Poker Night 550: The Ace Looks Familiar

"Aces only win 30 percent of the time," a man told us Wednesday night at Hollywood Casino Indiana. We learned that the hard way on our last poker night there. So imagine what might happen if history repeated itself....

BLINDS: 75/150

IN THE POCKET: A-A

We won an early pot with K-5 when two 5's came on the flop. Now we've been moved to a newly-formed table on this two-table tournament night - and look at what we've found on the very first hand! In mid-position at a table of six, we modestly raise to 300. A man across the table calls, but the rest aren't interested.

ON THE FLOP: A-2-Q

An auto club flop for us - as we have A-A-A. But the other man is first to act. He checks. We make a modest continuation bet of 500, and he calls. If this is like our last tournament and he has pocket Queens, the tables truly will turn.

ON THE TURN: 7

We can't imagine that helped our opponent at all. But he pulls a surprise, by betting 2,500. There's no straight or flush threat here - yet we pause for a moment simply because we're baffled. Why is he betting so much, especially considering what we have? We conclude there's nothing to fear, so we call.

ON THE RIVER: 9

"I'm all-in," our opponent says. Now we're convinced he was trying to bluff us away. That won't work, though; we take less than five seconds to call.

The opponent shows.... A-4. (We believe they were suited spades.)

"You've got an Ace. That's good," we say. "But I've got two Aces."

The opponent groans. He overbet, and his night is finished. Our chip count jumps to more than 24,000 in only one hand. Talk about a "turbo" tournament.

We tried to play carefully from there, and reached the first break at 24,750. Pocket Aces came twice more (once unshown), and we used them to knock out a second player. Despite some second-hour efforts which didn't pay off, we cruised to the final table at 22,300.

But then the cards started drying up for us. At the second break, we still had 18,100. But rising blinds were our undoing; we finally were forced to go all-in with Q-J, and a caller with pocket 10's won the race when the board didn't pair for us. At least we improved to sixth place out of 13 players, after the last early bust.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Let the Big Blind Special shine its light on me...." a large man sang when his turn in the Big Blind came.

"I think that was originally a gospel song," we said to him. We checked later, and must admit that's not true - although there is a gospel version of the Midnight Special tune (which some of you may know best from an old Friday night concert series on TV).

But our comment sparked a discussion about Christianity, and we found the man knew a number of Bible verses. At one point, he quoted this....

Death and life are in the power of the tongue... - Proverbs 18:21 (KJV)

"I'm 'speaking life' over my chips," the man added.

At that point, he turned from sounding like a believer to sounding irreverent and far-fetched. Some Christian preachers admittedly say if you pray hard enough or faithfully enough for something to grow, the growth will happen. And in fact, the man's chip stack improved from about 2,300 to the 10,000 range after we joined his table.

We'll save what happened from there for another post - but let's get back to that Bible verse. The man only quoted part of it....

….and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. - Proverbs 18:21b (KJV)

What does that mean? Doctors know if you swallow your physical tongue, you're at risk of dying. But we think a good Biblical explanation is found one verse earlier:

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled; with the harvest of his lips he is satisfied. - Proverbs 18:20

The words we say (or write on social media) can cause a big impact. They can bring insight to other people. They also can incite them to anger, and even violence. And at the end of the day (or better put, our days), God is keeping track of it all.

But I tell you that man will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. - Matthew 12:36-37

Our final table turned for a while into a comedy hour, with several people sharing jokes and stories. Sadly, most of them would be rated R or worse at the movies. So what are you saying when you play poker? And more importantly, how would Jesus judge it?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 203 final tables in 550 games (36.9%) - 41 cashes. Since hitting the 500-game milestone in April 2017, we've made 20 final tables out of 50 (40%).

The "Maverick" Who Played Poker

Many people in the U.S. are remembering a Senator this weekend, using terms such as "hero." John McCain of Arizona died from cancer Saturday. He was famous for many things - but one of his most infamous moments involved poker.

Courtesy Melina Mara/Washington Post

In September 2013, McCain seemed to be distracted during a Senate hearing on Syrian policy. The Washington Post snuck a photographer behind the desks, and found him playing video poker on his iPhone. McCain  confessed to his actions minutes later by writing "Scandal!" on social media.

Check the Twitter comments on McCain's confession, and you'll find many people were appalled by what he was doing. Yet it fit the "maverick" label others attached to him - and it's ironic, considering Maverick was the name of an old TV western about poker-playing brothers.

