On the Flop

Poker Night 293: Who's Got the Nuts?

2012-02-16T21:46:00.001-05:00

The price of poker must be going up everywhere -- because as of tonight, a 12-ounce can of big-name soda cost $2.50 at Lil Kim's Cove instead of two dollars. The server gave us less change for a 20-dollar bill without any explanation. But she also gave us 4,000 poker chips as a reward, and this was a night when we needed them.

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: K-K

Our table of six is playing like we're in Zimbabwe, not the U.S. Hyperinflated raises in the thousands have abounded. So when we see this sitting third in the betting order, we're ready to move -- but realize others want to move first. So we limp in, and are a bit surprised when nobody raises pre-flop; most of the table is in.

ON THE FLOP: 2-5-J

The table checks ahead of us -- but with a nice overpair, we reach for chips.

"Your Jack is no good," a man to our immediate left warns.

"OK, then -- 700," we say (not bothering to mention we don't have a Jack).

"That's peanuts to the elephants." that man points out. Yeah, we know. But it's also a relatively modest bet for this night, and we'd like some callers. About three players call.

ON THE TURN: A

Oops. This is potential trouble. But the table checks again -- and this time, so do we.

ON THE RIVER: Ac

This complicates matters, by putting three clubs on the board. But once more the players ahead of us check -- so we feel somewhat confident, and bet 700 again.

"Do you have a Jack?" the man to our left asks. We stare back at him and say nothing -- so he decides to fold. Only the player to our immediate right calls.

"Do you have an Ace?" we now ask. "Because I have Kings."

"Naw -- all I had is a Jack." Thank you very much! Our stack jumps from the 5,000 range to more than 9,000.

We took another pot later to improve to 10,075. But chases fell short after that, and we only took 2,150 to the one-hour break. A former tournament director graciously gave us 3,000 bonus chips in the second hour (apparently because he had to leave) -- and we went for it all when we saw A-2 of diamonds, with a bigger stack all-in ahead of us. He had 4-4, and he won the race when the board didn't pair. We left in 18th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: A man at our table ordered a grilled cheese sandwich during the one-hour break -- but was stunned to take a bite, and discover there was ham included with the cheese.

"They're trying to poison me!" the man said amid expletives. "I don't eat pork!"

"I don't eat pork, either," we replied. But then we wanted to probe a little further. "Why don't you eat pork? For religious reasons?"

"Both," the man curiously answered. "Health reasons -- and I had a bad reaction to pork once."

We're in a part of the U.S. where pork products are all over the menu, from breakfast biscuits to barbecue restaurants. So this situation sparked a discussion.

"I read in a book once you shouldn't eat pork," we said.

"What book is that?" a man across the table asked.

"The Bible."

"Yeah, it's in the Bible," agreed the man who ordered the sandwich.

"Yeah -- but you've got to read deeper into the Bible," explained the man across from us. "You've got to read Amos."

Amos?!?! That man didn't explain any further -- and we admittedly don't take a Bible to poker nights.

"Now I know what to study when I get home," we said to a man next to us. And we invite you to study this topic with us. Where in the Bible are we warned against eating pork? And where in Amos will you find the other side of the issue? We'll compare notes in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 106 final tables in 293 nights (36.2%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments -- 191 point wins in 824 games (23.2%), 66 final tables, 7 cashes.

We were in the running for a final table earlier in the day, but our McAfee computer security system started a weekly scan which froze our browser for about 15 minutes -- and inactivity gets you disqualified at ten minutes. Our frustration with McAfee continues.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $74,198, up $2,830.

A Real Game-Changer

2012-02-15T19:57:00.001-05:00

"As of today, the rules for playing poker at The Sports Page have changed," the tournament director announced before Monday night's game. And it was NOT because we showed up for the first time in several months.

Up to now, the sports bar awarded cash prizes to the top two players -- and anyone who walked in and sat down had a chance to win the money. But the tournament director received a big surprise from the management Monday. The bar still will let anyone play for free -- but from now on....

You have to pay a ten-dollar buy-in to be eligible for the prize money. (If a "freeroller" wins, he/she gets nothing.)
Only first place gets the money.
"The money" comes to only 25 percent of the total buy-in. Your $10 bill gets you a five-dollar voucher for food and drink that evening; $2.50 more goes into that night's jackpot, while the other $2.50 goes into a prize pool for a "major tournament" every couple of months.

This sudden change spoiled the mood at The Sports Page Monday night. It certainly changed our approach to the tournament; we didn't carry ten dollars with us, so we couldn't win a dime. And several people grumbled this effectively will mean the end of poker nights at the sports bar.

We don't know if the "end is near" there -- but it reminded us that many people are more comfortable when the rules are consistent. Texas Hold 'em works that way, after all; a flush beats a straight today every bit as much as it did 50 years ago.

The original "rule book" for mankind works the same way. God gave us a set of foundational laws long ago....

Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant -- the Ten Commandments. - Exodus 34:28

Some people think Jesus changed the rules of life's game when He came to Earth. But He said otherwise:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. - Matthew 5:17

Read all of Matthew 5 and you'll find Jesus actually expanded the interpretation of one of the commandments (adultery), as well as other rules given to Moses. And the Lord went on to say....

"If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" -- Matthew 19:17-18

Countries around the world still consider some of these commandments the settled law of the land today. But sadly, some places have abolished or ignored several of them.

The place where you play poker might change the "house rules" tonight or next week. But we can be thankful God's basic rules have not -- and obeying them is a way we can show love for our Creator (I John 5:3).

Poker Night 292: Two Too Many

2012-02-13T22:46:00.000-05:00

Combine a 50-percent discount at a sports bar with a big college basketball rivalry on TV, and you have an entertaining evening. Add a poker tournament to that, and it's a trifecta for us. So we visited The Sports Page tonight for our first Monday night game in several months.

Except.... the discount didn't really happen, because there were conditions not shown on the discount form. And the poker tournament? Well....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 5-4 of clubs

We're in the small blind, and have just been rewarded with 4,000 bonus chips for buying dinner before the game. Since we haven't won a pot yet, we're ready to rumble a little -- but small suited connectors don't seem fit for raising. Thankfully, we don't have to do it. No one raises; about two-thirds of the full table is in.

ON THE FLOP: J-5-J

We don't see any clubs -- but we see an opportunity to break out here with two pair. We offer an enticement bet of 400. Several players take the hint -- and fold. Only one man across from us calls.

ON THE TURN: 9

We have one opponent, and we're admittedly wary of him. Is he hiding a third Jack? We check, and he bets 1,000. Holding out hope for a full house on the river, we dare to call.

ON THE RIVER: 9

The last thing we want to see is a second pair on the board. We check again. Our opponent bets 2,000, and we fold in a hurry -- because our "second pair" of 5's is now only third-best. Too many cards beat us.

We admittedly played a bit on the loose side tonight, hoping to win a lot of chases. But we didn't -- and holding As-10c minutes later, we went all-in for our last 2,000 when an all-spades flop came out including 7-8. The turn was 9c, giving us a lot of outs for a flush and a straight draw. The river was Ah, giving us top pair -- but an opponent playing live poker for the very first time had A-9, and his two pair beat us. Our night ended in about 45 minutes, first out at the table. But we went home with our alma mater well ahead at halftime.

MINISTRY MOMENT: No smoking is allowed in the main restaurant at The Sports Page. That's good news for us -- and for another player at the table who doesn't smoke. "I have one life to live," he said.

"But there's something after that!" we tried to tell him. We don't think he heard us. But here's what we meant....

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.... - Hebrews 9:27 (NASB)

If Jesus doesn't come back before you die -- well, you're going to die. But the Bible indicates that's not all there is:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. - II Corinthians 5:10

We write this two days after the death of singing star Whitney Houston. Some people are convinced she's in heaven now. We're leaving that decision on "judgment" up to Jesus -- and to be honest, we don't think that decision has happened yet. We'll explain why in our next post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 106 final tables in 292 nights (36.3%) - 17 cashes.

Characters Wanted?

2012-02-12T19:06:00.001-05:00

Huh? We thought poker was a more popular game than ever. But none other than Daniel Negreanu declared recently it's in "big trouble.... heading in the wrong direction."

Why? Apparently not because of the U.S. Justice Department crackdown. Negreanu told an interviewer the problem is that too many online poker stars are.... well, dull. They're so focused on Internet play that they come across as wonky, lacking in personality. (And if anyone should know about being a "poker personality," it's Negreanu.)

There are two ways to look at these comments. For one thing, there's nothing wrong with working hard at what you do -- whether you're a poker pro or a laborer on the construction site:

Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. - Proverbs 10:4

Negreanu even admitted in the interview he may have lost a bit of his game by becoming a "media face" of poker, as opposed to the "poker non-stop" approach of Phil Ivey.

But then again, working non-stop can burn you out and run you down. An occasional break is good for you, in ways far beyond your physical health. That's part of the reason why the Bible recommends....

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. - Exodus 20:10

In fact, it's not simply a recommendation -- it's one of God's Ten Commandments. We also think gathering and fellowshipping with believers from other walks of life on the Sabbath can help build personality skills, while widening your perspective on things.

Live poker tournaments in our area can include plenty of interesting characters; we share their stories here from time to time. Online players don't really expose such traits, outside of their avatars and chat comments.

So what do you think of Negreanu's comments? Is poker (especially on TV) better with guys wearing "chicken suits"? Or is it all about the game?

Poker Night 291: Grand Opening

2012-02-09T22:39:00.000-05:00

For some big-time poker players, timing is everything -- not only inside a hand, but in a tournament overall. Gus Hansen writes in one of his books that he tries to dominate the final hands of a day, because opponents are afraid of getting busted and not advancing 24 more hours. We adjusted that way of thinking in a hand tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: 9-4 of spades

It's the first hand of the night. We're sitting "one behind the dealer." And in fairly typical fashion, no one raises in front of us. It's like a "warm-up hand," and we see no reason to upset that with small suited cards. We call, and nearly everyone at the table of seven is in.

ON THE FLOP: Qh-4c-Ks

The players check ahead of us -- but we hit the flop, so why should we wait? We bet 150, which is enough to attract several investors. (But it's not enough to coax a raise from someone with a bigger hand.)

ON THE TURN: 5s

The pair of 4's looked weaker, but our chances for a flush now are stronger. The table checks in front of us again -- and this time we make a "continuation bet" of 200. A few players call, but this time a man to our immediate right raises 1,000.

We stop a moment to consider this. We bought a soda to increase our starting chip stack to 7,000. This raise is big, but not overwhelmingly big. We decide to give it a shot, and call. As we recall, two other players call.

ON THE RIVER: As

"Flush!" a player to our left announces. (So much for the element of surprise.) The players in front of us check again -- and that's something we hoped to see. Now we bet 2,000. The first two players unhappily fold -- but the man who raised on the turn calls.

"Do you have a flush?" we ask him. "Because I do."

We show our spades, and they're good enough! The other man has 5-5, which explains why he raised on the turn. But running spades to the river top him, and we more than double our chip stack.

A pair of 5's won us another pot in the first hour, and cautious play outside of that brought us to the one-hour break at 14,500. But a big loss early in hour two led to us pushing all-in under the gun with K-J of diamonds. Two players called -- but it turned out everyone missed the board, and King-high was good enough to keep us in! We held on from there, reaching our first final table in six weeks.

But the draw for dealer at the final table put us in the big blind immediately, forced to go all-in with only 3,500 chips left. We had J-9 and found a Jack on the river -- but a woman with J-Q had a better kicker and kicked us out. It was a ninth-place night, but one hand at a final table is still a "final table" for us.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The blinds were 2,000/4,000 on that last hand. A woman to our left with a huge stack of chips noticed we were 500 chips short of the big blind, and threw in 500 more to make up the difference. Trouble was, the dealer kept throwing the green 500 chip back at her.

"You can't do that," he said. (We're honestly not sure if that's allowed in casinos or not; if you know, please leave a comment.)

"But she's trying to be giving," we said in the woman's behalf. Then we turned to her and added, "Giving is a nice thing to do. It's better to give than to take."

Then we realized the game we were playing. "Unless you're in the middle of a pot; then you might change things."

That brought a smile to the woman's face. Away from the table, we think giving is much more likely to bring a smile to God's face.

Freely you have received, freely give. -- Matthew 10:8

We're actually taking these words of Jesus out of context a bit -- because He said them while instructing His disciples to perform miraculous acts while preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. But other New Testament passages support the giving principle:

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - II Corinthians 9:6-7

As it happened, a man came to our poker table during the game with what apparently was a fundraising promotion. Buy a raffle ticket for four dollars and you can get a chili dog dinner, while also paying for a similar dinner for a homeless person. On top of that, one raffle ticket was rewarded with 5,000 chips. We didn't carry enough cash to take part in that. But it shows some poker players do have a giving spirit -- outside a tournament, at least.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 106 final tables in 291 nights (36.4%) - 17 cashes. Next week's live poker schedule will be different for us; you'll see what we mean.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 191 point wins in 818 games (23.3%), 66 final tables, 7 cashes. We scored a top-40 finish earlier in the day, at a tournament with 645 players.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $71,368, up $5,030. We topped the $70,000 mark with a big cash game week. A Monday night "lightning round" gave us an increase of $3,595.

NLOP Clarification

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote National League of Poker no longer has its big-money weekly championship tournament on Sunday nights -- that it had been moved to Sunday afternoons U.S. ET.

While there is a weekly championship at stake then, there's still a "Sunday night special" tournament with $100 in prize money. And instead of qualifying, anyone can enter -- if they pay a buy-in of 50,000 points. Since we're only playing at NLOP part-time these days, we're waiting for the right time to try that.

On the Side

2012-02-09T00:08:00.000-05:00

When one player showed up at an online tournament the other day, we simply couldn't resist making a farewell comment about his name....

paragod83 eliminated from the tournament (he/she has lost all his/her chips)
Me: Better to worship God than a para-god.

We took the player's name to mean something along the lines of a half-god. But a strict Webster's dictionary definition really is different. "Para-" as a prefix can mean "beside, alongside...." as in para-professionals working with teachers in a school. It also can mean "in a secondary or accessory capacity" in the world of medicine.

The more we've thought about it, the more ashamed we are about what we wrote. After all, who could be better to have alongside you than God? Consider....

If the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive.... the raging waters would have swept us away. - Psalm 124:2-5

As we mentioned in our last post, many believers have seen the intervening hand of God at difficult moments in their lives.

But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. - II Timothy 4:17

Based on the surrounding verses, we think Paul was using a figure of speech when he wrote about a lion's mouth. But Jesus Christ indicated God really can be alongside you -- and even closer:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. -- John 14:17

So we apologize to "Paragod83." And we hope you'll ask God to come alongside you, and even dwell in you through the Holy Spirit -- even when it's poker night.

To Protect and To Serve

2012-02-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

We asked the man if he considers Jesus his Savior, and he said yes. So then we followed up: "What has Jesus done for you lately?"

The man's quiet voice two seats away was a bit hard for us to hear -- but it sounded like he said the Lord has protected him, along with several of his friends.

The word "protection" comes up in poker from time to time. We take "card protectors" not only as conversation-starters, but to make sure our cards aren't considered thrown in and folded during hands. The word also can refer to a player making a huge raise when someone is all-in, giving the at-risk player "protection" from having too many opponents.

But as the man suggested to us the other night, there's a "Protector" in heaven who offers to do much more:

You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. - Psalm 32:7

We can think of several times over the years when God seemed to protect us from harm or disaster. But we also can hear the scoffers, wondering why God didn't protect other believers from harm and death. At times such as those, our understanding of "protection" needs to change....

For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off. - Psalm 37:28

Forever?!?! How? Another Old Testament book offers this explanation....

The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. - Isaiah 57:1 (KJV)

The Bible warns evils will increase and times will get worse -- until Jesus returns to bring the kingdom of God in fullness to earth. I Thessalonians 4 indicates believers then will be resurrected to celebrate and rule with Jesus. They're protected by the "sleep" of death, until they are raised to eternal life.

Poker Night 290: Ladies' Choice?

2012-02-02T23:11:00.001-05:00

One of our local poker players made the evening news a few weeks ago. "D.J." was questioned in a report on male-female relationships. We're not sure if he's as daring and loose on dates as he is playing cards, but he certainly wanted us to go "all the way" a couple of times tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: Q-J offsuit

We started with 10,000 chips, thanks to a generous server at the bar who doubled our starting stack simply because we bought a soda. But we lost a couple of promising hands early, and enter this one with about 6,200. We limp in, and D.J. simply calls -- which is unusual, because he loves to raise pre-flop early in the game. As we recall, a couple of other players join in.

In the tradition of the dearly-departed Poker After Dark: Director's Cut, D.J. takes the mike to tell the story from there:

"Here's how it happened...."

ON THE FLOP: Q-3-7

"He bet five [500].... I called. The next card to come out...."

ON THE TURN: 10

"He checked. I bet 5,000. He called; he goes all-in [1,025 more] with absolutely nothing. [Nothing? Top pair is nothing??] I could have had two pair."

ON THE RIVER: 4 (as best we recall; D.J. didn't record it)

We'll take over again from here. "I have queens," we say showing our hand.

"I have two pair," D.J. answers; "Queens and 3's." He turns over a 3 -- then shows a King! "Oops, that's not a Queen." We get a nice double-up to more than 12,000 -- and humorously suggest D.J. see an eye doctor.

So why did we get so brash with top pair? Because we knew our opponent -- and we know D.J. likes to play "I dare you" a lot, betting big with almost anything. Our hunch was that he was bluffing by over-betting, and we were right.

A similar moment came later in the hour when we re-raised D.J. with A-Q. The flop brought an Ace, he called a modest bet of 500 we made -- then after checking the turn, he bet 10,000 on the river to lure us all-in. With only top pair again, we gave it a lot of thought. But then we folded, because D.J. was due to have a big hand and we were due to guess wrong.

It was a night when we played a little looser than usual in a live tournament, and that meant ups and downs. We reached the one-hour break with 3,750 chips -- but then doubled up again in the second hour with 10-10 when a 10 came on the turn. Another pot win moved us up to 12,000.

But rising blinds and failed chances led us to an all-in bet under the gun with A-9. We lost to a woman with pocket Queens when an Ace didn't hit the board. It was an 11th-place finish -- close to the final table, but not quite.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "What sort of toy did you bring?" a man asked as we plunked down our card protector of the evening. It really wasn't a toy. It's a small battery-powered red reflector which can flash when turned on. We've clipped it onto our clothing and worn it over the years for evening jogging.

"I brought this to remind me," we said, "that I should reflect the light of Jesus Christ." It's something all believers should do....

