but at that point, the blinds had reached 5,000/10,000. A desperation push with A-9 led to a 9 on the board, but a man to our left had Q-Q to eliminate us. We wound up matching Friday's tournament in Tulsa, with a sixth-place finish out of about 25 players.
MINISTRY MOMENT: "I'm a generic Christian," a man across the table told us before the night began. No, we didn't bring up religion; a talkative older man next to him did.
But what did he mean by generic? "I go by what Jesus did, not by what some religion says." That may sound strange, but it actually follows the Bible's advice....
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. - I Corinthians 11:1
The apostle Paul wrote this to a church group that was showing signs of division:
What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ". - I Corinthians 1:12
The Christian movement has had a lot of splits over the years. Protestants marked a major one a couple of weeks ago, with the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's action sparking the Reformation. Yet what did the apostle say long ago about this?
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? - I Corinthians 1:13
His point in this letter and others was that every believer ultimately should follow Jesus Christ.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. - Ephesians 5:23
So the man across the table was perceptive. But we had a question for him. "Didn't Jesus say He came to build a church?" Indeed He did....
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. - Matthew 16:18
The man admitted he'd only attended a church service a few times in recent months. Yet as divided as Christianity is, we're expected to attend one as we're able. We'll go deeper into that in an upcoming post.
UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 187 final tables in 512 games (36.5%) - 36 cashes. Since crossing the 500-game mark, we've made four final tables in 12 tries.
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