This leads us to ask: is it good to be a maverick - in the poker world, or otherwise? It might make you famous, but is it a good thing?

Our old hardbound dictionary has these definitions, among several: "One who refuses to abide by the dictates of his group; a dissenter.... One who resists adherence to or affiliation with any single organized group or faction".

We think there are two ways to look at this. It's good to be a maverick if you're coming out of this world. Jesus Christ was the prime example of that....

"Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you he truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things"... - John 8:39-40

Jesus was a Jew by birth (Revelation 5:5) who challenged the strict religious legalists of His day, such as the Jewish Pharisees. They indeed eventually had Him arrested and put to death. Yet that made the Lord the "maverick" of our salvation.

On the other hand, it can be bad to be a maverick if you're revolting against the ways of God in a lawless way. If that describes you, the Bible offers this advice:

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. - Isaiah 55:7

 We noted in a 2013 post about John McCain's game that there's a right time and a wrong time to play video poker. At the wrong time, you can even sin against God:

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as your please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord.... - Isaiah 58:13-14

So as we remember John McCain, we ask - are you a maverick? If so, on which side? We think it's better to be a maverick for the Master.

Slot, Pop and Play

Casinos are filled with them. We tend to walk right by them. But this evening, we were challenged to be successful at them - for two minutes.

Jack Casino invited us to its August "Birthday Bash". (Now you know our birthday month.) The main event was a free-entry slot tournament, with $2,500 in free play at stake. All we had to do was post one of the five highest scores in a two-hour span.

Our game time was 6:20 p.m. We stood behind the early leader, who racked up more than 100,000 points at 6:05. Doris's strategy was simple: pound the "play" button on the slot machine as quickly as you could, and watch the screen to touch balloons that occasionally appeared for thousands of bonus points.

"May the best button-pusher win," we said to a man next to us when our turn came.

Our tongue was only partly in-cheek. This tournament reminded us of why we avoid slots and prefer playing poker. Slot machines tend to be mindless, with no real skill involved. If you think religion is that way as well.... well, it really shouldn't be. Consider what Jesus told one man:

He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'....." "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." - Luke 10:27-28

Jesus was talking about how to obtain eternal life (verse 25). It's an "all-in" process - and that includes loving God with "all your mind." Does that mean turning your brain off at the church door? We believe it's exactly the opposite....

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

For instance, it means thinking over whether poker players are telling "true stories" in the way they play their hands. It also means thinking carefully about what God really expects of your life....

...But test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. - I Thessalonians 5:21 (NLT)

Sometimes the "gospel truth" well-intentioned people bring you is really "fake news." You can prove fact from fiction by comparing those comments with the Bible. If you're not a Bible reader, we recommend doing it daily to understand God properly.

But we digress....

The countdown went to zero, and our "two-minute drill" was on! We pressed the slot machine's "play" button with our right hand about six times a second, while saving our left hand for balloons to pop. We saw "second place" on our screen at one point early, and noticed we were above 60,000 points at the one-minute mark (everyone starts with 10,000).

"We want balloons!" we said to the machine several times, changing hands for the "play" button to avoid slowing down. To our knowledge, we didn't miss any balloons. But were we strong enough to win?

"You beat me!" we said to the man on our right after the clock reached zero. Our final score: 82,035 points. He was above 88,000. Based on the early results, 100,000 or more probably would be required to "make the money" - and we were only sixth in our group.

With our daily exercise (as we called it) completed, we walked over to the birthday party area. Jack's email promised cupcakes, but Jack topped that (for a change) with a full two-flavor cake, cookies and punch.

"If I had eaten the cake before the game, I might have done better," we joked to people around us. Perhaps a "sugar rush" would have made us press buttons faster. Instead, we settled for a consolation prize of a small win at a blackjack table.

In contrast to this, Hollywood Casino Indiana awarded us $15 in "birthday comps" on our card - good for a couple of free meals at one of the restaurants. Which deal do you think was better? Use your mind to comment - and even to worship the God who makes these moments possible.

Mo' Money, Mo' Money?