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. -- Matthew 5:16

These instructions come from Jesus Christ. But whose light really should be shining -- ours? We think there's a better Light than that:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." -- John 8:12

A contemporary Christian song puts it very well: "Lord, let me shine; shine like the moon/ A reflection of you in all that I do." Is that light shining from you these days?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 290 nights (36.2%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 190 point wins in 815 games (23.3%), 66 final tables, 7 cashes.

We probably should count Tuesday night's 13th-place finish in the Senior Championship as a point win. But points aren't awarded in championships, so we're not going to presume any. However, we've made final tables two days in a row to qualify for a couple of February championships.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $66,338, up $539.

January Seniors Championship: Where the Air is Rare

2012-02-02T00:46:00.003-05:00

On most Tuesday nights, we join a Bible discussion via teleconference from Alabama. But the last Tuesday night of the month is when the National League of Poker has its Senior Championship -- and this week, we had our best finish there ever. How well? Follow the action....

:06 IN: We have Ace-Jack of clubs, and raise to 100. A few players call. The flop is 3-K-10 (only the K is a club). We make a continuation bet of 60 and get called. The turn is 5c, giving us plenty of draws. Everyone checks. The river is a disappointing Jd, and everyone checks -- but that gives us top pair, beating someone with 6-6! We gain $450.

:15 IN: We have J-10 in the big blind, and a player in front of us goes all-in for 310. We dare to call, and face 8-8. The flop is A-K-2. But the turn is J and the river is 10. We gain $600.

:23 IN: We have A-A on the button. A player ahead of us doubles the blind, and we happily follow along. The flop is 9-8-J, and the raiser goes all-in for $1,665. We dare to call again, as does someone else. The turn is 6. The table checks. The river is 6. We bet a hopeful 150, get called -- then get rewarded! Our opponents have A-J and A-9. Two pair wins us more than $3,100.

:27 IN: We have A-6 of diamonds. A player raises 460 to go all-in, another player adds 160 to do the same, and we have the spare chips to call them both. Our opponents have 4-4 and 7-6. But the flop is a gorgeous A-J-A -- and A on the river gives us quad aces! After a meaningless 5 on the river, we win $2,850.

We reach the first break in great shape, at 4,190 chips - good for 20th place, with 364 players left.

:34 IN: We come back from break with K-5 of hearts. The flop is J-3-K, and happily call an all-in bet of 520. Our opponent has a mere 8-Q. That apparent bluff failed, as 2-8 follow on the board to win us another $1,350.

:39 IN: After a sizable loss with an open-ended straight draw which failed, we have A-8 on the button. The flop is 5-8-9, and we offer a lead-out bet of 250 which gets a caller. The turn is Q. Both of us check. The river is 2. After more checking, our pair of 8's holds up! We beat A-4 for a welcome $950.

:53 IN: After winning a sidepot with a pair of 6's, we have A-A again. We choose to limp. The flop is 10-J-9, bringing checks. The turn is 4. The river is 3. A player goes all-in, and wins the main pot with 3-3; we settle for a side pot of $960.

But then several promising hands fall short -- and we stagger to the second break with only 935 chips left. We've fallen to 142nd place, out of 158 remaining.

1:08 IN: We make another move after the break, with K-K on the button. We go all-in pre-flop, and get called by a player with 7-A. The flop is J-5-8, followed by 3-4. Out big comeback commences, by winning $2,520.

1:13 IN: We have Q-K, play it -- and see 2-8-Q on the flop. We bet the minimum 400, and that's enough to run everyone else off. We pick up $1,850 more.

1:27 IN: After winning more antes and blinds with a big blind walk, we have 5-A. The flop is a very nice A-5-10! But we check with caution. Then come 3-J, and two pair win for us again - gaining $1,950.

1:32 IN: We have 5-5 in the big blind, and call an all-in bet ahead of us for 325 extra. The flop is K-8-4. The turn is 2. The river is Q. And amazingly, our pocket fives win - as two players show A-7 and A-5! It's a big gain of $4,275.

The big third-period comeback puts us at $6,645 at break time. Only 61 players remain, and we're 36th.

1:42 IN: Once again, we have promising cards right after the break with A-9. The flop is 2-9-A, and a player goes all-in for 2,585. We call with two pair, of course -- and the opponent has A-8! The board brings 5-7. And thanks to pre-flop callers and rising antes, our haul from this hand is $12,897. We climb to 15th place, with 55 left.

2:03 IN: We go "card-dead" for quite awhile, with three promising hands missing the flop and forcing folds. Now we see Q-A under the gun, and raise all-in for $6,356. An opponent calls -- with only Q-K! The flop is 9-3-8, but A on the turn clinches a big win for us. Our push wins us $21,312, putting us in seventh place.

A round of blinds then goes badly -- but we're moved to a semifinal table during the fourth break with $12,312. Only 19 players still can win. But we're in 18th place.

2:21 IN: The big blind forces us all-in with 2,712 -- but we have a hopeful A-9. We're heads-up against K-Q. The board brings 7-3-2, then 4-4. We'll take a "big blind special" worth $9,824.

2:28 IN: The blinds come faster now, and the next big blind is another forced push -- this time with a lowly 5-8. We face opponents holding Q-9 and 10-A. But the flop is 2-7-6. And when the turn is 4, we're thrilled! The river K doesn't matter, because we've escaped with a straight -- climbing back to $15,672.

2:34 IN: With 13 players left at two tables, we have 7-A under the gun. The blinds are so high that we choose not to hesitate, going all-in again for $8,232. We get called by a player with 9-9. A flop of K-2-2 has us fearing the worst. The turn is 6. The river is 8 -- and we're right. Two pair top us, and we're through for the night.

Yet our final result was a strong 13th place -- especially strong considering 1,045 players entered the tournament! Using a World Series of Poker payoff matrix we found from 2009, we would have finished the night taking home seven to nine times our buy-in. But alas, NLOP only pays money to the ten players at the final table. So we miss the money by three -- but what a great night it was.

MINISTRY MOMENT: A player to our right took a huge loss in the second hour, dropping to a measly 10 chips (everyone starts with 1,000). But then he fought back, and we noticed. From the chat-box...

Badone won Main pot 20 with Two pair, aces and queens
Me: The comeback begins.
flopblogger won Side pot 1 760 with One pair, sixes
Badone won Main pot 60 with One pair, eights
Me: as I said....
Me: Badone x6
Badone: thanks for encouragem

The word he clearly meant to finish was "encouragement." It's a trait you're not likely to see very often in big-time professional poker. But it's something believers in Christ are, well, encouraged to have.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. - I Thessalonians 5:11

Times were not easy for believers when Paul wrote these words. Newly-developing Christians faced persecution from Roman leaders, as well as outraged Jews (3:4). But Paul wanted to encourage them -- in what?

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. - I Thessalonians 5:9

Paul admitted encouragement is a trait not everyone has -- perhaps not even in church groups:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.... if it is encouraging, let him encourage.... - Romans 12:6-8

We've been on both sides of this line -- trying to aid others who are "down in the dumps," then feeling so down ourselves that we want to burst any encourager's bright yellow balloon that comes along. If you have this gift, don't be afraid to use it -- even at a poker table, where hardened players might not appreciate it. You might be giving them the best example of God they'll see all day.

The Two-Way

2012-01-29T20:19:00.001-05:00

It had been a long time since we took a little plastic sword to poker night -- the sort of thing restaurants used to stick in steaks. So we did this past week, and a woman at our table asked about it right away.

"I brought this to remind me that the word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword." If you need proof of that statement....

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. - Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)

"Do you read the word of God?" we asked the woman. "Did you read the Bible today?"

"No," she admitted. "But I prayed a lot."

Regular readers probably realize we have absolutely nothing against prayer. That's something believers should do every day....

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.... - Ephesians 6:18a

(We could break down the various kinds of prayers, but that's not our purpose here.)

So prayer is good. But we think prayer to God without a look inside God's word could be lacking something.

We've heard ministers put it this way: when you pray, you talk to God. When you read the Bible, God talks to you. You never know when the answer to your prayer might be hidden in a chapter of Scripture So....

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.... - Colossians 3:16a

We heard over the weekend about an emperor of Ethiopia who reportedly ate pages of a Bible from time to time. We do NOT recommend that - but reading from Scripture can provide a feast of wisdom and knowledge for the daily walk of life. Even for the times when you walk into a poker room.

Poker Night 289: Sons of Anarchy

2012-01-26T22:22:00.000-05:00

Our night at Lil Kim's Cove was nothing to write home about -- much less write a blog about. We lost a big early pot to someone we thought was bluffing, but really had two pair. We won an all-in race with A-9 when two pair arrived at the river. But another push minutes later with A-3 fell short, as we missed the board while another man made two pair. Even though we lasted well into the second hour, we wound up seventh out of eight players at our table.

But the hand we'll remember most from this night was one we simply watched. It spoke volumes about the play, as well as some of the players....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: K-7 of clubs

After losing that big early pot, we're limping along at about 3,200 chips. The player to our immediate right raises to 2,000. That's too high-priced even for our suited cards, so we fold. So does most of the table -- except for a woman across from us. Sitting in the Big Blind, she raises to 6,000.

"I'm all-in," the man to our right declares -- and he has a huge stack of more than 30,000.

The woman holds her cards up near eye-level, looking as stunned as a grieving widow. She says nothing for about a minute, except perhaps one or two expletives.

"I'll tell you what," the man finally says. "I'll take back the all-in bet and let you see a flop. But if I make the flop, I'm all-in again."

The woman still stares at her cards, saying little. Another player at the table points out the man can't make an offer like that. After a moment, he admits that's true. Finally the woman touches some of the chips already in the middle.

"I had to do it," declares the man -- and he throws J-J at her! Trouble is....

"I haven't decided yet!" she points out.

The man misread her gesture. He apologizes, but the Jacks stay face-up. That didn't help the woman decide a thing. She still stares and ponders, then shows her cards to a woman next to her who's out of the hand.

Apparently because of that, a man to our immediate left reaches across the table, grabs the deck and flips over cards....

ON THE FLOP: A-Q-3

Trouble is, he's not the dealer! A woman two seats to her left is. She let him grab the cards and go -- and that brings the woman still holding her hand at eye-level out of her shock.

"I hadn't mucked my cards! I fold!" She tosses her cards in face-down.

So the man who went all-in wins the pot -- but he shows a bit of guilt about it. He stacks some chips, and gives them to the woman in a show of apology.

We're still not sure what cards the woman had; the talk afterward indicated she would have been on a flush draw. It also indicated the woman may have frozen due to some kind of disorder; she mentioned something about "bipolar" as the cards were shuffled for the next hand.

So what have we learned here? Several thoughts come to mind. The main lesson for us was how impatient some poker players can be. For instance, the man who reached for the deck bet "out of turn" ahead of us several times during the game. (And he wasn't the only person at the table who did this.) We politely offer some advice for these players....

A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly. - Proverbs 14:29

Is it possible that online poker is prompting some people to be too impatient at live tournaments? After all, Internet hands come up a lot faster.

This hand also showed how misunderstandings can occur when people's actions and motions are taken the wrong way. It's always better to ask for confirmation first, before jumping to a conclusion which could be totally wrong. Consider the most extreme example of this:

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. - Acts 2:22-23

An emotion-driven crowd demanded the release of a robber named Barabbas, instead of an innocent and holy Savior (Mark 15:6-15). But it was all part of God's "Master plan" to bring salvation to all of us.

(There was a Ministry Moment during this game, but we'll hold that for another post.)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 289 nights (36.3%) - 17 cashes. Tonight was our worst showing in a local tournament since Thanksgiving.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 188 point wins in 809 games (23.2%), 64 final tables, 7 cashes.

The time of the Sunday weekly championship at NLOP has moved from evening to late afternoon. It's too early for us to play, due to other commitments -- but we're still trying to win money when we can.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $65,799, down $1,440.

A Real Tongue-Leashing

2012-01-25T19:50:00.001-05:00

The flop seemed nondescript, and downright ordinary - 8-7-4 with different suits. But when one woman at our table saw that the other night, she couldn't believe her eyes. She'd folded her hand before the flop, and clearly now regretted it.

"Son of a...."

"Check," we said - not only because we were first to act, but to help finish her sentence in a nice way.

To her credit, the woman stopped short and realized what she was at the brink of doing. "Please forgive me, God. Please forgive me, God," she said quietly.

This was one of those rare moments when a fellow poker player responded to our "prompt" in a positive way. To borrow a cliche, the woman bit her tongue. It's something we wish more people did -- in general, not simply at a poker table.

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one.... Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." - Romans 3:10, 13-14

You can probably guess how an unrighteous person would have finished that exclamation about the 8-7-4 flop. We can remember when that was considered cursing; sadly, it's now practically a standard part of the vocabulary. The apostle Paul goes on to explain why this trend is happening....

There is no fear of God before their eyes. - Romans 3:18

A right and proper fear of God should change not only the way we walk, but the way we talk. Instead of "talking trash" around the poker table, it's possible to do the exact opposite:

A wise man's heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. - Proverbs 16:23-24

Not even U.S. presidential candidates are immune from making regrettable comments and misstatements. But you can be different. Ask for God's help in choosing your words as carefully as you play your poker hands.

If It Was Real: NLOP 2011

2012-01-24T21:56:00.002-05:00

When it comes to tax returns, we don't plan to go as far as Mitt Romney - but we're thankful to report we made a little money playing poker this past year.

In live tournaments, we won $295. In live cash games, we lost $32. And National League of Poker play earned us $135: $55 in Sunday night video poker championships (which have been taken down in the transition to a browser-based format), and $80 from Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

But it's tempting to consider what would have happened if NLOP action was all money, from start to finish. We did the math, and computed we spent 137,000 points to enter tournaments in 2011. The final "bank account" would have been 281,647 - a gain of 105.6 percent. In other words, our money would have doubled.

Of course, real-money online play evaporated to a great extent in the U.S. in April 2011. If states can organize their own poker rooms in 2012 (which the Justice Department now seems to allow), we'll be paying close attention.

Poker Night 288: From Rags to Riches

2012-01-19T22:08:00.002-05:00

Poker tournaments sometimes can be roller coaster rides. In fact, even individual hands can be that way. We jumped into the middle of one tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: K-8 offsuit

We won a big pot in the first hour with.... well.... let's just say our opponent is sure we hit a "Broadway straight" on the river. But after reaching the one-hour break with 12,500 chips, we've lost a couple of heartbreaker hands (losing with 10-10 at one point). We start this hand with 4,000 -- and we're in the big blind to boot. Thankfully, no one raises ahead of us (we would have folded if someone had), so we can check.

ON THE FLOP: 8-7-4

Top pair and a nice kicker give us a little hope. "I'm all-in for 2,000," we say. Two players generously call.

ON THE TURN: Q

The callers now are fighting over a sidepot -- except as we recall, they both check. We're not sure what to make of that.

ON THE RIVER: K

We could make something very nice from that! A player across from us bets big enough (4,000, we think) to make the other player fold. So there's no real sidepot after all.

"I've got two pair," the opponent tells us. "Queens and Eights."

"I've got Kings and Eights," we say as we show.

"You hit the river!" he says -- giving us credit for a nice escape. Our stack triples to 12,000.

But sad to say, it didn't advance from there. A lack of good cards drained us, even though we reached the semifinal table again. Forced to go all-in in the small blind with 6-9, we missed a straight draw and lost to a man with a pair. So it's another fairly good finish in 12th -- but not really good.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Are you doing good?" a woman asked as she sat down at our table to begin the evening.

"I'm trying to do good," we answered. "But that's not always easy. I want to do good, but then bad things happen. And sometimes I do bad things, when I really want to do good."

We're not sure if the woman realized it, but we were paraphrasing the words of the apostle Paul....

For I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing.... So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. - Romans 7:18-21

Have you ever faced moments like this? We probably all have at some point, to some degree. Note this admission came from a church apostle - and Paul noted one chapter earlier that our sins lead to death (Romans 6:23). But in his frustration, he found hope....

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! - Romans 7:24-25

Look to Jesus for rescue, by repenting of your sins (Acts 2:38) and praying to God for salvation through His Son (Acts 4:12). Then try to do the good things -- seeking God's help through the Holy Spirit to succeed in them.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 288 nights (36.5%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 187 point wins in 805 games (23.2%), 64 final tables, seven cashes. We made a final table online earlier in the day, finishing ninth out of 99 players in a Senior qualifying tournament.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,239, down $515.

The Safest Play

2012-01-17T19:06:00.001-05:00

When we had a very successful night last October at a poker room in the Florida panhandle, one thing admittedly concerned us. When we walked to our car with a full wallet around 12:00 midnight, we saw absolutely no security guards in the parking lot - and no law officers were in sight, either.

Admittedly the Ebro poker room is in a rural area, a 20-minute drive from Panama City Beach. And it was a Monday night, when the crowd probably is smaller compared with weekends. But we presumed a place where cash money changes hands (sometimes in large amounts) would have someone watching over the customers.

This came back to our mind in the wake of a crime story in our area. A customer leaving The Red Barn in Phenix City, Alabama was shot and killed early Saturday morning. The Red Barn is a small bar where we've played free poker often over the years -- but Friday night is NOT a poker night there.

The victim apparently parked across the street, next to a car dealership. We can understand why, because that area is lit at night. The Red Barn's gravel parking lot behind the business has no lighting at all. That's been a concern for us as well -- because anyone might be lurking between cars or in the vegetation late at night.

Dangerous moments can occur anywhere, of course. At the mall, in your workplace -- and even in your own living room (as in home invasions).

It would be easy and self-promoting to say Christians have angelic protection in dangerous places. We certainly pray for that, as did believers long ago....

But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. - Psalm 5:11-12

We've actually seen evidence of God's protection from time to time. But to be honest, it doesn't always happen. Consider the number of cases in recent years where worshipers were gunned down during church services, For us to conclude the victims somehow "had it coming" would be a foolish rush to judgment -- and ultimately, only Jesus Christ will judge us all perfectly.

We think one key to self-protection is having a "safety first" mentality....

He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe. - Proverbs 28:26

Be wise not only while you play poker, but as you walk in and out. Look around for potential trouble-makers. And if you have a lot of money, don't be a show-off about it. One TV report indicated the shooting victim did exactly that inside The Red Barn. Instead....

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8 (emphasis added)

If you want to be a big spender, that's up to you. But don't be too big in how you do it, making yourself a potential target.

Win, Lose or Hang

2012-01-15T17:52:00.000-05:00

Let's play a little pretend poker. You're in a 100-person tournament. Only the top ten earn money. There are 12 players remaining at two tables. A player ahead of you raises enough pre-flop to put you all in. You check your cards and see 10-10. What do you do?

