BLINDS: 100/200
IN THE POCKET: J-8 of hearts
We've won a couple of early pots, helped by pocket Aces coming in the small blind. But a couple of chases fell short after that, so now we're in the big blind with about 7,400 chips. No one at the full table raises ahead of us, so we're happy to check and see a flop.
ON THE FLOP: 8-9-8
And we're quite happy to see this flop! But we don't wait to bet too much and run players away, so we offer a $400 "tempter." A woman across from us calls, and then a man to her left raises 1,500. We think this was a raise borrowing from Foghorn Leghorn in the cartoons -- "Go away, son, you bother me." We shake our head in a semi-acting response and call. The woman calls as well.
ON THE TURN: Q
"Check to the raiser," we say playing first. We probably moved a bit too cautiously doing that -- because the opponent we thought had nothing might have hit "bigger trips" with that card. But the two other players in the hand check. That makes us feel better....
ON THE RIVER: 8
....and now we feel very, very good. We know we have the winner, so we try to lure our opponents into calling by betting 1,000. It doesn't work. They fold, and the raiser quickly turns over the cards before we can say:
"I have quads." Turning over our 8, no one denies us our quad bonus of 5,000 chips -- not to mention a pot in the 6,000-chip range. A "big blind special" doesn't come much better than that!
We won a couple more pots after that, including a daring all-in bet in the second hour with A-6 when an Ace came on the flop. Our pair was best, and knocked a woman out.
Then with the final table in sight after the two-hour break, we went all-in again with pocket Queens. But a flop of K-J-9 gave a man with K-9 two pair. No Queen or 10 came for a straight, and that man knocked two players out including us. We missed the final table by one hand, finishing tied for tenth place (11th in points).
MINISTRY MOMENT: We showed a man a card protector depicting the Biblical "last supper" tonight and asked, "What do you think of Jesus? Is Jesus your Savior?"
The man clearly didn't expect that sort of question, and didn't want to answer it. "C'mon, man, we're playing poker. Church is on Sunday; poker is on Thursday."
We were ready to let it go at that, based on a Bible discussion we joined earlier in the week. A minister leading the study said believers should NOT go around preaching to people all day and all night. But we couldn't really let this man off the hook that easily.
"But if this was the weekend, and not Thursday....?"
"If frogs had wings, they wouldn't...." We didn't catch all of the man's response -- but we know it included one expletive, and didn't really answer the main question.
In other words, this man didn't want to bring up matters of faith at the poker table. But a time is coming when, to borrow from another game, God will demand a final answer.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.... The Lord will road from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. - Joel 3:14, 16Where will you find a "valley of decision"? Another Old Testament prophecy indicates it will be a literal place, created by a returning Jesus Christ:
Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. - Zechariah 14:3-4
The decision many will have to make at that time is whether or not to accept the returning Jesus as King of Kings. But why wait for that dramatic moment? You can decide to accept Jesus as your Lord now, and have that ultimate refuge and stronghold Joel mentions. If you'd like to know more about that, leave a comment; we'll be happy to help you in the process.
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POKER TOTAL: Full tournaments - 191 point wins in 828 games (23.1%), 66 final tables, 7 cashes. Next week will be a big week for us at NLOP, with two monthly championships at stake.
POKER STARS.NET TOTAL: Pretend cash games - $72,893, down $1.305.