After some recent disastrous nights, we decided to hit the "pause" button on poker tournaments this past week. The timing was ironic, because of a book we've been studying lately. It's a book that talks about acquiring money and wealth (among other things). Consider these words from a wise man:

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. - Ecclesiastes 5:10

Ecclesiastes is a Biblical book which comes right after Proverbs - and King Solomon is commonly considered to be the main writer of both. That king of Israel could write knowledgably about wealth because he had plenty of it:

The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. - I Kings 10:14-15

Our NIV Study Bible says "666 talents" came to about 23 metric tons of gold. That's 23,000 kilograms, or more than 50,000 pounds. With the price of gold this weekend at about $1,184 per ounce, that computes in modern terms to more than $900 million per year! This makes the WSOP Main Event almost look like chump change.

Yet King Solomon came to realize all that wealth eventually comes to an end....

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?.... - Ecclesiastes 2:17-18

We've never seen a safe buried alongside a wealthy person. It wouldn't be "safe," anyway, because people would be tempted to steal it.

Our point is that if you're playing poker simply to run up a bankroll, that can be fleeting. Even if you keep setting earnings records, you'll lose it all when you die (Proverbs 27:20). That's why it's better to make something else your top pursuit....

But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. - Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

The Bible promises God's Kingdom will last forever. That's where our "treasure" focus needs to be (verses 19-21). Is that where yours is - in the poker room, and outside it?

The Green Monster

Our last post examined a variation of Pai Gow poker, where you can put chips on a "Fortune" button. If someone at the table makes four of a kind, everyone with chips on that button earns an "envy bonus."

Sounds strange, doesn't it - a bonus for envy?! Many times, it works the other way around. Poker players envy the success of others, try to copy them.... and wind up crashing out of tournaments or going bust at a cash game. Others envy someone else's possessions so much that they steal the items for themselves.

We'll let you do your own color research into why people become "green with envy" (as opposed to red or blue). But it's not the sort of emotion God wants us to have....

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy.... I Corinthians 13:4

Since the Bible tells us that "God is love" (I John 4:16), this shows envy is not one of His traits. In fact....

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery.... factions and envy.... those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. - Galatians 5:19-21

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. - James 3:16

If envy is a personal problem for you, we recommend repenting before God - then starting a new habit. Be happy when others are successful:

Honor one another above yourselves.... Rejoice with those who rejoice.... - Romans 12:10, 15

We realize at some poker tables, you might look weird doing this. But it's far better than letting envy eat away at your peace of mind - and maybe even your bank account.

We heard a message the other day that went deep into the topic of envy. It may reveal other areas of your life where you're "going green" in a bad way, and need to make some changes.

For-tuned in?

Texas Hold 'em is the brand of poker most commonly shown on TV and showcased in casinos. But look hard enough at many casinos, and you're likely to find tables with different poker breeds.

Pai Gow poker is a game where players receive seven cards, then try to beat the house's seven. One common version has you set aside two top cards, then the best hand you can make with the remaining five.

But Pai Gow has some side bets that could raise eyebrows - such as the "fortune" button. Put a chip on that, and you can win an "envy bonus" if someone else at the table makes four of a kind.

If you think all this is no big deal, consider a surprising Bible verse we found the other day....

But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword.... - Isaiah 65:11-12

The word "fortune" in the New International Version can be translated in several ways. The New King James has "Gad," which was a god in ancient Babylon. Some religious scholars compare it to Baal or the planet Jupiter. In any case, it's a false god compared to the God of the Bible.

But wait, you might be saying: isn't the idea of "fortune" everywhere? Yes, it is - from that famous game show to an old TV talent contest (listen about 1:00 in). You might even earn a "small fortune" in a poker room.

It all shows how the world's religions can subtly sneak into our lives. But if you spread the table for a "fortune," the true God is not pleased:

...For I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me. - Isaiah 65:12b

It's far better to put your future in the hands of the real God. And when it comes to money, He really doesn't ask for that much....

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it." - Malachi 3:10

A "tithe" refers to ten percent. And to make things clear - we are NOT asking you to send a tithe to us. If you want to give tithing a try, leave a comment and we'll offer some suggestions.

But this discovery in Isaiah about "Fortune" makes us unlikely to ever play Pai Gow - especially not the sidebets. There's more to the wording in this game, but we'll save that for a future post.

Poker Night 549: Monsters' Ball

Courtesy Fox19.com

If we had gone to Jack Casino for poker tonight, we might have encountered this. A small "colony" of homeless people (their word for it) has set up a tent camp across from the casino.