Your response to this situation may say a lot about you and your intentions. If you're trying simply to "make the money," you might fold this rather promising hand. But if your goal is to win first place and the top prize, would you call? Would you go all-in -- even if it means risking everything, and perhaps winning no money at all?

The sports world has a phrase which might apply to the people who fold - they're "playing not to lose," instead of playing to win.

We heard a thought-provoking church message this weekend about that very concept. The speaker said some people can take that approach to their lives -- and by doing so, they allow the devil to get to them. Instead, he said we should focus on winning because....

....In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. - Romans 8:37

The "things" Paul mentions here are much more stark than an all-in moment at a poker tournament -- everything from tribulation to famine to a deadly sword (v. 35).

Perhaps you're saying you've "gone for it" at the table many times, only to wind up at the rail over and over? Well, the speaker went on to say we should NOT focus on our past failures.

How much more, then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God? - Hebrews 9:14

Shift your focus, the speaker said -- away from earlier stumbles, to follow the One who already has overcome all trials. That makes us think of these words of Jesus:

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. - John 16:33

How do we do that, to overcome the world? It takes the infusion of God's Holy Spirit....

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. - II Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

We've admittedly followed the "hang in there" approach many times in poker tournaments -- as our standard has been based on making final tables, as opposed to going all the way and winning prize money. The thinking has been: "Just get me there, and give me a chance." But come to think of it, we don't often reach the final table in a dominant chip position that way.

So tell us -- what's your strategy at a tournament? And do we need to make some adjustments?

Poker Night 287:Scare You, Scare Me

2012-01-12T22:29:00.002-05:00

"It's OK. It's all right./ I'm gonna take your chips tonight." That was the song a player tried to sing tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. (We hereby claim the words, since we doubt he plans to go to Nashville and become a country songwriter.) If we wanted to sing along with him, we'd have to make some big and accurate decisions. Take this example....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: Q-3 of clubs

We've made it to a six-player semifinal table, thanks largely to a big blind double-up in the first hour with K-K. We've hung on from there, beginning this hand with 6,500 chips. The bad news is we're Small Blind - but the good news is that no one raised ahead of us. In fact, only one player called. These cards are marginal, but we decide to follow the classic poker reasoning: "They were suited." We call. The Big Blind mysteriously folds, so we're heads-up.

ON THE FLOP: 2c-2s-4s

An uglier flop than this is hard to find. We need a lot of help, so we check prepared to fold. Our opponent checks, too.

ON THE TURN: 3s

"Any bet wins, any bet wins," suggests the Big Blind. Hmmm -- we now have two pair and a fairly good kicker. So let's see if his advice is right. We bet the minimum 2,000 -- but we get called.

ON THE RIVER: Ah

That's not exactly the card we wanted to see. What if our opponent is sitting on Ace-high? This time we check.

"I'm all-in," he announces -- with far more chips than the 2,500 we have left. Uh-oh.

We stare at our opponent for a moment. Then we laugh a bit, to break up any tension. The man offers no help, as we think this move over. We decide he pushed simply to make us chicken out.

"I'll call," we say with a smile -- ready to accept things either way. "I have a 3."

But our opponent shows 6-6. He has a better top pair, and he has us packing the tent. We're eliminated in 14th place -- and another reminder that hunches don't always work.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Is that a piece of trash?" the Big Blind said as we arrived at the semifinal table.

"Actually, it's a bandage," we explained. It was our card protector for the evening -- and of course, it had a purpose.

"I brought this to remind me that Jesus is a healer," we told the man a couple of minutes later. "Do you believe God can heal?"

The man said he did. "He can raise the dead," he noted -- which reminded us of a miracle which was pointed out to us in a Bible study group earlier in the week.

....Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." - John 11:43-44

An old church story says Jesus specified Lazarus - or else every dead person would have come out. As the Son of God, Jesus had that power. But He only used it on rare occasions - not even to restore John the Baptizer after his beheading. So why here, and why now? Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, who had been dead four days (verse 39). But more importantly....

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." - John 11:41-42

Jesus the Son was sent to Earth by God the Father. He was sent with many purposes. In this case....

....Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." - John 11:4

Many Jews believed in that glory, and put their faith in Christ after seeing this miracle (verse 45) - but others had seen more than enough, and plotted His execution (verse 53). Which side would you have been on?

We know of several people fighting seemingly losing battles against cancer right now. We pray that God might heal them, but realize the answer might be no. That's why we put faith in another statement Jesus made in this chapter:

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never died. Do you believe this?" - John 11:35-36

Our exact question to you.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 287 nights (36.6%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 185 point wins in 801 games (23.1%), 63 final tables, 7 cashes. One-table sit-n-goes - 8-13-10-3-3.

We're finding the new browser version of NLOP is much easier to play than the downloadable program. Hiccups and delays are down sharply. But the format change has included tougher standards for winning points -- more in line with the "top ten percent" practiced by real poker rooms. Yet earlier in the day, we had a top-40 finish in a 655-player tournament. Our 3,000-point buy-in earned us 5,857.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,754, up $2,130.

Four Big Letters

2012-01-11T21:07:00.001-05:00

Players at online poker tables can have all sorts of wild names. Recently at a National League of Poker tournament, we came across this:

Me: PTL, Tetra!
Dealer: Tetragramton wins Main Pot ($1260) with Straight, eight to queen
Me: three pair on the flop isn't good enough here.
Tetragramton: ptl play nto lose

Even if you're not a regular reader, you might know "PTL" is shorthand for "praise the Lord." It's always a good idea....

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.... I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. - Psalm 63:1, 4

But who or what is that "Tetragramton" - some monster from a Japanese movie, maybe? No. That name is a shortened form of "Tetragrammaton." In Hebrew that word means "four letters." And for believers, it means a lot more....

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. -- Deuteronomy 6:4

In this verse, "Lord" is the Hebrew name YHWH -- which is what Biblical scholars call the Tetragrammaton. Some people consider it such a holy name that they don't dare say it aloud. Yet they overlook the fact that famous people in the Bible said it....

Now Sarai, Abram's wife.... said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children...." -- Genesis 16:1-2

Leading Bible concordances show Sarai said YHWH (the first recorded human to do so). God didn't punish her in this chapter for uttering that name; she got in trouble for other actions. Yet we're reminded later:

You shall not take the name of the Lord [YHWH] your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. - Exodus 20:7, KJV

Other translations have this commandment as a warning against "misuse" of God's name, or using it "profanely." Yet sadly, plenty of poker players do that on a regular basis -- perhaps out of habit, or from the frustration of losing a big hand. At those moments, we should be careful with our tongues.

With the tongue we praise our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. - James 3:9

It's far better to remain silent than to speak words you'll someday regret. So give God praise in whatever name you wish - but keep in mind, God's last name is NOT a four-letter word beginning with D.

Caught in a Trap?

2012-01-09T19:45:00.001-05:00

The talk around a poker table often centers on the game. But sometimes it can be wide-ranging -- and as we mentioned in our last post, last Thursday night's discussion turned to marital infidelity.

We noted the Old Testament of the Bible declared adultery a capital crime, and Jesus expanded the definition of the term. Yet there was a time when a group of people brought an adulterous woman before Jesus -- and His reaction was quite unexpected.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. - John 8:10-11

Why didn't Jesus condemn this woman? Because he sensed what was behind the entire situation....

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.... - John 8:6

Jesus sensed traps as well as any experienced poker player. The accusers may have been right, but their motives were wrong. They wanted to make that woman a "sacrifice" for finding fault with a perfect Savior - when Jesus had come to be the perfect sin sacrifice for them.

We can gain many lessons from this passage. One is to be wary of potential traps -- not only from people slow-playing pocket pairs, but people trying to compromise your integrity. (Going back to last week's discussion, that can include married people pretending to be single and flirting with others.) There's another lesson in Jesus's response to the woman.

....Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." - John 8:11b

Jesus showed mercy -- but he wants the sinning to stop. In other words, don't be like these guys....

For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. - Jude 4

Whether you fall into sin or someone pushes you into it, seek God's mercy and forgiveness. Then remember the classic advice of Dungeons and Dragons - and keep checking for traps.

Poker Night 286: The Last Resort

2012-01-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

When the cards don't come and the players around you bet big, it cane make for a long quiet night at the poker table. That can be depressing -- or it can be a test of your sense of timing. Our test of the latter came tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: Ace of spades - 4 of clubs

We won a hand in the first hour, when we had an Ace which paired on the flop. But that's all we've won, as small pocket pairs were overwhelmed by big bets by opponents and missed flops. Now we're in the small blind, starting the hand with 2,500 left. Our blind is 1,000, and no one at the table of five raises ahead of us.

"I'm all-in," we decide after checking our cards; "500 more." (Over the blind, that is.)

The big blind throws in 500 to call. But the dealer to our right decides that's not enough. "I'll go 4,000 more." Those are chips we can't win, but they put the big blind all-in with us. That man calls, and a dealer who took two players out in the first hour by turning K-10 into a straight could take out two more. He shows 9-9.

"An old-fashioned race here," the big blind notes. And the cards are dealt quickly to match....

ON THE FLOP: Jc-7c-4s

We make a pair, but not the one we wanted.

ON THE TURN: 3c

Still in trouble....

ON THE RIVER: 8c

"I've got a club!" we point out. The dealer's nines don't include one. The big blind shows K-8, with no club. So runner-runner keeps us alive with the main pot of 7,500, while the dealer takes a side pot and eliminates only one player.

"Good game," we try to say to the big blind -- but we gets up and leaves without acknowledging us. And he wore a big cross around his neck, too.

That advanced us to the semifinal table, but the cards weren't much better there. The next big blind there gave us 6-9, and we were forced to go all-in with our last 1,500 when 7-8 appeared at the turn. But the river was J, and we missed our straight draw while another man did not. We did shake his hand -- walking home in 12th place, and with our three-week final table streak snapped.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "What could be more wrong than cheating on another man's wife?" A player said that out of the blue during the one-hour break. We're not sure why, but it led to a little "guy talk" around the table about married women (primarily) increasingly engaging in infidelity.

"People aren't being faithful," we said. And that's sad -- for the sake of their families, and also because God takes a marriage covenant seriously.

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife -- with the wife of his neighbor -- both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. - Leviticus 20:10

That punishment may sound straight out of Saudi Arabia or the Taliban -- but it was part of the broad Old Testament law called the "Torah." Instead of loosening the rules, Jesus had this to say:

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. - Matthew 5:28

But wait, you may be saying -- didn't Jesus forgive a woman who was caught in adultery? Yes, He did. We'll consider that in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 286 nights (36.7%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 184 point wins in 798 games (23.1%), 63 final tables, 7 cashes. One-table sit-n-goes: 8-13-9-3-3. We haven't played at NLOP much in recent days, due to a busy schedule and the site's transition to a new system.

POKER STARS,NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $65,624, up $2,980.

Feelings and Felt

2012-01-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

Poker Player B had made a bet Player A didn't anticipate. And when Player A's turn came again, he needed to be told what happened.

"You disrupted my karma, man," Player A said.

We happened to sit next to Player A, so we couldn't resist asking: "You have karma?"

Of course he did. "Everybody has karma," he told us.

Hmmmm -- then do we? Do you?

The online dictionary notes karma is a Hindu and Buddhist concept. While U.S. residents tend to throw that word around in many ways, we think Player A was using the word to refer to feelings we have about someone or something. Others might talk about "having bad vibes" or a "premonition" about something.

Plenty of poker players have made choices this way -- only instead of karma, they talk about "going with your gut" or acting on "your first instinct." Sometimes that works, but sometimes it can prove disastrous.

In all of this, it seems to us the emphasis is on feelings. We've heard Christian ministers say that's the wrong way to base your life -- that you should focus on thinking: the head above the heart. Why?

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

Not even modern translations of the Bible contain the word "karma." Those translations also don't talk about "feelings" very much. But the most traditional translation reminds us of a Savior who can relate to them....

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.... For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. - Hebrews 4:14-15, KJV

Jesus was moved by the emotions of people He encountered on Earth 2,000 years ago -- and this section of Scripture indicates He still can be moved today, sitting at God the Father's side. So it's worth pouring out words to heaven in prayer, even if they sometimes can be emotional.

But back to karma: the main definition of that word involves getting rewarded or punished based on your actions. That's not simply Buddhist and Hindu - it's downright Biblical.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. - Revelation 20:12

A time of judgment is coming for everyone -- and this is a case of resurrection, not reincarnation. Since no one is promised life beyond today, are you prepared for that time of judgment? If not, search the Bible for words such as "saved" and "salvation." They'll lead you to the right answer - the man Christ Jesus.

Moments of Decision

2012-01-03T19:18:00.001-05:00

We often take a voice recorder to live poker tournaments, to note big hands for this blog. On one recent night, another player demanded the mike to make an announcement for posting here:

"This guy beside me bet 5,000 with a pair of 6's, and there was three overs on the board. He lost."

Too bad for that guy. Now it's your turn to confess: what's the worst move or decision you've ever made at the poker table? And why did you do it? Yes, you can remain anonymous.

NLOP Weekly Championship 25: Slowing to the Finish

2012-01-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

The turn to 2012 apparently will bring big changes to National League of Poker. It's going to a browser-based format this coming week, with a "lifetime points" system which doesn't reset every Sunday morning. We don't know everything about it yet -- but tonight apparently was the last time we earned our way into a weekly Sunday night championship tournament. How did it go?

:06 IN: We have A-2 of hearts -- and our Internet connection has a hiccup, preventing us from playing when it's our turn. We can't blame McAfee for this; we intentionally kept our computer on all days to keep updates from getting backlogged. So we find AT&T at fault for costing us a three-way split of a pot, after an Ace comes on the flop.

:23 IN: We have 6-6 -- and while the table is running slowly, at least we can play. The flop is Q-9-5. Everyone checks. The flop is 10, and we call an opponent's bet of 140. The river is 2, and we fold to another bet of 100. The table folds and the winner doesn't show, but we doubt fourth-best pair was good enough.

:27 IN: We turn the cards around next hand, with 9-9. We call a doubling of the blind to 200. The flop is 7-4-K, and the raiser goes all-in. This is far too risky for us, and we fold. (The hand remains a mystery again.)

A desultory first half-hour brings us to the break at 460 chips. Out of 830 players still alive, we're scraping by in 764th.

:34 IN: We have Q-A out of the break. The flop is 6-6-5, and another player goes all in. We fold, wondering if we should have raised pre-flop. Perhaps not - the turn-river were 10-7.

:36 IN: We have 9-10 of clubs in the big blind. The flop is 5-9-9, and we feel compelled to go all-in with 210 left. A player calls -- with K-9! We're seriously outkicked. But the turn is 10, to give us a winning full house! (The river is 8.) "PTL BBS" we write (the latter meaning big blind special), as we recover to 1,020.

:40 IN: Two hands later, we have A-J and the button. A player raises ahead of us to 480, and we call -- but then a player behind us raises 340 more to go all-in. The first bettor calls, and we dare to join him even though it leaves only 125 in our stack.

ON THE FLOP: Q-5-10

Our opponent bets the expected all-in amount for us -- and with a big pot commitment and a straight draw, we see little choice but to call. That opponent shows a mere 8-9 of hearts! The player who pushed before us has 9-9, and leads the race.

ON THE TURN: 5

The board pairs, and we need a big card.

ON THE RIVER: 8

Not close enough.

The player who never pushed has 8's and 5's for a sidepot; the early pusher has 9's and 5's for the main pot. We dared to dream and wound up with nothing -- except a lowly 657th place, out of 1,438 contestants. We'll see what the new format holds (especially when it comes to having a good online connection).

This I Believe

2012-01-01T20:27:00.000-05:00

"Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?" we asked a woman Thursday night after she noticed our battery "card protector" at the final table.

"I have my own beliefs," she answered.

We said nothing further at the time. But now, the first response we're tempted to offer to this is - duh. Everyone with a functioning brain has their own beliefs. Even the devout skeptic does, even if he or she doesn't want to admit it -- a belief that he or she should be skeptical of everything.

Did you ever consider there's a "belief system" of sorts at poker tables? Unless they're flat-out bluffing, players make decisions based on the belief they have the best (or potentially best) cards. That's why players are far more likely to raise or push with pocket Aces before the flop, as opposed to 2-4 offsuit.

In poker, of course, sometimes your beliefs don't reap the reward you expect. (Pocket Aces can lose to a flush, after all.) And in life, things sometimes can turn out the same way. So as 2012 begins, this might be a good time to reflect about what you believe -- and ask whether or not it matches what God wants you to believe.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:8-9

You can know the ways of God by studying His word, the Bible. Spending time in careful daily reading might bring some surprises -- because God could ask you to do something you're not doing, or stop doing something you've done for years. If that's the case....

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. - Isaiah 55:6-7

So what does God want you to believe? We'll leave that for you to discover from the Bible. But we recommend this for starters:

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

Would anyone like to add to this list?

Poker Night 285: Isn't That Special?

2011-12-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

"You going to blog that?" a man across from us asked several times tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. At one point, he revealed we've mentioned him -- so we thank him for being a reader. And he already should know how this hand at a table of big spenders turned out....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: A-10 of diamonds

We were part of a three-way split of a pot earlier in the game with a straight. So we have 6,000 chips to work with, and we try to get in small. But as we say, it's a table of big spenders -- so a man to our left raises 1,000. We join several players in calling.

ON THE FLOP: A-Q-3

Top pair looks nice, and being first to act works to our advantage. We bet 1,000 to send a statement to the table. Three players are undaunted and call. At this point, we will quote the regular blog reader who wanted to make a statement in our recorder -- that we were lucky:

"I had trip threes on the flop. I flopped the trips, and he only had a raggedy-a** Ace...."

ON THE TURN: Ac

"He turned an Ace...."

"And what was my bet on the turn?" we ask.

"His bet on the turn was all in, and I was still winning." [He had a full house, you see.] But he left out one fun detail -- what we said when we pushed.

"3,800 - 38 special."

"I know he's got an Ace," the pre-flop raiser to the left correctly guesses --then folds.

"Could he be more transparent than that?" a man out of the hand adds. We say nothing, but recall one or two players calling.

ON THE RIVER: Q

Our regular reader comments: "And then he rivered another Queen." Two pair on the table gives us a superior full house. Perhaps we escaped, but we certainly jumped to more than 15,000 chips.

We took a couple more fairly nice pots after that -- then benefited at the semifinal table from a man with a huge stack who bet two players out of the game at once. That gained us a seat at the final table for the third week in a row!

Once there, we won a pot with 10-10 which combined with a pair on the board. But with blinds rising, we were forced to go all-in with K-Q and 15,000 left in the big blind. The regular reader showed A-6, but he paired that 6 to knock us out. A fifth-place finish felt good, considering all the action around us.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "You brought a battery today?" a man across from us asked as play began. Yes -- our little nine-volt.

"I brought this to remind me that I receive power from the Holy Spirit," we noted. "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?"

"I sure do," the man answered.

"What's the Holy Spirit been doing for you?"

"He gets me up every morning, starts me on my way...." Those indeed are good blessings, and we should thank God for every day of life we have. But God provides that power to do much more than that:

But you shall receive power, after that Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. - Acts 1:8

Those words of the resurrected Jesus should be a challenge to anyone who believes in the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit dwells in you, are you being a witness to others of what God and that Spirit can do? Don't be afraid, as a saint of old once said, to "preach the gospel - and use words, if necessary."

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 105 final tables in 285 nights (36.8%) - 17 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 184 point wins in 796 games (23.1%), 63 final tables, 7 cashes. We fell two spots short of the money Wednesday night, finishing sixth in a tournament with 824 players.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $62,644, down $1,135.

Proud to be Here?

2011-12-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

We're still thinking about the Bible discussion at a live tournament two weeks ago - the one where the tower of Babel came up.

At one point in the discussion, a young man said across the table: "You meet some arrogant people at church...."

Well, hold on. First of all, you can meet some arrogant people at a poker table as well. Think about the big-talking players who call opponents "donkeys" for making winning decisions (whether they seem logical or not) -- and then refuse to shake hands when they've been embarrassingly defeated.

Arrogance can happen in any walk of life, and in almost any situation. Yet we're told....

To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. - Proverbs 8:13

God isn't really doing the talking here -- verse 12 shows "wisdom" is. But James 1:5 indicates God is the best source to tap if you need wisdom. So it's safe to say He doesn't think much of arrogance, whether in a poker room or a church sanctuary. In fact, Romans 1:30 puts the arrogant in a group with "God-haters" and and people who "invent ways of doing evil."

One dictionary defines "arrogance" as a state of "unwarranted pride and self-importance." A true believer in God should strive to avoid that.

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." - I Peter 5:5b

One way (and probably not the only way) believers can look arrogant is in the way they address people living in a sinful way. It's one thing to point fingers. But there's a better approach....

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. - Galatians 6:1

If believers lets you have it about a sin -- or even a perceived sin, such as even sitting inside a poker room -- keep in mind: they're not perfect, either. But they're trying to become more perfect. And so should you. Admitting our imperfections before God is quite the opposite of arrogance -- and it's the best approach to take.

December Senior Championship: Tighty Righty?

2011-12-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it's more stereotype than truth, but some people say online poker players play more conservatively with age. At Tuesday night's monthly National League of Poker senior championship (age 50 and older), we saw evidence of it. Unlike some NLOP tournaments where pushing comes early and often, our table was tighter than an old winter sweater....

:01 IN: We have 9-9 in the Big Blind on the second hand of the night. But for the second hand in a row, the table folds. We get $15 in big blinds in a walk -- but we kinda wanted more.

:01 IN: "Hey, somebody called" we write as someone bets ahead of our J-Q in the small blind. We call, too. The flop is 5-J-Q. We lead out for 90, and the remaining two players fold. We gain 60. But awwwww....

:08 IN: We have 6-A of hearts. The flop is 2h-4d-Qh. With a flush draw, we bet the minimum 40 and chase a couple of players away. The turn is 7d, and someone bets 40 ahead of us. We call. The river is Js -- and we miss, losing to an opponent with a 7.

We only attempt to play two other hands in the first half-hour - folding in the big blind to a raise with 2-5 of hearts which would have brought us a straight. So our chip stack at the break is a modest 645. We're in 345th place, out of 398 still in the game.

:35 IN: We have 7-7. The flop is a gorgeous 7-Q-4, and we want action. We bet 300 of our remaining 545. And of course, no one bites. We win a $750 pot, and return almost to our starting stack at 995.

:40 IN: We have Jh-10x in the big blind, and call a doubling of the blind.

ON THE FLOP: 9h-Qh-3h.

A player ahead of us bets more than 2,000. With an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw, we decide to go for it -- calling with our remaining 545. Our opponent shows 9-9, so he has three of a kind.

ON THE TURN: Ks - giving us the straight! Yes!

ON THE RIVER: Q

Noooooo! The suit doesn't matter, because our opponent makes a winning full house. We wind up 322nd, out of 848 players - the victim of a seemingly-loose move, and one card too many.

NLOP Weekly Championship 24: The Long Hard Climb

2011-12-25T21:56:00.000-05:00

Maybe the way to play National League of Poker tournaments without annoying disconnects is to leave our computer on all day. With a day off from work, we were able to do that today. And thanks to a top-20 finish in a 454-player tournament last Sunday, we qualified for tonight's NLOP weekly championship again. We wound up lasting longer than we expected:

:01 IN: We have 10-9. The flop is 10-5-5, and we call a bet of 50. The turn is 4, and we call a bet of 100. The river is 2, and our opponent bets 325. We sense he's bluffing, dare to call -- and in a way, he was. He shows 2-2, and hit it big on the river.

"That 2 [on the river] looked so innocent," we write. But it cost us half our starting chip stack of 1,000.

:05 IN: We have 8-7 and fold. Too bad -- the flop is 5-Q-9, and 6 on the turn would have given us a straight.

:15 IN: We have Q-J of clubs. The flop is 7c-3s-9c. It's a big flush draw with 275 left, and we call a bet of 60. The turn is 9d, and we (perhaps stubbornly) call another bet of 60. The river is 2c -- and when our opponent bets 80, we go all-in for our remaining 75. Our opponent has 4-9, and our flush tops three of a kind! We recover to 670.

:26 IN: We have 6-A. The flop is A-K-8, with the last two being hearts. We don't have any, but we bet 200 with top pair and get called. The turn is 3h. Everyone checks. The river is 10 (NOT a heart), and all check again. Our opponent had K-Q, so our pair of Aces captures $800.

We reach the half-hour break about where we started: 1,010 chips. That puts us in 426th place, with 675 still in the running.

:45 IN: After a chase with clubs fails, we have Q-Q "under the gun." With 510 chips left, we dare to go all-in. A player calls, with only 9-Q. The board brings A-9-K 7-8, and our pair claims a $1,000 pot.

:48 IN: We have K-A of hearts as the dealer. We double the blind, and put one player all-in while another calls. The flop is 3-9-K -- and we're admittedly so busy scribbling notes for this blog that we forget to bet. Everyone checks. The turn is 10, and now we bet a minimum 200. The river is 10, and everyone checks. The best opposing hand shown is 7-7, so our two pair wins $1,310.

:53 IN: We have 6-5 of clubs, and call when a player goes all-in for 40 over the blind. The flop is 5h-3c-9c. Everyone checks. The turn is Qc, and we bet 600 with a flush. The river is 7s, and our opponent's A-10 doesn't have enough clubs. We win another $1,510.

:55 IN: The very next hand brings us 2-10 of diamonds. We know the odds, but play them anyway -- and happily see a flop of 9d-8d-7s. The table checks. The turn is 9. Everyone checks. The river is 3d, so we bet 1,200. A caller has A-Q, but we have back-to-back flushes and win $2,245.

A couple of losses follow, to bring us to the second break at $1,941. We're now in 210th place, with 296 still competing.

1:15 IN: After folding a couple of promising hands to pushy (as in all-in) betters, we have Q-Q for the second time tonight. We go all-in with 716 left. A big stack calls, but with 10-10. The board doesn't match for either of us, and we more than triple up (thanks to blinds and antes) to $2,432.

1:21 IN: Now we have 10-10. We failed to connect in the blinds, and now have $1,487. With the blinds at 300/600, we apply the "ten-blind" rule and push again. A player calls with 10-Q. The board brings 3-4-J 8-6 -- and just like that, we're up to $4,614. That's top-100 level in the tournament.

1:25 IN: We have J-J, but this time choose to limp. Trouble is, another player raises to 5,300. We smell a rat, so we go all-in again by calling with our remaining 3,789. Our opponent has Q-A. The flop is 3h-8h-7h. The turn is 5. The river is 5h -- and the real trouble is that our opponent's Ace is a heart. A flush on the river lets him escape with the pot, and sends us out the door.

We were due to lose with one of those pocket pairs sooner or later. It wound up happening later -- yet we had a good run, finishing #168 out of 1,247 entries.

On the Flip-Flop

2011-12-25T21:10:00.001-05:00

Now this strikes us as strange.

The U.S. Justice Department which gave online poker players "Black Friday" decided over the weekend states may legalize Internet poker.

A few poker websites seemed to sense this ruling was coming -- but it certainly surprises us. Do you think states will jump at the chance to set up their own online poker rooms?

What Day Is This Again?

2011-12-25T09:19:00.000-05:00

Me: Happy Hawaii Bowl Saturday to all.

We wrote that at the start of two online poker tournaments Saturday night. We realized that might provoke a response from other players, given what weekend it is. Sure enough....

payingbills: merry christmas

Dealer: dedmanshnd77 wins Main Pot ($365)

payingbills: what a poker life we all lead lol

If you're "addicted" to poker, playing online at the expense of your family and friends could be a problem. But then, you could have been like us....

Me: I was at a church service during the afternoon.

Me: Keeping the Sabbath, not Christmas.

Me: The speakers preached against it.

Several Sabbath-keeping denominations believe Jesus was born -- only not on December 25. They see the Sabbath as a Biblically-ordained day. But the Bible nowhere mentions the word Christmas, or commands Christians to keep it. But of course, that doesn't stop others people. From a later table:

vegaspi: merry CHRISTmas....

Me: Was Jesus born on Dec. 25?

mamadog09: nope never

vegaspi: conceived on 25 bor sept

Me: I agree with that - fall birth.

Why do we say that? We base it on these verses:

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. - Luke 2:6-8

Global warming may have changed things in the 21st century, but many historians admit late December would have been the wrong season for Middle Eastern shepherds to be outside with flocks. After around early November, it's too chilly and rainy for that.

(A birth during spring in the northern hemisphere doesn't seem out of the question as well. The song Battle Hymn of the Republic includes the words: "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea." Lilies are more often associated with spring, as opposed to poinsettias in December.)

We've mentioned before here that there's more evidence Jesus kept Hanukkah than Christmas. If you'd like to dig deeper into this holiday controversy, you're invited to explore an in-depth Bible study we posted several years -- actually in response to a book by a Christmas-keeper. And in the meantime.... well, have a nice NBA Sunday.

Pick a Card, Any Card

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

But would you choose to play with a poker deck which looks like this?

Our first thought: a deck of cards which costs more than three beers isn't going to show up in many bars and clubs.

Poker Night 284: The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave

2011-12-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

In one of his books, Gus Hansen writes the poker mentality should be different at a smaller table. We had a taste of that tonight at Lil Kim's Cove -- as most of the evening was spent at a table of five or six players. One of the challenges comes in attempting to convert big hands into big gains. Take this example....

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: A-A

We're "under the gun" with "pocket rockets" for the second time tonight. We limped in the first time it happened, then "three-bet" an opponent who raised. Even though our raise was only from 200 to 700, it ran everyone else off. This time we limp with plans to "play innocent" - but no one at the table raises.

ON THE FLOP: J-6-9

The play checks to us, and now we decide to move. Our bet of 300 is designed to keep people in, and maximize our gains. Two players call.

ON THE TURN: 4

We still don't see any reason to be concerned. So we turn up the heat, with a bet of 700. But our opponents call, anyway -- with a man across from us looking a little frustrated.

ON THE RIVER: K

As we recall (not remembering the suits exactly), this puts three clubs on the board. We decide to slow down and check now, in case someone is on a flush draw. Our opponents check along.

"I've got Aces," we announce and show. A woman to our left is a bit stunned, and throws away her cards. But wait.

"Nines and fours," the frustrated-looking man says. He's not frustrated now -- because he made two pair on the turn, and winds up cracking our Aces for a nice pot.

"You let him stay in," a player out of the hand tells us. That's the "art" of the game, you might say. We wanted to catch some fish, but our bait wound up tipping us overboard.

That loss hurt, but we won another nice pot later when an open-ended straight draw came through on the river. Then came a double-up in the second hour when we went all-in with J-10 and a paired Jack on the flop. But then we reached the brink with a big pot loss, dropping to one measly chip worth 500. But we escaped when we bet that chip on A-2, and saw running 2's on the turn and river.

With only 2,000 chips left and the big blind at 4,000, other players were eliminated ahead of us -- and we survived to the final table. But then with nothing to lose, another push with A-5 failed to pair the board. We fell to a pair of 9's, but wound up in eighth place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "I'm not even a Broncos fan," confessed a man who joined us for the semifinal table. His orange football jersey with a 15 on it told the rest of the story. "I'm a Tim Tebow fan." He's bought into the phenomenon surrounding the Denver quarterback with unrestrained faith in Christ -- so much so that he was thanking God, Jesus and Tebow out loud (not always in that order).

"God can do amazing things, can't he?" we told the man. He agreed -- then proceeded to go all-in with A-5, and win the pot with a pair of Aces.

"I told you God can do amazing things," we said. We've seen it personally, at the poker table and other places. And the Bible is filled with amazing examples....

Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. - Luke 9:42-43

God's greatness is shown in miraculous healing, moments of deliverance for believers facing life-or-death trials, and.... well, let's ask this. Which Biblical miracle amazes you the most? Leave a comment with your answer, and we might discuss it in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 104 final tables in 284 nights (36.6%) - 17 cashes. We've made two final tables in a row locally, for the first time since July.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 182 point wins in 790 games (23.0%), 62 final tables, 7 cashes. One table sit-n-goes: 8-13-9-3-2.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $63,779, down $430.

One or All?

2011-12-21T19:25:00.000-05:00

Whether we play poker in person or online, "English-only" rules seem to dominate. It's the only permissible language at the table. The wrong words in French, Japanese or Swahili could lead to your removal.

As it happens, last week's poker-table discussion of the things man can do led to a place where one language dominated. A man predicted humans someday will be able to fill the hole in the ozone layer -- and based it in part on the tower of Babel.

"Why did God confuse their languages," a man asked, "saying nothing will be impossible for them?"

We didn't remember the Bible putting it exactly like that, and another man at the table agreed. So when we walked home, we opened a Bible and checked:

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech As men moved eastward they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.... Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens...." The Lord said, "If as one people speaking he same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." - Genesis 11:1-7

Our man at the poker table actually had it right, based on the New International Version. Our mind was more on the King James Version of verse 6: "....now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."

So was God really afraid of what humans might do? Does this passage show God is against team efforts and working together -- and really for "self-reliance" and individualism, the sort of thinking that can dominate the minds of poker players?

We know believers on both sides of this issue. One side laughs at any mention of the "It Takes a Village" philosophy. The other supports and encourages a sense of community and togetherness. But we think there's a middle ground here -- with God bridging the two sides.

Why was that tower built at Shinar, anyway? We left out one key section which answers the question....

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." - Genesis 11:4

The crowd wanted self-promotion -- and to get it, it was resisting God's instructions to "fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). So God really responded to selfishness and disobedience. By comparison, one person obeying God can do amazing things. For instance....

For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. - Deuteronomy 34:12

And Jesus wants believers today to join together in a project which proclaims "good news."

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned," - Mark 16:15-16 (NASB)

(NOTE: We have more to say about this discussion of Babel. Watch for it in a future post.)

Smarter Than the Average Bear

2011-12-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

Our last post mentioned there's a difference between the "life" of an animal and that of a human. While the "poker-playing dogs" are classic humorous works of art, you never see real animals playing poker. No, they simply do not....

Oops. We might have to correct that, after finding this photo online today. We'd love to know how the cat built that big chip stack!

But let's get more serious here. Since dogs and cats don't appear on WPT telecasts, there must be something which gives humans the skill even to create a game such as poker. An Old Testament book hints at the answer.

But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. - Job 32:8

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:.... "Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?" - Job 38:1, 36

It's fascinating to watch the resourcefulness and instincts of a common cockroach. It can find its way into a kitchen, develop a hideaway there and scramble to safety when threatened. Job 38:39-40 speaks to this to some extent -- and as another player mentioned Thursday night, scientists are able to clone animals with similar traits and characteristics.

But humans can reason in a much more complex way. As far as we know, evolutionists haven't really explained how such a "leap of knowledge" from animal life occurred. That leads us to conclude Someone greater is involved.

For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. - Proverbs 2:6

Along with these things, God gives humans the ability to think. And the list of things humans can do with that thinking ability expands every day -- from writing poker blogs to cloning animals to discovering a "god particle.". In fact, we're led to a humbling conclusion....

The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. - I Corinthians 8:2

So think on these things. But as you do, consider how God is at work in the thought process. And while you're at it....

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 these things. - Philippians 4:8

Poker Night 283: Back to the Bucks - UPDATED

2011-12-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

The Tournament Director arrived late at Lil Kim's Cove Thursday night, so play began about 15 minutes behind schedule. But it was worth the wait for us -- as we finished in second place at our "home room" for poker! It's our best showing there since July 2010, and earned us $25 in a settlement with the remaining player who had more chips. (Normally first is $50 and second is a "bucket of beers;" the other man can enjoy the beers.)

We missed a flop with a promising early hand, and slipped to about 3,200 chips from a starting 5,000. But a rally started when we were dealt "big slick" A-K and gained two pair on the flop. An all-in bet against a loose-playing huge stack holding pocket 8's brought a nice profit. Then pocket 5's in the big blind led to a third 5 on the flop, which brought another nice gain. Those wins led to this....

BLINDS: 1,000/2,000

IN THE POCKET: 7-7

We've been moved to a table where a couple of players either are half-drunk, or acting that way. We've advanced to about 30,000 chips -- and as best we recall (this hand wasn't recorded), no one raises pre-flop.

ON THE FLOP: 3s-7c-8c

"That didn't help anybody," a man to our left with a pitcher of beer and a bigger stack of chips declares. We beg to differ with his opinion -- but instead of saying that, we lead off the betting at 4,000. That man calls, and we're heads-up.

ON THE TURN: 10

We offer 4,000 again. The man calls again -- and we're puzzled about what he has.

ON THE RIVER: Qc

This puts three clubs on the board. We choose not to play scared, and turn up the heat a little by betting 5,000. Our opponent raises to 10,000. We've never played against this man before, but we're not convinced he's hit a straight or flush. So we call.

"Two pair," the man announces -- hitting Q-10 on the river.

"Three sevens," we respond; "21." Blackjack the hard way wins us a big pot, a bit of surprise from the player we beat -- and some constructive criticism from a man sitting to our right.

"You should have re-raised him." The man noted that huge stack our opponent had. A bidding war indeed might have cost him a lot of chips -- but we were wary that he actually might be disguising a huge hand, so we erred on the side of caution.