We left it to that group to send someone inside, to try and win enough money to gain everyone housing. They probably would have done better than we did tonight at the alternative, Hollywood Casino Indiana....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 9-9

It's the fourth hand of the night, with a full table of ten. The previous hand brought an awe-striking fold - as a woman with pocket Kings gave them up, when a man with pocket Aces went all-in pre-flop.

We were in the Big Blind then, and folded a measly 4-8. Now we're in the Small Blind, and no one has raised.

"I'm not going to do what he did," we say, "but I'll raise." We make it 150 to go, and three players take us on.

ON THE FLOP: 8s-8d-8h

It's a toll-free flop - and an immediate full house for us! This calls for a continuation bet, to see who's simply chasing big cards. We put out 400. The first opponent folds. The second calls. The third folds. So we're heads-up.

ON THE TURN: 4h

We doubt this helped our opponent at all. But what does he have? A full house of his own? We check, hoping to get a clue - but he checks, too.

ON THE RIVER: 2h

Now three hearts are showing. If he stumbled into a flush, we still have him topped. The larger concern is a larger pocket pair. So we make a rather cautious bet of 500.... and he raises to 2,500.

We've taken the lead in this hand, so we feel compelled to see it through to the end. We call. "Do you have a full house?" we ask.

"I have the 8," he says. OUCH!!! He hit quads on the flop, then waited us out! A good, well-played monster hand for him. We won a few hundred chips back minutes later with a hidden A-Q.

But then, when a man raised to 1,100, we saw pocket Aces in the Big Blind. Pushing like that earlier player did would have seemed too obvious, so we raised to 3,500. He called - and the flop was K-Q-10. For no good reason except to scare him away, we bet 5,000. Our opponent went all-in. We feared the worst, but called anyway. His cards: Q-Q. The turn and river didn't save us, and we finished our worst poker night this year - first out, in under 30 minutes.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "We're all playing with a short deck," the dealer said at one point in the early minutes.

"Now you're getting philosophical," we told him with tongue-in-cheek. But we admitted, "I need to grow in knowledge." And when our turn with the cards came, we explained, "I need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ."

That reminder comes right out of the New Testament:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. - II Peter 3:18

These closing words of the apostle Peter should be taken in their entirety. For years, we attended church groups that emphasized the "knowledge" part - but on knowing scriptures, more than knowing the One who is the focus of Scripture. The two should go hand-in-hand....

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. - Colossians 1:9

Spiritual wisdom means a "sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7, KJV). We'll admit we really didn't have it in our last hand of the night.

We should have realized the flop gave our opponent an excellent chance of hitting two high pair or three of a kind. Yet instead of making the awe-striking fold like that woman did, we did our own version of "going on tilt" - hoping the longshots that bit us recently would turn around and help us.

So the knowledge of Jesus Christ is important - but so is His grace. We need it, after clearly making a bad decision to go out for a poker night instead of staying home to work on other things. But thankfully, we can do this....

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. - Hebrews 4:16

Do you need God's mercy for some reason - perhaps something much bigger than a poker meltdown? Ask God for it in prayer, repenting of sin if the case requires it. He's willing to listen and forgive.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 202 final tables in 549 games (36.8%) - 41 cashes.

Remember As You Play....

...Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. - Ephesians 4:22 (New Living Translation)

Poker players like to joke during tournaments about how "truthful" they are. The real truth is that sometimes, players resort to deceptive moves to win pots. We did something like that, with an all-in moment in our last tournament. A man did it several times to Phil Hellmuth at this year's World Series of Poker Main Event, leading to one of Hellmuth's most famous rants in years.

Does the verse we quoted mean poker players should end all that? Not necessarily. The New International Version translates the last part by saying, "Your old self.... is being corrupted by its deceitful desires." The desire is deceitful, more than the person or his actions - although the two certainly can combine:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9

What does your heart desire, when you play poker? If it's simply a good time with friends or an entertaining evening, that's one thing. But if you're hungry for money or fame, be careful....

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. - Ecclesiastes 5:10

Some things really are worth desiring - and they're things which require no deception at all. In fact, they depend on you being truthful.

Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. - Hebrews 13:18

That desirable life can lead to eternal life in God's kingdom - but it depends on having a "clear conscience." Have you checked yours lately? Are you really living a life that God would accept - in the poker room, as well as outside it?