We held on from there, reaching the final table with about 45,000 chips. After an explosive hand which sent three men out at once, pocket Jacks turned into a winning straight for us and a big gain.

Then with four players remaining, we dared to call an opponent's all-in bet with A-5. He had K-Q; 5's came on the flop and turn -- and that man (dealing the cards) missed a club flush draw on the river. The man threw down the deck in disgust and slowly left. No, he did not offer to shake hands.

We walked home after three hours of poker a little fatter in the wallet -- and thankful to God for a night of poker success which seemed long overdue. (No, we did not "Tebow.")

MINISTRY MOMENT: "I learned this in Bible class," a man told us during a discussion at the table. "The way you can prove there is a God is that science has been able to reproduce everything about a human except the eye."

That sounded reasonable to us -- but another factor came to mind. "Man can't make a brain come to life. That takes God."

The other player didn't think so, suggesting scientists can make nerve endings come together so life can function. "They've cloned a goat," he noted. In fact, that feat occurred way back in the last millennium.

Now this is one deep topic for a poker table. Cloning an animal is one thing -- but in our view, reproducing a human with the cognitive ability to think and reason (or even play poker) is something else. The Bible indicates something more is needed for that....

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. - I Corinthians 2:11

Some ministers note the King James Version wording "the spirit of man," and say there's a "human spirit" which give us physical life. When we die, that spirit returns to God for reinstalling when humans are resurrected. But the "spirit of God" is different, opening our minds to understand how God wants us to live and operate.

As we say, this is a deep topic -- so we'll stop here and ask what you think of this. Offer comments; we'll offer more in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 103 final tables in 283 nights (36.4%) - 17 cashes. This was our first final table since the end of October.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 181 point wins in 788 games (23.0%), 62 final tables, seven cashes. We near the end of 2011 with five cash wins online, compared with two in live tournaments.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $64,209, down $2,115.

My Weekly (At Least) Reader

2011-12-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

We heard a sermon recently in which the pastor brought up something that's a key factor in many poker games -- reading.

"Jesus read them like a book," the pastor said. He used this quote from the human life of Christ as an illustration:

"Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?" - John 7:19

Verse 1 of this chapter indicates Jesus knew about a plot against His life by people in Judea. It could be easy to dismiss this as a matter of the Lord's disciples passing along information and warnings they'd heard. But let's go deeper....

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?" - Matthew 9:4

How did Jesus know what some of the scribes were thinking? We've heard several explanations of this, even from ministers. Some say the Lord simply had good intuition -- and that may well be true. But we prefer to think something more was at work in this special Someone from heaven....

But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. - John 2:24-25

(If you really want to know what's "in a man," check Jeremiah 17:9-10. You may not like what you read.)

You see, other ministers consider this "knowledge" a proof that Jesus was and is God -- because the knowledge was provided by the Holy Spirit at work in Him.

He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts...." - Luke 16:15

Reading an opponent at the poker table admittedly isn't quite on this level. But for starters, we recommend praying for wisdom to "judge righteous judgment," as John 7:24 puts it. What other tips would you offer for reading someone else's hand -- keeping in mind God and Jesus Christ reads all of us much more accurately?

Enough is Enough

2011-12-11T20:55:00.000-05:00

We don't like to say it, but tonight may very well have been the last straw for us with National League of Poker.

We qualified for the Sunday night weekly championship for the second week in a row, and the fourth week in the last six. When game time came, we were shown in the small blind to start the first hand -- and then the system froze. Again. We couldn't even connect to the table after that.

We pulled out of NLOP, and went back in. The game was seven minutes old when the screen for our table came back up -- but then the server spent 23 minutes "attempting to reconnect" without success. After 30 minutes, we gave up -- certain we'd already been forfeited, since "ten minutes in post and fold" is all it takes to get tossed.

The NLOP game server can't seem to handle any outside friction. A McAfee update admittedly began at the 27-minute mark, and we know from experience it beings to take control of our computer about 30 minutes earlier without officially showing it. An e-mail to us from NLOP several days ago admitted all browsers should be closed for optimum play.

But the poker site's advertising servers don't seem to have any problems. Ads kept changing and updating during our long wait, like nothing ever happened. NLOP admits its game and ad servers are separate.

The website clearly needs advertising dollars to offer prizes in a "free play" format. But poker players are "customers," too. If the connection quality of the two is obviously different, players are bound to reach the conclusion that they're only a secondary consideration.

I Thessalonians 5:14 advises believers to "be patient with everyone." But when we're patient to a fault -- to the point where we can't do what we'd like to do -- a limit on patience eventually is reached.

It pains us to write this, because we've won a nice sum of money playing online poker with NLOP. But at this point, we're looking for alternatives -- preferably outside the Zen gaming group, which includes NLOP and other free poker sites. Do you have any suggestions, which are legal and financially rewarding?

Start a New Game

2011-12-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

We mentioned an online meeting with a player named "IICor5_17". It didn't last long and we didn't confirm it, but we suspect the name came from this Bible verse....

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! - II Corinthians 5:17

What does it mean to be a "new creation"? It has nothing to do with reincarnation, where souls are thought to have multiple human identities over thousands of years. Let's let the apostle Paul explain what he means....

For Christ's love compels us.... And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. - II Corinthians 5:14-15

It's easy for a poker player to live for himself or herself. Unless you're part of a team in a local league format, it's a very individualized game. But in a spiritual sense, believers should live for Jesus Christ.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - II Corinthians 5:21

How do we become "the righteousness of God"? The book of Proverbs offers some hints....

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. - Proverbs 14:34

The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him that follows after righteousness. - Proverbs 15:9 (KJV)

So righteousness means avoiding sinful, wicked actions. And it also means....

And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. - Philippians 3:9

Merely avoiding tobacco, booze and dirty talk at the poker table isn't enough. We need faith in Jesus Christ. Is your faith in yourself -- or Someone greater?

Poker Night 282: Little Becomes Much

2011-12-08T21:56:00.000-05:00

One of the most-talked about Christian movies of the year is Courageous. While we admittedly haven't seen it, the game of poker can offer plenty of opportunities to test your courage (as well as other things). We faced a few of those moments tonight at Lil Kim's Cove -- and the results were mixed.

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: 4-10 of clubs

We're in the big blind, at a table with a couple of empty chairs being played "as if." We had a three-way split of an early pot, then won another one. So we're comfortable checking here with about 11,000 chips, when no one raises ahead of us. Most of the table is in.

ON THE FLOP: Q-8-4 (as best we recall, the Q was a club)

We have bottom pair in lead position (the small blind is one of the empty seats), and make a safe check. But a long-haired man across from us bets 500.

"He bluffed on the last hand," another player recalls. In fact, he won with that bluff after chasing other players away with a huge bet. But this bet is modest and we do have something, so we call. Four players stay in the hand.

ON THE TURN: 7 (not a club)

The flush dream fades, but a pair remains. So we check again and hear, "500 again" from the long-haired man. We decide to hang tough and call once more. The other players do, too.

ON THE RIVER: 10

That's a good card for us -- so good that we decide to take control right away in lead position: "One-thousand."

The man to our immediate left responds much as we thought, and even wanted. He's stunned. He never saw this bet coming.

"You can't have a straight," he says to us. (Except it's possible.) "Have you got two pair?" We stare back and forth at him and the board, saying nothing. "You can't have a flush." (That's true; there's no more than two of any suit showing.)

"He might have a Queen," the player next to our guesser speculates. "Slow playing that [censored]...." Both of them fold, leaving the long-haired man with a decision to make.

"Fifteen hundred more," he announces. Something tells us he's trying another acting job, so we don't hesitate and call.

"All I've got is a pair of 10's, man, " he admits. He hit the river -- but we hit it better! "Nice hit," he admits as our two pair brings a gain of about 6,000 chips.

We reached a high of 19,000 chips at the one-hour break. But then our aggressive pre-flop nature began to miss flops. And when a pre-flop bidding war began at another table, we dared to go all-in with A-J. Trouble was, this raising opponent was not bluffing. He showed J-J, and caught the missing Jack on the flop to win with three of a kind. We joined another player on the rail, finishing tied for 15th place.

MINISTRY MOMENT: An online tournament during the afternoon had an even better finish. We were sixth out of 119 players, to qualify for the monthly Senior Championship -- and along the way, we met a player named "IICor5_17". He went all-in almost immediately, so we knew we had to act fast:

Me: Hi II Cor
Dealer: oreo1 wins Side Pot 1 ($380) with Full house, aces full of tens
Me: I;m new in Christ. :-)
Dealer: oreo1 wins Main Pot ($2355) with Full house, aces full of tens
Me: Bye.
Me: That's what that Bible verse talks about.

If you don't understand, that screen name is an abbreviation of this Bible verse....

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! - II Corinthians 5:17

No one online responded to our explanation -- but we invite you to do so. What does that verse mean to you? Offer a comment; we'll offer ours in an upcoming post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 282 nights (36.2%) - 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 179 point wins in 784 games (22.8%), 62 final tables, 7 cashes.

Despite continuing connection problems, we had a very good week at NLOP: two final tables in five tournaments (including that fourth place out of 397), and one spot away from a third.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $66,424, down $783.

Winning at Love

2011-12-08T01:12:00.000-05:00

Some players in online poker have outrageous screen names -- and that can lead to some downright bizarre heads-up matches. We couldn't resist commenting on this recent clash....

pornking: nothin ever laid in stone
Me: Porn vs. love
Dealer: love1more wins Main Pot ($2450) with Full house, jacks full of fives
Me: Love prevails.
Me: (as it should)

Yes, you read it correctly -- "love1more" defeated "pornking."

We're not sure why anyone would want to attach "porn" to their name. But casinos sometimes come close to the pornographic line in their advertising, with pictures of attractive and seductively-dressed women. We've never been in a poker room where the dealers looked that sexy. But the appeal with women has something in common with the appeal for men to gamble....

You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain.... You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. - James 4:2-3 (KJV)

Lust is a bad-sounding Bible word -- and the Bible shows nothing really good about it. In the original Greek New Testament, this word refers to a "longing" for something.

Not all longings are bad, but some of them can be dangerous. Long too much for (or lust after) a payday at a poker cash game, and you could wind up broke. Lust after displays of pornography, and you can ruin a marriage or healthy romantic relationship.

We think it's better to have a longing for love -- as in the love of God. In fact....

Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." - Matthew 22:37-38

How do we do that? The Bible offers several ways:

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. - I John 5:3
Each man should give what he had decided in his heart to give.... for God loves a cheerful giver. - II Corinthians 9:7

We invite you to search through the Bible and add to this list. (Leave a comment with what you find.) Then do what the apostle Paul recommends. Instead of lusting or longing for destructive things, or even people....

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:1-2

NLOP Weekly Championship 23: Six-Play to Sunday

2011-12-05T17:37:00.000-05:00

National League of Poker now offers daily "six-max" tournaments, where every table has no more than six players. We did exceptionally well in that format Saturday night, finishing fourth in a 397-player tournament. Alas, only first place won prize money -- but that strong showing qualified us for the Sunday night NLOP weekly championship. Yet alas again....

:00 IN: Connection problems plague us right off the bat -- again! We're not fully functioning until :10, and use a round of blinds in the process.

:10 IN: We have 9-K. The flop is 9-A-4. We make a probe bet of 40 with middle pair, and get raised 120. We dare to call. The turn is 3. This time we check, and again dare to call our opponent's bet of 140. The river is 10. We check once more, prepared to fold -- but are delighted when our opponent checks. He only has J-5! Hanging tough wins us $840.

:11 IN: We have 8-5 of hearts in the next hand. The flop is 9c-Ah-3h, and we call a minimum bet of 40. The turn is 3s. A player bets 240, and we try to call with a flush draw -- but the computer doesn't accept our click, and we're timed out! Yet it turns out that's GOOD, because another player raises and the river is 2s. This time server problems save us money.

:21 IN: We have J-10. The flop is K-J-2. We make a minimum bet of 60, and get callers. The turn is Q. Everyone checks. The river is A, and we push all-in with a "Broadway straight." Our opponents fold, but we win an $800 pot.

:23 IN: We have A-8 of clubs under the gun.... and of course, a McAfee update starts on our computer. We're frozen from play until the half-hour break, although we can briefly see another A-8 in our possession after the blinds that we also can't play.

We reach the first break with 1,465 chips - tied for 351st place, with 816 players remaining out of 1,436 who started.

:38 IN: We have 10-Q, and call a doubling of the blinds. The flop is 10-Q-A.... and of course, then we get disconnected again. We never find out how the hand ended.

1:01 IN: After a few potentially good hands fall short at the flop, we have A-5 in the Big Blind. We go all in, and one player calls with A-J. Uh-oh. A lurching connection enhances the drama.... and then come 4-8-8-9-5 right in a row. We hit the river and somehow stay alive!

We stagger to the second break at 1,205 chips. We're a lowly #289, with 332 players left. Disconnections return twice after this point, until....

1:17 IN: We have K-K, and push with 855 left. A player calls with 8-7 -- but gets 9-10-6 on the flop to make a dream straight. The turn and river are 7-J, and we're eliminated in 241st place.

NLOP has been offering a Beta test of its new look for several weeks. Maybe that's what we need to break the cycle of burps and breakoffs, which are making play quite annoying.

Cocky and Loaded

2011-12-04T21:37:00.000-05:00

The woman had a fairly good evening playing poker. But she fell short of the final table -- and she explained part of the reason was a friend playing next to her.

"He won that big pot," she told us, "and then he started playing cocky." The betting of all those extra chips threw the woman off her game plan.

Of course, what's "cocky" to one person can be a simple change of strategy for another. One way poker is like sports is that players have to adjust to changing circumstances during a game -- whether it be rising blinds or the capture of a big chip windfall.

Whatever changes you face and endure, it's important to keep some words of Jesus in mind....

I promise you that you cannot get into God's kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does. - Mark 10:15 (CEV)

Accept it the way a child does?! Your understanding of that phrase may depend on your own family and upbringing. Some children can be grumpy, throwing temper tantrums if they don't get their way. But that's not the kind of attitude Jesus means.

And he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 18:3-4 (NIV; emphasis added)

In other words, it's all about humility. If you win a big pot, you can brag to anyone within earshot about how much you deserve it or how well you embarrassed an opponent. But the more humble approach takes it all in stride -- and Christian humility really is about giving glory to Someone besides yourself.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. - Galatians 6:14

After all, poker is NOT 100 percent about skill and intelligence. "One-out" river cards sometimes come. But a mind of humility realizes that, accepting the fact that losses sometimes happen in this life. That approach can lead to an ultimate victory later, with entry into God's eternal kingdom.

Poker Night 281: High (Card) Anxiety

2011-12-01T22:32:00.000-05:00

The pace of a live poker tournament is nowhere close to the speed of online games. Yet sometimes it can be faster than some players can handle. Consider what happened tonight at Lil Kim's Cove....

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: K-Q offsuit

We're in the big blind after gaining a big blessing -- as the bartender gave us 6,000 bonus chips simply for our buying diet cola. But we lost a lot of that early, and now have about 8,200. And the dealer puts more of that at risk, by raising to 250. With pretty high cards, we call. So do a couple of other players.

ON THE FLOP: K-10-4

We reach for 300, as we have top pair and are first in line to....

"You didn't let me bet, man!" says a player to the immediate right of the dealer. He'd put in 50, but was passed over for the raise.

We put the 300 back in our tray. The dealer tries to cover the flop cards with one hand, and a short discussion ensues across tables about the rules. "If you call, the flop goes back. If you fold, the flop stays out," one player (not the tournament director) advises.

"I wanted to call," says the ignored player. We quietly hope he doesn't now -- and after some thinking/grumbling, he folds. Now the flop is official, and we put 300 back out.

"I didn't want you to have a King, man." Now the dealer is grumbling. "I've got Jacks."

"Oh. That's too bad," we say -- then quickly realize what those words might reveal. "But it might really be good," we add, "because I might have nothing."

"He wouldn't have bet unless he had something," says another man across from us. (We took advantage of that mindset to win another hand later with a bluff.) So does the dealer. A woman to our left calls, and we're heads-up.

ON THE TURN: J

The dealer grumbles a bit louder at the potential three-of-a-kind he lost. But we press on: "300 more." The woman folds, and the pot is ours. But someone wants to see what the last card would have been.

ON THE RIVER (not counting): 9

"I would've had a straight!" A player shows the Queen he threw away. We then show our cards -- and we would have split the pot with matching straights. Instead, we gain around 900 chips.

We won a couple of pots, then tried to hold on from there in the second hour. But with five players left at the semifinal table and A-9 in our hand with rising blinds, we were compelled to go all-in for our last 1,500. The board didn't pair for us, and a man on the other side took out another player along with us. We missed the final table by one hand again, finishing in a tie for ninth (ninth place in Big Dog Poker points).

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Jesus as your Savior" coin to the woman who took us on early in the evening. "A man in a motorcycle club gave that to me," we said.

"We had our bike blessed," the woman responded. It belonged to her and her ex-husband, and it was blessed at a motorcycle rally.

Does that sound strange -- having someone "bless" your motorcycle? It's a growing trend in some religious groups to hold "blessing" services for all sorts of items, from vehicles to pets. We have yet to find anything in the Bible specifically about blessing those things -- but Jesus set an example along that line:

He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these".... And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. - Mark 10:14, 16

We've attended many congregations which have "blessing of children" ceremonies at least once a year. May we dare suggest young people need God's blessing much more than motorcycles?

(Some of you may be saying at this point we skipped over a verse. Don't worry -- we'll get to that in an upcoming post.)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 281 nights (36.3%) - 16 cashes. This makes four times since mid-September that we've missed the final table by one hand. Had we made them all, our percentage would be close to 38.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 176 point wins in 779 games (22.6%), 60 final tables, seven cashes.

NLOP seems to be eliminating the three-card "knockout" poker tournaments, as UFC sponsorship appears to be gone. But we'll never forget the first time we played it on a Saturday night -- and won the tournament!

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,207, down $1,045.

November Senior Championship: Too Many Hiccups

2011-11-30T18:06:00.000-05:00

Poker can be a game of spurts -- with several idle hands, followed by a couple with big gains. But in the November National League of Poker Senior Championship Tuesday night, the spurts came in other ways....

:01 IN: We have J-J, and a player ahead of us raises 160. We call, of course. The flop is 10-5-6. We call a bet of 30. The turn is 4. We call a bet of 130, fearing someone has three of a kind. The river is 6, and we call yet another bet of 30. After all that, our main opponent has K-5! The overpair gives us a big gain of $1,255.

:12 IN: After folding cards which would have given us a winning flush and a winning straight, we have Ax-Ks. We raise the blind 100, to 140. The flop is 3s-6x-2s. A player bets 200 -- enough to baffle us, and also enough to fold.

:16 IN: We have 3-4 in the big blind -- and then the trouble starts. Our connection to the game freezes. After waiting five minutes for things to resolve themselves, we "panic" -- getting out of NLOP completely and logging back in. The process keeps us away for 12 minutes, so we escape being disqualified. But we miss a round of blinds -- and who knows what else.

We're functioning at the 30-minute break, with $1,490 thanks to our big win. We're #207 out of 506 players still alive.

:34 IN: Right after the break, we have 9-4. We fold -- and then freeze #2 begins. We get out and in faster this time, but still lose eight more minutes of playing time and another round of blinds. We're down to $1,265.

:43 IN: We have 3-J, and feel compelled to play to avoid disqualification. The flop is 6-K-5, and we fold to a bet.

:48 IN: We have A-3 of diamonds. The flop is 6d-Kd-2h, providing us a great flush draw. The table checks. The turn is Qh, and we call a bet of 200. But the turn is Ks, and we must fold to another bet. (The winning player had a Q for two pair.) It's a serious loss.

:59 IN: We have J-5 of spades in the small blind with a small stack. We click on "fold" -- and then freeze #3 starts, with our chip stack down to a lowly 265.

"And we slow play the fold," we see a player named Wirestringer write while our connection is hopelessly sluggish. We can't explain, because we have to get out and into NLOP again. Another nine minutes is lost, and we return at the end of the second break.

"Apologies to Wire and all -- disconnects beyond my control," we write on our return. Wirestringer understands and accepts that explanation.

"You could update to IE9," another player suggests.

"But we don't use that here, do we?" we ask. We don't even have any browsers open. (Open question: does that really make a difference?)

1:11 IN: We antes whittling away, we push all-in with A-5 and 115 chips left. The flop is K-7-7. The turn is K, and we feel doomed. The river is J -- and a player shows 7-Q. His full house knocks us out.

Believe it or not, we finished 176th out of 1,063 players -- in spite of everything, including 29 lost minutes out of 71. It's a pretty good finish. But it obviously left us frustrated.

Waiting Room

2011-11-29T21:27:00.000-05:00

The smallest gesture or briefest word can cause attention at the poker table, especially when you're in the middle of a hand. Players are looking for "tells" of any kind, or doing "reads" to determine what you really have and how they should respond.

We wonder if that made a difference in the hand we mentioned in our last post. A pause of about two seconds before checking with quad Kings resulted in an opponent going all-in --then we "insta-called" to make a big gain.

The Bible offers many examples where moments of waiting led to amazing results. We'll offer one; perhaps you can think of others....

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick".... Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. - John 11:3, 6

Jesus was healing people all over the "Holy Land" region. So why didn't He rush to the aid of Lazarus? The Lord gave a hint to His disciples....

So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." - John 11:14-15

Jesus suggests He wanted to drive home a point to the disciples. And a few days later, He made that point before a large crowd of witnesses.

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out.... Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. - John 11:43-45

By waiting until Lazarus was dead and entombed, Jesus displayed His miraculous powers. In the arts, that sort of wait is called a "dramatic pause." God seems to have more in store, before Jesus comes again....

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They cried in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" - Revelation 6:9-10

It occurred to us this week that today's living believers should put themselves under that altar. Many of them want Jesus to return with judgment and vengeance, too. But read on....

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. - Revelation 8:1

God's timeline seems unaffected by human pleading. But Revelation goes on to show Jesus will come again. Soon. We don't know how soon, but soon. In the meantime, follow the advice of a psalmist:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. - Psalm 130:5

(P.S. We faced our own 15-minute wait as we wrote this entry, due to Internet connection problems. Waiting isn't easy there, either -- but wait we did.)

He Who Hesitates....

2011-11-28T19:52:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you can be a poker "alter ego" in an online cash game, especially when no one knows who you are. Look what we did the other night at PokerStars.net....

BLINDS: 5/10

IN THE POCKET: K-K

About five players are at this pretend table. We make a modest raise in early position to 25. Come on in -- and most players do.

ON THE FLOP: Q-7-8

We have an overpair and early position, so we fire a continuation bet of 50. A couple of players call.

ON THE TURN: K

That's even better -- three of a kind. Now we raise the temperature to 75. Only one player calls.

ON THE RIVER: K

Whoa!! We hit runners for quads! So we pause a moment to plan our strategy -- then we check.

Our opponent ponders -- and takes the bait. He goes all-in, for about 380. Of course, we call.

:-) is what we type as we show the case Kings. Our opponent dared to bet with a mere 3-8 for two pair. Did that momentary wait on our part make a difference? We'll reflect on that in our next post.

If It Was Real: 280-Game Report

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

An old phrase says familiarity breeds contempt. At the poker table, we think it also makes you an easy target. We're starting to think the players in our local poker circuit have figured out our strategy -- or else they're reading this blog carefully, and not telling us.

In our last 20 live tournaments, we've made the final table only four times (barely missing two other times). Compared with a couple of years ago, this is a serious slide for us. And only two tournaments brought top-five finishes. We were fourth in October at a Florida poker room (where we're clearly an outsider), then fourth two weeks later at The Red Barn (where we don't play often these days).

Plug those 20 games into our running scoreboard, based on a Kansas City area casino. Our record now looks like this:

BUY-INS: 280 nights x $50 = $14,000

First -- 5 ($2,500)
TIE for first: 1 ($450)

Second - 8 ($3,200)

Third -- 9 ($2,700)
TIE for third: 1 ($250)

Fourth - 12 ($2,400)
TIES for fourth:
4 two-way ($600)
1 three-way ($67)

Fifth -- 14 ($1,400)
TIES for fifth:
4 two-way ($200)
1 three-way ($17)

TOTAL -- 60 for $13,784

Yes, it's finally happened -- we've fallen below the break-even point on a pretend investment. After 100 games, we were 45.3% ahead. After 200 games, it was 24.7%.

So clearly some changes are in order. But what should they be? Any suggestions?

Thanks for Nothing?

2011-11-24T17:33:00.000-05:00

How disappointed we were Wednesday night, when a man told us he didn't have much to be thankful for. But then again, maybe that describes you on this U.S. Thanksgiving Day. Maybe you've lost a lot of money playing poker this year -- or lost something (or someone) even more valuable to you.

Yet the book of Psalms encourages us to thank God, anyway. And it gives all sorts of reasons:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.... who made the great lights.... the sun to govern the day.... the moon and stars to govern the night.... to the One who remembered us in our low estate.... and freed us from our enemies.... and who gives food to every creature.... Give thanks to the God of heaven. His lover endures forever. - Psalm 136:1, 7-9, 23-26

God provides huge things every day, if we simply take a moment to look for His hands in them. And another huge thing is yet to come....

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him... For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. - I Corinthians 15:22-26

With that promise of an end to death someday, the ultimate song of thanksgiving can be sung -- and if you believe in God, you can sing it even now:

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - I Corinthians 15:57

Poker Night 280: Good Things Come in Pairs?

2011-11-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

"I'm getting a divorce," the man to our left said tonight at Soho Bar and Grill. That admission was unusual enough -- but he said it in response to our question about what he's thankful for. Now there's a new way to slam the door on a conversation.

But that man may have been more focused on winning at the poker table. A big crowd showed up to do that, perhaps because it was Thanksgiving Eve. For us, it was a change because our usual Thursday night room will be closed for the holiday. And we hoped to change our trend line, because our last trip to Soho in May ended with a tie for fifth place. Let's see if it happened....

BLINDS: 500/1000

IN THE POCKET: 8h-8c

We won a modest early pot by making bottom pair and betting people away. But otherwise, nice cards have fallen short for us -- such as K-K losing to two pair. We're down to 2,500 chips, and this pocket pair may be our last good hope. We go all in, and two other people at the table of six call.

ON THE FLOP: 9h-10s-6h

This gives us a straight draw and a longshot chance for a flush. But when one of the other players bets 2,000, we don't feel good about this. (The fact that the third player calls didn't change things much.)

ON THE TURN: 4d

So much for a flush. The other players check.

ON THE RIVER: As

We miss the straight -- and the player who bet earlier now goes all-in for 13,000. His opponent folds, and we fear the worst. He shows 9-J! That's not much, but his pair is enough to top our pair. We head home as the second player eliminated at our table.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We took a small card saying "Thank You" to the table, and tried to ask the players around us what made them thankful this holiday season.

"For life," the man to our right said. "I don't have much to be thankful for." At least that topped the man to our left.

"I'm thankful for life," we told that man after some thought. "And I'm thankful for eternal life, through Jesus Christ." We don't think either neighbor really heard us mention this. But even if you're a pauper, the offer of eternal life is one you can claim.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23

It's a "gift," yet an unusual one -- because Jesus indicated it depends on things you do while you're alive.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.... I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.... [Others] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. - Matthew 25:35-36, 40, 46

So if you have to do some things to receive this gift, is it really a gift? That's a deep Biblical topic - a classic clash between the grace of God and the works of humans.

We could liken it to fund-raising raffle tickets which are sold at some of the poker nights we attend. Someone will have their name drawn at random to win a big prize -- let's say a TV set or a car. But if you don't buy a ticket, you can't receive that gift. In the same way, God's gift of eternal life appears to be offered based on our participation in acts of kindness toward others. Do you agree, or have a different view? Either way, please leave a comment with your thoughts.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 280 nights (36.4%) - 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 175 point wins in 769 games (22.8%), 60 final tables, seven cashes.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $68,252, down $315.

This. And That. And the Other Thing.

2011-11-21T19:55:00.000-05:00

So there we were Sunday night, in an online weekly poker championship we didn't plan to attend. And another project was underway simultaneously, which had been on the schedule for weeks. In the end, we "sacrificed" a good poker result for that other project.

This situation reminded us of advice written nearly 2,000 years ago - long before "multitasking" became part of the vocabulary:

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. - James 1:8 (KJV)

We played chess in our youth, and marveled at how grandmasters staged exhibitions walking around a room and playing 30 or 40 games simultaneously. Thanks to the Internet, some poker players pull a similar stunt today -- playing three or four games at once, even at different websites.

Perhaps those people have the brains to accommodate such things -- but we think many people work at their best when they focus on one thing at a time. That's what we do, when it comes to poker. And we think Jesus supports that idea....

No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.... - Matthew 6:24

We've heard ministers say Jesus's disciple Peter went against this principle when he attempted to walk on water toward the Lord, and "saw the wind" instead of Christ (Matthew 14:25-31). So let's....

Oh, wait a second. We got distracted for a moment (giggle), and didn't finish that verse with some more important words of Jesus:

You cannot serve God and Money. - Matthew 6:24b

Now this deepens the issue -- especially for poker players. Are you so fixed on winning cash games and tournaments that you've pushed God aside? What is your top priority in life? We recommend learning from Peter's sinking feeling....

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:2

While poker can be fun, challenging and even a career, life has a "final table" -- and you can't drag chips from this life to the next. Jesus offers something more valuable than money: the opportunity for eternal life in His Kingdom. Isn't that worth putting God first?

NLOP Weekly Championship 22: How Bad Do You Want It?

2011-11-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

What a busy Sunday! A NASCAR title on the line, a music awards show on TV, the MLS Cup, WWE Survivor Series night -- and if all that wasn't enough, we qualified for the National League of Poker's weekly championship because of top-five and top-50 finishes at mid-week.

To be honest, we didn't plan on getting into this week's "big game" because another project was a higher priority. But we decided to try a little multitasking, and play online while working on that other thing. Did it work?

:04 IN: We have 4-5 offsuit, and call a doubling of the blind. The flop is Q-A-5. We call a minimum bet with bottom pair. The turn is 7. Everyone checks. The river is K. Someone bets 490, and we know well enough to fold -- especially when the winner shows J-10 for a top straight.

:10 IN: We have 8-8. The flop is Q-7-9, and we call a minimum bet of 40. The turn is 6; we call another minimum bet with an open-ended straight draw. But the river is 4, and we fold another bet. Good thing; the winner shows a Queen.

:13 IN: We have 10-8 of hearts. The flop is 7-5-10 (7 is a heart). Another player in the hand goes all-in for thousands. With top pair and that other project going on, we dare to call -- putting us all-in with 650 left. A third player calls. The big bettor had 7-7 for three of a kind -- and wins the main pot when the turn and river are J-8. But that river card saves us for the moment; we win a consolation prize sidepot of 180.

:14 IN: We're under the gun on the very next hand with J-A. With little to lose, we push again. Several players call. But the flop is 7-8-Q, followed by 5 and 10. We missed; a player with 10-K did not.

Oh well -- back to that other project. We settle for 1,233rd place out of 1,458 players. But we think there's a deeper lesson in tonight's game; we'll share that Monday.

Nothing Up Your Sleeve?

2011-11-20T16:45:00.000-05:00

When we're in the dealer position at a live poker table, we like to think we're in control of the action. But the other night, we missed something other players did not.

With a 2-3-4 showing on the board, one player turned over two pair at showdown. As we recall, another man still in the hand declared he'd won the pot. Then as the next dealer started collecting the cards, that other man turned over A-5 of hearts.

"That's a straight," someone else pointed out. We frankly didn't notice it -- but it suddenly occurred to player #2 that yes, he hit a winning straight.

"It's too late. He started shuffling the cards," a player to our left said.

But maybe not; the player with two pair counted out 6,000 chips, and tossed them to the straight-holder.

What's this? A display of good sportsmanship in a poker room?!?! Yes - and it happens more often than you might think. In a free tournament like the ones we usually play, the prizes aren't that pricey. So fair play and a good time tend to prevail. In fact, it should be that way all the time....

It is God's will that you should be sanctified.... and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. - I Thessalonians 4:3-7

The context here involves sexual conduct, but shouldn't it apply in everything else we do?

Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. - Leviticus 19:11

These concepts come straight out of God's Ten Commandments. And if they've been "done away," as some believers claim, why are there laws against such actions in most countries on Earth today?

We should note the player who had the straight seemed prepared to accept his loss. That might be an even harder thing to do at a poker table, especially when big money is involved -- but it's the godly approach as well.

Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. - I Corinthians 6:7-8

There's an element of "getting even" built into all sorts of human activities -- from poker to competitive sports. But we need to be willing to accept losses, even if they hurt. After all, everyone "loses" in the game of human life -- because we're all eventually doomed to die. May our focus be toward God, because....

The sting of death is sin.... But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - I Corinthians 15:56-57

Poker Night 279: The King of Nothing

2011-11-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

"Buzzed driving is drunk driving," warns messages on radio in our city. But is a "buzzed" poker player a bad poker player -- or simply more dangerous? We gained an answer to that question tonight at Lil Kim's Cove, and we were in the middle of it:

BLINDS: 25/50

IN THE POCKET: A-K offsuit

It's only the second hand of the night -- but a big bust occurred on the first hand, so we realize anything could happen at this table of five. A man next to us raises to 250. But waking up with these cards this early, we decide to wait and see if this man will do something rash. We simply call, as does most of the table.

ON THE FLOP: 2-K-7

Top pair plus top kicker equals a good bit of confidence. But the man to our right makes a continuation bet of 250. We choose to keep following the leader, and call. Three players remain in the hand.

ON THE TURN: 8

The bettor to our right now checks -- and we decide to step forward, with a bet of 200. But a woman across the table raises to 700. She says she's been at Lil Kim's Cove since 12:00 noon, building a huge chip stack by purchasing drinks. In fact, she tells other players a few minutes after this hand she's "buzzed." So we're leaning toward concluding she's bluffing.

The bettor next to us thinks it over, and folds. That surprises us, but we're committed to that King -- so we call.

ON THE RIVER: 3

There's no threat of a flush on the board, so we still feel confident and say, "500 more." The woman across from us calls.

"I have two pair," she announces. Ouch -- she shows 7-8, proving she knew what she was doing. We wind up losing about 1,900 chips.

That woman topped us again only minutes later, when we both had three 7's; her Ace kicker topped ours. We rallied a bit to win one pot and split two more in the first hour, then "triple up" early in the second hour when 4-4 brought a 4 on the flop. But higher blinds and missed flops did us in -- and finally we went all-in with 9-2 in the big blind and a 9 showing on the flop. But two 4's eventually appeared, and a chip leader had a third to knock us out. We improved to 12th place, but missed the final table.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "Don't tell a lie, or God will strike you dead," a man across from us said during the first hour. This man knows about this ministry, and may have said those words to provoke a response from us.

"I've never seen it happen," the scoffer added. To be honest, neither have we.

"I've read about it, but I've never seen it," we said. We didn't cite the chapter and verse, but we could have done so. It's in the New Testament....

Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money that you received for the land?.... You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. - Acts 5:3-5

Could this simply be a coincidental heart attack? The scoffer probably would claim that -- but read the entire chapter and you'll find three hours later, Ananias's wife Sapphira suddenly fell dead as well after making a similar misstatement (verses 8, 10). Is that a double coincidence?

Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. - Acts 5:11

These members seemed to conclude God was behind the sudden end of this couple. While those were physical deaths, the New Testament adds an even graver warning about lying:

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars -- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. - Revelation 21:7

You may consider the Bible a giant religious bluff -- but these words serve as a warning to all of us. Do you want to take a risk, which could leave you disqualified from eternal life?

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 279 nights (36.6%) - 16 cashes. Lil Kim's Cove tends to be closed on Thanksgiving, which is next Thursday. Stay tuned to see how we adjust to that.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 175 point wins in 767 games (22.8%), 60 final tables, 7 cashes. We finished fifth in a 71-player tournament Wednesday night, to qualify for the November Seniors Championship.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $68,567, up $985. We briefly topped $70,000 Monday night, after several big gains.

The Original True Blood

2011-11-17T00:09:00.000-05:00

Our last local poker night brought up the TV series True Blood -- and when we heard title, we thought of Jesus the Savior.

Sound strange? We don't mean Jesus Christ was a vampire. What we mean begins with this verse....

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6

If Jesus is the truth, it logically follows that His words are true. And since John 1:1, 14 indicates Jesus was (and still is) God, we can apply these words....

See how I love your precepts; preserve my life, O Lord, according to your love. All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. - Psalm 119:159-160

And the blood of "the truth" is filled with importance for humans, even today....

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.... In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.... - Ephesians 1:3, 7

Have you accepted the blood of Jesus as your redemption price, to have your sins forgiven? Any attempt to use someone else will be.... well, false blood.

What (or Who) Counts Most

2011-11-13T17:42:00.000-05:00

We started this poker ministry blog in 2008 with big dreams, but admittedly small expectations. Little did we know there are other Christians with similar ideas, seemingly accomplishing much more.

We learned this weekend about a documentary called Holy Rollers, featuring a team of "card-counting Christians." The group of young men includes at least one church pastor, and their mission appears to be entering casinos and winning massive sums of money at blackjack tables (they succeed often because they can count the cards in the shoe).

All we've seen of this film is the trailer -- and just as you can't judge a book by its cover, we realize you can't judge a movie by a three-minute promotional clip. But based on the trailer and a couple of online reviews, we'll take a stab at "judging righteous judgment" (John 7:24) and making a few tentative conclusions.

1. One review says the "Church Team" tithes on its casino winnings. That's a proper Biblical thing to do.

"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 room enough for it." - Malachi 3:10

The concept of tithing goes all the way back to Abram in Genesis 14 -- giving a tenth of your "spoil" or winnings to God. If it's considered income, we count it.

2. The Church Team gets giddy at times about the massive amounts of money it "liberates" from casinos. But is that the team's top priority -- and should it be?

Paul warned ministers should have their priorities in order:

It is true that anyone who desires to be a church official wants to be something worthwhile. That's why officials must have a good reputation.... They must be self-controlled, sensible, well-behaved.... kind and gentle and not love money. - I Timothy 3:1-3, CEV

We might make hundreds of dollars in a poker room -- but when the game is over, we personally feel guilty if we haven't done the "ministry" part. And connected to that....

3. The documentary shows a baptism (of whom we're not sure) -- but is this "Church Team" doing any witnessing to people inside the casinos?

It's one thing to take thousands of dollars out the door. But it's another to leave something behind -- at least some kind of gospel message for the casino staff or players to consider.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead.... I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage -- with great patience and careful instruction. - II Timothy 4:1-2

Perhaps the Church Team does this when it's confronted by casino security workers. But talking too much about Jesus at a blackjack table probably would "blow their cover," and perhaps distract them from the card count.

What thoughts come to your mind, when it comes to this topic and this documentary? Leave them in our comments section, and we may address them in upcoming posts.

Poker Night 278: The Gun Clubs

2011-11-10T21:39:00.000-05:00

There was an old-fashioned "stick-up" on the avenue near our home the other day -- as a man was robbed of his wallet, and apparently slugged in the process. At the other side of the avenue tonight, we carried some weapons of our own from time to time. It was poker night at Lil Kim's Cove -- and sometimes cards are referred to as "rockets" or "bullets." But that wasn't what we had....

BLINDS: 100/200

IN THE POCKET: J-9 of clubs

We're "under the gun" -- which in poker slang means we're first to act pre-flop, sitting to the left of the big blind. We haven't won a hand yet, and hold about 4,000 chips. But something tells us to give this suited medium-high combination a try, so we call. Several players get in, with no one raising.

ON THE FLOP: Qs-9s-8c

We have middle pair and a draw, so we're not in a mood to stick our neck out yet. We check; so does the entire table.

ON THE TURN: 10c

That's the right draw for a straight -- and it sets up a potential perfect river card, as we've developed an open-ended shot at a straight flush. But we're more concerned about taking this pot than hitting that long shot. When the play checks to us, we bet 1,000. Several players do the math and fold; one person across from us calls.

ON THE RIVER: Kc

We didn't hit the jackpot, and three clubs are now showing. But we don't really consider that chance of someone having the Ace of clubs for a "nut flush." With our straight becoming a flush, we bet 1,000 again -- and our opponent fold, realizing we have something.

But all in all, the night was shaky for us. We reached a high of 6,000 chips, then lost 3,100 of them in one hand when our pocket Jacks lost to a woman who turned a 3 in her hand into three of a kind on the turn. Then we folded two low clubs which would have made another winning flush.

We finally pushed in the big blind with A-Q, but the board didn't pair for us and another woman made pocket jacks. Final standing: a lowly 22nd.

MINISTRY MOMENT: The talk of the table turned to television tonight. One woman asked an admitted fan of the Twilight movie series, "Do you watch True Blood?"

"No," the fan answered. "I don't like scary stuff."

The title led us to turn to a man on our left and quietly say, "That title brings me back to this." We tapped the "Jesus as your Savior" coin we'd shown him earlier in the evening. The man smiled, and nodded a bit as if he understood.

That's nice -- but do you understand? Why would True Blood make us think of Jesus the Savior? Offer a comment if you'd like; we'll explain in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 278 nights (36.7%), 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 172 point wins in 761 games (22.6%), 59 final tables, 7 cashes.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $67,582, up $5,925. We scored gains in seven of eight sessions in the last seven days, including two with jumps of $2,000 or more.

King Pius Won

2011-11-09T17:32:00.000-05:00

It took about six hours of heads-up play lasting until after midnight in Las Vegas, but Pius Heinz of Germany won the World Series of Poker Main Event early today.

That name inspired a little poker humor for us -- about the other players trying to play "Heinz catch-up." But it also inspired a surprising article on a poker website, reviewing the history of the champion's first name. "Pius" has been the name of 12 Roman Catholic popes, and it comes from a Latin word meaning "dutiful to gods, state and family."

This leads us to a few thoughts and questions. The first one happened to come up the other day, as we chatted during a Poker Stars.Net cash game....

craigdonna: poker gods suck
Dealer: Game #70206673923: cdm125 wins pot (775) with two pair, Eights and Fives
flopblogger: There's only one True God.
Dealer: flopblogger, it's your turn. You have 8 seconds to act
craigdonna: chill
Dealer: Game #70206690526: flopblogger wins pot (640)
craigdonna: get that
Dealer: cdm125, it's your turn. You have 8 seconds to act
Dealer: Regular time for player cdm125 has expired, TIME BANK has been activated
flopblogger: Well, that's why the others.... well, as you said....
craigdonna: ?

The Bible leaves no doubt on this topic:

Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies. - II Kings 17:38-39

The God of the Bible says He's the only real one. If you have proof of others (especially poker gods), we'd be interested in seeing it.

So how can we be "dutiful to" God? What should our duty be? The Bible helps answer that as well....

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. - Ecclesiastes 12:13

If you don't know what those commandments are, read the list in Deuteronomy 5.

You only have to change one letter in Pius Heinz's first name to get a word often used to describe believers in God. They're described as "pious." You won't find that word in many leading Bible translations -- but when we found in one modern version is quite revealing:

Jesus also taught: "Beware of these teachers of religious law!.... they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished." - Mark 12:38, 40, New Living Translation

Jesus didn't think much of religious bluffing -- as in charades and "shows" (as the NIV puts it). If that's your approach to matters of God, it may be time to deepen your commitment -- and look more deeply at your life:

Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you -- unless, of course, you fail the test? - II Corinthians 13:5

Don't be "Pius" in name only. Do your proper duty to God -- and you can win eternal life in the end.

It Only Takes One

2011-11-07T17:32:00.001-05:00

At a worship service the other day, we heard a sermon which reminded us of a familiar poker phrase. It revolved around this verse....

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. - Jude 3

The pastor said the phrase "once for all" can be understood as being given "one time."

"One time!" How many times have you heard poker players say that -- especially desperate ones, needing something like running diamonds for a stay-alive flush? (That happened Sunday evening at the WSOP Main Event Final Table, by the way.) We presume that means the underdog player wants to defy the odds one time, to stay in the game.

We've heard this verse in Jude explained many different ways. But we connect it with the next verse....

For certain man whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. - Jude 4

Jesus came "one time" in the flesh, about 2,000 years ago. But oh, what that one time accomplished.

....It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.... Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. - Acts 4:10, 12

We're saved from the penalty of eternal death for our sins. But it would be irresponsible for us to respond to that gift of salvation by living in an immoral way. What sort of thanks does that show to a holy God?

We should add that "one time" is not the only time Jesus plans to appear on the earth....

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. - Hebrews 9:28

Many people say they only have "one time" physically to live. But the Bible shows we face a resurrection someday to judgment (Revelation 20). And if you're looking to Jesus and following Him, you can be saved to receive eternal life. Good things ultimately do come to those who wait.

Good Sign? Bad Sign?

2011-11-06T20:39:00.003-05:00

As the November Nine drama unfolds, we learned tonight from the World Series of Poker website that DearFoams is the "official footwear provider" of WSOP.

Huh?!?!

Really now - when was the last time you walked into a poker room and noticed people's shoes? (Unless perhaps someone flings a bet off the table, and chips land on the floor.) Aren't you far more likely to notice a player's hat? Or a shirt?

Open question: is this sponsorship a sign of growing popularity for poker? Or is it a sign of desperation, in terms of looking for endorsement deals?

NLOP Weekly Championship 21: The November 15

2011-11-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

Our final table appearance online Thursday provided enough points to qualify for the National League of Poker weekly championship tonight. While the "November Nine" battled in Las Vegas, we took on 1,409 others in cyberspace. And we wound up with a "personality" at the table we normally don't have....

:00 IN: We open in the small blind with 6-J offsuit; we call when someone doubles the blind to 60. The flop is 10-6-7, and the big blind bets 30. We call with a pair. The turn is Q. We call a bet of 30 again, suspecting the big blind is trying to run us off. The river is 9, and we make the same assumption when our opponent bets 30 more. Trouble is, he has Q-J; the turn gives him a winning higher pair, and we lose 150.

:01 IN: We have K-A offsuit and the button in the next hand. We raise to 90 and gain callers. The flop is 3-K-9, all clubs. We don't have a club, and make our own continuation "go-away" bet of 120. A player calls. The turn is 7h. We both check. The river is 2d, making us say: "He missed his flush." Trouble is, our opponent bets 350. We smell a bluff again, and call with top pair. He shows 4-A of clubs! He hit the nuts on the flop, and drops our starting stack of 1,000 down to 290.

:03 IN: Next hand, J-J! Undaunted, we raise to 90 and get two callers. The flop is Kx-7c-3c. Everyone checks. The turn is 6c; more checking, even with three clubs showing. The river is 4. Play checks to us -- but this time we hold our fire and check. Shame on us; the Jacks win the $480 pot! We recover to 610.

:05 IN: We have 2-7, and quickly fold. Too bad -- two 7's show on the flop.

:06 IN: We have 9-9 and limp in middle position. The flop is 3-8-A. We make a probing bet of 50, and three players fold to give us $170 pot. We've now recovered to 710.

:12 IN: We have 4-5 in the big blind, with no one raising. The flop is 3-4-5, providing two pair! We bet 100, and are stunned to see an opponent go all-in with much more. We dare to call our remaining 530 -- and face an opposing hand of 2-5, for an open-ended straight draw. The turn is an Ace! The river is 3 -- and his straight sends us packing in only 15 minutes.

We don't know our exact final position as we write this (that's a flaw with the NLOP leader pages right now). Suffice to say it was well down the ladder -- and it was an evening amazingly similar to our last Sunday night championship a month ago. We had strong hands, and tried to play them strongly in response. But when you're outgunned by a foolish-looking pusher holding 2-5, all you can do is shake your hand and hope the "law of averages" eventually turns around.

Disconnectors

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

The 1:00 p.m. ET online poker tournament was going well for us. We won several big pots, survived a couple of all-in moments, reached the semifinal table in 13th place, noticed make-or-break blinds were approaching for us....

And then it happened. Our Internet connection went dead. We were still online -- simply not connected to the server at National League of Poker, to keep playing the game. We were frozen. Helpless. And we knew we barely had enough chips to play the upcoming big and small blinds.

In short, we were frustrated. And it wasn't the first time we've faced this problem with NLOP. It seldom seems to happen with Poker Stars -- but with our main site for online tournament play, hiccups and outright outages are a common occurrence. Sometimes it's due to automatic McAfee updates taking over our computer. Sometimes it's due to calling up the wrong website in the background (we've concluded NLOP and Facebook don't mix well). But Thursday, there was no good reason at all -- a sunny day where we should have had no interruptions.

In this frustration, we did some meditating. Plenty of people probably feel disconnected from God at times. The reasons could range from the death of a loved one to unemployment to unethical ministers. Yet through it all, the Bible tells us....

Come near to God and he will come near to you. - James 4:8

The leader of a church denomination we once attended liked to say: "If God seems far away, who moved?" While a few exceptions come to mind from the "exodus story," we don't think in most cases it's God....

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal. - Isaiah 26:4
....Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. - Ephesians 2:20b

God's ways can seem confusing at times. In fact, some people intentionally try to bring out the confusing parts to draw believers away from their faith. But in moments like that, we have to trust God "the Rock" to make it all clear -- on His timetable, when the time is right. After all, what other hope beyond this life do we really have? And in the meantime....

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. - James 4:8b

This is how we draw near to a holy God - by repenting of our sins, and accepting Jesus's sacrifice to pay the penalty of those sins.

P.S. When we finally regained a connection with NLOP, we were stunned to discover we were at the final table! Somehow we must have won a pot in one of the blinds (perhaps a "walk" in the big blind) to stay alive. But the long disconnection triggered a "forfeit" by NLOP. Through no fault of our own, we were eliminated.

We wound up eighth out of 611 players, three spots away from "top five" prize money. A close connection with God can lead to an ultimately greater prize - the crown of eternal life.

Poker Night 277: That Was Then

2011-11-03T22:17:00.001-04:00

"It's hard to beat... lucky." An ellipse was added to that sentence to replace a couple of expletives -- expletives uttered by a frustrated player tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. One man at our table was hotter than Death Valley in July, turning all kinds of pocket cards into winning hands. But as that man said at one point, "Any two cards are good before the flop." The key is in waiting for the right cards to come....

BLINDS: 500/1,000

IN THE POCKET: 10-10

We've played patiently for more than an hour, and have absolutely no pots to show for it. The chip stack has dropped slowly, and now we're dealing at a table of five with 3,500 chips left. Mr. Small Blind already is all-in for his last 500. So when players call to us, our decision is easy.

"I'm going all-in," we announce. After all, remember all the pocket pairs which worked for us Monday night? (But then again, 5-5 brought no help earlier at this table.) Two of the remaining three players call -- a husband and wife, as it happens. So we have three pots: a main one (1,500 for the small blind), Side Pot 1 (ours, worth 9,000 as best we figure) and Side Pot 2 between the couple.

ON THE FLOP: 2-2-Q

The wife checks. "I'll check. I have this pot won," the husband says. Such big talk -- but he's the man who's been rolling.

ON THE TURN: 3

What happens when a married couple plays poker? Joint checking! (Tee hee.)

ON THE RIVER: 6

The couple checks again.

"I've got a boat," the big-talking husband says -- as he turns over Q-2! He plays a marginal hand and hits the jackpot again. He tops our tens to take us out. And Mr. Small Blind never even bothers to show his cards -- then makes that quote about luck we mentioned above.

Final result: a tie for 17th place -- and a reminder that for all the talk by poker pros about the skill of the game, luck plays a big factor as well.

MINISTRY MOMENT: "What's the battery for?" a man asked as we set an old nine-volt on the table to mark our spot before the game began tonight. "Is it for good luck?!"

Nope. "It's my card protector, and -- lucky battery!" we said with a laugh, knowing how silly that sounds; "It's a reminder to me that I receive power when the Holy Spirit comes."

We think this did as we should have expected -- throwing the questioner a real curve. "Do you believe the Holy Spirit exists?" we asked to follow up.

"Yeah, I do," he said -- and then he explained the Holy Spirit connection to another man across the table. He said he believed in that Spirit, too. We'll have more to say about this moment in a future post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 277 nights (36.8%) - 16 cashes.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 172 point wins in 758 games (22.7%), 59 final tables, 7 cashes. UFC 3-card knockout - 3 point wins in 16 games, 2 final tables, 1 win.

We reached the final table in a 611-player "turbo tournament" earlier in the day. There was an amazing ending to that game; look for it here Friday.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $61,657, down $1,595.

Poker Night 276: Scary to be Alone

2011-11-02T21:47:00.000-04:00

Since we don't keep Halloween, it's been our custom for years to get out of the house on that night and avoid the trick-or-treat pressure at the door. This year, the path led us to The Red Barn in Phenix City -- where we're thankful to report the Monday night poker crowd had absolutely no one wearing costumes. It was poker business as usual. But could we gain a profit at the end of the night? A hopeful hand came early:

BLINDS: 50/100

IN THE POCKET: 8-9 of hearts

We're in the small blind - and after starting with 7,000 chips (thanks to one soda buy), we've dropped to around 5,600. With no one raising, we call our suited connectors and think optimistically.

ON THE FLOP: 4h-7s-5d (suits may not be completely precise)

There are signs of hope here: three hearts, and a belly-buster straight draw. We check, but a player across from us bets 200. We call, as do a couple of others.

ON THE TURN: Js

So much for a flush chance -- but the straight chances just doubled. We check again, and call another 200 bet by the man across from us. The optimism continues. If a 6 or 10 comes, we're ready.

ON THE RIVER: 6s

Ready, OK! With the straight made all the way up to 9, we offer 400. It's admittedly a wimpy-looking bet, in hopes someone will overconfidently try to bluff us out. Sure enough, the man who bet all along now raises 2,200! With little hesitation, we call. So does a man to our left.

"I've got a straight," that man says as he shows an 8.

"Make mine '89," we say with a semi-smile -- admittedly borrowing a phrase from a slogan for an alcoholic beverage of years gone by.

The man across from us then stuns us. "Flush," he declares -- showing two spades! (We think they were Q-10.) We were so focused on the straight that we never noticed three spades on the board. Shame on us; good move for him.

That knocked us down to about 2,700 chips, and made things look bleak. But things changed from there, as several pocket pairs came our way. K-K brought a push at the start of the second hour, and "Kardashians" (borrowing from the news of the day) held up to bring a jump to 24,500. Then came K-K again, which lost this time -- but A-A and a push on the flop allowed another strong gain. We held on from there to make the final table.

Once there, Q-Q came -- and that turned into another winner. At one point, our meager 2,700 had improved to 105,000! A few losses followed that, along with rising blinds. A final push with 5-5 fell short of a flush by one heart, but we wound up in fourth place. Believe it or not, that's our best local finish (not counting the trip to Florida) since late January.

MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed our "Jesus as Your Savior" coin to a player, and he agreed with the message. We didn't really get into our avoidance of Halloween; if you're curious about it and already planning for 2012, this article might be thought-provoking.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 102 final tables in 276 nights (37.0%) - 16 cashes. Now this is more like it: two top-five finishes in the last three live tournaments, and coming within two hands of four final tables in a row.

It's November....

2011-11-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

There are nine.

So it's time to virtually place your bets. Who do you think will win the final table at the WSOP Main Event? And why? Go.

What Went Wrong Here?

2011-10-30T17:00:00.001-04:00

Our last post brought up a sensitive subject for many people. But homosexuality came up during our Thursday night poker game (by others, not us), and it somewhat fits our mission here.

It's easy to crack a poker joke about this subject -- and point out the game sometimes pays you off for being "straight." But let's go back to a section of Scripture we quoted before, where the apostle Paul explains how homosexuality develops:

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.... Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. - Romans 1:21, 24

These are words which could make people on both sides of the debate a moment to pause. Paul says God "gave them over" to this kind of behavior -- and to a lot of other things as well.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness.... - Romans 1:28-29

You can read through the end of the chapter to see what Paul put on his full list of "wickedness." Homosexuality is only one of many things on that list. But review those verses carefully, and you'll see Paul also mentions the way to avoid that list -- by glorifying God, giving Him thanks and retaining God's knowledge. It takes more than simply saying the proper words to Him....

For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. - I Corinthians 6:20, KJV

This is talking about our physical bodies; why else would Paul advise earlier in verse 18 to "flee fornication"?

We realize, of course, that poker tends to be a game which does not discriminate. Anyone can play in free tournaments, or can pay a buy-in fee to enter bigger games - no matter what ethnic background, sexual history or nationality. (If you know of an exception to this, we'd be interested in hearing about it.) So for us, homosexuality is a non-issue when we play. We don't bring up the topic, but we'll respond if others do.

But if you see a need to answer Paul's words of correction and get away from that list of wicked behavior -- whether it's homosexuality or anything else -- there are online resources to help you. Here's one of them for starters.

Poker Night 275: Diamond Dog

2011-10-27T23:11:00.000-04:00

"Looks like it's about time to make a move," the man to our right said during the one-hour break tonight at Lil Kim's Cove. He was absolutely correct. He had an enormous stack of chips, after knocking out several players. We had only 2,500, even though we won a small early pot.

The move came when our big blind came around -- as we pushed with A-Q, and a pair of Queens led to a "sextuple-up" to 15,500. But as this semifinal table dwindled, another drama was yet to come....

BLINDS: 2,000/4,000

IN THE POCKET: King of diamonds - 10 of clubs

We're in the big blind at a table of five; ten players remain overall. Three players fold, and we're heads-up with a leadoff man whose stack isn't much bigger than ours.

ON THE FLOP: 5h-10s-4d (Not exactly sure about the first two suits)

Top pair in heads-up play is worth a bet to us. So we toss out 5,000.

"How much do you have left?" our opponent asks. Uh-oh. Before we start counting, he goes all-in with about 12,500.

"That would put you all-in," another man says to us as we count.

"All I have is 11,500," we confirm. But we decide to call.

Our opponent advises against it (after the fact). "I have two pair," he says.

"Oh really," we say modestly - fearing he played 5-4. But our opponent then turns over Q-5 of diamonds.

"That's not two pair," we note in semi-surprise. "That's not even top pair" -- and we turn over our 10. "He needs diamonds." For a flush, that is.

ON THE TURN: 7d

Uh-oh again. "I don't want to see another diamond," we declare. I don't want to see...."

ON THE RIVER: 3d

"OHHHHHHH!" we say along with the majority of the table. On this night of Game 6 of the World Series, runners came around to score on the diamond! We're stunningly eliminated -- and the final table forms after that, so we miss it by one hand with a ninth-place finish. Ouch.

MINISTRY MOMENT: For reasons we can't recall, the talk of an early all-male table turned to homosexuality. Let's put the discussion this way: the words came quickly - and while no profanity was used, the talk was more negative than positive.

We sat quietly through it all, then told the men on either side of us: "I'm choosing to wait until marriage." To have any sort of sex at all, that is -- and we'd have it with women, instead of men. We realize how controversial this subject can be, so we'll simply quote what a Biblical apostle wrote about it:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the man also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. - Romans 1:26-27

Why did God "give them over" to this kind of behavior? Back up a few verses for Paul's answer....

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.... Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised. Amen. - Romans 1:21, 24-25

We'll leave room here for you to comment if you'd like -- and we'll go deeper into this subject in our next post.

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 101 final tables in 275 nights (36.7%) - 16 cashes. On a night when there were barely enough players for three tables, this miss (especially the way it happened) hurt a little harder.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 171 point wins in 755 games (22.5%), 58 final tables, 7 cashes.

We finished fourth in a 71-player Senior qualifier Sunday afternoon. And we're NOT counting the "top ten percent" finish in the Tuesday night Senior championship (tempting though it is), because no points were awarded there.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $63,252, up $830.

Going Through the Motions

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-04:00

The man checked his cards -- then looked up and down the table, as if he was counting everyone's stacks of chips. He seemed to stare into space for a moment, as if he was calculating a bet. He counted out several big chips, as if he was about to raise. Then he adjusted them again -- and merely called before the flop.

Have you seen poker players do this sort of thing? We sat next to one for awhile last week, during the tournament we entered in Florida.

"He's crazy," a man sitting near us said of the gesture-maker. But that man admitted later, "He may be crazy, but he's not dumb" -- a comment made when the gesture-maker walked away for awhile, letting others fight to get to the final table.

Several other thoughts crossed our mind, as we saw the man make his machinations. Our main thought borrowed from baseball -- that he was trying to "draw a throw," as a runner on third base might fake a start toward home plate on a fly ball. The gestures might be designed to get other players to react, that they might reveal a "tell" about their hands.

If that was the goal, we're not really sure how well it worked for him. But the Bible reminds us that nice gestures by themselves do NOT impress God. Take this example from the days Jesus walked the earth:

The Pharisees and all the Jews decline to eat, till they wash their hands up to the elbow, in obedience to the tradition of the elders. - Mark 7:3, Moffatt translation

It wasn't a matter of being obsessive about cleanness -- some Bible commentaries explain this was a ceremonial show. In other cultures (baseball comes to mind again), such acts might be called superstition. But Jesus (the Son of God) didn't swoon at the sight of such things.

He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites.... 'They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by man.'" - Mark 7:6-7 (NIV unless noted)

Jesus went on to say such attachment to tradition caused the Pharisees to "let go of the commands of God...." (verse 8) In fact, if we're not careful this kind of "showmanship" can become self-aggrandizing -- calling attention to self, instead of acting in a humble manner.

But in saying all this, we have to be careful. You see, Jesus also said....

Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment. - John 7:24

While top-level poker players are good at "reading" what opponents have, we really cannot fully read another player's mind - especially if we've never met him before. So the gesture-maker really might be counting stacks and planning a grand strategy before making a pre-flop bet. But we know who will have the final say about such things....

For the word of God is living and active.... it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. - Hebrews 4:12-13

God will prove to be a better "psychic" than anyone along the rural roadside, or offering services in late-night infomercials. He'll see right through any faking and bluffing you do, when it comes to worshiping Him. So consider yourself and your actions - asking if you're simply a "man in motion," or fully engaged in living a life which pleases God and Jesus Christ.

October Senior Championship: Out, Then In

2011-10-26T17:53:00.000-04:00

The frustrating thing about online poker is that you can be physically "at the table," yet be unable to play because of network or connection problems. We faced that a bit Tuesday night, during the monthly Senior Championship at National League of Poker. Let's see if it affected us....

:00 IN: We have 2-A, but a connection glitch makes us fold it when our turn comes. That's good; it wouldn't have won the pot, anyway.

:15 IN: After folding several promising hands which missed the flop, we have 5-4 of spades in the big blind. We choose to defend when a player doubles the bet. The flop is J-5-10, and we call an "insta-bet" of the minimum 40 with bottom pair. The turn is 10, and we call a similar bet. The river is 2, we do it again -- and our stubbornness pays off, as our 10's and 5's win the $540 pot! (Our opponent had K-2.)

:22 IN: We lose the connection again, not regaining it until the half-hour break. (That'll teach us to try to check Facebook during hands we don't play.) We don't lose any money in the meantime, and hit the break with $1,110 -- in 221st place out of 405 still in the field.

:38 IN: We have 9-9 in the big blind. The flop is 5-4-3. A player goes all-in, and we fold. Good thing; a 3-7 straight winds up taking the pot.

:39 IN: Now comes K-A in the small blind. We double the bet, and it leads a player to go all-in for 278. We call with another player. The flop is A-4-2, and we dare to push ourselves -- 532 more with top pair and top kicker. The opponent calls -- but our foes have merely Q-5 and 3-3! The turn is K; the river is 10, and we claim a huge $2,398 pot.

:41 IN: We have 8-A in the next hand as dealer. The flop is A-K-Q, and we call a minimum bet of 150. The turn is 8 -- and when someone "min-bets" again, we raise to 450 with two pair. Two players call. The river is 4, and a player goes all-in for 295. We dare to call it -- and get rewarded, as the opponents have A-J and A-9. Our two pair gains $3,295 more!

:43 IN: We come right back with A-Q of spades. Our doubling of the blind leads to a player going all-in for 1,055, which we call. The flop is 4-3-4. We bet 200 in continuation, which makes the remaining player in the hand fold. The pusher has A-10! The turn and river are J-9, all around his kicker card -- and we win $3,395 more.

:45 IN: Next hand brings 4-A (with no raising this time). The flop is 8-A-J, and we offer 330. A player raises all-in for only 77 more, so we take the offer. He only has K-7. The turn-river are J-10, and we knock someone else out to the tune of $974.

That makes four pots won in five hands (we folded the other early), winning close to $10,000! A quick check of the scoreboard shows we're up to fifth place, at 8,005.

1:01 IN: After trying a few promising hands which missed the flop, we have A-9 on the button. The flop is 2-A-4, and we lead out 500 which gets called. The turn is 2; everyone checks. The river is a potentially dangerous 5, but everyone checks again. Our opponent has 7-7, so our Ace prevails for a gain of $2,575.

At the second break, we have 6,555 -- down to 24th place, but still well up the ladder. Only 112 players remain.

1:20 IN: After more promising hands fall short, we have Q-A of hearts on the button. A man with a huge stack doubles the blind and we're tempted to push in response -- but instead we play it safe and call. The flop is Jx-4h-4x. Players check. The turn is 5 and not a heart -- and we fell forced to fold when a player bets. (Their cards were never shown; maybe we should have pushed in the first place?!)

1:31 IN: With rising blinds and antes, we have 8-A on the button and go for it. We push all-in with 1,555 left. Two players call -- one with J-J, the other an overriding A-9. The flop is 5-A-4, followed by 2-6. Our kicker isn't strong enough, and we're eliminated.

Final result: 78th place, out of 859 players. It's our best showing in one of these NLOP tournaments in several months, and would have made us money in a live poker room (only the top ten won money in this game). Had we handled a few hands a bit better, who knows how close we would have come?

Walking, Talking Suited Connectors

2011-10-23T11:14:00.000-04:00

"Do you agree with that message?" we asked a man who saw our "Jesus as your Savior" coin during last week's tournament in northwest Florida.

The man said he did. Then he told us about a change one of his sons has experienced since attending church. "He was 100 percent improved. But since a new pastor came in, he's 300 percent improved." The father explained the change came because the new minister shared a lot of common interests with his son. (We didn't ask if poker was one of them.)

We agreed there are times when the right minister can make all the difference in turning around someone's life. In poker terms, it's like being dealt two strong cards with something in common. Ace-King of spades is considered a far better potential hand than Ace-4 offsuit.

But a good relationship with a pastor is really "small potatoes," in the big picture of life. The most important thing is developing a right relationship with God. The Bible indicates there are good and bad ways to do that....

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God.... You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? - Romans 2:17, 23

Paul goes on to point out we've all broken God's law at some point. That's known in the Christian world as "sin" (3:23). But thankfully, God provided a new way to build a relationship with Him - through a "God" who became human:

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.... Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. - Hebrews 7:18-19, 22

God will let you come close if you accept Jesus as your Savior, and repent of your sinful past:

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. - James 4:8

Has a minister helped you draw near to God, at some point in your life? If so, this is a perfect time to say thanks - as October is Clergy (or Pastor) Appreciation Month. Even a simple card or e-mail certainly would be welcome. And don't forget to thank God for those who help build closer relationships, both with Him and with Christ.

Poker Night #274: Miracles Near the Strip

2011-10-21T15:41:00.000-04:00

"Have you ever played poker?" a man asked us Monday night at the Ebro poker room near Panama City Beach, Florida. Then he shook his head no -- as if we never had.

Yet in this 42-player tournament with a $40 buy-in, the critic was eliminated in seventh place. But we stuck around all the way to the top four, which put us "in the money!"

So how did this happen? We took a few early pots with nice cards, to gain some leverage. Then we resisted the temptation to play during a period of weak cards -- and we folded a pair of Kings after the river, when another player made a huge bet with an Ace and three hearts showing on the board. (That was the decision which openly frustrated the other player. He didn't know what we had, but he was absolutely sure the big bettor was bluffing.)

But as so often happens in poker, sometimes we need help from "Above." We give God the glory for the entire night, and especially what happened here....

BLINDS: 200/400

IN THE POCKET: Ace of hearts - 10 of spades (not exactly sure about the suit)

We have 1,425 chips, sitting "under the gun" at the semifinal table. In this position with these cards, we decide it's time to take a stand -- so we go all in. One player calls. One big problem: he shows A-A.

ON THE FLOP: 7h-8h-9d

We need help -- and we have some! It's an open-ended straight draw.

ON THE TURN: 4h

That's not it -- but now we're one heart away from a flush, so our chances actually are better.

ON THE RIVER: Kh

We were more focused on the straight -- so someone had to tell us we hit the nut flush!

That hand brought us back to nearly 3,000 chips. We caught a couple more big hands from there, and reached the final table at 35,700. Then we were helped by the fact that rival "regulars" at Ebro were intent on knocking each other out. We bided our time until good hands came, and eventually reached the "final four" which split a cash payout of more than $1,100.

Then came another timely moment. The man with the biggest stack proposed a settlement -- he'd reduce his potential first-place payoff of about $670, so the others in the money could take home more. We happily agreed, as did the other two finalists. And it happened just in time, as we were ready to go all-in with K-K -- and in a pretend playout, we would have been eliminated by the big stack's Q-7 making two pair!

The settlement allowed us to win $270 (reduced a bit by our tip to the dealers). Two years ago on a similar October Monday night at Ebro, we won $186. So our buy-in record at Florida poker rooms now stands at two-for-two -- with $80 invested and $456 won!

MINISTRY MOMENT: There were many in this tournament, and we'll share them all in coming days. But the skeptic of our play offered one, when we saw our "Jesus as your Savior" coin.

"So you needed help?" he asked.

"Well, we all need help," we answered. "Some of us simply haven't realized it yet."

We think we caught a smile of understanding from the poker room dealer. Believers of long ago knew they needed help from God, and they weren't ashamed to write about it:

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake. - Psalm 79:9

This was a prayer for help, to stop national oppression. But even if you live a life of peace and perfection (like any of us really has done that?), you still need help having anything beyond the grave. A man who was as good as dead (swallowed by a giant fish) put it this way:

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. - Jonah 2:2

Only God can give us the ultimate help, in terms of a resurrection to eternal life. Are you ready to accept that help? (Along with the stray heart on the river, which might come as a bonus?)

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 101 final tables in 274 nights (36.9%) - 16 cashes. This marked our first cash win in a live tournament since July 2010. (No online tournaments were played during our road trip.)

Jackpot

2011-10-18T01:21:00.003-04:00

The final table slump is over.

The MONEY-WINNING slump is over.

And our record in buy-in tournaments now stands at two entered, two nice paydays.

The inspiring details are coming soon (since it's after midnight as we post this). But suffice to say, we came back to our lodging from a Florida poker room tonight very, VERY thankful to God. PTL!

When It's Going Bad....

2011-10-16T21:20:00.001-04:00

As promised, here's an example of how things went the other day when we walked into a lunch hour cash game at a Florida poker room.

BLINDS: $3/$6 Limit Hold 'em

IN THE POCKET: 2-8

We're in the big blind ($3 until the turn card), and have taken a couple of bad losses on the river with promising hands. After posting the blind, we have all of $5 left from a starting $50. With no one raising at this table of five, we can check without penalty or shame.

ON THE FLOP: J-K-2

Bottom pair admittedly doesn't thrill us, especially with face cards showing. We check; two other players in the hand do as well.

ON THE TURN: 4

Everyone checks again. We still don't feel comfortable about having the sub-basement of pairs.

ON THE RIVER: 8

Ahhhh -- but this is better! With two pair and no one betting so far, we sense a chance to make a comeback.

"All I have is five," we admit -- one short of the blind. But we go all in. A man to our left calls.

"Two pair," we say with hopeful optimism.

Too bad -- as our opponent has 2-2! He had three of a kind all along, and we never had a chance.

MINISTRY MOMENT: Before that big bust, we showed that winner our "Jesus as your Savior" coin we use as a card protector. He agreed with the message, saying Jesus was the only Savior. We'll see if others agree the next time we play, which will be.... well, stay tuned.

Limited On the Road

2011-10-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

Did we mention playing a little poker while on vacation? Well, we already have. During the lunch hour Wednesday, we stopped at Ebro Greyhound Park near Panama City Beach, Florida and joined a $3/$6 Limit Hold' em cash game.

We didn't stay long -- and that's really not a good thing. We won the first pot, then caught some bad breaks on the river to lose pots. We were "limit down" in about 30 minutes. You'll see an example of what we mean in an upcoming post. In the meantime, the vacation isn't over yet....

UPDATED POKER SCOREBOARD: 100 final tables in 273 nights (36.6%) - 15 cashes. No tournaments have been played on the road so far.

NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 168 point wins in 744 games (22.6%), 57 final tables, 7 cashes. UFC three-card knockout: 2 point wins in 14 games (14.3%), 2 final tables, 1 win.

POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $62,422, up $2,787. We gained a quick $162 in two "practice" 2/4 limit hold 'em rounds, preparing for Ebro -- then had a big and fast $3,000 gain in no limit. Did we mention recently we don't think very much of momentum?

Why Did You Do That?

2011-10-11T21:42:00.000-04:00

We've been preparing for months for a vacation -- and preparing to play a little poker on the road along the way. But we received a spiritual slap in the face the other day, when this came up in our Bible study:

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.... Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. - Colossians 3:2, 5

We hope to play poker well on the road. We even dream of making some money (especially since our only financial gain from live poker in 2011 occurred on another road trip). But if that's the main reason why we're entering a poker room, is that the right reason? Really?

This passage and others brought us back to a question our high school drama teacher liked to ask during acting scenes: "What's your motive?" If you're walking across the stage, why are you doing it? Along the same lines, why are you going into a poker room? (And even further, why make some of the betting decisions you make during a game?)

The reasons for going can be countless, of course. But we were reminded that we should go to do poker ministry first -- thus putting God first in all we do. As Jesus put it:

You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come to me unless you love me more than you love your own life. - Luke 14:26, CEV

Regardless of polls and rankings, chip stacks and travel itineraries, God should be the number-one priority every day -- and everywhere. Where does He place in your life?